“I heard that from Lord Marius himself.”

“…!?”

Jegal Hwayoung nodded his head and Bryan looked bewildered.

‘What is the black market and what does it have to do with me?’

Bryan’s gaze unknowingly went to Marius’s face, who had mentioned him.

He stroked his beard and opened his mouth.

“Hehe… I’ll explain that to you, young man.”

***

It was a few months ago.

The government office of Stefan, the central city of the north, was busy as usual.

It had been almost two years since the Northern War, and the place was booming with work as it was developing rapidly.

Of course, there was no need to say who was the busiest.

“Lord Marius, we have received a report on the progress of Bern’s development.”

“The residents of the northwestern region are asking for relief because of the cold wave that hit them.”

Marius scratched his head as he looked at the documents.

‘Objectively speaking, there is no shortage of talent, but the land is too vast! It seems hard to avoid manpower shortage for a while.’

That’s right!

The northern territory that they had pioneered this time was so large that it occupied a quarter of the empire’s land, and they were always suffering from a chronic lack of manpower as they tried to develop it quickly.

Marius and other bureaucrats were overwhelmed by the workload that was two or three times more than that of the central government.

On top of that, he was the chief in charge and had to go to the capital regularly, and he also had a lot of things that Eurius had asked him to do.

‘I should be enjoying my grandchildren’s antics at this age, but what kind of hardship is this…’

“Excuse me.”

Creak.

The door of his office opened again as he sighed inwardly.

“Lord Marius, I have organized the report on this month’s taxes.”

“Oh! You’ve done a great job.”

He greeted with a rare smile the young man who had earned his favor and was making a name for himself in the north. His name was Bryan.

‘If only all the newcomers were as good at their work as this guy, I wouldn’t ask for more…’

At first, he thought he was just a young rookie, but he learned fast and especially meticulous for someone his age who should be full of vigor.

He recognized his calmness and ability and recently entrusted him with almost all the financial matters such as taxes, except for the final payment.

That showed how much he trusted his competence.

‘Besides, His Highness Eurius told me to use him well, so maybe I should entrust him with the secret trade with Blue Dragon Company soon?’

“Lord Marius, I’m sorry but I have some questions about this report and I think I need to report them separately.”

“Huh?”

Before he could finish his thoughts, Bryan opened his mouth with a slightly tense expression.

“Tell me. What’s going on?”

“Actually, I looked over the books from the major cities in the north for the past few months and there seems to be some mistake on my part.”

“What do you mean?”

He had seen all of Bryan’s reports.

Even in Marius’s eyes, who was known as the best administrator in the empire, his reports were flawless.

“Can I sit down for a moment? It would be easier to see if I do some calculations.”

“Go ahead.”

As he looked at him with a puzzled expression, Bryan sat down at the desk in his office and took out an abacus from his pocket.

Clack!

He flicked the beads at lightning speed.

“First of all, this is the customs duty of the major cities in the north, including Stefan.”

He meant the tax paid by the commercial associations or authorized distributors in the city.

“Hmm…”

“And this is the list of Sangdans currently operating in the northern cities. They also have individual trade statements.”

Bryan said in a careful tone.

“As a result of comparing them, there was a fairly large discrepancy of five to seven percent in all cities.”

“What are you talking about? Hehe…”

Marius laughed lightly as if it was nothing.“Isn’t there always such a discrepancy in customs books? It’s embarrassing to say, but not everything is strictly enforced in the empire.”

‘He is still young, so he has the ability but lacks flexibility.’

He knew from his experience that customs revenue was not always strictly enforced.

There were cases where he paid with goods instead of money, but suddenly their prices plummeted.

And it was a shameful thing, but there were also many cases where local officials or lords took bribes and committed fraud.

But Bryan had a serious expression again.

“I have not ignored that point while doing my work for a few years, even though I am inexperienced.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The cities I gave you the list of are large, but they are new cities that have not yet received nobles as their territories. I think we should also consider the uniqueness of the north.”

“…”

Marius was not a fool.

He might have missed something because he had too much work to do.

After thinking for a while, he opened his mouth again.

“There is indeed something suspicious, but do you want to investigate it?”

“I brought it because I think I lack experience to judge. But I think it’s not something to overlook when the books don’t match uniformly for several months.”

“Huh…”

What Bryan meant by the uniqueness of the north was that unlike other regions, the cities were developed with meticulous planning from the beginning.

Most of the residents were people who came in through migration, so their identities were clear.

The empire conducted regular and thorough population surveys to secure taxes, so there was almost no possibility of errors in the new cities.

‘There are no lords or local forces or merchants who can commit corruption there, right?’

Of course, there was also a possibility that the guards who guarded the gates or the lower-level officials would personally commit corruption, but Bryan’s opinion was that it was impossible to make such a hole in the books with that.

Marius’s eyes narrowed. That meant!

“Are you saying there are bastards who are making a lot of money by evading taxes in the north?”

“I can’t give you a definite answer, but I think so.”

“…”

Marius’s hand was trembling slightly.

‘How dare some trash do such insolent things on the land that His Majesty entrusted to manage!’

Bang!

He slammed his desk and got up and shouted.

“Bring me all the responsible people who have been granted commerce in the northern cities!”

