Capítulo 23: Defenses and financial dictatorship?
"What are you doing now?" asked a curious Nagini, approaching where Aurelius was working.
"My home will be soon safe," replied Aurelius, "but I'm thinking of creating accessories that will protect them outside."
"Hmmm," Nagini mused. "Well, that's a long list you'll have to cover. Putting a lot of enchantments on any item puts a lot of strain on it. It might just break after a few uses. On the other hand, if it works fine, it might take longer to function because the ring has to cycle through its library of abilities."
"I agree," Aurelius said, nodding. "That's why I am creating multiple rings and bracelets that will serve specific purposes each. According to memory, there is a metal alloy that is very durable and quite magic-conductive, but it was essentially useless to the family."
"Huh? Why are you using that, then?" Nagini asked, puzzled.
"It wasn't used much for things like magic because it had one major flaw. Once it was taught something through magic within one hour of its creation, it would never learn anything more. It was a one-and-done thing. This made it worthless to developing wizards, which was the entire house, since our development is constant. But they were a part of our history, nonetheless. For my purposes, the rings are essentially perfect," Aurelius explained.
"Well, if it gets the job done, I suppose it doesn't matter. What's its name, and what makes it so powerful?" asked Nagini, her curiosity piqued.
"During their time, it was known as Dragon's Armory due to its insanely high-temperature resistance," Aurelius began. "It is a combination of what is currently called tungsten and rhenium. There wasn't a single thing known publicly that could melt the stuff since a dragon's flame couldn't reach the necessary temperatures. The flame of our dragons is estimated to be about 1982 degrees Celsius. The melting point of tungsten is 3422 degrees Celsius, and rhenium is 3180 degrees Celsius. Both are about 75% stronger than dragon flames. My ancestors figured out that the only thing hot enough to melt it was lightning magic, but they never used lightning magic outside of welding to preserve the secret of the armor. The alloy they made is some of the strongest metals ever known to man, magical or not even in our time. The combination they most commonly used was so powerful that it became known as Dragon's Bane in the family—not to be confused with the poison," Aurelius concluded.
Nagini's curiosity sparked as she pondered the implications of the metal's strength. "Hmm, so if it's so strong, wouldn't that mean that metal is scarce?" she asked, her eyes glinting with fascination.
Aurelius nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, but if there are large quantities anywhere, it would be in the family vault. After all, this metal was essentially useless to other wizards, while my family would actively look for the stuff."
Nagini raised an eyebrow. "That's a fair assumption," she conceded. "Well, we are going to Gringotts to check all of your bank statements and the contents of your vault. I wonder if you have any marriage debts or just regular loans?"
Aurelius chuckled knowingly. "Oh, no doubt in my mind that it came with interest. Oh, right, muggle term," he added, seeing Nagini's puzzled expression. "Well, basically, they pay for the time it took to return the money."
"Pfftt hahaha," Nagini burst out laughing unexpectedly, causing Aurelius to raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"What's so funny?" he inquired, his curiosity piqued by Nagini's sudden amusement.
As Nagini composed herself, a mischievous glint danced in her eyes. "Aurelius, if your family has any loans out to other families, then they're absolutely screwed," she teased, unable to contain her amusement.
Aurelius's expression shifted to one of realization. "Oh, now that I think about it," he mused. "There is a formula that the muggles use that my family had used before its time in the muggle world. It was (1 + interest rate) to the power of years times the remaining loan. Wait a minute, if I think about it like that..."
Nagini urged him on with a curious expression. "Go on."
Aurelius paused, lost in calculation. "Let me just check the math."
Thirty minutes passed, during which Nagini waited with growing impatience. "Why in Merlin's name did it take you half an hour?" she finally exclaimed.
Aurelius wiped his brow, his face contorted with shock. "Well, I did the math, and for the last 10 minutes, I was sweating profusely in shock. My calculator came with an interest of 2.653e+33."
Nagini nodded, not completely understanding but having a rough idea of what that might mean. "Please inform those unfamiliar with your muggle tools and ways."
Aurelius cleared his throat, his voice trembling slightly. "Basically, at the e+33…."
Nagini impatiently yelled for him to continue, "Spit it out."
Aurelius took a deep breath. "It's the place of a number, so if it were +4, it would be just the thousands place like 2653 galleons, but put 29 zeroes behind that and move the decimal place to the end. That is the new value. Except that's just the multiplier. So whatever, the original loan was you multiply that by that absurd amount. If you borrowed literally a hundred galleons, you'd still be royally screwed."
