After returning from the Imperial Palace, Lynch made a call to Mr. Truman.

Considering the respect towards the Federation as well as diplomatic respect, the security of the phone lines at the Federation Embassy in Gafura is guaranteed, meaning simply that these lines are not tapped.

Of course, this is merely a gesture, can we really believe the Gafura people when they say they don't eavesdrop?

Impossible, it's likely they start listening the very second the line is connected, so people only use the phone when there are no confidential matters to discuss.

Most of the time, people at the embassy only use this phone to order meals or call for escort services—which is not illegal, as escorting is a legal business in Gafura. Those girls even undergo periodic health checks and face terrifying tax rates.

Spending in Gafura can also be seen as an act of goodwill by Federation citizens, making outstanding contributions to Gafura's GDP.

If there are confidential parts in the conversation needed, they would communicate through coded telegrams instead. These encrypted messages have regularly updated codes, and no one would gather a large workforce to crack such low-value, frequently changing codes in peacetime.

The content Lynch wanted to discuss with Mr. Truman was not confidential, even if the Gafura people eavesdropped, it wouldn't cause any serious consequences, or any consequences at all.

"What kind of person is the Emperor of Gafura? I'm very curious, you know I've never interacted face-to-face with him, nor have I seen him. I've heard he has quite a temper."

On the phone, Mr. Truman sounded a bit curious, a bit teasing. Now that everything was progressing very smoothly, his mood was very good.

As the future's greatest imaginary enemy, based on some theoretical foundations provided by Lynch, Mr. Truman was the first to propose a concept and theory of "sustained confrontation" among the President and the Ministry of Defense. The core of this theory was to establish an external formidable enemy for the Federation.

When the Federation's development goes well and internal conflicts are not severe, this imaginary enemy will not overly interfere with people's thinking patterns. It won't be so obvious or cause significant resentment.

But when the Federation encounters trouble, especially when internal conflicts start to concentrate and the struggle becomes severe, this external enemy will begin to play its true role.

We all know that to quickly end internal strife, the simplest way is to establish a formidable external enemy, one that poses a huge threat to the entire nation. For the survival of the group and the power and wealth in the hands of vested interests, the society will temporarily set aside prejudices and unite, and this is the role of an external enemy.

In normal times, this external enemy can also provide various industries with a target to chase, avoiding the complacency that can arise during social development. It's even possible that when publicizing this enemy that needs to be chased, official sources would exaggerate the opponent's achievements in some areas, providing some people content with settling down a sense of crisis.

Gafura is the Federation's greatest imaginary enemy, and the upper echelons of the Federation and the Ministry of Defense have also embraced this concept. As an important member of the Federation Government and the most reliable partner and adviser of the Federation President, Mr. Truman was very interested in understanding what kind of person their "enemy leader" was.

"I don't have many impressions, my encounters with him are too brief to give an objective evaluation. Solely based on my subjective impressions, he's a decent person."

Lynch's voice is very gentle, mellow, slightly magnetic, making it such that even if you hear something you don't like, you won't feel too annoyed, "Maybe it's because he agreed to all the conditions I proposed, so I think he's nice. By the way, there's something else I need to inform you of first..."

"What is it?"

"I've become a noble."

After Lynch finished speaking, Mr. Truman didn't respond immediately. About ten seconds later, he curiously asked, "What did you do?"

He roughly understood what Lynch meant. The Emperor of Gafura is the one with the power to confer nobility. Lynch said he has become a noble, which means the Emperor has ennobled him.

What intrigued Truman was what Lynch did to please the Emperor enough to have the Gafura Emperor conferring nobility on a Federation citizen.

This sounds quite unreasonable, but don't forget, this is Gafura, a monarchy where the Emperor's will supersedes that of the state, the people, and the law. As long as it is what he wants and the ministers do not oppose, then it prevails according to his will.

Lynch chuckled a few times, "I think he did this more out of a desire to disgust me and also to disgust you all."

Afterwards, he briefly explained the situation.

When the Emperor asked what it would take to ensure Amelia's complete safety and stability, Lynch presented three conditions.

The first one was, of course, allowing Darkstone Group legally to engage in military activities in the Amelia region, which is the foundation for ensuring the stability of the Amelia region.

The second condition was that Federation citizens in the Amelia region enjoy equal rights and obligations with Gafura citizens. The local government needed to ensure the legal personal and property safety of Federation citizens.

