Drawing Cards in the Middle Ages to Rise in Ranks-Chapter 492 - 272: Money, My Money!

Bang!

Losa exerted force, slamming Hans’s iron-gloved hand onto the table with such strength that the tabletop instantly cracked.

Hans looked impressed, saying, "Master, you’re amazing."

The two arm wrestled, and as a result, Losa won completely!

"You little rascal."

Losa smiled. Finally, his basic attributes had caught up. Without Bloodfall’s support, he was not far behind Hans, basically on the same level.

If it dragged on, the outcome would be uncertain.

Hans still held back.

He said seriously, "Master, I really didn’t hold back this time."

Losa rolled his eyes, thinking, the system panel’s attributes are all laid out here, I can see it clearly.

At that moment, he suddenly felt a warmth in his chest and took out his emblem. Across from him came Anna’s charming voice, "I heard you did quite well in this battle. Have you considered selling me the materials from that Karelian Fire Dragon?"

"Nonsense, if I don’t sell them to you, I have no other channels."

"Alright, I’ll find some time to visit Jerusalem in a couple of days."

Losa nodded and asked, "How’s the fight going on your side in Sicily?"

Anna seemed in good spirits, smiling as she said, "Your Emperor put in a lot of effort this time. The dispatched army has besieged Naples, tying up a large number of enemy troops, and we took the opportunity to land on Sicily."

The two exchanged a few more pleasantries before ending the communication.

"Alright, another sum of money is coming in, the army’s expenses are finally secured."

He paused slightly, then added, "Kurs, in the coming period, I’ll be troubling you. I need maps of all the key locations on the Sinai Peninsula, the distribution of enemy garrison troops, and the division of local power factions in Egypt."

Being proactive is fundamentally different from passive defense.

Especially in a place as extremely arid as the Sinai Peninsula, gathering intelligence and planning an advance route in advance is crucial.

Kurs nodded slightly, "I will instruct the Shadow of Darkness to start the investigation immediately."

"I won’t be eating at the camp tonight. In a moment, I need to meet with the Knight Order to discuss some loan matters."

In this era, numerous usury bans existed in Europe, but they couldn’t stop the usury industry from thriving in trade-rich places like the Apennine Peninsula. Some usurious annual interest rates even horrifyingly exceeded 40%.

If a great noble borrowed for war, the interest rate might even soar to 100%!

This is because these great nobles’ collateral for loans often consisted of their estates and manors, or even lands under enemy control—if they lost the battle, lenders wouldn’t have the ability to seek repayment from enemies wielding swords.

If they won, they still had to be wary of great nobles denying their debt, and turning on their creditors. This type of situation wasn’t unheard of.

The higher the risk, the higher the interest rate.

The Knight Order is after all a monastic organization and wouldn’t act as unscrupulously as merchants.

The interest rate should not be too high.

After all, "the interest on money is the death of the soul, a bridge to Hell," and the current Grand Masters Gerard and Roger are fairly upright and wouldn’t haggle over every penny like Jewish merchants.

Frankly, Losa was also very envious of the Knight Order’s control over the banking industry, but Losa didn’t have their unique advantages.

On the one hand, the Knight Order owned thousands of estates scattered across Europe, meaning their branches could easily expand into every corner of Europe; on the other hand, they also had the Church’s credit endorsement.

Moreover, the Knight Order’s main business was not loans to merchants but to pilgrims. In the Holy Land where the Knight Order had a strong presence, they naturally became banking giants. It was a two-way choice.

After all, in this era rampant with bandits, setting off on a pilgrimage with a pouch of gold coins or a voucher exchangeable at a Knight Order branch, the safer option was obvious.

...

In the evening, Losa arranged to meet with the two Grand Masters at the Templar Order’s camp.

"Good evening, Grand Master Gerard, Grand Master Roger."

Losa entered the tent and first saluted the two leaders of the Knight Order.

They both rose and crossed their chests, "God bless you, Marquis Losa."

"Grand Masters, my Steward of the Holy Vault has probably already discussed my intentions with you both."

Roger couldn’t help but smile wryly and said, "Lord Losa, you truly have a talented subordinate."

Thinking of Kurs, who was more difficult to deal with than a Vampire or Jewish merchants, both Roger and Gerard couldn’t help but feel a headache.

Losa laughed and said, "Indeed, I also think his request for a donation of a hundred thousand Suludes for free is too much. The campaign against Egypt, liberating Christians, is the most sacred endeavor in this world, but the Knight Order also needs funds to support its operations. How about we reduce the number to fifty thousand?"

The two Grand Masters exchanged glances, unable to suppress eye-rolling. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

It seemed like they were both equally shameless.

Gerard lightly coughed, "Marquis, it is indeed our duty to contribute gold for the holy Crusade, but the Holy Vault at the Jerusalem branch doesn’t have that much money at the moment."

"How much do you have?"

Losa’s eyes lit up, finally realizing there was some after all!

Gerard was silent for a moment, then gestured, "Thirty thousand gold coins, but I hope to obtain the head of that Demon Dragon to place in the Knight Order’s headquarters as a Holy Object for people to see."

Losa looked bitter, "I’m afraid that’s not possible. The Empire’s Purple Robe Princess, my close friend, Her Highness Anna Ducas, has already agreed with me to exchange twenty thousand Suludes gold coins for the dragon’s remains."

"You may not know, but this Giant Dragon is a unique high-class Fire Dragon from the Karelia Region. Every scale on its body is an extraordinary treasure, dragon blood, dragon meat are also valuable magic potion materials. Imagine how impressive the defense would be if the dragon scales were made into armor?"

The two Grand Masters were somewhat dumbfounded by Losa’s sales pitch.

"It does seem like that."

This Giant Dragon’s body is so large that its scales could make hundreds of suits of armored scale armor. Even if Saladin were to invade again, he would have to flee in disarray?

Moreover, there’s dragon blood, dragon meat, dragon sinew, dragon bone, and other magic potion materials.

Twenty thousand does indeed seem worth it!

To be honest, Losa took advantage of their ignorance. A Tyrannical Dragon was at best a medium to high-level dragon species, and a single heart could fetch at most ten thousand gold coins, still more if in Anna’s hands.

If without connections, it would only be considered a decorative piece with stable temperature, and one would still worry about someday a Tyrannical Dragon hatching and swallowing one’s head whole.

The dragon blood of the Karelian Fire Dragon was already wasted.

Dragon meat was the same.

Once this stuff cooled, it would solidify quickly like lava, turning into stone. The dragon blood Loasa absorbed was also wasteful at best.

As for making Dragon Scale Armor from Karelian Fire Dragon scales, the craftsmanship was a challenge, even Marles, a ’Divine Craftsman,’ would only be able to process a few sets in a month, making it impossible to field an army.

While dragon bone and dragon horn are good magic materials, they’re nowhere near worth twenty thousand gold coins. Selling the whole dragon to Anna would bring at most fifty thousand gold coins, and that’s owing to Anna’s goodwill.