Selling a New Magic

It was the day of the grand opening for "Youth Retaining Magic." I'd had flyers plastered all over the city the last few days.

Elaria sent the beautiful girls working at the brothel to be the ones hanging up most of the flyers; word quickly spread about such beauties working at the brothel, and they even claimed to increase vitality. These factors combined attracted more people, but the steep price, even with the large discounts for opening day, dissuaded average people without enough money from coming.

She had also asked me for some mana stones and body tempering pills to increase the looks of all the girls to the best possible. It was not unreasonable to say they were now among the top beauties in the city, maybe even this world.

Earl Jhon had people escort his wife and daughter to the magic tower from wherever his lands are to have the methods taught to them which Elaria handled.

I was originally surprised he wanted it taught to his daughter, and my imagination immediately went somewhere, but it was dispelled when he boasted about how his daughter will be able to find an even better husband after Youth Retaining Magic became popular.

Since I told him I'd give it to him free once he paid for the second, and since the qualifications of neither were up to satisfaction, I didn't want them. Not that I'd accept someone's wife even as a maid now that I know what Lila would have them doing.

It was opening day, and I waited with Elaria on the top floor of the brothel looking down while waiting for the time of the opening.

There were about 20 people in the main area of the first floor, all lined up waiting for the official opening time.

As they waited, I heard discussions; most were skeptical about the vitality claims but came anyway. Some were sent by family elders to see if they were true since they thought it would be disgraceful to show up themselves, especially if the claims were false.

A very beautiful woman descended the flight of stairs in front of the guests, stopping a few stairs from the bottom.

"Welcome distinguished guests, I am Madam Dallia. Thank you for attending our opening this evening. If there's anything you need, please ask, and I will do my best to assist you."

As soon as she finished, a stream of girls with looks not inferior to hers descended the stairs and walked up to the waiting men. They wrapped their arms around them seductively and led them up the stairs and into a room where they would stay for the night.

"How many incidents do you think there will be tonight?"

"Hopefully none, Master. All of them reached the 2nd layer of qi refinement and the 2nd circle; besides, they all have the ability to communicate with our security team, so they will be fine. And if someone really does manage to kidnap one, we can also track them and punish the perpetrators ourselves."

"Yes, not even the king would offend three 7-circle mages over so few magic stones."

We stayed through the night, and there was only one instance where someone tried to kidnap one of the girls. They were quickly dealt with, and Madam Dallia sent part of the security team to erase their family since they had contacted their family to help them carry out the offense.

I don't expect someone to ever try it again as the destruction of a family is much more costly than 10 high-grade mana crystals.

As for whether the city guards will care about that family's property turning into a blood river, as soon as they realized who they offended, they just whistled a turn to the sky as it had nothing to do with them.

---

Madam Dallia did a good job running the brothel so Elaria left her a communication artifact and Lilla Elaria and I spent a few weeks at the city's sparring grounds to stabilize our realms.

We didn't start selling it yet as we wanted the news to spread throughout the entire empire and people to come and fill up all the spots for sales every day. Then with so many people at once, we could auction the spots for even higher prices than we were originally selling it for.

When our cultivation realms stabilized, we only had a few days remaining until the day we had marked on the fliers to sell the magic.

I'd heard from the adventurers' guild that the price of mana crystals had exploded recently... it definitely has nothing to do with me requiring them as payment.

---

It was finally the day we'd start selling the magic, a whole crowd of people had shown up as the news the magic actually worked had spread like wildfire since the opening of the brothel.

So many people had started showing up at the brothel that Elaria had actually increased the price to triple the original. Though after today when we actually start selling it, I don't think she'll be able to charge that much; it's just people coming to try once before today.

The magic tower had shut down all other sales today and had all staff working on managing the guests. Many shelves on the first floor had been moved to the side and chairs put in their place.

When it hit noon, Elaria walked up on the stage set in the front. She wore a green dress rather than her usual maid uniform.

"Hello, my name is Elaria. First let me thank you for coming. Second, I can see everyone is eager to get ahold of the new magic, so I'll skip the fancy words and get right to the details.

We will check how mana flows in everyone sent for the magic application; if it does not flow in the way I'm looking for, it's perfectly fine and doesn't affect how the magic works or anything. If it does, I'll ask them to work under me. If they don't want to, it's fine, and we'll proceed as normal. If they do want to work under me, I'll keep them and compensate you with 2 free applications of the new magic.

The starting cost, as you all know, is 10 high-grade mana crystals or the equivalent in lower grades. We can only fit in 15 applications a day, and now that there are so many people, we'll auction the order of the slots and keep going till no one is left.

You can also win 2 free spots. I'll be at the table with a green tablecloth around the corner checking what I mentioned earlier. Send people there; they must be a woman, and I will check them. If they have what I'm looking for and want to work under me, I'll give you the 2 free applications as I said before. Also, you can come over to me without being sent, and it still applies.

We also have a sample of the magic available if anyone wants to try it first. Talk to the man standing behind me for how to get a sample.

Thank you; the auction will now start."

Elaria left the stage and headed over to the table she mentioned, and I followed.

I could hear the person she'd hired for the auction handling that part as we waited for people to come over. She sat directly behind the table while I sat behind and a little ways away, just watching. Lila came over and sat sideways on my lap.

After a bit, people started coming over, and Elaria checked their qualifications for cultivation. No one passed so far. I'm pretty sure she's checking more than just if they are talented or not but also if they will make a good maid.

Everyone was handling their part well, just as we'd rehearsed before, and it was all going smoothly.

The spots for the day were not going for much more than 10 stones, but the ones for today went for a little more.

After 2-3 hours, Elaria had checked about a hundred women, and finally sent one off to the side to wait. She put a sign on the table and went over to another area to start teaching the people who bought today's spots.

She led them into a separate room, and every so often, one would exit after they finished learning.

After a few hours, she left with the last girl and came over to me looking tired.

"Master, today's event is over. I found 1 person with good qualifications, and I will interview them now."

"Take a short break first. You look tired."

"Thank you, Master."

She sat down on the chair next to me, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes.

I wasn't worried about making the girl she found wait. If she wasn't patient, she wouldn't make a good servant for me.

After about 10 minutes, Elaria got up and walked over to the girl she'd sent across the room earlier to wait.

"Please follow me to another room as I'll ask you some questions."

The girl nodded and stood up following Elaria.

I wanted to listen and watch too, so I stood up with Lila, and we followed.