A Treacherous Courtier Manages the Empire Well

14 – Too Appealing to Reject

“Landor!!!”

While Karía’s voice filled with rage, she burst into the room, slamming the door.

“Look at this!!!”

She showed me several flyers. There were ludicrously drawn illustrations of myself.

“What is this?”

“They’re circulating in the capital right now. They all contain content that vilifies Landor!!”

They were maliciously drawn flyers. But the contents inside were not lies.

“Let’s party, Binyard. This is it.”

Hanson recognized it immediately. I know too. The Binyard party, Duke Fellings. Everyone in the Empire would hate me, but these guys would hate me the most.

Unlike Seleene and Adran, who have a common goal of making the Empire stronger, this guy is on the same level as Landor. He wants to make the Empire his own and profit greatly from it.

“It’s quite painful. My reputation will greatly plummet in the capital. The nobles there will view me in a sinister light.”

“That’s right! It’s the Binyard party! I should gather my Iron Blood Legion and go and confront those bastards!!!…”

“Your Highness. Your Highness, please calm down. This problem cannot be solved by doing that.”

I calmed Karia down. This is definitely not good.

I silently stared at the flyer.

In the flyer, my wrongdoing being exposed was mainly of two kinds.

First, using the power gained by being by the Emperor’s side, I deceived and swindled the noble class in the capital.

And second, I punished and imprisoned the officials who opposed me when I tried to establish favorable laws for myself.

Most of the victims were nobles from the Selene faction who had been swindled, and those who had been unjustly beaten and sent to prison for speaking the truth were mostly nobles from the Adran faction.

“If I’m not careful, the noble factions of Selene and Adran might boycott me together. They might intentionally support those who ruin my business.”

Although I have shown my sincerity to Adran and Selene, I have not shown it to their noble followers. If the public opinion within the factions continues to turn hostile towards me, those two might have no choice but to attack me in response.

If the angry bureaucrats and nobles who hold power in technology and magic collectively impede my business……..

“It’s going down.”

It will fail. From now on, there will be an overflow of people in the Elond Viscountship and the commercial city of Porto, so I needed the help of the bureaucrats. Moreover, I desperately needed the help of the Selene faction for the fertilizer factory and film industry.

If my relationship with these two factions becomes distant due to the wrongdoings I committed in the past, most of the businesses I am currently conducting will come to a halt.

I immediately stood up from my seat.

“Karl!! And Karina!!”

“Yes!”

“Tell me, Landor. If I give the order, I’ll go and burn them all…….”

“No, no. Let’s not do that. Let’s go up to the capital. We need to calm down those enraged people because of me.”

“How are we going to calm them down? Some of them were deceived and ruined, and others were beaten and imprisoned for a whole three years. Their grudges won’t be ordinary.”

“You can go with appropriate compensation, a sincere apology, and a meaningful gift. Let’s go up for now. Otherwise, all the old grievances between the two factions will boil up again, and if we don’t calm them down now, the damage will be severe later.”

It seemed like I would have to kneel once again. I immediately took the two of them and headed to the capital.

Unlike traditional local nobles who possess and operate their territories to generate profits, the noble class in the capital are often highly skilled professionals with expertise in various fields.

Such capital nobles, excluding the Imperial nobles who naturally obtained their noble status due to their close relationship with the royal family, can be divided into two categories. One is the scholars studying magic, science, and alchemy, while the other is the government officials responsible for law, administration, and judiciary.

In short, Adran and Selene were the leaders of the two largest factions among the capital nobles. Among them, the one I sought out first was the faction that was currently providing me with the most support.

The Selene faction.

“I want to apologize. Selene. To all the noble families under your faction that I have caused trouble to.”

“A, apology?”

Selene couldn’t hide her surprise at my words. To see the queen of the society being surprised like this was a truly rare sight.

“Yes. I would like to apologize for the trouble I caused to the noble families under your faction. Can you gather the heads of the noble families who were swindled by me?”

Selene looked at me with a skeptical expression as if wondering if I am the Lendor she knows. She seemed to have considered some evil plan, but it seemed that she couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard she thought.

“…….Alright. I will gather them. But that’s all I can do. No matter how much you may be cursed or insulted, I will not intervene. It’s your wrongdoing.”

“I understand. Of course.”

I nodded my head. What can I do? It wasn’t me who did it, but the deeds of the previous owner of this body, so I can only bear the consequences sweetly.

Thus, the leaders of the noble families who had suffered harm at the hands of the Selene Pabel gathered in one place.

Most of them were from scholarly households with a characteristic of being wealthy and prosperous, but conversely, they had a slightly shady side in practical matters.

Rando, this bastard, actively used that fact to exploit them, devouring them for his own secret funds.

Naturally, the looks directed at me were far from friendly.

