Shades of the New World

Chapter 222: Cosmic Society

A few moments later, Abvelgail appeared inside city of Valerian, which was located inside the World of Space. If Evin could see this place, he would definitely be shocked by the futuristic look of it all. 

Enormous buildings with impossible shapes made up the bulk of the city's size, practically all of them defying the laws of physics in one way or another. It made one wonder if the Cosmics really needed such huge architecture for themselves with their tiny bodies. But considering the fact that some humanoids frequented this place, some of the buildings had to be built with them in mind.

This was one of the original safe havens that the Cosmic Felines of the Elmes Group had built to protect them from the invasion of the other Countries of the Empire, if such a day ever came. Naturally, in the first few centuries of the Empire, the relation of the Cosmics and the rest of the countries could be called strained at best, but over time, the Elmes Group became one of the irreplaceable members of society.

Most of the World's storing, maintenance, transportation, and now safeguarding of money was done with the help of the Cosmics. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the Four Countries would lose more than they gain, even if they were able to completely conquer the Group's riches.

"Enjoy your stay Valerian, sir Lesser-imposer" a passing orange-starred Cosmic, a Standard from the looks of it, said to him in a reverent tone. 

Abe nodded in reply to acknowledge the other, but sadly he wasn't free enough to chat with the Standards.

There were countless Cosmics appearing and disappearing through portals around the square. Most of them had either yellow or orange stars on their bodies, with only a few smaller ones having red ones. There were some with white stars littering their bodies, but none of them had blue ones like Abvelgail. 

Naturally, he received the occasional respectful bows from the surrounding Cosmics, who noticed that a lesser-imposer had appeared amidst them.

Wasting no time, Abvelgail contacted his direct superior and requested for an urgent meeting, which was obviously his father, Lashvain Solraheeth. Thankfully, the latter seemed to be free for the time being and informed Abvelgail that he would be coming to Valerian momentarily.

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Another 10 minutes later, Abvelgail was sitting inside a private room with another old Cosmic, who looked back at Abvelgail in an amused way. The blue dots on the old Cosmic's body had almost turned black, but there was a certain feel of weakness and decay on them as well. 

"So? What's got you all riled up and panicked?" the Lashvain asked.

"I've received a business suggestion from a human," Abvelgail began and truthfully recited the details of Evin's proposed Contract, though he was careful to not disclose Evin's identity.

The old Cosmic heard the details and scoffed disdainfully.

"Hmph, just refuse. Why do you have to bring me into this?"

"It's because the person who suggested it is the one who perfected the idea of banking for us. The one that you so dearly wished to produce more ideas for us," Abvelgail said.

'Disappoint first and then impress. A bit risky but it works because he knows me,' Abvelgail thought. 

"That doesn't really change much. I know I've given him a dimension as bait for more ideas, but it doesn't work if he wants to bite off more than he can chew. As you know, although our Solraheeth family holds the rights to the Banking Business now, it has become something too big for us to hold onto. With every second, the pressure on our family increases along the profit that the banks bring us. Do you think I'm allowed to simply give away 15% of the profits to an outsider? A barely ten year old enough boy at that. Even if his ideas are promising, it's not compelling enough for me to agree to that," the elder shrugged. 

Abvelgail expected such an answer. Although the Cosmics encouraged the families to mind their own businesses and not covet another family's pie, when said pie became a bit too big, everyone would start wanting a piece of it, to hell with tradition. 

When the Solraheeth family first declared their intention to supply the funds for another attempt at the business of Banking, every other family mocked them for their stupidity, celebrating the idea that one of the smaller families was about to go bankrupt again. 

The social system of the Elmes Group worked a bit weirdly. Even though on the surface, every business was owned and operated by the Elmes Group, the profits of the individual businesses actually went to the family (or families) that pitched the business idea and financed it.

For example, most of the Storage and Transportation businesses were mostly owned by the Elmes family, with the Delivery service being under the Virago family's control, and the manufacture of Storage Artifacts done by the Vastis family. The other smaller families mostly owned small bits and pieces of these businesses. 

The Solraheeth family was one of them. This was also one of the reasons why a simple peak half-core like Abvelgail could make the decision to agree with Evin's proposal. After all, no one at the time gave two shits about the Solraheeths.

But if every family at the time knew how big of a deal this was going to be, they would've done anything in their capabilities to turn the rights of the Banking Business into a "Public Share", of which any family could freely purchase a percentage. 

Obviously, the Solraheeths would have benefitted greatly as the originators of the idea, but they would've lost the rights to the Banking business entirely. Even now, the other families were doing their best to have the Solraheeth family sell the rights of this business. 

'If perhaps the Elmes family pitched this idea, then there wouldn't have been any problems. After all, they were at the top anyway, it didn't really matter if they increased the gap even further,' Abvelgail lamented in his heart.

"Thanks to Evin, the Solraheeth family's wealth and power is at an all-time peak. Compared to where we were three years ago, an unremarkable family whose members could only enter the legion of the 'Standards' to go searching for young mages to make exclusive contracts with, we are now one of them most prosperous families in the society of Cosmics, with young yellow stars lining at our doorstep to join us. The Banking business turned out to be as big as the original Storage and Transportation businesses owned by the Elmes family. Just from this fact, I can tell you that we shouldn't ignore Evin's idea," Abvelgail said. 

"Hmm," the old man grunted lowly.

"Moreover, I can tell that this new idea of his is much more impactful than the last one. From what I can guess, his intent seems to be changing the entire coinage system of the Empire."

"What? Then all the more reason to refuse him outright. You know the history of creating new coins in the Empire. Even if it's something as revolutionary as his banking idea, it's just not going to work under the rule of the Empress. Remember how the North tried to circulate their newly minted coin and literally everyone and their mothers refused to touch it in fear of slighting the goddess?"

"I've told Evin about the history of money in the Empire and when I told him about the failure of other currencies, his confidence seemed to rise even higher. I'm almost positive that we should at least listen to him. Like he expressed in his Contract terms, if we don't like it, then we can just ignore it and move on with our lives," Abvelgail insisted.

"You know it's not that simple. If we listen to him, the Elmes Group lose the right to invent the idea by ourselves. Think about it, perhaps after a century or two, the Cosmics would've tried their hands at the idea of Banking again, slowly perfecting it over. This idea of his will be thought of sooner or later. There's no need to rush like this," the Lashvain replied.

"But at that time, the idea will most likely not belong to our family. Even though we're rich now, it doesn't mean our family is filled with geniuses. As you've said, it's only a matter of time before the Banking business is divided between the other families. I'm thinking that we should go out with a bang." Abvelgail reminded.