"Suspicion."
"It has led to the rise and fall of many great people and countries."
"The sin of being too powerful."
"Is the worst sin a vassal can have in the ruler's eyes."
"Even if their loyalty is absolute, they ask one essential question."
"Will his successor rebel?"
"Is he a threat to the throne?"
"This is why the rulers who can trust their vassals."
"End up being the best in the world."
Flintorus Rhalun, Prime Minister of Nathia, known as 'The Kings Fox.'
….
"So I have just one question to ask you."
"Were you merchants in the past, and what got you to where you are today?"
Railius asked this family, no matter what they said, he would not leave them there unless they demanded to stay on their own. However, he would have to either train them up himself or find another job for them, but considering how House Aurellion's expansion would start to accelerate rapidly now that he was overseeing things, Railius was confident that he could find jobs for them.
"It seems that the young master is more open-minded than other lords to search for talent in a place like this."
The old man said, letting out a relieved sigh when he heard why the young master before him had sought them out while he had a sword and looked threatening; in his current state, he would hardly be able to defend himself or his family. Otherwise, the gangs would not dare mess with him.
"A lord who said that I was a lord?"
Railius replied while he was the leader of a noble house, he was not technically a lord as he had no fief as his family's marquisate had long been revoked from them."
"You may not be the lord of a territory, but judging from your own clothing and your men standing vigilantly outside, you are from a noble house, most likely a famous fallen one at that, considering that you cannot or do not want your name to get out there."
"You also have the moral compass of a benevolent lord, for most lords would never look to recruit from this place of depravity, using it as nothing else but an outlet for their lust, and most merchants would never risk coming to a place like this to look for someone to help run a company or act as a front for them, for they would run it themselves so there is really only one remaining option...."
"You are the lord of a noble house and want to set up a company in secret not only to give you another source of income but to use it for other things as well."
Alicia's father said his eyes were filled with wisdom, befitting his advanced age despite his body's poor condition. It seemed that Railius had managed to hit the jackpot as the old man continued after making his conjecture.
"I imagine that you want to recruit from here because it would bind the person to you in gratitude and gain their loyalty, am I right?"
The veteran merchant said, seeing through Railius' intentions completely, which made the young lord of Aurellion wonder how he found himself in this situation in the first place as someone of his intelligence should have no issue becoming one of the best merchants in DO.
While it was true that Railius came here because he could take someone out of this hellscape, it was equally true that the young lord of House Aurellion wanted to gain that person's loyalty, for that was the most important thing for the face of the company to have.
Something even more important than the talent that person has for nothing is worse than a talented, untrustworthy person who is hard to keep an eye on.
For House Aurellion had already suffered the consequences for trusting the wrong person and of coming off as too powerful with Archtorius' betrayal and then their subsequent attempted extermination by the Chavarian Empire.
Because of this, Railius did not want his noble house's power to be entirely known by the world like before to help lower his threat level even slightly towards people.
Why was it that Flavius was so ruthless when dealing with House Aurellion?
The reason ran far deeper than just needing a convenient scapegoat as any noble family would do, and blaming it on someone else would have kept the peace within the imperial army and across the whole empire.
The reason was simple in principle but practically rather complicated.
The simple explanation was that House Aurellion was too powerful, even if they were a new noble house looked down on by many in the Chavarian nobility. In fact, this helped lower the backlash from his decision among the noble circles, who had long become jealous of the position and trust this new noble house had obtained.
House Aurellion was one of the key founding noble houses that helped to establish the empire, giving them immense prestige within it. Not only that, but at the time, House Aurellion had tremendous respect and influence amongst the imperial army itself, with half of it almost rebelling when they heard about the false charges and death of their beloved general, as they refused to believe that he was capable of rebellion.
Only the widely respected minister of war had a similar prestige, and Lucius' master managed to calm things down with Archtorius helping to limit the number of people who resigned. Even with these two respected figures working together, they failed to stop over 20,000 elite soldiers from resigning, a loss that would take years for the empire to recover.
This influence was deeply embedded within the one military asset that the imperial family had complete control over and presented a great danger to them, especially to Flavius, the new crown prince and future emperor, who was responsible for killing Lucius Aurellion. Hell, many in the empire still don't believe that Lucius was a traitor but could do nothing about it.
