Chapter 32

The young artist opened a box he brought in and began to mix his paints while Ben told him to make the dragon black with red eyes. After an hour of working with the artist, they had a decent replica of his crest painted out on a large sheet of parchment.

The artist told him that the original crest was to remain with his records and that he would make a copy and send it to his place of residence. Ben agreed and told him to send it to his store or to leave it here for him to pick up later if he had not found a place in the city by the time he had finished the crest painting.

Ben took out a couple of gold coins and placed them in the artist's hand to thank him. The artist became all smiles at being given so much money for just doing what he was already paid to do. When the artist had left the Chancery and Ben also left the small office and walked down the hallway to a door that read City Land Development.

The City Land Development office was laid out like the Chancery office. At the back of the central secretarial looby there was bookcase filled with records on all the homes, workshops, businesses in the city. The Chancery began going through any records on vacant stores or empty lots that he could find which were limited.

When Ben saw this wasn't going well, he asked if there were any owners listed in the books that wanted to sell their store or if any owed money to anyone. The chancery didn't follow why Ben would ask about business owners who owed money.

Ben noticed his puzzled expression, then asked the Chancery a question with a smile.

"What happens to people in the city who can't pay their debts or return the borrowed money?"

After a slight pause, the Chancery replied. "They would be sent to the debtor prison located on a small island at the north mouth of the Sandy River a few miles north from of Goldcrest."

Ben knew this river even though he had just now learned its name. Ben had crossed a wooden bridge that spanned it to travel to Goldcrest city every time he came from the fortress.

When the Chancery had told Ben they go to debtors prison, Ben explained his reason why he asked about people owing money.

"So let's say if I were to find someone who owes money who is going to be sent away soon I could offer that person a deal. Instead of using the money to purchase my estate I could offer it to a such a person to pay back the money they owed and keep them from going to prison. They would only need to sign over their store to me as the new owner while they get to keep their goods and home which I am sure they would lose to the kingdom once they were sent to this debtors prison."

When the Chancery thought about this he had to agree with what Ben described was true.

Any person sent off to debtor prison would lose ownership of all their property and in most cases, their family would even be sold off as slaves. This was one of the main reason there were so many slaves if someone stole or owed and could not pay it back they would go to prison and their entire family would be sold into slavery.

The Chancery looked at this young man in shock. Wondering how no one had ever thought of something like this before. A noble may try to use their power to force some to relinquish a property which could lead to them being stripped of their title.

No one has ever came in to search through the records for people who may soon lose their property to the royal court. It was a bold move to seize a property which would soon fall into the hands of the king, but there wasn't any laws stating it couldn't be done!

When Ben saw the corners of the Chancery's mouth begin to slowly rise into a sly smile, Ben knew that he finally understood his plan. Before he could say anything more the Chancery began to look up at the ceiling while he drummed his finger on the desk as if he were trying to remember something.

When he stopped tapping on the desk he spoke up excitedly. "That's it! I remember hearing a rumor about a merchant named Remi...Remi Norberg."

"He was once one of the wealthiest merchants in the city. Over the years he had built up his business and moved from his small store into a three-story building right on the city's central square! This store mainly sold furnishing, tapestries, and rugs, that type of stuff. Remi had furnishings for every class of people in his store. The first floor was for the people who lived on the border of poverty. The second floor was for the commoners and the working man and the third floor was for the rich businessmen and nobles. Even if his business did not always sell a lot, Remi seemed to continue to make money somehow." The Chancery then slightly scowled and continued his story.

"This is where things turned for him. A well-supplied group of bandits had been robbing and killing merchants and travelers near the borders of the Trareniel and Aregard kingdoms. The king sent out an order to have these reckless bandits killed or captured. The king assembled a temporary military division of civilians and mercenaries to hunt down this particular group of bandits. After the surviving bandits had been interrogated with torture about their actions it was discovered by a couple of the bandits that Remi Norberg was the one sponsoring them!"

'This Remi guy was probably getting a cut of all the stolen coins and selling the stolen goods to provide these bandits with supplies and a comfortable place they could hide from the law.' Ben pondered as he listened to the story.

The Chancery continued saying, "The bandit told their torturers that Remi would sell the stolen goods in his shop and make 100% profit off of everything except for the cut he paid out to the bandits. When the people of the city found this out his store was permanently boycotted by the people. The only thing that saved him from being tossed in the dungeon or executed was they could never prove if those bandits were telling the truth. It could have been they were trying to pull Remi down with him over some type of past grievances. Either way without any customers he had to borrow money to pay his legitimate furniture distributors and continue to pay his employees. There were people that he had legally bought products from that he could no longer payback now that the bandits were gone and the legit customers were refusing to buy from him."

