Trouble

The room fell deathly quiet, everyone's attention was eagerly on the lean man standing at the end of the table.

"As you all know, last month we sent our largest ship with a very large sum of money. Sadly that ship along with the cargo has met an unfortunate fate." Boron took a seat and sighed."This afternoon I received a report on how many things they were able to recover and it doesn't look good."

Boron's heavy tone and the afternoon atmosphere seemed to match together seamlesly. 

Due to some enticement, they had emptied their vaults and placed all their eggs into one basket. If it was a matter of just money, then they might find a way to solve that, but this also concerned the shops they owned. The shops required stocks, while the workers needed to be paid, all of that and other factors. 

They were afterall, one of the three large merchant families in the city. A setback like this will undoubtedly allow for their competitors to get ahead of them, and recovering might be difficult.

Boron was silenet for a sec, he sat down and rubbed his forehead "After a disagreement with those stingy elders, we've decided to make some cuts, and we'll also be needing some financial assistant from you guys."

"We've decided to put the remaining money to good uses only, this also means..." Boron turned towards a few people, including Ruby, "We have to cancel a few events, like the martial arts contest and alchemy competition. Not only that, but things that don't bring in a lot of money like the bakery and theatre need to be closed until further notice."

When these words came out, a lot of faces changed. The quiet room was instantly filled with whispers and murmurs. Everyone seemed to forget the food that was getting cold on the table.

"Father you can't cancel My martial arts contest, if I don't host it, the other families might take this chance to take it, especially the Abani families." A humble-looking boy in his early twenties with red curly hair slammed the table. The boy had bandages on his fists and was shirtless. This was Boron's second child, Ace sterling.

"Ace don't ever slam the table!" Boron's eyes suddenly turned fierce and glowed with a fiery red color, "Also how many times have I told you to at least wear a shirt at the dinner table."

Ace Sterling met his father's gaze head on without any reserves. He felt the temperature specifically around him skyrocketing, he started sweating profusely. The person next to him felt a much lower heat then him. Another intresting thing was that even though Ace felt a crazy amount of heat, his chair and clothes weren't affected.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly got heavier, the cold food got warmer. Roland and a few others started sweating, and found it difficult to breadth, and this got increasingly bad. It was like they were in an oven and the heat was slowly getting turned higher and higher.

"Hmph! but this doesn't mean, I concead, I still don't want to cancel the martial art contest." After a while, Ace finally gave up, he stretched out his hand and a white shirt appeared in his hand, and he swiftly put it on.

People will undoubtedly resist, might as well solve it! Boron's gaze relaxed, and the atmosphere started returning to normal, but the mood was still dampened. Boron sighed "If you guys have any complaints, let's hear them, and if you raise any good points, I'll try to convince the elders."

"Yeah, I don't agree with cancelling my martial arts contest. If those elders aren't willing, I'll fight them." Ace Sterling impatiently interjected. He wanted to slam the table but stopped at his father's gaze.

*Sigh*

"Listen Ace, your contest is the most expensive event. Not only must we pay for the venue, but we have to provide the prize money for the event all of which we don't have." 

"You don't have to worry about the prize money. Since I'm gonna win first place, I don't mind only taking half of it." Ace interjected again and responded with a smile, while crossing his arms and lifting his head.

*Sigh* Boron shook his head and looked at the ceiling. He looked defeated, 'I'm sorry Portia, our son's an idiot'

"That's not a valid reason, we won't be hosting the Martial Arts contest!" Boron looked back down, his eyes suddenly turned firece and a dengerous breadth filled the room. Boron added, "I don't want to hear it," 

'Killing intent!' Roland shivered on the side, like a fish in water, he was familiar with this breadth. He had been bathed with stronger and much more dangerous breadth at the prison. 

Ace looked away and didn't say anything. He knew his father had gotten serious, if he continued, his father might not 'discipline' him, but outright 'beat' him.

The dangerous breadth suddenly disappeared, and everyone was able to breath properly again, Boron's voice sounded again, "Now if anyone has any proposal, go ahead."

"Uncle, what if I can provide my own money for the Alchemy Contest?" Suddenly, Ruby's voice caught everybody's attention.

"Hhhmmm." Boron's face softened, his expression turned ugly and he fell into thought for a long time. Everyone had favourites, and Ruby, was Boron's favourite. Despite being his older brother's child, Boron still favoured her, even more then his kids.

Finally after a long time, he smiled and responded with a blush "The thing is the family still requires some financial assistance, but if you can provide 1000 gold coins and be able to host the competition yourself, then I'll definetly convince those greedy elders, even if I have to beat them up."

Boron's previous demeanour changed, from a ferocious tiger to a soft purring kitten, who wanted tummy rubs, and finally into a tamed beast waiting to kill.

