City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Chapter 14: The Information

“Didn’t I tell you?” I said to Carla, who was looking at more than fifty ships coming at the port, with Count Darrow waiting to welcome them in a large procession.

We have been here for more than one and a half hours, and the wait is worth it.

The ships not only contain the goods but also rich merchants who will be my clients. I am very excited, as these ships are just the beginning, as thousands more will come.

Renwell region is the only region of the Empire that shares the boundary of the city-stage of Meldhorn. So any trade flowing through it toward the Empire will go through the Greltheaven city; it is its gateway to the Empire.

It is the same for any trade going for Meldhorn from the Empire.

There is a sea route, but both need Belnin, and it will be the last city-state to normalize its relationship with the Empire.

The Emperor had used quite colorful words against the city-state and its lord; they were nasty and were widely reported.

So, Greltheaven is pretty important for trade, and it will be even when all the merchant city-states normalize their relationship.

An hour later, the first ship docked, and a couple of important people came out. From what I read in the papers, some important people are coming.

The most important being the representative of the Lord of Meldhorn and leader of the Meldhorn city merchant guild. Aside from them, there are representatives and leaders of guilds in Melhorn and other cities that are part of the Meldhorn city-state.

It was quite a crowd that came, but they were not only for Greltheaven but all the other cities of Renwall region, and some will even go to the Empire.

Lord Darrow is greeting them; with him are representatives of many business houses and political powerhouses.

My uncle and brother were also there, representing the House of Silver.

The bequeathment ceremony for the title and deeds was in the morning, many important people had attended, including the Dukes and other important guests.

As usual, I did not receive the invitation to attend; they could have invited me, but they did not.

I really wanted to curse these bastards; I really wanted to be there; the connections I would have had been invaluable. I would have forgiven them if they had brought me here to greet these merchants, but they did not do that too.

Sigh!

I shook my head as I calmed myself down.

It did not matter if they did not help me; I will make succeed on my own. Yesterday, I have already taken the first step toward that, and now, I just need to keep climbing without a stop.

“James, let’s go back,” I said, and a minute later, the carriage walked toward the city gates.

I would have liked to stay more, but there is no time; the establishment will open in a few hours, and I need to prepare.

There are some things I noticed yesterday that I have to change.

Nothing big, I don’t want to do anything that will take the girls off their game; yesterday’s success has built confidence in them, and in the next few days, that confidence will fortify if the establishment keeps pulling the same crowd as yesterday.

Soon we reached the establishment; I went to my office while Carla went to do the things she needed before it opened in the evening.

There are many things she needs to do, but given her abilities, it won’t be a problem finishing them before the establishment open.

The most worrying thing of today had already been solved; Mr. Harwood had sent the wines we had ordered.

I thought we might not get all the wines we had ordered, but he sent them all; seeing that, I am relieved. Our guest had drank more than four times more wine than I had imagined, nearly emptying the stocks of liquor.

Today, I not only refilled the stocks but ordered even more expensive wine.

If I had the money, I would have brough even more expensive liquor, but I cannot.

Currently, I can only afford to buy from my second list, but I hope by the weekend, the establishment will earn me enough to buy liquor on the third list.

I have made a list of many things, and as I get more money, I will keep buying the stuff and changes in the establishment.

It will make me spend a lot of money on nearly everything I earn, and I will be happy to do that.

It is a golden chance for me; while the city is still developing, I need to grow my business to the level that it becomes a brand that is synonymous with a high-class brothel.

If anyone thinks of the brothel, then they should be thinking velvet garden and nothing else.

My conviction has become even firmer after seeing the ships.

If this city hadn’t been destroyed in a decade, it would grow beyond even what the prince had dreamed of when he built it.

I do not doubt even one bit that with it being the gateway to merchant states, it will grow bigger and more prosperous than Deerpond, the capital of the Renwell region.

It wouldn’t even take it long.

Click!

