31 I want you and you and you too!

Many people were gathered in front of the large board, which was listing various projects that would hire workers. Masons, carpenters, smiths, painters, decorators and many others, a large variety of jobs would all find work here.

It was not unusual for many of those who were not currently employed, who had no business of their own, to commute from all over and around the city to this place every day just to see if they would be lucky and find themselves some employer. Businesses and private employers on the other hand, had an easy time finding the necessary workers that were required for whatever they wanted to make.

"Did you see all the offered jobs that were listed today?" one of the workers turned around to everyone else and pointed out the huge changes on the board. The board was a magical array and would update the information according to whatever job services were requested from the officials.

The empire would have these boards placed in all major cities and would maintain them, while possible employers could pay a fee to list their job offers here. Not only would it be easy for employers to find the necessary people and for workers to get a job, but as one had to make a deposit and had to identify themselves to the government officials handling these tasks, there would be a certain security for the workers as well. It would be much harder to get scammed this way, as not many would want to come into conflict with officials from the empire.

The empire on the other hand, would receive remuneration for maintaining any job offers on the board, while at the same time reducing the unemployed people on their streets and in turn further improving their own economy. A win-win situation for everyone involved.

"I've never heard of this Celestial Armaments group. Who are they to hire so many people? I can understand the people that are necessary to build that shop. I heard they open a large shop at Central Square, so it makes sense that they need workers for this, but look at all the other positions. They even need several hundreds of people that have experience with mining and excavation related tasks."

"Look they are also looking for farmers and herbalists. That's a rather odd combination."

"Well, no matter what they are up to, the job listings for guards are not very surprising, just the numbers and the job description is odd. Sounds rather interesting to me though, I mean, who gets these kinds of benefits for a regular guard job. I just hope this isn't some high risk suicide thing, with these benefits it does sound a little fishy. Maybe too good to be true."

"I don't think it's a scam, I heard that it's the new princess who is behind this Celestial Armaments thing and many other powerful people are said to support this. My cousin works as a government official and he is responsible for all the grants for those properties that people can claim from the empire. I heard that a fortune was spent on various properties all over the empire."

"Hey Old Hob, would you read this guard advertisement for us please? If it's interesting maybe some of us will apply."

"Sure. It says here that they are looking for able bodied men and women of age, who are willing to serve as guards for various holdings they have, as well as for protection duties for their logistics section. There will be free lodgings available for the guards and their direct family as well as basic education for kids and the salary will be between 30 and 70 golds per month for a regular duty guard."

The man called Old Hob then continued. "Oh yes here is some more."

"There are no requirements for magical affinity or strength, but there will be ongoing training and they say here that people who don't put in effort to improve themselves will not have their contracts extended. Those who do not qualify will get their payment and will be released from the contract after 6 months, while those who made the cut will get added salary and other benefits if they want to stay."

"What other benefits are there if you stay?" – "I have no idea, it does not say here. These offers are all rather short, as the board has a limited size after all. With such a huge amount of job offers there's not much room for each of them, but I'm sure you can contact the workers association and ask for further information or a contact."

"Old Hob, Old Hob, what about the farmers and herbalist jobs?"

"Oh that's a nice one! It says basically the same as the other, free lodgings and the salary is also decent, between 20 and 50 golds for that farming job."

"Oh gosh what are we supposed to grow there? Money trees? That's a really high amount of salary."

"It gets even better. Honest and loyal people will receive either a piece of property to use for themselves or will get a share of the farming yield after 5 years!"

"Are you kidding?" – "No, that's what's written here!"

The same situation could be seen several times during the day. All of the workers were excited for these new jobs and their benefits. Word soon spread across the city and everyone wanted to find out more about these jobs and if the benefits were really as good as was written on the boards.

Myra did not know a lot about running a business, but she was not a fool either. She wanted to have loyal people who she could trust instead of inexpensive workers that will come and go all the time. With her abilities and resources it was easy enough to train up skilled workers, but it would be much harder to hire experts who were already loyal to other organizations.

