How to Live as a Tyrant’s Spoiled Brat Chapter 124

How to live as a tyrant's spoiled brat Episode 124

(124)

In my 40 years of experience, these conversations are best had in a noisy coffee house near a school of learning, not in a quiet, upscale pub.

“Did you hear that the Archduke Valencian tried to kill the Northern Archduke this time?”

“It is more stable to add this technique when engraving this spell.”

“I want to get married after I graduate, but will I be able to graduate?”

“The recently passed vigilante law, do you think that makes sense?”

“Did you see the student council dragging away all the ‘Old Scholar’ kids earlier?”

The energetic students were talking about many things such as rumors, studying, career paths, and current affairs.

There is no need to worry about wiretapping magic, as any story you bring up will be buried in the noise.

“Your Majesty, Valen. You shouldn’t call a busy person and keep him waiting like this.”

Finalcia said with her red eyes flashing.

If Sir Tentia's eyes were as red as blood, Finelcia's eyes were as red as fire.

“Count Finelcia. How did you find the time to come to my workshop when you are so busy?”

There was another person sitting at this table with eyes similar to hers.

A genius wizard who wears a cone-shaped hat, has shining eyes of different colors, and spews out venomous words with a sharp face.

“How can I, as a senior, just stand by and watch my junior try to make the same mistake? Your Majesty the Sereraji.”

“Don’t you think you gained too much from it to call it a mistake, senior?”

It seemed like sparks were flying between their eyes.

Not metaphorically, really.

I lightly stepped in between the two to lighten the mood.

“Finelcia. Just one more person needs to come. She’s a face that Senator Marcus would like to see. Just wait. Maybe you’ll like her too. … … Oh, you’re here at the right time.”

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The coffee house door closed and there was a click of a cane.

The youngest member of the National Assembly, Cornell, had a smart and intelligent look and bobbed reddish-brown hair.

As soon as Cornell entered, he sat down across from Congressman Marcus.

In Sereraji, I sat across from Finelcia, and I sat at the end of the table and acted as a mediator.

Of course, he was an arbitrator who made a very biased decision.

But since there was no one else besides me who knew the dark and bright sides of each field, including the magic workshop, the parliament, and redevelopment, I shamelessly smiled and acted like the goddess of scales.

Considering that she was also wearing white, it was somewhat plausible to try to persuade her.

“Okay. It looks like everyone who was supposed to gather has gathered.”

The two wizards and the two councilors looked at me.

A young old man who received the title of Master, the fire magician Finelcia.

Marcus, a workshop owner and member of parliament whose constituency is north of the Street of Learning.

To the genius of all time, Sereraji.

Youngest member of Congress, Cornell.

I checked their faces one by one.

They were worthy of being called the high ones of Soletaraon.

“Sereraji, sister? I think it’s okay to start.”

“Yes, little brother. Senior?”

She looked at Finelcia and smiled coolly.

“My junior has come up with a hypothesis. Would you please listen to it?”

The mouth was smiling, but the blue and yellow eyes were not smiling.

“I hope this is a hypothesis and not a novel, Your Majesty.”

Finelcia literally didn't blink an eye.

At first glance, it looked like Serena was bullying a child, with that 'I don't know anything' expression that suited her young appearance.

But the Sereraji I know treats people without regard to age.

“Lightning is an effective attack magic in many ways, but it has the disadvantage of being difficult to attack from a range, so up until now it has only been used to snipe strong opponents.”

“Yes, junior.”

“But thanks to the diffusion magic circle I developed, I can now use that efficient lightning as a ranged attack.”

Finelcia still looked relaxed.

“Aren’t you a successful magician with a flame magic scroll and flame magic tools for ranged attacks?”

The Serenade penetrated like lightning piercing through armor.

“So, I guess my senior was worried that I would take away the market and that my sales would suffer.”

* * *

Finelcia shrugged.

It was a sly attitude that did not match his appearance.

“That’s an interesting hypothesis.”

“It wasn’t just you who felt anxious. The councilman on this street where your senior had his workshop was also anxious.”

Sereraji and Finelcia looked at Marcus at the same time.

Marcus trembled, a trembling that belied his large size.

“He is a factory owner as well as a member of the National Assembly. He must have been annoyed by the new member of the National Assembly who was absorbing many workshops into his own area using cheap land and manpower as weapons.”

Finalcia, who hates Sereraji.

Marcus hates Cornell.

“Senior, you create jobs and make investments in this area. I think you two must have known each other in many ways. That’s why you two joined hands to screw me and Cornell.”

Finelcia distorted her childish face.

It was the expression of an old man who had survived in the Imperial Magic Workshop for decades.

“Do you have any evidence, Your Majesty?”

“Of course. Unlike my brother, I don’t take on fights I can’t win.”

Me too.

Do I look like that?

I calculated everything and then took action.

I just kept that thought to myself.

Sereraji took out several books of magic.

“This isn’t a mass-produced book, is it? I checked and it’s a direct copy. The original was written by a senior when he was a student.”

There are original books of magic, copies of the originals, and mass-produced copies of those.

Since the act of first containing knowledge itself instills mana, the closer it is to the original, the better the grimoire.

Even though it was for students, it wasn't something that would have several copies circulating, even for a book of that level of magic.

“I wonder why those ‘Old Scholar’ or whatever thugs had this.”

“!”

Congressman Marcus's eyes rolled.

Finelcia clicked her tongue.

Sereraji looked at the two congressmen and smiled.

“A few days ago, Senator Cornell amended the Vigilante Law. That’s only vigilantes in the old slums, but in places like this, they’re going to use all these thugs as their own private army.”

