Chapter 356 – So Broke (3)
Giallo, a miner from the Dwarf Kingdom, saw his empty wallet again and his face turned white. He’d had gold worth of money a while ago, but now all he had left in his wallet his was dust. Giallo rubbed his drawn face and shook his head. Because he needed money right away. I needed money to gamble and drink.
He had promised to play a card game with his ‘friends’ today. Thoughts of her daughter her were prevalent today because she had lost so much yesterday to her friends her. Instead of regaining Giallo’s reason, the empty wallet was throwing him deeper and deeper into the abyss.
“Profit…!”
The place Giallo went to for a run was, after all, a moneylender. A handsome man acting like a guide at the gambling house was lending money to other dwarves with a smile on his face. Giallo was also a car that he had been borrowed once before.
Once you’ve endured the shame of renting it once, the second time is a little easier. From the entrance of the gambling hall, Giallo rolled his body like a worm and rubbed his palms together. The man held out his hand to the Dwarf who spoke servilely with a smile on his face.
“Why is that?”
“Friend, can you lend me some money? Uh? It’s because I’m in a little bit of trouble this time. Huh? Because it pays off quickly. Uh?”
“Oh, of course I have to borrow it. But in the past, there was gold coming in, so I just lent it, but this time, can’t I just lend it to Giallo? Because Giallo has no more income. Let’s do this. I’m not lending money to Giallo, I’m buying Giallo’s stuff.”
“What, buy something?”
G’Allo tilted his head at his man’s suggestion. She continued her explanation with the man being even more kind.
“Don’t you have any housekeeping brought from the Dwarven Kingdom? If you give me all of them, I will give you 10 gold.”
“10, 10 gold?”
Giallo’s items were mostly miners’ money, such as pickaxes and helmets and equipment for exploring mines. Without this, Giallo could not dig ore properly. But he said none of that mattered to Giallo. Now, to G. Alo, the card game he was going to play today and the high-end drinks he was going to drink were more important. He gasped.
“Hey, wait! I will bring it now!”
Giallo’s steps were as light as flying. It was because he could play again for several days with 10 gold. He had long forgotten that he had to go to the mines. Looking at the cart full of miners’ supplies, she grinned. The two signed a simple contract. It was a contract to hand over all the household items Giallo had brought for 10 gold.
G. Ardo and her man only grinned as they read the contract.
****
But two weeks later, G. Arlo reappeared in front of her man with a blank face. His hands were shaking and his eyes were full of tears. The man knew what Giallo wanted without even telling him. Before Giallo could speak, her man spoke up.
“You want to borrow money?”
Giallo nodded his head as he drew in his breath promiscuously, like someone who had lost his language. The man was not new to Giallo’s appearance his. It was because he was exactly the 84th Dwarf who had come to ask for money. She made the same offer for the 84th man.
“Do not worry too much. Giallo. Who are we? Aren’t we close friends who also trade goods with each other? I’ll lend you money. This time, I will lend you a generous 20 gold.”
20 gold was the highest amount ever. Giallo’s eyes glistened with greed just like the 83 dwarves before him. Said the man.
“What would you like to do?”
He handed out the prepared IOU. Giallo signed without a second thought. Because I felt good today. If he returned to the gambling house right away, he could have made a fortune. After that, I was able to pay off the debt again, and I was able to buy the house again. Giallo’s pen tip wrote down my name without hesitation.
****
Three days passed like that. G. Arlo came back to borrow money from his man. The man smiled and lent her money. Giallo did not know. That the gambling house was just a space where money went through. The money the dwarves lost went straight into the company’s safe. The man was lending the money to the dwarves again. The total amount of funds going back to the casino did not change much, but the debt of the dwarves, including Giallo, increased exponentially.
The date of losing money went back and forth faster and the dwarves’ debts were piling up. Emilia was the only one who enjoyed watching this situation. And one day, after a considerable period of time, the Dwarf upper ranks knocked on the grand duke’s gate with an ignorant face over the horizon.
“Northern Grand Duke Emilia! The dwarves have come to trade legitimate iron ore!”
The head of the newly created Dwarven Merchant Guild was an arrogant and rude author. He boasted that the title of Grand Duke of the North was the lord of their realm. The northerners, including Emilia, only laughed at the attitude of the dwarves. After Emilia asked the attendant to serve her tea her, she asked the dwarf politely.
“What are you here for?”
