First Meeting of the Athenaeum Club (7)

Of course, Victor was aware that most topics they talked about at this point were of ne help to any of the members. If he wanted them to invest effort into the club, he would need to start showing them how the club could support them in the future.

"After talking about the rules and regulations of the Athenaeum club it is now finally time to explain the benefits you have as a member. Most of you are aware that the club planned a yearly auction, where you can try to buy special weapons, drugs, and luxury items.

But we decided not to do any auction this year, simply because many of you must have been quite surprised by the invitation to the club and didn't have the same amount of time for preparation like Oberyn Martell or Randyll Tarly, for example. They knew a lot earlier that I would invite them to the club, and they would represent their administrative region.

To make up for this benefit we, House Di Natale, House Maar, and House Nahohr, decided to give every one of the nine founding members a special quote for special products of the club.

Yuu will be able to buy 10 high grade cloud steel weapons, 200 low grade cloud steel weapons and 100 pills of Penicillin every year if you are still a member of the club. This special quota will only be available for the founding members and no future club member will ever receive this quota.

A special case would be if one of you present will leave the club for whatever reason. Their quota would go to another noble family of their respective administrative region, who would replace their status as a founding member."

When the people present learned about this information, they had worries to different extent. Someone like Oberyn Martell didn't bother about this at all. The position of House Martell was unshakable in Dorne, and his big brother was even Victor's father-in-law.

Tanda Stokeworth on the other hand grew increasingly nervous when she thought about the information she just received. She knew exactly that the status of House Stokeworth in the crownlands was not very high in particular. If some families noticed the immense interests of the Athenaeum club, they would try to replace House Stokeworth, she was absolutely sure of that.

Her only choice, if she wanted to keep those benefits and connections, was to get on the good side of this young heir of House Di Natale and try to impress him and gain his support.

Similar thoughts were in the minds of many other people present. It all depended on the status their family had in their respective region and how strong their military strength was.

Rodrik Harlaw voiced a question of his own regarding the quota Victor presented them.

"Lord Di Natale, is this quota only for our own family or are we able to sell the weapons and drugs in our respective region? If we are allowed to sell is the price determined by the Athenaeum club or can we set the price ourselves?"

Victor approved of Lord Harlaw's quick thinking and confirmed again that he truly had some talent for commerce. Of course, he was willing to answer this question in detail.

"First of all, you are of course allowed to sell anything you buy at the Athenaeum club privately, but as you already guessed only within your respective regions. That is another benefit you have as a founding member. Anything related to the Athenaeum club can only be sold in the respective administrative region if the founding member of the respective region is informed and agrees to the deal.

If another family of Dorne would join the club and bought something during the yearly auction of the club, they would need the approval of House Martell to sell those objects privately, at least within the boundaries of Dorne.

This will give every one of the nine founding members of Westeros a large power over the trade of any special items of the Athenaeum club and will further manifest your importance and power within your region.

I hope you can now slowly understand that yes, you are bound by many rules and regulations while being a founding member of the club, but the benefits you will receive in the future will be immense. The growth of the private club is therefore not only in the interests of House Di Natale and the nobles of Lys but also in your best interest.

By the way, selling special items of the club in the administrative region that does not belong to you will automatically exclude you from the club. I hope everyone is aware of the consequences. We invest and support our members, but I personally had to learn during my growth that respect and discipline are the pillars true strength is built on.

I don't care how you behave in private or whatever you do outside of Dustspear. But whenever you are present on this island or during any contract you agreed to sign as a member of the club, I expect a certain conduct and to respect the rules you agreed upon."

There was no negative response to this requirement and Victor honestly didn't expect to hear any rejection. As long as they kept playing within the given rules of the club everybody present would only receive immense benefits while joining the club and they were not forced to do anything that would impact their liege or their own family.

Jason Mallister was extremely interested in the weapons he could buy with this quota and needed more information.

"Lord Di Natale, do we need to buy everything at once or can we slowly buy the different weapons and drugs over the course of the year? It would take quite a lot of time and effort to transport resources and money towards Redwater. And how can we prove that we did not sell any weapons privately in other regions as their will be most likely around 1800 low grade cloud steel weapons in Westeros by next year. I don't want to cause any misunderstanding and I hope you can clear my doubts."