It didn’t take Ryuji long to finish his food. He had turned around and headed to the inn to pick up his map and property list and drop off the heavy books beside his writing journal. He then went right back to the tax office. He did have business with Aleen but he wanted to have the cats take care of their own first. He knew that if he had sat down and began discussing his own business that the cats would have asked him to get the work crew. He was going to force them to grow a backbone. First, he would make them do their own business dealings and then he would have them interact with customers and after a while, he was certain that they would get the hang of it.
He was a little worried about customers being rude and the cats backing off in fear. He wasn’t sure of the best way to handle that though. The husbands were there as protection so maybe that would be enough. They would actually look the part if he could get them all weapons. Now that he thought about it, that was a great idea! Besides, he needed to know how to treat the rust on his sword anyway. He would go by the weaponsmith shop after he finished here.
He gingerly stepped up to the door and knocked again. Her reply was almost immediate and he let himself in. Aleen looked up from behind the desk, a sheaf of papers in front of her. Her surprise was evident. “What can I do for you now, milord? Did your tenants have second thoughts or was this over a different matter?”
“The latter, I’m happy to say.” He took the seat across from her at her gesture. He then prepared his thoughts, settling how he would go about phrasing his thoughts. There was little chance that he could broach the subject delicately.
Settling on a course of action, he steeled himself for her likely reaction and she seemed to notice his discomfort. If he could plow through the initial shock, it would be a good way to set the pace of the conversation. “How do you go about bathing? *The shocked reaction was everything he was expecting. The tray clattering to the floor and the sound of a glass breaking in the next room over was not expected and he winced.* I need to know for market research. Is there a bathhouse in the noble’s district? Does every noble house have a bath for the residents? What about the retainers and guards? I plan to build a few bath houses in or around the residential districts but I need to know if the nobles district would receive it well.”
Ryuji spread his hands with a helpless expression while looking Aleen in the eyes and pointedly ignoring her butler, Garron, who was leaning out of the adjoining room glaring at him. “As much as I’ve been doing recently, I’ve rather been avoiding mingling with the nobles. I don’t really know if there is anyone who might not like me among the aristocracy of the city but I would rather bide my time in that regard. As a consequence to that line of reasoning, I’m left rather lacking on perspective into the local nobility. You have to deal with them a bit more frequently and I was hoping to avail myself of your expertise madame Aleen. I do apologize if I came across rather crass earlier.”
Ryuji could see the wheels spinning in her head and her expression had been relaxed shortly after the initial shock. Ryuji had to marvel once again at the gift of charisma from the Youma. It was proving almost if not just as useful as the coin pouch. While he did know all of the appropriate words, he was certain that it would never have occurred to him to use them.
Aleen pondered for a moment longer before looking down and then back at him with a grin spreading across her pretty features. “I have a bath in my home and bathe quite regularly. However, I believe that the information you are truly after would be the likely success and backlash from that if you were to build the bathhouse you are proposing. I can see you having great success in opening a number of them in the commoner districts and that will always bring you jealousy from someone.”
“If you were to build in the nobles’ district, you would need to buy two buildings. You would need to have a bath reserved for the nobles even if they were unlikely to visit the facility. To build solely for commoners would likely be called an insult even if the parties in question had no intention of ever going to one. Such is the way that many lower nobles vie for reputation. They would likely bait you into some verbal play and claim that not offering a service to the nobility was an insult and insist on some form of reparations. At least, that’s what I believe.” Her look was serious and contemplative but there was an edge of self-interest to it.
Ryuji considered her words and decided that she was probably right or at least, she had a decent argument. Likely, she was also contemplating the extra gold that she would garner from the sale of another piece of property. There were a scant few properties on offer in the nobles’ district after all. Still, he thought for a second he saw a look of longing. Perhaps, if he built such facilities, she would have an excuse to mingle more freely with those closer to her station.
Either way, he had made up his mind. “I have an idea. I would like to see what you think of this idea. What if I bought both properties at the same time but waited a bit to begin work on the one for the nobility. It would likely take a bit of time for the word to get around that the commoners had such facilities and only once notice was taken would not having the second facility become a risk. I could therefore postpone work on it until I had garnered some information from the servants whom I would hope were frequenting the facility in order to better cater to the tastes of the nobility.”
Before he was even done explaining the idea her eyes went wide and then she got a very calculating look in her eyes. “Why milord, I do believe you have come to a very astute conclusion. I would further like to say that if you do indeed build a facility for the servants and retainers, I would gladly volunteer to collect the odd bit of information to prepare you to open the second facility. And if perchance I happened to overhear conversation about one of the nobility preparing to cause trouble for you, I would then be able to give you a bit of advance warning. Of course, I might ask for a bit of a discount from you for my services.”
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Ryuji leaned forward and both of them shared a big conspiratorial grin before pressing their fists together over the desk. “Madam, I do believe we have reached an accord! I would like to begin discussing the purchase of various properties.”
