“You don’t speak normally, do you? Where are you from?” asked the boy in front of me.

In an attempt to quell the recent fears about the destructive capacity of my matches, I started making plans for a new business. Part of that included hiring someone to be the face of the operation, selling insurance as well as managing the fire-fighting operation that would come with it. Shur apparently had found the perfect candidate for me to hire, though I went to his home to meet him for myself.

He had a rather mediterranean complexion like most of the people I’ve met in this world, but it had some slight differences that made it seem like he was from somewhere else. I wasn’t able to pin down where exactly due to my lack of knowledge regarding geography in this world, but I could tell that he was somewhat of an outsider.

Due to his status as a son of a prominent local merchant, he lived in a home that was quite expansive, signaling the influence that his father held. Unfortunately due to him being born as the fifth son in the family, he was unlikely to be left any significant inheritance from his father. However, the education that he was provided as the son of a merchant could prove useful to me if I decided to put him in charge of the business.

The youth in front of me named Hasbel seemed like he was the same age as me, but due to our different backgrounds there was a stark contrast in the way we spoke. I spoke more formally due to that being what I was taught, while he spoke the way any teenager his age would.

“That’s not important.” I replied, “What’s your background?”

While I already knew that he was one of the children of a burgher, I still wanted to have him speak for himself just in case any of what Shur said was wrong.

“Well my dad is a wealthy merchant, as you know, who deals in masonry primarily. He came from Qarqadim with my mother, and settled down here. He has five sons and two daughters, and because I’m the youngest of them, there aren’t many opportunities for me to take over the business. So my father introduced me to Shur who was a trading partner with him at the time, and I worked many jobs for him until now. Just yesterday, he told me of a brand new business that I was perfect for and now I’m meeting you.”

“Was that good enough for you?” he said, a bit annoyed.

I somehow managed to understand all of what he said, in contrast to when I talked to most adults. Maybe it was the fact that he didn’t speak as formally or as quickly as they did, but either way it was a welcome change.

“That’s fine but what does Qarqadim mean?” I asked.

“You don’t know the greatest city in the world? Have you been living under a rock?” he said, shocked that I wasn’t aware of that term.

“Nevermind that. Let’s talk about something else.” I said with a sigh.

I would have to ask Qaton about that later. As mentioned previously, I wasn’t really good with geography in this new world since I had yet to see a map, so I was a bit lacking in that department.

“Why did you agree to meet with me?”

“Well I’ve been kind of curious as to who the genius behind the matches was, so if I work with enough merchants I’ll eventually find him and can learn from him,” he said.

His praise of my business would almost make me blush if it wasn’t for how irreverent he was. I was almost tempted to reveal that I made the matches, right then and there. But it wasn’t really wise to be revealing these things to someone that I hadn’t gotten to know yet. I was imagining what would happen if I did that until I was interrupted by his complaining.

“Hello? When are we starting the interview?” he said while tapping his foot impatiently.

“Right. Sorry.” I said, now focusing solely on him.

This time I was more able to determine the abilities of the one I hired since I was able to actually speak with them and decide on whether they were a good fit. Last time that Qaton referred me to Piyan, he was basically my only option and I just chose him since I thought that he would be a good fit. Thankfully Qaton was right and it worked out, but this time I was able to interview candidates for myself and can afford to reject them if I didn’t think they’d do well.

“So what special skills can you bring to the table?” I asked him.

At the moment I said that, I found it a bit funny how much I sounded like the stereotypical interviewer at a company. Not that I had even been interviewed or had a job in my old world, but these things just get ingrained in the public consciousness via cultural osmosis.

“Well I’m pretty good at dealing with people.” he said, “So if the job needs something like that I’ve got it covered. I was also taught basic merchant skills like arithmetic and such, but I hate clerical work. I refuse to do any of that “

He seemed like he had the skills to do what I wanted but his dislike of stewardship would be something to keep in mind. It didn’t affect my opinion of him though since I was perfectly content with doing it all myself. Even if he seemed competent enough for the job, I still needed to get a better grasp of his temperament.

“Why did he teach you those skills?” I asked.

I asked this question not because I was genuinely curious as to the motives of his father, but rather because I wanted to see more of his personality.

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“Well he didn’t want me to starve obviously, so I guess he had a tutor for me so I’d be able to make a living on my own. In a way, I’m kind of grateful for him since he wasn’t required to do any of that and could have just married me off to some other family without the skills to do well.”

“I see.”

I noticed that he seemed to have an appreciation for what his father gave him, indicating that he wasn’t exactly a spoiled brat and could be a reliable worker. I think it was about time that I started explaining what I wanted him to do but before I could do that, he started trying to reverse the questions back to my direction.

“I’ve answered a lot of your questions, so let me ask a few of my own so I can know more about my potential employer,” he said.

“Fair enough.” I nodded.

“Alright, what’s your name?”

“Shur didn’t tell you?” I asked, confused.

He shook his head, “No, he did not.”

“Alright I understand, my name is Hamet.” I admitted.

