Feidin sat in a chair in the Trinity Housings office on the second floor in their headquarters as he browsed through the various tables of data collected and organized into need spreadsheets.
The gentle warmth of the morning Sun illuminated the office from the windows beside him while a hot cup of cochil sat beside him, studying the data carefully.
"Business is good."
He had taken leadership over overseeing a lot of operations once Cæ had shifted his focus to the slum talent acquisition program within the depths of the slums. The man had been working hard the entire day, trying to ensure that the operations to scout and acquire talent from within the slums succeeded perfectly.
If there was a fiasco and the program was scrapped early, then Trinity Housings would not be able to benefit from the protection and security of the Elendir Institute of Magic in their operations. It was the only reason that Cæ had spent so much time away from the company that he himself had founded and was the CEO of.
It was rather odd for the CEO to focus on so many other matters and operations far away from the company, however in the case of Cæ, he was special. He didn't specialize in day-to-day oversight, and in fact one of the largest reasons that he has even hired Feidin and gave him stake in the company was simply due to the fact that he was qualified to be a manager.
Cæ, on the other hand, was a strategist.
It was what he specialized in and once the largest and most strategy intensive phases were complete, his role diminished significantly, so much so that he suspected that he would have Feidin become the general manager or the CEO outright once business stabilized and they achieved the goals that they had set out to achieve.
He also got the sense that Cæ was not interested in dedicating his life to a single business and intended to get involved in many more ventures.
Not that Feidin strictly minded this, of course. He would be quite content becoming CEO if Cæ ever felt the desire to move on with new projects as he had hinted many a time.
His attention returned to the data on his screen as he continued studying the data carefully.
Since Cæ has dedicated himself to the execution of the slum talent acquisition program, they had gotten some feedback from the residents of the slums who had purchased the haven unit.
Much to their and especially Seliphaz's delight, the people of the slums loved the haven unit, being able to simply sleep within it with no worries of dying for them or their children.
They were earnestly able to have a noticeably better quality of life than they ever had prior to the introduction of the haven units within their homes, having lived within shabby and decrepit homes.
This was validating to all the efforts that the people of Trinity Housings had put in to the product. Cæ himself had come up with the idea more than eighteen months and has done a tremendous amount of market research that allowed him to get a good understanding of exactly what was needed for the business to understand.
Feidin himself has built the actually company structure, secure supply chains and a headquarter base, he had handled logistics and employment himself and numerous other micro contributions that could not be entirety quantified.
Seliphaz has designed the product from scratch and had even conducted original R&D for several of the patented alchemically produced synthetic substances. She was the most emotionally involved out of all of them with the product itself and had been absolutely ecstatic with the positive feedback from the people of the slums.
However, there were some critiques and wishlists from the people of the slums regarding the Haven product. Not everything they had to say about the product was positive.
"Of the scant complaints we have gotten, one of the most common is a complaint of ease of it being stolen, making them have to constantly leave somebody with it," Feidin remarked aloud, turning to Seliphaz, who sat some distance away at her workplace. "What do you think about that?"
Seliphaz looked from the magiputer screens that she was absorbed in, turning to Feidin with a thoughtful expression as she shifted her circular glasses.
"I can understand why this complaint has come up since normally housing cannot taken away that easily, but we do have anchoring screws that allow one to dig it into the ground, but I suppose it's inconvenient to have to remove some tiles in the hut," she mused thoughtfuly. "I will try adding a more convenient anchoring system for the next iteration without compromising quality in any way for the next iteration."
She had already begun working on the next model by incorporating some of the critical feedback she had gotten from the people of the slums the goal of the project. Though a harsh constraint was that the price could not rise by more than ten percent and that it could not lose any of the functionality of the first model of the haven unit.
These were difficult conditions to fulfill, but she had to make sure that she innovated as much as possible to put out a product that heeded the call of the people in need. Knowing that she could help the people of the slums live a better life was of great motivation for her.
The design process for the second haven model had already tentatively begun. However, she didn't have the labs of the Elendir Institute of Magic the way she did when she was still a student.
That meant that even the research and development costs would weigh down on the company in a way that it didn't do so the first time.
"We are earning the profits needed to rent labs," Feidin remarked. "So there's no need to worry too much. Besides, we don't really need to release a model anytime soon. The slums are an entirely different environment in that we don't have any competition now, and we won't have it any time soon. So just take your time and focus on making sure that the next product addresses the flaws."
