During the wait for the carpenter to show up, Kael ran out to get some paper. He got back just in time to see a grumpy looking Jessica helping 2 men unload tons of leather into the backyard area.

Running up to Jessica, he told her thanks for all the hard work, and that she had the next few hours off, at least until the carpenter gets here. Still grumpy, she told Kael she was going to go cultivate and left him to help unload the leather.

Finishing off all of his minor chores, Kael took out the thick paper he purchased earlier. Going into design mode he quickly made a sketch for each level of the building.

The bottom floor was pretty basic in his opinion. It was split into three main areas. One third of the building was kind of like an entrance hall. It had two large rooms off to the sides and one enormous hall in the middle. In the rear part of the building, another third was taken up by a huge kitchen. About 70% of that space was for cooking, and the last 30% of the area was designed as storerooms. The last third of the bottom floor was Kael's space. It included two bedrooms, a room for a guard to sleep in, bathrooms for each of the sleeping areas, a large crafting area, and a place he left open to put a forge.

The second story was basically long rows of rooms. It would have three hallways and 6 rows of rooms. Four of those row would actually be two sets of room back to back. A middle hallway between the two sets of doubled up rooms, with another hallway on the outside of them, splitting them from the rooms along the walls of the building. The entire second floor was set up like a big dormitory, with bathrooms taking up every 5th room. Kael designed each room to be about 11 feet in length and 10 feet in width. Definitely large enough for adults let alone children. Without the restroom areas, each row would have 24 bedrooms, for a total of 144 small living spaces.

The third floor was just set up as a huge open hall. Other than the columns needed to hold up the roof it was almost entirely open. He did design a few rooms along the side walls to be used as storage, restrooms, or whatever else someone with house building experience says he needs.

After finishing his design, he gave it to Jessica and went over so that he was sure she understood how it was supposed to be.

When she left to go back to cultivating Kael did his damnedest not to bust out the books from his parents and join her. Trying to distract himself and not be bored, he started writing out simple recipes for cooking. His early plan was a French toast bastardization for breakfast time, steamed buns for lunch, and something like a Mongolian meatball ramen with a steamed bun on the side for dinner.

His main plan was to make loaves of bread after dinner, to use in the morning for French toast, as it would be quick and easy. Then to start making the steamed buns so they had time to rise before lunch. Then while they were raising they could make noodles en masse and prepare meatballs or thin strips of beef for the ramen. Unlike real ramen, Mongolian ramen had the water strained, then a sauce was applied. This would make it easy for the kids to transport.

He still had to go find some super cheap papyrus or thick paper and design a cheap to go container out of it. While pondering how to fix the issue of a to go box, the carpenter and his team showed up. As a bonus, Jessica had him bring the stonemason so everything could get worked out at once.

As they walked up, Jessica politely greeted the men. Handing over the rough sketched blueprints and going over the general idea, the carpenter said it shouldn't be an issue, but he was going to check out the foundation of the structure first.

After he left, Jessica tried to explain the bread oven to the mason. Failing at her explanation as the concept of cooking was foreign to her, Kael took over.

Describing how he wanted to be able to cook huge quantities of bread during part of the day, then use the top of the stove as a steamer basin for steamed buns during another part of the day, the mason finally got the idea. Telling Kael that the original cost estimate was still valid. He explained he would just need to wait for the bottom floor construction to be done before he could begin. After finalizing some details the stonemason excused himself, saying he needed to review where to put exhaust vents for the huge oven.

When Jessica and Kael were alone again, she looked over at him and asked, "Just how much bread are you planning on making?"

"A lot, I want 50 kids selling it throughout the city each morning. The backpacks I am making will be 3 feet tall, 3 feet wide, and 2 feet deep. Each will be separated into 4 layers.

"The kids should be able to fit close to 600 slices of bread in them. Depending on how well the French toast sells, it could make a lot of money for the little guys. Later for lunch, they will only be able to fit 200 to 300 buns in them. So they will make a lot less, but each one will sell for more. At dinner time they will probably each fit about 120 dishes, but again, the price will be even higher."

Jessica just stared at Kael like he was a freak. She couldn't understand how such a young child could come up with so many things planned so far in advance.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

As she was thinking, Kael continued, "Really if things take off, each kid should bring in 6 silver in the morning, and 10 or so at lunch and dinner. Half of that is mine, so 13 silver per kid, minus a silver for the cost of food, and multiplied by the number of kids, I should get about 650 silver a day.

"It will take a week to get them up and running, then it is all just free cash. If sales steadily rise until the kids are selling out, it will take me 3 months and I will get all of my investment back. However, I plan to have one kid run the things I cook to the entrance of the upper-class area to sell. My skill in cooking is where my actual real income will come in."

