Chương 49: 048 Daddy Issues?
James introduced the two of them, "Hello Charlotte, my name is Blaise and this is Reaper. I appreciate you taking the time to meet with us."
Charlotte wanted to jump right into the meeting, "Not a problem, let's get down to business. Which building do you want to purchase?" She then waved her hand over a gem that was embedded in her desk. A 3d map of the city appeared above the table.
James and Mercury marveled at the scene. It let them see just how big the city was from a bird's eye view.
James had done a little research around the city to find suitable locations to build some shops, but now? Most of that was thrown away. He was now able to figure out exactly where the best locations would be.
"I did do some looking around but this map changed my idea some." James said while observing the city layout.
"I want to buy some buildings to create some general stores for other adventurers to buy field supplies." James said while still looking around.
"Hmm, how big do you want the stores to be? I have a few ideas that have great foot traffic." said Charlotte.
"I want to sell potions, average grade armor, weapons, and the like. Overall I want to sell mass producible field supplies. So the stores do not need to be that large." James was grateful that she was actually going to help. He initially judged her and thought she would just leave him hanging.
Charlotte moved her hand around the map, every time she pointed to a building it would light up. After she was done, 8 buildings were lit up. Every single one was a critical point in the city; any of those locations would almost guarantee customers.
"What do you think?" she asked James.
"I am very happy with the buildings you pointed out. How much do these buildings cost?" asked James.
She then pointed to the 8 buildings again, this time their colors changed. There were 3 different colors. Two buildings were blue, 3 buildings were yellow, and 3 buildings were red.
"The blue buildings will cost 8 gold each, the yellow buildings are 12 gold each and the red buildings are 20 gold each." explained Charlotte.
James severely underestimated the price of property in the city. "I didn't expect the prices to be that high, it won't be a problem though."
Charlotte always had business on the mind, "That is good to hear. Have you decided on which building you want to purchase?"
"I have an idea but first, I have questions on two other buildings." James pointed out two buildings and the map lit up.
"Oh my, you have expensive tastes. The Guild Hall is one of the best in town and has the best location in the city. Many people do not know it is a Guild building. To promote the sale of the building the city officials opened its doors for the general public to use its facilities. The plan backfired; even with all their effort none of the other adventurers know it is a purchasable piece of property." Charlotte was surprised.
"I only recently learned about the availability of property in the city. Not many of us have the requirements to own property." replied James.
James was most interested about the prices she has yet to say. "What about the center building and their separate prices?"
"The Guild Hall is purchasable for 200 gold coins or rentable for 10 gold coins a month with a contract. The City Center Building had a fire within the last decade and has not been repaired. To buy it, even with the damage, it would cost 500 gold coins. To rent it you'd have to pay 50 gold coins a month. You would also have to pay for repairs and renovations yourself." Charlotte assumed that James would lose interest in these two buildings now that he knew of the price.
[- Mercury: I guess the plan is a bust? After you gave Cat those coins I believe you are only left with 5 gold right? -]
[- Blaise: It might not be the case. I want to test some waters. -]
Charlotte saw that James was thinking about his choices so she gave him a few minutes. It was only when he looked up from the map did she say anything. "Have you made your decision?"
It sounded like James was making a joke, "I will take them all; that would be 812 gold coins if I were to buy them or 172 gold coins if I buy the small buildings and rent the Guild Hall and the City Center Building. Correct"
Charlotte was stunned for a second. No one had dared to make such a joke around her since she moved out from her fathers house. She erupted with anger that day.
She gave a dry cough, "Blaise, I am afraid that I am not a fan of your joke. Not even the wealthiest noble family of the city can afford that much. There is a ready why the City Center Building is still for sale."
"I apologize if I seem like I am joking around but I am dead serious. I will be honest, it is obvious that I don't have the money to buy, let alone rent, all of those buildings. In fact, I only have enough money to buy one of the blue buildings at the current moment. That is why I want to strike a deal with you." James tried to clear things up and had a gentle and friendly tone in his voice.
Charlotte had a frown on her face, "Like I said, I don't take credit. It is far too easy to get burned on deals like this. On top of all that, my name is on the line. If someone buys on credit, I am a co-signer in the debt agreement."
"Let's say that we do come to an agreement about purchasing the small buildings and renting the two large ones. Once enough money is accumulated, would we be able to outright buy the buildings to get out of the rental agreements?" James asked.
Charlotte still had the frown on her face, "It is technically possible, but if you cannot even afford the rent there would be no way to find a way to buy the buildings."
James wanted to appear mysterious and powerful; he waved his hand over her table and took things out of his inventory at the same time. It made it seem like he was summoning items out of the void.
Charlotte watched James's actions and was intrigued about what appeared on her desk. A few dozen runes and a skill book appeared on her desk.
"You may not have the liquid assets for your claim but you have a considerable amount of physical assets. Where did you come across all of these runes?" James had wiped the frown off of Charlotte's face.
"Please examine the runes and the skill book." James wanted her to investigate herself first.
She looked over most of the runes on the table before moving to the skill book. Her eyes had gotten a little bigger and her mouth had changed to the shape of an 'O' with surprise.
"You seem to have a powerful friend if they can provide you with this many runes. You also have an interesting ability, how did you make this skill book?" She had so many questions.
James was about to talk when Charlotte raised her hand up and gestured to James to give her a minute. She was in deep thought. [All of this would generate a mountain of gold if sold the correct way. How did this little twerp get all of this? The old man surely would have kept these for himself…]
She knew that James had just taken over the lead for this meeting, now turned into a negotiation. She had to reclaim the power position, even if that means lying. "I can see you wish to sell these for your missing capital. I am sorry to say, even with all of this, you would not be able to afford everything. You would be lucky to get the Guild Hall."
