The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 56
How luxurious could an office be?
It was a rather absurd question. People had different understandings of luxury, and so there were many different kinds of luxury, but this was indeed a luxurious room.
The gilded ceiling, the natural crystal chandelier, the bear’s head and lion’s head mounted on the walls, and the pair of ivory tusks taller than a man displayed in the cabinet, such “simple” decorations were enough to show just how lavishly the room had been furnished.
Even so, like most offices, the things inside this one belonged to the company. Only a very small number of personal effects actually belonged to the employee who used the room.
His name was Jorgreman, Credit Department Manager of the Sabine City Branch of Golden Exchange Bank.
A manager like him was an entirely different thing from those Account Managers out in the field. He was only one step away from rising to the level of a bank branch president, but that one step was hard to cross.
Unlike most official institutions, where the number-two man in a locality advanced one grade and became the number-one man, inside Golden Exchange Bank, if Jorgreman were to be promoted, he might be transferred from the branch to a regional division or even headquarters, where he would have to fight his way up again from the middle and lower ranks.
The significance of becoming a branch president was not merely a difference in title. Of course, Jorgreman had never really believed he could become one. In all likelihood, such a thing would never happen.
He lacked too much capital. He had no patron on the board of directors at head office, and those people had no interest in the credit department manager of a branch in a second-tier city. That made his road upward a long one. Fortunately, he was easy to satisfy, content with things as they were.
Only forty-two years old, successful in his career, with a young and beautiful wife and three lively, lovely children, if nothing went wrong he would probably remain in Sabine City until he was forty-eight or so, then be transferred to a division to make room for others.
The generous treatment at the bank meant he never worried about what would happen after being moved off an important post. High benefits and excellent compensation were enough to let him live out his life in comfort.
Of course, everyone had troubles of one sort or another. That had nothing to do with whether their lives looked glamorous. Even someone as prominent as the President of the Federal Reserve could not possibly live without care.
What troubled Jorgreman now was that Sabine City’s lending volume kept declining. The size of the business no longer had much direct connection to management personnel at his level.
If the results were good, his superiors at the regional division might mention him in meetings.
If the results were poor, then the ones who truly suffered were those front-line Account Managers out drumming up loans, even if everyone technically carried the title of manager.
Still, it left a bitter taste. At the end of every year, Golden Exchange Bank held a paid company trip. Everyone worked for the same banking group, merely in different regions, and when the time came, it was inevitable that people would talk together about how work was going in their respective areas.
Those who did well were bound to be praised. And because they had completed their targets well, they had more opportunities for promotion. Sooner or later, one of them might even become his superior.
Those who did poorly would not be openly mocked, but during all the comparisons, they would end up serving as the greenery that made someone else’s flowers shine. It was not a pleasant feeling.
He wanted to solve these problems, yet had no real means to do so. As one of the Federal Reserve’s six great banks, Golden Exchange Bank’s grasp of the financial markets and of international economic trends had long since become part of their daily discipline.
Ever since the explosive period of economic development in the Federal Reserve had come to an end a few years ago, the past several years had seen the economy grow somewhat sluggish.
The financial markets were still active, without any obvious sign of decline, which was why people kept saying this was only a “brief” silence after the boom, that once the upward rebound period passed, the Federation’s economy would experience another round of obvious growth.
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