Mrs. Haitani

A/N: This is just for fun! These characters/stories are not that deep, and I don’t want them to be! I just find it fun and silly to think through what this world would actually look like in history, and maybe you do too! 😊 Spoilers for pretty much every villain on the EN server, so read at your own risk! Also I am not a historian or economist, just a gal with a computer, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

Also, I’m assuming that Ikémen Villains takes place sometime in the 1890s in London, England—the tail end of Queen Victoria’s rule. This estimated time frame is based mostly on Harry’s love of Arthur Conan Doyle and passing mentions of when “he has a new novel coming out.” Doyle was a prolific writer and wrote for a long time, but I wanted to keep the time period specific enough to really think through what the economics would be like.

Wealthiest - Jude Jazza

Originally I was going to put the villains who belong to the gentry (Elbert and William and ... Victor??? Maybe?? haha) at the top of the list, but the more I thought it through, the more it became clear that in order for Jude to realistically carry out some of the actions in his route (which I haven’t finished!) or various story events/collection events, he would need to be so fucking rich. Like stupid wealthy. Like not quite at Jeff Bezos level of wealth, but pretty up there.

And baby started from the bottom now he’s here, okay! The fact that Jude grew up in abject poverty then became a successful CEO of a trading company originally struck me as one of the more unrealistic things in the game (which I do not care about, he’s still daddy), but the more I looked into it, the more I got on board with it. The writers were smart to add a rich benefactor to his backstory, because in 1890s London, that was probably the only way for a poor kid from the slums to receive an education. Wealth disparity was bad in the 1890s, and people were mad about it! Jude’s hatred of the rich and powerful is in keeping with working class (and even some middle class) attitudes at the time. And with the rapid development and expansion of the Port of London (from the completion of the Royal Victoria Dock in 1855 to the Port of Tilbury in 1886), trading was the business to be in at the time. So it’s not impossible that Jude could have just lucked out in a few key ways and worked extremely hard to get to where he is (although he would still probably be considered a unicorn in this time period).

As for Raven Co.’s annual profit: who knows. I’m guessing it’s in the billions in today’s money. I’m unsure what Jude’s salary would be, he is explicitly characterized in his route as a fair boss who pays his workers a living wage, but he’s also like randomly really generous with like Ellis or Kate (i.e. giving Ellis a blank check for Xmas, giving Kate more than enough money to get a dress, etc.) so he’s probably taking home plenty. And considering how smart Jude is, he’s probably pretty savvy about saving and investing his money. He also makes a lot of deals and has a lot of involvement overseas, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he has bank accounts in several countries. The man is committed to building his rocket, okay! I’d say his annual income is in the hundred millions of dollars (in today’s money). But his net worth is probably in the billions.

Lord Elbert Greetia

Okay, now on to our first landed-gentry boy: Lord Elbert. Lord Elbert is most likely the wealthiest member of Crown in terms of generational wealth, with William coming in a close second.

Elbert is a member of the landed gentry or “peerage” and uses the title of “Lord,” which he inherited from his father. Being in this class means that he not only has significant wealth (in literal pounds and assets), but it also means that he has a rock-solid social standing and owns land. Land ownership is a big deal here because it means that Lord Elbert has the power to control anyone who might be living/working on property that he owns. And I’m not just talking servants/staff at his estate, I’m talking residents of any townships or villages on the likely acres and acres of land that he's in control of. So he has a passive income via taxing residents and laborers on his land(s)... forever! Being in this class also makes his wealth a lot more stable and immutable than say, Jude, who is a great businessman but whose income and assets are at the mercy of the market/demand.

