Lila was out in the yard, fencing with one of her knights when Noa arrived. He stood at the edge of the grass, arms crossed as he waited. It wasn’t a long wait, Blondie the Barbarian making the swordplay look easy. Granted, she didn’t do nearly as much running away as Noa did.

Sheathing her sword, Lila turned to Noa. “Come to spar?” she asked.

“I already got my ass whooped, thanks,” Noa said.

“You have a donkey?”

You’re joking, right? Noa deadpanned. “You don’t know what an ass is?”

“A donkey,” Lila said, unamused.

“Yes, but it’s also only one of the most complicated words in the English language! It’s amazing.”

“English?”

“What are we speaking?” Noa asked.

“Common, of course,” Lila looked at him like he was crazy.

“Of course. Not to be entirely confused with common spirits, or common aether stones, or the word common,” Noa huffed. “I’ll teach you the hundred different meanings of ass later.”

“At least tell me what it meant in reference to ‘ass whooping’?”

“Butt.”

“Oh, arse,” Lila said with a big, understanding, a wide smile spreading across her face. “I like ass. Maybe I’ll teach that to Eliaz.”

And it happened, I’ve now taught these people a swear word, Noa thought, feeling almost satisfied. Apparently, he just needed to start with the nobility.

“So, why are you here and not preparing for ogres?”

“The high prelate is forcing me to take a day break,” Noa answered.

“And you came to me?” Blondie the Barbarian gave him a sinister grin. “For another ass whooping?”

Noa facepalmed. “No, absolutely not,” he said. “I need to talk about the clinic, you know, the one Eliaz was working on opening?”

“I believe the clinic was your idea,” Lila said, “but Eliaz does run his healing business through our house.”

“Yeah, can you tell me how he runs it?” Noa asked.

Lila gave him a blank stare. “You’re forced to take a day off, and you decide to work?”

Noa returned the stare. “Why does everyone ask me that?”

“I think it’s because no one has taught you how to relax,” Lila said.

Huffing, Noa said, “Look, I’m planning to renovate the farmhouse, turn the first floor into a temporary clinic until the real one can be built.”

“Oh, that would be a good place for a clinic. Closer to town,” Lila mused, smiling. “So you’re wanting to move Eliaz’s work to the clinic?”

“Exactly. That said, I don’t know the first thing about running a business, especially as more healers are added to work at the clinic. How would we even divvy up money to benefit us all?”

“Patrons pay the business directly, which in turn pays the healers,” Lila said.

“Yeah, okay, I get that,” Noa sighed. “Maybe I’ll have Finbar be in charge of clinic finances too...”

“Who’s that?”

“Someone who was on the apple farms when they burned down. He runs my farm right now,” Noa said. “Seems honest. Showed me the ledger and everything.”

“You’re far too trusting of people,” Lila said dryly.

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“Yeah, well, I can’t run an apple farm and deal with ogres.”

“Hmm,” Lila hummed, a thoughtful look on her face and an evil glow in her eye.

“You’re up to something, aren’t you?”

“Whatever do you mean?” she smiled.

Noa shook his head. “Could Eliaz’s healing business be moved to the clinic?” he asked.

“On one condition,” Lila raised a finger. “He’s your partner.”

“Partner, as in fifty-fifty clinic gains and losses?” Noa asked, raising his brow. A smile came to his face as an idea struck him. “And he’d contribute to growing the company?”

“He’d be just as invested in its growth, of course,” Lila agreed.

“And if the clinic is to be run by a healers’ guild?” Noa asked.

“Then I suppose he’d be just as invested in that too, assuming all the benefits I’ve heard about it so far are true.”

“Erm, what have you heard?”

“Protection for healers. They couldn’t be taken advantage of anymore,” Lila said.

“Yup, that’s pretty much the point.”

“Then you need to form the guild before you can form the clinic, which would be preferable anyways.”

“Of course I do,” Noa muttered. “So I have to go to the capital and meet with the guy that Eliaz told me about, whose name I don’t even know.”

