Chapter 31
As always, all sorts of rumors circulated in a tavern in Florence.
"Have you heard? The third young master of the Bolognese family got a maid pregnant."
"A young master who's not even married is going to have a child. The Bolognese family sure is blessed with children."
"I tell you, that stuff about loving only your wife in church is all hogwash."
Most of the rumors circulating in taverns were nonsense.
However, in an empire where the only entertainment is having vigorous nighttime exercise with your wife at home or chatting while drinking.
Each of these rumors was incredibly precious.
Therefore, the words spoken here were set to be recycled countless times.
"I heard the Bolognese family sent that maid to a village in the suburbs for a while."
The Bolognese family couldn't ignore the pregnancy situation, which could be written as rape by hierarchy by the third young master, or seen as an opportunity for social advancement by seducing the third son.
If it had been a one-night stand, they would have given her some money and told her to refrain until marriage.
But since she got pregnant, it's unreasonable to silence her even using noble power.
So Lord Bolognese, the head of the Bolognese family, used the method of having the maid recuperate in the suburbs.
The Florence citizens, who were relatively intellectually advanced in the Tuscan Empire, knew all about this situation.
"They say a woman's fate depends on the man, well, her fortune's made. To the nameless maid who reversed her life!"
The man spreading the rumor raised his glass.
Others around also raised their beer glasses and toasted.
"If I had known this, I should have been born as a pretty girl!"
"What nonsense from someone who looks like cabbage grated on a grater. You should be thankful you were born a man."
"Is this a head that's not enough even if you crack it with a hammer?"
Usually, this would have ended with laughing and chattering about such unconfirmed rumors, but.
A man quietly drinking in the corner snickered.
The way he slightly shrugged his shoulders was unbearably arrogant.
"To giggle over such trivial rumors."
Everyone's gaze turned to the guy who broke the atmosphere.
Originally, in such drinking gatherings, it was cultured to create 'novels' like rumors about families they could criticize behind their backs.
The beautiful custom of Florence citizens had been broken.
"Hey, instead of ruining the mood, why don't you just get lost? You don't look like you belong here."
The man who was told to get lost downed a glass of beer in one go.
After deliberately putting down the glass with a clatter.
"I have a more interesting rumor than that. It's about the Medici baron family."
Baron, a level of opponent that's a bit burdensome to spread false rumors about, but not impossible.
A family more fun to gossip about than a mere knight family like the Bolognese.
"Those who live around here would all know, but Baron Medici married the Farnese count's lady, right? They say young master Fabio provided a huge amount of money at that time."
Florence citizens generally knew well about Fabio.
Because although they had never directly bought the products he sold as seaweed and cake were expensive for them, they had seen nobles going crazy trying to buy those items at least once.
They had countless times chuckled seeing high-ranking people jumping up and down.
"In other families, it would be common sense for the eldest son who inherited the family to support the second son. As expected, a young master with a lot of money is different."
It's common sense for nobles, no, even for mere free farmers, for the first son who inherited the family to provide economic support to the second and third sons.
Those who violate this are not treated as human.
But it's very rare for this to be reversed...
The attention of the beasts hungry for rumors focused on the suspicious man's mouth.
"But Baron Medici is quite a magnanimous person. Even though his younger brother has become successful and a great merchant, he said he would greatly repay that grace as an older brother since he contributed such a large sum."
Stories related to nobles have generally set stories even if they're made up.
No one directly agreed, but there are implicit rules.
It goes roughly like this:
Target nobles who are neither too high nor too low, vaguely create stories about nobles' stupid acts and mock them.
If you break this principle, you might get kidnapped by servants of noble families on a dark street if you're unlucky.
It's a rule to enjoy while protecting themselves, but this tends to result in boring stories full of all sorts of clichés...
The new rumor was a shocking story that completely broke the formula they knew.
The stagnant waters tired of stereotypical stories focused entirely on the story.
"Baron Medici said he would generously give out territory to repay his brother's kindness. Isn't it beautiful how brothers care for each other like this?"
Although it suddenly changed from cursing nobles' stupid acts to praising nobles, a fresh story is still a fresh story.
Everyone actively agreed with those words.
"If you received money between brothers, you should rightfully pay it back. How could a person who's an older brother possibly eat up the money? Baron Medici of all people."
"This is why Count Farnese gave his daughter to Baron Medici. Isn't he truly benevolent?"
Meanwhile, one of the men here asked.
"But where did you hear this story? Surely you didn't hear it from an acquaintance..."
Just as suspicious fake news overflows in 21st century South Korea, in the Tuscan Empire, things heard from nearby acquaintances are generally fake.
Of course, people who heard an interesting story won't cause trouble just because it's fake...
It could be a slightly disappointing situation.
The man who brought up the Medici family story shrugged his shoulders and snorted.
"I heard it directly from my cousin who works as a butler for the Medici family."
Since the exact rank of the person who was the source of the rumor came out, this rumor was likely true with high probability.
Because if you don't mention the rank and just say you heard it from someone around, the person who brought it up can deny it even if caught by nobles.
But if the rank is mentioned, you can find the person who spread lies within.
"Well, I thought noble families only fought among brothers."
"As expected, the new Baron Medici is different."
"Since you told us an interesting story, let me buy you a drink."
And this false rumor soon spread throughout Florence.
To the extent that even Albert, who had become Baron Medici, couldn't ignore it.
**
Albert hadn't been in a good mood lately.
Looking at the objective situation alone, his life was developing smoothly like a sailboat catching a favorable wind.
He had formed a marriage alliance with the Farnese count family, which was much higher in rank, and his wife, whom he hadn't expected at all, was quite pretty.
Of course, even if she hadn't been beautiful, he wouldn't have thought of refusing this marriage.
It's 100 billion times better for the legal wife to be pretty than ugly.
Even in a world where it's common sense for the relationship between the legal wife and husband to be bad.
"Which damn bastard spread such a rumor?"
Although Fabio often treats Albert like an idiot, he is absolutely not a stupid person.
Of course, he had noticed who spread the rumor, but...
"Can't a younger brother just give 7,000 gold coins for his older brother? For that guy, it's probably money he can make up in just a few months of saving."
If Fabio had heard this, he would have thought:
'Even for a big company chairman, 10 billion won is a lot of money, you crazy person.'
However, Albert was quite displeased with the sight of his younger brother, who should be his subordinate, not absolutely obeying.
Although he feels like scolding him, saying can't you even do this much for your older brother.
"His Grace Duke Visconti and my father-in-law probably wouldn't look kindly on me if I scolded Fabio for just this reason."
Since the marriage alliance has been formed, he won't be screwed over for just this much.
However, even if he's not screwed over, his position as Baron Medici will clearly be narrowed.
Although Baron Medici himself is at almost the top of the class system, counts and dukes are high-ranking people with power that he can't dare compare to.
"Originally, it's common sense that IOUs written between family members only leave the 'form'."
That is common sense among nobles.
However, there's a precondition.
It's written as evidence that the first son who inherited the family helped the second and third sons when they were having difficulty making a living.
It's extremely shameless for the first son who inherited the family to extort money from the second son and say he won't give it back.
"Now that rumors have spread, I can't not give out territory..."
Anyway, since he wrote the IOU with his own hand, he'll become trash who doesn't even keep promises if he doesn't pay.
"Fabio, you bastard."
Albert gritted his teeth towards Fabio.
However, he still had no intention of seeing his younger brother as a political opponent and dealing with him.
Not only is Fabio's backing too strong to turn him into an enemy, but turning your own family into a political opponent is just right to be criticized among nobles.
He only wrote down this incident in his grudge notebook in his heart.