Jessica just shook her head at the kid's plans. As if shaking her head rattled her brains around, she remembered she had money for him. "Hey Kaeldread, You forgot to get your money from the hides."

"Oh, you are right Jessica, how much did they come to and how much did you spend on the other leathers? Also, what rank was that panther?"

Handing over a large jingling bag, Jessica said, "27 of the rank 7 hides were common, 3 were rare. 9 of the rank 8 hides were common, 1 was rare. The Night Devil Panther is actually a rare rank 5 creature and it's hide is highly sought after. Not only does it go for more because it is a rare hide, it is in such high demand you got double for it. You are now rich"

Taking the bag from her he said, "So how much is it, just give me the total and how much the panther hide was?"

"Total, 45 gold. The panther was 173 silver by itself."

"Wait, that is way too much money, give me more details."

"Kaeldread, sometimes you seem like a genius, sometimes you lack common sense. The price of hides skyrockets as the beasts strength increases. A common rank 7 beast hide is worth 900 silver. A common rank 8 beast hide is worth 2.250 gold. I actually had paid a few gold to have our merc group escort me to the sale. You are lucky you did not try to sell them yourself, or you would have been found in a ditch tomorrow morning."

Hearing that Kael thought to himself, Shit, I am glad I hired an adult to run my errands. She is pretty honest too. I wonder how I can snatch her from her merc group.

Bowing to Jessica, Kael said, "Thank you Jessica, and I appreciate your honesty. Hiring you was the best decision I made since coming to this city. I will make it worth your while."

"Just let me have more time to cultivate and we will be good."

"Well, now there is nothing to do until the building is done. Hang out here to talk to them when they are done looking at the building. Afterwards, I will probably just be sitting around here during the day making things and sleeping at an inn during the night. Your life just got boring."

About 30 minutes later the carpenter and stonemason came over to talk to Jessica. The stonemason had some issues. The oven wanted was too big. There was no good way to feed it wood or clean it.

Sitting down with the men, Kael took a pen and about 30 minutes later had redesigned the bottom floor. The oven was now by the wall that separated the front area from the kitchen. He pulled it out from the wall to stop the worry of it catching fire.

The mason's other concern was that an oven of that size would generate a huge amount of heat. To tackle this Kael had the carpenter build a sloping enclosure over the oven, to act as a separate heat hood. He also had them put some vents in the ceiling so the hot air would disperse into the second story walls, hopefully heating it up at night and in the winters.

After all of the changes, it cost him an extra gold. With his newfound wealth, it did not bother him much. Having Jessica pay the men, they left to go prepare for the next day.

Finally alone with Jessica, he asked with a smile, "Are you ready to go run more errands?"

Sighing she nodded, as she knew his offer of having nothing do was too good to be true.

The rest of the day was spent with the two of them running from shop to shop. Kael finally managed to find suppliers for flour, meat, spices, and other things needed for cooking. He had thought about making the kids do it all themselves, but decided that it would be too complicated and overwhelming for normal children. Scheduling everything to be delivered to his building in 5 days he was almost done.

Dropping by a carpenter he bought 120 beds, they would be delivered in sets of 40. the first set hopefully would be done in a just a few days. The carpenter directed him to a tailor where he bought 120 feather mattresses, 240 sets of sheets and pillows, all that would be delivered with the beds. He also designed a set of uniforms made of sturdy cotton. The pants were black and the shirts were grey, with a steamed bun embroidered on its chest. The order would take too long so he was sent to another tailor.

Ending his trip, he dropped by another carpenter where he ordered the parts for 100 stools. The stools were designed so the legs would go over his boxes. Letting the kids carry them easier. Discussing the boxes with the carpenter he found out he would need wood on the interior corners or they would not be very stable. Ordering those as well, Kael thanked the man and left with Jessica.

Checking the two of them into a nice inn for 4 nights, he and Jessica then ate dinner. Reviewing the cost of everything for the day he 1 gold 70 silver for the furniture, clothing, etc.. His food costs surprised him though. They were way lower than expected. He could make 1,000 stuffed steamed buns for about 3 silver. The french toast was 2 silver per 1,000, 3 silver if he added sugar and cooking cinnamon to them. His ramen would cost about 8 silver due to the teriyaki-ish eel sauce he wanted to make. The only good thing was that the consumption speed of the end product was half that of the bread and buns, so it was theoretically only 4 silver.

In the end, he gave out 130 silver with a delivery date of 7 days later. Then a delivery every other day. The food would last them through the end of the month. As the end of the month neared he would have to stop to review the income. If he wasn't personally making enough money he would have to change business models. With a food cost of basically 5 silver a day, he and the kids would optimally make a little over 25 silver a day before splitting the income.

When he was done eating he realized he actually had free time now. Telling Jessica he was going to his room and would knock on her room's door if he left, he went upstairs to get down to something that had been wanting to do for a long time now, pill making.