Chapter 107. Big Brother Is Watching You(1)

Sebastian spoke cautiously with a serious expression.

"Baron, other noble families have started to check us in earnest."

Knight and viscount titles are honestly titles that can be bought sufficiently if you just have money.

However, if you buy them with money, you become nobility of the robe and become the Emperor's slave, so great merchants and rich people don't carelessly touch those positions.

But from baron onwards, you clearly gain the duty and right to participate as an independent player in the nobles' battlefield.

'In other words, enemies are starting to show hostility towards me in earnest.'

I don't know yet what kind of tricks they've tried.

It's as natural as tax payments increasing when you make a lot of money.

There's no need to get angry or upset because of this.

It's enough to feed them Ulleungdo pumpkin taffy with a smile.

At times like this, I need to judge the situation calmly and coolly.

"What specific checks are coming in?"

"The most common are rumors about you at balls. Seeing how you've achieved such feats at a young age, you must have obtained something from the devil in exchange for your soul. Or that you're Duke Visconti's illegitimate child entrusted to the Medici baron family... Most are all sorts of useless things."

All kinds of nonsensical, groundless gossip appears in the news.

The actors, idols, and celebrities involved mostly ignore such nonsense.

Because if they show signs of being hurt by that, anti-fans will make a fuss saying they're being sensitive.

Most normal people let such false rumors go in one ear and out the other.

Moreover, limited to nobles, cultured nobles who have received even more severe education than Koreans wouldn't seriously believe such things.

'The problem is that if these false rumors keep circulating, my evaluation actually gets lowered.'

"Besides that, there's talk that being too fond of Chloe is unmanly, or that you're a pathetic person who lets servants climb up."

In our empire, so-called manly nobles are this type:

Someone who has several concubines, fathers several illegitimate children to show off his virility, and is a capable, cool person.

It's not for me to say, who will take Chris, Chloe, and even the Duke's young lady I haven't seen yet as wives.

'No matter what, isn't it a bit much to leave everything to lust and increase concubines?'

Treating servants well is also insurance for my safety.

"Sebastian, do you also see this as truly pathetic behavior?"

"Yes, that's right."

But this is the nobles' elegant (not at all to anyone looking) way of fighting.

No one's blood flows, and it just socially assassinates the enemy's reputation, so it looks peaceful.

'It's better than nobles actually waging war and seeing blood.'

If that happened, civil war would break out immediately.

"Still, there haven't been any movements to attack our trading company or try to punish us through legal lawsuits using very trivial things as excuses. However..."

"You mean we don't know when someone will pull such a thing?"

Before something big happens, signs always appear.

Even if you don't know about things decided by a single shot like exams, people who succeed in business say they feel like work continues endlessly even when they do it.

They say it's rewarding even when they're tired.

On the other hand, when failing, they say signs appear like feeling nothing will work no matter what you do and self-esteem dropping.

The fact that I'm receiving such slander now means I could experience bad things soon...

'Should I start hiring people to handle underground work to prevent this?'

Sebastian cautiously suggested:

"How about the Rothschild baron family also hiring thieves, no, an information guild like other families?"

Information guilds, those thieves aren't useless.

We can spread poor people around, use irresistible large sums of money to bribe friends who seem financially troubled in the lower ranks of hostile factions.

Or have them collect rumors circulating on the streets to gather information on signs of war breaking out, profitable information, bad stories circulating internally, etc.

So we can roughly know what's happening in places I don't know about.

Although it's my job to predict the future through this.

'Growing ingredients to be used in cooking is harder than cooking itself.'

"Alright, let's hire an information guild."

They live in slums and occasionally commit crimes against good citizens (excluding nobles), and make a fuss demanding money.

But a company isn't responsible for fraud committed by employees in other fields outside company work, right?

Whatever problems they cause, we just need to use their abilities.

"That's a wise thought. I already have an information guild in mind, how about hiring those guys?"

"I'll hire them, but what kind of guys are they?"

Hearing my words, Sebastian explained one by one what kind of characters they were.

"They're healthy guys for an information guild. Usually they're called 'information guilds', but in reality aren't they practically robbers?"

Information guilds are the same as yakuza, mafia, triads, and they're a group of trash who also work as political thugs.

They receive money in return for gathering desired information, and if they enter employment contracts, nobles even cover up minor crimes occurring within slums.

'Instead, they have to kill people if nobles order it.'

Anyway, their actions are so vicious that violent gangs look cute in comparison.

"Those guys get involved in loan sharking, violence, murder and such, but they don't kidnap innocent people and sell them as slaves. They do make profits by selling debtors and their families who can't repay as slaves though."

Selling someone as a salt farm slave on Angel Island for not repaying a small debt is also inhumane.

But in our Tuscan Empire, even the church, which belongs to the most benevolent group, not to mention nobles, says it's okay to sell debtors and their families who can't repay as slaves.

That's considered a reasonable and proper collection method by our empire's standards.

Of course, it's criminal even by our empire's standards which lack ethical concepts quite a bit except for collection laws.

'It's something that they don't kidnap and sell innocent people as slaves.'

"Are there information guilds like that in this day and age?"

"Yes."

"But I don't understand why those guys are so healthy. Usually the information guild guys I know..."

They're as evil as Mongol barbarians who rape and kill or sell women as slaves, and just kill or sell off men.

These guys seem to keep a 'minimum line' they've set among themselves...

'Having a minimum line means they haven't given up on being human.'

Of course, it doesn't change that they're murderers and a criminal organization, even if they're human.

"That guild is mainly composed of guys who were poor from serf families. There are also rumors that the guild master was a descendant of a fallen noble family."

So it seems like they could be reformed into people with just a little beating, no, education.

"I should go see them, I'll go tonight so make preparations. And tell Chloe and Chris."

Usually when a male noble says he'll sleep outside, it means he's going to meet someone ambiguous who can't even be taken as a concubine or spend the night with a courtesan.

But I haven't crossed the line with Chris yet.

'I couldn't do it after showing her what I do with Chloe because I had to go on a business trip to Ifriqiya.'

We can't make loud noises on the ship.

So I haven't had relations with any woman other than Chloe.

I have no intention of living promiscuously like other nobles.

"Understood."

**

"The inner part of this alley is territory controlled by the information guild 'Black Mist'."

Information guilds generally have 'territories'.

Guild members and their families live in the territory whether they're there or not.

Why? Because at least they won't be assassinated in their sleep within the territory.

Conversely, if they go outside the territory, they don't know what might happen if they let their guard down even a little.

Going inside, as I expected, numerous guild members were devoted to their own work.

Some were maintaining tools (weapons including knives), and I could hear discussions on which requests to solve first.

Usually at this point, it's standard for them to be wary and point weapons at suspicious outsiders.

But the guild members were just doing their own work very calmly as if they knew someone was coming.

'Strange, someone should be pointing a knife at us asking what business we have here by now.'

"I had already informed them that you would be coming at this time today. Even if they don't know which 'family's' baron you are, there are no fools who would point knives after being notified in advance that a baron is coming."

There are over 150 baron families in Florence alone, so there are 150 barons.

Looking outside Florence, there are about 300 throughout the Tuscan Empire...

'Being a baron feels just like a hereditary member of parliament.'

And not long after, someone who looked like the guild master appeared.

Before even receiving greetings, I cut to the chase:

"Are you the master of Black Mist? Let me ask straightforwardly, do you like this life?"