Zand was looking at the different accounts and financial reports that his advisors were giving him. In front of him was a plethora of jewelry, all of which were storage items for the money his brother had made.
He needed to reinvest it back into society without letting them know where the money came from.
This was something that was causing him a headache. If the other nobles ever found out that he had money that came from unknown origins, they could use that as an anchor to pull him down from his noble status and at the same time take over his customers.
As a merchant's son, he couldn't allow that. Thankfully, no one aside from the closest confidante of his elder brothers knew about this money, and those people were locked up in prison for violations of many laws set by both the empire and the ruler of this land, his father.
He rubbed his head due to the stress this problem was causing him. 'How can I turn this illegal money into legal money without anybody noticing it?' he wondered.
He suddenly heard footsteps. Zand hurriedly hid the many pieces of jewelry under the stack of paper and looked at the door. On the door was a girl of around 19 years of age.
"Oh, it's just you Mera. What's wrong? I thought I told you not to come unless it was urgent," Zand said.
Mera was his assistant and had been for a week since he took control of the household. "Well, I couldn't judge the situation's urgency, so I had to come to talk with you," she said.
"Oh, what's going on?" he asked.
"The doctor is here," she said.
Zand immediately got up straight. "Oh, what're you waiting for then, go call him. Fast," Zand urged her.
Mera nodded and left. In less than a minute, she was back with Ning. Ning looked at the papers everywhere and was a little taken back.
"What are these?" he asked.
"Oh, just financial reports. Nothing that would interest you," Zand said as he stood up. "Please come sit, Doctor. Mera, go make the doctor a cup of tea."
Mera nodded and left. Ning sat down and took a report from the ground to look at it.
"Urgh!" he nearly facepalmed himself. He didn't have the language skill belonging to this planet yet and was still working on basic language skills. So, he still didn't know how to read and write.
He was about to place it back down when he saw something glittering below it. "What's this?" he asked as he picked up a chain.
"Oh, a storage necklace," he said. "What's inside it?" he asked as he burned the Aether in his body to activate it. Hundreds of thousands of Rops fell out of the jewelry, filling the room.
"Holy Sh*t! Just how much did your brother make?" Ning asked as he brought in everything.
"Each storage necklace has around 300 thousand Rops. And there are at least a dozen of such necklaces. So, at minimum estimate, he must have earned about 4 million Rops. That is without counting the share taken by the bandits, and all the money that he had spent."
"In total, he must've sold at least 5 million Rops worth of Aether Ore. My father was titled a Baron when the Canon merchant group was able to earn a million Rops in profit in less than a decade."
"If this had kept on going, brother would've surely made the Viscount rank, or maybe even a Marquess rank in a decade or so," Zand said.
"I see. So, what are you going to do with this money?" he asked.
"I… I don't know really," he said.
"Huh? I thought you were a merchant. Aren't you just going to buy some items and sell those?" Ning asked.
Zand quickly explained why that wasn't possible. "Oh, I see," Ning said.
"We could sell the Aether ores and say we earned this money from that little by little," Zand suggested an idea to see if Ning thought it was good.
"Nah, you should keep the ores for yourself. You are an Enchanter, right? You are a good one too. You should certainly continue as an Enchanter, and for that, you need Aether ores," Ning said.
"Besides how would having ores even make this money legal?" Ning asked.
"Oh, that's by… " Zand quickly explained how he had planned to use the Aether Ores to sell at such a massive rate that his rivals couldn't keep track of how much he sold. There in between, he would place false sale figures and turn his money into legal money.
That was an illegal way to do it, but he had no choice.
"Hmm… does it have to be Aether ores. Can't it be just about anything?" Ning asked.
"Well, it can. But it has to be something that we can acquire in large amounts and can thus sell in incredible amounts as well. Basically, we will have to overwhelm the market enough that the rival nobles don't see how much money we made," Zand said.
"Hmm… something you can obtain in large amount and something that sells well, huh?" Ning thought for a second.
'What was something that was expensive and yet readily available?' he wondered. After thinking for a while, his eyes shined brightly.
"I have an idea," Ning said.
"Oh, what idea?" Zand asked.
Ning quickly explained what he had in mind. Zand thought for a second and asked, "but can we even find it in a large amount?"
"Don't worry about that. I will take care of that aspect. You just take care of the business aspect," Ning said.
"Oh, also, the reason why I came here in the first place," Ning said. "Lend me all of your soldiers."
"All… of my soldiers?" Zand asked questioningly.
"Yes.. Bandits like Khrom could thrive in this city because the guards were relatively incompetent, so I am going to train them to be strong, teach them to be righteous, and weed out all the bandits that are hidden within them."