The contract to build the Royal Northern Rail Line was worth a fortune, but it required an immediate, massive outlay of capital—more than the Arren Deposit & Trust (AD&T) currently held. Even with the Syndicate's assets and the AD&T's fractional reserves, they needed an influx of cash that only international investors could provide.
Alex sat in his study, reviewing the projections. "We need to sell shares in the Syndicate, Hemlock. Not just locally, but to the wealthy Houses in the neighboring Starfall Kingdoms. They need reliable returns; we need risk capital. This world needs a stock market."
Hemlock, who now sported a severe, almost maniacal attention to detail, was charting the market fluctuations of raw wool on a large blackboard. "But My Lord, the shares of the Syndicate only exist on parchment here! How do we sell a legal idea to a Baroness three hundred miles away? She cannot see the blast furnace!"
"We sell the potential, Hemlock," Alex stated.
"We don't send the shares; we send a standardized prospectus detailing our guaranteed returns from the rail line and the military contract. We are selling a stake in the future. We will establish a 'Trading Desk' here, where those shares can be bought and sold by proxies or letters of credit."
***
The rapid modernization had turned the manor into a bureaucratic hub that was both intensely efficient and utterly devoid of charm.
The Great Hall, once used for messy, drunken feasts, was now lined with blackboards where Hemlock charted real-time inventory, production schedules, and market prices (flashed in code from the semaphore line). Visitors felt a constant, quiet tension, like standing inside a giant, slow-ticking clock.
Alex, entirely focused on the prospectus, had reverted to his original systems-analyst uniform: the same clean but severely plain waistcoat and trousers, worn until Hemlock had to physically swap the items out for cleaning. He looked less like a noble and more like a high-end tutor.
That evening, Alex received a dinner invitation from Lady Lyra of the West Marches, a clever, independently wealthy noble he considered a potential investor. He immediately applied his Risk-Reward Algorithm to the encounter.
Risk: Time expenditure; emotional unpredictability.
Reward: Potential 5% share purchase; access to West Marches timber contracts.
Algorithm Result: Accept.
Alex showed up to Lady Lyra's dinner precisely on time, wearing his plain waistcoat. He spent the entire meal attempting to engage her in a conversation about the superior yield rates of the Three-Field System versus traditional slash-and-burn, using a bread roll to demonstrate soil structure.
Lady Lyra, trying to subtly flirt, asked him if he ever thought about things that "cannot be quantified."
Alex stared at her. "I quantified the risk of this very dinner, My Lady. The return on my time is currently tracking at 2.2 out of 5. We should move straight to the timber contracts to optimize the evening's yield."
The evening ended with Lyra amused, frustrated, and still very interested in buying the shares—if only to be around the man who treated romance like a poorly designed flow chart.
***
The Arren Trading Desk opened the next day, and Alex, using the semaphore line to coordinate with proxy agents in distant cities, began selling Syndicate Shares.
The prospectus was a revelation. While other nobles promised land and glory, Alex promised quantifiable, guaranteed return on investment (ROI) based on the government-backed rail contract and the known, low production costs of his steel. He sold facts, not dreams.
The shares sold out almost instantly. Houses known for their stability and long-term planning—not the gambling debtors—bought large blocks. The most surprising buyer was Lady Lyra, who bought the 5% stake Alex projected, simply sending a message reading: "I look forward to discussing your ROI over a strictly non-quantified meal."
Alex had raised the necessary capital for the rail line and, more importantly, had legally decentralized ownership of the Syndicate across the kingdom. The Syndicate was now "too big to fail" because its success was tied to the prosperity of half the noble houses in the region. Seizing the Arren Fief now meant seizing the collective investment of the kingdom's elite.
The Syndicate is now financed and politically shielded. The next priority is to ensure the Royal Rail Line construction stays on budget and schedule. This requires a system that can manage materials and personnel across hundreds of miles—a true logistics network.