Chapter 5.1 : Burghers

"Honor is the code that we shall follow!" King Clovis X, stares at the three of us as his hand was above us, waving as if he was giving a blessing to the three of us.

"""Honor is the code that we shall follow!""" Me, Arthur, Eleanna, who were on our knees surrounded by many people, the nobles, the clergies, the burghers, and of course the royals. Said in unison.

"Superbia Honoris!" The room shook a little as all the people inside said in unison.

"""Superbia Honoris!""" We followed them suite as well.

After the noblelization ceremony finish, the room then blows up into a cheery place of bardic music being played joyfully, and the delicious food and fine drinks being served excellently to us all by servants.

The three of us after that ceremony were pulled apart with each people from the three estates, Burghers, Nobles, and Clergies. Arthur was dragged off to a bundle of nobles, Eleanna was bombarded by the clergies, but she was being shielded by the Princess as the High Priestess.

And while I, was being dragged by the burghers, where miss Marie, kind of unsurprisingly, was there as well, engaging in matters of economics and… paper money?

"Martyn! I want to introduce you to a very interesting person I found!" Miss Marie in a giddy manner showed this interesting person.

"Lord Protector! It is an honor to meet you, my name is Guillaume Olivier!" With a respectful tone, he bowed before me.

At first glance, I could feel from this 20 something golden short-haired, wide deep ocean blue eyes, medium-sized nose, and a thin-lipped person was emanating a bright sunshine of happiness from every word he said. But… I realized it's just business etiquette, though I'll admit, it is nice to see someone who gave a well-mannered and humble first impression.

"Likewise, Martyn Wulf!" I nodded at him. "Olivier… sorry this may be rude of me, but… I think this is the first time I've heard of your family name!"

"Hahaha… Do not fret on it, Lord Protector! The Olivier family name is still new, after all it was only a few days ago that I declare a new cadet house, from the house of Oranje!" He said with a prideful tone.

"Ahh… well, a thousand blessings for your new house and I do hope that a good relation can be maintained with the crown and your senior house of course!" I said with a slight smile given to him.

"Thank you, my Lord! I-" He stopped, wherein his eyes I could see that there was someone he doesn't want to see right now.

"Guillaume! Lord Protector! and Lady?" suddenly someone from behind entered himself into our private conversation, where he then proceeded to take miss Marie's hand. From what I could tell miss Marie was not amused nor displeased her hand was taken.

"Lady Marie Maynard…." Miss Marie activated her elegant lady mode and as she speaks, a flurry of roses came out of her mouth where it bedazzled the young man, he kisses Miss Marie's hand, though Miss Marie pulled her hand quickly after that kiss, she didn't exactly feel discomforted from his action, a bit charmed maybe.

"Gérard… what do you want?" a slightly livid and annoyed Guillaume asked.

"To introduce myself of course to our Lord Protector, Gérard Pomme at your service my Lord!" He bowed a little to me, though it kind of vexes me how carefree he is acting.

Though his entrance was somewhat rude, this short-haired auburn, wide green grass eyes, small refined nose, and thin-lipped person gave a playful and an open demeanor, though it was a bit obnoxious.

"Martyn Wulf!" I gave a slight nod to him, I then realized something when he said his family name. "Pomme… Gérard Pomme… ahh… no wonder your name felt familiar, you're the youngest of the three merchant guild's head council!"

"I see that the news has reached the capital!" As proud as a lion he remarks. "So… how is your own house doing Guillaume?" A snarky tone came out of his mouth as he then turned his attention towards Guillaume.

"I am fine… my uncle recently finished his paperwork on transferring his ventures and operations here in Londini to me, and about five or six days from now, I would have the money back to pay my loans!" with a confident tone he said that towards Gérard.

"Ahh… I see… well, my ventures which already made profits for years, would like to have a nice conversation with the Lord Protector on the matters of long-term investments. So… have fun with your little upstart!" And right there and then I could see what this man's objective was when he went on to intrude in our little conversation, so… as I saw his slightly defeated face that I could see from Guillaume, I helped him out.

"Say, Guillaume… I heard that you and miss Marie were talking about using paper for transactions!" I then saw his face turn surprised and quite passionate.

After that initial confused stage, he explains his ideas about using paper as a means of transaction and it was… not that interesting.

What he proposed was just an ordinary use of paper as an IOU document, which could advance on how the merchants work, but to do that, we need banks, state-sanctioned banks! It is on my to-do list to increase the efficiency of the business side of this world but… I have a feeling that I need to play this carefully.

Remembering again what Gérard said, though it was more or less an insult to Guillaume, he is undoubtedly right that Guillaume's family, the Olivier family is, by all means, an upstart. Raising an underdog can be beneficial as they will be more loyal to the crown, but… it could give the wrong impression towards the other, more established, old guards.

Well… one thing for sure, the fact that the idea is homegrown here in this world, explains a lot that this man is bright.

Yeah… I think he can be of use.

"Hmm… what you just elaborated was interesting! But there is much to be done for making this idea of yours be seen in the daylight. Like, how would you counter counterfeits? Can you even mass-produce papers?" I asked him the fundamental problem that needs to be addressed.

His face then turned defeated again, where then I got a stinging look from Miss Marie.

"But luckily for you Guillaume, what you just elaborated was one of my to-dos lists for reforming this country. And if I had the time, I would like to continue that conversation again!" Miss Marie's stinging look turned into a more eased looked, as Guillaume's face brighten up too as well. "Now about that long-term investment!" as I said that, Miss Marie went back again to the stinging eyes against me.

I went back to Gérard and the investment plan that he talked about was for the Mount Blanche mining operation. At first, I thought it was just him wanting to have a share of the profits in the mines, but it became quite suspicious when he ominously congratulates me on the Solei brothers.

After that Gérard continued trying to sway me with an equipment shipment, about 2500-ish gold coins worth of that as an investment for the Mount Blanche mining operation.

That investment is a lot, but it wasn't big enough to make him have a word on how the mining operation will go. So, I accepted it as it'll help the mining operation because after the slaves were freed, there was a deficit on manpower had happened, but luckily it was easily solved.

But… somehow, the manpower in the mines was doubled, changing the problem from a manpower deficiency to a lack of equipment.

The crown could buy the equipment because of my first demand to the Solei brothers were kept, but if that 80.000 gold coin were to only be used for the mining operation, then the treasury would go back to square one.

After that somewhat unpleasant and pleasant conversation, I was dragged by Arthur who came out of nowhere. He said that he needs my help with an intimate kind of problem. I, as a good friend, helped and slightly made a detour, taking a glass of wine from the table that hasn't been taken by anyone.

Arthur then stopped where he then introduced me to the said person he needs help me in handling. He was a Count from the Sur Margraviate, he is in his 40s and was introducing his daughter to Arthur apparently, and at that point, I was just confused why Arthur need my help until he mentioned something about courting…

Boy… I hope you didn't agree to anything yet Arthur….