“What has Lynch been doing these days?”
After finishing his work, His Majesty the Emperor casually brought up the topic as a way to relax. Lynch had been in the spotlight recently, and the accidental leaks of certain information had drawn the emperor’s attention.
The emperor didn’t personally like Lynch. Granting him a title had been a move to spite the Federation, but now, due to so rumors, it was beginning to backfire—on himself.
Rumors claid Lynch would marry Jania, and that the emperor had conferred the barony to clear the final obstacle between Lynch and Jania—nobility.
According to imperial tradition, a royal princess cannot marry a commoner. But once soone becos a noble, regardless of rank, a union with the royal family becos possible.
It wouldn’t be realistic to directly grant Lynch a high noble title. The plan, supposedly, was to have him marry Princess Jania first, then elevate his title under the pretense of a royal favor, making him worthy of a princess.
That would remove all remaining barriers.
These rumors were deeply troubling to the emperor. He had never considered marrying Jania to Lynch. Lynch was a foreigner—he wasn’t even from the Empire!
More importantly, the emperor had no desire to beco Lynch’s brother-in-law.
If Lynch were a dignitary from another country, or a king or prince of so small nation, that might be acceptable. But he was just a lowly commoner from the Federation.
No matter how rich or talented he was, his background couldn’t be changed. The princess would never marry soone like him.
Yet public speculation persisted, with people assuming this was all orchestrated by the emperor himself. How could he not be frustrated?
The real intent behind his question was sothing like: “What hasn’t he done yet? If he’s finished, tell him to get lost.”
The Royal Chamberlain hesitated slightly, then spoke after a mont of thought. “Lynch has been at the exchange.”
“The exchange?” The emperor didn’t quite follow. “What exchange?”
“The Royal Exchange. Finance…” the chamberlain reminded him.
The emperor tilted his head slightly in understanding, then frowned. He had heard so of Lynch’s exploits in the Federation and knew he was a cunning young man. “Is he up to sothing?”
The chamberlain nodded again. “He’s shorting the Empire’s financial index.”
The emperor was montarily stunned. “Has sothing happened recently?” he asked, now clearly displeased. “Summon the Minister of Finance.”
Before long, the Minister of Finance arrived in the emperor’s ornate study.
“I heard Lynch is shorting the Empire’s financial index. Has anything happened dostically?”
The finance minister’s calm, confident smile didn’t waver. “Your Majesty, no need to worry. Baron Lynch is simply playing a little joke on us.”
The emperor studied his face for a mont and found no signs of evasion or concealnt. He nodded noncommittally. “I want to know exactly what’s going on.”
As soone with an intense need for control, the emperor wanted to know everything happening in his country.
The finance minister then relayed everything he had learned. The chamberlain had already told him the reason for the summons, so he had co fully inford.
Now, he simply summarized what he had just learned—though polished and filtered through his own lens.
After hearing the explanation, the emperor didn’t think too much. This wasn’t his area of expertise, so rather than dwell on it, he deferred to the professionals.
“Are we sure Lynch’s actions won’t trigger a market crash?” he asked, still uneasy. “I’ve heard that while Lynch is young, he’s quite capable in business and finance.”
The finance minister thought for a mont before shaking his head. “Your Majesty, we have the most advanced algorithms in the world. The rise and fall of any single stock won’t significantly affect a sector index.”
“According to our formulas, only if a dozen or even several dozen stocks drop simultaneously would the index start to fall.”
“Our dynamic factor model ensures every index fluctuation is unpredictable. Our formula is unbreakable!”
The minister spoke with conviction—and rightly so. Their sector index was composed by weighting stocks according to total trade volu over the past three to seven days.
In other words, the larger the stock’s volu, the greater its weighting in the index. Truly large-cap companies in the Empire were incredibly stable.
They were either banks or industries controlled by high nobility, backed by imnse resources. In fact, unless shareholders actively wanted to fleece retail investors, these stocks barely fluctuated at all.
Under such conditions, the idea that soone could crash the Empire’s financial system by targeting a single stock was laughable.
