His words rang true to Lord Leonul. As long as human mortality was a truth that could not be avoided, then it would be the case that there would always be an imperfect medical system, no matter what solution one implemented. What was especially strange about Cæ's solution, however, was that it did not rely on revolutionary new magic or a revolutionary field of magitechnology.

It did not rely on highly intensive solutions to create more surgeons by pouring immense capital into training and education. It didn't try to compromise the quality of healthcare by having surgeons become servicemen in surgeries, highly specialized for a single process.

What it did was simply destroy some of the most fundamental assumptions that the healthcare industry had and reinvent some of the most fundamental structures of healthcare. The personalized model of healthcare was considered to be the best model of healthcare, and the supply shortages that it inevitably caused were not considered a fault of it at all, but a fundamental reality of healthcare itself.

Cæ questioned those assumptions and diverged from what the norms on the matter were. With some clever management, scheduling, and more sophisticated structures of allocation of human capital, he managed to overcome a structural inefficiency in healthcare operations and came up with a solution that could squeeze more from less, drastically ameliorating the supply shortage.

It was indeed true that his model would likely cause some mishaps that could lead to the loss of lives, but the number of lives that it would save would certainly greatly make up for the loss.

The only issue was that lives were not money and were not fungible like money. Circumstances and situations greatly changed the ethics of the matter in the minds of most people.

For instance, the many people who suffered or died because of an inability to get access to healer surgeons were certainly unfortunate, but the blame of their suffering or death could not squarely fall on any one person who undertook responsibility of them.

However, someone who died in Cæ's model was on the same. This death would likely be caused by a shortcoming of the hospital or the manager, making them ethically liable for the death. Thus, even though fewer people suffered and died, a portion of those who did suffer and die would likely be directly due to Cæ's model.

Many of these could lead to a lot of legal liabilities, so much so that it could cause a lot of damage and ruin to Cæ's business.

Cæ was clearly aware of this, of course. "We will have to include certain terms and conditions to reduce the liability. However, the business model is profitable enough to make it worth pursuing even if there are legal liabilities."

"You can lobby the dominant party to patch the system and reduce the legal liability," Lord Leonul remarked off-handedly. "Shouldn't be too difficult to have the government introduce a bill that makes hospitals not liable for any damages if the patient consents to the system."

Cæ's took a moment to even process those words. The concept of him engaging in any kind of lobbying was just beyond his comprehension. He hadn't even considered that such a thing was even possible.

Of course, he was entirely cognizant of the fact that it was a highly common occurrence where all manner of power blocs and interest groups lobbied the government in various different manners and managed to tweak the law in ways that favored them, often at the cost of the general population.

"…Lobbying requires immense wealth," Cæ cautiously remarked. "I don't have anywhere near the amount of magicapita to even possibly lobby in favor of anything. There's no chance for something like that to happen."

"If your model proves to be successful enough, then I am willing to consider giving you the magicapita you need to successfully lobby the government," the man casually remarked as he fell into thought, leaving Cæ stunned. "Of course, you will have to be extremely successful with a stellar performance in the market. Far, far beyond the norm for me to even consider doing that, but yes, it is on the table."

Cæ's eyes widened at those words. He hadn't expected that the head of the Vritra Family would go from having contempt for Cæ's demands for some compensation in his business affairs to offering to fund lobbying efforts in the government.

What had changed since their first meeting? Cæ had noticed that he was being treated with more respect than he had been in the first meeting, but he chalked it up to the man calming down from the near-death experience that his daughter had just undergone.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

But this was a radical departure from what Cæ was expecting. He expected him to agree to the deal without having any interest in what Cæ's business idea was. Cæ expected that the man would view this in the form of a simple bribe, taking the guise of an investment. Cæ expected that he would throw money at him and then forget about his business.

But the interest that Lord Leonul had displayed in Cæ's business was unusual and unexpected. It wasn't perfunctory or token interest; it was genuine.

And the offer to fund lobbying efforts was so far beyond what Cæ was bargaining for that it blew his mind. He hadn't even parsed the possibility of such a thing happening.

That didn't mean that he was against it by any means, of course.

"…I will endeavor to be as successful as I can."