That’s how a storm of tax investigation seemed to sweep over the north, but surprisingly, the result was bland.

A few days later.

“Did you not find the culprit?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, it seems that there is no culprit in the upper or lower classes.”

“Huh really?”

He entered the investigation with enthusiasm, but he couldn’t find the culprit even though the books were empty.

‘The upper class is not? But how can the calculation of the books be wrong?’

Marius, who was holding his head and worrying, had no choice but to visit Blue Dragon Company. It was because Eurius had instructed him to consult with them if there was any problem.

And a few weeks later.

***

Eurius opened his mouth with an interested expression.

“So you’re saying that the reason why the books are empty is related to that black market?”

“That’s right. We were able to catch the black market secretly infiltrating into the commercial associations of the north. At that time, we didn’t know what kind of group they were…”

According to Jegal Hwayoung’s explanation, that was the main method of the black market.

They used the local power or upper class to secretly infiltrate their forces.

And in the case of big cities, they took over slums or black markets and gradually expanded their power.

Eurius bit his tongue. If they used commerce, it meant that the bastards called Gyodan were more widely spread across the continent than he thought.

“Tsk! Now I know why they were able to quickly reach out to the north, which hasn’t been developed for long.”

“It’s all my fault.”

“How is it your fault?”

He comforted Marius, who was smiling bitterly. It was Bryan who made the discovery, but it was Marius who wisely entrusted Blue Dragon Company with the investigation as a responsible person.

Eurius praised him for that and turned his eyes to Bryan.

“And Bryan, you did a great job this time. I won’t forget this.”“How can it be a merit to faithfully perform my duty? You are too kind.”

Bryan, who had an awkward expression on his face, didn’t know why Eurius praised him.

“No way. Do you know if there is any content about the country’s finances among what the players left?”

“I don’t know.”

Eurius smiled and opened his mouth again.

“There is something like this. It’s not that the country has no money. It’s that the country has too many thieves!”

‘Was there such a saying?’

Everyone in the hall had a question mark on their heads. Was there such a thing among the players’ words? Even Marius and Bryan, who were officials, had never heard of it, but would the emperor lie?

And Bryan, who heard that, nodded inwardly.

‘It’s a bit radical, but it’s a reasonable thing to say.’

He thought that the secret to making money that was originally not there was to prevent waste in the first place.

‘Even Lord Marius was skeptical at first, right?’

In fact, Marius laughed when he heard his report because he was obsessed with numbers to the point of being sick.

Even in his academy days, there were quite a few people who were annoyed by him.

But this case was where his meticulousness paid off.

Eurius also knew that and gave him a plausible word from the help message.

‘As far as I know, the secret to his rise to the position of finance minister of a country at a young age was his meticulous personality.’

He was about to become the crown prince soon, and he praised him greatly while mentioning the players’ words.

‘I don’t really know what great merit I have done, but he knows me!’

He bowed his head and Eurius looked at him with a smile and turned his eyes to Jegal Se-ga.

“So what was the result of digging up their backs?”

It was meaningless to wipe out only a part of such a tightly organized organization. The first priority was to find their base and kill that strange bastard called the archbishop.

“I think we need a little more clue.”

At this moment, Jegal Hwayoung had a slightly deflated expression. He had to send back two of the best players in Sega to the east, but he had no significant results in the information sector.

“Hmm?”

But Eurius didn’t complain about that report.

Rather, he made an unexpected suggestion.

“Then can you predict the approximate location?”

“It’s certain that there is none in the north and central parts of the empire. The traces we found were cut off at the capital. They definitely cut off their tails there.”

‘As expected!’

He smiled inwardly and said.

“Then, if we can find their traces in the south of the empire, the time to find their base will be shortened considerably?”

“…!?”

This meant that he knew that clue, so Jegal Hwayoung answered confidently.

“If it’s certain that they have their base in the south, I think I can show you results within a month!”

Eurius smiled.

“That’s good. Actually, I have one more person to call who has that information.”

Druruk.

At the same time, the door of the secret room opened again.

The person who had Eurius’s ‘clue’ came in.

“Who is this?”

The person who came in was an old man with white hair. He knelt down as soon as he came in and looked at Eurius.

“Thank you for protecting His Highness’s honor.”

“I just kept my condition with you. It’s been a long time, Victor!”

He trembled all over with an indescribable expression.

In fact, no matter how much he had done for him, how could he forgive him for attacking the palace with treason?

But Eurius not only fulfilled his condition that he thought was impossible, but also gave him honor.

It was not unreasonable for him to shake with emotion.

Finally, all the people Eurius had captured gathered.

Nuada, who became his strong ally in the north!

Jegal Se-ga, who had information, strategy, and force in the east!

Marius and Bryan, who would be his brains in politics, administration, and military, and Devan!

Beatrice and Kains, who were the best talents of the royal guard!

And finally Victor, who was originally his force but finally came into his arms!

They were all outstanding talents and Eurius thought that this was enough to hit the black market even though Jegal Se-ga’s power was greatly reduced.

“Then everyone is here now, so I’ll explain this meeting to those who don’t know.”

He still had many mysteries he didn’t know, but one thing was clear: his real fight was just beginning.