Through this latest banquet, Max had been able to gain the contacts of two individuals, each for differing reasons. The first among this group was Mr. Reginald. He was the head of a merchant group named Florence House. Essentially, it is involved in obtaining interesting items from all over Backlund, and setting up auctions to sell them to the wealthier population of the city.
As Max explained his business to Mr. Reginald, and the latter explained his own business to Max, the two almost immediately hit it off. Although nothing important could be discussed in such a public location among others who could be either potential partners or competitors, Max and Mr. Reginald decided to meet in person in 5 days' time to discuss more.
Still, Max already understood briefly what Mr. Reginald wanted; a more stable income, while he just wanted more income in total, both of which were satisfied by the other companies owned by each other. Thus, discussions might be very beneficial.
Still, Max needed to first discuss with Mr. Audrey Hall and Mrs. Dunant before the meeting. Immediately, he wrote a letter to Mrs. Hall, the wife of Earl Hall and mother of Audrey Hall. Despite the name of young Ms. Justice being written on the contract of splitting the ownership, most of his interactions happened through Mrs. Hall; as it is within her rights as Ms. Hall's legal guardian.
In the letter, he mentioned Mr. Reginald, and his situation of wanting a more stable income. He also mentioned about his business and the likelihood that he might want some ownership of the Dunant's Department Store in their upcoming talks.
In the letter, he mentioned the potential of having the two companies work together, perhaps even merge at some point. However, he knew that perhaps this was not what Mrs. Hall might want since it would utterly destroy her ownership of the company.
Thus, he put up many potential options, including the option of last resort where he would just exchange portions of his own ownership with that of Mr. Reginald, and simply reduce his own ownership of Dunant's Department store in exchange for a more diversified portfolio.
Of course, in between an aggressive merger of the two companies and just an exchange of a small portion of ownership, Max had informed Mrs. Hall to give him what she might be willing to accept, and focus on that during his discussion with Mr. Reginald.
Max also decided to have a talk with Ms. Dunant the next day regarding this very matter. After all, such a decision, even the most conservative of exchanging shares, would affect her to an extent, so it was best to have her opinions on it before even heading off into any discussions.
Other than his brief but fruitful contact with Mr. Reginald, Max had also come into contact with another individual; Mr. Terrance. He was the son-in-law of a minority partner to a major trade consortium that handled trade between the Leon kingdom and the Feynapotter kingdom.
From what little Max had gathered in the interactions between Mr. Terrance and the others at the banquet, he was definitely not someone who was looked up to by the middle-aged men. In fact, he was someone who barely fit in with the group, since his only wealth lay in his connection to the trade consortium, and nothing else. He did not have much money under his own name, and just lived off the wealth of his in-laws. Essentially, his wife was the bread-winner of the family, though she too did not do much, just received monthly spending allowances from her father.
Still, Mr. Terrance had something that was rather important to Max. and that was contacts. Mr. Terrance had been to countless private and public functions and made many friends, despite not involving them in any political or financial deals of any sort. He was exactly the kind of guy everyone would like to hang out with at parties, and perhaps this nonchalant attitude was what allowed him to make friends with people.
Mr. Terrance did not have much ambition and was satisfied with his life, especially since he could just enjoy it to his heart's content with his wife without any worries about money or expenses. Thus, he never tried to even mention trade deals or anything of the sort to others, and ended up becoming considerable friends with almost all the significant individuals of Backlund.
In essence, if someone wanted to meet someone or get introduced to someone in a slightly informal location like a party, they would first visit Mr. Terrance who would gladly bring them around. And this was also Max's goal. He needed access to the higher rungs of Backlund without actually going through the proper methods since that would take a lot of money, and even more time to accomplish.
Max had already come into contact with Mrs. Hall, who was considered to be quite high up on the ladder of society, but Max wanted to come into contact with others at this level. After all, he would need to have a lot of contacts if he wanted to proceed with the creation of his own Beyonder organisation. In order to recruit Beyonders, he would naturally need to employ less-than-legal methods, and many of them would require the involvement of someone higher up on the chain of command to allow him to get away with them.
The talk Max had with Mr. Terrance was different from the one with Mr. Reginald. This time, Max only talked with him to introduce him to others of high standing at the next party they end up meeting each other. Max especially wanted to get acquainted with some of the owners of Banks to allow him to take out a low-interest loan for investment without having to put too much collateral.
But this was something that would only happen after a week or so since Mr. Terrance apparently would not be joining any parties for the week due to his wife's health. But still, it was progress that Max was satisfied with, and he returned to his spacious rented home and went to bed, to enjoy another peaceful night of sleep.
…
September 27th, 1348 of the Fifth Epoch
Three days passed in a flash. Max had already talked to Ms. Dunant and had received a letter from Mrs. Hall. He had already discussed what they were willing to give up for this cooperation and took note of their bottom lines as well as their expectations. Ms. Dunant did not have much expectation but hoped that someone other than the current three people already owning a stake in the company would not gain too much stake, while Mrs. Hall was not willing to dilute her own shares by more than 10% of what it currently was, while also wanting to remain the largest shareholder in the business.
As such, Max would likely only end up exchanging some shares with Mr. Reginald rather than merging the companies, but this was also a good thing for him, as he would not have to give up a lot of the profit from the Florence House.
Naturally, Max had already paid a visit to Mr. Eckhart and Brenda, to get them to write down a few possible contracts that might be useful to immediately sign a deal with Mr. Reginald. Of course, Max made sure to leave some empty spaces for potential investors who owned parts of Mr. Reginald's business if that was the case, but it was all speculation until he actually went ahead and talked with the man.
And that was exactly what Max was going to do right now.