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“My lord Count, I am, after all, a Northerner at heart, and my loyalty undeniably lies with the North Territory! That Evan Sanctus is so audacious as to incite me to betray the North Territory, it’s laughable!”

Colin gave a half smile, looking at the seemingly virtuous Northern merchant in front of him, conveniently forgetting the man’s previous clandestine encounter with Count Evan in the Butter Tavern.

Clearly, if it weren’t for Colin catching him out, would Arnold have suddenly become such an unwavering Northerner?

Colin would never forget that these merchants would sell anything for profit.

Fortunately, he himself could offer them greater benefits, as long as they obeyed.

Similarly, if they disobeyed, he could strip them of everything they had.

“Mister Arnold, you are truly the perfect role model for merchants from the North Territory!”

“My lord Count, you flatter me! In my mind, you are indeed the embodiment of the Northern Knights, the crème de la crème amongst the nobles!”

The two men had a heartfelt exchange of compliments, then raised their wine glasses and toasted to their friendship.

After emptying the wine in his cup, Arnold placed it down and cautiously observed Colin’s expression before tentatively asking:

“My lord Count, there’s something that I’m uncertain whether or not I should ask…”

Colin glanced casually at him and responded nonchalantly: “Rest assured, whatever I’ve promised you I will not renege on. Don’t you trust my reputation?”

“No, no, no,” Arnold was quick to deny, “My lord Count, you’ve misunderstood. I fully trust that you will by no means slight a faithful subordinate. I simply can’t understand why you would gift such a lucrative opportunity ot the Easterner.”

“Profitable?” Colin laughed scornfully, “So you believe it to be a good opportunity to strike it rich?”

Arnold felt uneasy but still managed to muster the courage to say, “My lord, could you really be planning to default on those bonds? My apologies for speaking out of turn, but I’m afraid this may seriously damage the reputation of the St. Hilde family.”

Colin couldn’t help but laugh teasingly, “You’re doing rather well, even starting to worry on behalf of the St. Hilde family.”

“Of course, the great Hilde Family holds a lofty status in the hearts of all Northerners!” With an air of devout sincerity, Arnold, looking as if he was worshipping his faith.

Colin ignored Arnold’s display of loyalty and simply stated, “You can rest easy, The St. Hilde family won’t tarnish its reputation. No matter who presents those matured bonds at Lion Roar Castle, we will redeem them, even if it’s an Easterner.

However, for you to say that the Easterner can amass a fortune through hoarding bonds and manipulating food prices, hehe, that’s too much of an assumption.”

Arnold looked confused and asked, “My lord Count, please forgive my obtuseness, but I don’t quite understand what you mean.”

In essence, what Colin had set up for Count Evan was akin to a simple futures operation.

At this moment, Count Evan is purchasing food at a low price in the eastern territory, exchanging them for bonds in the North Territory. These bonds can be seen as futures contracts.

On the day of maturity, which is when the bonds mature, if the price of food in the North Territory is higher than the current price in the East, then Count Evan will earn substantially from this price difference. This could even cause the St. Hilde family to be unable to afford enough food, leading to a default of credit.

However, a key issue lies here – the price of food at the time of maturity has to be higher than it is now.

Otherwise, the East will be in deep financial trouble…

Arnold and Count Evan were both cheated because they were limited by the current era.

In an age of inadequate productivity, food is always in a state of scarcity. Therefore, it’s very easy to cause an increase in food prices: a touch of chaos, a handful of large guilds hoarding food, could all send food prices skyrocketing.

This is also the source of Count Evan’s confidence.

In his view, manipulating food prices to climb steadily in the future is not a difficult task, surely capable of making the St. Hilde family swallow a difficult pill.

However, he does not know that Colin has decided to implement the New Agrarian-Pastoral System in the North Territory, overseen by Scholar Sunny.

And Colin is also confident that with the widespread implementation of this new system, the supply of food in the North territory will become increasingly abundant, and the trend of food prices will definitely be a continuous decline.

