“Can we afford a housekeeper?” Sara asked as he got home. There wasn’t much to clean, since Sara already cleaned it once, but the thought of cleaning the entire place again did seem to scare her. “I’d prefer I could do more of my real job, which is to protect you.”
“Right now? No. Not with our current cash position. I need it to buy more businesses.”
After paying 8 gold and 5 silver for Robert’s businesses via the Merchant’s Guild, he had about 17 Gold and 65 silvers left in the Han Bank. He still generated 3 silvers a day, so that did mean he was still quite well off.
“Instead, why not just clean our two rooms, the bathrooms, the kitchen, and the hall. These four places. Ignore all the rest.”
“It’s still six rooms to clean, Quinn.” Sara said, and Quincy relented.
“Fine, let me see whether we can arrange a temporary cleaner to come once a week. There’s certainly no need for daily cleaning.”
Sara looked relieved. “That’s fair.”
“But you’ll lose out on the levels with your new skills.”
The knight frowned for a moment. That certainly was useful, and she had to admit she felt stronger when she wore the maid outfit.
"How did the meeting go?"
"As well as one would expect." Quinn answered and drank a glass of water. The stench of alcohol was all over him. "I'll get myself showered."
***
The next day, he approached Mister Robert with an idea.
“You want to talk to the suppliers?”
“Yes.”
“You met him yesterday.”
Quincy thought about it for a moment, and then asked. “Can you ask him out for drinks again? Perhaps some time this week?”
Robert thought for a moment, and nodded. “Sure. There’s actually a few other folks you probably need to meet. Like the landlord, the Lord’s officials who handle all the restaurants, and then the Restaurants Guilds folk.”
“There is a Restaurants’ guild.”
“Yes. They don’t do much, but they occasionally lobby the Lord for some benefits. They’ll be interested in some young blood like yourself. Old farts like me who are part of the Restaurants Guild are all too tired to try anything different.”
Quincy nodded. It certainly made sense to socialize with the Restaurants Guild. If he wanted to fortify his family’s chances, he had to make alliances, and friends.
***
“You wanted to buy me a drink?” Adrian Harris chuckled. A beer cost about 20 bronze coins. It wasn’t much in the scheme of things.
“Yes. Actually, I want your help to negotiate the prices of the shop’s purchases. I know Robert’s been buying from you guys for some time.”
“Robert actually buys from a few of us.” Adrian responded.
“Would you give me a better price if I gave all that to you?”
Adrian shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that to my fellow business partners. We all work with the same farms out in the valleys.”
Quincy had an epiphany right then, when he realized what Adrian was doing. They were a cartel of middlemen, with a monopoly on the farms. Quincy wondered briefly whether he could cut out the middleman by going to the farms directly, but it’s likely that these guys also have muscle, and right now, he wasn’t strong enough to fight against the cartels. If he had more maids and more restaurants, this was something he could do.
He’d have to work with them for now, and try to cozy up a good relationship with Adrian until he’s strong enough to resist them. He’ll need more combat maids, if only to provide security to his premises.
“Ah. I see.” Quincy smiled and offered a toast. “Then I am in your care, Mister Harris. I hope for a fruitful business relationship.”
Adrian chuckled. “No worries, young lad. I like you already.”
Quincy couldn’t help feeling that the restaurants in the city were probably subservient to these gangs, since they controlled all the food supplies coming into the city.
***
“These middlemen.” Sara listened intently, her eyes focused. This was something she was actually interested in. “You suspect they control and regulate the prices of the raw materials coming in from the outer valleys.”
“Yes.” Quincy answered. “I want to know more about what’s happening, but for now, I’m going to try to make friends, and along the way, I will volunteer your services as a freelance guard. Then, I want you to find out how stuff works in this town.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
She nodded.
“Not just that, I need to increase the amount of maids we have, and I also need to look at buying more restaurants to convert into these maid uniforms.”
Sara paused. “Why?”
He looked at Sara. “I have some kind of maid-linked ability. The more maids I have, the more powerful I become.”
“Oh.”
He had 17 gold left in the bank. If he could get a restaurant for 8-10 gold, he’d get it for less. Or, he could get those restaurants that barely made money, pay a small amount for them, and then find ways to make a profit by making them more efficient.
Sara nodded. “I’ll see whether I can get to know some of the local guards.”
Quincy eyed her guardian, and suddenly felt possessive. “Take care of yourself. Don’t date them.”
Sara was suddenly taken aback by the last one. “Oh?”
He stood, and approached his knight. Despite being the more powerful combatant, Sara took a step back as he approached. “I’m possessive of my servants.”
Sara’s heart beat quickly. “Ah- okay. I’ll- I’ll keep that in mind.”
