Time to Go Pick Up Our Players
Time to go pick up our players, I supposed.
There were exactly two reasons why I'd chosen Velos out of all the countless regions in the Empire.
First, I simply couldn't have done business in the capital.
After all, that place was the main stage of the original novel.
If I stuck my neck out there and got tangled up in the plot… oof, my head was guaranteed to start spinning just thinking about it.
From that perspective, Velos — the largest commercial district with the most vigorous flow of money after the capital — was the only logical choice.
And second, Velos was a place where people of truly every class and trade lived side by side.
Starting with the haughty highborn nobles, then the self-made merchants, the city guards keeping order on the streets, doctors and apothecaries, the scribes who handled taxes and ledgers.
And dockworkers and freight haulers, women working in administrative offices, dancers and street musicians… the list went on.
Velos was, quite literally, a city where 'those who made money' and 'those who spent money' mingled in endless, churning profusion.
On top of that, the tourism industry here was thriving as well.
Between seaside festivals and performances, markets for rare spices and luxury goods, nobles from other regions would sometimes come all this way just for a holiday.
Some came to survive, some came to indulge in luxury, and some came purely for pleasure.
Velos was the place where all of those desires tangled together and swirled into a vortex.
Though in my eyes, it was simply a gold mine with an inexhaustible sea of potential customers — the perfect stage for launching a business.
And now that I'd arrived at my destination, I intended to start laying the skeleton of the enterprise.
First, the land and the building swallowed up nearly half of my gold coins.
Strangely enough, though, I felt no regret.
In fact, the lighter my purse became, the clearer my head felt.
There was also something about having crossed the point of no return that left me quietly exhilarated.
"I want to build a three-story building."
I tapped my finger down firmly on the blueprint. The builder tilted his head for a moment, then looked back and forth between me and Louis.
"Er… isn't that rather too large for a residence for the two of you?"
"I beg your pardon?! That's a genuinely horrifying thing to say. Why on earth would I live under the same roof as that man… I mean, the boss? I'd sooner sleep in the gutter."
…Son of a—? The feeling is entirely mutual, you know?
I felt like I'd just been one-sidedly slapped across the face, but that wasn't the point right now.
Well, no — it was the point, but now was the time for business.
"It's not a residence. I intend to use it as a commercial building."
"A business… and what sort of trade were you considering, if I may ask?"
"You can go ahead and assume it'll be a tavern."
At my answer, the broker frowned and shook his head for a while.
"Hah, a tavern. Young man, this city is already drowning in them. Everything from the cheapest watering holes to establishments the nobles frequent. Without something to set you apart, you'll struggle just to stay afloat."
I gave a small chuckle and set the deposit down on the desk.
Differentiation?
Now there was a word I dearly loved.
"I'll pay you properly. All you need to do is build the structure exactly to these specifications."
"Well… very well. It seems like the hobby of some young noble with money to burn, so I see no reason to talk you out of it."
That remark forced a bitter smile out of me.
This was, for me, a business I was betting my life on, thank you very much.
Still smiling thinly, I pointed at the blueprint again.
"The first floor will be the main hall, the second floor a set of private rooms, and the third floor reserved for VIPs only. Entry will be through the main front door and a discreet back entrance facing the alley. And naturally, every room must be soundproofed. No prying eyes from outside, absolutely none."
At my explanation, something in the broker's eyes shifted, subtle but unmistakable.
"Hmm… doesn't sound like any ordinary tavern. Your clientele must be rather important to you."
"I'd say so. The guests themselves are the most important people in the world to me."
Not that you'd need to know any of the details.
That was roughly how I deflected the question. The broker glanced at me sideways for a moment, then finally nodded.
"Very well. As long as the materials arrive on schedule, we should have it completed within two months."
"Two months, hm… not bad at all."
Despite the reality of my coin purse being half emptied, I found myself smiling with a heart that felt lighter than ever.
Next came registering the business.
For the record, that process, too, wrapped up remarkably quickly.
"Whatever sort of business you register, a few bills will keep the clerks at the government office quiet. Frankly, they couldn't care less what kind of enterprise we're running in the first place."
"Haha. Truly, nothing in this world is beyond money."
Just as Louis said.
In any world, there was nothing money couldn't do.
Why else would the saying exist — 'if money can't buy it, pay more'?
Anyway, with the business registration smoothly complete, all that remained was to wait for the completion of the building that would house our blooming enterprise…
…and to prepare the space where Bloom would flower.
"Hey, Louis."
"Yes, boss?"
"Time to go pick up our players, don't you think?"
"Heh heh… so we finally get to do some real work."
It was time to recruit the players — the beating heart of our business.