Elbert’s character in the game is very stoic (until Kate shows up!), and he has deep trauma from his childhood home, so he doesn’t seem to exercise a ton of the privileges that would be available to him in terms of controlling the people who live on his properties. But, if we’re talking the 1890s here, he would probably have entire villages or even small towns under his economic purview. I think of him as a Mr. Darcy type, probably bringing in about £10,000 a year, or a little over £1.5 million/$2 million in today’s money. This combined with the cost of all of his assets or “beautiful things” that he compulsively collects (artwork, fine furniture, jewels, real estate, etc.) means I’d estimate his net worth to be about $70-100 million in today’s money.

Lord William Rex

I’m only putting William after Elbert because I do think Elbert has more non-cash assets, simply from the nature of his curse which causes him to be greedy. But let’s be clear: Lord William is also loaded. He, like Elbert, is a member of the peerage of the time and owns lots of land/real estate. He probably receives a pretty substantial passive income from all of his properties like Elbert.

I do think there’s one key difference between them: I have a feeling that William would either redistribute some of the income that he gets from any taxed residents/workers on his properties or lower their taxes—he just seems like the type to be about that. So that’s another reason why I think Elbert might have a higher net worth. Still, we find out that William paid for the construction of a hospital in his route, and for a man to do that in the 1890s, he’d have to be pretty freaking rich. I’d say that his net worth is probably somewhere between $50-100 million in today’s money.

Victor???

Big question mark around Victor! I’m putting him here just because he is so connected to the Queen, and unless we learn something different from his route, I’m pretty sure that means he’s at least upper class, if not a (former) member of the gentry/peerage. Or perhaps comes from a wealthier family. He also receives a salary and lodging from the Queen (as do all the members of Crown I think) so he’s certainly getting all of his needs met. He’s also the oldest member of Crown, which just makes me assume he’s had more time to accrue savings. But couldn’t tell you what his net worth is even if you held a gun to my head, this is all just vibes haha.

Liam Evans

Liam grew up comfortably upper class, basically wealthy despite not being a member of the landed gentry. His father owns an estate, or at least did when Liam was a child, and had staff and servants. Because of his mental illness and disfigurement, Liam’s father probably relied entirely on family money after a certain point.

As an adult, and considering he is a successful and popular leading actor at a major theater in London at the time, Liam is doing well for himself! He is now much better off than his father! Good riddance! Actors at the major theaters at the time were typically paid anywhere between 2-25 pounds per week, and Liam was likely on the upper end of that spectrum. Let’s say he takes home 20 pounds a week, which in today’s money would be about 3,200 pounds, or about 4,000 dollars. That’s 208,000 dollars a year before tax! Not bad at all! But, it’s worth noting, that at the time actors were definitely not seen as contributing members to society (especially women/actresses—they were essentially thrown into the same category as sex workers), so Liam’s social standing in the grand scheme of things is definitely lower as an actor than it was probably growing up in an upper-middle class house.

Ellis Twilight + Alfons Sylvatica

I’m throwing these two in here together because they are probably doing well for themselves, but only because they are attached to a super-rich person haha. Who knows what their salaries/wages are or what kind of deal they have with their respective sugar daddies (hehe) but suffice to say they don’t have to worry about money. Alfons is probably more irresponsible with his money, only because of his lifestyle, but even so he’s nowhere near as big of a spender as Elbert so it probably all ends up a wash. And I’m assuming that Jude pays Ellis pretty well because he loves him lol.

Harrison Gray

Okay, this one took some digging! Harry’s dad was a police officer, which in today’s world would mean that his family was pretty well-off and Harry had a comfortable upbringing. Not a member of the upper classes/gentry, but probably solidly middle class. This is also implied in the game, or at least Harry isn’t one of the characters that we know grew up poor.

But, it turns out, police officers weren’t paid super well in mid/late 1800s London! Harry’s dad would probably be on the better-paid side of the spectrum because he was a chief/high-ranking, but the police were a relatively new-ish phenomenon and weren’t considered “high-value” professionals. Harry’s dad likely only took home about 10 guineas a week, which in today’s money is about £1,400 or $1,700, so he was making about $88,000 a year in today’s money (before taxes). Which would be relatively comfortable for a single person today, but for a family in the 1800s would be pretty much living paycheck to paycheck with maybe a couple splurge purchases a year (like for Christmas or birthdays). So Harry’s family wasn’t anywhere near as poor as Jude or Alfons were growing up, but they likely lived quite modestly!

