Only when he got back outside did he remember that all the cats were waiting for him. He quickly called them all over and they all eagerly got up rushed to him when they spotted him. “There has been a change of plans. I need you all to come with me though. Before we handle business let’s get some food.”
Ryuji was beaming as he walked over to the plaza. The adult beastfolk all looked a little reluctant about accepting his generosity but the children were skipping and running in glee. Apparently, the words ‘meat skewer’ were some kind of magic to them. He went to the stand that the young dog beastfolk was running and the boy thanked him profusely. The cats all looked confused at first but realization dawned on them when he spoke to the boy. “It’s good to see you feeling better. I guess the priest got you healed up without a problem, that’s good! Give me twenty skewers. That’s all I intend to charge you for the next eightday. Be sure to let your brother know too so he doesn’t feel like I’m expecting him to bring me money or something.”
As the boy began passing out the skewers to the hungry cats, Ryuji made his way over to Lizbet who was also ecstatic to see him, and began telling him all about how the renovations to the bakery were going. She was so engrossed in the conversation that she didn’t even realize that Ryuji had slipped the two meat skewers into the buns as he ate them. He was asking about the prospects for hiring help when the cats came walking up licking their lips. He then ordered sweet bread for them but Lizbet wouldn’t let him pay her. The cats all began to understand the scope of his business dealings by this time and were suddenly starting to look proud as they walked behind him.
Ryuji had to pull out his map in order to find his way to the buildings that he now owned. Once he found the first building listed the rest were easy to spot. The merchant had owned a cluster of six buildings that formed a whole city block. He looked at the map in bemusement, he now owned a whole block of the city and another building besides. Looking at the map, only one of the Markiel buildings was as big as the bakery but there were still six of them and they took up a decent parcel of real-estate.
As the group of nine walked around the set of buildings, they spotted a larger group of people in the center of the cluster of buildings. As they walked up one young man could be heard above the murmurs from the rest of the group. “I know you are all anxious. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t but I’m just asking you all to give me a couple days to figure things out, alright?”
The murmurs grew louder until one older woman stepped forward to ask her question of the man directly. “Is it true what the rumors are saying? Is Mr. Markiel the one responsible for the murders of all of those young women? How are we supposed to keep working here if everybody thinks our store is associated with a murderer, huh? Just tell me that it’s not true, please.”
As the stricken manager tried in vain to form a reply, Ryuji stepped around the crowd and turned to face them with a serious but friendly look on his face. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it’s very true that Mr. Markiel was indeed the killer in question. I know because I was the one who caught him and as proof, I have here a notice from the duke to take possession of his family’s holdings.”
“I know that you don’t know me but I make the same request of you that he did. Give me a few days to get things sorted out. I have no intention of running anybody off and I will try to make working here worth your time and trust.”
Ryuji was about to go on but the man from before tapped on his shoulder and motioned for him to step a bit out of earshot. The young man looked to be in his early twenties with lightly tanned skin and short messy flaxen hair. He was dressed in a fairly nice set of clothes with a muscular frame. When the two were a few steps away from the crowd the young man leaned over to make sure they wouldn’t be overheard.
The man whispered to make doubly sure they weren’t overheard and glanced behind them. Ryuji realized the beastfolk were still following after him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Varon and I’m the store manager of the Markiel Holdings general goods store. I promise to work for you as long as you’ll have me but it might be a harder sell for a lot of the other workers. Aside from the fact that a lot of them watched the young Mr. Markiel grow up, there is a bigger issue.”
“I hate to bring this up when you only just took over the business but today marks the end of the eightday pay period. The boss was supposed to show up today and pay everyone. To make matters worse, he was gone last pay period and I wasn’t able to find enough money to pay everyone and keep the business running. All of them are already a half eightday short on their pay. I’m actually two full eightdays short but I’m not as worried about that as I am everyone else’s pay.”
Ryuji clapped the man on the shoulder and grinned then answered in a voice that would carry a bit. “Just tell me how much everyone is owed. I’ll cover everyone’s pay.”
There were sighs of relief but most of the crowd still looked doubtful. The manager, Varon, looked especially distressed. Ryuji understood that after that declaration that he would have to come through no matter the cost or his newly acquired workers would all leave or worse. Fortunately, money was one area where he wouldn’t have to worry but that didn’t keep Varon from doing so. “Sir, everyone’s combined pay for the whole company comes to almost two small gold every eightday…”
Varon had gotten progressively quieter the closer he came to saying that sum. Ryuji could sympathize with him. To the average citizens, a small gold was a veritable fortune. Which was all the more reason they were all so astonished when he didn’t hesitate to pull out four small gold coins and hand them to the young man before turning to address them all. “There, now your pay is covered. I need to talk to your manager for a bit but when I’m done, he can go over to the money changer and get the funds split up to pay everyone.”
