The Daimyo of the Land of Fire looked at the calligraphy model in front of him and slowly copied it stroke by stroke.
The midday sunlight fell warmly upon him, allowing both his body and mind to relax completely.
Whenever something troubled him, the Daimyo would always use this method to adjust his mood.
Writing could calm the mind!
But who was it that had been troubling the Daimyo?
Without a doubt…
It was the inherently evil Senju Hashirama!
Uchiha Makoto’s constant preaching of the Senju Hashirama Threat Theory had long since taken root in the depths of the Daimyo’s heart.
And now, it was beginning to sprout and grow branches.
The Leaf had already entered its next stage—bringing shinobi clans under its banner.
According to reliable intelligence, in just these few short months, more than one powerful shinobi clan in the shinobi world had already decided to join the Leaf founded by Senju Hashirama…
The Hyuga clan…
the Sarutobi clan, the Shimura clan…
And there would only be more in the future.
This caused the Daimyo to feel deeply concerned.
Suddenly…
The Daimyo gathered his thoughts and swept all the distracting notions from his mind.
He took a deep breath, and as he exhaled, his wrist began to move.
In an instant, his brush flowed like a dragon and a snake.
“Diligent in governance, devoted to the people; a clear government and harmonious people!”
“Hmm…
My calligraphy today…
isn’t bad.”
The Daimyo narrowed his eyes and admired his work for a while.
His handwriting today was better than usual, and his mood had improved considerably.
He then instructed the attendant who had been standing beside him to collect the paper.
“Your Highness, Lord Makoto has sent an envoy to discuss an important matter with you.”
The Daimyo nodded, then walked out of the room and entered the reception room, where he saw Kazuma waiting on the sofa.
Seeing the magnificently dressed Daimyo, Kazuma immediately stood and bowed.
“Your Highness…
Lord Makoto sends his regards.”
“Mm…
I understand.
Don’t be so nervous, young man.
Sit down and talk.”
The Daimyo was a dignified man, and he had always been gentle toward the shinobi who served him.
The Akatsuki Village founded by Uchiha Makoto would be a powerful weapon for him to balance the Leaf in the future.
There couldn’t be a situation where one shinobi village dominated everything!
The shinobi world needed balance!
After some simple pleasantries…
The two finally got down to business.
The Daimyo had always been very concerned about Uchiha Makoto’s progress in building his shinobi village.
Faced with the Daimyo’s questions, Kazuma immediately understood.
“I’ll tell you whatever you want to hear!”
“Everything is under control.
The construction of the shinobi village is progressing steadily and in a positive direction.
Please rest assured, Your Highness.
Everything is under control!”
Although the Akatsuki Village’s progress in recruiting shinobi clans was currently slow, Kazuma’s personal qualities were excellent.
He still stood there spinning his yarn without the slightest hint of shame.
Your Highness, everything is under control!
The only problem right now was a lack of funding.
If the Daimyo were willing to specially approve a budget of one hundred billion ryo, everything in the Akatsuki Village really would get better.
Even those major shinobi clans that currently looked down on the Akatsuki Village would come knocking on Uchiha Makoto’s door and demand to join immediately.
Money really was king!
A fifty-billion-ryo settlement allowance just for joining the village—who wouldn’t be tempted?
Of course…
If he actually said a figure like that out loud, the Daimyo would kick Kazuma out without hesitation.
Are you trying to rob me?!
Do you even know how much the country spends on its annual war budget?
Still, Kazuma did state the village’s funding needs.
After all, the Akatsuki Village really was desperately short of money right now.
The Daimyo nodded, then raised five fingers, indicating that he could provide another five hundred million ryo in financial support.
That wasn’t a small amount.
At present, the liquid funds on the books of a major shinobi clan in the shinobi world were roughly around this figure.
But the Akatsuki Village was determined to become a great power among the shinobi world, and this amount was nowhere near enough to satisfy Uchiha Makoto’s appetite.
So…
seeing that the atmosphere was favorable, Kazuma finally stated the real reason for his visit.
“Your Highness, the reason I actually came this time…
is because of a business deal.”
“This business deal is enormous.
We need Your Highness’s help, as well as your financial support!”
As Kazuma spoke, the Daimyo furrowed his brows, somewhat surprised by his words.
In the Daimyo’s view, Uchiha Makoto and the Kazuma Sato standing before him were both shinobi.
Since ancient times, shinobi had made a living by taking on missions, and the money earned from those missions was hardly worth mentioning to nobles.
What kind of major business could shinobi possibly have?
“Your Highness, have you ever heard of tulips?”
“I have…”
“The business we’re going to do is tulips!”
The corners of Kazuma’s mouth curled upward into a smile, and he began vividly explaining the plan for the tulip bubble.
His eloquence was excellent.
With just a few sentences, he managed to pique the Daimyo’s interest.
“First, we need the Daimyo to cooperate with us and make tulips famous throughout noble circles…
To accomplish this, Lord Makoto has devised a plan called ‘The Daimyo’s Daughter Buys a Tulip’…”
“Interesting.
Speculating on tulips?”
“What a genius idea.”
The Daimyo couldn’t help stroking his beard, looking increasingly interested.
He had absolutely no doubts about the feasibility of the plan.
As for the rotten behavior of those nobles, the Daimyo knew it all too well.
A few years ago…
Because of a well-written article, the hypocritical nobles in the capital had started competing to imitate it in pursuit of elegance.
Everyone was praising it.
If you didn’t follow the trend and refused to fit in, that meant your taste was poor and you weren’t worthy of playing with people from their circle.
So everyone began praising the article and copying it day and night.
Not only that, they even spent money to hire other people to copy it for them, all under the grand excuse of “experiencing elegance together!”
In the end, that farce had even driven the price of paper up several times.
Faced with tulips, all the Daimyo needed to do was cooperate with Uchiha Makoto’s plan, and those nobles would probably repeat the same mistake all over again.
“This business really is pretty good, but it’s nowhere near as exaggerated as you make it sound.”
The Daimyo shook his head.
At most, this business would probably make a few billion, perhaps ten-odd billion ryo.
Although that was certainly no small amount of money, it was still far from enough to make the Daimyo truly astonished.
“No, Your Highness.
That’s not the end of it.”
“Tulips are merely the bait.
The most important part comes afterward.
Before the price of tulips skyrockets, we first sign contracts with the flower growers…
Then, once the price of tulips surges, we spread the news…
After that, we begin trading the contracts…
Using the constant turnover of contracts and enormous profits to attract more and more people…”
“At that point, I’m afraid the nobles and merchants of the Land of Fire—and perhaps even the entire shinobi world—will go completely mad over it…”
The Daimyo of the Land of Fire sucked in a sharp breath, deeply shocked by Uchiha Makoto’s audacity.
He was genuinely frightened.
This kind of financial game had never appeared in this era before.
He didn’t even dare imagine how many people would participate once such a game began.
He had absolutely no doubt about the greed of those vermin.
And it wasn’t just the nobles.
Merchants were the same.
They were naturally driven by an endless pursuit of profit.
As long as the rewards were high enough, there was nothing they wouldn’t dare to do—even if it ultimately left them with nothing but a complete mess.
And precisely because the Daimyo of the Land of Fire understood these people’s nature so well, he thought even further ahead.
Once this money game ended…
How were they supposed to clean up the mess?