20 - Chapter 18

“What do you mean get left behind?” asked Lin Ye. “What changes are you talking about?”

“I can’t just reveal family secrets.” replied Sa Bina imperiously. “This is why there is a requirement for all businesses to be owned by the kingdom. What I can tell you, is that based on what I have seen, the guilds have damaged progress in this kingdom, and possibly the surrounding kingdoms. We have access to ideas and methods that would improve the quality of smithing. ”

Sa Bina was not bluffing. While she was no smith, her time spent working in weapons manufacturing during the war had led her to learn about material composition and industrial manufacturing processes. This knowledge would be considered wildly out of date back on Earth, but here, where the processes were still barely out of the dark ages, her knowledge had the potential to revolutionise smithing. In fact, based on her past knowledge, knowledge she seemed capable of retrieving with startling clarity in this new world, she could probably advance the knowledge of alloys, tool and weapon production, baking and related arts and potentially clothing manufacturing.

The last one was still up in the air as she had not spent any time looking at what was available or the processes in any great detail. Even if she did not have access to the exact manufacturing processes for all the things she wanted to do, just the fact she knew it was possible and what the end result would look like, would be enough to reverse engineer the processes for a competent artisan.

For the processes where she did carry details in her, now excellent, memory, the only challenge was identifying the correct materials to work with. She was not as concerned about being in a new world, a lot of things might be different, but there still seemed to be many things that were very similar. The materials, given that the universe should still be made of the same atoms, should ensure that the same elements should exist here as well.

This was the primary reason for her wanting to buy into the businesses, the ideas and knowledge were her biggest strength, and she did not want them to be stolen before she could leverage them to her advantage. Her situation would allow her to pretend that the knowledge came from her kingdom, hopefully alleviating suspicions about her origins. She would still have to be careful, the amnesia defense was only known to a few, but influential people, Sa Bina hoped that they would be too busy to spend a lot time monitoring her interactions with others. Still she could not really progress without taking on at least some level of risk.

She would also look at the potential causes of selective amnesia, to try and provide a palatable excuse for her retaining so much knowledge and yet not remember details about her family. She knew that selective amnesia could be caused by certain triggers back on Earth, so it wasn’t exactly a massive leap to assume there were at least certain situations that could be used to cause the same in this world. The only question would be what those causes were, and how likely it was that she had been subjected to them. Thinking about it further, it would even support her pretence if she started to look into those causes, as to an outsider it would look like she was trying to investigate ways to recover her memory and not hide the actual situation. Another item to add to her ever lengthening to-do list. She had one more day before she started at the school and the amount of free time she had would become substantially limited. She had to maximise what she could in these free days.

While Sa Bina had been lost in her own ruminations, Lin Ye had been thinking about his interactions with this precocious noble. From the look of her she could not be much older than 13 or 14, yet the way she came across was an old matriarch. Lin Ye had some exposure to people from noble houses, but even the more senior members of the minor houses he had interacted with in his long life, did not come across the same as this young girl. His own granddaughter had already accepted the deal to become part of her household, why was he so reluctant to join? In examining his own motivations, Lin Ye realised that it had more to do with being stubborn than anything else.

The offers had been more than generous, and Sa Bina had not looked down on his granddaughter for being a woman working in what was one of the most male dominated professions in the entire kingdom. Other nobles had tried to pay less for his granddaughter’s work and had criticised him for having a woman working in his forge. That was why he had been forced to have Lin Song open her own workshop even though he had trained her.

Sa Bina had offered to let them work together again, but due to his inherent distrust of nobles and his experiences in the past, he had ascribed nefarious motivations to Sa Bina’s actions. She had still taken on Lin Song, and even allowed Lin Song to continue to try and persuade him, even when he had been curt with her. Most nobles he had interacted with in the past would not have allowed him to get away with that. He sighed to himself, he would have to let go of his ego and put himself under this girl’s power. He just hoped he was making the right decision.

“Aye my lady, I think I will come and join Lin Song and come and work for you.” said Lin Ye. “I let my past experiences of working with nobles prejudice my view of your offer. I do hope your offer is genuine for both of us.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“I can assure you that I keep my word,” replied an ecstatic Sa Bina. “Feel free to request additional reasonable stipulations in the contract before you both sign. In fact, if you are not happy after working for me for the first year, then I will happily return your workshops or buy you new ones, and you can keep any money that you have from the original purchase. That should give you some assurance.”