No matter what, the moment that Prince Flavius plotted to kill Prince Victarion to secure the position of the crown prince of Chavaria, the death of Lucius Aurellion, who was responsible for his protection, a man of considerable integrity and loyal only to the emperor, was a requirement.
The problem was that there was no guarantee that House Aurellion would drop this issue, and even if they did drop it initially due to powerlessness, Lucius' son may use his considerable influence within the empire to support one of Flavius' brothers in their bid for the throne when he got older, and if he revealed and somehow managed to gather evidence that Flavius killed his brother to get the throne he would be able to assemble a large following to put someone else on the throne of Chavaria even if Flavius had already been proclaimed emperor.
The crime of killing a prince, especially one who was virtuous and about to become the crown prince, is not something that can be easily swept under the rug, let alone the nobles who would want to support a puppet ruler to further their own ends supporting House Aurellion in this endeavour.
Worse, Archtorius, the next paramour of the imperial army, only came to Flavius' side due to blackmail and would never make the same mistake of leaving his son to be used as a bargaining chip again. It would also be perfectly in character for him to side with House Aurellion, especially if the guilt-ridden general explained why he did what he did, as House Aurellion were very open-minded about these sorts of things.
How could Flavius sit on his future throne at ease with such a threat around? One that could even turn the imperial army against him!
It's simple! He couldn't! No one could sleep well at night with that on their mind! So all Flavius could do was try to exterminate House Aurellion and ruthlessly order everyone else to help with those who refuse to be arrested for the same crime of treason to drag everyone into this and have them cut off any ability to work with them in the future.
"How could someone with your insight and intelligence fall into this state?"
Railius asked as within seconds of seeing and talking with Alicia's father, while the old did not know exactly which fallen noble house he was dealing with, he had accurately sealed off one possibility after another until he came to the correct answer.
'It seemed the intelligence of his daughters is not for nothing!'
Railius thought while the old man's gaze seemed to become distant and nostalgic as he recalled his recent past; his fist then clenched suddenly, shaking slightly until the old man seemed to regain his calm and looked at Railius with eyes full of the trauma of the past, asking earnestly.
"You're right. I was a merchant not so long ago. Is there no way for me or my eldest daughter Keila to prove ourselves to you without needing to go into that?"
"Our past is not the nicest thing to know about."
Declan asked calmly. He could see that he would have to tell the young noble before him his past but at least tried to conceal
"I wish there were; however, you will be the public face of my company, so I need to know of any enemies you have so I can make a plan to deal with them."
"Because you will have to face them again."
"Also, I never got your name."
Railius replied. No matter how sympathetic he was to these people's plight, he needed to know who they offended, even if it was uncomfortable for them to talk about, so he knew what he would be up against.
The old man sighed. Having expected this outcome, he decided to come clean as he sensed that honesty was the best current course of action.
"My name is Declan Hostod… *cough cough*, and I put my trust in the wrong people and made too many enemies."
Declan said, coughing slightly before his expression hardened, and he began to tell his story.
"Have you ever heard of the Golden Goods Merchant Group?"
The wizened old man asked weakly. The adrenaline that pumped through his body, giving him strength, dissipated the moment Railius turned out not to be hostile. Seeing the blank expression that adorned the young lord's face, Declan smiled slightly before continuing and lying weakly on the makeshift bed.
"I was its old master until my brother took that title away. For years, I operated a caravan that travelled around the world. I have been to nearly every single country in the world, experienced different cultures, and traded in all sorts of goods."
"Velvets, silks, fruits I have peddled all sorts of goods from one place to another for most of my life. I have made deals with noble lords and solved famines and, unlike most merchants, sold it for the market price instead of raising it."
"For years, I was successful, and gold flowed into the family; however, while I was away, I left most of the shops that I set up in the hands of my accursed brother, who used the time I was peddling goods to start taking control of the business."
"One by one, friends and colleagues who I had worked with for years fell under his dark influence. While my wife was around, no one dared to do anything. You see, she was the daughter of one of the Beastmen United States tribes chieftains and was used to managing people. It may have been a small tribe and not one of the major ones, but it helped to build relationships between our group and the suspicious Beastmen and my wife, well, she was…."
