Upon hearing my words alone, Yuria seemed to have realized who I was.
It was the mention of being the only remaining family that gave it away.
I was led to the Capital building along with Lucinil and soon got to witness various scenes unfolding inside.
Even at this hour, employees were engaged in conversations in their offices, seemingly conducting consultations. Some individuals didn't seem to be succubi.
As we entered a restricted area, inaccessible to unauthorized personnel, we observed sights not visible from the outside.
A succubus employee was briefing a group of armed individuals on various precautions.
"Be careful not to cause any trouble. Of course, everyone should know that our work involves legal repossession. Let's be mindful of the limits."
"Roger!"
"Roger!"
"Understood!"
Are they debt collectors? The succubus employee, who seemed to be in charge, crossed her arms and nodded.
"You may hurt people, but remember that any damage to the repossessed goods counts as a loss. If you break something valuable while trying to intimidate, as you did last time, you'll be held responsible for the compensation."
"Yessir!"
"Roger!"
"Understood!"
"Of course, you should know that if the collection is not resolved within the deadline, there will be consequences..."
Could it be?
Are the debt collectors slaves too?
My head began to spin, listening to the honeyed tones delivering malicious words.
Airi.
Did she have a talent for this? As a writer who merely penned words in my room, I couldn't begin to guess how she had gotten this far!
Yuria led us up a staircase, ascending to the fourth floor where a room labeled "President's Office" awaited.
Ding!
Yuria rang the bell to announce our presence, cautiously opening the door.
"Oh, I'm busy."
A slightly sharper, yet familiar voice resonated from beyond the door.
"Madam President, an extremely important guest has arrived."
"I thought I told you I'm not meeting any nobles or royalty yet. Tell them to leave."
What on earth was she talking about?
"It's your only remaining family member... they've come to see you."
"Family? What do you mean by... No, it can't be!"
Before she could even finish her sentence, the sound of frantic footsteps approached, and the door flung open.
No longer needing to hide, I reverted to my original form using the Sarkegaar ring.
Back to being Valier.
There stood the pink-haired succubus queen, Airi.
"Ah."
Upon seeing me return to Valier's form, Airi gazed at me for a moment before embracing my neck tightly.
Wham!
"Valier...!"
"Uh, um... Have you been well?"
Although I had an idea of how much Airi cared for me, she still felt somewhat unfamiliar to me.
Overwhelmed with joy, Airi held me tightly for a while, unwilling to let go.
Named Angel Capital, this office appeared more aligned with devils than angels, seeming to be involved in the business of usury.
Upon leaving the office, Lucinil and Airi were seated at a guest table.
Soon, the secretary brought out some black tea.
"Ah, I won't be having any. You don't need to serve me."
As Airi tried to pour tea into Lucinil's cup, Lucinil covered the cup with her hand and shook her head.
"……?"
"This side is……."
"If you know about Eleris, then you must know about the Vampire Lord. I am Lucinil, the lord of the house of Wednesday."
"Vampire Lord……?"
Upon hearing Lucinil's introduction, Airi absentmindedly nodded her head. Although I didn't quite understand the significance, it seemed that Airi was quite surprised to have received the help of another Vampire Lord.
"……Somehow, I ended up receiving help."
Come to think of it, I didn't know what positions Sarkegaar, Loyar, and Eleris held within the demon army.
All I knew was that they had infiltrated the empire as part of an infiltration mission.
I realized that my knowledge of the demon world was sorely lacking, and I didn't know much about my own subordinates either. Airi stared at Lucinil for a while before slightly bowing her head.
"It doesn't seem like you've made an alliance with Valier. My name is Airi."
Airi briefly introduced herself and then looked at me.
"You must have many questions, Valier."
"……Indeed. What is going on with all of this?"
I couldn't grasp how the business was being conducted, what scale it was on, or what methods were being used.
"It's because there are limits to how much can be achieved through simple trade to control the financial world."
It was an obvious statement.
However, pursuing that goal wouldn't have been an easy task.
Airi had ambitions of seizing the empire's finances and causing an economic crisis. Of course, I only told her to do so because I thought she needed a purpose to live, and I didn't have any particular expectations.
But Airi was seriously pursuing that goal, and it seemed that she had achieved far more than I had anticipated.
"I didn't know anything at first, so I sought a lot of advice from the guests."
It started with a tavern. And a tavern naturally attracted people.
In the early days, there were many problems due to troublesome customers, but Airi and the succubi had no issue dealing with drunken troublemakers.
As word of mouth spread and numerous people started to frequent the establishment, Airi created a VIP system.
It was a hostess service for those who bought extremely expensive drinks.
