108: Chapter 108 We don't produce wars, we're just transporters of profits.

Levi's fingertips lightly brushed over the rough animal hide, and a familiar cold excitement—a mixture of risk and opportunity—slowly crawled up his spine.

In his past life, this feeling usually heralded a lucrative M&A project or a business trap sufficient to bankrupt a competitor.

Now, it pointed toward war. Or rather, a commercial war packaged in swords and magic.

He shifted his gaze from the map and onto Vera standing before him.

This woman was calm, intelligent, and understood investment.

She hadn't handed over this map out of loyalty, but to demonstrate her value and to secure higher 'equity' in future 'projects.'

Levi appreciated such people because their behavioral patterns were predictable and could be precisely driven by profit.

“Well done, Supervisor Vera.” Levi put away the map, a gentle look of approval appearing on his face. “The exceptional efficiency your team displayed in this ‘Risk Clearance Operation’ will be recorded. Aside from the cash bonus, your team's credit rating will be upgraded to Grade A, granting you priority bidding rights for higher-yield projects in the future. As for this map... I will count it as an extra intelligence contribution toward your personal performance review.”

A faint light, almost imperceptible, flashed in Vera's eyes.

She didn't care about credit ratings, but from Supervisor Rayton's training, she had come to understand the true value behind terms like 'priority bidding rights' and 'personal performance review.'

It meant more money and greater power.

“It is the duty of the Security Department to share the Lord's burdens.” She bowed slightly, her posture humble, yet her tone carried a confidence that was the exact opposite of humility.

Levi nodded with a smile, signaling that she could leave.

He liked dealing with smart people; it saved a significant amount of communication costs.

Once Vera and her satisfied team members had departed, the smile on Levi's face gradually faded, replaced by a quiet focus.

He turned and walked back into the castle. The scent of blood and the metallic stench of silver coins lingering in the air seemed to haunt his nose, but his thoughts had already drifted much further away.

“Evelyn,” he commanded without looking back as he walked, “compile all the intelligence we currently have on Silvermoon City. Specifically, the personality, financial situation, military deployment, and major commercial movements of their lord—Earl Aldred—over the last three years. I want a detailed ‘Competitor Analysis Report.’ Come to my study in half an hour.”

“Yes, my Lord.” Evelyn's voice was as calm and efficient as ever. Her footsteps immediately echoed down another corridor without a moment's delay.

Half an hour later, inside the study.

The heavy wooden door was closed, sealing out all external noise.

Evelyn placed a thick stack of parchment on the desk in front of Levi. Each sheet was categorized and tied with fine hemp rope, with clear labels attached.

“Silvermoon City. Lord: Aldred von Eldridge, hereditary Earl. This man is known for his shrewdness and greed. Under his rule, the city-state's commerce is extremely prosperous, making it a famous trade hub in the North. However, according to our intelligence,” Evelyn's voice dropped slightly, “Silvermoon City's finances have run into trouble over the past two years. To construct a ‘Griffon Air Route’ to the Royal Capital, they borrowed a massive sum from the Iron-Blood Brotherhood and are currently under intense repayment pressure. They are desperate to open up new sources of revenue.”

Levi's fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop, producing a dull, rhythmic 'thud, thud' sound.

Evelyn's report perfectly corroborated his suspicions.

What would a debt-ridden neighbor in desperate need of cash flow do?

Naturally, they would try every possible means to bleed dry any surrounding area that could yield a profit.

“Our iron ore trade has moved his cheese.” A cold sneer curled at the corner of Levi's mouth.

Although the iron ore from Blackstone Territory was of average quality, it won out on volume, low price, and a shorter transport route.

Once it reached scale, it would inevitably impact Silvermoon City's high-price, high-tax traditional trade system.

Earl Aldred clearly did not want to see a low-cost competitor rise up beside him.

But starting a direct war was too costly and did not fit a businessman's profit calculations.