Before I knew it, it was half past five when the door opened, and Carla walked in and in her hand was a small stack of papers.

The papers seemed to contain something important, given the expressions that were on Carla’s face.

“What is it?” I asked as she placed a stack of papers in front of me. “Important,” she replied as she placed them in front of me and sat down.

Her expressions were serious, but I could see a very faint hint of nervousness in it.

Seeing I would not get any answers from her, I took the first page from the stack and began to read it. In just reading a few sentences, my expressions changed; they became serious with a hint of shock.

I read everything written on the paper, front and back, before placing it down gently and turning to Carla.

“It is a dangerous business,” I said to her sombrely. “I know,” she replied. “I did not ask you for it,” I said, “I know,” she said back.

I looked directly into her for a moment before returning to the stack of papers in front of me and began reading again.

What I am reading is a dangerous thing, be it here or on earth; it is dangerous and will always be dangerous. If not handled carefully, it will kill me.

What she placed in front of me was information.

People talk, and they talk more in whorehouse, especially in the company of beautiful women.

It is the reason my father opened the brothel in Redfawn; he wanted the information, and I think it might be the reason why he got killed.

As he is not the one who died that day, a girl from the brothel also died that day. It was made like an accident, but I did not think it was.

The information is a dangerous business, and now reading the information; I am dipping my feet into it despite knowing I might get myself killed by it, but the knowledge is too enticing to simply throw it away.

In a stack of pages, most of the information is useless, but in a rabble, there is some important which I have written down in my diary in english.

Not all information here is right and correct; it is influenced by people's perspectives, not to mention people like to lie when they are impressing women.

It is to me to find out the truth among the information, which is a great task, but I have some experience in it. Still, I will remain careful, never crossing the line unless it is absolutely necessary.

I have already learned some interesting things by reading the pages, and while they are not immediately useful, they will be when I collect more.

Knowledge is power when used correctly, and I plan to use it, despite the danger it poses.

I finished reading everything before burning it all to ashes, wiping out every proof of it.

The proof that remains is in my diary, but it is very hard to understand it as it is written in english, which has a different syntax than all the languages of this world.

One would need to be a very high-level cipher to break through it.

I did not say anything about the information, and Carla also remained quiet in a silent understanding of what had just happened.

She left not long after making preparations to open the establishment; I also stayed rooted in my place; yesterday, I did not get to watch the opening; today, I will be watching from my window.

Soon, it was six, and in less than five minutes, the first carriage rolled in, and when I saw who it was, a smile couldn’t help but appear on my face. It is a group of five young men in their early twenties; they came yesterday, and now they have come again.

Repeat clients are the most important; I have asked Carla to build relations with them; it does not matter whether they remain in the city or not; as long as they come back to the city, I want them to return to the establishment.

I want to create such an effect on them.

It took less than two hours after the opening before we had closed the door of the establishment temporarily; I thought it would happen around nine, like yesterday, but it had happened more than an hour early.

It took forty minutes to open to open the gates again and remained open for about fifteen minutes before being forced to close.

It had happened even when I had asked Carla to let more people in today than yesterday.

I watched the clients, not from my office but also sat by a small secret window of the hall on the first floor, watching and noting down things.

Though, today, there are a lot fewer things to note down, as I already took notes on the majority of things yesterday.

Soon, it was midnight; I had just returned from another trip changing room and sat by the small window, watching the hall, which had not been empty since eight.

Patrons changed, but the hall remained filled with people.

Since the establishment opened, the gates have been closed more than ten times; even now the gates are closed, many carriages are coming and leaving, seeing the gate closed.

I felt quite bad seeing that; those people would not be able to enjoy the great pleasures that the establishment offered.

I am also feeling bad; they represent the walking money purses; it would have been great if the establishment had been big enough to accompany them, but unfortunately, it is not.

Though I will in the future, and if the establishment keeps earning at the pace of today and yesterday, I will be able to make those big changes much sooner than I had planned.