Airi conversed with them, gradually increasing her understanding of capital.
How to make money. How to manage money. And how they had made their money.
There were those who inherited their wealth, those who were born into it, but countless others had started with nothing and achieved success.
"I considered real estate and investment, but I determined that there was nothing better for quickly increasing the scale of capital in a short period. That's why I started."
"……Is it something that can be easily achieved just by trying?"
"Connections with those who have money are more important than money itself."
Although Airi made money running a tavern, she built even more important connections. She would borrow when needed, and receive investments when necessary.
It all seemed too easy for Airi.
"Of course, I do this for the money, but the main reason is that I can use money as a tool to ensnare people."
Airi took a sip of her tea.
As she put down her teacup, Airi showed a faint smile.
"If you bind them with debt, you can turn anyone into a slave, regardless of their social status."
It didn't matter whether the person was a noble, a royal, or a wealthy merchant.
Money and debt were power in themselves. If you bind someone with a huge amount of debt, you own them. Everything they have becomes yours, and they become a slave, groveling at your feet.
The hornless succubus queen performed a bizarre act, enslaving others not through charm but with money as her weapon.
Although money lending itself has a negative image, Airi conducted her business in a slightly different context.
She wasn't in it to make money.
She lent money to ensnare people.
To turn people into her slaves.
"So... what's going on now?"
"I no longer run the tavern, but I'm still in the money lending business, targeting my VIP customers from back then. You know that Lazak is a port city, and this port is bustling with ships going to and returning from the continent, right? So, captains and merchant fleets load the most valuable trade goods onto their ships and head for the continent to maximize their profits. The same goes for when they return. Merchants sell those goods, earning profits ranging from four to five times or even dozens of times their investment."
"I see."
"In order to do this, of course, they can't rely on their own money alone. They take on huge debts to load expensive trade goods or receive investments. They agree to pay a certain percentage of their future profits."
She probably received shares in the merchant fleets in exchange for her investments. She was well aware of such matters.
"People are greedy. After making a fortune from one trade, they won't try to do business safely without debts, using only their own ships. Once they see profits, they take on even more debt or receive more investments to expand their fleet, and hire more crew members and captains. Endlessly. The process keeps repeating. No one is an exception."
Airi must have witnessed the behavior of these people. She had tasted their insatiable desires from the stories of captains who returned from long voyages.
According to the captains and fleet owners, those involved in usury lend money to the greedy fleet owners at exorbitant interest rates. If they fail to repay the debt, the lenders seize the ships and their cargo. It's a profitable structure as long as the fleet doesn't encounter a storm and disappear altogether.
Iri had not only met with captains.
Many local influential figures visited, and she heard countless stories.
Captains who embarked on long voyages for trade.
Fleet owners who employed these captains to operate trade fleets.
Loan sharks who lent money to these fleet owners.
She had grasped the hierarchy of money-makers while running a tavern.
However, Airi's case seemed to have a slightly different meaning when it came to usury.
It made them slaves.
That's the resonance the word had.
"So, I lend them money, and if they can't meet the interest payment deadline, I raise the interest rate or collect additional fees, or if that doesn't work, I take a stake in their fleet or their trade goods."
It was evident that Airi was making a fortune.
"But at this rate, it would take too long. So, I'm using a different method."
What Airi dreamed of was seizing control of the empire's financial power. She had been incredibly successful so far, but it was still not enough.
"I deliberately sabotage the finances of captains, fleet owners, merchants, and traders who borrow money from the capital. I make them borrow up to their limit, then ensure they have no surplus funds when it's time to pay the interest."
"...What?!"
"Simply put, I force them into bankruptcy. Piling default upon default. I brand them insolvent, reducing their credit to zero. Then, I can enforce the seizure."
I couldn't help but be taken aback by the unexpected revelation.
If you control the flow of funds in the market, you can cause such trouble by just clamping down on any financial route momentarily.
"If I make three large trade fleets go bankrupt simultaneously, the loan sharks, merchants, and local fleets in the Edina Archipelago involved with them will collapse too. It's a chain reaction of bankruptcies."
When large trade fleets go bankrupt and seizures begin, not only the loan sharks who were supposed to collect money from them but also the local fleets scheduled to transport the incoming cargo lose their goods, and those entangled with them also fall into ruin.
A chain reaction of bankruptcies among subcontractors following the collapse of a large corporation.
"With large fleets ruined, merchants can no longer buy or sell trade goods."
"Captains lose their ships."
"Crew members lose their jobs."
"Jobless sailors can't afford to drink."
"And then taverns can't sell alcohol and go bankrupt."
"Like dominoes, they topple one after another."