Thus, he chose a more covert, lower-cost method—funding a group of low-life Goblins to harass the trade routes of Blackstone Territory. This would create panic and make merchants feel that the Blackstone route was neither safe nor stable, forcing them to choose his expensive but 'absolutely safe' official trade route.

This was a classic case of malicious market competition carried out through non-commercial means.

“We don't produce trouble, we are just transporters of trouble.” Levi muttered to himself, a famous quote from an unscrupulous colleague in his past life coming to mind.

Earl Aldred was undoubtedly a faithful practitioner of those words.

Unfortunately, he had encountered a grandmaster who was even more adept at such things.

“Notify Supervisor Rayton and... my granduncle, Lord Graham. Have them come to the study for a meeting immediately.” Levi looked up, all hesitation gone from his eyes, replaced only by cold calculation. “Tell them we have an urgent ‘Market Expansion Project’ to discuss.”

Soon, the study door was pushed open again.

Rayton walked in carrying a cold aura; he seemed to always be in a state of readiness for battle.

Following closely behind was Graham, his face grim.

The old knight was clearly extremely dissatisfied with this 'emergency meeting' that could interrupt his knightly meditation at any time, especially being in a meeting with Rayton, whom he viewed as a 'leader of traitors.'

Levi ignored the resistance written all over his granduncle's face and pushed the foul-smelling Goblin map to the center of the table.

“Gentlemen, please look,” his tone was as calm as if he were announcing a tea menu. “This is a business proposal graciously sponsored by our competitor—Silvermoon City.”

Rayton's gaze was instantly drawn to the red line on the map. His military intuition made him immediately realize the strategic value of this route.

Graham, however, frowned and suppressed his disgust, not understanding what was so interesting about this graffiti-like object.

Levi didn't keep them in suspense. Using the most concise language, he laid out his entire deduction regarding Silvermoon City's secret funding of Goblins to sabotage Blackstone Territory's trade.

Upon hearing this, Graham's face instantly turned bright red, and his white beard trembled with rage.

“Shameless! Despicable! That greedy bastard Aldred! This is a provocation against the honor of House Byron! This is an act of war!” The old knight's hand pressed heavily onto the hilt of the sword at his waist, letting out a sharp 'clink.' “Levi, assemble the guards immediately! We must teach them a bloody lesson and let them know that the banner of House Byron is not to be defiled!”

Levi watched him quietly, as if looking at an old antique insisting on using an abacus to compete with a modern computer's processing power.

“Granduncle, anger cannot solve a fiscal deficit.” He spoke flatly, then turned to Rayton, who had remained silent throughout, though the light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

“I have a plan here,” Levi's finger pointed to the red line on the map, “I call it the ‘Trade Route Optimization and Market Integration’ plan.”

His voice echoed in the quiet study, clear and cold.

“Supervisor Rayton, I need you to lead the Security Department in a deep sweep of the Grey Mist Forest under the pretext of ‘protecting trade routes and purging potential threats.’ Your targets are not just the remaining Goblins, but all creatures that could pose a threat to our trade route, such as Ogres, Giant Spiders, and even certain mercenary groups that don't know their place.”

“Once the clearing is complete,” his finger followed the red line all the way toward Silvermoon City, “you will take the opportunity to extend our sphere of influence along this new trade route. Establish several key outposts and toll stations along this path. Publicly declare that this is ‘Premium Security Service’ provided by Blackstone Territory. Any caravan wishing to pass through here must pay a ‘Security Service Fee.’”

“Bang!”

Graham slammed the table and stood up abruptly, unable to believe what he was hearing.

“You're mad! Levi! This is robbery! This is an open declaration of war against Silvermoon City! You're sending troops to collect tolls on someone else's trade route? Aldred will immediately tear up all the unspoken rules between nobles and send his knight order to trample us! With the pathetic military strength Blackstone Territory has now, how do you expect to withstand the wrath of an established noble?”

The old knight's roar shook the dust from the bookshelves. The finger he pointed at Levi trembled violently, born of both rage and a deep sense of fear and confusion.

