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Lord of Entertainment C347 CC Rollout
🕑 Added 2025-06-03 08:29:49 +0000 UTC(3rd Person POV)
After the Hellfire Bank advertisement aired, a ripple of intrigue swept through the Overwhelm Theatre. In the film section, a well-known actor leaned back in his seat, arms crossed.
“Hellfire’s starting a bank now?” he muttered. “And those cards… interesting concept.”
Beside him, a stunning blonde actress with striking sapphire eyes gave a faint smile. “It sounds a little too good to be true. Especially that so-called credit card,” she said. “Letting people spend money they don’t actually have? It’s bold... but reckless.”
Another actress nearby nodded. “Exactly. That kind of system can spiral out of control fast.”
Not far from them, Vivienne and Firfel exchanged a look.
“Does Arthur really know what he’s doing?” Vivienne whispered, brows furrowed. “I mean, where’s the profit in giving away money?”
Firfel chuckled softly and shook her head. “Let’s just trust him. Every venture he’s touched has turned to gold so far. None have failed.”
She added with a smirk, “Besides, he convinced Princess Mary to be the face of it. That alone means something.”
Vivienne slowly nodded, still unsure.
A short distance away, in the director’s section, murmurs of skepticism filled the air. The mood was different here—tinged with smugness.
Bobby sat among them, a crooked smile playing on his lips.
“Hah. I can’t wait to watch that bank crash and burn,” he said, shaking his head. “Only someone drunk on success would hand out money like it’s candy.”
“Seriously,” another filmmaker agreed. “Credit cards in the hands of peasants? They’ll run up debt and vanish.”
Bobby scoffed. “And that debit card? I don’t even see how that turns a profit.”
Several directors nodded in agreement, some already picturing headlines mocking Hellfire’s financial folly.
And they weren’t alone. Across the continent, among the viewers at home and in public halls, doubts lingered. Even ordinary people, with no background in economics, sensed the risk.
Arthur Pendragon had made impossible ventures look easy before... but this time?
This time, many believed he might have finally gone too far.
---
A few days later, the buzz from the Hellfire Bank advertisement had already echoed throughout the Horn Kingdom. Although the bank had yet to officially launch or prove its viability, the kingdom’s long-standing financial institutions—the “Big Four”—remained unfazed.
If anything, they dismissed it entirely.
Their confidence was unshaken, rooted in centuries of dominance.
The four banks—Gold of Wales, Solarus Security, Horn Coins, and Silver Nature—had existed since before most citizens were born. Their names were etched into the foundation of the Horn Kingdom's economy.
Of the four, Gold of Wales sat at the peak. Imported from the neighboring Wales Kingdom, it held the crown as the most trusted and secure financial institution in the land.
With that prestige came arrogance.
Inside one of its towering branches, the regional CEO—Salarie Green, a refined half-demon, half-human woman with cold golden eyes—stood before her board.
“There’s no reason to panic about Hellfire Bank,” she said confidently, her voice smooth and commanding. “That so-called ‘credit card’ and ‘debit card’—interesting concepts, sure—but ultimately unworkable. From the analysis I’ve reviewed, the model is unsustainable. There’s no real profit in it.”
She folded her arms, pausing briefly before continuing. “It’s reckless. It’s risky. And frankly, it’s not worth our attention.”
The executives around her nodded in agreement, some smirking.
The other three major banks shared the same opinion. None lifted a finger. None launched a countermeasure. To them, Hellfire Bank was a novelty—an amateur move by a man too ambitious for his own good.
They didn't fear it. They waited for it to crash and burn.
But while the old guard sat smugly in their marble halls, change was quietly taking shape across the Horn Kingdom.
In front of the newly acquired Hellfire Bank buildings, strange metal devices had begun to appear—each standing tall and stoic like a silent sentry.
Their steel frames were boxy, utilitarian in design, with mechanical buttons arranged in a grid below a small rectangular screen that flickered faintly in green.
