Proofread by Thomas F. 2nd June, 2025.
The carriage stopped in front of a huge four-story building with huge glass windows that seemed transparent but were not.
Carla and I walked out of the carriage and stepped inside the building—the office of the Nielsen.
We walked through the lobby, entered the elevator, which went to the top floor, and exited.
"Remus Silver, I have a meeting with Mage Valentina," I said to the assistant, who looked to be in her early thirties.
"Yes, Mage Valentina has asked to bring you in as soon as you arrive," she replied with a professional smile and walked toward the door. Carla arched her brow at me as we followed behind.
There were still ten minutes to my appointment, but the personal relationship had its benefits.
Click!
The receptionist opened the door to the office, and we walked in; inside was Valentina, sitting behind a predominantly white, delicately carved table. It is not a normal table, and it is heavily enchanted.
She is not the only one present in the office; there is also Chief Architect Davidson.
"Remus, Carla, take a seat," she said, and we sat before her. "Thank you," said Carla as she sat beside me.
"So, you want to expand the establishment?" she asked.
I told her what I wanted when I asked her about the appointment.
"Yes, if you do the job," I replied with a smile. The construction guilds across the city are swamped with work, calling more people in from the Empire.
Even then, it had become difficult to start new work quickly; people are one thing, and material is another.
When we went to attend the party a few days ago, Valentina said she was diversifying her suppliers.
She focused more on suppliers from the cities of Meldhorn, as they are capable of providing what she needs much sooner, in larger quantities, with better prices and quality.
"For you, we will," she said and tapped on the runes on the table a few times. A moment later, the emblem of Nielson appeared; she tapped a few more times, and a huge projection of my establishment appeared.
Seeing that, I smiled, and Carla handed me a file, and I took out a couple of pages with rough drawings from it.
"I want to expand the mansion to the left, right, and back. The basement also needed to expand greatly," I informed directly, making them both quite surprised as I slid the drawings toward her.
If I am doing an expansion, I might do it big, which is why I applied for a big loan, but it will not be enough.
I will need to pour everything I have and earnings from the next few weeks. After the expansion is complete, I will earn huge money.
A million crowns a day, at least.
"You had said you were coming to discuss the expansion, but I did not expect they would be this big," she said with a smile before her eyes turned serious. "It will be quite expensive, Remus, more if you want it quickly," she added.
"I have money," I said.
I don't have it right now, and if the bank rejects me, I will have to move to another source, which I hope I don't have to.
It came with strings attached.
"Let's begin then," she said, rapidly clicking across the runes so fast that I could not see her fingers as they moved.
A little more than two minutes later, the giant projection of the mansion disappeared, and forty-eight small mansions appeared in its place.
Each one of them has a resemblance to the establishment, but is bigger and looks more beautiful.
All of them had the current building of the establishment in the middle, with them expanded left, right, and back, in a different variation of the Harsoth style of architecture.
Some will require minimal changes to my establishment, while others will require a huge overhaul. I looked at each of them carefully, even asking Valentina to give me the view from all angles.
"Leave numbers 2, 9, 27, and 46—erase the rest," I said, and she obeyed. Moments later, only four mansions remained projected before us, each one now appearing even larger than before.
I analyzed them further, discussing some things with Carla before turning to Valentina.
"Number 9, but I want changes to it," I selected. I have many ideas, and I want to implement them.
"Of course," she replied with a smile, and we worked on the changes for the next hour. These are the big outer changes; we will work on the delicate ones with the other meetings.
A single meeting is not enough for such a big project; we will need to have multiple meetings until it is finished.
"Do you want to change the garden and other things?" she asked. "Yes," I replied.
The gate, road, fountain, and garden must all adapt to match the style of the mansion.
It took around forty-five minutes to finalize all those details.
"Now that we have finished with external changes, let's move to internal," she said, and soon, the internal space appeared.
"What do you want to do with the hall? Do you want to divide it or leave it open?" she asked. "Leave it open," I replied. As the establishment expanded, the size of the hall also increased.
I want it to be the size of a standard ballroom, which is neither big nor small—it should be a perfect size.
After we decided on the hall size, we started with the rooms on the first floor; the makeup room and kitchen need to be much bigger right now.
The bar will expand further, and Valentina showed me a few designs; I chose and made a few changes. The bar is critical; more than a third of our earnings come from the liquor sold through it.