Ben felt no pity for this guy and actually began to grow excited. He asked the Chancery to take him to this merchant's store so that, he could talk to him.

___________________________________

The store they soon stood outside of was quite large. Each floor appeared to be the same size with three-floors in total each floor had small evenly spaced windows. Just like every other building in the city. Like ost windows these windows did not have glass.

They used thick wooden shutters that could be open and closed to let the light and air inside. At the end of the day, they could close the shutters and bar them off from the inside to prevent thieves from gaining easy access.

When Ben and his Chancery escort walked inside the stores first floor was filled with low-end crude furniture. The tables, chairs, sofas, and decorations displayed around the first floor seemed plain and inexpensive and possibly used.

Ben then knew that what the Chancery said about this store was correct all the cheap stuff is on the first floor and it gets more expensive as you climb floors.

Across the store, Ben saw a group of young ladies who had gathered around in a circle talking quietly enough to not be heard.

Ben activated his Enhanced Hearing skill and began to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"I don't know what I am going to do either Sapphira just like the rest of you I am not married. If I lose this job I might have to get a job working in a tavern. I will have drunken old men slapping my ass from opening to closing each day."

"Well Selena, there are far worse jobs out there. Just be happy if you even find a crappy job like that. If, things go bad some of us could end up working in a dirty brothel. Then having your ass slapped will be the least of your worries."

After, hearing this a couple of the girls began to silently cry. It seemed that there were not many jobs available to women in the city and these young ladies were afraid that they would end up living on the streets or working some type of nightmare job.

It would not be long before the doors were finally closed on this store. Even though their boss would ogle them and make flirtatious comments, he never had improperly touched them and always paid them on time. Even now when there was only the borrowed money that Remi had left the employees were still paid their weekly salaries.

Ben deactivated his Enhanced Hearing and began to walk slowly toward the girls. One of them happened to be looking his way and saw Ben walking across the shop.

With a gentle smile on his face and the fancy armor, he was wearing the girl was unsure if he was a customer or someone from the royal palace. The other girls saw her sudden reaction and turned to see what had caught her eye.

Ben stopped near the group while smiling at them. He figured they were still upset so he gave them a moment to adjust to his sudden presence. As he was looking at each of them one of the girls stepped forward.

"Hello, sir my name is Cordelia I am the sales manager of this store. Is there anything I can help you find today?"

"It is a pleasure to meet you Cordelia I am Marquess Ben King. I heard the rumors that this shop will be closing soon and that the owner is...troubled over money issues."

The young women behind Cordelia remained silent, but Ben noticed the pained looks on their faces as they all looked down trying to hide their fears.

Before Cordelia could reply Ben continued to speak. "I am actually interested in this shop and would like to speak with the owner. Could one of you beautiful young ladies tell me where I might find him?"

The girls were all momentarily distracted from their concerns when they heard Ben compliment them all and it was just long enough to realize he just claimed to be a Marquess. Now awoken from their worries they noticed the solid gold Nobility badge on his cape and the matching gold ring on his finger.

The women all came forward to quickly curtsy and apologize for not recognizing he was a noble.

Ben waved it off with a smile. "It is perfectly fine to tell you the truth I just became a noble today and I find it all a little embarrassing. Please just carry on how you would normally."

Cordelia began to smile at Ben's nonchalant attitude because she had never met a noble that did not want to be fawned over or who made it known every five minutes to the surrounding people that they were indeed a noble. It was refreshing to meet a Marquess like Ben.

"Please follow me, my lord, the owner happens to be in his office let me show you the way," Cordelia said as she began to walk toward the back of the large showroom floor with a slight smile.

Ben couldn't get over the size of this store as they walked around the maze of furniture. He was becoming a little concerned about how he would fill this place up if he acquired it.

As he was looking around Cordelia stopped in front of a wooden door and knocked.

*Tap!*

*Tap!*

*Tap!*

A muffled voice could be heard from inside. "Come in its unlocked."

Cordelia swung the door open and sitting at a fancy looking desk sat a balding heavy set middle aged man with his elbows on the desk and his face buried in his hands as if he was dealing with extreme anxiety.

'This is perfect this guy is on the edge, it looks like it won't take much for me to talk him into letting this place go.' Ben thought as he stepped past Cordelia.

Remi slowly looked up to see who had knocked on the door and was not expecting to see Ben standing beside his sales manager.

There had not been anyone who entered his store in a few months except the girls who worked here and his manager in the office next to his.

"You must be Remi Norberg? It is a pleasure to meet you I am Marquess King."

Remi Norberg stood up and saluted Ben. "Yes I am Remi Norberg, How can I help you today Marquess King?"

Remi looked at Cordelia and nodded letting her know she could leave them. When the door shut behind Ben he looked at Remi with a big smile.

"I actually came here today to help you Remi. I am here to save your life."