As an adult, Harry probably makes a healthy salary as an editor/proofreader. Publishing was booming in the 1890s, and writers were most often serialized in weekly publications, which meant a steady income for both writers and publishers. I’d say Harry is probably taking home a couple hundred pounds at the least per week, so something in the thousands of dollars in today’s terms. It’s unclear to me what the rules of living in Crown castle are. Like do they pay rent? I don’t think so? Let’s say they don’t, which means Harry gets to save/keep all his wages and only spends on personal stuff. He doesn’t seem like the biggest spender, if anything he reads as very sensible with money to me, haha. So he’s likely got a cozy little net worth building up but nothing crazy. Since wealth stratification is so extreme in this time period (the rich were very rich and the poor were very poor), Harry would probably be making enough to still be looked down on by the upper classes and enough to still be the object of contempt for the lower classes.

Poorest ? - Roger Barel

Doctors today are very well paid, but this was not the case in the late 1800s! Growing up, Roger’s dad probably had an annual salary of about 300-500 pounds a year, or roughly $45k-$80k in today’s money. Not a lot to live on for a whole family now, but this probably went further in the 1870s/80s when Roger was growing up. It’s implied that his family lived relatively comfortably, so I’m guessing that his dad had a good reputation and was sought after for his surgical expertise. He may have even gotten paid to teach in surgery ‘theatres’ of the time. (I haven’t read or looked much into Roger’s route so this might be wrong!)

Well, he’s cute… BUT, you didn’t like the teasing way he was looking at you. As if you were a joke. That’s why you responded with a sharp, “I do know.”

Just to prove your point, you put the cigarette back in your mouth, and just as you were about to reach down to pick up the lighter that had fallen beside your feet, the guy beat you to it, taking it in his hand with a chuckle.

“I see…” He said, fiddling with the lighter in his hand before giving it a final glance and handing it to you. “So you smoke cigarettes backwards? First time I’ve seen that.”

The blush was quick to appear on your cheeks as you pulled the stick out of your mouth to look at it, realizing that was the stupid reason why you couldn’t light it. Shit. Will the earth be able to suck you in right now? 

But, even when that would be a great favor, you were a girl with pride, so you wouldn’t let this guy notice how embarrassed you were. Without looking at him, you rolled your eyes and brought the cigarette back to your mouth (now the right way), and tried to light it again. 

Key word, tried. Because you failed in the attempt, again.

“You want me to turn that on for you too?” You heard him say it, which made your blood start to boil. 

“I know what I’m doing.” You replied dryly, determined to light the cigarette, but now your enemy seemed to be the lighter that simply did not want to work. Did the universe have something against you at this moment? Or what the fuck is going on? You haven’t stopped embarrassing yourself in the presence of this guy. 

“I can clearly see that you don’t.”

“Can you just go away?” You blurted, angrily tossing the cigarette along with the lighter to the ground before bringing your hands to your head in frustration. 

“And let a lady alone in the middle of the night in a neighborhood where someone can hurt her? Nah.”

You rolled your eyes again. “I’m fine. I can take care of myself.” 

“I know.” He said as he sat down next to you and you turned your knees to the other side so you didn’t have to make physical contact with him, he just snorted and spread his legs anyway. 

“You’re not from around. Can I ask why are you here?” He asked, leaning his arms on his legs. 

“I am from around.” You said, somewhat mimicking his posture.

“You’re not. I think I’d remember a face like yours.” What was that supposed to mean? But before you could ask, he was quick to speak again. “You ran away from home, don’t you?”