Ryuji pulled out his map and list to look over the ones that he had marked in various ways. “Before we begin on that, I would like to inform you of the unfortunate condition of certain properties. I doubt that their current condition is known to you and thought you might want to have an update on their conditions. There are a couple buildings that were pointed out to me as having both mold and woodbugs. I’m no expert but I would think the latter to be cause for concern.”
Aleen looked almost horrified at the mention of the apparent pest and confirmed through a description of their appearance that they were indeed termites. It didn’t take long to point out to her the three buildings that the cats had said smelled of the pests. Aleen was terribly thankful for the information. She then explained that if a wealthy merchant or a noble bought a property that was infested with the vermin that they could hold judgement against her for not listing the damages and adjusting the price accordingly.
Then she went on to list a worst-case scenario where a noble was injured in one of the buildings due to her lacking information. Ryuji then told her that she should look into hiring some beastfolk to inspect the buildings. She had a skeptical look on her face and that’s when he informed her that he had the information only because of the little cat-girl. Suddenly, she looked a lot more receptive to the idea. It was time for a final push. He then went on to say that if she were to adopt a beastfolk child that they would be exceedingly loyal and were incredibly cute when they rubbed on your leg and purred like a kitten. He told her that he wasn’t sure about the others but the cats and dogs were loyal to a fault.
After that, he left her to think on it and didn’t mention the matter again. It was time to get down to business. They discussed dozens of locations and she pulled out the floorplans for all of the ones that he decided were even remotely possible. Aleen could tell that this was going to be a major sale and she wasn’t sure how the duke would react to the sudden purchase of so much real estate.
After much deliberation, the final selection was settled on. It turns out that at one point, small anterooms on the side of a building were a popular design but most people favored buildings that made the most of all of the available space of that particular property. The L-shaped buildings were mostly passed over in favor of other designs and that left a lot of them on the market. They just so happened to perfectly suit Ryuji’s ideal design for his intended bathhouses.
He also didn’t skimp on them. He intended to proposition Teresa on the possibility of adding a bath to her establishment but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be adding them all over the place also. In the end, Ryuji found six locations that he considered ideal for his bathhouse plans. Then he had to add one more building for his soap and perfume manufactory. He was jumping to conclusions but whatever. Even if the woman in the stall turned his offer down, he would still need to make soap.
He also found three other properties that he decided to buy and decide what to do with them later. Something about the unsuitability of these buildings to be shown to most customers and after a confirmation of their current condition that they would be discounted. Ryuji decided that he would figure out what to put in them after they were renovated. Aleen had a major look of calculation when she proposed that one to him and he knew what she was up to. He could see the coins dancing in her eyes by this point but why disappoint when he was likely to buy them anyway.
Aleen did get a bit of a surprise when Ryuji wasn’t able to pull the full amount out all at once. He had most of it but was a couple gold short. That was before considering the three soon-to-be discounted buildings. Ryuji suggested that she take one of the beastfolk children with her and if the girl, since there were two older girls, could point out the vermin in the walls, pay the kid. He then suggested that, if she was going to do the survey of the three buildings soon, he could just wait for a total price including what he owed currently.
Aleen was a tad skeptical but he told her he could go get the money right now if she needed it but he would be a little longer coming back to check on the other three buildings. She saw through his supposed threat but told him she could wait anyway. In the end, it was decided that she would take one of the kids, if the parents agreed, and they would survey the buildings. He would bring the girl to her tomorrow if they agreed and he would have all of the paperwork waiting on him in an eightday, at which point he would have the full amount ready.
After concluding his business at the tax office, Ryuji headed for the inn. He didn’t spot Karen or Teresa but it wasn’t a peak hour so he supposed that they were likely either cleaning or taking care of some other business. That suited him fine. He headed to his room and pulled everything back out of his large satchel. He then began pulling coinage out of his coin pouch. He was only mildly surprised to find three large copper coins at a time appearing in his coin pouch.
This time, rather than filling it completely to the top, Ryuji left a bit of space and put his writing journal and utensils back in the bag. He then closed and locked the door and headed out of the inn. It didn’t take him very long to reach his destination, the market plaza.
Ryuji went to each of the stands that he had business arrangements with. At each stand, he wrote the name of the owner and the type of product at the top of a fresh ledger page and then told them he wanted to get a count of their coins currently. At each, he would count up the total number of coins and would trade in a tad bit of small copper and would trade out any of the largest denominations in favor of large copper that he had so much of. He also took a tiny bit from each to avoid suspicion before saying he would be back in an eightday.
When he went to see Shoan at the moneychangers, he was surprised to see him already busy. In order to avoid suspicion, he decided to wait for the teen to finish with his current customer. There were those that looked at him and then to Shoan with envy. He supposed he would try to spread his business around a bit some other time. He really did prefer to use the same clerk at the stores he used to visit now that he thought about it.
It didn’t take the boy long to finish. Once Ryuji thought about it, this guy was probably about his age from his past life. Shoan smiled broadly when he saw Ryuji sit in front of him. He was prepared when he sat the large satchel on his desk and ran to the back while throwing a cursory question over his shoulder. “Shopping mix, right? Be right out.” Ryuji left him a small silver when he left.