Remi stood there with a dumb look on his face not knowing what was happening so, Ben continued. "I know that you owe a significant amount of money and have no way left to pay it back. I just came from the palace and the word is you are about to be sent off to debtors prison. When you are sent off this store, your home and every possession you own will be confiscated by the kingdom. You will lose everything and any family members you have will be sold into slavery."

Ben didn't actually hear anyone say this from what he learned from the Chancery it was a possibility that it would happen soon.

He wanted this store and did not feel sorry for this guy who had created these problems on his own. He got greedy even though he was once a successful merchant and turned to crime.

How many lives and families did he tear apart by having his bandits out there killing people to line his pockets with a few coins?

Remi after hearing what Ben told him knew it would one day come to this, but now that he was told the palace had decided on it the weight of his problems came crashing down on him.

Remi's knees buckled on him and he fell heavily into his chair.

Ben shook his head and said, "This does not need to happen though I am here to offer you a deal that will allow you to avoid this tragic ending, even if you do not deserve it! What I am here for is to give you enough money to pay off all your debts!"

Before they had left the palace Ben had the Chancery call over someone from the Chancellor's office who dealt with the city finances.

Ben knew how much Remi owed out and he was shocked it wasn't that much money. He had grown so used to the system constantly bleeding him dry for thousands of gold coins that when he heard Remi owed approximately 2000g, Ben was pleasantly surprised.

For a commoner subject of the kingdom, it would take about 6-10 years to earn 2000 gold coins at their jobs. Only a rich merchant or noble with lucrative businesses could come up with money on this scale.

Ben being from another world had no idea how lucky he was to make money off hunting profound beasts and having access to products, unlike anything this world had seen yet. This allowed him to come up with money like this in just a few weeks time.

Ben was thinking to himself if he hadn't just spent so much on construction at the fortress he wouldn't even need the kingdom's money to help him, but since it was free money he would happily take it.

The only problem was that the kingdom was willing to only provide him with 1500g which was what it would have spent for an estate fit for a Marquess.

Ben had just over 200g on him now so he had worked out a deal with the finance department to loan him 500g with interest for one week.

He would easily pay it all off once he began to make a few sales and if worse came to worse he could sell resources to the system store to pay it back.

When Remi heard Ben say he was going to give him money to pay his debts the hopeless look on his face began to fade away.

"This is my deal I will give you 2000 gold coins today, but I want you to sign ownership of your store and the store property over to me. You can keep all the merchandise that you have in here, I just want the building and land deeds."

Remi began to show a small scowl when Ben told him he wanted his store.

Ben noticed the angry look on Remi's face and spoke up again. "Oh? From the look on your face, you don't look like you appreciate the favor I'm doing for you!" Ben said with a bit of hostility.

"Favor!? I have put over 4600g into this business over the years! 2000g just barely pays for the prime real estate this store is sitting on! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a property on the city square? I had to do backroom deals and pay out bribes for over two years just to be able given the right to purchase this land!"

Ben shook his head and looked up at the ceiling not believing this guy. Ben walked forward slowly and placed his hand on Remi's desk and leaned in until his face was inches from Remi's.

"Let me remind you because you seem to have forgotten in a couple days city guards are going to kick the front door open on this place and lock you up in shackles! Do you have any family members?"

Remi looked down and quietly answered.

"I have a wife and two daughters."

"Not anymore you don't they are going to be sold as slaves and maybe if you pray to whatever gods you believe in they will be bought by a master that will only work them to death and not turn them into his nighttime playthings! Open your eyes Remi this is your only option left! You accept my deal and you get to keep your home and all your merchandise. If I were you I would take the deal, sell your house, and move to another kingdom to reopen another store with everything you have here at least you won't have to start over with nothing."

Remi seemed to be frantically thinking over the options that Ben just mentioned. So Ben decided to give him another push.

"Look at me, everyone in this city knows you were involved with those bandits. Do you know how many families like your own you have destroyed by killing their husbands, fathers, and sons out on those blood-soaked dirt roads for a couple of gold coins? You should be on your hands and knees thanking me for this deal. Rejoice Remi there is one person left in this city that doesn't hate you so much that they want to see your entire world crumble around you. Still, even if I don't hate you, don't think for a second I pity you! This is my last offer, take the 2000g to continue to live your life in freedom or go live your final days in a cold and wet stone prison cell eating moldy bread for the rest of your life."

Ben just stopped talking and stood still not moving an inch while staring at Remi. Ben watched until he saw Remi's shoulders sink down and knew he had made the only choice he could.

"I..I will do it." He faintly replied.

"You will do what? Let me hear you say it!" Ben exclaimed.

"I will sell you the store and the land for 2000g" Remi replied sounding thoroughly defeated.