"You're so slow, Master!" Arya jumped up when she saw Aegon, complaining unhappily.
"Where did you run off to?" Tyrion also frowned, staring at Aegon: "You let Miss Stark watch the shop for you, and made customers who wanted to buy Night's Watch Bonds wait for you, heh—what a great Night's Watch Chief Quartermaster!"
Damn, Aegon immediately realized who the other two people in the room were and quickly apologized repeatedly. He had previously told Tyrion that he would stay at the office at all times, but inexplicably broke his promise for the idle move of "getting Jaqen out," almost ruining things. Making such a mistake at the initial stage of the Night's Watch Bonds was simply unforgivable even to himself, no wonder even the usually good-tempered Tyrion's tone was unfriendly.
…
"No problem, chatting with Miss Stark was very pleasant." A man brought by Tyrion said with a smile. He originally came just to show face to the Lannister people, but who knew he could also meet the current Hand of the King's daughter here—given the location and class of their fiefs, they originally had no connection whatsoever with the Stark family. Just for this point, waiting a while wasn't without some gain.
"This is Ser Lian Bren, this is Ser Roger Hogg, two nobles from the Crownlands."
"Hello, both of you, and again, I apologize for my lateness." Aegon greeted the two, quickly tidied his clothes: "Please come in."
***
Lending money to others and still making them wait, if these two guests had shown displeasure or left today, Aegon would have had no choice but to smile apologetically without any temper. Fortunately, because Arya was present, both were still quite polite—Aegon breathed a sigh of relief gratefully. Spending two or three hours dealing with this little she-wolf every day, taking the trouble to get close to her, finally came in handy.
Instructing Aqun, the "newly hired" office employee, to watch the outer room, Aegon invited the guests into the inner room for detailed discussion. After the process of introduction and explanation was completed, both of them symbolically bought one hundred golden dragons each. After the signing and fingerprinting procedure finished and a bit more pleasantries, Aegon saw them off from the office.
…
"I can understand you being busy, but you should tell me in advance, or simply set a time, tell me which days you'll definitely be here, and which days I don't need to bring people, okay?"
Aegon was in the wrong and naturally agreed completely. For many considerations, he could find someone to watch the door for him, but the power to ultimately sign valid Night's Watch Bonds could absolutely not be transferred outwards. However, he might indeed have other things to do from time to time... Thinking carefully, he did need to determine a work day and rest day schedule.
"I have some new ideas, I need to discuss them with you." Tyrion didn't intend to dwell on Aegon's mistake and quickly resumed his usual expression: "As you can see, I can bring people in, it's very easy. I know who has spare money and will give me face, and I can also tell who is easily persuaded—but even if I drag them over and get them through the door, they will only buy the minimum amount of one hundred golden dragons... You don't have anything tangible for them to see; just relying on talk, it's impossible to make them empty their pockets."
"Indeed, but as the first and second batches of people successfully receive returns..."
"That takes time." Tyrion waved his hand, interrupting Aegon: "My idea is, since we will be cooperating with people in the future, why not create something similar to Night's Watch Bonds, write the relevant agreements for investment, cooperation, and dividends on it, as a certificate?"
"You mean, a new Night's Watch Bonds product?" Aegon immediately understood Tyrion's meaning: "We can create an 'Investment Voucher,' calculate the funds needed to establish series of industries like papermaking and printing, and then, this voucher will represent the owner's future share in our physical industries such as papermaking, printing plants, and even bookstores."
"Exactly, that's what I mean. This voucher can complement Night's Watch Bonds. Night's Watch Bonds have low returns, but can be withdrawn with principal and interest at any time. As for this... the Investment Voucher's returns depend on the business situation and can be very high, but the principal has become part of the workshops and factories and can only be transferred to others, not withdrawn!" Tyrion said: "This way, we can cater to two types of customers: those with a little spare money they might need at any time can buy Night's Watch Bonds; and those with substantial funds who just have nowhere to put them can invest thousands or tens of thousands directly!"
"Excellent idea. Once the product is ready, we can make some high-quality samples to attract investment." Aegon felt a little uneasy for some reason, ", I'll leave this to you. Business and operations are your responsibility, ideas and technology are mine. I'll be going to see Nina often lately to ensure their improvements are completed as soon as possible."
"Mhm."
Taking a breath, Aegon quickly understood where the vague sense of unease came from: everything was progressing too fast. He initially just wanted to set up a Ponzi scheme to get a foothold; how could things like financing and shares start popping up before even paying out the first interest payment from robbing Peter to pay Paul? With his identity and ability, could he control this beast called capital?
He wasn't good at these things, but there was no turning back. Unless he screwed over Tyrion and absconded with the money to the other side of the Narrow Sea to live under a false name until he died of old age, he could only move forward. This... was probably the necessary mental journey for an entrepreneur.
Fortunately, he had almost no competitors in this world, and also the help of a resourceful Lannister.
***
"Are you guys done discussing, are we practicing today or not!?" Arya hated listening to things like Night's Watch Bonds and shares—besides knowing they were all related to money, she couldn't understand them at all. All she knew was that she had spent the entire day waiting and hadn't done anything: "Those two guys just now... kept grabbing me and asking this and that, and in the end they even asked if I was married, if I had someone I liked, what business is it of theirs!"
"Actually, it is their business." Tyrion was amused by Arya. The two he had just brought were just wealthy knights from the Crownlands. With Arya Stark's status, even if she were to marry down, she would choose powerful Earls or Marquesses; how could it possibly be the turn of these lower-level nobles to ask? But their concern was not without reason: "Your sister Sansa is already engaged to Prince Joffrey. Stark will be one of the most powerful families in the Seven Kingdoms for at least the next hundred years. The marriage of you, the future Queen's sister, is affecting the nerves of the people of the Seven Kingdoms!"
"Hmph, Sansa is a big idiot, marrying that big liar Joffrey is a perfect match. I don't want to be like her!"
Aegon cheered inwardly, but after all, he couldn't let her continue speaking such blunt truths, so he quickly called a halt: "Where did my little lady apprentice go? No cursing!"
"Hmph." Arya thought of the butcher's boy she practiced swords with again, and tears immediately welled up in her eyes. She sniffled, pouted, and stopped speaking.
***
Yes, Sansa is already engaged to Joffrey, and Eddard Stark is not only the current Hand of the King and the King's good brother, but will also be the future King's father-in-law. Perhaps even Eddard himself didn't realize: this is actually the reason he dared to accept the invitation despite knowing King's Landing was extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, in the original plot, under Littlefinger's instigation, he quickly discovered Cersei and Jaime's secret. His original confidence transformed into the biggest threat. With this guy's pride, it was naturally impossible for him to let his precious daughter marry a product of incest—especially the bastard son of the Kingslayer he most despised; yet "honor" didn't allow him to harm children. Under this contradiction, everything that followed just happened.
Thinking of this, Aegon suddenly remembered the rumor he had personally spread a few days ago. Out of the principle of being cautious, he hadn't mentioned it to anyone, not even tentatively, before or after doing it... It was conceivable that he would be busy with other things for a considerable period in the future. If he forgot about the matter of "dealing with Littlefinger and preventing the war," and the War of the Five Kings happened anyway in confusion, that would be troublesome.
He had to know now whether the rumor had worked, to determine if he needed to find other ways to disrupt things next.
"Oh, right." He said, pretending it just occurred to him: "I heard a rather incredible rumor these past two days, I wonder if you guys..."
"You mean the one about Littlefinger murdering the former Hand of the King Jon Arryn?" Tyrion curled his lip: "It's been all over town, and you're just hearing about it now? What have you been doing all day?"
—