Coins 

The next day...

After opening Mero's store at dawn, Tenur had already finished tallying up the store's results with the coins Amir had brought in the night before.

With the coins from Khaa and Shui, as well as those from the dead men in Mero's slave and servants warehouse, the store had exceeded its losses and added up to over 2 million bronze coins, or just over 200 gold coins.

Since the previous months' results had already been recorded, Tenur wasted no time and recorded these coins as a non-recurring profit for the next few months of operation. With these amounts, he could make some investments and obtain significant returns over the period.

That was his hope to get even more attention from Mero and gain a better position than the current one.

Such a profit would be impressive if it were a recurring thing. Still, for something that might not be repeated, it was a not-so-impressive amount for a nobleman of Mero's size.

Two hundred gold coins once in a lifetime would not change Mero's life. But if it was something monthly, it could significantly elevate his position within House Touma!

For that very reason, Tenur had convinced Mero's servants just to inform their master that they had gotten resources from the traitor Shui. But they were not significant resources to attract attention, and he intended to use them to boost the store's business.

Amir saw no problem with this, already knowing that Tenur could create many things if he could use these resources locally.

As for the other individuals, handling these resources was not their responsibility. Hence, they would just inform Mero of the local happenings without telling him what to do with the resources.

Otherwise, the mercenary brothers working in this store received their payment for one of them having helped Amir. The slaves returned to doing their usual work, now in Shui's absence.

However, one of them was somewhat frightened by the previous night's events!

...

'I can't do anything with those people!' One of the slaves originally under Shui's command in this store thought to himself as he worked producing ink.

A person had approached him and made inquiries about Tenur's ways in this store, offering a possibility of escape and still some resources.

He knew it was dangerous to get his hopes up, but hell, for someone in his situation, seeing the light in the tunnel was very seductive!

But with the previous night's events, this tall, thin man couldn't help but worry for his own life!

'Fuck! Tenur is a monster capable of seeing things that don't exist and then turning them into real things...' He thought, stirring the paint in the vat in front of him. 'If I say anything, he'll get suspicious. By then, Amir or one of those mercenaries will kill me!'

He looked over and saw the light-skinned foreigner walking around, telling the other slaves what to do.

Meanwhile, Tenur had no idea what that paint-producing slave was thinking, so he merely continued what he was doing before leaving for the kitchen.

As he arrived in the kitchen, he made notes of a few things to be improved, thinking about how to use the coins at his disposal to improve the results of that store.

From his observation, there was room in that kitchen and in the paint production area for more slaves and equipment before those places had their productions maximized.

He planned to make more changes in the store before launching his new products, wine and beer, which were already in production.

Tenur finished making his mental notes and stopped beside the mechanisms of the improvised drinks-making machines.

'The beer should be ready in another four weeks... As for the wine, I won't be able to sell anything until two months from now.' He accounted. 'In any case, I have a production cost for the beer of 20 bronze coins and for the wine 60 bronze coins.'

"Hmmm, I'll charge 45 bronze coins for the beer bottle and 130 for the wine bottle." He made up his mind before leaving the kitchen.

After registering some orders, Tenur reached Amir and said. "I would like to go to the Saliba family headquarters. I want to do business with it to have more local powers on our side."

The Saliba family was one of the four noble houses of Cusca. This family had some of the mineral and agricultural production in these areas. It also had a small merchant company carrying its and allies' products out of Noskain.

When doing business in other states, members of the Saliba family constantly brought resources from outside, items that were difficult to find in Noskain.

Tenur had recently learned about the division of local powers, so he knew this.

Amir then asked him. "Do you want to make a deal similar to the one we made with the Amari family?"

"Yes. Lord Mero will eventually take care of that deal with the Amari family. It will be good for us to settle any other local alliances soon to ensure the stability of the store's operations locally. That way, he can resolve all those matters at once when he comes." Tenur replied.

"And what do you need from this family?"

"Military support and some resources, such as the bottles that will serve to trade and store our drinks." He said, explaining what this visit would be for.

"Very well, we will do that later."

...

Meanwhile, in a poor house south of Cusca...

A few men were gathered in what appeared to be a large dining room, where an old wooden table stood in the center of the area, with only a few bottles of drink on it.

At the same time, none of the six chairs around it were unoccupied, with only one person standing there, informing the others of something relevant.

"Nail and his men were killed. And from what I heard, the old viper Khaa left the city with their families in a hurry..." The standing man, tall and thin, said, while he had a decided look on his face. "Nail once told me that he had resources capable of buying noble status and that it wouldn't be long before he formed his family."

"Oh? If that's true, those coins must be with the servants in that store." Someone better-informed said. "From what I heard, Amir returned from hours of hunting last night with several bags with him..."

Silence arose in that place after those words, with these men looking at each other and feeling their companions' greed rising.

Their leader slammed one of his hands on the table and said. "Well then, I want someone to watch that place. The moment the servants and slaves doing the resource delivery leave, we will act!"

"Yes, boss!"