Azemo got home extremely late after the party and was grumbling to himself as he climbed into bed.
"Made me stay awake for too long and I have to wake up early in the morning. Freaking rich people of Kclzan never sleep or something."
It was as if he had barely closed his eyes when he was shaken awake. Azemo ate breakfast and headed down to pick up the old lady. Everything was going smoothly until he returned to the store.
There was a line of people outside the store!
'It is going to be a busy day and I wanted to go home early to figure out how to steal the rapier.'
"I don't suppose you made a million hats yesterday."
"We can only make about five hats a day."
Azemo was surprised he had expected the number to be a lot lower, but still that meant Fedorable only had five hats to sell that day.
As they approached the door Azemo told the waiting crowd that they would open in five minutes to avoid a stampede. The old woman hurried to the back room and production of the days hats began.
"Also our store only has five hats for sale today so if you are in the back of the line I would suggest coming back tomorrow."
Azemo hoped that the low supply of hats would make them feel exclusive instead of difficult to attain.
After his announcement Azemo hurried inside the store and arranged the five hats on the display tables. Of the five hats none of them looked alike but one could tell they had the same maker.
Azemo slowly made his way to the door and let in the first couple people in line. He did not want the store to get trashed by people trying to be first to a hat.
Azemo half expected people to walk away after they saw the hats but to his surprise a young man was walking towards him holding three hats.
"I would like to buy these hats, my good sir." The young man pulled out three purple coins without hesitation but Azemo stopped him.
"I am very sorry, but I can only sell one hat per person each day. Can't have people buying up all my stock."
The young man looked annoyed but he did not argue. He just picked out a hat and tossed a purple coin at Azemo before leaving.
Three more hats were quickly purchased by others and no one made a fuss about the price. As the store emptied Azemo let in a couple more people and when he was doing that he saw that Clyde and Henry in the back of the line.
'There is no chance either of them get a hat.' Azemo laughed to himself because they would be upset about missing out, but he was also a little bit sad to not see the two in crazy hats.
As he turned back to his store an argument was breaking out.
"I get this hat, I was first here."
"You dare challenge me, I got to the hat first."
The petty squabbling continued until Azemo made his way over. A small crowd of four people were all arguing over who would get the last hat.
"Excuse me valued customers, since this is the last hat in stock I will have you all bid for it. If you do not wish to participate then come back and try again tomorrow."
No one moved a muscle and one of the women shouted out.
"Three purple coins."
Azemo was expecting to raise the price by a hundred yellow coins each bid so he was shocked but he quickly went with it.
"Anyone want to pay more than three purple coins?"
"Five purple coins."
"Six."
"Seven."
At this point the auction was between a middle aged woman and an old man. The two were glaring daggers at each other and the bid was eventually raised to ten purple coins. The old man left in a fit of rage while the middle aged woman triumphantly paid for the hat.
As the woman left the store Azemo put up the closed sign and the line of people dispersed with cries of dismay and anger.
Azemo sat down and the old woman came out to talk to him.
"We can make more hats each day if we really have to."
"Five is fine. I don't want to work you all too hard. Plus I like watching them angrily struggle." Azemo and the old woman laughed at how ridiculous hats could make people go crazy.
Azemo headed home at sundown after carving some dangles out of metal for the hats. On the way home he tried to think for a bit, but he was just too tired. All he could think of was food and sleep.
The next week passed in an instant and still Azemo had not come up with a plan. He was just too busy managing his store.
Fedorable was making more money then it had any right to and Azemo was focusing his attention on it. Lleh was in desperate need of some money after all.
Hats were now sold for three purple coins a hat and the auction that always happened at the end of the day earned, on average, fifteen purple coins.
Each hat was so unique that people could not settle with only having one and so Azemo was destined to have business for a long while.
The production of hats had been increased to six a day, but Azemo still only sold five of the six. All the extra hats were stored away in case a day came when the workers wanted the day off or something.
Azemo gave the nicest spare hat as a gift to Visnelda. He did this not because he wanted to be nice, but because that way he would be able to give her the free hat in payment for her help.
'I win our little battle. I can just use her excuse that it is rude to not accept a gift.'
Azemo laughed to himself before heading home for the day.
'Maybe I can finally come up with a plan today.'
Of course, Azemo jinxed it with that thought.
The other hat businesses in town were quite upset about the success of Fedorable because it meant they got fewer and fewer customers. No one could replicate Azemo's insane hat ideas like the old woman and any attempts looked fake or fragile.
While Azemo had gotten closer with Silver over the last week he still did not know much of the rich society so he was not aware how cutthroat the business of selling hats was.
"Are you Warrencraft?" A man in a long coat stopped Azemo.
"Yes."
"Perfect." A knife gleamed as the man slashed at Azemo.
To Azemo the attack was slow and easy to dodge but he decided to try something. The second the blade touched his body Azemo used (magycka) Shadows Call to teleport the knife.
The man collapsed as the knife reappeared in his back.
Azemo glanced around, like usual the street was empty, nonetheless Azemo quickly hurried away from the scene of the crime and into another attacker.
'Why would someone want to kill me. I just got here.'
This time Azemo let the knife sink into his arm using (skill) Flames of Death to heal the wound instantaneously. The attacker looked at Azemo in horror as the wound disappeared just in time for (skill) Retaliate to turn his head into mush.
Azemo continued heading home not really thinking about the killers because they were very amateur.
'Either rich assassins suck or someone is trying to play a joke on me.'
When the next assassin attacked, Azemo decided to wake up Bella and Ima. The two tigers leapt out of the room bag, they had not wanted to go exploring that day, and the assassin vanished in a whirl of blood and screams.
'I don't want my cover blown so I probably need to kill whoever hired these people but I have no idea who would want to kill me. Well I will just wait for the next attacker.'
Sure enough Azemo was attacked once again. This time the unlucky assassin died in a heartbeat. Azemo used Ceravin for a change and sliced up the assassin before any counter attacks could be made.
'I thought they were supposed to be attacking me. Why am I the only one doing damage.' Azemo dug through the assassins pockets looking for any sign of an employer.
The assassins were much less skilled than the ones Azemo faced in Crnst and Azemo soon found a note that linked the attempted murders to the Hat Vendors Association of Srenti.
'There is a Hat Vendors Association of Srenti and I am not a part of it.' Azemo was hurt.
'Well Ima and Bella didn't get any exercise today so we might as well make a pitstop.'
Bella was more than happy to follow Azemo towards more violence while Ima complained about missing sleep.
It was already night, but Azemo stopped heading home, he had to go pay his competitors a visit.