"True." She nodded. "Another suggestion that the people of the slums themselves made was regarding the haven units, which was to have a feature that allows for multiple haven units to be merged into a larger haven unit. That is something that I've been thinking about deeply because it truly is a good idea."
With the current haven model, it wasn't possible for more than one adult or more than two children to sleep within the model. This meant that families were separated by many walls and barriers that didn't allow them to be better.
Seliphaz instantly understood the value of this suggestion and how much it could make sleeping at night better for the people of the slums. The very she moment she came across the suggestion, she had decided to implement it the next model.
"Don't try to stuff the haven unit with too many goodies," Feidin warned. "Remember that the price needs to be very much under control. We can't allow it to balloon too much. If the money supply from the low interest rates and the slums credit program are eventually halted, then we will be unable to sell to the slums if our products are not cheap enough."
Seliphaz stirred in her seat, playing with her short, curly blue hair. "…That's a good point. At the same time, I don't want to abandon the idea."
It was not an easy choice.
"Maybe I should develop some prototypes to get a better understanding of whether the idea is viable," she murmured with a tone of uncertainty. "But frankly, I don't know if I could add the more requested improvements and this idea all within the next model with a price that must be less than ten percent more expensive than the current model."
"…Or you could create a family version from the very get-go," Feidin remarked with a thoughtful voice. "After all, there are enough families within the slums that this is a very viable market to treat as its own sub-segment."
Her eyes lit up at that. "You're right!"
She loved the idea of creating a family home for the people of the slums so that they could all live inside a single haven. It made sense to keep the idea for a different model entirely, since not everyone would be seeking the ability to have their entire family fit inside one haven.
"I didn't think we would need product diversity for a market based in the slums, but I suppose we might," Feidin muttered deep in thought. "I will have to run the idea by Cæ when he's done with the slums operations. Though…"
He shifted his gaze to seliphaz. "…Doing two models isn't going to be easy on you, you know?"
Her expression grew more resolved. "I can handle it. Though we will have to hire more side developers."
"Hmmm…" Feidin stirred in his seat with an uncomfortable expression. "I don't know if I can do that on top of R&D expenses, Sel. Last time, we got away Scott-free, but this time we will have to pay for every single leenar."
His gaze shifted down to the manufacturing production lines on the ground floor of the factory base with an expression of regret. "It might have been better to purchase a base with labs instead of production lines. But honestly, neither I nor Cæ expected us to get so many production and manufacturing contracts from third parties. It's still worth a lot since we get all the profits from the production lines that we handle."
"Cæ also wants to maintain and expand our manufacturing capacity to maximize our profits," Seliphaz heaved a sigh. "I would have been satisfied simply being a design company."
"Well, he is very motivated to make as much money as possible, even more than I am," Feidin remarked knowingly. "He won't be satisfied until Trinity Housings has factories across the entire city and eventually the country. He would even look forward to expanding to other countries in South Gruonia where this problem persists and try to gain as much income from it as possible."
"Huff… At least the business is helpful, I don't quite understand why he is so obsessed with making money through business when he earns a decent income from the student council," she heaved a sigh. "Not to mention, when he's also studying as a student in the Senior Program in the Elendir Institute of Magic."
Feidin nodded. "He also isn't very consumerist. He lived in the slums for several months before moving to the Elendir Institute of Magic, you know?"
Seliphaz's eyebrows furrowed with surprise. "What?"
"It was very, he got the idea from, he told me," Feidin heaved a sigh. "He doesn't party like someone his age might, and he doesn't purchase expensive things; he invests all the income he gets, and then focuses on making more money as though he has nothing left. As though he isn't guaranteed to make money by virtue of being a very talented and gifted mage."
She nodded with a strange expression as she thought back to her conversation with Cæ in the cafe upon their return from Marshall's Manufacturing.
He was driven by something intense.
Something that he hadn't revealed even to his partners.
Something that dove to make as much money as possible.
BZZZT!
Feidin's magiphone rang.
[Cash]
"Speak of the devil," Feidin picked up the phone, accepting the call.
"Hey, get ready soon," Cæ's voice emerged from the phone. "It's time for Trinity Housings to expand deeper and deeper into the slums very soon, in just a few days. The time has finally come."
His voice was filled with drive and determination.