“Likely, he was talking about Chancellor Ioen Mordiern. He would go over guild bylines with you, and get them signed with the state. That gives the guild master authority to use state resources in case of crimes made either in the guild, or against it,” Lila explained. “Of course, the state will hold the guild master accountable for his or her own actions against the bylines or misuse of state resources. I assume you’ll be the guild master?”

“Uh...” Noa droned, “Yes? I can delegate tasks to others to run the guild, right?”

“Yes.”

“Great, I’m the guild master then. I just need to go to the capital, meet with Mr. Chancellor, establish the guild, and━can I do that without a building?”

“Yes.”

“And then form my clinic under the guild, to which Eliaz gets fifty-fifty gains and losses from,” Noa said, running his hands down his face. “Can there be two guild masters?”

“Two?”

“Yeah, like a partnership guild master gig. Can I make Eliaz one too?”

“Unconventional, but it might be possible,” Lila said, humming. “Do I want my husband to be a guild master...?

“Is there something wrong with being a guild master?”

“Sometimes there’s a lot of legal drama for them,” Lila said. “Of course, set up right, that can be entirely mitigated, and we are invested in these ideas of yours.”

“Great, so?”

“I’ll convince him.”

“Wonderful. Now, since that invested interest is a little higher now... how do you feel about paying material costs for building the guild building and clinic?” Noa gave a cheeky smile.

Lila stared at him, her blue eyes blank. She blinked. Then a smile gradually formed on her lips. “My, you’re getting better at this,” she said. “I’ll pay for material costs, but not the labor.”

“That’s more than I had before,” Noa said. “Is now a bad time to mention I’ve offered five percent interest in the guild to the carpenter for his labor?”

“And that means?”

Noa sighed, then proceeded to explain the stock market to Blondie, though she asked damn good questions that he didn’t necessarily have the answers to, given he hadn’t used the stock market much on Earth himself. Lila, however, was enthralled by the idea, seeing more gains than losses in it, and managed to fill the gaps with some sound logic. They had also moved to sit at an outdoor tea table. Blondie the Barbarian, apparently, loved tea, and a lot of sugar in it.

“Perhaps I should introduce this concept to some other budding businesses,” she mused at the end of the conversation. “There needs to be a way to keep all of this organized that is plain and easy to understand for more common folk as well. I suppose we’ll design a system.”

Taught nobility a swear word, and brought this world the stock market, all in a day's work, Noa thought, mentally patting himself on the back. He sipped some tea, and noted, “And maybe we should teach all the trolls to read too?”

“Ambassador Tyrm will be assigned that task after he finishes his own lessons in reading,” Lila said. Good to know she was already on top of it. She looked over Noa, her gaze so obvious that Noa looked down at his shirt, thinking he might have stained it. “You need proper clothes. Take some of the money your farm has made, and visit Tailor Joela in town. Get at least two nice suits, and one set of work clothes. Also, learn how to wash your clothes?”

Noa flushed. Right. His clothes sort of stunk. “Yeah, I’ll do that,” he said. I wonder if I could get Harn to invent a washing machine. Or a blacksmith could do it? he thought, dismayed by his ever growing list of inventions, all of which he knew would likely need to be hand cranked at first, given that he knew nothing about mechanical or electrical engineering.

“Good,” Lila said, standing up. “Any other brilliant ideas you have before I get myself back to work?”

“Not yet. Do you know when High Prelate Caradec will be taking me to the capital?” Noa asked.

“He was planning to right after the trial, but then ogres appeared,” Lila said. “Perhaps after the ogre threat.”

“I was afraid of that,” Noa said, but then again, the healers were all busy with the ogres, save for Tin, who was still working on maxing his [Mender] levels.

“How come?”

“Money’s not going to be easy to come by after the harvest is over,” Noa said.

“Ah, the woes of a farmer. Good luck,” Lila said, and made her leave.

Leaving the manor, Noa scratched his head. He’d need to collect money from Finbar for the tailor, so he started, once again, back towards the apple farm. I seriously need a horse...