“Whether Baron Lynch is talented or not, I don’t know. But he’s definitely a gifted codian!”
Seeing the finance minister’s confidence, the emperor relaxed. He even cracked a joke: “You’re right. Sotis he’s amusing, but most of the ti he’s just annoying.”
Neither of them took the matter seriously. As for the rumor that a company might be falsifying its financials?
That wasn’t sothing a national emperor or a cabinet minister needed to worry about. Their subordinates would handle it cleanly.
As noon approached, the emperor began thinking about what he wanted the chef to prepare for lunch.
But at that mont, the stock market fell into an unusual state.
The Pleasure Daily published multiple pages of credible, detailed reports exposing the truth about Harmony Capital. They had used the weekend to stir up the issue, leading so to believe it was just a marketing gimmick.
They had a history of slandering celebrities or trending companies to grab attention, then suing to extract settlents—a form of calculated extortion.
It worked well. Even if soone could win in court, most public figures didn’t want to waste ti or risk their reputation fighting back.
Winning a lawsuit didn’t guarantee much compensation. Draging it out just ant more dirty laundry aired. Better to ignore it altogether.
But this ti, things were different.
Pages of detailed, credible evidence were printed, even including how the young reporter who uncovered the story was nearly silenced.
People began to wonder—was this just another ploy by Pleasure Daily, or had it really happened?
These developnts quickly impacted the stock market. Harmony Capital’s stock price plumted again, and even the Gephra Financial Index began to show slight declines.
It looked like these events wouldn’t significantly affect the index—but in truth, several days of massive trading volu had made Harmony Capital a weight stock in the index.
Its trading volu had surpassed that of the other stocks the Finance Minister ntioned—equaling the combined volu of several large-cap stocks.
Being a weight stock ant it had a greater influence on the financial index than others.
This wasn’t unique to the Gephra Empire; the Federation used a similar calculation thod. When a stock’s trading volu rises continuously and maintains a high turnover rate daily, it can, to so extent, represent the entire sector.
If a regular stock dropped ten Sol and caused the sector index to fall by one point due to certain factors, then a weight stock like Harmony Capital might only need to fall a tenth of that to cause the sa drop in the index.
Since the morning, Harmony Capital had already plunged nearly five Sol. As external factors intensified, panic selling took over. Lynch didn’t even need to do anything—retail investors began dumping their shares without hesitation.
The price kept falling. With every drop, Lynch felt a surge of satisfaction.
His wealth had grown again.
Nothing in this world was more thrilling than the increase of wealth. All those billionaires and tycoons—
They always claid they had no interest in money, that they didn’t even understand it, didn’t care for it. But why were they constantly obsessed with making more?
Lynch didn’t like to lie, unless it was necessary.
Right now, he was enjoying it imnsely. He loved the joy money brought, loved the rising numbers, loved everything related to wealth.
But it still wasn’t enough—it needed a final push.
And just then, the television delivered it.
Every Monday at noon, before work resud, there was a current affairs program that discussed major news topics from the past week. The show was known for its sharp comntary and was popular with everyone—from ordinary citizens to the emperor himself.
His Majesty, enjoying a rare relaxing lunch break, sat not far from the television. Thanks to a recent military exercise where a bit of ti was bought through so clever maneuvering, his schedule had been pushed back by an hour.
But it wasn’t much. Previously, he had to rise before dawn. Now, he got up when the sky was just beginning to brighten—barely a change.
Will today’s show ntion anything related to ?
The emperor wondered silently. He liked being respected, but he knew the show wouldn’t flatter him.
“Hello, everyone. Today’s episode is a special one. Before we begin, we’d like you to watch this short edited clip…” the host announced.
As the words faded, the screen cut to a montage.
The footage covered everything related to Harmony Capital—from its obscure beginnings to its recent madness.
Soaring stock prices. Frenzied investors. Rampant speculation. Anything connected to Harmony Capital seed to spiral into chaos.
The short video ended quickly, followed by the title of the episode:
The Madness of Harmony Gold Bonds.
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