Preliminary Results 

After they finished talking with the two mercenary brothers, Tenur, Amir, and Shui returned alongside the two to Mero's store.

Shui watched those two constantly, sensing that Tenur was getting out of control in his actions.

After all, this slave was overly cautious, which greatly annoyed someone like him with shady interests.

'If this continues, I won't be able to accomplish my goals.' He thought about this during the walk back to the store.

When they arrived at that place, the 15 slaves of this store were already waiting for them, and as soon as they saw Tenur's sign, they opened the store, each one going on to their duties.

The women and one of the slaves used to the kitchen went to prepare bread. At the same time, most of the remaining slaves went off to prepare paint and the tools that Tenur would need to produce beer and wine.

But three of them were left to clean the inside of the store and continue painting the walls.

They had started this the day before, but some interior and exterior walls were still left to be painted.

Finally, when all the captives were performing their duties, the two brothers were guided around the store by Tenur to understand where they would be working.

The two were impressed with the place, even more so to discover that the store that had been talked about all over the city was the place they would protect from now on.

But neither cared much about these matters, and they soon agreed on how their jobs would be divided.

Each of them would work 16-hour days. They would work simultaneously during the busiest hours, and one would rest while the other worked during the less problematic hours, such as at night.

Tenur saw no problem with this, and soon those two sat down around the store, intending to work simultaneously today until the snack time promised by this captive...

Tenur preferred it that way, so after introducing those two to the store and explaining that payments would happen after it closed, he returned to his role there.

'Let's see how the revenue of this place is...' He thought after the day's paint orders were made.

As for the plaster deliveries, the material had run out the day before, so the store would not profit from this product this day.

Anyway, the 90 loaves of bread ordered the day before would help keep this place's good results for another day.

Considering this, he soon began to do the necessary math to find out the store's results in these five days of operation.

'Today, the store will have collected another 19,540 bronze coins by the end of the day... Yesterday we got 20,540. On the third day of operations, it was 107,000 bronze coins... On the second day, we got 170,000 bronze coins and 83,400 on the first day.

So in five days, we got 400,480 bronze coins.

The cost of the ingredients was about 356,260... But we had to give 50 silver coins to that man from the Gaber family.

I also paid 20 gold coins for those four slave women, and today I will pay two silver coins to those two mercenaries.' Tenur weighed up all the costs of operating the business. 'There is also the feeding of the captives and servants. That averages out to 380 bronze coins daily, or 1,900 in 5 days.

Hmm, that's 563,360 bronze coins of expenditure...

That is, a loss of 162,880 bronze coins.' Finally, he realized how much he would have to bear to close the month at a profit.

But Tenur was by no means disappointed by these problems. After all, the store was currently in the red because he had bought the four captives to work in the kitchen.

But this was an investment. They were helping to increase the daily bread production of this store!

On the other hand, he had previously sold many resources at a cost price and lost 50 silver coins to an enemy.

Disregarding these non-recurring expenses, Tenur felt he could make significant profits if he stayed in that store for a few weeks!

'In a few more days, the resources scheduled to arrive will be in the store and provide me with enough to generate more interesting profits.' He thought about this as he wrote down some orders from customers in the store.

'I won't have the items I ordered from Amir yet, since it will take a while for Mero to ship them from the kingdom's capital... But I will have enough to sell and get the coins needed to produce more plaster, paint, and bread without depending on local stores.

Through this, I will get enough coins to buy the resources needed to produce wine and beer.' He pondered.

Tenur had asked Amir to notify Mero of the need for resources to produce beer and wine. But by the time these resources arrived in Cusca, all the tools needed to produce these beverages would be ready.

As Tenur was no fool to wait for Mero's envoys, he already planned to buy the resources with the Amari family and immediately start the production of alcoholic beverages to put pressure on House Gaber.

'Very well, I just need to wait for the slaves to finish producing what I have sent, and I can go to the Amari family store!'

...

As he closed the store at the end of the day, Tenur once again went out beside Amir, who had no longer let this captive walk the local streets alone since the previous incident.

One of the two mercenary brothers had stayed in the store to guard the place after Tenur had given the two silver coins of the two, today's daily payment.

Shui had been left in charge of escorting the slaves to their place of rest and feeding, his daily function since Tenur's arrival at this Touma family outpost.

While Tenur and Amir walked and talked about their plans, something they did daily, they entered a tavern to try the local food.

Tenur cooked better than most people in this place, but he was too tired after a full day's work and didn't want to have to become a cook. So he didn't cook and ate where Amir decided to eat, which was usually already better than the food the slaves prepared.

So he sat opposite Amir at one of the wooden tables in that relatively small place, where suddenly, two people talking at another table caught his attention.

"In 2 months, royal envoys will be in the city again..."

"Oh? Will they be here for another auction?"

"Yes, a 200 square kilometer piece of land 100 kilometers north of here will be auctioned at that event."

"200 square kilometers? That's quite a space!"

"Too bad the place is a waste. Otherwise, I would join the auction." A good-looking, well-dressed man, as if he were a wealthy freeman, said this in a sighing tone.

"Royal envoys? Auction?" Tenur looked at Amir and questioned him, trying to understand this.

Amir heard that too, and as much as he didn't know the details, he understood what it was about. "About that, they're probably talking about the Land Auction."

"Land Auction?"

...