Chapter 49 - 49 Short Squeeze
The day after the party hosted by Aurora, the stock market's attention was focused on the Oclair Trading Company. Everyone already knew that Valier had been buying up shares, but today, buy orders flooded every broker. Since these were all orders from nobles, the consensus was to prioritize buying Oclair Trading Company even if it meant putting other stocks on the back burner.
While almost all brokers were excited by the massive volume of trading, the Emmanuel, Salieri, and Dronne Trading Companies were exceptions.
However, their reasons differed.
The Emmanuel Trading Company was strictly playing a supporting role this time and held no positions of their own. Since they were focused on buying back shares without raising the stock price as instructed by Steve, they were only earning commission profits, which wasn't particularly exciting.
As for the Salieri Trading Company, they had been stocking up on shares of companies that handled materials used in lost-wax casting under Aurora's instructions. They felt a sense of tension, needing to skillfully utilize this heat to induce 'sympathy buying' from those who couldn't buy Oclair shares.
The Dronne Trading Company was pale-faced, at a loss because their buy-back orders weren't going through.
The three were in entirely different situations.
Today, Steve had come to the stock exchange with Christina. Emmanuel accompanied them.
The stock exchange was built like an arena, where trading took place on a large floor on the first floor, and the proceedings could be observed from something like spectator seating on the second floor.
Stock prices for each brand were written on a large board, but the price for the Oclair Trading Company was left blank today.
There were so many buy orders that no transactions could be finalized.
Steve and the others watched the scene from the spectator seats.
"First of all, congratulations on the price movement going exactly as planned."
When Emmanuel said this, Steve shook his head.
"I won't be at ease until we've sold off. I want you to put in sell orders the moment a price is set."
"Understood. It depends on how long Valier-dono holds out on selling, but at this rate, it's likely no transactions will be finalized tomorrow either."
Steve nodded at Emmanuel's words this time. Then, he looked at Christina beside him.
"Chris's efforts were a big help this time too. Thank you."
"No, I simply did what is natural for one who is to become your wife. However, I thought it might be a bit difficult to try and ruin others behind a smile in high society."
"Well, I wouldn't want to see a Chris with a personality as bad as His Excellency's anyway."
"I shall pretend I didn't hear that."
The contrast was sharp between Christina, who was giggling, and Emmanuel, whose face seemed to say, 'What kind of conversation are you involving me in?'
Emmanuel glanced around restlessly, checking if anyone had overheard the conversation. If this reached Aurora's ears, there was no telling what would happen to Emmanuel, who was not a noble.
Meanwhile, the Salieri Trading Company was gradually increasing Aurora's unrealized gains by orchestrating a rise in lost-wax-related stocks. Until transactions for Oclair shares were finalized, there was demand for substitutes, making it easy for those stock prices to rise.
Steve had no intention of getting involved in this from the start, so he was in spectator mode, seeing how well the Salieri Trading Company would perform.
And then, the original reason Steve had come here. The Dronne Trading Company was desperately searching for brokers who would agree to off-market transactions.
However, now that they had procured shares from the largest shareholder, Oclair, only for them to be absorbed by the Dronne Trading Company, and with the current situation where transactions wouldn't finalize due to excessive buying, there was no one willing to sell shares to the Dronne Trading Company.
At the same time, Baron Thompson was writing letters to the nobles he had ensnared into Oclair shares, asking them to sell if they still held any.
But that too was a wasted effort, as Valier had bought them up in the early stages. Baron Thompson simply didn't know that fact.
The ensnared nobles would likely feel a bit better just by seeing that letter.
"Well, the feeling of 'I would have made a profit if I'd just held on' will probably be stronger, though," Steve remarked.
Steve, who was monitoring Baron Thompson through his spiders, shared the situation with Christina and Emmanuel.
"If they had lent their shares to the Dronne Trading Company like my older brother, they would have profited, wouldn't they?"
"True. But there's no reason to help them like your brother did, so that can't be helped. A few people seem to have lent shares to Dronne, so those people must be laughing right now."
"So, as your future wife, what I'm curious about is our family's profit this time."