***
Quincy wasn’t sure why he felt that way. He retreated to his room and as he rested on his bed, and temporarily remembered what Robert said about her running away. That was uncomfortable.
He didn’t even know why he felt possessive of his maid-
Wait. Is it the effect of the [Magical maid core]? He immediately went to the interface, and got- nothing. But that feeling of possessiveness suddenly vanished.
Suspicious.
But it wasn’t much he couldn’t do now.
Instead, he focused on what he could do. He needed to grow, and to do so, he needed a lot more than just 17 gold.
He thought about whether the Han bank would be willing to lend him money. One of the ways to massively grow was to use loans, use debt. The other way was to use customer’s money. Find a way to collect large sums of money from the customers upfront to scale up his arrangement. He thought about it for a moment, and wondered whether he could do prepayments. Could his existing waitresses handle it?
With his current skills, it’s clear it’s not sufficient to massively scale up his business.
He needed a second maid. A maid with business skills. He felt like he needed to hire a secretary for the role.
***
“I thought you said we didn’t have money.” Sara said the next morning as he said he planned to hire a secretary.
“If it boosts my business performance, the extra revenue from the business would pay for her salary. [Secretaries] and [Managers] should have some similar skill, but I’d go with someone with less experience so I can train her abilities.”
“Her?”
“Yes. A girl. I want a lady that’s willing to wear a maid uniform.”
Sara suddenly connected to the skill. “Because of your skill?”
“Yes.”
“Why couldn’t you ask the existing waitresses whether they have those sort of skills? Surely they are either some kind of [Waitress] or [Worker]?”
“The three waitresses are all [Workers], which don’t give business-level boosts. They are good at their jobs, but they don’t increase revenues overnight. I need someone with a business level class.”
One of the greatest secrets on classes and skills known to the Great families. Business level abilities can overlap and amplify each other. It is how their businesses are so powerful. It was one of the key things that his father drilled into him. Pay attention to the numbers.
Most of the regular people don’t and can’t visualize the numbers. They fail to understand what they are paying, and what they are receiving for the services or work that they provide. It is the elite class’s leverage of the labor of the working class that gave them the power.
“Come with me, then. Let’s head to the guild.”
***
“You wish to hire an administrator or a secretary.” The receptionist of the Merchant’s guild repeated and began to search her cabinet.
Quincy nodded, and what immediately came was a whole stack of files.
“This is the list of all the people who submitted their names. They are all looking for jobs. Under our local labor laws as stipulated by Duke Beneton Carm, they must be paid a minimum of 3 gold per year if they work six days a week, from one hour after sunrise to one hour before sunset. For hourly work, the minimum pay is 5 bronze coins per hour. Any overtime must be paid at 1.5x the regular hourly rate.” The receptionist repeated.
Quincy nodded. These were fairly standard employment terms common throughout the Kingdom, and so he began to go through the list of names and their rough particulars. He would probably have to call them in for an interview.
He could use his restaurant as a venue to conduct the interview before the opening hours, or during the lull between lunch and dinner.
“How do I reach out to them?”
“Simple.” The merchant guild receptionist smiled. “If you pay us a recruitment fee of 3 silvers, our administrative team will contact up to thirty persons from the list, and ask them to attend the interview. They may or may not turn up, though.”
“I see.” Quincy smirked. At least the merchant guild was upfront with their charges. “Any other charges?”
“Nope. It’s all yours. Oh, this employee, will it be parked under the Salary Account that Robert’s Restaurant has with the Han Bank? All employee salaries are credited at month end via one of the banks, so you do need to update your list of employees with the bank, and their monthly salaries, and ensure that your Salary Bank Account is properly funded. Mister Robert’s has paid for his share of the employee salary up to the date of the transfer of ownership.”
Quincy realized there was an administrative step he didn’t know about. Back in the Capitol, it was just all handled by the persons his father employed. There were administrators. If anything, it just amplified the need to actually have an administrator or secretary.
“Can a secretary do such things?”
“Yes, but beware of fraud.” The receptionist said with a smile.
“Point taken.”
“You could always lodge a standing instruction to the bank, so they will just keep paying until the lists are withdrawn or amended.”
Quincy briefly wondered how much this receptionist was paid. She seemed fairly knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects, and she didn’t seem poor, actually. He shook his head and went back to the list. He wanted someone fairly young so that their levels are low. That way, he could guide their level gains in the way he wanted. He was also fairly sure younger ladies would look better in a maid outfit-
Quincy pinched himself. “What the hell am I thinking?”
“Sorry?” The receptionist asked.
“Oh nothing. Some stupid thoughts.”
She chuckled. “That happens.”