Responses
Yeah
Big plus since now ML has cleaned up the roster of people who had no loyalty and were ethically unsound. Let's not be naive. Delulu dude was gonna lure them with as much bribery as he can muster plus promises of further connections being that he's the Duke's heir. ML is a pure merchant. He doesn't need shit like that. Delulu truly did give him a favor with this because it also opened up further avenues for his guild to go beyond what he already had. Completely shooting himself on the foot with this one.
they underestimated the gold mine business
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I read that in the first TL this scheme was successful and it brought antes guild to bankruptcy, but not in this TL, because the gold mine was basically keeping the guild up float, it also gave ML some leeway to clean up his guild and build better connection with trusted people, it gave ML some time just enough to keep his business running until he can solidify himself again
so its really cute how FL and ML helped each other either intentional or not