Since Christina hadn't heard about the profits from Steve, she took this opportunity to ask.
"Ten thousand gold coins and permission for additional immigrants as requested by His Excellency. The profit from selling the stocks will be added to that, but that probably won't be much. Besides, the request money from His Excellency is also being used for Valier's expenses, so in total, eight thousand gold coins is probably a good estimate."
"What kind of expenses does the Valier Trading Company have?"
"To collect shares from the nobles ensnared by Dronne, he couldn't exactly go empty-handed. Since I brought this proposal to Valier, I covered those expenses. Besides, it would be troublesome if Valier failed because he skimped on gifts. Also, since I repeated lost-wax prototypes with Nick, those costs are included too. Though it's a negligible percentage of the whole."
The lost-wax prototyping Steve and Nick performed used the general construction methods of the Kingdom of Cascade; they didn't create expensive metal molds for making wax patterns like in modern Japan. Therefore, it didn't cost that much.
If it had been the creation of metal molds, depending on the size, it would have exceeded a million yen. For something the size of a dragon statue, even ten million yen wouldn't be enough.
This time, Steve didn't need to make something that grand; he only needed to confirm if a dragon statue could be made with lost-wax casting. To deceive the opponent, the story needed to have a sense of reality, and he wanted to verify that.
"So even with such large-scale preparations, the profit from the copper market was larger?"
"Well, back then I was doing it myself. I also had His Excellency buy the copper. This time, Valier, the protagonist on the surface, takes most of the profit, so it can't be helped."
Steve made a shrugging gesture.
During the copper market incident, the copper Steve created with magic fetched a high price. Since there were no initial costs, the profit was huge.
Furthermore, he could create an infinite amount of trading volume.
In contrast, stock trading has an upper limit called the number of shares outstanding. Even with Dronne's short selling, they were borrowing shares to sell, so there was a limit to how much they could sell.
It depended on how high Valier would pump the price before selling off, but at best it would be about 30 times the bottom price, and considering the price would drop due to his own selling, it wouldn't be pure profit.
Even so, it was a crushing blow that would make recovery impossible for Baron Thompson and Dronne, but that was also the reason profits couldn't be increased further. Because the assets of those two were small compared to Viscount Karsh, it didn't turn into a full-blown head-to-head speculative war.
If those two had more assets, Steve and Valier would have likely put their own shares up as further collateral and had Dronne and the others sell them.
Aurora's goal was to punish those who used her name. That couldn't be achieved with a half-hearted loss. However, the amount of loss varied by person; for example, if Steve were to suffer a loss of 100,000 gold coins now, it wouldn't make recovery impossible.
However, for Baron Thompson and Dronne, such a loss would be fatal.
"Now then, I hope this ends smoothly..."
"Is there still some way for the opponent to turn things around?"
"There is. Like kidnapping Valier and confining him, torturing him until he promises to hand over the shares at a price below their selling price."
"Such a thing..."
Christina was shocked, but Emmanuel nodded without surprise, seeing it as a natural risk.
That was it for the day, and they left the stock exchange.
The next day, with the situation of no price being set continuing, Baron Thompson was finally growing desperate.
He had summoned a high-ranking officer of his territorial army to his office. This man's main duty was guarding the Baron in Sowell Land, but he was also a man who handled dirty work at times.
His name was Ronagan. He had a sturdy build, and his skill was apparent at a glance.
"Ronagan, I have another job I'd like to ask of you."
"Understood. Please order whatever you wish."
"Umu. Actually, I've been deceived by that Dronne fellow and am about to suffer a great loss in stock trading."
"Then, should I rough up Dronne?"
"No, roughing up Dronne won't erase the loss. I want to take the head of the Valier Trading Company—the cause of my loss—into custody and negotiate to cancel our losses."
Ronagan's eyes turned sharp upon hearing 'Valier Trading Company.'
"That Valier, the Margrave family's lapdog?"
"That's the one. So, I want to ensure perfection in taking him into custody."
"Hmm, that's quite a dangerous job. In that case, the place of confinement should be somewhere else, not here?"
