Chapter 79: The Power of Rumors (Part 1)
"You're so slow, master!" Arya jumped up as soon as she saw Aeg, complaining dissatisfiedly.
"Where have you been?" Tyrion also frowned at Aeg: "Letting Lady Stark watch the shop and making customers who want to buy bonds wait for you, tsk—what a great chief logistics officer of the Night's Watch!"
Oh no, Aeg immediately realized who the other two people in the room were and quickly apologized. He had previously told Tyrion that he would always be at the office, but for the sake of "rescuing Jaqen," he had inexplicably broken his promise, almost causing trouble. Making such a mistake at the initial stage of the bonds was simply unforgivable, even to himself. No wonder even the usually good-natured Tyrion was unhappy.
"It's alright, chatting with Lady Stark was pleasant." The man Tyrion had brought smiled and said. He had only come to take a look to give face to the Lannister family, but who would have thought he could meet the current Hand of the King's daughter here—given their fief's location and status, they normally wouldn't have any connection with the Stark family. Just for this, waiting a while wasn't a total loss.
"This is Ser Lyonel Bryen, and this is Ser Roger Hogg, two nobles from the Crownlands."
"Greetings to both of you, and I apologize again for my tardiness." Aeg greeted them and quickly straightened his clothes: "Please, come in."
***
Borrowing money from others and making them wait, if the two guests today had shown displeasure or left in a huff, Aeg could only have smiled apologetically. Fortunately, because Arya was present, both of them were quite polite—Aeg breathed a sigh of relief. Spending two to three hours a day dealing with this little she-wolf, going to great lengths to get close to her, had finally paid off a bit.
Instructing the "newly hired" office employee Aegon to watch the door, Aeg invited the guests into the inner room for a detailed discussion. After a round of introductions and explanations, both of them bought a hundred gold dragons each as a gesture, signed and sealed the documents, and after some more pleasantries, Aeg saw the Night's Watch guests off.
"I understand you're busy, but you should have told me in advance, or just set a time, and tell me which days you'll definitely be here, and which days I shouldn't bring people over, okay?"
Aeg felt guilty and naturally agreed. For many reasons, he could find someone to watch the door for him, but the authority to sign valid bonds could never be transferred to others. But he might indeed have to do other things from time to time... Thinking carefully, it was time to establish a schedule for workdays and rest days.
"I have some new ideas I want to discuss with you." Tyrion didn't intend to dwell on Aeg's mistake and quickly regained his usual demeanor: "As you can see, I can bring people over, and it's easy. I know who has spare money and will give me face, and I can tell who is easily persuaded—but even if I drag them in, they'll only buy the minimum amount of a hundred gold dragons... You don't have anything tangible to show them, and just relying on persuasion won't make them empty their pockets."
"Indeed, but as the first and second batches of people successfully receive their returns..."
"That takes time." Tyrion waved his hand to interrupt Aeg: "My idea is, since we'll be cooperating with people in the future, why not create something like a bond, with the investment, cooperation, and dividend agreements written on it, as proof?"
"You mean, a new bond product?" Aeg immediately understood Tyrion's meaning: "We can create an 'investment certificate,' calculate the funds needed to establish a series of industries like papermaking and printing, and then, this certificate would represent the owner's future share of our papermaking, printing factories, and even bookstores and other physical industries."
"Exactly, that's what I mean. This certificate can complement the bonds. The bond returns are low, but the principal and interest can be withdrawn at any time, while this... the return on the investment certificate depends on the business situation, which might be very high, but the principal has already become part of the workshops and factories, so it can only be transferred to others, not withdrawn!" Tyrion said: "This way, we can cater to two types of customers: those with some spare money but might need it at any time can buy Night's Watch bonds; while those with substantial funds but nowhere to go can invest thousands or tens of thousands directly!"
"That's a great idea. Once the product is ready, we can make some high-quality samples to attract investment." Aeg felt a vague sense of unease for some reason, "I'll leave this to you. Business and operations are your domain, and I'll handle the ideas and technology. I'll be visiting Nina frequently in the coming days to ensure their improvements are completed as soon as possible."
"Alright."
Aeg took a breath and quickly understood where the vague sense of unease was coming from: Everything was progressing too fast. He had initially just wanted to set up a Ponzi scheme to get a foothold, but how did it come to this before even paying out the first round of interest? Financing, shares, and all these things were popping up. Could he really handle the beast of capital with his identity and abilities?
He wasn't good at these things, but there was no way back. Unless he wanted to betray Tyrion, take the money, and flee to the other side of the narrow sea to live in obscurity until his death, he could only move forward. This... was probably the inevitable journey of an entrepreneur.
Fortunately, he had almost no competitors in this world and also had the help of a resourceful Lannister.
***
"Are you done discussing? Are we practicing today or not!?" Arya hated listening to things like bonds and shares—apart from knowing they were related to money, she couldn't understand a bit of it. She only knew that she had spent the whole day waiting and hadn't done anything: "Those two guys just now... they kept asking me this and that, and in the end, they even asked if I was married or if I had someone I liked, what business is it of theirs!"
"Actually, it's none of their business." Tyrion was amused by Arya. The two wealthy knights he had just brought were from the Crownlands. With Arya Stark's status, even if she were to marry down, she would choose powerful earls or marquises, not these lower-ranking nobles. But their concern was not entirely unreasonable: "Your sister Sansa is already engaged to Prince Joffrey. The Starks will be one of the most powerful families in the Seven Kingdoms for at least the next hundred years. Your marriage, as the future queen's sister, is a matter of great concern to the people of the Seven Kingdoms!"
"Pfft, Sansa is a big idiot. Marrying Joffrey, that big liar, is a perfect match. I don't want to be like her!"
Aeg couldn't let her continue to speak the harsh truth, so he quickly stopped her: "Where is my little lady apprentice? No swearing allowed!"
"Hmph." Arya remembered the butcher's boy who practiced swordplay with her, and tears immediately welled up in her eyes. She sniffed, pouted, and stopped talking.
***
Yes, Sansa was already engaged to Joffrey. Eddard Stark was not only the current Hand of the King and the king's good brother but would also be the future king's father-in-law. Perhaps even Eddard himself hadn't realized that this was actually the reason he dared to come to King's Landing despite knowing how dangerous it was. Unfortunately, in the original plot, under Littlefinger's instigation, he soon discovered the secret of Cersei and Jaime, and his original confidence turned into the greatest threat. With his pride, it was impossible for him to let his precious daughter marry the product of incest—especially the bastard of the Kingslayer, whom he despised the most; and yet "honor" didn't allow him to harm children. In this contradiction, everything that followed happened.
Thinking of this, Aeg suddenly remembered the rumor he had spread a few days ago. Out of caution, he hadn't mentioned it to anyone, not even in a probing manner... It was conceivable that he would be busy with other things for a considerable period in the future. If he forgot about "dealing with Littlefinger and preventing the war," and the War of the Five Kings happened anyway, that would be troublesome.
He needed to know now if the rumor had taken effect to determine whether he needed to come up with another plan to disrupt things.
"By the way," he pretended to have just remembered: "I heard a very serious rumor these past two days. I don't know if you..."
"You mean the one about Littlefinger plotting against the former Hand, Jon Arryn?" Tyrion smirked: "It's already all over the city, and you're just hearing about it now... I wonder what you've been up to."