"Extraordinary."
Declan said, looking at the ceiling briefly with loving longing. Even months after her death, he was still mourning her death but quickly shook his head and snapped himself out of it, as now was not the time to be grieving for his wife but preparing a bright future for their daughters.
"But once she and her father died, a new chief was elected who saw our children as a threat to his rule as my wife was his only daughter, and he gave her everything, even allowing her to marry the person she loved."
"He schemed with my brother to have him take over the company and worked with him to chase me out and then used his contacts with the corrupt nobility to suppress my other ventures as it's not like that I, as a successful merchant for years, would not have any money left over."
"All of my wife's loyal subordinates were slowly removed one by one, and by the time I returned from a 2-year-long venture, there was no one left, and all were summoned back to the tribe by the new chieftain for one reason or another."
"Some tried to stay and help me and my daughters, but after repeated failures, we could not keep them anymore as I could barely afford food for myself, and so I dismissed them to protect them from retaliation."
"It was not enough for that greedy bastard to take over what I spent my entire life building, but he even stopped me from making a living!"
Cough, cough, cough.
The coughing continued, and the old man's daughters quickly went over to comfort the ill man while he breathed deeply after his coughing fit.
"Time and time again, they used one despicable means after another to make my ventures fail. Whether it was through bandit attacks, bribing people and officials to make things hard for me, there was no low they were not willing to go to get what they wanted, blocking even my right to complain about them."
"I even took a 500 gold loan from the bank to do my latest one, and now I am here in debt to the bank with little to nothing to my name except my family, a sword and a poisoned body that is almost certainly a gift from my ambitious greedy brother."
Declan said, finishing his sad story. There was much more to it, but all the important bits were told to the young master who wanted to recruit them.
"So you are just like me then."
Railius commented more to himself than to anyone else, his eyes getting distant for a second, which drew the attention of both Declan and Keila, though neither decided to ask about it.
But one thing still puzzled the young noble. How could Declan's brother have legally seized the company if he built them up himself? All the shares seemed to be controlled by Declan, so there should be no problems with him designating any successor he wants.
"How did he take over the company legally? Surely the merchant group was under your control, and you built it up, so there should be no legal way for them to take it from you?"
Railius asked suspiciously, as it made next to no sense to him as even if all his employees left, he was still the legal owner of the company.
"The contracts and ownership for the shops were in the name of my brother, not me nor my company, as I spent my time trading around the world with the caravan, which was the most profitable aspect of the company. The subordinates loyal to my wife who went to me after she died were investigated for one thing or another, leading to them quickly being arrested by my brother's co-conspirators, and to protect my loyal employees from prosecution, I was forced to sign them over to my brother or have them be punished and, in some cases, executed for something they did not do."
"Under no circumstances will I allow my loyal employees to be punished for something they did not do."
"So, just like that, even if my brother made his own company because most of the deeds were in his name alone, I would be left with nothing, so I just gave my merchant group to him to stop unnecessary suffering."
Declan said in a depressed tone, but he would not have changed one thing he did. He was a rare gem in the business world, one who looked after his employees, a man of honour and integrity.
Railius then began to consider his options, thinking that while this brought more conflict, it was not like this family's problems were something that Railius could not deal with. In fact, he would welcome a bandit attack as he had new Pelican Guards who needed bloodying in actual battle and conflict rather than just constant training, as training can only take you so far.
They also had the talent and experience to run his company, so the only thing left was their loyalty, and with them in such a state and with the backing of the crown prince, Railius should have no problems ensuring their loyalty. Declan was also a very honourable man, making the young lord of Aurellion's decision easy.
"I see."
Railius said, thinking deeply. He sat there for 5 minutes before coming to his decision.
"I'll hire your eldest daughter as the face of my company and pay off your debts. You can guide and watch over her, but she will have the power. This part is non negotiable!"
Railius said in a uncomprimising authoritative voice leaving no room for nogotiation.
"It will help with any succession crisis' in the future and give her the experience and skills to help make something of herself if she ever wants to leave and do her own thing."
"That is, of course, only if you accept."