***
For the month that followed, Louis and I devoted ourselves entirely to gathering intelligence.
Buy a round of drinks generously enough at any tavern, and even the tightest-lipped men would eventually loosen their tongues along with the wine.
Louis, wielding his trademark social genius, poked his nose in everywhere — chatting up the city guards, the dockworkers, and the women working in the administrative offices.
Though I suspect that last example was purely for his own satisfaction…
In any case, the intelligence we gathered let us draw up a list.
: A guard knight drowning in debt to pay for his little sister's medicine.
: A wandering musician forced to sell his beloved instrument to keep food on the table.
: A young noble cast aside in the battle for his family's succession.
: A mafia executive with a love of money.
: A bookshop clerk whose beauty had become the talk of the town among women.
The people on this list had exactly one thing in common.
They were desperate for money — or else overflowing with personal ambition.
Though the bookshop clerk at the end was something of a different case…
And then it happened.
"But wouldn't the mafia man be dangerous?"
Louis asked cautiously. I shook my head and drained my glass.
"It's fine. If anything, we need a guy like that. A little bit of the 'bad boy' type, you know? The demand for that is absolutely insatiable. Besides, the Velos mafia families have an unwritten rule, don't they?"
"Ah, never touch an established business… you mean that one?"
Just as Louis said, so long as you didn't make an enemy of them, the mafia never laid a finger on legitimate businesses.
The reason was simple.
For all that a mafia organization ran on violence on the surface, it was in truth a group that lived and died by face and reputation.
So what would happen if they went around smashing up taverns and shops for no reason?
"Their deals dry up. Every other business would turn their backs on them, one after another."
To the mafia, businesses were the very wellsprings of their money.
Stupidly cut those streams, and all that remained was a pack of petty thugs with nothing but greed to their names.
Which was why, as an organization, they never touched such places carelessly. If anything, they'd go so far as to protect them when necessary.
I set my glass down with a clack and added,
"The mafia is a very clever organization. As long as we don't go picking grudges for no reason, they'll actually make a sturdy shield for us. They might even block a few of our more troublesome problems along the way. Granted, it'll cost us accordingly."
Louis gave a slow nod and smirked.
"If the Head of the House ever saw you like this, boss, his eyes would pop out of his skull. For all we know, you might have ended up the heir instead."
"A count's house handing the succession to an illegitimate child like me — that would certainly be a novel picture. And besides, I was never much interested in the heir's seat to begin with. I've always believed a seat like that belongs to someone noble and hardworking, like my sister."
Just as I was letting out a small sigh, Louis pressed on.
"Then who shall we go after first?"
At that question, I drummed my fingers lightly on the table.
Then I fixed my gaze on the very top of the roster.
"The first batter… will be the guard knight."
"A sensible choice, as expected. The more desperate a man is for money, the more willing he'll be to do anything."
"No, it's quite the opposite. From where I'm standing, the guard knight looks like the hardest recruit of the lot."
"And yet you're already calling him a 'player,' though?"
"Well… seeing every man in the world as a potential player is simply the mindset required of a man who runs a women-only salon."
At my breezy, matter-of-fact reply, Louis gave me the look one reserves for a certified madman.
Anyway — a guard knight who'd gone into debt for his little sister's sake?
Something about that rang a bell.
My gut said he was the rigid, by-the-book type.
Word around town also had it that he took enormous pride in his work, and that even his fellow guards spoke well of him.
But precisely because of that, the odds were high that he'd hate being a burden to the people around him more than anything.
"A stickler for principle, a walking bundle of responsibility… and beloved by his comrades on top of it? He's clearly the hardest case to recruit. Not the sort of man who'd bend over for a handful of tossed coins."
Louis tilted his head.
"Then wouldn't it be better not to recruit him at all? Why bother with someone this difficult…"
"The harder a man is to catch, the more he's worth once you've landed him. Besides, the more a man lives by his principles, the harder he works at everything he does — and once he's on our side, he'll never betray us easily."
I rapped my knuckles on the roster, the corner of my mouth curling upward.
"Besides, our knight friend has one fatal weakness, doesn't he?"
"His little sister…"
"Exactly. However principled, however dutiful, in the end a man crumbles before his family. That's simply human nature."
For a moment, the air grew strangely heavy. Louis stared at me for a long while, then finally curled his lips into a grin.
"Ha… I'm starting to think the boss really is the devil. The more I learn about you, the more terrifying you become."
"Huh? I'm helping the man earn his sister's medicine money easily. Wouldn't that make me an angel?"
At my perfectly sincere question, Louis fell silent for a long, long moment.
…
I felt deeply, profoundly wronged.