For some reason, the question made you feel sick to your stomach. Why was this boy so nosy, in fact, why hadn’t you gotten up and left already? Is it because, even though his meddling irritates you, you didn’t sense any bad intentions from him?

“You just love to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, don’t you?” You said, looking at him with narrowed eyes. 

“You’re starting to know me.” The boy said with a smirk, winking, an action you would never admit out loud that you found attractive. “So, did I get it right? Did you run away from home?”

“No!” You exclaimed, perhaps more loudly than you had planned. “What makes you think that?”

The boy let out an incredulous chuckle, looking straight ahead before looking back at you and starting to count with his fingers, “Let me list. One, you’re in a neighborhood you’re not from. Two, you’re trying to smoke and you don’t even know how. Three, I saw you reject your mother’s call like three times in a row.” 

As if it was another joke of fate, at that moment your phone started ringing, the name Mom appearing on the screen, without thinking twice, you rejected it.  

“Four now.” He said as he stretched his legs out on the pavement, leaning his arms at his sides.  “Wanna vent about it? I’m a good listener.”

Even when his offer sounded tempting and somehow you thought it was nice of him, you couldn’t help but snort and say, “I don’t even know you.”

Despite the bitterness in your voice, he didn’t shy away, on the contrary, he smiled sideways before saying, “That’s better. I won’t judge if you’re worried about that.” He shrugged, “Sometimes venting to a stranger it’s better than with someone you know. You can tell me all the embarrassing shit you want and probably never see me again, take it as a way to protect yourself.”

That sounded just as stupid as it made sense. Somehow, this handsome, annoying stranger was right. All you wanted right now was to vent, and unfortunately you didn’t have friends close enough to listen and understand you; and while the latter wasn’t completely warranted with this guy, the former certainly was. 

“Whenever you’re ready, I’ll listen.”

You wanted to laugh at yourself. Were you really considering taking it out on a stranger? 

The answer was yes. 

“I had a fight with my mom.” 

He was silent for a few seconds, perhaps waiting for you to continue on your own, but when he noticed that you wouldn't, he asked, “Why?”

You took a deep breath, searching internally for the right words to express yourself.

“She’s so… controlling.” You started, and before you knew it, you were taking everything out. “She’s just crazy. She wants me to be perfect, like, unbelievable perfect. On the outside and on the inside. Obviously under her standards of what it means to be perfect. Which means, perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect nails, impeccable clothes, extraordinary grades, being the best in any extracurricular activity you can think of to get me into. And it’s too tiring, because no matter how hard I try, it never seems to be enough. She’s never happy with anything I do, none of my accomplishments please her.”

Tears of frustration began to gather in your eyes before you knew it, but at that moment you didn’t care. 

“Today I had a bad day. I didn’t sleep at all last night because I stayed up studying for my exam, I got in a fight with my friend for some stupid reason I don’t remember, I didn’t eat because I had to stay for an extra credit activity, my ballet teacher scolded me because my pirouette was not perfect and made me repeat it a thousand times. I was too tired, so I decided to skip piano class, but I knew I couldn’t get home before 8 because I knew my mom would find out I skipped class, so I went to the library to take a nap. But when I got home, my piano instructor had already called my mom telling her that I didn’t attend the lesson.” You wiped with your hand the tears that ran down your cheeks uncontrollably. “My mom was angry, she started questioning me if I was doing bad things, like smoking or drinking and things like that. She didn’t believe me when I told her I had gone to sleep in the library.”  

You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down at this point in the story. The stranger was too quiet, he had not even moved from his position. Was he still listening? But whether he was listening or lost in thought didn’t matter to you at all, all you wanted was to get your frustrations out. 

