Capítulo 19: Opening the Store
The next morning...
When the sun was still rising under the horizon, Mero's slaves, among them Tenur and the servants, Amir and Shui, were already in front of the Touma family store in Cusca.
These 14 individuals quickly entered that store, opening the various side windows but keeping the place closed, as Tenur had said would happen today.
When everything was well-lit in that store, Tenur looked at those 13 people and began to speak. "Well, I want two of you to stay in the store to clean up this area." He indicated half the length of the store, the part that customers could enter.
Previously, Mero's entire store served to store the items sold there, and customers could walk from one side of this building to the other. But with the renovation designed by Tenur, this place was now divided between the customers' and employees' areas.
Two-thirds of the building have the furniture Tenur designed, where the customers can look at the products and make purchases. In the remaining third, Tenur intended to build the store's kitchen in a small area, and the rest of the space would serve to develop the plaster and paint.
For someone with his advanced knowledge and techniques, he could produce all this without needing many complex tools.
Then he continued. "I want three of you to build walls in the places I will design. Another two will work to build a kitchen, and the rest will accompany me."
Shui said nothing upon hearing all this, expecting that Tenur would do things like that considering the plans he had presented the day before.
He just stayed silent, watching where all this would lead them.
Amir, on the other hand, asked. "What can I do?"
Tenur looked at that man and said. "Senior Amir can watch the captives building the walls and those clearing that area of customers."
Amir smiled at Tenur and then looked at Shui. "You can observe the captives building the walls as well. We will let Tenur lead the last part of these plans."
"That... Fine." Shui said after a while, annoyed at having to serve a slave but at a loss as Amir ordered him.
'Just you wait, damned slave...
When you least expect it, I'll make Amir turn on you and show you how your kind of scum has to be treated!' That middle-aged man thought to himself, full of anger. 'Soon, Nail will help me, and your record will be dirty!'
As Shui watched Tenur from the corner of his eye, filled with hatred, this captive led the men he trusted most among those captives to produce his makeshift plaster and paint factory.
To make plaster and paint, he wouldn't need much. Besides the ingredients he had already identified in the store, which was why he wanted to produce such things, he would only need a suitable space for a kiln.
The instruments used in producing both products could be improvised temporarily, so he wouldn't need much apart from the oven and one or another fixed container.
In the first instance, all Tenur did was indicate to those captives the kind of construction he wanted, observing and guiding them through the various stages of construction.
The only work he would do would be the combination of the dough used in the furnace, one that those people didn't know but would be responsible for the thermal resistance of the furnace.
Other than that, he would, at most, sort out the proper materials to make the slaves' lives easier and advise them on how to improve their manual skills.
Tenur had not done manual labor like this in his life in the cultivation world. But he had seen builders in action on many occasions, as well as knowing a great deal about the human body and the laws of physics.
All this combined, he knew how to guide people who had never built anything more complex than a wall to create the world's first super-strong oven.
Since the materials he used in his mixtures were the kind that would speed up the drying of the dough, it would be ready the same day, late afternoon.
The weather would help Tenur in this since the drying of doughs happened faster in a dry and hot environment like Cusca.
The slaves building the extra walls of this store and the kitchen would not be delayed in their services and would finish what Tenur had ordered the same day.
They had all the materials in that store and knew how to make walls and a kitchen typical of this area.
In the late afternoon, when the darkness of the night was coming to hinder the work of Tenur's group, they finished the whole project for the day.
...
"Okay, guys, that's all for today.
Tomorrow we will open the store in the middle of the day when we have some plaster ready to go over the wall of the store entrance." Tenur said with a smile on his face, pleased with the progress of these people.
Although they had no cultivation, they were not slow, could work hours without eating, and still learned relatively easily.
Or maybe he was the one who taught too well?
It didn't matter. The fact was that Tenur had gotten what he wanted for the day and was feeling accomplished.
"Middle of the day?" Shui asked, finding it inadequate that this captive would still make him wait for hours but unable to criticize him too much.
Sooner or later, it was a fact that Tenur would follow through with his promise to open the store the next day!
"Yes, I need time to do some plaster and pass it around the front of the store.
That will get attention from passersby on the street." Tenur explained.
Amir saw no problem with that, and after waving to those people, he left the area, feeling gratified with his work.
He was only a servant of Mero and normally didn't feel much emotion except when a fight occurred.
He was a born warrior, so he had been left there to watch Tenur, in a way, make everyone who knew him think twice before doing something.
But still, he felt good watching Tenur's accomplishments, which were so different that he could not contain his own curiosity.
'I want to see what will happen tomorrow...' He thought on his way. 'I have to admit that the interior of the store looks attractive. But the plaster will work?'
So everyone went to eat and rest for the next day.
...
The night passed uneventfully...
Some local powers were watching the strange actions of the slaves and servants of the Touma family. But nothing had happened until then, as this family was respected locally.
Shui had met with his family again but was still waiting for the moment to act.
So when dawn came, and all 14 individuals left by Mero in this city awoke, they promptly returned to that store.
Upon arriving there, Tenur indicated the jobs each captive was to do as he had done the day before. Some of them would take care of the daily cleaning of the store, while most would be divided between the kitchen and the production area for paint and plaster. But only plaster would be produced in that second area today.
"Now, I will teach you how to produce the plaster powder." Tenur told the three captives he trusted the most, individuals he had met in the previous mines.
He then showed them how he did the initial process of producing plaster powder, telling them each step they would have to do.
Tenur would not have to stay with these captives the whole time, and in the moments that he knew he could get some distance, he would use the time to go to the kitchen to begin the production of the snack he had in mind.
Thus almost the entire morning would pass, and it would not be long until around 11 o'clock that the first portion of the plaster would be ready.
When that happened, Tenur immediately took a bowl full of it and a helpful tool for what he wanted to do and went to the front of the store.
"Here, I want you guys to do it this way..." He passed some plaster between the spaces of the stone blocks on the store's front wall.
With that, as people passing on the street looked at that store strangely, seeing the slaves spreading something white on the facade, this place would soon open.
At noon, the restructured Teuma family store would open to the citizens of Cusca!
...
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