Chapter 47: Consolidating The Assets

Chapter 47: Consolidating The Assets

What follows is absolutely nightmarish. A whole month of me wrangling all sorts of ends and means Konistan had under his thumb under control. He was the sort of fellow with some semblance of brain, but critical lack of oomph, always falling short on what he started. The sad thing is, he didn't realize that, because everyone is still falling short and thinking it normal in this society. So I push things. Hard.

Konistan trading house is no more. Now, it is simply Northern Bank. I have had decided to split off the banking into a wholly separate organization and incorporate other things as affiliated companies, all of it under the generic aegis and oversight of Northern Trading Incorporated, a non-stock for-profit organization. Konistan did the "boxes stacked one into another" model. On paper, he owned four shops, a commercial stable and two mid-sized carracks anchored in Mersaille. De facto, those shops were in turn owning other shops. No, not the people in the shop. Shops themselves. An inspired bit of tax evasion, all things considered. Abraham swore a blue streak once I brought him the details. We hammered out a little agreement - he calls the old tax debts void in exchange for bulk payment of about three months worth of collective taxes at once (partially in products, he loved the idea of getting his army rearmed with proper steel as a tax obligation), I handed over half a dozen people I had some nasty dirt on (Two rapists using their status to hush things up, three embezzlers and one genuine serial killer. That last one was a REAL piece of work. Minor noble, major headcase, all-out nasty bastard. He had something against tall people, would capture them and saw their legs off at the knee to be "proper". The fact they all died from shock, blood loss or sepsis didn't seem to register, he had cadavers in his "hostel" years old that he still brought meals to and tsked about them being picky over food. Normally, this kinda folks would get outright smote if they ever showed up in a temple, gods in this reality DO pay attention when someone this vile shows up, but apparently nutso had wisely avoided being anywhere near the temples or priests.) for public executions (Medieval times, people. Execution at this time does not necessarily mean death. Rapists were hung, the serial killer was beheaded, embezzlers were merely whipped raw.) and things started settling down.

I had a good initial trump to browbeat Konistan's people, with 'Verwaand' taking out money and no one even trying to stop him, and I used this trump ruthlessly to root out the initial resistance. After that, despite the grumbling over the new company requirements, things went smoothly. And my requirements were many. Smiles, politeness, indifference to social rank - be you a lord or a peasant, you will be treated with the same high standard, uniforms. The last one was actually stupidly popular. I initially introduced it as a bit I could retract if I needed to make a show of giving a concession, but turns out that wearing my uniform is a social status in itself. I'm honestly more than a bit flabbergasted, but also spread the idea back to the duchy. I also altered the uniform to include the flower embroideries and started distributing a copied pamphlet that explains several basic spells anyone can pull with those that have home utility value, after it became clear to me that people are not just willing but also eager to wear the uniform. Dwarves started to show up in their own version of the uniform, and... reported about a 5% increase in profit. Like... What? (Dwarven version of the uniform includes chainmail woven into the heavy leather overcoat and actually looks pretty spiffy. But good luck moving in this unless you make your living swinging pickaxe.)

I... might have bitten off more than I thought there was. Thankfully, I can stretch my maw as wide as I want, so chewing is not a problem. Also, it is now common knowledge that I can teleport (Ironic, because I didn't actually use that one.), because I added a bunch of my matter to each initial letter sent with pigeons and subsequently massed up in assorted... extraneous biomass in the respective cities. As of now, I have clusters back home (Dad was flabbergasted when I popped in for a spot of tea. He was even more flabbergasted when I told him I took the spell from the Sultanate mage. The only place I actually teleported to, used that nook in the attic no one ever comes to that I remembered.), in Bakarat (Konistan turned out to have a shop in Ed's lands. Nothing big, just a general reseller store. I bamfed it up with new products and instituted a 5% discount for Ed's workers. Ed came by the next day to ask why the hell his governor sent him a letter of gratitude for "enlightened foresight in picking your allies".), in Mersaille and in Grenwille. The rest of the shops are near those four, and I can reach them easily enough via local means.

In Mersaille, Konistan's carracks are in a state of horrible disrepair, I'm surprised they can even sail. Paid to have them docked and rebuilt extensively. Worked out a deal with the dockmaster, he gives me preferential treatment and timber discount in exchange for blueprints for carrack to galleon conversion. Mostly, streamlining the top structures and better sail rigging. I also gave him the plans for proper galleons. Won't be faster than my brigantines, they're nearly a century behind, but will be a good improvement over the square sail only karracks. Decent update for bulk shipments. He apparently knows Selene's stepdad and has good things to say about him, so when I mentioned he's gonna be showing up with new ships, well... Let's just say that dockmaster is going to listen to me very well. The shops here are getting an update and a turnover of employees. Some aren't up to it. Have to work slower here, the road is still extending towards this area. I had a discussion with the crew of two ships. They're obviously beached while ships are being refurbished. Officers and captains are fine, most of them agreed to take a couple months off (I did pay them some to keep them around, and it seems they are rather glad to have time to spend with their families), a few had left for greener pastures. They got severance packages. Except one who thought he had a bright idea to steal the ship's coffer. That fellow was introduced to a good-sized boulder, a length of chain and given a permanent place of residence in the bay. Sailors don't like thieves, who knew?

