Chapter 57: The Ponzi Scheme and the Duchess’s Grand Design

Late that night, as the ball drew to a close.

After bidding farewell to their last guest, Alice and the Duchess re-entered the mansion.

As they walked towards the inner hall, the Duchess spoke to Alice in a hushed tone:

“Over the past two days, I’ve inquired about the Viscount Dumpty’s family. They once enjoyed a period of great prominence.

Leveraging the connections Viscount Dumpty amassed as the Chief of Public Order, they became quite overbearing in the city. Camilla Dumpty, even before entering the Holy Academy, was responsible for a grave incident where she drove a commoner student to jump from a building, leaving them crippled.

As for Madame Dumpty, she famously had her servants blind one eye of a coachman simply because his cargo cart obstructed her carriage’s path.

All these incidents were suppressed by Viscount Dumpty, who, as the Chief of Public Order, even had the local constable imprison the coachman in the latter case, extorting ransom money from his family for his release. How should I put it? This family is utterly riddled with infamy.”

“Given Camilla’s personality, it’s hard to imagine her family environment being normal,” Alice replied. “Camilla used to have two followers who acted as her enforcers, but I haven’t seen them since I returned.

I also made some inquiries. It seems after I beat them that day, Camilla redirected her anger onto them. They were arbitrarily accused of petty theft, arrested, and detained at the Public Order Bureau for several days, and were also expelled from the Holy Academy in the process.”

However, there was little sympathy to be had for the two followers who met such a fate. They were well aware of Camilla’s cruelty, yet they continued to aid her in her tyrannical ways. Their downfall could only be described as a just retribution.

The two women walked through the corridor and entered the inner hall of the mansion.

“Madam, I have completed my task.” The fake baron, the con artist Charles Ponzi, stood there, bowing eagerly to the Duchess.

He had feigned an urgent departure as the ball neared its end, but in reality, he had quietly circled to the mansion’s back door, where servants had let him back in.

“Only tonight’s portion is complete. Come speak to me again when you’ve swindled that young lady until she’s utterly ruined,” the Duchess said, poking his forehead with her finger as she passed him.

“Rest assured, she is already in my grasp. Among all the people I’ve conned before, it would be difficult to find one so easily hooked,” Charles said, a confident smile plastered across his face.

“What exactly is the scheme behind your con?” Alice asked, intrigued. “Does that investment project of yours truly exist?”

“Of course not, it’s purely fabricated,” Charles said, spreading his hands.

“You truly dare to invent such a tale, getting so many prominent figures to endorse you, and making the details sound so plausible,” the Duchess remarked.

“That young lady has a clear inclination to curry favor with you. She desperately wants to socialize with the upper nobility, so mentioning those names makes it easier to pique her interest. As for the investment project’s content, it must be complex enough to be difficult for investors to understand, leaving them with an impression of profound sophistication, which then provides us with ample room for manipulation,” Charles explained.

“So, how much money did you get her to invest?” Alice asked.

“I advised her to be cautious initially and invest a few gold coins as a trial,” Charles replied.

“Only swindling such a small sum shouldn’t mean much to her, should it?” Alice frowned.

“I won’t abscond with this money. On the contrary, I will return it to her twofold, telling her it’s an investment dividend,” Charles said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Alice suddenly understood:

“It’s bait!”

“Precisely. Based on the information the Madam provided, Viscount Dumpty’s family undoubtedly has a large sum of illicit money that needs laundering. I’ll give them a taste of success first to gain their trust, and they will eventually entrust the truly large sums to me,” Charles said, clasping his hands behind his back.

“The most impressive aspect of the deception this fellow has crafted isn’t even that,” the Duchess interjected.

Alice looked at Charles, gesturing for him to continue.

“The core of my con lies in developing the prey. I usually tell my targets that my investment club has a reward mechanism: if they recruit more people to invest, they can take a percentage of the profits earned by those investors they brought in. Then, these recruited individuals can continue to develop their own sub-investors, and so on.

By conning just a few people, I can gradually receive investments from dozens. I take a portion of the money from later investors to pay out as dividends to earlier investors. This way, everyone sees the initial investors continuously making money, which attracts even more people to invest.

Once the snowball grows large enough, I harvest everything in one fell swoop!” Charles clapped his hands, a proud look on his face. “I’d like to name this con the Ponzi Scheme!”

Alice’s expression changed as she listened. If such an astonishing and outrageous scheme hadn’t been exposed by the Duchess in time, what terrifying profits could it have reaped?

“I told you, this fellow is a decent con artist. Many people have been swindled into ruin by him,” the Duchess commented.

“Your recognition is my honor,” Charles said, half-kneeling and bowing to the Duchess.

“No one is praising you, you scoundrel!” The Duchess scoffed with a contemptuous smile.

Charles trembled at her words, looking at the Duchess with a longing expression. “Please, scold me more…”

“Could you please settle down for a moment?” Alice, slightly put off by the con artist’s癖好 cultivated by the Duchess, continued her questioning. “But in this model, if Camilla develops layers of sub-investors down through the city, wouldn’t things become unmanageable?”

“I’ve certainly considered that, my dear Alice, which is why I’ve modified the rules,” Charles said with a smile. “I told Miss Dumpty that my club is only open to titled nobles or their respective heirs, and only she, as the head of the Maplewood City branch, is authorized to issue invitations.

All investors developed here will be under her name, so she can only develop one layer of sub-investors at most.”

“Camilla Dumpty is currently desperate to reclaim her family’s past standing in Maplewood City’s aristocratic circles. Once she believes this investment club can make her a popular figure in those circles, she will spare no effort in recruiting people for this scheme, becoming the con artist’s best accomplice,” the Duchess added.

“This means—” Alice suddenly grasped the true purpose of the scheme.

“Exactly. When everything collapses, before I’m caught, who will become the scapegoat?” Charles asked, spreading his hands with a smile.

“And then, once she’s isolated, we’ll further kick her while she’s down?” Alice believed she finally understood the Duchess’s plan.

“Wrong! At that moment, we will warmly extend our help to her, compensating all the victims with the swindled money using our own name,” the Duchess said, wagging her finger with a smile.

“Huh?” Alice was utterly confused.

“Just do as I say,” the Duchess chuckled. “My script will absolutely satisfy you, my daughter.”