We arrived at the merchant's guild. From the exterior, it looked like an old roman building. From the inside, it was like an old stock exchange, people were in a hurry, minding their own business and not even looking their surroundings.(They were in such a hurry, that one man was stepped on by others. No harm was done to other worldy creatures(possibly homo sapiens) while the making of this line. Also that man was still writing and did not care about who was stepping on him).
"Isn't it strange for a quiet town like this to have such a big merchant association?", Khaleesi spoke out the matter I was going to address to.
"Sir you seem new here, Do you want the fermented eyes of a spider?", a totally not suspicious man in a purple coat and with a staff called us.
"What am I supposed to do with that"
"Make poison"
"I seem to have no use of it, by the way where do I register for the merchant's guild?"
"You can go to that room, there you will meet the supervisor of the nozo branch."
We went to the room, only to be stopped by the guard, saying we need authorisation, appointment letter, recommendation letter, bribe, blah blah blah. Damn the red tape in this world.(As a leader, I do understand that red tape is needed as to torture the normal people, and I did put a lot of restrictions like you need to bring sweets to the government office to get your work done.)
After all the red tape(it took 4 hours), we finally managed to get an appointment with the supervisor.
On entrance in the room, we were greeted by an old man.
"Welcome, please tell me how can I help you?"
"Give us a merchant's guild member pass."
The old man laughed heartily.
"Sure thing, membership fee will be deducted as 5% of your profits."
"Can we give a fixed amount of money instead? The average lump of money paid.", Khaleesi inquired with a smile.
"You can, but I would not prefer that if I were starting a new business like you. Where would you like to run your business?"
"On street-", I was cut off by khaleesi before I could speak.
"We are going to rent a place."
"Deal, you have 2 minutes, after that your appointment ends."
"What? We were 4 hours in the line for the appointment."
"Please be hasty in signing the contract", urged the old man.
I signed the contract.
"So the name of your business?"
"Honey ripoff co-"
"Aragon private and limited.", khaleesi cut me off before I could name the business.
"I feel that the lady here is the head of the business instead of the gentleman."
"Haha, please don't joke about that."
"Looks like your time is up,a guild manager will meet you later."
With that we went outside the guild, we were assigned a business pass.
"So what place are we going to rent?"
"Sir, you are the business head~.", said khaleesi.
This is why I don't like to meddle in financial matters.
"For now, we have to get posters around the city."
With the flow, we went around asking for a painter. We were told to go to a local painter.
When we arrived at the painter's dwelling, we were greeted by a man in weird clothes.
"Hello sir, what business do you have here?"
"I have heard praises about your art, and I want you to make posters for us."
"What kind of a poster?"
"A weird man with a smug face showing thumbs up and text below saying 'Come to the arragon businesses, we have everything you need~'. "
"That's a joke right?"
"No I a-"
"Yes sir, it is called sarcasm.In reality, we would like you to make a poster with a girl in biki-" Khaleesi cut me off.
"After you cut me off while I am trying to express my humour. The poster should be in landscape. It should have the text -'Having troubles in your life? We will solve them all, let it be financial, social or health problems with the new type of magic - SCIENCE., visit us to know more' And beneath that a business logo. In the business logo, a mage is trying to stop a storm from coming."
"Okay, how many?"
"One hundred"
"I have a fixed price of 20 minths."
"Reduce them to 20 posters.", I said.
"Deal!", he said with a cheery smile.
"Wait, isn't the price 10 minths each poster?", I asked with a smile.
"N-no, I-it isn't.", the artist began to sweat.
"From what I know, if someone violates another businessman in merchant's guild, they are subjected to a penalty. Would you like to know how much it is?", I said while twisting my fingers and smiling.
"N-no, I am legally selling my services.", he began to sweat even more.
"Ara-ara, look at this, isn't it a merchant guild pass? Would you like to violate a guild member?" I said while, showing my merchant's guild pass which was brought 10 minutes ago.
"N-no, I can offer each poster for 15 minths.", said the guilty artist to get out of the situation. He will probably be thinking "Why is this happening to me, why do those goons of merchants guild always try to have their way with me?".
"Sir, you see, we merchant's guild are a bunch of filthy scums wanting to profit from everything who grouped together. If something does not go our way, we have many other means."
"A-are you threatening me?"
"Yes sir, or rather using you. In your position, we can just lie in the court saying you scammed us and ripped us off, and we will win the case. No one in the court would believe the word of a non-guild member who is an artist."
"I give up, I will sell for 10 minths."
"Good, sign the agreement here.", I removed an agreement from my pocket.
"Where would you even get that from?"
He signed it without reading. HAHA, he fell for it.
"Please prepare the posters tomorrow."
"Money?"
"Here you go.", with that I handed him 10 minths.
"Sir, it's only 10 minths, you have to pay me 200 minths."
"In the agreement, you agreed to sell them all for 10 minths."
"SIR!", with the shocked face, he saw the agreement. After that he tore it apart, thinking that if there was no contract, he would be free.
"What contract are you talking about?", he said with a dumb face.
He took the bait, how naive.
"You tore apart a contract made by the guild. Do you know what happens after that~?", I said with a devil's face and smile
"I-i don't know."
"You get thrown in jail, you would be out of business, the guild will put a no interaction policy on you. Your life as an artist will be done for. You will not have money to feed your family, you will then become a beggar and then you will die from hunger! ", I said with a devil's smile and laughing out. Khaleesi closed her eyes in disappointment.