She was hoping that James bought her bluff. If he was able to get the nobles to get in on any auction involved in these items he could buy nearly a eighth of the whole city… Noble did want to purchase more property than they needed. It was how they stayed rich; they would only purchase things that would turn a profit…
Mercury grabbed James's arm. She was trying to signal that Charlotte was up to something. James turned to look at Mercury; he gave her a smile and a faint head nod.
James turned to look back at Charlotte. She saw his smile and flinched. [Why does his smile seem so friendly but so dark at the same time?]
"Charlotte, there are just a few small trinkets. There will be many more to sell in the future. Runes can be almost mass produced and I can create a copy of a spell book every 12 hours. Both of these item groups will drive many sales in the future." James assured her.
She tried to hold back her wince. He somehow called her bluff… Well kind of; he didn't figure out about the noble but if he could get more in the future there would be nothing he cannot afford. "I understand about the skill book but what of the Magicks character; I don't know if you can rely on him to provide you runes forever."
Charlotte turned to the now laughing Mercury with a confused look. She looked back at James, did they know something she didn't? "I'm sorry but why does it seem like I am out of the loop?"
"May I sit down?" James and Mercury had been standing until now. It was not due to Charlotte being rude but because it was the only good way to view the city map.
Charlotte gestured for him to sit down. She waited to see what he was up to.
James took out one rune slate, a vial of ink, a pen, and a chisel. He started to craft right in front of her. He knew this was the only way to get her to partner with them.
A few minutes later James finished the rune and handed it over to Charlotte. With a dumbfounded look she grabbed the rune and examined it. Yup, it had the alias of Magicks on it.
Her classy and calm look finally broke. She sat back in her chair in defeat. [There is no stopping this man. Depending on the supply, demand, and the liquid assets available in the city he would be able to buy all these properties in less than a month or two.]
She leaned forward and rested her head on her hand. "Alright, you convinced me. Why the secrecy and difference between the runes and the skill books that you make. Why hide your name on one but not the other?"
James was certain he accomplished what he came here for. "That was the first book I created; it was to demonstrate my ability to my business partners while I was negotiating with them. In the future the books will have the same alias as the runes."
"Makes sense, should we start the paperwork?" Charlotte asked.
"We can start the rental paperwork first, I want to make good use of the City Center Building. It really needs a different name." James replied.
"Rental? Who said anything about renting it? If the kind of money you can bring in there is no reason. The Tower Masters, City Council, Mayer, and even the nation's King all know my prestige. They will have no problem signing off on the loan paperwork. If we are doing this we are doing it right." Charlotte didn't want to half ass anything.
They spent the next two hours working through the paperwork. Charlotte had her assistant send off the paperwork for the loan and the property ownership transfer for the 10 buildings. They would all be in James's name and Charlotte as the co-signer for the loan.
"Now that the paperwork has been filed we need to talk about selling your goods. Rather than selling the runes only to adventurers, you would include nobles as well. They spend a lot of money to get a hold of runes. They all have hired various people to attempt to become Rune Masters because of the sheer amount of money they can generate. They will all want to study the runes you can provide." Charlotte gave her idea.
James was surprised, "Nobles can buy items from adventurers?"
"Naturally, adventurers are a class of their own. Some say they are on equal footing with nobles." explained Cat.
"Okay, I do have an idea. The reason why I wanted to buy the City Center Building is because I wanted to own an Auction House of my own. Players, and apparently nobles, can put items up for auction and buy the displayed items. We would take a percentage of the final price of the purchase. If we keep it below the current Auction House tax price we can guarantee our business." said James.
"That is a solid idea, nobles hated that they could not use the current Auction House. Your plan would easily be able to draw them in." Charlotte was pleased with James's idea. "Should I hire contractors and designers to start on the repairs and renovations?"
"Yes, please do. Your office is splendid, did you plan the design yourself or have someone else do it?" James wanted the designer to work on the future Auction House.
"My friend and I designed it. I will see if she is willing to help out." Charlotte was eager to start.
She was about to get up and go meet with her friend when she remembered something. "What should the new name be for the building? After I have that I can have stamps made so that we can promote our brand on the items we sell."
"Blue Moon Auction House '' it didn't take James long to reply. "The guild that I secretly own will be running the Auction House; it is called Blue Moon Trading."
"Good, good, good. The common name will go a long way. I will let you know when everything is taken care of. Here take this spare Communication Orb; it will let me contract you later. That damn old man's gift finally has some use! He never uses the one he has to message me anyway!" Charlotte ended up complaining about Alfred.
James took the item and looked at its description.
---------------------
Communication Orb
Grade: Unique
Description: A magical orb created by Alfred and his peers; it allows communication between contacts when fueled with mana.
Contacts:
(1): Charlotte
Soul Bound: Item can never be dropped, traded, nor destroyed.
.
Engravement: Here is a loving gift to my little girl, Charlotte. Love daddy.
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James and Mercury were stunned and the information Charlotte gave them and the engravement on the orb.
It implied that Alfred was Charlotte's father…
Mercury couldn't hold back her thoughts on how Charlotte talked about Alfred. They slipped out of her mouth… "Daddy issues?"
Charlotte, who was already walking out of the building and heard Mercury, almost tripped from hearing the comment. She started running out of the building. She forgot to refute the comment which made the two think that she really did have daddy issues...
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