Aldren’s Valewood Bank was a massive success.
The reason was simple.
He had the connections he had built over the years, along with the trust of the ruling class he had earned during his long reign over Valewood.
Aldren charged 24% annual interest on loans and offered nothing on savings.
Adrian’s Royal Bank, on the other hand, offered 2% interest on savings.
Yet people still trusted Aldren far more.
After the incident involving Donald Stump, the wealthy and influential people of Valewood had become even more reluctant to place their money in Adrian’s hands.
There was now a duopoly of banks in Valewood.
Aldren’s Valewood Bank.
And Adrian’s Royal Bank.
No one else could even open another bank.
Only thirty people in Valewood had been trained in Adrian’s banking system.
Adrian had employed ten of them.
Aldren had employed another ten.
Five had been forbidden by Adrian from using their knowledge elsewhere.
And the remaining five—the ones supposed to teach the next batch—were on indefinite hold because Adrian’s own bank had turned out to be a failure.
Adrian had no idea that his decision was actually proving useful to him.
As one day, Aldren went to the bank to speak with his employees.
He wanted to expand the number of banks under his control.
To do that, he needed more people trained in the art of banking.
So he asked his employees,
“Who here would be willing to train people for another branch?”
No one came forward.
Aldren offered various rewards.
Still, no one volunteered.
He became curious.
“What is the reason for your reluctance to train someone else?”
One of the employees finally answered.
“His Highness, the Prince Adrian, has only allowed us to work in the banking sector. We are not authorised to train anyone else. The training of new employees can only be done by His Highness or the five people he has authorised to do so.”
Aldren was surprised.
He assumed they were refusing because they were grateful to Adrian for teaching them this exceptional new knowledge and changing their destiny forever.
He continued,
“It’s good to be grateful. But you are losing an important opportunity here. I am giving you an opportunity to earn what you may not be able to earn in your entire lifetime, and yet you are refusing it.”
He looked at them.
“That isn’t gratitude. It’s foolishness.”
Another man finally spoke.
“We are grateful to His Highness. But that is not the only reason as to why we are refusing to train anyone.”
Aldren listened carefully.
“His Highness only wants one thing—that nobody challenges his authority. And those who do… they don’t live to tell the tale.”
The man swallowed.
He lowered his head.
“For us, our lives are more precious than money.”
Aldren remained silent.
He began wondering what exactly that prince had shown these people to make them so terrified of him.
Whatever it was, it had clearly left an impression.
Aldren realized that arguing with them was pointless.
If they were unwilling to do it, he couldn’t force them without damaging the very trust that held his bank together.
So he decided to take the matter directly to Adrian.
Meanwhile, Adrian’s Royal Bank had a completely different problem.
It wasn’t liquidity.
It was a lack of demand for loans.
Because of creditworthiness.
Adrian simply didn’t know the people of Valewood well enough to trust them.
He couldn’t tell who would repay a loan and who would simply disappear with the money.
So he introduced a credit-rating system.
There were three levels:
Gold.
Silver.
Bronze.
A Gold membership required an annual fee of 50 gold coins and allowed the member to borrow up to 500 gold coins during the year.
Silver required 25 gold coins and allowed borrowing of up to 250 gold coins.
Bronze required 10 gold coins and allowed borrowing of up to 100 gold coins.
Adrian believed this would solve the problem.
But there was one major flaw.
His membership fees were ridiculously high for most people.
And Aldren had an enormous advantage.
He knew the people he was lending to.
He knew who could repay.
He knew who couldn’t.
He knew who owned property.
He knew who had reliable businesses.
He knew who could be trusted.
Aldren could therefore hand out money without hesitation.
Adrian couldn’t.
Both banks charged the same 24% interest on loans.
But Adrian demanded collateral, guarantees, and other forms of security.
Aldren often demanded none of it.
Adrian was simply playing too safely.
The money in his bank wasn’t entirely his, and he desperately wanted to establish the Royal Bank as a safe and trustworthy institution.
But his caution was becoming his weakness.
Aldren eventually arrived at Adrian’s residence.
“Go outside and wait until I call you back.”
Ronald obeyed and left the room.
Adrian then sat in his chair, waiting for Aldren.
There was only one problem.
The chair was far too large for him.
Adrian was barely able to see above the desk.
He had imagined sitting behind the desk like a proper ruler, looking intimidating and powerful while Aldren stood before him.
But his height had other plans.
So Adrian placed a stool on the chair.
It looked ridiculous.
He stared at it for a few seconds.
No.
Absolutely not.
He ordered the entire table to be removed.
He would meet Aldren on the sofa instead.
Aldren was still standing near the doorway, speaking with Ronald, while Adrian struggled to sit on the sofa in what he hoped was a suitably commanding manner.
Unfortunately, being six years old made looking intimidating rather difficult.
Eventually, Adrian gave up on looking particularly impressive.
He would have to settle for simply being himself.
Aldren finally entered.
The moment he saw the little Prince, he bowed.
Then he placed a box before him.
It was filled with gold.
Adrian’s expression didn’t change.
Internally, however…
He was ecstatic.
His finances were nowhere near where he wanted them to be, and seeing an entire box of gold appear in front of him was almost enough to make him forget every problem he had been facing.
He calmly gestured toward his guards.
The guards placed the box away on another table signifying that Adrian had neither accepted or rejected the bribe yet.
Aldren began speaking.
“Your Highness, as you know, my bank is booming—”
“Mine isn’t,” Adrian interrupted, his expression completely disinterested.
He looked directly at Aldren.
“So are you here to gloat?”
Aldren was slightly irritated.
But he didn’t allowed it to show.
He simply continued.
“No, Your Highness. I have come because I want to expand my bank.”
Adrian remained silent.
“I need more people who are trained in banking to run those new branches for me.”
Aldren looked directly at the little Prince.
“And I believe you are the only person who can provide them to me.”