Inheriting a Lost Bloodline, My First Task is to have heirs?!

Chapter 699 - Efficient Information Gathering (Part 1)

I spent the next two days reading through all the information gathered by the four staff that I hired from the Quest bookstore. As expected, every family has their own skeletons in the closet and relatives that are nothing but trouble. I focused particularly on these burdensome relatives first since these stupid people most likely can be manipulated through opportunities to earn wealth, maybe shady relationships on the side and even promise of usurping a better position in their respective families. I read a lot of books so I should know it well.To ensure that I can concentrate more on my increasing tasks in the near future, I made sure to secure the requirements I have with the academe first. By the end of my fourth day of my stay in Cinkaidu, although a day early, I quickly sent over my observation report that I have long finished during the second day of my stay. I sent it via the slower type of communication so the delay can make up for the one day that I did not use up.

Once that is settled, I poured on my focus on the thick stack of documents in front of me. As per the map, my next stop will be the Shareen territory where Helios’ birth parents are from. The territory is governed by the Duchy of Shareen but the Duke and Duchess stay neutral and only focus on their jobs which is a good thing. They never concerned themselves with the fighting between the lower ranked nobles in their territory as long as they do not harm their constituents that much.

Under the Duchy of Shareen was the Countdom of Drusilla where the Countess is Helios’ biological mother. There are other countdoms in the area such as that of the Kerner, Haber and Buckley families. They stay independent from each other but still help each other out during crisis on their respective agricultural lands.

The Barony of Tilden where Helios’ father came from was under the Countdom of Kerner. It was a good thing that the Kerner family and the Drusilla family are rivals on the wealth ranking within the territory so they are backing up the Tilden household though discreetly. Though they do not have blood feuds, it has been several generations where they fought over land, workers, business, official government positions even the educational attainment of their children.

There are a lot of interesting people in the Duchy of Shareen which starts with the countess herself who got her upgraded title by selling her own son. Another one is the countess’ very own younger and only sister and her second husband. This sister liked to live lavishly as if their family’s money was endless. She is also known to be promiscuous and spoiled to the bone by their parents (the previous baron and baroness). She hated this sister but she was powerless to do anything about it since there are too many elders to answer to within the family and many other problems to tend to.

The countess was the only technically working in the family and everyone is there just to spend the money and enjoy the benefits. As for the that said brother-in-law, he loves to drink excessively and is addicted to gambling due to his wife’s diregard of her husbands and children. As for the other husbands, they don’t care about the money but is silently siphoning money back to their households. I feel like this household is really fun to make an even bigger mess with since they are already in one to begin with.

The second stop will be the Ancient City of Kalina governed by the Earldom of Cassia where Calyx’s mother is from. This was an area governed by the Duchy of Manson together with several countdom and baronies. The Quillon family used to be a merchant family but after Calyx’s father came back to his paternal family, he became a changed person. He consolidated the family’s properties and improved their means to earn money. He rose from just some random scribe son to the figure head of the family within 5 years. Now, he has as much power as a noble but he opted to push his older sibling, his elder sister to the position of Countess so he can concentrate on his personal goals.

As for the current situation of the Earldom, their finances are very unstable since most of their money are in the reproduction then selling of written materials like books and manuscripts to nobility. As for their family, there aren’t that many burdensome relatives so it is better to focus on the money side of things.

After Calyx’ father returned to his family, they stopped supplying paper and ink to any business owned by the Earldom of Cassia and only provided such to other businesses. It can’t be an even more of a direct challenge than that.

Another brave move from Calyx’s father was posting some hiring announcements under the Quillon merchant household. He started hiring scribes at a 20% higher salary than generally offered. He did it to poach directly from the Cassia household for the same amount and type of work. He then established a business under his own name (he set up his own household branch) that not only creates original book but also make copies of wriitten documents which directly competes with the business of his ex-wife.

Most of the people he was able to poach were veteran scribes and tutors that he has worked with back when he was still in his ex-wife’s household. He further expanded the business by sponsoring budding artists and youngsters that have potential to become scribes and scholars ensuring the future workforce of his own business. Their family is the main source of high quality paper and ink in the region so he can definitely afford it.

Since my father-in-law has already made his move, I would only need to give him a little more push while messing up the other party a bit more. I am thinking of something that has that is more destructive in nature but first, I had to take some copies of the original precious books and other written materials first to ensure that they can be preserved. After that, I will proceed on to making a lot of trouble.