here are my round 1 investments
Yhilini Arms Dealer ~~
Premium Steel -20
Mine Processing -25
Iron Cudgel -10
megail gift -25
-80
Profitable investments (must take out the 25 from megail for any of these)
Magic Shop -10
Nonprofitable investments
Bridge repair -10
for clarity
So you make 150,000(-50,000), don’t have to buy Esutrin manufacturer, 10,000 if you collect it, don’t need to buy a Supplier for Megail Route and don't have to buy Processor, so you have 160,000 to spend as you please
compare to normal optimised routes(aka Arms Dealer, Mine Processing, Yhilin bank, Megail Gift and magic shop) and 200,000, 10,000 you collect, 10,000 you collect(bank after Aka route), don’t have to buy Supplier or Processor, so have 25,000 removed to get manufacturer, so they have in the same route 195,000 to spend but automatically get the Manufacturer
so getting that is already 35k down in raw pron + needs to pay 25,000 for manufacturer and that is ignoring the 20K from Bridge and Iron Cudgel in Round 2 and also the 5k The optimised route gets from the bank to afford the magic shop
in Reunion would be get 450,000, 100,000, 200,000, 25,000, -30,000 and 50,000(assuming you get Ardoheim Magic Trade, which is 125,000), 200,000 and whatever other Eustrin Investment so basically a starting amount of 1,120,000
Optimal path( gets 450,000, 200,000, 100,000, 200,000, 25,000 and 50,000(same with magic trade), 300,000 plus other Eustrin Investments so a starting total of 1,500,000
so using Optimal path(aka the guide Thosha made) of getting Aram supplier and Eustrin Processor and Manufacturer and bounty office so Add 220,000 at most you could get an extra 30,000 and to even get close have To not get Embassy so impossible to get best result in Ardford but even most generous result is another loss of 380,000, if you get Embassy and the magic trade you only have 50,000 and only broke even on Bridge get the Supplier so you don’t gain any money from Bridge and now only have 45,000,
as a show of why the normal investment path is the way it is.