Chapter 174 - Treasuring a Jade Ring Becomes a Crime
Machine Translator: Shif
Editors: Argos Yesu
While Zhao Hai explored the Carrion Swamp, Casa City wasn't too peaceful. This time around, it wasn't the Purcell clan, but rather Laura who was in trouble.
Laura's business was larger than ever before as the Higanbana firm accounted for fifty percent of the entire commodities market within the Purcell Duchy. This figure was quite alarming.
Although the Purcell Duchy wasn't as great as the other duchies, the commodities market of an entire duchy was still quite large. In fact, it was quite a luxuriant line of business. How much did the people eat everyday? Saying that every day would be a struggle for their gold wasn't absolutely an exaggeration.
If there was a block of fat there, then everyone would want a piece. But if that fat was stuck on bone, then not everyone would be able to sink their teeth into it.
An outsider trying to take a bite would be quite a hard feat, but that doesn't mean a family member couldn't try to eat it. This time, the schemes Laura had to fight against were by none other than the Markey Dell clan.
Although Laura's father was the second heir, the old patriarch was still alive. He was Laura's grandfather, and Karen's father, Sioux.
The old patriarch ruled the Markey Dell clan's huge business empire. He wasn't an easy person to deal with as he was a pure businessman. Everything and anyone, in his eyes, were just business commodities. For commodities, so long as the price was right, he could sell them.
This old patriarch of the Markey Dell clan had very good business sense, which was beyond the imagination of ordinary men. His methods were extreme, and since the time he had taken over the Markey Dell clan, the clan's business had become a lot larger.
Although the Markey Dell clan's business was doing great, to have half the shares of the commodities market within a duchy, like what Laura had, wasn't something the clan was able to do. In comparison to the income of the other heirs, Laura's income was quite high.
This situation wasn't something the old patriarch would meddle with. To be honest, the old patriarch's thoughts about his second son weren't really positive. This was due to Karen's attitude towards doing business.
In the opinion of the old patriarch, if you were born in the Markey Dell clan and you didn't want to do business, then what were you going to do? If Karen wanted to learn magic, then he should excel in it. However, Karen hadn't. His life was not for cultivating magic, but rather, for researching magic.
If Karen really liked to cultivate magic, then even if he didn't do business, as long as he became a powerful magician then it would be of great help for the Markey Dell clan. However, he'd only chosen to study magic. His strength was also only just that of a peak Rank Seven magician.
A Rank Seven magician was a great presence in the eyes of the commoners. However, for a clan such as the Markey Dell clan, a Rank Seven magician was inadequate.
Since the clan didn't pay any attention to Karen, and along with Karen's attitude towards doing business, even though he was the second heir, he had already lost the possibility of inheriting and becoming the next clan patriarch. Therefore, he was banished to the small northern area, the Purcell Duchy.
The location of the Purcell Duchy in the Aksu Empire wasn't good. It was in the north where it bordered with the Beastfolk. Although the Beastfolk haven't caused any major problems lately, the Purcell clan would always have to be on guard in order to avoid any major disasters from happening, year in and year out. If those Beastfolk created trouble, then there wouldn't be much money to be made from doing business with the Purcell Duchy as the duchy was not very developed. This made it a somewhat remote and small area of the Aksu Empire.