In the face of his granduncle's thunderous wrath, Levi's expression didn't change in the slightest.

He simply turned calmly to Evelyn and gave her a look.

“Evelyn, show Lord Graham our ‘Venture Capital Return on Investment Analysis Report.’”

Evelyn immediately handed a pre-prepared parchment respectfully to Graham.

The old knight looked down; it was filled with tables and numbers he couldn't understand at all.

“Lord Graham,” Evelyn explained in her characteristically emotionless, crisp voice, “according to my calculations, once we successfully control this new trade route and begin collecting ‘Security Fees’—even if we only charge half of Silvermoon City's official tax rate—we can earn a net profit of at least three hundred gold coins per month. This sum will not only fully cover all current operating costs of the Security Department, including three future expansions, but it will also double the entire territory's total income within just three months.”

She paused, letting the staggering figure sink into the room.

“As for the risk of war,” Evelyn continued, “the Lord believes that Earl Aldred will not engage in a full-scale war with us over this trade route. The direct investment for a war—including pensions for soldiers, wear and tear on equipment, and consumption of logistics—is estimated to exceed five thousand gold coins. Once a war begins, his ‘Griffon Route’ project, which is in dire need of funds, will grind to a halt, and he might even go bankrupt due to a broken capital chain. By comparison, the ‘sunk cost’ of abandoning this smuggling route is almost zero.”

Levi took over the conversation, his calm gaze fixed on his dumbfounded granduncle.

“Granduncle, we aren't conducting a war; we are conducting a high-yield venture capital investment. In this investment, Earl Aldred is the one who is risk-averse. He is a businessman, and a businessman knows best how to weigh pros and cons. He won't gamble his entire fortune for a few Goblins and a smuggling route he doesn't even dare to publicly acknowledge. Because the ‘cost’ of war is too high, and the ‘benefit’ he can gain is too low. He will be angry, he will protest, and he might even pull some small stunts, but he will absolutely not go to war.”

Graham stood with his mouth agape, staring blankly at his nephew and then at the report filled with cold numbers. He felt the understanding of war, honor, and noble dignity he had built up over a lifetime collapsing inch by inch.

A 'declaration of war,' which he saw as sacred and inviolable, had turned into a matter of 'costs' and 'benefits' that could be precisely calculated with gold and figures in Levi's mouth.

At that moment, Rayton, who had been silent, finally spoke.

He didn't raise any military difficulties or objections. Instead, as if he had long expected this day, he pulled a rolled parchment from his coat and spread it on the table.

The header of the document was written in a sharp font with a title that Graham found completely incomprehensible.

“Feasibility Analysis Report on the ‘Equity-Based’ Management of the Silvermoon City Trade Route and the Layout of Security Nodes Along the Route.”

“My Lord,” Rayton's voice carried a hint of imperceptible fervor, “after receiving the map, I worked through the night on a preliminary proposal. I believe a simple toll model is too crude and easily triggers collective resistance from caravans. We can introduce an ‘Equity Cooperation’ model, recruiting powerful merchant guilds to become our ‘Regional Security Partners.’ They will actively help us maintain the safety of the route and take a cut. Simultaneously, we can establish supply points along the way, bundling security services with the sale of supplies and information trading to form a complete ‘Closed-Loop Industry Chain’...”

Graham stared blankly at the report filled with alien terms like 'equity,' 'partners,' and 'closed-loop industry chain.' He looked at his nephew, who was listening intently and nodding occasionally, and then at this former enemy general who was talking incessantly with eyes flashing with greed and wisdom.

In this moment, for the first time, he felt that the noble laws and war honors he had upheld his entire life were as fragile as a piece of scrap paper soaked in water inside this small study.

He wasn't convinced; he was being completely isolated by a set of new rules that he couldn't understand at all, yet were powerful enough to be suffocating.

Levi took the report from Rayton's hand with satisfaction, his fingertips brushing over the title that was saturated with the business atmosphere of his past life.

However, he did not immediately express his approval.