“First of all, I want to thank all of you for gathering here. I want to apologize and have arranged this meeting at the request of Lady Selene.”

“Apologize? You’re talking nonsense!!! Because of you, due to your scams, my family is in ruins!!!”

At the outcry of one noble, all the others stood up, shouting.

“We had to sit on the streets in the cold winter with my wife and daughter, along with the servants who were with us when the mansion was taken over!! If it weren’t for Lady Selene, we might have frozen to death!!!”

“This wicked bastard!!!! What kind of trick is he trying to play this time!!!”

“I don’t know who spread the flyers and rumors, but this is a perfect opportunity!! While the public is outraged, we must make Rando pay for the atrocities he committed!!”

……..Clearly, public opinion is not favorable. These backyard party guys. It’s definitely a well-thought-out strategy. The relationship with these two factions is a definite long-term loss for me.

“Don’t speak now as if it’s safe!!……..”

Angry Karia tried to draw her sword, but I stopped her. And I signaled for Kal Hanson and Karia to bow with me.

“I’m sorry, everyone. Truly sorry. I would kneel if I could, but it would only make me more despicable, wouldn’t it?”

Everyone stopped shouting at my polite apology.

They probably never thought that the wicked and prideful Rando would bow.

“It’s true that I once committed atrocities. I scraped a lot of secret funds from that. With that money, I conducted all the businesses I’m doing now and made them successful. I owe it to all of you. Please list the things you have suffered, and I will compensate you tenfold.”

“Tenfold!……..”

Kal Hanson tried to have a fit, but I shut his mouth.

“About tenfold……”

“Tenfold?”

The tone of the nobles, who were astonished by the overwhelming amount of money, subsided a bit. It was a good timing. I continued to push forward.

“Moreover! Although I’ve already supported 10 million gold as research funds through Lady Selene, I want to personally apologize for this incident!! I will build a new tower! And I won’t spare any financial support so that you can buy all the high-end experimental apparatus and equipment you desire!!!”

“A new tower?”

“And experimental equipment too?”

“We were actually in need of a large mana accelerator for experiments to raise the purity of mana stones……….”

“Can you really do that, Lord Rando?”

I nodded.

Honestly, it was a task where the money was absolutely worth it.

They have good experimental equipment.

And I can start a new business according to technological advancements.

I labeled it as a personal apology, but I was accepting it as R&D investment costs.

“If your anger can be released, is a small amount of money worthy? Furthermore, if your research succeeds and advances, wouldn’t the empire live well? Teleportation research and the maengjungseok process research. I am a fool and don’t know, but I’ve heard that they are excellent research.”

“Is, is that so?”

“Yes. I will build a new matap tower. I will use my own money for it. I hope it relieves your anger.”

“…If there is a reward of ten times on the new matap tower…”

As the atmosphere softened, a noble who was still not relieved shouted at me.

“What kind of scheme is this, Randoor!!!!! What kind of scheme are you trying to pull off with these actions!!!! How many people will shed tears in front of everyone this time, and what evil plan have you created that you are not even sparing this much money!!!!”

I dumbly nodded my head at his words.

“Yes. I am planning something very evil.”

“As expected of you!!!…”

“To make the empire strong and to spend a peaceful and happy old age. That is my evil plan.”

“…”

“I will not deny my evil deeds until now. If necessary, I am willing to atone forever. But please, please do not deny my goal of making the empire strong. I will create a country where the people of the empire can live happily.”

“…You venomous snake. You still have a sharp tongue!! I will be watching you!!”

Although he said he would be watching, the noble seemed somewhat impressed by my words. Scholars are easy to handle for this reason.

They have unexpected innocence in their areas of expertise.

By hitting them with money, I was able to calm the boiling public opinion of the Selevene faction’s nobles.

Now, what’s left is the Adran faction.

“Lord Randoor.”

“Why, Cal.”

“The Adran faction… will not be appeased by doing the same thing as just now.”

“I know.”

I nodded my head.

If the Selevene faction was a very traditional noble class, the Adran faction was an organization composed of very radical young people.

Passionate young nobles who were full of vigor and wanted to change the world, and commoners who had talent but were prevented by their social status gathered together to form the Adran faction, which was directly trained by Adran.

They believed they could change the world through law and administration.

The young officials who were full of fanatic loyalty to Adran and burning passion to change the empire were part of the Adran faction.

Naturally, if I were to offer compensation with money, they would feel insulted instead.

“Then what should we do? We have no money, but they hate money.”

“Money should only be secondary. I have something else to offer them.”

“What is it?”

“My tongue.”

After a moment, Carlson understood what I meant.

“Please select the urgent bills you think are necessary for the current empire and deliver them to me. I will personally present them to His Imperial Majesty and persuade him to pass them.”

I extended my tongue to the young officials as compensation.