“What has Lynch been doing these days?”

After finishing his work, His Majesty the Emperor casually brought up the topic as a way to relax. Lynch had been in the spotlight recently, and the accidental leaks of certain information had drawn the emperor’s attention.

The emperor didn’t personally like Lynch. Granting him a title had been a move to spite the Federation, but now, due to some rumors, it was beginning to backfire—on himself.

Rumors claimed Lynch would marry Jania, and that the emperor had conferred the barony to clear the final obstacle between Lynch and Jania—nobility.

According to imperial tradition, a royal princess cannot marry a commoner. But once someone becomes a noble, regardless of rank, a union with the royal family becomes possible.

It wouldn’t be realistic to directly grant Lynch a high noble title. The plan, supposedly, was to have him marry Princess Jania first, then elevate his title under the pretense of a royal favor, making him worthy of a princess.

That would remove all remaining barriers.

These rumors were deeply troubling to the emperor. He had never considered marrying Jania to Lynch. Lynch was a foreigner—he wasn’t even from the Empire!

More importantly, the emperor had no desire to become Lynch’s brother-in-law.

If Lynch were a dignitary from another country, or a king or prince of some small nation, that might be acceptable. But he was just a lowly commoner from the Federation.

No matter how rich or talented he was, his background couldn’t be changed. The princess would never marry someone like him.

Yet public speculation persisted, with people assuming this was all orchestrated by the emperor himself. How could he not be frustrated?

The real intent behind his question was something like: “What hasn’t he done yet? If he’s finished, tell him to get lost.”

The Royal Chamberlain hesitated slightly, then spoke after a moment of thought. “Lynch has been at the exchange.”

“The exchange?” The emperor didn’t quite follow. “What exchange?”

“The Royal Exchange. Finance…” the chamberlain reminded him.

The emperor tilted his head slightly in understanding, then frowned. He had heard some of Lynch’s exploits in the Federation and knew he was a cunning young man. “Is he up to something?”

The chamberlain nodded again. “He’s shorting the Empire’s financial index.”

The emperor was momentarily stunned. “Has something happened recently?” he asked, now clearly displeased. “Summon the Minister of Finance.”

Before long, the Minister of Finance arrived in the emperor’s ornate study.

“I heard Lynch is shorting the Empire’s financial index. Has anything happened domestically?”

The finance minister’s calm, confident smile didn’t waver. “Your Majesty, no need to worry. Baron Lynch is simply playing a little joke on us.”

The emperor studied his face for a moment and found no signs of evasion or concealment. He nodded noncommittally. “I want to know exactly what’s going on.”

As someone with an intense need for control, the emperor wanted to know everything happening in his country.

The finance minister then relayed everything he had learned. The chamberlain had already told him the reason for the summons, so he had come fully informed.

Now, he simply summarized what he had just learned—though polished and filtered through his own lens.

After hearing the explanation, the emperor didn’t think too much. This wasn’t his area of expertise, so rather than dwell on it, he deferred to the professionals.

“Are we sure Lynch’s actions won’t trigger a market crash?” he asked, still uneasy. “I’ve heard that while Lynch is young, he’s quite capable in business and finance.”

The finance minister thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Your Majesty, we have the most advanced algorithms in the world. The rise and fall of any single stock won’t significantly affect a sector index.”

“According to our formulas, only if a dozen or even several dozen stocks drop simultaneously would the index start to fall.”

“Our dynamic factor model ensures every index fluctuation is unpredictable. Our formula is unbreakable!”

The minister spoke with conviction—and rightly so. Their sector index was composed by weighting stocks according to total trade volume over the past three to seven days.

In other words, the larger the stock’s volume, the greater its weighting in the index. Truly large-cap companies in the Empire were incredibly stable.

They were either banks or industries controlled by high nobility, backed by immense resources. In fact, unless shareholders actively wanted to fleece retail investors, these stocks barely fluctuated at all.

Under such conditions, the idea that someone could crash the Empire’s financial system by targeting a single stock was laughable.

