Chapter 80: Paying the Price

I had considered the headmaster a good guy before.

But I should probably take my statement back.

That guy was a bastard!

It had just been a day since the official classes began, and the guy had summoned me to his office.

The reason?

About those damn scholarships for the commoners. I was already regretting my decision.

Though my reputation had skyrocketed after that little stunt at the ceremony… I was now paying its price.

Well, it wasn’t like I had no money… It’s just that no matter what my reason was—

It hurts to let go of your money.

And that too for some random strangers.

Sigh.

I was currently headed towards a small city on the borders of the Veltran Empire. I had to access the bank to make them send money to the old bastard.

As for which bank I was visiting…

It was none other than—

The Syma Royal Bank.

Over the past two years, the Syma Alchemists’ Guild had made huge profits across the world. The success was mainly attributed to the pre-existing bases of Lonatu in each empire on the planet.

That made transportation and recruitment of labour far easier.

Many businesses had found its rise suspicious. Like how could a guild appear out of nowhere and then expand its operations across the entire world?

Well, the strategy had always been… Strike when the iron’s hot.

I had asked Alfred to mass-produce the low-level potions and sell them at cheaper rates compared to the current market dynamics.

Describing the costs as cheaper rates would have been an understatement.

The guild had sold all the low-level potions at about ninety percent of the prices that were operational in the market.

That had led to a loss of trust toward the major alchemy guilds.

Creating potions had never been expensive… It was just the availability of skilled alchemists and the monopoly over certain segments—that had till date allowed all the alchemy guilds to control the markets as per their choices.

The Syma Alchemists had been like a bomb that had detonated the entire hierarchy in this segment of the business.

And it had quickly soared on to become the most trusted and people-friendly guild in the entire world.

Every individual who had worked for Lonatu was a criminal.

And the basic qualification to become an experienced and famous criminal without being hunted down—was to have a decent amount of skill and talent.

As for Syma, the entirety of the guild was filled with talent.

Still, the profit margins had been drastically reduced due to the rates at which we were selling.

But in return, Syma had received the goodwill of the people… and along with that goodwill came the addiction.

Potions work like drugs.

Once you start consuming potions from a particular brand, using potions from other guilds feels like something out of syllabus.

Your body just refuses to inject anything other than the potions it had grown used to.

Normally, even the low-level potions had been expensive for the masses. So getting addicted to a single potion brand was a near-impossible thing.

But my plan had hit the mark.

Now the same people who had consumed the cheap low-level potions, when grown stronger in power, would be left with no choice but to consume the high-level potions from the one and only—

Syma Alchemists.

As for the prices of the high-level potions… They were currently sold at a lower rate than the originals.

But soon their prices would be increased to a much higher level.

Even higher than what the market currently offered.

The motive was for everyone to get used to the potions created by Syma.

The losses suffered at the beginning were quickly compensated by the mass sales that took charge later on.

And now the Syma Alchemists Guild had become the second-best seller in the entire world.

There was still some time before surpassing the current number one. But it was proving to be a little difficult, as the momentum had been lost after two years of sales.

Now all the other guilds had adapted to our methods…

The money earned had been so huge that I had the thought of opening a bank using the same profits.

But Julien beat me to the idea and had already started the expansion for the bank.

To make it sound more premium, I had suggested adding ’Royal’ to it. Such things may seem like minor details, but they always have a huge effect on customer psychology.

The name of the guild itself increased the legitimacy of the bank, but the addition of ’Royal’ made the bank more of a high-status symbol for the rich.

And business had always been a warfare of consumer minds. The one who could exploit it became successful, while the others remained mediocre.

And in a few months of its opening—

The Syma Royal Bank had grown to become the fourth-largest bank in the world.

This feat was no joke.

The bank had already surpassed many who were big, established players in the banking sector for generations.

If someone had alchemy potions with Syma written on them, he was considered a smart buyer.

Someone with deposits in Syma Royal was seen as a wealthy and affluent person.

Many had started depositing all their life savings only to raise their status in society.

On Julien’s suggestion, Alfred had made it so that people could buy the potions on credit and pay the money in installments.

This had made the potions even cheaper for everyone.

Even people with poor financial conditions could now buy potions of higher level and purity.

The only requirement for credit was having a bank account in Syma Royal.

The revenue had kept on increasing for D.X., and now—

Even the big shots of the business world had started taking loans from the bank. Syma Royal had just recently funded one of the major loans for the Veltran Empire.

The loans not only increased the profits for the bank, but they also had a tremendous effect on relationships with the world of royalty and the rich.

It had, in many ways, increased the leverage and social, political, and economic power of D.X. throughout the world.

Syma wasn’t only a guild or a bank anymore.

It had become a—

Legacy!

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