“Uh huh.”

“I don’t think you reacted that well either, but now I understand why. There were already many student gangsters who were acting like puppets, so there was no need to change the law. But didn’t you feel bad when other members of the National Assembly also had private soldiers?”

I have nothing to gain, but others have something to gain.

From a competitive standpoint, it was a huge loss.

"I am……."

Sweat broke out on Marcus' face.

“Ah,” Cornell said with a short sigh.

Even Cornell didn't seem to think that far ahead.

Sereraji continued speaking with a cool smile.

“After the two of you put your heads together and decided to screw me and Cornell, you hired the thugs that Marcus had with you and gave them the grimoire.”

Two eyes of different colors sparkled with indignation.

“Senior. How can this be? We are noble magicians, not members of the National Assembly.”

The faces of the two councilors rotted away, but the two wizards paid no attention.

Well, that's just insulting others.

“Even if we bow our heads to the secular monarch for research funds and protection, aren’t we pursuing the unchanging truth? I thought you were a respectable senior who rose again without yielding, even though you became like that because of the dirty restraints of other seniors. Why?”

If it was Finalcia who had asked Sereraji to fight, Sereraji wouldn't have made such an expression.

“We reject the vain power play of the world and pursue the unchanging truth. Didn’t you like those words, senior? Has time burned away all that passion?”

"majesty."

For the first time, Finelcia's voice wavered.

Sererajiga rebuked him like a thunderbolt.

“Why did you drag me, who lived above the clouds, down to this dirty mud! Why did you make me say things I would say to my own little brother?”

It was a remark that seemed to put a period.

* * *

Finelcia let out a deep sigh.

She took out a high-quality pipe from her bosom, filled it with tobacco, and lit it with her magic tool.

I couldn't sense the slightest trace of remorse in that face.

The old man who survived in the Imperial Magic Workshop for decades was not so easy.

She breathed out smoke and laughed like a girl possessed by a demon.

“Your Majesty, I regret the accident at the workshop. But is there any reason why I should join hands with Marcus like that?”

"this……!"

Sereraji's eyes became bloodshot.

“I was given the title of Earl, and he was only a four-year member of parliament. To say that we joined hands because our interests coincided seems a bit… … out of place.”

I shook my head and tipped the scales.

Although Sereraji speaks well, she is not the type of person who is good at arguing as she pursues the truth.

There is a saying, “Trash goes in the trash can.”

Force with force, sophistry with sophistry, corruption with corruption.

I have proudly reached the pinnacle in all of those fields.

“Even if our levels don’t match, our interests do overlap.”

I lowered my voice and made a circle with my thumb and index finger.

The eyes of the two council members and the two wizards were all focused on me.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you saying I have something to ask you, Congressman?”

Both Marcus and Finelcia looked puzzled.

This time I could tell it was acting.

Because it was an expression I made a lot in front of Jaylilis.

In this life, I wanted to practice swordsmanship and magic more diligently than these abilities.

In this life, too, there are many times when the lies built up overwhelm the truth.

I said with a bitter smile.

“Imperial Support Rebate.”

“!”

“I understand that the industry practice is set at 15%.”

A slight twitch occurred on Finelcia's childlike face.

The hand holding the pipe also trembled.

I continued in a languid voice.

“Finelcia. Haven’t you built quite a few workshops on this street so far?”

There is something called a rebate.

It is a system in which a portion of the amount paid is returned later.

The problem is that when it comes to payment, it is paid with guild money, top-tier money, or royal money, and when it comes to receiving it back, it is received by the individual employee or administrator and embezzled.

It is often used as a bribe.

Let's say there's an event at the royal palace and they need a thousand flowers to decorate it.

At this time, the administrative officer in charge of the work goes to a flower shop that sells 1,000 flowers for 15 gold coins, rather than a flower shop that sells 1,000 flowers for 10 gold coins.

There, you buy flowers for 5 coins more, and the florist gives the administrator back about 3 coins.

The florist made money, and the administrator made money.

It was my job to catch these guys and behead them.

Second, imperial support.

The magic workshop doesn't only make war scrolls and magical tools.

The market size of civilian magical tools like the 'lighter' that Finelcia just used is not small, and they are also much easier to make.

Naturally, wizards want to create magical tools for civilian use.

So the royal family promises to 'focus on making war tools during the war' and provides financial support to magicians who build large workshops.

“You must have also built your workshop while receiving a huge amount of support.”

At this time, the council members and building guilds of the street actively cooperated, as Cornell did for Sereraji.

No matter how expensive they are, the magicians who come in with royal subsidies will give them to you.

At first, you may not know the ways of the world because you only did research, but one day you will learn that you can get a refund through a rebate, and you will get a refund.

“When I receive it from above, it is a budget I received to build a workshop, but when I receive it back, it is money that goes into my pocket.”

I caught this a lot before the regression, and did it a lot more.

I said with a bitter smile, reminiscing about old memories.

“It must have been sweet. It felt like I had discovered the secrets of the world. The feeling of a large sum of money coming in all at once was thrilling. There was also a friendship that could only be felt with a partner who shared a dark secret.”

Sereraji's face hardened, and Cornell gritted his teeth.

Finelcia also gritted her teeth.

“But once you take a bribe, you have to keep taking it. If you hear from the councilman that the workshops on our streets are likely to slip away, you have to hand over a direct copy of the grimoire to the thugs you wouldn’t have even looked at before. Sharing secrets also means being caught in a weak spot.”

I turned my eyes towards Marcus.

For the first time he smiled.