After finishing the hall, we started on the rooms; I wanted to make some big changes there.
Currently, all the rooms have the same price, but I am going to change that.
There will be free rooms and premium rooms of a different category, each with amenities that will elevate the whole experience to a different level.
I am selling the experience in my establishment. I want it as such, they return to it over and over
It had been twenty days since the establishment had opened, and it only took a few days for others to start copying things from me. Despite that, they could not achieve the kind of sales I have with my limited number of girls and a small establishment.
Carla had been apprehensive since the two girls had left, thinking they had spilled all our trade secrets, but I was not worried.
My competitors run the business through exploitation, and even though they want to make a profit as I do, they do not copy me in everything.
I would put it in writing—they won't give a 10% commission to the girls. They'll hire teachers, maybe even poach some of mine, but they'll never share the vision where I'm guiding the girls to learn.
There are many small things such as this, and every little thing affects the picture considerably.
So, copying my ideas and even the business models will undoubtedly benefit them. Still, if they want to make a considerable profit like me, they must forgo everything they learned about this business.
Which they will not do; I am confident about that.
The internal changes took more than one and a half hours to make; most of it involved deciding on the enchantment.
Some of them needed to be laid during construction, so deciding on them was imperative.
"Now, only underground has remained," she said, looking at me. "I want to expand it at least three times and have another floor below," I said. To that, she nodded. "It is not a problem; we will be able to do it with our geomancers," she replied.
"The underground will be the living quarters of girls, right?" she asked. Yes, I want the new room and a few recreational places like a common room and library…." I continued, and she wrote it all down.
They were surprised to hear some of my requirements. Last time, I could not do much, except make the hall a little bigger and bring some new furniture, but now I have some money in my budget.
Enough to make their living condition better than the simple bland.
Soon, we finished with the underground, and Valentina finally started on things I had missed; she successfully sold me many things, further increasing the budget.
"How soon do you want it?" she asked, referring to the main question. "As soon as possible," I replied. And you want it silent and hidden?" she asked, and I nodded.
I want to run the establishment while it happens; such a significant change is difficult to hide, but they could do it.
"It will take one and a half months, Remus," she said, and I had expected that, but I still hoped it would have been sooner.
"Can't it be sooner?" I asked with hope. "I could do it in a month, but you will have to close down your establishment for that period," she replied, and a mirthless smile couldn't help but appear on my face.
The original mansion took around nine months to finish, compared to it; this project is bigger.
I know I am lucky to be Valentina's friend, which is the only reason she is willing to do it so quickly.
If I had been a regular client, she would have taken at least a month more and charged me more than whatever she was going to charge now.
"So, how much is it all going to cost me?" I asked, hoping the cost would be within my budget.
She did not answer immediately and kept looking at me, likely using her skills to calculate the cost.
"It is going to cost you twenty million, six hundred thousand crowns," she said finally, and for a moment, I felt relieved. It had not gone over my budget, but it was still a big amount.
"Let's agree to twenty million," I said, to which she rolled her eyes. "Twenty million and five hundred thousand," she said with her eyes twinkling.
"Twenty million and fifty thousand crowns," I said, and immediately, she countered with her price.
We started negotiating, and this time, no skills were involved. Despite that, it felt harder than the last time, when she drowned me with the power of her skills.
"Twenty million and two hundred crowns, you drove a hard bargain, Remus," she said, and I could only smile.
"When will you begin?" I asked. "I will send my people for a survey immediately, and the work will begin tomorrow after your clients leave," she replied.
Fifteen minutes later, we left Valentina's office. I have signed a few papers and paid a quarter of the price.
It had emptied my reserves more than I had planned, but I was finally expanding with a smile on my face.
A plan that I thought might take at least six months to begin had started in less than a month.
It made me very happy.
…
"See, didn't I tell you he had potential?" said Valentina to the old man beside her.
"The project is not big; we should focus more on big clients," said the old man, hearing that a smile couldn't help but appear on my face.
"He is a big client; we are only doing some small work for him," she replied, and an old man just looked at her for a moment before sighing.
"He did have potential, and really, I hope he will not do something to lose your favor and friendship," said the old man, with deep meaning in his eyes, seeing that Valentina had looked away.
"I hope so too; it had been a while since I had found someone whom I felt like I could trust," she replied so softly that it was barely audible to herself.