Ch3. The path to riches goes through the stomach

Tom's chosen path to a happy and full bank account was through alchemy.

While he couldn't do much with it, he knew enough to create a proper business opportunity for himself and that was all that mattered.

Well, that was slightly wrong. In the end, all that mattered was being creative enough.

Tom didn't go through the 'expected' path of trying to create and sell expensive potions. Not only did he have no idea how to brew those, but the materials for that would also cost him a fortune. One that he didn't have.

And the less said about the necessary research, the better.

Sure, thanks to his Sacred Gear, he only needed one of these potions to know about the 'theory' behind it but that still meant he would need to actually get good at creating one in reality.

For now, that endeavor was just a waste of money.

Instead, Tom decided to go through the food industry. Alchemy was in simple terms the craft of transformation. This transformation didn't need to be huge nor did it have to be outwardly glaring.

Using Alchemy to enhance the sweet taste of apples was Tom's very first experiment.

And he understood why nobody tried to do it before. Making the apple edible while also cheaply enhancing its taste to levels that would make it worth his while was an incredibly difficult task that took Tom weeks of effort.

But not all was bad.

Tom realized some things about his Sacred Gear throughout the process.

He learned the principles he learns by using the Gear are not really 'general'. No, they were very much subjective and depended on who was the creator of the inspected thing.

He inspected his experimental apple a lot with his Sacred Gear and whenever he tried a different kind of experiment, different kind of approach, even if he used the same alchemy method, his Sacred Gear revealed his 'way of thinking' to reach the finished product.

That told him he should not fully trust in whatever his Sacred Gear is showing him as it might be subjective, instead of the general truth of the world.

It took Tom a whole three months to finally, through trial and error, find the best balance in the procedure and create an alchemical circle that could, with some cheap materials, enhance the taste of an ordinary apple by ten times while making it edible without any side effects.

Sure, Tom could use costly materials, and maybe he would find a way to get twenty, fifty, or even a hundred times better results but why bother? He needed a product that would get popular fast, a product that he could sell to a massive number of people for cheap and rake in the profits.

The best part was... Now that Tom created his alchemical circle for 'taste-enhancement', it wasn't hard for him to fit the procedure for other sorts of fruits. Nor was it hard to create a circle that could affect multiple apples at the same time, massively speeding up the process.

Still... the actual profit-making work was annoying and took a lot of effort. Tom had to buy apples wholesale, drop them into the room with an enlarged alchemic circle, buy and use the supplementary materials needed for the circle to work, transmute the taste of the apples, find a buyer, and only then did he receive his first batch of profits.

It took him a week to find a wholesale provider for his needs.

It took him another two weeks to find a buyer that would buy his overpriced apples.

That was mostly because people usually sent him to hell before even tasting one of his products when he told them he wanted 20 pounds for a kilogram.

But he did manage to find someone interested, dare he say, hooked to his apples and willing to risk starting a business with them.

If anything, Tom really had a lot of trust in his product and refused to lower the price no matter what.

And after all these little problems were dealt with...

Tom approached a newly-minted magician family much like his, with an offer for collaboration.

...

"Thomas Prest, what do I owe the pleasure?" A bored-sounding voice of James Jasin, the head of the Jason Family, asked while not raising his head from his documents nor inviting Tom to sit.

It was a very rude gesture but Tom bit into his tongue, knowing he didn't have much support behind him. His family solely consisted of him and while the Jasin Family was small too, they still had ten adult magicians, even if they were subpar at best.

In short, they thought Tom was beneath them due to his circumstances.

Then again, that was exactly why he chose them for his scheme.

"I'd like to propose a business between our families, Mr. Jasin." Tom politely replied, but in a confident tone.

That managed to get James's attention as he finally stopped writing and looked inquisitively at Tom... before sighing and gesturing at the seat in front of his table.

"I and your late father were friends so I guess I can at least hear you out." He spoke in an unenthusiastic manner as if already knowing this will be a massive waste of time.

Tom didn't let it bother him and just walked toward the seat.

'Yeah, I know you are a daughter-fucking prick.' Tom inwardly rolled his eyes as he sat down with a small smile.

Unlike what James thought, the smile was not a show of polite respect for him. Tom was simply smiling at his inward quip.

Tom didn't waste any time and put a proposal on James's table, eliciting a raised eyebrow from the man.

"You are quite prepared, huh?" James spoke, a bit impressed. He didn't expect a teenage upstart from a ruined family to have his act together.

Tom simply gave him a curt nod in response. To be honest, he didn't want to speak with this scum more than he needed to. Choosing his family was a calculated move and he was here because he knew the man's personality. This way, the risks for Tom would be lessened and benefits kept as high as possible.