The actual sailors of the ships? Most of them don't have the savings to live on for a couple months, and even if I gave them payment for the time, a good deal of them will just crawl into the bottle and will be unsalvageable by the time the ships are ready. So I gave them an offer. Option one - they get a monthly pay as a severance package and are free to look for a new ship to hire themselves on. Option two - they can spend the time getting paid for working on the road crew. Food, clothes, soap, reasonable amount of liquors, magical healing in benefits. Much to my surprise, I had a grand total of FIVE people wanting to leave out of ninety six sailors. The rest grabbed on the road crew offer with both hands. Konistan was not generous paying them, but he DID pay, and I made sure the payment reached the people properly, so... why? Oh well. I'll find out later, I guess.

The first rail line will be ready for testing by the end of autumn and will connect the Grand Forge (Dwarves are so-so at naming, they just call the new settlement Grand Forge) and the port of Kalos. The second line will connect Kalos with Parsee, and it will be ready by early spring, tentatively. I'm not putting too much emphasis on throughput for now, I want the concept lines laid down to prove this is a viable thing before I start ramping up, and if Roxolane's theory of portals proves itself, we just might replace the ore and metal shipping with portal networks. Unfortunately, the more complex the thing is, even chemically, the less useful portals become.

I've received a letter from the viceroy of Albion, most honorable Cromwell (WHAT?... By all accounts, this version of Ol' Ironsides isn't as militant as I remember from previous world's history, but is rather well-known as capable, if somewhat miserly administrator.), and he is requesting for terms on which I'd agree to sell cure for cold for his cold cold isles. I reply to him with a letter that if he were to collect acolytes from temples and send them to Parsee, they will be taught how to prepare it in the local temple and give him a figure for bulk shipments of ready cure, honey, ouzo and mint. Prelate Iohann... is exasperated, but mollified with my offer to donate some gold to the temple to afford the housing, because Cromwell sends no less than a hundred of acolytes. I'm guessing colds are a big problem up north, doubly so at the sea. Dad is also... exasperated, asking if I ever plan to stop turning up even more profit, or my goal is to fill my family estate with the gold to the attic. Both of them double down on the things to handle this. Then I get a call from Abraham, who is sheepish. Apparently, Cromwell wrote to him first, but the letter came in the middle of the mess with Ed and got misplaced until now. So he calls in and asks if there are any problems with dealing with this on short notice. So I ask him to keep a watch on the temple and help prelate Iohann if the temple has any problem housing so many extra acolytes.

Goodness. I thought one shop was a hassle. Neverfucking mind that, the financial empire is ORDERS of magnitude more hassle. I'm so thankful I nabbed Roxy, I'd go nuts slogging through all the accounting without her help. Note to self - do something nice for all of the wives, their support and help is the only thing that gets me to crawl out of bed in the morning.

Academy studies are... Eh. I basically badgered professors for advance assignments, turned in stuff the next day and apparently made more than a few of them wonder the hell I'm still doing in Academy. In particular, Alchemy professor is... vocal. Apparently, some of the basic chemistry I've used to handle the assignment is something not yet known, and she is... insistent on me dropping "all that nonsense" and writing a book on "new discoveries". I admit, I was more than a LITTLE miffed at her. And responded... a little bit mean. Because my response was to split into a dozen, write down a reasonably comprehensive textbook on inorganic chemistry over the evening, make a dozen copies and turn them in (well, I turned in ten copies, I kept two for my own library references, one with me and another one sent off to estate). Which, apparently, caused her to lock herself in over the weekend and show up hungover and wild-eyed to her lesson on Moonday.

Ever since, alchemy class is in use well after classes are over and there is apparently a freshly budding club of "Mineral Alchemists" poking at all sorts of rocks and ores to try and disprove my book. Well, they STARTED trying to disprove. Right now, they are enthusiastically adding more data and discovering new stuff. I might toss a primer on organic chemistry at them next semester, see what they make out of almighty Carbon. Oh, I also had been confronted by the professor (thankfully in private) about how it shouldn't be possible for coal and diamond to be the same thing. Long story short, the professor in question is now in possession of an artificial diamond and a severely cracked worldview. Thankfully, it is profligately expensive of magic to create diamonds like this. I can handle it, maybe a dozen more people on the planet can handle it (once in a couple years), and that's it. What I don't tell her is that I'm going to be creating an artificial diamond dust machine next spring, dwarves should advance the metallurgy sufficiently enough to have use for diamond-tipped tools.

This morning, I wake up with a distinct feeling that I need, deserve and MUST HAVE a day off. And oh, would you look at it? It's Caturday.