Cheapskate

"Although this goes against the rules, I don't think it's a problem!"

The head of the Royal Bank's Loan Department said this with a smile to a noble. The displeasure on the noble's face gave way to a somewhat reserved smile.

This noble had arrived first thing in the morning and requested loans secured against his estates, villas, luxury cars, and a large quantity of art and jewelry.

To be honest, encountering a noble like this usually meant making a hefty profit. There were two possible explanations.

First, he might have taken part in some kind of gamble and lost all his assets.

There were gamblers among the nobility, and they played for extremely high stakes.

Gambling over one or two hundred, one or two thousand, or even ten thousand or two hundred thousand at a time no longer seemed thrilling enough to them.

Once you had enough money, winning or losing was truly just a change in the digits. Such changes were difficult to get the heart racing.

Only gambling with their entire fortunes could make these noble gamblers feel that kind of joy—the joy of walking slowly across a tightrope over an abyss while stepping on the thread of fate, the joy of facing an unknown destiny.

There had been nobles in Gefra's history who went bankrupt at the card table, and there had been more than one.

The other possibility was that these nobles' "life cycles" were about to end. For example, they might not be certain they could receive a new Bestowal of Titles from Your Majesty the Emperor, and might become commoners.

The assets they controlled could very well become the bait that brought disaster upon them. At such a time, converting their property into cash and leaving Gefra would be a good choice. Of