A narrow card slot sat beneath the keypad, and a metal tray rested near the base for dispensing slips or cash.
“What is that?” a merchant asked, squinting at the glowing screen. “Some kind of enchanted jukebox?”
“Nah, looks like an arcade machine,” another guessed.
But when someone leaned in and read the instructions aloud—how to insert a card, input a code, and receive cash or balance transfers—realization began to dawn.
“It must be for that so-called credit or debit card Hellfire Bank introduced in their ad,” someone murmured.
A few others nodded in realization.
“Hey, look—there’s writing on it. Says ‘ATM Machine,’” someone said, pointing to the label stamped above the screen.
“So that’s what it’s called?” another guessed, tilting their head in curiosity. “Looks kinda like an arcade machine…”
They leaned in, inspecting it more closely, puzzled but intrigued.
Meanwhile, as more of these mysterious machines appeared outside Hellfire Bank branches across the kingdom, the media took notice. Reporters, who had been quietly monitoring the new branches, began including the machines in their coverage.
“HELLFIRE BANK ON THE MOVE — STRANGE MACHINES APPEAR OUTSIDE CLOSED BRANCHES,” read one headline, accompanied by images of the devices.
Public reactions were mixed. Some citizens were eager, declaring they’d apply the moment the bank opened. Others remained skeptical or dismissive. A few elites openly mocked it, expecting the bank to collapse before it could make an impact.
By mid-March 1276, Arthur quietly instructed Princess Mary to begin mailing out credit cards to nobles and elites across the Horn Kingdom.
Each card came with a letter—and each card was customized. Its limit and design reflected the recipient’s status. The higher the nobility, the higher the credit limit.
Notably, Mary sent a high-tier golden credit card to Ferdinand Fellwing, patriarch of one of the Three Major Noble Houses.
In his study, Ferdinand examined the card with narrowed eyes. It gleamed with prestige, bearing his name and a unique string of digits.
“Hundred thousand global dollar limit?” he muttered, raising a brow. The letter from Mary had made it clear: this wasn’t a bluff.
Still, despite his intrigue, Ferdinand was cautious. “That Arthur Pendragon... he's growing more powerful by the day. And now he’s got Her Highness promoting his ventures,” he sighed, placing the card down. “I hope King Magnus finds a way to rein him in before it’s too late.”
He stared at the card a moment longer, then said, “Well... I might as well try it when Hellfire Bank opens.”
Elsewhere across the kingdom, other nobles received their own cards, ranging from silver to obsidian to royal crimson—each reflecting their status.
Even the Horn King himself received one.
In the throne room, King Magnus turned the dark crimson card over in his fingers, his voice low and amused. “Five hundred thousand global dollar limit... Arthur Pendragon, you’re either brilliantly generous—or utterly mad.”
~~~
Aside from mailing credit cards to nobles, royals, and elite families, Hellfire Bank also began distributing cards to commoners who had pre-ordered and pre-applied for accounts.
Of course, Arthur understood how risky it was to issue credit cards to individuals with poor financial histories. He wasn’t reckless—just calculated.
Thanks to his considerable influence in the Horn Kingdom—and with Princess Mary's cooperation—Arthur gained access to internal government records that quietly tracked citizens’ financial behavior. Although credit cards had never existed until now, the kingdom had long maintained ledgers of creditworthiness tied to banking history: unpaid debts, defaults, savings discipline, and repayment behavior across the Big Four banks.
In other words, a rudimentary version of credit scores already existed in government and financial records. Arthur simply refined it, adapting it into a system compatible with Hellfire Bank’s upcoming card framework.
Out of the tens of thousands of citizens who applied for Hellfire Bank accounts, only about one thousand received approval to receive a credit card.
Arthur personally reviewed the rollout strategy, ensuring the first wave of cardholders had clean or solid records.
He smirked at the stack of approved names on his desk. "Better to start with the disciplined ones," he muttered. "Let the system prove itself before the kingdom knows what hit them.”
Comments
Tyler Karp
Thank you for the chapter