!!!

Hearing the humongous amount, the room was suddenly filled with whispers, no one addressed the family head's behaviour, they were already us to it. 

But What was a 1000 gold coins? 1 copper coin would be enough to provide a person with 2 simple meals. Ten copper coins is equal to 1 silver coin, and 1 gold coin was equal to 100 silver coins.

Starting and running a small business requires only one gold coin, whether or not the business is successful, depended on other factors. 

"Did the acting family head just ask for 1000 gold coins? Who has that type of money." 

"Ruby's alchemy shop doesn't produce that type of money, all her potions aren't that good so she sells them for a very cheap price."

"Especially since she has to compete with the Abani family and the city Lord's alchemy shop." 

Whispers again filled the room. 

"Sorry my dear." Boron had an embarrassed expression, his calm voice overshadowed the whispers in the room. 

"It's not your fault uncle." Ruby shook her head, her expression remained the same throughout the whole conversation, deadpan and emotionless.

"Wait older brother, does this also mean that we won't be getting our monthly allowance." Suddenly a woman with short black hair spoke up. She looked to be in her mid thirties, and was also sitting near the family head. She was Boron's youngest sister.

"Unfortunately little sister, that's the case, until further notice." Boron's nodded, his expression returned to the 'normal', stern and focused one.

Whispers again filled the room. This time, people were obviously dissatisfied, but no one dared to voice out thier complaints. 

"Listen, if anyone here, has a solution to our problem, they can come to my office." Boron's voice inturupted everyone again, "The sooner we solve this problem, the sooner everyone can get their allowances back."

"Now, let's get back to eating, the foods gonna get cold." 

Dinner finally started but the usually harmonious mood disappeared, only a few people talked to each other. Dinner ended quickly and everyone left.

Just like the others, Roland cleaned the spot Ruby was sitting at. The others around him were gossiping and whispering, he listened attentively and gained some valuable information.

After leaving the utensils in the kitchen, and receiving something small to eat, Roland was leaving with the others, when someone blocked his path. 

"Here, take this and read it." Vanessa appeared with her emotionless face and threw a book at Roland. The outgoing traffic stopped and everyone looked at them.

"What is it?" Roland caught the book and asked

"An alchemy book, don't show it to anyone or I'll rip out your spine. If today's incident is repeated, I'll rip out your spine." Vanessa grabbed Roland by the collar and stared daggers at him.

"I understand." Roland gulped a mouthful of saliva.

With that, Vanessa left, the crow immediately made way for her.

"That was Vanessa, a ficious fighting servant who is well known for her brutally methods in the fighting arena."

"Yeah, I heard she stopped fighting after serving young miss, Ruby."

"I heard she changed and now deeply cares for the young miss."

"I doubt she changed much. On the contrary, I wonder what the new servant did. His fate doesn't look promising." 

Hearing the whispers, Roland had a defeated smile as he looked at the thich brown book and walked out. The stars were out and bright, flickering with a soft light, Roland could hear their voices but he kept quiet as he wasn't alone.

The swarm of people divided and entered their respective buildings. Roland already had his room key from this morning and had his other clothes in the inventory so he didn't join the forming queue at the reception and just went straight to the bath-house at the back.

*sigh*

Looking at the dirty water, Roland couldn't helping feeling defeated. Today was a shitty first day but sadly there wasn't any resignation forms he could fill out. 

'Might as well meet it head on.' He shook his head and quickly entered the bath. 

There was currently no one in the bath, so Roland was at ease. He quickly cleaned himself and jumped out of the water and wore his clothes. He left the bath-house and looked at the starry sky.

"Ignis! Ignis! Ignis Stellaris!" Like a broken machine, the overlapping voices sounded repeatedly in Roland's ears. This was the name of the original 'tenant' of this body, before Roland crossed-over.

"Can you guys not say my name repeatedly!" Although he was getting accustomed to tuning them out around people, it was undoubtedly annoying.

"Do you not want us to say your name?" The voices sounded slow.

"You can call me by my name but not constantly, maybe once. Also what should I call you guys." He wanted to establish a proper foundation for their relationship. 

"We...- can do that and there's to many of us, just call us 'stars' if you want to address us. " Despite there being more then one voice, they were all in sync.

"Okay I need your help with something." Roland passed a few people who were headed towards the bath-house, they were surprised to see him.

He passed a few more people and quickly returned into his room. He opened the windows and said, " I'm wondering if you guys can help me get stronger, also can you explain to me a few things."

"Sure, it would be our pleasure."

There were two types of trainers in this world, physical one's and the one's who trained in spells and casting, typically known as mages. Although they were two separate paths, the direction was still the same. 

Roland listened attentively and gained some valuable information, after asking a few questions, he fell into silence before finally going to bed.