Divorce
What options did Albert have? Debts are nightmares that you can never shake off. Virtually everyone in business will have to shoulder a debt at some point. It wasn’t some rare occurrence among those in business. In some cases, it’d be impossible to do business without being in debt. If you use whatever cash you have to try and humbly try to start a business, you’ll be stuck as a small-timer for eternity, not a successful businessman.
Businessmen must shoulder debts and then repay those debts with their earnings. Businessmen, however, were also destroyed at the hands of their debts. If a businessman couldn’t make money, his debts would crush him. In the era I came from, we leveraged the law to have others abide by the terms. In this era, businessmen were subjects to their credibility in the business network. Sure, you could run from the debt, but you would have to face the businesses’ pursuit. Given the power of their network, they’d be even more effective at catching someone than the military would be, as people had to interact with someone in business every day but wouldn’t necessarily bump into soldiers.
The reality was that Albert didn’t commit a mistake too big to remedy. Albert didn’t owe the bank or other businesses. He only owed the commoners. Their money could be brushed off. He could sell all of his assets then flee with Lilia. It wasn’t as if they could file a report or something, since he sold tangible ceramic products to them. At most, they could report him for exercising false marketing. It was a minor matter because he didn’t repay them. Nobody would go out of their way to investigate him.
The only ones with considerable problems were probably the opportunists who borrowed money in an attempt to buy low and sell high. They would probably have to shoulder debts. That said, they weren’t big wigs in society, so they wouldn’t be able to locate Albert. Albert could run off to somewhere with nice scenery and lead a peaceful life.
I firmly pressed a hand on Albert’s shoulder: “Don’t feel embarrassed about it or anything. It’s the best solution you have at the moment. Compared to this, when they come for you in three months’ time, that’ll be the biggest blow. The businesses may force you to death or even send you straight into bankruptcy. You’re better off selling all of your assets and fleeing now. I don’t care where you want to run to, but, at the very least, you’ll be able lead a decent life with your wife and child.”
While Albert was on the verge of bankruptcy, he would have enough money if he sold all of his assets. He could change his name and flee to the colony and sell a cheap block and hire someone to plant crops. He could be an owner while leading a decent life in peace. Surely Lilia could accept that sort of life. You could find all sorts of different people in the colony. Therefore, nobody would care about some insignificant landlord. Producing his own stuff and selling it himself was a perfect job for Albert. The issue was whether or not he could escape.
“Can you contact someone for me? Even if I want to sell all of my assets now, I can’t sell them immediately. If I start to sell my assets, and someone finds out, they’ll realise I’m bankrupt and stop me, won’t they? Lilia can’t handle the ordeal in her current state. Also, I can’t let her give birth on board a ship.”
“If you want to sell, then you need to be quick, or the value will drop. I don’t have any feasible ideas. I don’t know anybody in the South, either. Shouldn’t you be the expert here? I could help you if you were in the imperial capital, but you have to rely on yourself here.”
Albert fell silent. I knew that he wouldn’t accept my suggestion because of his ego. After all, if he was willing to sacrifice everything for his wife, then his ego wouldn’t be worth dirt. The reason he couldn’t accept my suggestion was because, one, he couldn’t find anybody who could lend him money to buy assets, and two, Lilia couldn’t move about.
If Albert couldn’t sell his assets, he wouldn’t have cash flow. Everybody who bought porcelain products from him would then come and force him to repay them once they discovered he was bankrupt. We might even have a homicide case for all I knew. That’s why I had another idea prepared for him.
Albert himself said that he could even give up his life for his wife. Hey, fine by me. Achilles said the same thing. Achilles gave me everything he had, including his factory, his business and more. Among that everything included his life, and he gave it all to me to have me avenge him. I saw the only man I could consider a friend die.
“Albert, do you know how that feels? Do you understand how upset I felt? You are being intimate with your wife and will enjoy a delightful life, while my friend is drinking from the yellow river, the river the dead must cross on the other side. He never did anything to you. You harmed him to satisfy your selfish desires, and now you wish for a good ending? I’ll destroy you. I’ll let you feel over ten times the despair and pain Achilles felt. Revenge won’t revive Achilles; I know that. But you know what? I still want you dead,” I said in my mind.
“I have another idea, then,” I voiced, clearing my throat.
Another lightning bolt painted Albert’s face ashen. The thunder rendered Albert looking so insignificant and weak. Though I couldn’t see the look on my face in the darkness, I’d probably see a demon out of a head on my shoulders.
“If you’re a man and a husband who wants to protect his wife and child, then you need to bear the consequences on your own,” I asserted. “So, go and get a divorce.”
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