“Whether Baron Lynch is talented or not, I don’t know. But he’s definitely a gifted comedian!”

Seeing the finance minister’s confidence, the emperor relaxed. He even cracked a joke: “You’re right. Sometimes he’s amusing, but most of the time he’s just annoying.”

Neither of them took the matter seriously. As for the rumor that a company might be falsifying its financials?

That wasn’t something a national emperor or a cabinet minister needed to worry about. Their subordinates would handle it cleanly.

As noon approached, the emperor began thinking about what he wanted the chef to prepare for lunch.

But at that moment, the stock market fell into an unusual state.

The Pleasure Daily published multiple pages of credible, detailed reports exposing the truth about Harmony Capital. They had used the weekend to stir up the issue, leading some to believe it was just a marketing gimmick.

They had a history of slandering celebrities or trending companies to grab attention, then suing to extract settlements—a form of calculated extortion.

It worked well. Even if someone could win in court, most public figures didn’t want to waste time or risk their reputation fighting back.

Winning a lawsuit didn’t guarantee much compensation. Draging it out just meant more dirty laundry aired. Better to ignore it altogether.

But this time, things were different.

Pages of detailed, credible evidence were printed, even including how the young reporter who uncovered the story was nearly silenced.

People began to wonder—was this just another ploy by Pleasure Daily, or had it really happened?

These developments quickly impacted the stock market. Harmony Capital’s stock price plummeted again, and even the Gephra Financial Index began to show slight declines.

It looked like these events wouldn’t significantly affect the index—but in truth, several days of massive trading volume had made Harmony Capital a weight stock in the index.

Its trading volume had surpassed that of the other stocks the Finance Minister mentioned—equaling the combined volume of several large-cap stocks.

Being a weight stock meant it had a greater influence on the financial index than others.

This wasn’t unique to the Gephra Empire; the Federation used a similar calculation method. When a stock’s trading volume rises continuously and maintains a high turnover rate daily, it can, to some extent, represent the entire sector.

If a regular stock dropped ten Sol and caused the sector index to fall by one point due to certain factors, then a weight stock like Harmony Capital might only need to fall a tenth of that to cause the same drop in the index.

Since the morning, Harmony Capital had already plunged nearly five Sol. As external factors intensified, panic selling took over. Lynch didn’t even need to do anything—retail investors began dumping their shares without hesitation.

The price kept falling. With every drop, Lynch felt a surge of satisfaction.

His wealth had grown again.

Nothing in this world was more thrilling than the increase of wealth. All those billionaires and tycoons—

They always claimed they had no interest in money, that they didn’t even understand it, didn’t care for it. But why were they constantly obsessed with making more?

Lynch didn’t like to lie, unless it was necessary.

Right now, he was enjoying it immensely. He loved the joy money brought, loved the rising numbers, loved everything related to wealth.

But it still wasn’t enough—it needed a final push.

And just then, the television delivered it.

Every Monday at noon, before work resumed, there was a current affairs program that discussed major news topics from the past week. The show was known for its sharp commentary and was popular with everyone—from ordinary citizens to the emperor himself.

His Majesty, enjoying a rare relaxing lunch break, sat not far from the television. Thanks to a recent military exercise where a bit of time was bought through some clever maneuvering, his schedule had been pushed back by an hour.

But it wasn’t much. Previously, he had to rise before dawn. Now, he got up when the sky was just beginning to brighten—barely a change.

Will today’s show mention anything related to me?

The emperor wondered silently. He liked being respected, but he knew the show wouldn’t flatter him.

“Hello, everyone. Today’s episode is a special one. Before we begin, we’d like you to watch this short edited clip…” the host announced.

As the words faded, the screen cut to a montage.

The footage covered everything related to Harmony Capital—from its obscure beginnings to its recent madness.

Soaring stock prices. Frenzied investors. Rampant speculation. Anything connected to Harmony Capital seemed to spiral into chaos.

The short video ended quickly, followed by the title of the episode:

The Madness of Harmony Gold Bonds.