This is the trend dictated by supply and demand, and if the Easterners wish to reverse this trend, well, they should prepare to be swept away by this torrent.

Of course, Colin didn’t plan to explain this point to Arnold in detail, after all, he couldn’t fully trust this businessman, so he just said lightly:

“Then you should pay attention to the future trend of grain prices, see if the Easterners can really make a big profit, or even threaten the St. Hilde Family with it?”

Arnold nodded in confusion, not daring to ask much.

Colin instructed Arnold a few more words to reassure him to do this promising undercover job well, and then he left.

…

Three days later, the North Territory’s foreign trade company, which Colin had high hopes for, was officially established.

Over five hundred big and small Northern merchants gathered in the banquet hall of Lion Roar Castle to witness this historic moment.

Since Count Evan’s attention was diverted by Colin to the bonds, there was no secret intervention from the Easterners, and Colin managed to secure nearly 60% of the new company’s shares without much effort.

Of course, such a large amount of money is definitely beyond the reach of the shallowly established Angler family, even if they put all the war reparations from the Troll Empire into it, it would not be enough.

Luckily, there was the support of the St. Hilde family, the Uman Clan, the Schultz Family, and the Miller family of the Half-Elf Kingdom, which allowed Colin to successfully control the board and become the first chairman of the North Territory’s foreign trade company.

Oliver, as he wished, was appointed as the first general manager of the company by Vera. Moreover, the operational team members of the company, particularly those in charge of the most important departments of human resources and finance, were all backbone members from the original Tulip Chamber of Commerce.

Thus, a North Territory foreign trade company entirely controlled by Colin was finally established.

In Colin’s vision, it would become his tool for consolidating and controlling the Northern merchant community, and for implementing economic invasions abroad.

At the same time, the North Territory Charity Foundation was also announced to be established.

Compared to the North Territory foreign trade company, the establishment of this foundation was very low-key.

Moreover, other than Colin, no one else was aware of its huge potential and real function.

After dealing with business matters, Colin began preparing to travel to the Half-Elf Kingdom.

Actually, the current dangers in the North Territory are not entirely eradicated, such as Mr. Ji, Prince Lexie, and the Morrison Family. However, Colin finds these issues quite thorny at present and cannot deal with them temporarily.

Thankfully, he had struck a deal with Mr. Ji. Although Colin had doubts about the reliability of this agreement, in the short term, he believed that Mr. Ji would not cause too much stir in the North Territory, given that they do have a basis for cooperation in some respects.

Moreover, there’s Prince Lexie keeping a close watch on this formidable mage.

Colin could only temporarily put these dangers aside to deal with a more important and pressing issue—food.

Queen Isa had already sent a letter. Compared to last time, the half-elf merchants had formed a union this time. They were no longer willing to be forced by Colin to buy a large amount of grain at a low price like last year. Moreover, it seemed that they had the support of the Easterners behind them.

So, Colin was preparing to take the Blood Knight Army to Silver Moon City this time to give those half-elf merchants who cared more about money than their lives a profound lesson.

After nearly half a year of growth, the Blood Knight Army has expanded to nearly 20,000 in size. Although this is still a large gap compared to the peak period of the Dark Cavalry, it is still a rather formidable military force.

At least in the territory of the Half-Elf Kingdom, no one can threaten its power.

Unless the Easterners send a large army to invade the Half-Elf Kingdom.

If that happens, it might actually be a good thing for Colin.

Because it means that the Easterners gave up their biggest geographical advantage—the Angry River.

Colin would be very willing to form a Northern Alliance Army and compete with the Eastern Army in the territory of the Half-Elf Kingdom.

However, this was just Colin’s own thought. As long as Duke St. Prowse is not a fool, he won’t do that.

At the end of September, after bidding farewell to Vera, Colin personally led the Blood Knight Army in a grand departure from Winterfell City, heading towards Silver Moon City.