Nagini's incredulous laughter echoed in the room. Then realized that he wasn't laughing along. "Wait, you're serious?"
Aurelius nodded, still in shock. "Yeah, and that's at the minimum of 1000 years at an interest rate of just 8%; assumingly, it would be even larger since I'm over a thousand years old."
Nagini shook her head in disbelief. "Bloody hell, you've got them by the short and curlies of whoever owes you. Are these magically binding contracts?"
Aurelius nodded gravely. "Yeah, and they're all made so that anyone who's made a contract with them will lose both their family line, and their children that have married or been married off cannot engage in having someone attempt to kill our family to end the debts. This essentially protected the family completely from any backstabbing."
Nagini's eyes widened with realization. "Wait, is that why some family lines died out near the founders' age?"
"In all likelihood, yes," Aurelius replied. "If I remember correctly, there was a saying that became pretty common before my family became all but extinct: If you're going to be indebted, do it with a Galegold, but if you didn't intend to pay your dues, you were better off with the goblins."
"Well, I guess if you intended to pay it back, you'd be fine," Nagini remarked. "But I can see why some families wouldn't if the family line would've died with your mother. No point in paying the dead."
"Unfortunately, if those debts are unknown, eventually, they'll be told once I go to Gringotts, I'll pay them to keep their mouths shut until I have some strong defenses up, which should be about a couple weeks, but that wave will hit hard and fast" Aurelius continued. "So effectively, if they pay us back gradually if they only pay back 1 million galleons every year, my line will own the family's effectively for literally 10^27 or basically, the entirety of the earth's lifetime before the earth would be engulfed in the sun. And even if they were to pay back with a trillion galleons every year, the interest would ensure they won't be able to pay it back."
"So basically, you own them for eternity," Nagini concluded, a mixture of awe and realization in her voice.
"Pretty much," Aurelius confirmed. "With a loan of just 100,000 galleons, a normal amount to start a well-functioning business or mansion. To pay me back immediately, it would take over five hundred billion times the size of Earth's worth of gold to pay it off right away."
"God, I don't know how to feel about that," Nagini expressed, her voice filled with uncertainty. "You effectively have financial slaves who can't work to gain their freedom forever, regardless of if they become obscenely rich. The only literal choice is to kill their family line or make sure that you're content with an amount that doesn't cripple them annually."
"Well, now my family line is ensured for the rest of eternity," Aurelius remarked. "Even if we were to expand to the size of the universe, it wouldn't be doable unless the person owned multiple galaxies' worth of planets."
"What if they inform the public? Wouldn't that alienate you?" Nagini questioned.
"Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, there are clauses in my family's contracts that whomever they deal with will not be allowed to explain any implications or details of the contract," Aurelius explained. "It can only be explained to anyone in the immediate family. Much like the fidelius charm, the information won't even be seeable if they write it down. God, I hope the other nobles don't go barmy. Having not a mountain but our entire planetary system on your shoulders all of a sudden like this and being unable to tell anyone of your plight except your spouse, parents, siblings, and children could make just about anyone go mad. Hmm, according to my memories, there is a clause that allows me to tell a betrothed about a contract bearer if requested, but the person involved may only say, and I quote, 'I did not marry due to the debts that they carry and am unable to speak of the details due to a magical contract that should I attempt to inform someone in any way my life and the family's magic are forfeit," Aurelius revealed.
"Damn, how did anyone accept to deal with your family?" Nagini exclaimed in astonishment.
"They were normal interest rates and would be reasonably able to pay back in full; it just would take a decade or two, and if you were wealthy soon after, it would take less than a decade." Said Aurelius.
"This makes it imperative that I make the defense and mind ring soon after summer begins. Even if I'm protected, that doesn't inherently mean my adoptive family unless I adopt them into the family, and they take the Galegold name; this should work with Hermes and yourself. I already know all the enchantments and how to do it onto the rings and make the stuff, but it needs to be done at a level I haven't reached yet." Aurelius said with seriousness, conveying his sense of urgency.
"Well, have you developed a means of creating the rings and making all the enchantments last long enough?" asked a curious Nagini.
"Yes, I already have the plans in my head." Said a prepared Aurelius.
"Since when?" said an incredulous snake woman
"I'd say it was brewing a few weeks ago, but putting it into action would be during the summer break, so I didn't sweat it too much. It will only be doable once I've obtained the metal. I already have a little experience in welding with lightning. If all is done correctly and at the pace I expect. It should be done in a week into summer after. All the tools needed are in the castle and perhaps doable if my estate still exists and is in working condition." Said confident Aurelius.
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