It did not take long before there was a group assembled in the courtyard of their future shop. Around them the building was still under construction, but one could already see with the materials used and the sheer size of the building, that this would be no simple and cheap shop. This would become a high end manor that could rival some of the best shops in town.

Some of the people assembled were initially confused when their employer turned out to be a young woman, with a young man at her side. They had expected someone older, perhaps more experienced who would set up such an endeavour, once they heard that this young woman was a princess though, no one dared to underestimate her.

"Welcome to Celestial Armaments, or what will soon, with your help, become Celestial Armaments."

She scrutinized all the people in front of her. They were here for various jobs and came from various areas of the city and suburbs. Not just poor people or younger more inexperienced journeyman came looking for a job, even established and more experienced craftsmen could be found among them, obviously lured by the attractive benefits.

"For those of you, who don't know me, I am Myra Elení Aer and I am the owner of this business."

"I usually really don't bother with formalities unless I absolutely have to, you can call me either Miss Myra, or Myra if you like."

"Let's get directly to the jobs and don't waste time with pointless chatter."

Myra took out a piece of crystal and waved her hand through the air in front of her, making the list with all kinds of information appear in front of her in mid-air. While this kind of magic was not uncommon, the way Myra used it, as if she would just wave away a fly, was rather impressive.

Soon a certain section of all the information remained while all the other information faded away and they could focus on one thing.

"First of all we need a lot of regular workers for manual labor of all kinds. Loading and unloading goods from carriages, helping with various tasks like clearing land or helping with small things in the shops and warehouses. It's not an easy job, but it does not require any specific skills to do. We will pay 20 gold coins per month and if the activity is located outside of Silverspire or its surrounding areas and requires you to travel, you will get some extra remuneration if you accept the task."

The information about the job in front of her, quickly disappeared and she looked through the other jobs again. Various jobs were listed and explained in this way and Myra patiently explained all of them, answered questions and provided some examples of what one had to do.

"Miss, do you have a job for me as well?" a young voice suddenly asked, when Myra just wanted to continue with the next batch of jobs. She looked up and quickly found the owner of the voice, a young boy who was barely half the height of the surrounding men and women.

"How old are you boy?" she asked, curious what a child would do here.

"I'm eight, but I will turn nine next month."

Many of the people would throw him a pitiful look. How would an eight year old contribute in any way and be able to get a job. He obviously had no skillset that would allow him to enter an apprenticeship and likely no money to get someone to teach him the basics either. He'd even be too weak compared to an adult to do simple labor.

They all felt a little bit guilty to not do something about this kid's plight, but in the end, they still had their own family to take care of and thus they remained quiet and didn't want to speak up for the boy.

"Why do you want a job? You're still too young, shouldn't you leave this to the adults in your family?"

The boy looked at the ground a bit embarrassed. "There are none, I am taking care of myself and my friends, so I need a job too!"

"Your friends?" – "Yes Miss Myra, they are in a similar situation and live all over the city."

Myra nodded and gave it some thought. "I don't need kids to work in my business, but bring them here, we will find something for you to learn if you like."

"Something to learn? What do you mean?"

Myra rolled her eyes at him. "Well what does it sound like? I still need an alchemist and a magical smith in the future, not to mention that I want to train a group of space mages to keep in contact with all those holdings. Might as well train some of you young ones instead of dealing with some spoilt brats from some noble family who think they are great just because they know how to add one and one."

Aaron right next to her started to chuckle. "Hmm, what's so funny Aaron?"

"Nothing. Just think about something. If we have kids they are also going to be some spoilt brats from a noble family. They will even be royalty." he seemed to be in a rather good mood just thinking about that.

Myra blushed and muttered something about 'shameless' to him, before she turned her gaze back to the boy. "For now we can probably find some place for you and your friends to live, like an inn, for those who have no home, as it will take a while to build a school with dorms."

"Miss, I don't think any of my friends has enough affinity for becoming a mage." He carefully pointed out the little problem. None of them had any idea about smithing or alchemy either, not to mention about magic.

"Doesn't matter. Affinity is just a vague concept, people in Luminos seem way too fixated on it. I'll teach you, there's no need to worry about it."