He wasn't a particularly great fan of the idea that he could lobby the government, but he wasn't too naive on the matter, either. If he wanted to clear the dirt, he would need to step into it.

His path to the pinnacle of the world wasn't something that he was willing to let flimsy thoughts of comfort. Short of some red lines that even he was willing to cross, he didn't mind partaking in what all of his competitors and those protecting the world order he sought to destroy were doing.

Still, he didn't think he would reach anywhere near the kind of success that it would take to justify the kind of wealth that lobbying required. He highly doubted that it was particularly easy, even for the Vritra Family, to lobby the Elendir government.

"I expect nothing less than your absolute best." Lord Leonul nodded. "What is the timeline for this business venture?"

"I'm still in the research phase, unfortunately," Cæ replied with a calm tone. "Had I planned to get you as an investor, I would have come long after the research phase and even after I got my business partners and had achieved some proof of concept prototype operations, but unfortunately, reality does not wait for the perfect moment to give you an opportunity such as this."

He was entirely honest about his progress. Fleshing out a business strategy and model took time; it was painstaking and tedious, and required him to pore over a lot of details about a lot of matters. However, what was also painstaking was finding business partners that could handle parts of the business that he simply wasn't qualified for, something he had yet to do because he wasn't even at that phase yet.

He felt embarrassed for bringing so little to the table when he was demanding so much from the head of the Vritra Family, only thanks to the leverage that he had with Serulia's justice.

"Let me know when things are ready, and I will send you the first cheque," Lord Leonul replied with a nod.

"Thank you for your enthusiastic support, sir, but we have yet to discuss what ownership and stake you'll have in the project," Cæ replied. "I'm not asking for a one-time donation, after all. I'm asking for you to be a 'generous investor,' as I put it."

"And put it shamelessly, you did." He snorted lightly. "I would imagine that you do not want any interference in the business from me. Is that what you're seeking?"

Cæ nodded. "I can give you a twenty percent stake at most, and you will have to surrender your voting rights to me in a signed contract."

"Fine." He impatiently waved his hand. "I have no intention of meddling with a business idea and strategy that I know nothing about. It would be foolish if I had any intention of making money. I will trust you to make any decision that you deem fit for all circumstances, but I will judge if I think you are making a bad one. The final decision will still be yours."

Cæ was satisfied with those words. As long as the legal documents reflected that, he was satisfied with this.

"When do you intend to start this project?" Lord Leonul raised an eyebrow as his blood-red eyes peered deep into Cæ's. "I hope you will not rush it in an attempt to get the investment as soon as possible."

Cæ shook his head. "While it is true that your patronage will accelerate the timetable, I will not be able to commence this project until after the Magic Contest is concluded. It is eating away at much of my time, and the publicity that the event will give me will be quite useful to me for launching my business. On top of that, this business with the criminal trial will also work against me."

That was effectively a year's worth of delay, and it made sense given how much time went into creating a new business, especially one with as many barriers to entry and hurdles as healthcare of all possible options. If Cæ had hastily launched it at its current stage, then it would have definitely failed miserably. He had hardly developed the foundation that he would need to have developed for the business to be a success.

The thought of the flush funds that he was going to get from the head of the Vritra Family made him quite excited about how high an initial launch he could hope for. He thought about how comprehensive his testing could be, given how much money he would be getting for the company.

However, before he could get up in his own internal dreamland about what he could accomplish with all that magicapita, Lord Leonul put a damper on it when he reminded Cæ of what he was giving in return.

"You will not only give testimony at Miranda's trial, but you will also partake in our training and mock trials where you will be grilled on your testimony." Lord Leonul's tone was unyielding. "Your testimony will be scrutinized by our lawyers and experts, and we will discover and iron out any chinks in the armor and train you on ensuring that there is nothing that can be used to discredit your testimony."

Cæ froze as he remembered what he had almost completely forgotten.

His testimony.

A lie.

He couldn't reveal that he had pure magic, so he needed to fake testimony that wasn't real. What he had said had been convincing enough to those who inquired on the surface, but what about people who would be poring over literally every word he uttered, reconstructing the event moment by moment, while testing his testimony from the description of every other witness involved?

How in the world was he supposed to keep his secret safe in these circumstances?

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