"Sir, all the posters, I will give them for free! Please don't do that."
"That is unfair, right~? I want 100 posters for free."
"That is too much!"
"OH? More than your life?"
"I will do it."
"It should be done by tomorrow, sharp 12 noon."
"Okay!", the artist said crying.
We walked away, while he was crying in the background
And that is how you exploit someone.
"Sir didn't you cross the line there?", said khaleesi.
"Who cares? After all we have got this mafia- I mean merchant's guild pass."
"You really are a rotten person. Even though I consider myself as a greedy, I can never compare myself to you."
"Don't say that, my heart aches from pain. Anyways, our next trouble is, where do we set up our business. We can't rent a place for 600 minths."
"For that, I have a plan. We will just take a small part of a farmer's farmland."
"And which farmer would be so kind?"
"The farmer that tried to scam you."
"And why would he give us some land?"
"You have to irritate him once again."
"And how do I do that?"
"Just be yourself!"
"You are so mean."
"That's the truth."
"SA-VY!", a totally useful message system came out of it's depression.
"You came back?"
"Yes, I am here to help you. You can obtain land without troubling that farmer."
"How? Although I would prefer to irritate that farmer and get on his nerves. And after that see the delightful expression on his face.", I said with a smirk.
"DEMON!", both said.
"The other method is to ask the landlord of the nozo village to spare you some land."
"Aren't the landlords supposed to be those fat, lazy and greedy creatures who exploit the weak?"
"Look who's saying? Yes they are, and even this landlord is but he has the duty to give land to people who settle here."
"For the first time, you have proven you are useful. But how did you obtain this information?"
"Did you forget I can read other people's mind?", it said with pride.
"Let's go to his place then!"
"Just look for the biggest mansion in this village, that is his house.", said the lazy alexa.
"As I thought you are the laziest assistant."
We searched for the landlord's mansion and found a house that looked quite big. When we were about to enter, for some reason a dog ran towards us. Khaleesi ran at full speed while I petted the dog(she does not like dogs). Then we found out that it was some "Richard The Rich's house" and we were at the wrong place. We searched for the mansion again and found an almost gigantic household. It was a yellow mansion. There were guards protecting the gate. When we inquired, we were told to go through red tape.
(Damn it, I hate red tape.). After the red tape, we got a meeting with him.
The mansion's interior were full of luxury goods. I knew that because I had ordered the making of the parliament and minister's houses in my world.
We were brought to a meeting room where we met a fat man covered with jewels.(What's with this cliched character?).
"Hello sir, May you be so kind as to give us foreign settlers a piece of land in your humble village?"
"Okay, we have three locations, you can get a small farmhouse on the exterior, or a house near the residential area or ~"
"Or?"
"A house in the main market. But there are some T &C'S"
"What are the t and c's?"
"First, there will be a 40% taxation on your earnings
Second, If you are in debt to Richie, the landlord of the nozo settlement, your property are to be handed to the landlord and you will be sold off as slaves.
Third, You have to settle in this village for next 100 years with no exceptions. Running away from the village will be seen as treason.", said Richie.
Slaves exist in this era? Seems like it is a pretty old era, but the older the era, the easier for me to conquer it.
"I would like to object to a few conditions. First I want a fixed amount of money as tax deduction not an interest."
"Wouldn't that make it harder for you to clear debt?", the landlord said with shock.
He is probably thinking 'Haha, fools, They cannot object to paying the fixed amount even though they earn no profits. They will easily fall into debt.'.
"Sir that's our worry, please do not trouble yourself with the thought of us peasants."
" The fixed amount of tax will be the average taxes paid by a nozo villager. Sign the contract and the land is yours.", he said with a demon's greed.
I read the contract(It was a very lengthy one) and found an interesting clause.
"Lord, there is a violation in the agreement. You are making it unfair to us. The 109th statement in it states that 'The taxes can be increased to any sum that the lord wants.', isn't it contradicting what you said earlier?"
"Oh, I did not notice it, let me change it right now", he said with a smile. 'Damn this fox, how did he even read till that part?'
"No, we want compensation, you have tried to rip us off. If the word gets out that the landlord tried to scam innocent people who tried to settle here, wouldn't that be bad for your reputation~?", I said with a devil's smile.
"What would you like in compensation?", he said. 'What the hell is this man trying to pull off by making me negotiate with him?'
"The sum should be reduced by 50%"
"That's too much, you are threatening me. Do you know who I am?", he said with rage.
"Yes I do, but you should know what's at risk for you."
"YOU! Fine but it will be reduced only by 10%"
"40%"
"Are you trying to -?"
"Yes I am~"
"You! 20%"
"30%"
"25%, That's the most I can reduce."
"Deal!", I said, "Also I have to add a few clauses myself to the contract."
"Do whatever you want and then give it to me."
"Done! Now please sign it my lord~", I said with a satisfied smile.
He signed, although I had done something with the contract, he couldn't object. After all his power in the nozo village was at stake. If he dare objected, he knew that I would spread the word how he tormented me and show the contract as proof.
After that, we went to the location of the house.
"I wonder how our first shop would be~", said khaleesi. She could not hold her devilish smile after seeing me scam the landlord.
When we reached the house, our jaws dropped. That scum! He gave us an old wrecked house. It was almost as if a ghost haunted that place(Ghosts do exist in this world after all). But we were done for the day, after all the hard negotiations and sca-rightful deals.
What weighed to me the most was what was this old wrecked house was doing near the main market.