Not that he would rely on the Jasin family for his future businesses. They were just a stepping stone before the main event.

The man, James, liked to put up an amiable front to whoever could benefit him but Tom knew what kind of bastard he was to his own family.

Not that Tom would do anything about that. Tom was no hero and saving strangers was not on his to-do list. His first priority was and always would be himself.

And since James could be so vile towards his family, Tom had no doubt he could be way worse to others. He had a plan of action to mitigate any sort of backlash from the Jasin Family but he would have to act fast.

James took the documents and slowly started to read, his disinterest morphing into intrigue, before becoming a shock, and then a small glint of greed appeared in his eyes that was gone as quickly as it arrived. If Tom wasn't properly observing James's expressions he would definitely miss it.

James looked at Tom, his eyes slightly narrowed and his expression thoughtful...

"I can't give you ten percent of the profits. Five is my maximum." James slowly started.

Tom's proposal was simple. He would relinquish the method of enchanting the apples to the Jasin Family, letting them build a business out of it in exchange for ten percent of profits as his right as a creator of the method.

Tom didn't have time to transmute large quantities of apples and sell them. He could do much more worthwhile things with his time than that. Hence, a delegation of work was necessary. Losing most of the profits from a method he found out grated his ego but... in exchange for that, he would not need to spend any effort and would still get ten percent of profits plus the future opportunities this would bring him.

It was a good deal... and while Tom would let James's family profit immensely from it, he would not let them walk all over him.

"I can't accept five." Tom wryly shook his head, "Ten is my bottom line. That's why I ask for it."

That statement came out as extremely naive but it was exactly what Tom aimed for.

"Young man, you are asking my family to do all the work while you only rake in the profits. I don't think ten percent is-"

"In that case, I am sorry for wasting your time, Mr. Jasin." Tom apologetically smiled like an inexperienced man who found this whole situation awkward. He was about to get up when James stopped him.

"Fine. I guess I can be gracious and grant you ten percent." He grumbled.

Tom inwardly rolled his eyes. As if he didn't know the deal was heavily skewed in the Jasin Family's favor. The old bastard would never let such a deal slip through his fingers. But... Tom could respect the mindset of squeezing every benefit out of the naive idiot who came with such a proposal to him.

Yet, it was exactly this kind of mindset that would save Tom from being killed here.

"But..." James started again, "what about broadening the terms and including a marriage contract with our family? We can offer you a lot of support and research funds."

'And here it is. His attempt to get me to work under them.' Tom thought, trying very hard to not have his eye twitch. 'Let's get this over with.'

"No! I am too young to marry. I want to focus on research. Who knows! Maybe I could find out more about this method of mine!" Tom gushed out with the proper level of idiotic naivety about business, found in people that were interested in nothing but the life of a researcher.

"Are you sure? My Lia is quite the quiet soul and skilled at alchemy too. Her assistance could provide you with a lot of benefits and would be completely obedient. Even in bed." James tempted.

It might have worked on a normal hormone-driven teenager but Tom wasn't interested in the exchange of short-term benefits and a bit of pleasure for a life-long cage.

Plus, he knew why this Lia was a meek girl. She could not turn out any other way with her 'daddy' being quite the sadist and having a thing for his daughter.

Yes, he was willing to offer her hand in marriage for the benefit of his family but Tom didn't doubt even for a second that the man would cease his romping of his own daughter just because she would be married. Quite the contrary, Tom thought it would just increase James's appetite for her and he had no intention of being cuckold as soon as the second day of his married life.

On top of that, from what he knew, Lia Jasin was a girl who lived her whole life under the strict thumb of her father. Taking her as a wife would be taking in a permanent spy.

"No. My research is more important." Tom stubbornly said, his eyes shining with conviction.

James tried a few more times, probing different angles. At times, Tom had fun acting indecisive and discontent, but it was irritating most of the time.

He aimed to not agree nor disagree with any change, simply letting James come to the conclusion that Tom was leery of changing the contract on his own. It took the fucker four freaking hours to finally let go of the notion that he could screw Tom over more than the initial contract allowed.

Tom could have quickly shot him down but that would endanger both the deal and himself.

Usually, if a weak magician without any support walked into James's family and offered an extremely good business opportunity, he would not walk out alive unless he had some kind of deterrent that would prevent James from simply killing him and taking the product as his.

Tom's deterrent was his very product and his promising talent in alchemy that could bring more profits. James thought Tom would sell the rights to his next alchemy product to his family too and Tom was fine leaving him in that delusion. But the ruse needed Tom to appear indecisive, naive, and utterly unaware of how business was done.

It was all good old balancing work.