“Also, how is this business of yours going to work?”

I was fortunate that he mentioned one of the things I was about to talk about. So, I explained to him how the fire-fighter and insurance company would work and what role he would play in it. While I was discussing the ins and outs of how the operation would work, he seemed enthralled by what I had to say. His attention was laser-focused on me this time, in contrast to his more relaxed attitude earlier.

“So do you think you can convince people to buy insurance and train the fire-fighters on what to do?” I asked.

He thought for a moment, “Yeah probably, but why would you even do something like this?”

“Well it’s profitable. And since the Yad has been talking about how the fear of matches has been an issue, I decided that it would be a good idea to capitalize on it.”

I decided to hide my involvement with the matchmaking business and make up some partly-true reason as to why I was doing it.

“How did you know that the Yad has been talking about these things?” he asked, skeptically.

“He had a meeting with those affected by the recent fires, and since I was a relative of someone who owned one such property, I was able to hear it straight from him.”

This was a complete lie. I just hoped that he wasn’t able or didn’t have the motivation to check this for himself.

But he seemingly was convinced by my excuse, saying “That makes sense, the fires really made people scared of those match thingies huh?”

I laughed, “That’s true, those match thingies really are scary apparently.”

We both laughed for a moment, that was until I said something which immediately killed the mood.

“So what do you think of your pay?” I asked innocently.

His eyes narrowed and he assumed a less relaxed demeanor, like he became a completely different person.

“He is weirdly serious about these things.” I thought.

Working all those jobs probably taught him the importance of a fair wage, and thus he seemed like he wanted to make sure that he was paid fairly for his efforts.

“How will you pay me?”

“I was thinking of a commission* system.”

“What’s that word? Something from where you come from?”

“Yes, something along those lines. It means that you get a cut of each insurance plan of insurance you sell.”

“Oh, a commission* system. Why didn’t you just say that?”

“I didn’t know that word, I’ll remember it.”

Apparently this world had a term for it already, so I made sure that I internalized this word for later use.

“So will I be paid according to your commission system?” he asked.

“Well you will be paid a percentage of what you sell in insurance, so if you sell forty golds worth of insurance you will get a fraction of it. Also when I get men for you to train, we’ll work out the details of your payment when we get to that.”

“So what percentage do you think you’re capable of giving me?”

“Well… with the material cost of constructing the place where you will work, and the maximum of ten gold payments that I will promise to anyone who gets their house burned down, I think I can give you a six percent commission rate.”

“That’s a really low percentage.” he scoffed, “At least make it fifteen.”

“Maybe I can do eight.”

“Twelve.”

“Ten.” he offered.

I thought for a moment, and it seemed reasonable enough. So I shook his hand and finally hired him with a ten percent commission rate.

Of course, I lowballed him with the six percent but it was because I wanted to get him to ten percent. Since that was how much I discussed with Shur and I didn’t see any need to change it anymore. But being a merchant’s son, he probably caught on to the fact that I wanted it to be ten percent and allowed it.

I asked him one last question before we ended our meeting,

“How did you even learn about me anyway?”

I expected him to answer by referring to Shur, but he surprisingly seemed at a loss for words. He looked like someone who had been caught committing a crime until he had finally managed to tell me that Shur had told him about my business. I found his reaction a bit strange, but I ultimately shrugged it off.

If he was to be my employee, I would eventually have to get used to his odd behaviors.

He looked outside the window and was shocked by the time. The sun had begun to set, and he began to quickly hurry to the door. He seemed to be in quite a rush, but I just let him leave without any questioning.

“What’s he in such a hurry for?” I idly wondered.

Hasbel

Ten minutes later…

I found him in the same alleyway I always did, but I was a bit later than usual.

“You’re late.” the cloaked man said.

“Yeah sorry, the boy took up a lot of my time.” I said, “It took longer than expected.”

“So what did you think of him?” he asked.

“He might be the one that is making the matches, as you’ve said sir.”

“Well we confirmed that Shur wasn’t the one behind it, so he’s the most likely option.”

“Have you found out anything about him yet?”

“Not yet sir. But I got a job as his employee which will allow me to keep a closer eye on him.”

“How did you even manage to make that happen?” he asked, impressed.

“It was pretty easy. After you told me that the matchmaker was connected with Shur, I planted the idea that I was in search of a job to Shur, who I had known previously. That allowed me to get a meeting with the boy and convince him to hire me.”

“We have reason to believe that the matchmaking business is also connected to the rival smuggling ring that’s monopolizing the alham trade that Ader wants. So keep me updated, Ader will reward you generously if someone comes of this. So find out as much as you can from your employer and we’ll deal with the rest.”

“Yes sir.”

As he walked away, I recalled how I first met him.

After working on some jobs that required me to go to other different towns, I was headhunted by a mysterious group that wanted me to do some odd jobs for them. Because they promised to pay handsomely, I accepted and was now tasked to gather more information about a boy that they were interested in.

“I wonder… is he truly who they’re looking for?” I asked myself.