"……So. You're saying the unregistered mana stones and goods piled up beneath this old school building amount to roughly 800,000 imperial gold coins?"
In front of an old desk in the dust-covered old school building.
Wearing the badge of a student supervisor, I sat slanted back in my chair and tapped the settlement ledger Professor Vayne had offered me with trembling hands.
Eight hundred thousand gold.
In this world, where an ordinary commoner household would struggle to touch even ten thousand gold over an entire lifetime, 800,000 gold was an enormous slush fund equal to a year's tax revenue for an entire domain.
But rather than rejoice, I let out a deep sigh.
'It's useless. Dirty money with tags attached like this.'
The Imperial Audit Office and the academy's Finance Department in this world were no pushovers.
If a massive amount of funds suddenly flowed in under my name, it was obvious the Ministry of the Interior would come raiding at once, claiming that the wastrel of a ducal house had created illegal funds.
I needed money to buy top-grade elixirs to extend my time-limited lifespan, yet here I was, with a mountain of gold before my eyes and unable to use it.
"Y-Young Lord…… no, Supervisor. I've handed over all the ledgers, so now my life and my professorship are……"
Professor Vayne watched my expression, cold sweat pouring down his face. Behind him, the representatives of the back-alley broker alliance, who had nearly frozen to death yesterday, were kneeling.
I clicked my tongue.
"Vayne. You know how to do magic, but that practical brain of yours is apparently just for show."
"Y-yes?"
"This money belonged to you until yesterday, but from now on, it's mine. So how are we going to liquidate all these mana stones and cash right away?
Siphon it out little by little through the back-alley brokers? Pay a thirty percent fee, get robbed during transport, then end up caught by the Audit Office and hung in the square as a group?"
At my cold bombardment of facts, the shoulders of the back-alley brokers twitched. Until just moments ago, their eyes had been darting around as they thought, 'Let's just survive somehow and skim a commission.'
"Allow me to personally give some practical advice to you fools who know nothing of the world."
I took out a stack of documents I had prepared in advance and tossed it onto the desk.
Thwack.
On the thick parchment was written a long and complicated title: Consent to Establish the Academy Student Welfare Promotion Committee and Agreement for the Gratuitous Transfer of Assets.
"Wh-what is this……?"
"Read it. Your uncle here spent all night racking his brain to make these documents very clean and legal."
Professor Vayne and the brokers picked up the contracts with trembling hands. But their eyes began to lose focus before they had even turned the first page.
And with good reason. That document was a "collection of hellish toxic clauses" I had written by pouring in every scrap of practical experience I had accumulated through all kinds of hardship,
cleverly digging only into the loopholes of this world's shoddy commercial and tax laws.
"Article 4, Clause 2…… 'Party B (Vayne and the brokers)' shall gratuitously deposit 100% of their held assets into the club established by 'Party A (Kailan)' under the name of the Academy Student Welfare Promotion Committee,
and pursuant to Article 18 of the Academy Educational Support Act, this shall be treated as a donation and receive a full tax exemption……?"
As Professor Vayne read through the contract, his mouth fell open in shock.
That's right. Rather than embezzle illegal funds, I intended to establish a paper company—a ghost club—under the pretext of "student welfare" at the academy and have all the assets donated there.
After all, donations to educational institutions were the most perfect and legal money-laundering channel for avoiding imperial tax tracing.
"W-wait a moment! Article 7, Special Provisions! 'If Party B delays performance of this contract or discloses it externally,
Party A may immediately seize the mining rights to Party B's family domains and the management rights to their merchant companies, and Party B may not raise any legal objection thereto……?!'"
The face of the back-alley broker representative turned deathly pale.
"Th-this is fraud! No matter how much you have leverage over us, are you saying that for a mere delay in donations, you'll legally swallow even the core of our companies?!
Nowhere in imperial commercial law is there such an outrageous joint guarantee clause……!"
"Silence."
Leaning back in my chair, I cut him off in a low but chilling voice. Resting my chin on my hand, I looked down at them with languid eyes.
"I'm not an official who deals with the law professionally, but I know better than anyone how things work in this field.
You think I don't know about the ledger from last month, when you bribed customs while bringing smuggled goods through the Second Port?"
"E-eeek……!"
"Imperial Commercial Law, Article 32. Any person who provides a bribe to an imperial official shall, regardless of the origin of their assets, have the full amount confiscated to the national treasury and be sentenced to slavery for three generations.
