kscans

Chapter 21 - 3. Part Two. The Ultimate Goal

"Vinder’s honey business can’t be copied as easily as French toast. We are careful about keeping our information confidential. However, the bigger the business grows, the more likely it is that information will leak. We have to prepare ourselves before a merchant larger than Vinder sets their sights on our honey-making methods. Which brings us to Grand Duchess Bertold. Her Grace’s investment has two advantages."

Alfina’s expression turned serious again.

"...One is the money itself that my aunt will invest, correct?"

"Yes."

"And the other?"

"It is the credibility created by the fact that a Grand Duchess is investing. As a company backed by the high nobility, Vinder will be able to procure funds at a low interest rate. In other words, we won’t lose in a competition to secure loans."

"I think I understand. Um, I feel a little relieved. My aunt’s proposal is a good thing for you, Riccardo-kun. I was worried you might be getting dragged around by her whims."

Well, I am being dragged around plenty, I thought, biting my tongue to keep from saying it.

"...May I ask one thing?"

Alfina spoke hesitantly.

"Of course."

"Your explanation just now was very easy to understand. By converting everything into money, I can see how various things connect in a single flow. But, um, is money everything?"

"What do you think, Alfina-sama?"

Answering a question with a question is foul play. But it’s a necessary step when the other person hasn’t clearly defined their own question. I waited quietly for Alfina’s answer.

"...I don’t think it is everything."

"That’s right. The idea that money isn’t everything is, in itself, common sense. For example, you can’t eat without money, but you can’t eat money itself. If someone points a sword at you, offering them money might just get both your life and your money taken. Even if you hire a guard with money, money itself won’t judge whether that person is trustworthy."

If there were such a thing as an omnipotent power, it would likely be the ability to see through people, to gauge their skills and credibility. Needless to say, that is far more difficult to obtain than money.

The ‘Status Open’ you see in web novels is a real cheat, isn’t it? But let’s put that aside for now.

"The problem in this case is whether or not money comes first within the limited scope of business. Business is about using money to make more money. So, is the purpose of business to obtain money?"

I rephrased the question. Alfina stared at the empty plate in front of her. I waited for her answer. Of course, there is no single correct answer to this kind of question. I wondered what she would say.

"I don’t think so. I was happy when I ate the French toast. I was grateful to you, Riccardo-kun, for making something so delicious. I believe that would not have changed, even if I had paid money for it."

Alfina said this with her untarnished eyes. Damn, this girl is truly unshakable. As an answer, it’s foul play. It’s hard to deal with when someone says something like that with a straight face.

"...In a sense, that is correct. Money is a means, not an end. The purpose of business itself is to maintain a situation where customers can continue to eat French toast. You could rephrase it to say that money is a necessary means to that end."

I strung my words together, trying to hide my agitation. It was a teaching of the management scholar Peter Drucker. Are you sure you’re a Westerner, Mr. Drucker? You could give a Zen monk a run for his money.

"Business is conducted between people. So it is natural for things other than money to be exchanged. Money just acts as a medium for that. In other words, even if the goal of a business is money, the purpose for the existence of business in this world is not money."

"Yes, I understand that very well."

Alfina, who had been waiting for my answer with a tense look, relaxed her expression.

"However, that ambiguous category does include my own desire to rake in the cash and be overjoyed about it."

"Senpai, you talk too much, just like a second-rate schemer. If you had just kept quiet, it would have ended on a nice note."

"I wasn’t trying to make it a nice story in the first place. Money is important."

Money isn’t everything. But money does provide a clear guideline. It’s true that there are things money can’t buy, but those things are more valuable than money. Which is to say, they are generally not things that can be obtained by someone who can’t even earn money. So, I deliberately added one more thing.

"Money is a means. But please, Alfina-sama, do not be deceived by the common-sense correctness that money isn’t everything. Because money-grubbers like myself will often use that kind of simple truth as a weapon."

Ignoring Mia’s exasperated face, I continued.

"Deceived by correctness... I understand. I will be careful."

Alfina nodded with a serious expression. But then, for some reason, a smile appeared on her face as she looked at me.

"But I don’t think that’s true in your case, Riccardo-kun. When you were watching Mia eat her French toast, you looked very happy."

"That’s not true at all. The face Senpai made while watching you eat your French toast, Alfina-sama, was quite unwatchable."

The two girls started talking nonsense. I was trying to keep things serious, so I wished they would stop creating such a strange atmosphere. A sweet atmosphere... wait, is my brain turning to sweets, too?

"I feel like I understood you a little more today, Riccardo-kun. But what is the reason, the purpose, for you to think this far ahead?" she asked, just as I was battling the gestalt collapse of my own pun. The question was a difficult one to answer. Being asked by a beautiful girl, "What is your dream?" It was a question accompanied by an incredible amount of embarrassment.

Especially since the goal I envision is unconventional, difficult, and far-reaching. In other words, to anyone else, it would sound like nothing but a tall tale.

To bring flexibility to this world’s rigid market system. To this country, which leans too heavily on stability through order, I will add stability through freedom.

To be specific, I want to create a general trading company in this world. But to create an enormous organization that could be called the quintessence of modern Japanese capitalism in this world is an incredibly difficult task. In the simulations I’ve run in my head, I once concluded it would be easier to build a country from scratch.

In the first place, creating a single company is on a timescale that takes a person their entire life. To truly build what I am aiming for, I am severely lacking not only in capital, but also in time.

So, what do I do? After thinking for ten years, I have a plan that brings the difficulty down to about the level of building a single city. It involves using a new concept, one where the companies themselves, not just their goods or services, are the objects of trade.

But to explain that, I would first have to make them understand what stocks are.

"Was that something I shouldn’t have asked?"

Alfina was starting to look apologetic. No, that’s not it. This is all according to plan... I was going to explain the risks next, anyway.

"No, it’s just that to answer that question, I first need to explain another side of money. I’m talking about risk. Um, for that..."

First, the concept of expected value, I suppose. Just as I was about to think of an example, I heard the sound of a carriage stopping outside. It seemed our cheap melodrama had taken up more time than I thought. A real carriage, not one made of pumpkin that’s about to expire. The apprentice servant girl would now return to the castle as a princess. A Reverse Cinderella, I guess.

"Well then, we can continue this tomorrow..."

"Unfortunately for you, Senpai, Alfina-sama has the day off tomorrow. Incidentally, you and I have to go to the academy. We’ve been summoned by the director. It seems it will be a little while before our next lecture."

"That’s right, that old geezer."

He had said he wanted to talk about measuring the ley lines, forcing me to go to the academy during summer vacation. He most likely just wants to show off his new laboratory. I am interested, but I wish he had picked a time when I had a little more breathing room.

"Oh, so you both are going to the academy as well. I’ve also been summoned by Hilda-sama, a fourth-year, to discuss the upcoming Shoken Festival. I hope we can see each other there."

Alfina smiled, her hands clasped before her chest.

"What a coincidence."

Tomorrow, I’ll have to be many times more careful with my words than usual. It would be a disaster if I accidentally called her Fina at the academy.