“Young master, it’s morning. Are you already awake?”, the voice of Leticia reaches my ears as she knocks and asks politely.

“A-ah, yes, I am awake.”, I answer rather feebly.

“I shall enter then.”, she replies in her usual tone.

As she enters in an unhurried manner, her stoic expression cracks a little from the sight she sees.

“Young master, wha-”, she gasps.

There I was, with my hair in a mess, papers and books scattered all over the floor. My heavy eye bags seem to pale in comparison to the rest of the image. I looked like a scavenger from the slums. Leticia recounted in the future that it was one of the only times she changed her expression so much.

“Morning, Leticia.”, I answer casually, unbothered by the mess.

“You’ve come at the right time, I need to revise some of the instructions I gave you previously. I also need more tasks to be accomplished. Is the manpower you have on hand sufficient to handle more tasks? I can provide more manpower.”, I rattle off quickly.

Leticia remains unmoved.

“Leticia?”, I ask again.

She breaks out from the frozen stupor, quickly resuming her normal expression.

“Ahem. Understood, young master. The manpower on hand can handle more tasks, I’ll request for manpower if needed after hearing of the additional tasks.”, she says formally.

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“Than-”, I proceed to thank her, I want to show more appreciation to my reliable assistant here honestly, so I make sure to thank her as much as possible. However, she cuts me off.

“However, young master, your current appearance is quite unsightly. We should get you cleaned up before the Duke or the Madame notices.”, she says sharply.

Upon her words, I look down at myself, then the mirror nearby. Realising my disastrous appearance, I quickly instruct the maids to help me get tidied up.

Leticia reports that she has hired 60 shopkeepers already, by offering a salary almost double of the market rate. I nod satisfactorily.

“We can get started then.”, I say to Leticia as I pass a bag of 500 gold coins to her.

That said, I spend the rest of the day checking on the conditions of each of the shops I have temporarily rented and preparing failsafes for certain scenarios.

The day passes quickly, and news has been spread long ago that a chain store known as ‘Supreme Pavillion’ is due to open.

The store doors open for the first time at the start of the day, as customers swarm in.

Customers weren’t clearing out the shop, however, most customers were merely buying 1 item each.

Why? That’s because it was advertised that the first item would be 50% off it’s original value today.

Many people came for the promotion, as it was basically a money losing promotion. However, while most customers only bought an item or two, there were still many who ended up buying more items than they needed. It’s simple afterall, you wouldn’t want to leave a store with just 1 item after you’ve had to queue for multiple hours, right? It is because of this reason that we still managed to barely stay out of loss. Of course, If you consider that our cost of goods is nothing, we definitely profited well.

Business is going smoothly, and after a few days pass, I’ve made close to a thousand gold.

That’s hardly the real goal here, though.

I set off casually today, accompanied by just 1 guard. I quickly reach my destination, as a sultry lady glances at me before welcoming me endearingly.

She leads me up to the 2nd floor of the huge ‘restaurant’, which appears to be much more dignified than the first floor. She wants to direct me to a large table, but I refuse her kind intentions, motioning at the table near the stairway, with a man with thick eyebrows seated. The man is accompanied by two ladies, and seems to be having fun.

I walk over, asking “If it isn’t Beelze young master, may I sit with you?”

“He then notices me, answering with a face of flattery, “Of course, my kindred spirit!”

That’s right, this is a brothel. For those of you below 18, this is a Bar. In the past few days I have been frequenting the place, and gotten acquainted with the Beelze young master rather well. He even complains to me about his father’s restrictions on him a lot.

I chat with him as per normal, before he comes to the topic of his father not being proud of him as usual. I pretend to ponder for a bit, before letting out a sigh.

“I may be able to help with that.”