Chapter 170 Black Accounts and Fraud
Andre looked at the investigation report in his hand and couldn't help but frown.
Ever since the wire-wielding ghost-faced figure killed Baron Neumann and escaped capture with a bomb, Andre has been tracking the Drodana Merchants, who appear to be inextricably linked to the Evil Eye Moon. However, to avoid alerting the enemy, his investigation can only be conducted in secret through shadow spies.
Even Andrei himself, under the pretext of receiving a title, abandoned his usual efficient style and deliberately brought Jiangyou with him, dragging his feet in the capital for nearly a week, hoping to lull the Droda Merchants into a state of complacency. Perhaps they would take advantage of the city's weakened defenses to resume their old ways, allowing the remaining shadow scouts to capture them all in one fell swoop.
Unfortunately, the members of this guild were incredibly patient. Although the case had apparently been closed, the members of the Droda guild remained cautious and low-key, acting like innocents dragged into the situation for no apparent reason. Neither the Kingdom Knights nor the Shadow Detectives could find any fault with them.
Now, more than half a month has passed, and the Chamber of Commerce is still operating in a low-key manner. No one with a body shape similar to the Ghost-Faced Man can be found among their employees, and the goods they transport have been secretly searched by shadow detectives every time. No large sums of money, treasures or black magic items are found. All the goods are consistent with the manifest and have other owners.
The shadow detectives meticulously checked every transaction of the Chamber of Commerce, but found nothing unusual.
Andre rubbed his temples tiredly.
In that case, they recovered all the black accounts and part of the property that Baron Neumann had transported. After submitting them to His Majesty, the King dispatched several experienced tax officials to conduct a more thorough review of the black accounts and the money. They then discovered a fact: even though the property they recovered was considerable, it was probably less than a third of the money that Baron Neumann had stolen from the Evil Eye Moon.
This baron is a complete thief, a master at stealing. He's a master at stealing. Andrei was surprised that the Evil Eye Moon had tolerated him for so long... No, not necessarily for so long. Given Baron Neumann's methods, the Evil Eye Moon's people probably only just realized they'd been tricked by their accomplices.
"According to jeweler Baro H. Chener, his family long ago secretly clung to Baron Neumann's influence through Baroness Neumann's wife. Every now and then, Baron Neumann would have extra gold or jewelry, which he would give to his family to smelt," Buster H. Chener reported. "They called it smelting, but in reality, it was just substitution and counterfeiting."
According to Barro Ho Chena's confession, he was an unknown goldsmith before he married his wife. He had no aesthetic talent in design, but was extremely good at counterfeiting. As long as he saw a picture of jewelry, he could make an identical fake.
Back then, whenever Wang Du released a popular design, Barrow would use cheap materials to make an indistinguishable imitation of the original within a few days. It was thanks to this skill that he met his wife.
Barrow's wife was a distant relative of Baron Neumann's wife. Although the blood relationship was weak, as long as she brought enough gifts, she could still meet and talk to him. One day, his wife came back from the Baron's house and told him with joy that she had brought him a big business.
So, Barrow was picked up by Baron Neumann in a daze, blindfolded, and taken to a certain place. He was led around in circles for a long time before finally stopping.
"Barrow said that when Baron Neumann had his blindfold removed, he saw countless gold and jewelry, almost filling up an entire cave. His exact words were: 'The legendary dragon's lair is no more than this.'" Buster repeated, "Baron Neumann asked him to make identical fake gold and fake jewelry.
He smelted brass and tin metal to create a gold-like metal, then coated it with tungsten, a weight equivalent to the gold itself. The resulting gold bars were virtually indistinguishable from the originals in both appearance and weight. He was also known for his counterfeit jewelry. After each batch was completed, he received a large sum of money, roughly 5 percent of the original price of the gold he had counterfeited. This sum served as both a reward and hush money.
"I suspect Evil Eye Moon holds a large amount of gold and jewelry. These items are extremely valuable, but difficult to circulate in large quantities on the market. For some reason, they believed Baron Neumann was a trustworthy partner and entrusted these gold and jewelry to him for safekeeping or to liquidate. However, Baron Neumann deceived Evil Eye Moon and replaced the gold and jewelry he handled with counterfeit goods."
Buster's inference seemed to make some sense.
Andrei's brow furrowed even further. "No, that's not right. If Evil Eye Moon gave Baron Neumann gold to cash in, then regardless of whether the gold was real or fake, Baron Neumann would have to provide Evil Eye Moon with the corresponding current currency... If he counterfeited the gold, it would be useless. If it was counterfeit currency, it would be understandable. Besides, it doesn't match the account in the black account."
"[The greedy betrayer died because of the wealth he robbed], since it was stolen, it means that Evil Eye Moon was probably unaware of Baron Neumann's actions before.
"I believe the cave Baron Neumann took Barrow to is probably the secret location where Evil Eye Moon hides its gold and treasures. It's even more likely that only the leader or a few high-ranking officials know about this secret location. After all, even if you assign your men to guard a huge cave full of treasure, you'd have to worry about them stealing it.
"Perhaps he'd gotten some information from their daily collaboration and communication, or perhaps he'd been taken to that cave before... In any case, Baron Neumann somehow got the news and found this location. He wanted to keep the vast wealth for himself, but feared Evil Eye Moon's discovery if he made too much of a move. So, he hired Barrow to forge counterfeit gold and jewelry, replacing them exactly on a one-to-one basis, slowly chipping away at Evil Eye Moon's wealth."
"That black account book not only records the accounts of the cooperation between Baron Neumann and Evil Eye Moon, but also contains many large sums of money with directional symbols and numbers written in front of them that we still haven't understood. I guess those symbols and numbers are used to record which gold and jewels in the cave have been replaced with fake ones!
"That's why Baron Neumann didn't dare destroy these black accounts and had to have the Barrow family hide them. That way, if he survived the crisis, he could use those black accounts to distinguish which gold in the cave was real and which was counterfeit!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