"To be absolutely sure. Even if he were to escape, there's no problem as long as no one knows who the culprit is. The same goes for releasing him. It would be troublesome if that vixen caught wind of it."
The 'vixen' referred to Aurora.
Baron Thompson, not dreaming that he was being monitored here, called Aurora by a derogatory name as usual. Steve, watching this through his spiders, came up with an interesting idea.
Unaware that such a thing was happening, Baron Thompson gave the order to Ronagan.
"Can you get to it immediately?"
"I will scout the area now and execute it tonight. I have several bases in Sowell Land for dirty work; we shall use the best among them."
Ronagan also thought there wouldn't be much difficulty in kidnapping a mere merchant. He just thought he needed to be careful not to be found out, since Aurora was behind him.
Now, Steve, who was watching this, decided to wait for them. He immediately informed Valier of the situation and waited for Ronagan at Valier's home.
The Valier residence was surrounded by a low wall; past the gate was a garden, and beyond that was a two-story house. There were no particular gatekeepers, and Valier's family lived there with three servants.
"Still, you've taken quite a bold action."
Valier said this as he sat in a chair at the table opposite Steve and drank his tea.
"That's how desperate they are. Considering the risk if His Excellency finds out, normally one wouldn't think of attacking Valier."
"I suppose so. No matter how much they wear masks, if they kidnap me and demand a sell-off of stocks, the culprit would be immediately obvious. Are they so cornered they can't even make that judgment?"
"As if you didn't know. Grasping the opponent's funds is the basic of a speculative war. You understand the suffering of Baron Thompson and Dronne right now, don't you?"
Steve flashed a smile at Valier, then picked up his teacup and took a sip.
"When no price is set for this long, one does get frantic. I suppose I was monitored like that back then too?"
"Back then, His Excellency was the one handling the gathering of such information, so I didn't have a detailed grasp of how cornered Valier was. I had no means of searching back then."
During the copper market incident, Steve couldn't yet use magic for reconnaissance. Additionally, he had no money to request an investigation from anyone, so it was a speculative war where Aurora had set everything up for him.
Valier couldn't quite believe that, so he thought Steve was hiding the truth for some reason. However, he decided that was fine and didn't ask anything further.
"Still, it is reassuring to have Your Excellency, the strongest mage in the kingdom, acting as my guard like this. With this, the opponent won't be able to lay a finger on my family."
"That's because I can't have trouble befalling Valier, who stood at the forefront as the figurehead in place of me, the true mastermind."
"Indeed. And that is also the reason I cannot become the mastermind myself. If it's a speculative war against nobles, I have no way to defend myself."
"You have the sign of Margrave Sowell, don't you?"
When Steve said that to Valier, Valier shook his head vigorously.
"After all, I want to achieve something great once more with my own power alone. I have a desire to be told that Valier grew large because he had talent, not because he grew large thanks to the power of some noble."
"I understand that feeling well."
Steve also had dealings with large corporations in his previous life. When that happens, there's jealousy from peers saying that factory only has work because they're associated with a major company. Instead, he always wanted to be recognized for having the skill that made the major company request work from him.
He wanted to be a company that was held in high regard—one that accepted orders for mass-produced parts but could also manufacture uniquely designed jigs and equipment, which was why they could deal with major firms.
At Steve's heartfelt agreement, Valier gave a short laugh.
"I truly cannot believe Your Excellency is a minor."
"This appearance isn't a fake, though."
"If you are already at this height at your current age, there's no telling how far you will climb once you reach adulthood."
"I might hit my ceiling here."
"Even if that were the case, you have already transcended the realm of ordinary people."
"I wonder. The world is vast. What's normal in the Kingdom of Cascade might not be normal in foreign lands."
Unable to say that his knowledge was boosted thanks to being reincarnated, Steve dodged the subject vaguely.
Afterward, Valier lived his normal life so as not to worry his family, and Steve waited for Ronagan's attack in a room Valier had prepared.
Around midnight, Ronagan and two subordinates—a total of three people—raided the Valier residence. All three were dressed in solid black, their faces covered with cloth so their identities were unknown.
Steve watched them through the eyes of a cat with which he shared his senses.