Elsewhere, at Elliot's residence.
Early that morning, he rose without delay and immediately summoned Conrad, the old butler.
"Conrad, send visiting cards to those three factory owners in the East District. I'll be calling on them today."
Elliot's very first words made the old butler raise his eyebrows in surprise.
"Young master, are you planning to-"
"Have a talk with them."
After several days of investigation, Elliot had decided to lay his cards on the table.
Elliot had originally assumed that, as members of the New Nobility, the rival factory owners were staunch soldiers of capitalism, the sort who would sell the rope used to hang them for a profit, and would surely resort to any means in their cutthroat competition.
Yet after all this time, they had neither infiltrated his factories through supernatural means nor sent anyone to sabotage them. They had not even stirred up trouble among the workers.
Apart from dumping their goods, all they had done was diligently integrate their supply chains, gaining a price advantage by reducing logistics costs.
Even their dumping left them with a five-percent gross margin, as though they were too timid to push things all the way.
Elliot had kept Evan with him these past few days to guard against assassination and the like, yet the other side really was competing through business methods alone?
Compared with everything he had seen and heard during his time in the Empire, these factory owners were practically innocent little flowers.
Elliot, on the other hand, was looking rather like the villain.
Afraid that investigating any further would leave him unable to bring himself to act, Elliot decided to get this settled quickly.
His will was swiftly carried out.
Not long after the visiting cards were delivered, Elliot set off for the eastern part of