After having a good night of sleep Leo woke up in his new room. He was not sure about the norms for noble apartments, but he liked the room he got. He room was pretty big. It was 10 meters in length and width. He had a big bed, that could accommodate few people. Also, he had two cupboards on the opposite side of the bed. They could accommodate all the clothes he would use in the future. Also, he had a medium sized desk near the window with two oil lamps from both sides. There were couple of chairs near the table. The furniture was in different shades of brown because it was all made from different types of wood. Leo liked this setup. He yawned and then walked up to the dining room on the first floor. The servants that saw him greeted him with a bow and honest face. Leo felt that this treatment was genuine. Those people did not play any games. He liked the ability of Elen to raise such devoted stuff to the family. His assessment of this family patriarch grew by a level. When he got down to the dining area after asking the servant for direction to the bathroom to wash his face and hands before setting to eat, he was surprised to see all his new family members waiting for him when he finally got to the dining room. He was not sure how much time they waited but he did not see any sign of anger or any other negative emotion of the Shmidt family faces. It alleviated his mood by another level. It seems like he made the right choice.
"Good morning, everyone. Sorry for making you wait." Leo said.
"Good morning, that's fine. Come, sit and let's have breakfast." Elen said, while gesturing Leo to seat near him.
Leo was again pleasantly surprised. There was a place on the right side of the patriarch that was vacant. That showed how much this family respected hierarchy. Maybe it was something normal for every noble family, but it still was a plus for him. Leo set near the patriarch and the breakfast started. It was nothing special, but Leo still liked it. It was composed of different salads, meat and bread. Because it was a knight family the men needed to eat properly to be able to achieve their goals for the day and progress in their ranks. After the meal ended and the servants cleared everything the Shmidt family relocated themselves to Elen's office again because of Leo's request. The family members were puzzled but still complied. After the servants served some tea to everyone the discussion that Leo initiated begun.
"I gathered all of you here because I want to know some information about what we have now in terms of expenses, what types of expenses do we have, what types of income the family has and how much money the Shmidt family makes per month. Of course, we have other types of topics to cover but this data about expenses and income is essential to our future progress." Leo said and looked at Elen for reply.
Elen was pleasantly surprised. His two sons, Felix and Greg were not really interested in that kind of stuff. They were always pursuing the knight path and Elen respected it. Still, he could not let them inherit the family with such lifestyle. He wanted to let his daughter Elly be the successor. She always had her head on her shoulders and was more intelligent than her two older brothers. It was not common to have a women patriarch of a noble family but with the protection of her two brothers she should been fine in the future. That was Elen's plan before he met Leo. Now he was more assured about this brat inheriting his family. He said with a smile: "Our family mainly earns money through making missions as mercenaries and adventurers. The expenses now are not big because we are not paying for any tutors that are teaching the children. I do collect money for Elly to go and study in the capital in the main school of magic in a couple of years. I hope she can study the basics until then. As for the expenditures. It is mainly food supply for the family, us travelling by carriage and its maintenance, including the horses. Also, there are weapons and clothing purchasing and maintenance. Rarely we are able to purchase any alchemic potions for different purposes. The total amount of coins made every month as profit are around 50 silver. It considered an average sum of money for a noble family of our rank. I have around 10 gold coins for Elly's future studies."
Leo thought for a moment and nodded.
"Alright. Now I have another question. I really don't any information about this topic, but are there fast options for mages to earn money by doing some things in terms of their magic power usage? I do plan to make an announcement to provide constriction services by building stone houses for commoners and mansions for nobles. I'm not sure about the prices yet but it should generate a large sum of money in a short time. I think that it will go the same with Elly. When she will be able to use her water magic with the healing skill, she could just heal people for a pay. It will be a good practice with a good profit. The options are broad for our family in the future. I'm not sure what other options we have right now. Maybe you have some other ideas? I want our family to rise in power and the easiest way doing that will be generating big number of coins. Of course, we cannot reveal our rapid rise in power to the outside world because it can cause us a lot of trouble or a backlash from other noble families in town. No one really wants a new power to rise. We need to get to a level when we could not be oppressed. This will be the first stage in establishing our economic stability." Leo said.
The Shmidt family members were in a daze for some time. They thought Leo will boost their strength in dungeon grinding and helping with mercenary missions, but Leo brought a totally different prospective to the family members. Its more coins with less effort. And it was just the beginning.