The third condition was the redemption of the bonds in Lynch's hands.

In fact, these three requirements are essentially non-requests, whether the first or the second, both are things that naturally should happen. Previously, perhaps the Gafura people dared to mess with the Federation on these social issues, but after the naval battle, the Federation has earned Gafura's respect, mainly because they cannot defeat the Federation, which is very important.

Engaging in such foolish acts as harming Federation citizens would escalate the conflict between the two countries. Gafura is not looking to waste its energy on a military confrontation with the Federation before the start of the Second World War. Necessary concessions and tolerance are thus natural.

As for the third point, this was in the plan anyway, just fulfilling some in advance and then releasing an announcement. The Emperor almost agreed without hesitation, seemingly forgetting being persuaded by the Minister of Finance earlier to suspend these redemption services.

After hearing Lynch's demands, the Gafura Emperor might have felt that Lynch's requests were too simple or perhaps found Lynch strangely agreeable, hence decided to ennoble Lynch as a Baron of the Gafura Empire.

The lowest rank of nobility, but it is still nobility, true nobility, this news will later be publicized alongside the outcome of this bilateral business negotiation.

"He wants us to be wary of you," Mr. Truman chuckled after hearing Lynch's account and said a line, "But it's clear he doesn't quite understand our situation here. I'll have pre-emptive discussions with the President and other departments."

Lynch smilingly thanked Mr. Truman for his goodwill and initiative, which is also why he mentioned it.

Although the Gafura Emperor agreed to all of Lynch's conditions, he also set a trap for Lynch, aligning with Lynch's prior remark of a "decent person". A two-faced, covertly scheming imperial image vividly appeared in Mr. Truman's mind.

After briefly discussing some upcoming actions, they hung up the phone. Lynch's work was far from over, he still had to discuss some fee issues with certain people.

Using Darkstone Security's services certainly requires payment, how much, and how to pay, this needs to be slowly negotiated...

Meanwhile, Mr. Herbs had already returned to the Federation and completed the handover procedures.

At this moment, he's even more haggard than when he was in Gafura. To get this ten billion Gallier cash loan, he almost pledged everything he could to the bank.

In fact, his relationship with Golden Exchange Bank's upper management was not bad. They had cooperated several times on short-term borrowing of international currencies before, but this time, he clearly felt a sort of malice, undisguised malice!

He has a house in Half Mountain at Bupen, a villa valued at nearly three million with significant future appreciation potential. Even today, if he slightly reduced the price, he could easily sell it for two million.

Yet, the bank valued it at just over one million, less than 50% of its market value.

The bank's professional appraiser deemed the house's decor style and layout too outdated, suggesting it might have to be rebuilt if bought by someone else; they even found a termite nest, essentially deeming it unmarketable.

Such situations occurred too often, he has a large estate worth about seven million in another neutral country, which the bank only valued at over two million, citing outdated and unsafe buildings as the reason, essentially pressing too hard.

This inevitably leads Mr. Herbs to think Lynch may have meddled in the banking process, but now the circumstances are laid out before him, and he has no choice.

Selling privately could indeed fetch a higher price, but the problem is he lacks time and can only pledge everything to the bank.

He brought forth everything he could, ultimately setting the price at 4.2 million, obtained the contract from the bank, and secured a ten billion Gallier cash loan.

About ten percent of this he needed to pay back to others, and the remaining roughly nine billion would be sold in batches to some international speculators at a price of 27.5 million Federation Sols.

Once the Gallier completely collapses, he would buy back those Gallier and return them to Lynch, then pay some interest and reclaim his collateral. This way, he could profit about 24 million.

With 24 million as a buffer, he could cover the losses from previous contracts. Even if he still loses a few million to ten million, it doesn't matter. This sum of money could be recovered by liquidating some assets.

This is his entire plan. He doesn't know if Lynch's willingness to lend him money hides any trap, but now regardless of whether there is one or not, he has no other choice.

​

Watching the bank employees load money into containers and transport them under the escort of numerous police and security guards to the port, he had already booked a freighter, and armed escort ships await on the high seas to provide protection. Once the money arrives, it can set sail.

Yet, in this stage that he hadn't considered before, he encountered a problem.

The Federation prohibited this money from leaving the port, citing problematic paperwork as the reason.

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