I Became The Pope, Now What?

714 713. Money, Scams & The Bank

Sylvester scratched his head. He knew train fanatics would appear soon enough, but this was too early. "Do you have the design plans for these upgrades?"

"Of course, Your Holiness. I work at the metallurgy department, and I've found a way to make the trains lighter and ensure high speed with a slight curvature in the tracks, as well as the shape of the train wheels." Uldrac, the dwarf, answered with never-

ending excitement. "I want to contribute, Your Holiness. Please allow me to work on the trains."

Sylvester sighed and waved his hand, effectively unlocking the handcuffs holding the dwarf down. "Show me the designs then. Knight Commander, go with him and bring the blueprints."

After that, Sylvester went to the surface level of the outpost and waited there. "Ella, take the helm on this one. Compare the designs with the current ones and evaluate if his designs are actually good."

"Understood, Father." Ella was excited to work.

In a few minutes, Uldrac returned with a stack of rolled sheets and presented them. "This is the design I made, Your Holiness."

Ella stepped forward and took the papers, eyeing the dwarf on the same level of height as her. Quickly, she assessed it and hummed to herself, furrowing her brows and appearing too serious for her stature and age.

'So adorable.' Sylvester nodded from the side.

"He wants to make the carriages with aluminum that was recently introduced in manufacturing. Its light weight can reduce the train's weight significantly. At the same time, he wants to place the new Cyclic Solarium Electric Engine not in the front engine, but rather small ones in each of the carriages, giving every carriage its own small generator that powers the motors in each wheel," Ella started evaluating the designs and sounded impressed. "With this, the acceleration of the train, speed, as well as breaking power can be enhanced by manifolds."

'Isn't that the high-speed train design?' Sylvester remembered it from his past world and walked closer to Ella and looked at the designs. 'I planned to make it eventually, but if we already have a talent with such an idea, I don't have to worry about the technology being too advanced for their minds.'

"Good idea, but it's useless and too expensive for cargo trains. This can be useful for passenger trains, but we don't know how many people will even use it. Let's not forget that even today, most people are born in one village, grow up and marry in one village, and die in the same place. With the lack of movement in the masses, our focus should remain on cargo transportation to boost trade," Sylvester made the decision but didn't make the dwarf feel disheartened. "My friend, your designs are too advanced for our times. But it clearly shows your talent, so you can join the railway department if you wish to."

"I am blessed!" Uldrac chirped and saluted Sylvester. "I will spend the rest of my life working on trains… forever!"

'A talentless freak is just a freak, but a talented freak is an genius eccentric man.' Sylvester thought as he looked at Uldrac's theatrics.

"Good luck, my friend. Everyone else, return to your work. The realm depends on us." Sylvester clapped and shooed everyone away. "Ella, go back to the project room. I shall head back to the Palace. Be home on time."

Ella nodded and ran away before Sylvester could give her any more instructions. She didn't like involving herself in anything other than studies.

'I should return and work on the instruction book. Only three weeks left before entering the Demon Realm now.' Sylvester wearily left for the room he had come to hate by now.

…

It was a fact that the more miserable Sylvester and his administration were, the happier the realm became. It wasn't just overworking, but rather efficient overworking. From builders to judges, all the government workers tried to finish as much work as possible.

As the trade volume grew, many more regulation-related issues arose, and they, in turn, posed security challenges to ensure no smuggling or black marketing occurred. The more the world developed, the more newer problems appeared that no one could have imagined before.

Felix, responsible for Sol's security, traveled across the continent almost every single day. His name became as common on people's tongues as the Pope's. But where the Pope was like a demigod, the Saint Viceman was the source of fear.

"Let me get this straight, you fooled the Keaton Traders into believing that you're from the Holy Land, and the entire railway line is for sale?" Felix sat on a simple chair in the middle of a tavern, keeping another man locked below him, between the legs of the chair. "How?"

"I… I didn't fool them, Your Eminence. I actually sold it for three million Gold Graces," the caught man confessed with pride. "It's not my fault they were so foolish."

Felix sighed and smacked him in the face. "You think we're playing here? What you did was heresy, and its punishment is still execution."

"But the deal fell apart because you caught me. The crime was never fully committed, Your Eminence. It's wrong to punish me for something I haven't done."

"You intended to do it."

"It's not a tangible proof as per the law," the swindler argued.

