After the initial toast, Richard began speaking to the guests at the banquet about his company, Harmony Capital.
“Thank you all for attending this banquet. I know many of you still have one question—what exactly is Harmony Capital, and what are Harmony Gold Bonds?”
“Now, I’m going to tell you what they are and how they can make us rich!”
According to Richard, Harmony Capital had already extended its reach to so of the world’s most renowned mining zones. Clients would purchase a set amount of Harmony Gold Bonds, and Harmony Capital would then dispatch an exploration team to conduct preliminary surveys. If a gold mine was discovered, excavation would begin imdiately.
Investors contributed the funds, Harmony Capital provided the manpower, and together they generated returns.
Of course, not every effort yielded gold. Sotis, no valuable deposits would be found in the surveyed region, resulting in a lower return for that particular batch of bonds after one year.
However, Richard reassured everyone: even if a search failed, the exploration team would move on to a new site and continue until gold was found.
This ant the bonds would eventually beco profitable—it was just a matter of ti. Plus, the bonds were transferable, and there would always be buyers willing to acquire them at a discount.
Richard even joked that so far, none of their exploration projects had failed.
Photos, presentations, and news reports—most indistinguishable from genuine material—were plastered throughout the venue. As Richard continued his pitch, many guests beca intrigued. Their excitent peaked when they learned Harmony Capital had secured exploration and mining licenses deep within Nagaryll, through its connections with the Joint Developnt Company.
“I heard these licenses are never granted to outsiders. How did you obtain such authorization?” soone asked. The success of the Joint Developnt Company in Nagaryll had sparked interest in replicating its model elsewhere—perhaps in Allia or other regions. After all, aside from the Federation, Gephra was unmatched in power.
Given the current collaboration between Gephra and the Federation, the possibility of direct conflict was slim, opening doors for such ventures.
That’s why people were curious. The Joint Developnt Company involved multiple mining conglorates, and Nagaryll had essentially beco their private domain. Why would they let outsiders in?
Richard remained calm. He led the guests to a promotional board featuring photos of himself shaking hands with senior officials from the Joint Developnt Company and signing contracts.
It was well known that photos in this era couldn’t be faked—so they had to be real.
“I have a close working relationship with the top executives of the Joint Developnt Company. We’ve established nurous joint ventures across different sectors. To be blunt, Harmony Capital’s mineral exploration technology is the most advanced in the world!”
Beaming with confidence, Richard easily won over the crowd. Doubts lted away, and many decided to join the project.
In just one evening, Richard secured over 700,000 Gaels in investnt, with additional pledges worth hundreds of thousands more.
After the banquet, he spent the night with a popular Gephran actress.
He was riding high. In just a month, he had rapidly expanded operations. It had to be said—Gephrans were easy money. They were rich, but naïve. Once they saw potential gains, they ignored the risks.
In a short ti, Richard had amassed over six million in investnts—1.5 million of which ca from a single count.
He was confident he could build a business empire. In fact, he now harbored a secret ambition: to take the company public.
The desire to break free from Lynch’s control wasn’t new. Ever since Lynch had sent him to run secondhand auctions alone in the capital of York State, Richard had entertained such thoughts.
He had thoroughly studied Lynch’s system. Behind the scenes, Lynch made profits by ruthlessly exploiting his agents.
If agents failed to bring in high-quality clients, they earned nothing and risked being replaced. To expand participation in auctions, they had to pay Lynch for seating slots.
One slot might cost five Sol—not much. Five hundred Sol could buy a hundred seats, but those seats were only valid for one auction.
The more seats one had, the higher the transaction volu, and the greater the chance of earning a $10,000 bonus. This pushed agents to spend more on seats and seek better clients.
Lynch never lost money. Auction clients didn’t either—they got what they wanted at prices they found fair. The only ones losing were the agents.
Lynch’s model was similar to Eminence’s financial firms, which recruited salespeople and brokers to find clients. If financial products didn’t sell, they were expected to buy them themselves.
Lynch’s thods were more covert. Once Richard figured this out, he no longer wanted to be soone else’s employee.
Yes, he made good money every month, but most of the profits went to Lynch. A single state, over a dozen cities and regions, and endless streams of money all flowed into Lynch’s pockets while he did nothing.
He didn’t need to lift a finger and could spend all his ti socializing, partying, and enjoying life—that was the life Richard wanted.
Now, the opportunity had co.
He had to get Harmony Capital listed in Gephra. With enough money, he could completely free himself from Lynch and stand as his equal.
In Gephra, taking a company public wasn’t easy—it involved the country’s power structure.
Gephra’s capitalists were all tied to the nobility. They were either financial agents for noble families or extensions of their businesses. This created an unwritten rule:
No company without noble backing could go public. No matter who you knew or what you tried, listing required an imperial noble standing behind your company.
This rule also enhanced the nobles’ value in the capital market. They could earn equity in various firms without doing anything—simply because they were nobles. With such a title, they would never lack money in Gephra or anywhere under its influence.
Richard’s relationship with the count was aligned with this long-term goal. To take Harmony Capital public, he needed a noble sponsor—and a count fit the bill perfectly.
While Richard stirred waves in Gephra, Lynch also took notice. Richard was growing rapidly, even surpassing the scope of the training Lynch had provided. Lynch was pleased—he looked forward to seeing what Richard would do next.
By late March, negotiations had mostly wrapped up, and Lynch had reached an agreent with the emperor and ministers of the empire.
Lynch’s Blackstone Security Company was granted legal military authority, allowing them to assist the local governnt in Allia with anti-insurgency operations. They could also help maintain local law and order when necessary.
The Emperor of Gephra was generous, offering a favorable price. In addition to regular paynts, there were bonus incentives.
When Blackstone captured or eliminated key insurgents, Gephra would pay a bounty ranging from 5,000 to 1 million, providing substantial inco.
Beyond these developnts, most eyes were still on Nagaryll. The National Party had initiated multi-party peace talks, which had entered the negotiation phase, drawing attention from international finance.
There was a growing narrative that post-negotiation Nagaryll might recognize the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Nagaryll and build a democratic, multiparty state on top of its old political structure.
This idea had gained traction, as it closely resembled the federal system—Progressives, Conservatives, and the marginal Socialist Party forming a competitive frawork that benefitted national developnt.
Analysts believed Nagaryll could follow a similar path, which aligned well with the Federation’s interests.
If Nagaryll implented a multiparty electoral system, they might formally recognize Valier’s legitimacy. If that happened, the Valier currency—currently as worthless as scrap paper—could make a coback.
This has led so people to frantically acquire Valier currency at scrap-paper prices.
However, another view holds that such a developnt is unlikely. Rather than adopting a multiparty electoral system, so international institutions believe Nagaryll is more likely to establish a federated parliantary system—where regional leaders act as mbers of a unified parliant.
While maintaining overall unity, each region would retain its independence. Under such a decentralized form of governance, the reactivation of the Valier currency would be highly unlikely.
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