Planning

William has been thinking for quite some time about the type of business he should start. He did not have a lot of money, nor the expertise to invest in something that is complex and resource-intensive such as shipbuilding, nor the connections to enter the black market.

He lacked information. Information about what's available on the market and what's not, as well as what's profitable, he needed something that requires a small budget, uses already plentiful and cheap resources and requires only basic unskilled labor.

This was going to be hard, especially since he wanted this to be something he could do himself on the side, he could ask for his 'father's' help and all these problems would be solved. Lord Ulric would probably give him an entire family business to run for himself, all he had to do was to ask.

Lord Ulric would probably find it a little bit strange, that his shut-in son now wants to all of a sudden run a business, but William was sure, that he can explain it off as the near-death experience giving him a new view on life or some bullsh*t like that and get away with it.

So now William came back to the problem of his lack of information about the market, resource availability as well as local-specific industries. Luckily for him, he had the source of information he needs setting right across the table.

"Edmund I have your first assignment for you, I need you to gather information about …" William started explaining Edmund's assignment to him for quite a while, making sure to emphasize the impotence of details.

By the time he was done what was left of their food had long grown cold, he did not know how long it had been since he went out of the castle district, there were no clocks in this world, at least not ones that has the same precision as those that were on earth. The closest thing to a clock they have in this world was something called a Solaris.

It was a clock that used the position of the sun to indicate time and only the nobility and merchants usually had one of these. It was not very precise, only indicating hours and was not capable of indicating minutes or seconds. Of course, this info was courtesy of "old William" and his somewhat foggy but still useful memories.

After finishing his explanation, William threw Edmund a gold coin for "research and living expenses" and told him to meet up in the same tavern in about five days. After that, he got up and left the tavern, soon after followed by his disguised guards who made sure to leave separately one by one.

After William had gotten out of the tavern he looked at the sky and from the sun's position he estimated that it was probably around four or five pm.

Speaking of time; from 'old William's' memories as well as 'current' William's observations this world time was separated into about a 24 hours day, 7 days a week, 5 weeks a month and 10 months a year.

So their years consisted of about 350 earth days, another thing he observed was that the gravity was pretty much the same and if there was a difference it was too small for him to notice.

That or that biology here works differently so even though the planet is much bigger or smaller than the earth, it still feels the same.

Anyways that was a can of worms he was not willing to open for now, so he was going to go for a roughly earth size planet with a slightly longer orbit.

William was soon joined by his guards as he continued to tour the business district for about an hour more before he decided to call it quits and returned to the castle.

After he came back he thanked the guard and dismissed them, after which he went to find his room, picked up a book about geography, lied down on his bed and started reading.

Before he even realized it, it was already dinner time. It was Laura who reminded him, waking him up from his trance-like reading session.

He soon made his way to the dining room where once more he found his father, Lord Ulric in his seat waiting for him, who smiled at William immediately after he entered "So, how did your excursion into the city go my boy?"

William took his seat as the maid brought dinner, which was as usual, not excessively luxurious yet plentiful.

"It went well father, the business district was full of activity as it's supposed to be." William answered.

"Well, I do take great care in keeping it that way, after all, trade is the lifeblood of Landow and our biggest source of tax revenue. It may not be as large as Solaris which sits at the mouth of the river jade, giving it access to the sea and therefore the sea trade. We nonetheless have our own advantages." Lord Ulric said with some pride.

Although the marquess was more of a military man than a business-oriented one, he did always try to do his best to make his city prosper, he knew that Landow's advantage lay in the fact that it was a meeting point of many rivers and therefore could be a hub of trade and commerce.

"So anything exciting happened to you while in the business district?" lord Ulric asked.

William thought about not telling him about his encounter with Edmund but quickly dismissed the idea as a foolish one.

All that had transpired had been seen by his guards and he knew that their loyalty was to the lord and would certainly report everything if they were ever asked by him, not to mention that the marquess had probably sent some extra protection from the shadows just in case, he only had two sons after all so it would only be natural for him to take extra precautions.

William proceeded to tell his father about his encounter with Edmund as well as him saving him and buying his dept. Of course, he kept the content of his conversation with Edmund for himself for now and just told his father that he took pity on him, as well as the fact that he may be useful to him later on if he ever needed a merchant.

Lord Ulric thought about it for a moment, he wanted to tell his son that what he did would not change anything, that such practices are impossible to eradicate, that spending all that gold on such an endeavor just to help one man Is a bit of a waste. Yet eventually he held his tongue.

" Ohh William, you still have much to learn, such charitable acts show that you have a good heart, but they also show that you are naïve. You have been held up for too long in the castle my boy." Lord Ulric sighed and thought to himself.

"It is good to be charitable William; it is also good to help others who are in need. Just remember to not ruin yourself while doing so, as much as we have an immense amount of wealth and power, we can never help everyone in need, but nonetheless, I am proud of you son." Lord Ulric smiled gently and said to William.

They continued their conversation until they finished their dinner, after which William returned to his room and went to bed. "Tomorrow, here I come" he said to himself before he went to sleep.