“I don’t know how, but I started to tell her to leave me alone. She clearly didn’t like that and told me I was an ungrateful brat. And I was at my limit… So I ran away from home, took a random train just thinking that I wanted to be far away from her, and ended up here in Roppongi talking to a stranger about my family life because I have no one else to talk to.” You said sarcastically, gesturing with your hands around you. Your eyes went to the cigarette and lighter lying on the floor, and an unfunny laugh escaped from your mouth. “I was walking around, thinking how my mom would hate that I was in this area of town alone, then I started to remember more things she hates, besides how tired of being perfect I am— I got angrier and thought, what would make my mom totally lose her mind? That’s when I decided to enter the convenience store to buy the cigarettes.”

At this point, you felt you talked too much. How much time had passed? Wasn’t the stranger annoyed at having to listen to you? 

From overthinking, you didn’t realize that you had been silent for who knows how long until the boy spoke, “I believe she hates smoking?”

“Like hell. She thinks it’s one of the most repulsive acts in the world, besides biting your nails.”

“I think you could have gone for nail biting instead of smoking, if you wanted to piss her off.” 

You chuckled, “Yeah, I know.”

Finally after a few minutes, you had the courage to look at the stranger with whom you were surprisingly more comfortable than with people you had known for years; he was already looking at you when you looked back, so the eye contact was immediate, you noticed he had lilac eyes. Pretty.

He held your gaze for a few more seconds before sighing and looking straight ahead again, scratching the back of his neck. 

“Damn, I guess it’s too late to say that I’m a good listener, but not good with words.” 

For some reason, his comment made you laugh. Like, a really genuine laugh in which he joined in the middle. 

“Okay, okay, let me try.” He said with a chuckle as your laughter began to cease. You watched him attentively as he settled back into place, now sitting with his body toward you, ignoring how your knees made slight contact. 

“Look, I don’t know you, or your mom, and while it seems like she only wants the best for you, maybe the way she expresses it and executes it is not the best. And I understand that having that kind of pressure always on you to be perfect can be very tiring. I just want to ask, don’t you have friends or someone that you can genuinely be you and not the perfect daughter?”

“No.” You mumbled, biting your lip. “My circle of friends all see each other as competition. I have no siblings, or close cousins, and of course no boyfriend, no boy is good enough for me, according to mom. And I... I just feel lonely all the time.” Your last words came out almost in a whisper.

You both remained silent for who knows how long, it wasn’t uncomfortable, for some reason it felt comforting. Just your breaths with the sounds of the night in the background, some birds, some cars, some voices. All together made the moment feel almost intimate. 

He took a deep breath, his gaze softening as he watched you. “But you know—” He began after a moment, his voice gentle, “Being lonely doesn’t have to mean being alone. Sometimes it’s about finding someone, anyone, who will just... listen.” He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “Look, I know I don’t know you, and this may sound weird as fuck, but maybe I can be that person for now. I mean, I might not know you, or everything you’re going through, but I can listen if that helps. Even if it’s just talking about little things that make you laugh or what makes you sad. You don’t have to carry it all by yourself, you know?"

The warmth in his eyes reflected an understanding that was rare, a feeling that wasn’t just sympathy but a real offer of connection. And in that moment, you felt something shift inside you—a small glimmer of hope that, maybe, there were people out there who genuinely wanted to be there for you, without the need for perfection.

Finding no better words to say, from your lips simply came a, “It’s okay.”

The boy smiled sideways, and you noticed that his muscles relaxed, maybe he was nervous that his words would scare you, but it was the opposite. 

“Do you like ramen?” He asked, all of a sudden. 

“Who doesn’t?”

“I guess you haven’t had dinner, and I know a good ramen place around here, if you want, we can go.”

You smiled sideways at the invitation, inevitably feeling happy that this strange encounter would not end soon. 

“Well, I think my mom will kill me anyway no matter what time I get back, so let’s go.” You said, standing up. The boy let out a chuckle and imitated your action, standing in front of you. 

“I just got that we didn’t introduce ourselves.” You said with a smile, stretching out your hand to him. “I’m Y/n.” 

The stranger took it in his, slowly, his hands were cold but still, it was the warmest handshake you’ve ever had. 

“I’m Rindou.”