Acquisition Solves Everything

After receiving Viscount Rost's orders, the Golden Merchants' Guild sprang into action.

Whenever land prices fell to around 30% of their original value, they were to buy without asking questions.

Countless sums of hard cash flowed from Viscount Rost, through Great Dragon Bank, into the hands of the Golden Merchants' Guild's agents. They were eventually converted into deeds, carried away by deliverymen, and sent to the Golden Merchants' Guild's directly operated stores.

Many people were baffled by the Golden Merchants' Guild's actions. Land prices had fallen this far—why were they still buying?!

In the heartland of the Graycastle Empire.

The castle of the Emerson Family, the world's largest landowners and grain suppliers.

The head of the Emerson Family sat silently in a chair beside the fireplace.

He seemed to be pondering something.

When he had first witnessed Golden Ear Grain's immense yields, he had immediately chosen to dump large quantities of the family's grain.

Their family controlled numerous sales channels, and many merchants had been waiting near their estates for them to release grain.

As a result, their losses had not been too severe.

They sold off vast amounts of grain. Although the prices had been somewhat low, they were still acceptable.

However, the merchants who had taken over that stock were truly unlucky.

In just a single day, they watched grain prices fall by half.

Their assets rapidly shrank and were now worth less than 20% of their original value, with no sign that the decline was stopping...

Of course, the head of the Emerson Family did not care much about that. What did their survival have to do with the Emerson Family?

If grain prices recovered, they would still be the world's largest landowners, with countless merchants still gathering around them.

Even if grain prices never recovered, their