Lin Ye was astounded by the very generous provision. He didn’t know of any other noble that would allow a back out clause with no financial penalty. “I would be happy to accept on that basis, my lady.” replied Lin Ye. Lin Song looked very happy with her grandfather joining her.

“Excellent, Lou Sie will work through the required paperwork.” replied Sa Bina. “We can review the final details about purchasing your workshops tomorrow after we go and see them.”

Sa Bina left them to it. She reflected on the fact that if her ideas were successful she would need Lou Sie to actually have a team of secretaries to manage her affairs while Lou Sie accompanied her. It looked like she needed to do even more hiring in the near future.

Sa Bina returned back to the main auditorium, by this point a lot of the business owners had completed the initial paperwork with the scribes and were taking the opportunity to network or make deals with the other business owners. Everyone being here for similar reasons allowed them to be more comfortable with the opportunities presented and the more commercially minded were taking full advantage of the unprecedented access this get together represented.

As Sa Bina looked around the venue, she noticed a young man standing alone looking a little lost. He was dressed in a well used robe covered in a myriad selection of burns and stains. While feeling that this was a little cliched, she guessed that this young man was an alchemist and an introvert.

She decided to approach him to see if her assumptions were correct. “Greetings, I am Sa Bina.” said she, “you looked a little lost, can I help?”

He looked a little startled to be approached, especially by a noble. He managed to pull himself together to bow and respond, albeit being obviously nervous. “Greetings, my lady. This one is Liu Wen.” he replied. “I am but a journeyman alchemist. I am not sure, I am not sure what I am supposed to do next.”

“Liu Wen, would you be interested in hearing about a potential opportunity?” asked Sa Bina. “Feel free to refuse, this is merely a request not a compulsion.”

He spent a minute accessing her, and when she didn’t pressure him any further, nodded. “I am happy to hear you out my lady.”

“Follow me to a private meeting room,” replied Sa Bina. “This way please.”

He seemed startled at Sa Bina being polite to him and not just ordering him around, and followed her indication towards a private office.

They arrived in one of the unused offices and Sa Bina indicated for him to take a seat.

“Tell me about your business Liu Wen.” asked Sa Bina. “I need to understand what you can do to access it if you would be a fit for the opportunity I had in mind.”

“Well, I am only a journeyman, my lady.” replied Liu Wen. “I had hoped to be a master by now, but with the problems of acquiring materials, the lack of funds and guilds restrictions on who can take the master certification have left me unable to progress. I have a small workshop that I rent in the city. With my skills I can make a range of items that I can make a small profit from. It is enough for me to live on, but not enough for me to progress. I am not sure I would be best placed to supply what you need my lady, I am sure the more established masters would be much more able.”

It was obvious that either the situation or his introverted nature had left Liu Wen with a lack of confidence. Most likely it was a mix of both. If she could boost his confidence then he could be an excellent resource for her going forward. She had many ideas that would need a skilled alchemist and not one who would try to steal her recipes.

“I am looking for an alchemist, to employ full time.” said Sa Bina. “I need someone who will be loyal and discreet. Those masters you mentioned are more likely to steal from me if they think they can get away with it. I have a lot of things I want to achieve. I am happy to fund your experiments. Are you interested in coming to work for me? I can offer you 25 Gold per week as a starting salary.”

“25 Gold? That is a lot for a journeyman, my lady.” replied Liu Wen honestly. While masters could make a lot more, as a journeyman who would get access to materials for experimentation such a salary was almost unheard of. In fact most apprentices and journeymen had to pay for the privilege of working for a master alchemist and do side jobs to cover expenses if their families were unable to provide for them.

“I value loyalty highly.” replied Sa Bina. “You would have access to recipes that would be family secrets. I would expect you to be one of our long term retainers. I would make sure to keep you happy and productive.” Sa Bina decided to be blunt with this young man. She wanted him to understand the reasons for her offer and that she was looking at this from a long term perspective.

“A permanent retainer to a noble house my lady?” asked Liu Wen, stuttering. “Those positions are highly sought after even by master alchemists? Why would you offer it to just a journeyman?”

“I have a good feeling about you, and I am willing to take the risk.” replied Sa Bina. “If I find that your skills are not quite where I need them to be, I can look for a master to train you. If you accept then I will do my best to support you. The only way you would lose my support is if you try to take advantage of me or refuse to work. What do you say?”