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Ryuji looked back at the stunned Varon and continued in the same boisterous voice as he drew two more small gold and handed them over to him. “This is to pay everyone that wants to stay here a signing bonus. If they are willing to stay with me then I will be sure to treat them well. If they still want to leave give them a bonus weeks’ worth of pay to help them until they find their next job. I won’t hold any grudges. I know that none of you know the first thing about me.”
Ryuji began pulling the still-dumbfounded manager along. “I’m serious about the bonuses but for now I need you to tell me about the property. I only just received it this evening and know next to nothing about it. I get that it’s a general store but what are the other five buildings?”
“Huh? Oh, oh right! Yes, you see even though it’s a general goods store we have a lot of different types of merchandise for sale. The large building over here is the main storefront where we sell all the various items that people might need for everyday use and a lot of other small things. We even sell a decent selection of weapons for mercenaries and citizens and we have a contract with the city guard too. That building next to it is where the furniture is made and sold. Since that tends to be too big to fit comfortably on a regular sales floor, we have a building just for that.”
“The building to the other side of it is where we store all of the excess merchandise, till we need it in the store. The one behind it over there is the building where we store all the building materials we sell. We sell those out of the main store but we keep them in there because they tend to be too big and heavy. Just like the furniture, those items would take up too much of the sales floor.”
“The big two-story building over there is where a lot of the workers live with their families. It’s not the nicest place but it was a little cheaper than a lot of the other alternatives. A lot of the workers are here from places along the warfront and had no other place to turn. The boss took advantage of their situation and would pay them just enough to live but not nearly enough that they could move out and fend for themselves. And that’s it.”
Ryuji was in contemplation about all the prospects for the kinds of products he could cram into this kind of business. “I see. I get the idea of what the layout of the stores is but I have to know, what do you know about the business. Do you know the products? Do you know the suppliers? Do you know the finances? I would assume that you know all of the employees so do you know them well enough to tell me if any of them have any problems?”
Varon hung his head with a troubled look and Ryuji was expecting bad news. What the young man said was anything but what he expected. “Unfortunately, I do know all of that and a lot more. I was the one who ran the business, not Mr. Markiel. He got the business from his father but he never understood how businesses work and he never seemed interested in learning.”
“He just used the business as his personal coin purse. He would come here every so often and take the money that the business had built up just as we were getting things working again. He brought the business to the brink of collapse. I heard that some of the buildings might be sold out from under us so you may have to take care of that too. And any time he had to pay anything for the business he would scream about it for hours.”
“He was a terrible boss. The only upside was that he would often leave for several eightdays on end. When he did that, I was able to get the business running again and would stash a little bit of money for keeping it running once the boss came back.”
“Unfortunately, this last time he came back before I could stash any of the money and he took all of it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep the business running this time. I told everyone that the boss was supposed to be back today to pay them but I never actually thought he would show up, or if he did, he wouldn’t have any money with him. I was just hoping that I could sell off some of our stock in bulk or something to get everyone paid at least one more time. Then you show up and…”
The guy looked down at the hand full of gold with tears in his eyes. Ryuji looked around awkwardly and then spotted one building the man hadn’t mentioned. He walked over to it and noticed that it was another storefront but there didn’t appear to be anything in it. “Hey what about this one?
Varon walked over with a sniff. “Yeah, I forgot to mention this one. We don’t use it at all. The former owner had some kind of plans for it but he died before that ever happened. The young Mr. Markiel never liked the idea of spending money to fix it so it sat up and got worse. He certainly wasn’t going to do any of the work himself and now we have this.”
Ryuji turned to the cats and looked pointedly at them. “This will be your new store. I know that you are going to have to fix it up a lot first but don’t cut corners. I’ll pay for the renovations so just get the job done right. Fortunately, it sounds like we’ll already have the construction materials on hand. Hire some craftsmen to fix the place up and then move in. This guy is going to be your manager but for the most part, I’m going to be expecting you to keep your own store.”
He handed four small gold to Gato and turned to face Varon again. “If they need anything I expect you’ll be able to help them out? I really don’t plan to be by very often either. I’ll probably just come by once every eightday to check on the books. I think that you should be just fine running the place like you have till now with one exception. I will pick up some of the money but not too much. For now, I think I’ll give it a couple eightdays to build up without collecting. Actually, if the old owner was that hard on the business, I suppose I need to give you a little more to build the business up with.
Ryuji turned and started walking off. He pulled a couple more gold out of his considerably lighter coin pouch and handed them to the young man. “Now then, why don’t you show me the sales floor and then the books. I want to really get a feel for what I have to work with here.”
As the other two left, Gato and his family were left staring dumbfoundedly at four gold and a building. The building was old and weathered and it had been sitting up abandoned for who knows how long. It was also sitting on the edge of the river so they could smell the sewer and the mold. There was a mountain of things wrong with the place but on the other hand…
As they all stared the realization hit them. This place was absolutely enormous! There was a lot of work to be done to the place but they would be able to handle it any way they wanted because there was one thing that made this place better than anywhere else in the city, it was theirs. Gato and his family had their own storefront.