Shall I hand this 'legal' contract over to the Imperial Audit Office, or will you sign over there and quietly live on as cogs in my legal money-laundering machine?"
I wore a gentle smile at the corner of my mouth, but to them, that smile must have been more terrifying than a fire-breathing demonic dragon.
There wasn't a single handful of magic or aura mixed in. With only thorough fact-finding and legal loopholes on paper,
I was holding the leashes of the continent's foremost back-alley brokers completely in my grasp.
"P-please spare us……! We'll sign! We'll sign everything and deposit it all into that committee or whatever!!"
In the end, Professor Vayne was the first to stab his quill into the contract as if piercing it, and the broker representatives followed, shedding tears of blood as they pressed their fingerprints onto the hellish document.
'Good. With this, 800,000 gold has been perfectly laundered and entered my personal legal slush fund. Now I can sweep up some elixirs and raise my vitality stat a bit.'
Just as I was inwardly cheering and about to gather the contracts and put them into my coat—
BANG—!!
The heavy iron door of the old school building burst open as if torn off, and three familiar, sickening mana waves swept through the space.
"Lord Kailan!! What in the world are you doing in this dangerous basement of the old school building……!"
Ellara, wrapped in blue sword energy, rushed in first,
"No! Kailan still needs to rest!"
followed by Sylvia, exuding a frigid chill, and then,
"Hmph. I heard there were rats daring to spy on my man's secret amusements, so I graced this place with my presence."
even Princess Aurelia, her crimson eyes glowing.
'No, how did you people even find this place, you obsessive maniacs!'
The three women stopped in unison when they saw the scene inside the room.
A dusty abandoned classroom underground.
The academy's corrupt professor (Vayne) and the great brokers of the empire's back alleys, lying flat on the floor and sobbing.
And me, sitting back in an old chair at the center of it all, holding a terrifyingly flawless "Asset Transfer Contract."
Not a single drop of blood had been spilled, and there wasn't even a trace of magic.
But the suffocating dominance that ruled that place was stranger and more overwhelming than the Demon King's throne that had forced the black mages of the underground dungeon to their knees in Episode 19.
(Princess Aurelia's mental auto-translation)
'……Hah! My god. Am I seeing things? While mages toss around a few measly fireballs,
that man, with ruthless reason and stratagems that trample the empire's legal net, has legally swallowed the academy's hidden economic sphere and the entire underground distribution network of the continent with a single document!
I thought he was merely a monster of force who wielded black magic……
But he was the vessel of a true Emperor, one who handles even systems and laws as his chess pieces!!'
A shudder ran through Aurelia's entire body. As an imperial princess, she had never once seen a monster with such meticulous and ruthless political power and economic insight.
(Ellara and Sylvia's mental filtering)
'Our liege…… not through the barbaric method of staining his blade with blood,
but by preserving their sins in documents and binding even their souls, has shown the cruelest and most perfect form of rule!
To make those wicked brokers repent with nothing but his intellect and charisma……!'
"You people…… why have you all come barging in again? You're exhausting me."
I pressed a hand to my forehead and let out a deep sigh.
All I had done was create a legal slush fund account so I could secure a way to live—pay for treatment for my limited lifespan.
"Ah, my great sovereign……"
Princess Aurelia approached as if enchanted and bent one knee beside the armrest of my chair.
In her crimson eyes, her former arrogance had been replaced by a grotesque mix of blind lust for conquest and worship.
"I shall gladly add the power of my imperial house to that vast 'shadow empire' you seek to build.
So share with me as well that fathomless wisdom of the abyss."
"I shall dedicate my sword to your perfect rule, my liege!!"
"I-I'll help too, Kailan! For that great committee you're trying to establish, I'll bring in the funding lines of the Icebound Magic Tower!"
[Warning! The loyalty of the three heroines, captivated by your overwhelming 'intellectual dominance,' has broken through its limit!]
[System Error! The establishment of a simple club (paper company) has been mistaken for the 'creation of a shadow council to overthrow the continent' and has been reflected in the worldview!]
[Hidden Quest: 'The Black Hand Who Controls the Continent's Economy' has begun!]
"……Haa."
I looked back and forth between the insane system messages floating in the air, the brokers trembling at my feet,
and the three women worshiping me as an economic president, then squeezed my eyes shut.
This is seriously driving me crazy.
I just needed money to buy elixirs safely and legally, damn it.