'This fucker knows the law. Well, he needs to if he's masquerading as a Clergyman selling the entire railway line.' Felix felt impressed and, at the same time, annoyed.

Pa!

Felix smacked him again. "How did you do it? The seal you forged was as good as the Pope's seal. Your identity token and the rank plate were also too close to being real."

"..."

Pa!

A harder smack turned the swindler almost blind in one eye, leaving him writhing in pain.

"You will lose that eye if I don't apply the healing potion in the next ten minutes. Make a decision, will you speak? Or will you sacrifice your eye?"

"..."

Bam!

"Same goes for the other eye. I will keep going and cripple your legs, leaving you as nothing but a helpless criminal in prison." Felix did the interrogation openly in the pub for everyone to see. "Let me tell you, the prison is not a kind place for cripples. Being left at the mercy of others, they can do anything they want to you."

Sweating and bleeding, the swindler shivered in uncertainty. "It wasn't just me. I'm just the face of the whole operation. A few ex-nobles of the Ironstone Duchy are the—"

"Enough!" Felix stood up and poured healing potions on the man's eyes. "What about the seal?"

"Some high-ranking Clergymen were also involved in the whole plan. They knew what the seal looked like and replicated it. I'm… I'm just Sam the Swindler, Your Eminence," Sam confessed. "I'm the people's man with a decent face and trustable voice, that's it. They haven't even paid me yet."

"Arrest him," Felix ordered and sighed to himself. "It's the Ironstone State again. It's been a problematic region since that damn Prince."

"And you!" Felix finally stared at the father and son duo, Keaton Traders Company's owners. "How can you be foolish enough to fall for such a scam? Why would the Holy Land make the railway line if they just wanted to sell it?"

"T-The stamps and proof seemed too real, Your Eminence," the old man, Bill Keaton, replied. "Thank you… Thank you very much. You saved us from losing everything."

'This isn't good. If someone is audacious enough to sell something so big, and someone is foolish enough to buy it, then the likelihood that many more unreported scams are happening out there is quite high.' Felix reckoned and looked at the father and son pitifully, wondering how long their business would survive. 'Perhaps Max can find a solution to scams.'

"Be careful from now on." He patted the Keaton duo's shoulders and left with his soldiers.

…

Holy Land,

When the report arrived, Sylvester almost reached the end of his instruction manual for Felix and Gabriel. Seeing its severity, he quickly called Saint Keymaster, Cardinal Darius Vulcan, the man who could remember everything.

"This is indeed a problem," Darius mumbled while reading the report from Felix. "With a booming business environment, financial crimes are also on the rise. Some cases have been reported to me, but this is too much."

Sylvester agreed and gave a suggestion, "The most ideal solution is to ensure that there's a way for the monetary transaction to be verified by some entity. So that, even if the purchase is made, the criminals can't use that money anywhere without being caught."

"How, Your Holiness? These transactions are done in Gold Graces and Silver Crowns. It's just gold and silver. We can't be placing tracing runes on each coin now," Darius said, understanding the problem.

At that, Sylvester crossed his arms and smirked. "That's where we come in, my friend. Let's create a new bank entirely owned by the Holy Land. We'll move from hard gold and silver coins to paper currency, which will be backed by gold. This means that a set amount of paper currency will be equal to the equivalent amount of gold worldwide.

"Since the Holy Land and our bank will be the guarantor of the paper currency, the people will be allowed to store their wealth in our banks. For any large transaction, proof of the sale or purchase will be needed, which can be verified by the Bank, which will have access to the Administration."

Darius profoundly thought about it and agreed. "How will we make people accept it?"

"Loans, of course. Our bank will give loans to people at a good interest. Since trade is increasing, I'm sure many people would like to start their own business, but they lack money. Of course, we will also need people in the bank who can do risk evaluation of their ideas. But let's try this in the South River State on a trial basis for now. If the results are positive, we'll introduce the system across the continent."

Sylvester explained the rough details and wrote down the authorization letter for forming a bank. He had enough trust in Darius that the man would handle the task well. Or else, he wouldn't have made him the Saint Keymaster.

"Your Holiness," Darius stopped near the door just as he was leaving. "What if other nations ask for a loan? Such as Dragonpeaks, Whiskeypeaks, or Alfia?"

Sylvester smiled slyly, sending shivers down Darius' body.

"Even better, Saint Keymaster—people, states, countries—the more the merrier."

"But it will require so much gold."

"We have it," Sylvester responded.

'I have it.'

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