Henry, had lately felt as if his heart were riding a roller coaster.
When Arthur calmly announced his new plan — "to buy the entire Parliament" — Henry nearly soiled himself in sheer terror.
"B-Boss, c-can that even work?" he stammered. "Those are Members of Parliament… hereditary nobles! Will they really fall for it?"
"Whether they fall for it depends entirely on what they're fed."
Arthur sat behind his massive mahogany desk, a diabolical yet elegant smile playing at the corner of his lips.
He drew a premium Cuban cigar from his humidor, but didn't light it — simply rolled it between his fingers.
"Henry, you must remember one truth," he said, fixing the Fat Chief with the gaze of a teacher lecturing a slow student. "For ninety-nine percent of people, so-called principles and integrity only exist because the price of betrayal has never been high enough. As for the remaining one percent… the price simply needs to be presented in a different form."
He slid a long list across the desk — compiled overnight by his team of secretaries.
"Look. This is the House of Lords. A list of those stubborn old fossils who oppose me the most."
Henry leaned in, curiosity overcoming fear. The list was dense with names — hundreds of nobles — each accompanied by meticulous, shockingly detailed notes.
[Duke of Wellington — leader of the Conservative Party.
Assets: primarily land and estates; limited cash flow.
Weakness: fiercely protective of his military reputation and historic prestige.
Opening: In the Queen's name, with Future Industries as sole sponsor, fund the construction of a Waterloo Memorial Museum in his honor and establish a veterans' pension fund bearing his name.]
[Earl of Derby — staunch Conservative.
Assets: owns several coal mines in northern England, now on the brink of bankruptcy due to outdated equipment and poor extraction efficiency.
Weakness: desperately needs a large sum to modernize machinery; otherwise he may fail to pay his miners next month.
Opening: Our group will provide a long-term interest-free loan and dispatch our technical team to modernize the mines — provided that, during the vote concerning the Prince Consort, he conveniently "falls ill."]
[Archbishop of Canterbury — head of the national church.
Assets: none.
Weakness: lifelong dream to restore and expand Canterbury Cathedral to its ancient splendor, but church funds are woefully insufficient.
Opening: In my private capacity as Prince and future Prince Consort, I will donate a staggering sum specifically for the cathedral's restoration. Furthermore, I will encourage Her Majesty to solidify the Church's national status through future legislation.]
Every noble who opposed him had been laid bare by Arthur's terrifying information-gathering apparatus.
Their finances, political needs, ambitions, secret desires, and hidden weaknesses — all exposed.
And for each weakness, Arthur had crafted a tailor-made, irresistible acquisition plan.
He wasn't simply handing out cash — that was the lowest form of corruption: crude, traceable, and likely to insult these self-important aristocrats.
Instead, he offered sugar-coated cannonballs disguised as cooperation, investment, donations, and even friendship.
To those without money, he sent life-saving loans and technology capable of reviving their dying family enterprises.
To those hungry for glory, he offered honors that would immortalize their names and secure their place in history.
To those with political ambitions, he promised future support and deals of mutual interest.
Each plan targeted its recipient's vital weakness with surgical precision, making refusal nearly impossible.
Refusing meant bankruptcy, humiliation, and the death of life-long dreams.
Accepting required nothing more than casting a trivial vote at a convenient moment… or simply "falling ill."
From any angle, the deal was outrageously profitable.
Henry stared at the list — a veritable "Hunting Manual for the Lords of the Realm" — and cold sweat drenched his hair.
He looked at Arthur with a mixture of awe and fear.
For the first time, he realized that when money and information joined forces, they created a power capable of manipulating the highest legislative body of a nation.
This was no longer business.
This was… playing with the powerful.
This was undermining an empire.
"Well?" Arthur asked, smiling as usual. "Do you still think they won't fall for it?"
"Of course they will! Of course they will!" Henry blurted out, enthralled. "Even if it were a pile of manure served on a golden plate, they'd fight over who gets to praise how 'delicious' it is!"
"Good. Then contact them." Arthur tapped the cigar lightly against his desk. "I want at least half the people on this list to become our 'unbreakable friends' within a month."
"Yes, Boss! Right away!"
Injected with adrenaline, Henry grabbed the list and sprinted out of the room.
In the weeks that followed, a silent "war of money" — orchestrated entirely by Arthur — erupted through London's high society.
Countless seemingly ordinary business negotiations, private invitations, and charity galas were quietly held across exclusive clubs and lavish estates.
In the Earl of Derby's manor, the moment he saw Future Industries' "Mine Modernization Agreement" — which essentially handed him free money — his worry-wrinkled face blossomed into a chrysanthemum.
He immediately clutched his chest and insisted his gout had suddenly worsened and that he would regretfully be unable to attend Parliament for at least a month.
In the Archbishop of Canterbury's office, when he saw the massive donation check — fifty thousand pounds — his aged, clouded eyes instantly filled with tears.
He clasped Arthur's representative's hand and cried, "Prince Arthur von Nassau-Saarbrücken is a true gentleman — devout, benevolent! God will surely bless his union with Her Majesty!"
One by one, the once-unyielding anti-Arthur faction crumbled under the tidal wave of Arthur's financial offensive, collapsing like sandcastles before a flood.
They still preached about "tradition" and "noble lineage" — but their signatures, very honestly, reflected the deep affection they now felt for the new Prince.
Conroy fell to Arthur's brilliance and the Queen's authority.
Albert fell to Arthur's vision and his multidimensional strike.
And now, when facing the entire rigid, conservative nobility, Arthur revealed his simplest, most brutal, and most undeniable trump card:
Money.
With it, he paved a wide, golden road toward his new love — and his future.
He wanted everyone to understand a truth:
In this new age of steam and steel, so-called noble blood meant nothing before the might of industrial capital.
However…
Not every member of Parliament was so easily swayed —
and Arthur soon found himself facing obstacles that would not fall to money alone.