“Did you not hear from the capital? We, the Dwarven Merchant, have newly established a reasonable iron ore trade with the Dwarves in the north…”
“I know. So, are you here to trade? Or did you come here to shake your head like that? It’s the first time I’ve seen dwarven acrobats, so I don’t know how to treat them.”
The dwarf upper ranks looked at Emilia with displeasure on their faces. Emilia only raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t react much. Said the dwarf.
“So, where are our proud dwarves? I want to trade iron ore with the dwarves, but why are you in the forefront?”
“I’m on the negotiating table because I bought the right to buy ore from these northern dwarves. There is also a contract signed by 200 people, would you like to read it?”
Emilia held out a copy of the contract. The Dwarf Merchant took the contract from Emilia’s hand her and began examining it one by one. Every time I read a line of my name, my face darkened. He couldn’t even guess what the hell was going on here. Said the top lord.
“How can you believe something like this? Please let me meet the dwarves.”
“Follow me.”
Emilia guided her dwarf troupe to her village her as kindly as a tour guide. The Dwarves who tried to figure out the situation could not help but be astonished at the catastrophe that occurred in the village.
There were no dwarves in the village. It wasn’t the Dwarves who were excited to greet the Dwarven Sangju. It was 200 homeless dwarfs, naked and huddled together, exchanging body heat.
“Eh, what is this… !”
“Ah, ah… !”
When the dwarves showed their ugliness to their own kind, they covered their naked bodies and started howling. The dwarf leaders immediately protested against Emilia.
“The Grand Duke of the North! What is this! How can you treat dwarves like this!”
“I have never been abusive. They are just pitiful souls who have sold everything they have in debt. I will guarantee that there was no coercion or abuse in the process of creating debt, and that everything happened within a reasonable transaction between individuals.”
“Release me now! Don’t leave our people like that!”
“There is a debt, so it is impossible to just release it. I wonder if the Dwarven Kingdom would pay their debts. I am not obligated to pay their debts. Because they are the people of the Dwarf Kingdom.”
“How can you be so unkind to the dwarves who work in your land! Right now…!”
“They gave up their rights first. Those Dwarves asked for documentation that they had nothing to do with the Northern Territory and belonged to the Dwarven Kingdom. I don’t know why foreigners are asking me to take responsibility for falling into debt. Is that a long-standing tradition in the dwarven kingdom? Are you using the group by turning internal problems to the outside?”
Another document jumped out of Emilia’s hand her. The dwarf upper house felt like her breath her was suffocated. Faced with his burning eyes her, the naked dwarves were shivering in their rags with their heads bowed. The Dwarven upper ranks gnashed their teeth. Because I couldn’t leave them like this.
“How much?”
“What do you mean?”
“How much debt do you mean? We will pay for it.”
The calculator was spinning in the head of the Dwarf Sangju. At most, if it was a total of 200 gold or 400 gold debt, he could pay for it. Emilia smiled and said.
“It’s 300 gold.”
“300 gold, wait. In my safe…”
“It is 300 gold per person. There are a total of 200 people, so you can pay 60,000 gold.”
“…What?”
The dwarf upper column hardened. A cart carrying a large pile of IOUs was approaching from behind Emilia. Said Emilia.
“Let’s check. This is a copy of the IOU prepared by us. It has been certified as the original through the wizard’s stigma and the kingdom judge’s certification, so please read it yourself.”
The head of the head of the Dwarf High School was spinning. But he couldn’t find the right answer. The only better way was to leave the dwarves alone and go back after obtaining only iron ore. The dwarf Sangjangju talked to Emilia while ignoring the desperate eyes of the dwarves.
“…I want to talk about the iron ore trade. Where is the iron ore? After purchasing as much iron ore as you need, I will pay you the remaining amount, so please let them go.”
“There is no iron ore.”
Emilia pointed to the building marked Dwarf Warehouse and said.
“The dwarves agreed to put all their canned iron ore in that warehouse, but no one was working on it. So there is no iron ore for you to take.”
Sang Sangju seemed to go dark before her eyes. This was the most important pledge of the newly launched Abori dynasty. The dwarves monopolize the mines of the human kingdom, obtain cheap iron ore, and manufacture castings and arms.
But the first start shouldn’t have been ruined like this. He had to get iron ore somehow.
“How can you not? It would be nice if it came from another mine.”
“…If you pay the penalty for breaking the contract, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Cold sweat rolled down his face.