"The economy will be paralyzed."
With a calm expression, Airi drained the last drop of the red tea in her teacup.
So, the goal wasn't really about having slaves or whatever?
To bring down the national economy? Why on earth?
"You want to cause an economic crisis instead of making money? Why?"
At my incredulous question, Airi grinned.
"The goal is to eliminate the Edina Archipelago's trade cartel."
"…What?"
Again, she said something unexpected.
"How much money do you think I'd need to control the market's cash flow? No matter how much money I have, it's not enough."
Airi gazed out the office window.
"This is all possible because the Edina Royal Bank is supporting us."
A loan shark with unlimited credit.
"It's not that the Edina Archipelago doesn't have a super-sized warp gate connecting to the continent, but rather, they can't build one even if they want to. If they just install a super-sized warp gate on the uninhabited island in the middle of the route, the problem of distance would be solved, right?"
"…You can't be serious."
"Yeah, they can't build it because of the organized obstruction by the trade cartel."
It wasn't that the Edina Archipelago couldn't install a super-sized warp gate.
It was because a large profit group, which made a living through maritime trade, opposed its installation.
And all those talks about the royal family.
Airi was in a secret alliance with the Edina Archipelago's royal family.
"If the economy goes into crisis due to the bankruptcy of large trade fleets, the Edina Archipelago will have no choice but to install a super-sized warp gate for the overall improvement of their economic situation. They will then cooperate with the empire to push for the construction of the warp gate."
"…Wow."
It was astonishing and surprising.
I had sent her to a place without a super-sized warp gate, but now she was trying to create one with her own hands.
It left me speechless.
"In return, I'll get ninety percent of the stakes in the operation of the super-sized warp gate."
Not the domination of the large fleets, but their collapse.
And after that, monopolizing the trade rights between the Edina Archipelago and the continent.
That was the picture Airi was painting.
"…How am I supposed to accept that you sent me to a place difficult for the empire to reach, only to build a bridge?"
At my complaint, Airi gave a bitter smile.
"You're walking on thin ice in the empire, and I don't want to believe that I'm safe here without any risk while you solve everything for me."
Airi believed that she, too, could do something and was trying to contribute in any way possible. She even told me not to sell themselves as slaves to humans to raise capital.
In the end, Airi had connections not only on her own but also with the Edina Archipelago's royal family.
Otherwise, it would have been impossible to launch a project of this scale.
"Anyway, the Edina Archipelago relies too heavily on maritime trade. If a giant warp gate were to be built connecting the continent and the archipelago, the social costs involved in fleet operations would decrease, and the economic situation would be much better than it is now. So, the royal family has wanted to build a giant warp gate for a very long time."
"Are you saying that those involved in maritime trade have been blocking this?"
"Yes."
Maritime traders are an indispensable presence in the Edina Archipelago.
"Whenever discussions about building warp gates begin, maritime trade cartels threaten to strike en masse and paralyze the national economy. They've made good on these threats more than once, causing the economy to falter. It takes time to build a giant warp gate, and they're concerned about how the archipelago would fare without maritime trade in the meantime."
The maritime trade cartels have held the lifeline of the people of the Edina Archipelago, continuously threatening them. Although their actual utility had diminished, they had managed to maintain their grip on the archipelago's leadership through strikes and threats.
"That's why the royal family wants to completely eradicate the maritime trade cartels. Of course, there will be bloodshed and chaos, but they've determined that it's better to build the giant warp gate and collapse the cartels entirely. And well, if I fail, the royal family will cut its losses."
If Airi's true intention to collapse the entire maritime trade cartel becomes apparent, and she becomes a target, the royal family can simply withdraw.
"It's too risky."
"Indeed."
"Even if everything works out as you say, there's a clear possibility that the royal family of the Edina Kingdom will stab you in the back later on."
If things go wrong, they can just cut their losses, and even if things go according to Airi's plan, the royal family could still betray her.
She's taking on enormous risks.
"No, Valier, that won't happen."
However, Airi seemed confident that she wouldn't be betrayed.
"Why?"
"You know why, don't you?"
Airi showed a subtle smile.
"Being loved is just too easy for us."
The fleet owners she intends to topple.
Someone from the royal family secretly collaborating with her.
Everyone loved her, and she knew she wouldn't be abandoned with that look in her eyes.
The Queen of the Succubi.
Even without her horns, Airi's confidence seemed unshaken.
"There might already be people who think my actions are suspicious, even crossing the line. That's why I'm not engaging in business with civilians who don't know me well."
She claimed it was just a game with those who had already fallen for her, for themselves.
Airi told Valier not to worry about that aspect at all.
