City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Chapter 270: Poach

A robed figure entered the great dark hall and kneeled in front of a pale young man, sitting at the huge bone throne.
 
“Your, deathless,” he greeted. 
 
“What is the great news from wasteland?” asked the young man directly.
 
“We have been wrong, your deathless. It is not moving as we had expected. It had already stopped in one place,” the robed man replied, and for the first time in a long while, he saw the slight change in expressions on the pale young man’s face.
 
“Were you able to find out where it had stopped?” asked the pale young man, with interest evident in his eyes.
 
To which the robed man, shook his head.
 
“The tools and spells are too visible. If we try to do that, we will get discovered immediately,” replied the robed man.
 
“Wait for a few months more; then you will have complete freedom to do what you want,” replied the pale young man, while the robed man bowed deeply.
 
…
 
“I understand. His father is powerful, but his actions are too brazen, without any consequence,” I read the report and turned to Lancel.
 
It is one of the rare days that I am alone in the room with Lancel and talking civilly, which rarely happens. Most of the time, we didn’t even talk when we were alone in the same room.
 
“He is brazen because the time is with him. If it had been before, he wouldn’t be so daring, but now, everybody needs his father, and nobody is willing to offend him. Even if he destroys a city gate or two,” He replied.
 
His face is quite bad; it is clear; that he hates the man.
 
Taren Zanav is coming to the Greltheaven in two days and everything I had read about him, didn’t give me a good feeling. On his journey, he destroyed many things, including city gates, a restaurant, a brothel, and the houses of the people who have offended him.
 
He is being offended quite easily or rather the power is getting on his head.
 
Count Zanav was powerful before due to his power of elite cavalry, but now he had become important. He had something that everybody wanted.
 
If the civil war occurred; then his cavalry would become very important, seeing how the geography of the empire is best suited for his forces.
 
“Let’s hope his time in the Greltheaven goes well. We don’t want him to destroy, our city gate too,” I said with mirth and worry, but Lancel didn’t take a joke as it intended.
 
“He wouldn’t dare; he did those things, in small places with weak leaders. Here, it is a House of Ravenheart that rules; he wouldn’t do such things here in his wildest dream,” said Lancel, glaring at me.
 
I hope it is true or I would have a lot of trouble with my hand.
 
Taren Zanav will stay in the Greltheaven for two nights before leaving for the Mirador Hold. He was supposed to come at the end of last month but is coming in the third week of this month.
 
I didn’t stay in the office for long and left after I took the signs from Lancel and went to the city hall.
 
Within an hour, I finished with the work in city hall and left for the establishment.
 
Soon, the carriage entered the establishment from the back and stopped. I walked out of it, before stepping into the building.
 
I felt the strong feeling again and a smile couldn’t help but appear on my face. A month ago, after that incident; it had become so feeble that I had to concentrate to sense it. Not anymore.
 
Now, it had become as powerful as before, making even enchantments stronger. 
 
The growth had surprised me; I had thought it would take at least three to four months to recover, but it did in little more than a month and the feeling was still getting stronger.
 
I stopped and looked at the restaurant. It is full as it had been in the past few weeks.
 
The sudden rise in the power of the enchantment charms had affected a lot of things. It sped up things for the establishment.
 
I looked at the restaurant for a minute before checking about the upper floor. All three floors are reopened, including the middle.
 
Now all three floors are open and filled in the afternoon. It is a good thing, the number of girls I have is sufficient and more have been added this month.
 
It made me feel happy, but also worried, that I couldn’t keep these numbers.
 
Next month, the two new brothels are opening, and I would need to send the number of girls in there. I have already reduced the numbers to send there from two hundred to one hundred and fifty.
 
Twenty-five of which will come from Owlspring. So, all three brothels will have seventy-five girls, each.
 
I didn’t want to do this, but I didn’t have a choice; with the way business was going, I couldn’t take out too many girls from here. 
 
It would have been great if I had more girls in training, but there is no space, not here in the circle or the brothel of Owlspring. 
 
It is why once Taren Zanav leaves; I will start the expansion of the circle. I wanted to wait for a month more and open the two brothels before starting on that.
 
So, I could manage it better financially, but now there is no choice; I need more girls. Thankfully, my financial aspects have improved. I could now afford the expansion of the circle.
 
I looked for a few minutes before going to my office. There, a file was already waiting for me.
 
It is a weekly financial report of a brothel in Owlspring; Mena sends it end of every week.
 
I opened it and began to read. Within a minute, I finished. The news is good; after a month, the brothel had started running at 85%-95% capacity. 
 
Mena is doing a great job. If we keep earning at this rate. Then it won’t even take a year to earn back everything we have spent on it.
 
Click!
 
I was taking notes when the light on the intercom turned green, and the door opened.
 
Caena walked inside, and her mood didn’t look good. I could already guess what made her mad. It is a thing, that makes, makes all madams mad.
 
“How many?” I asked as she took a seat in front of me. “Three.” She replied simply. “Who didn’t leave?” I asked.
 
“Merli,” she replied, and this time, it was my turn to be surprised.
 
I didn’t think it would be Merli, who would stay. Every month, after I remove the girls. Others tried to get them. It is not like they didn’t try for working girls, but it is very hard for them to poach them. 
 
It had been a year since they were able to get a working girl.
 
They only get the girls, that I remove.
 
“It was not Norman Lucas who took them this time. It was a brothel, from Owlspring,” she added, and I stopped what I was doing, and my expression turned serious.
 
Eighty percent of our girls were taken by Normal Lucas, and it is fine, but a brothel from Owlspring. 
 
It is a serious thing.
 
“It seemed like, the big ones started to look at us seriously then. We should feel honored.” I said, putting a smile on my face, but her expression remained unchanged.
 
Till now, the brothels from outside looked at us and even tried to buy us out, but they had never taken our girls. Now they did, which means they have now taken a serious interest in us.
 
“I know this would happen, but I thought we would have more time,” she said and sighed. 
 
“We already got more time than we thought. We might not be completely ready for the competition, but we will give a fight to anyone who comes at us,” I said, and that finally eased her expression.
 
There was silence when suddenly she decided to drop another bomb.
 
“I have finished with the charms,” she informed. It was not really a surprise, since she had kept me informed, but still felt like one.
 
The last list was small, but she had a big one. Combining, there are over two hundred charms; she had crafted them all in a little more than a month and begun imprinting them after she said the establishment stabilized enough two weeks ago.
 
“I didn’t have time to think about them with all the work,” I said after a moment of silence. 
 
It is kind of embarrassing to lie. Yes, I have work, but I spent considerable time, in the past month thinking about charms and only came up with three.
 
Even these three are part of the sets, that had been imprinted earlier and will improve their power slightly, if any.
 
I have thought about hundreds of charms; imprinting to enhance every aspect of the business. Including those, I planned to add in the future, that now I am completely drained of ideas.
 
Anything I could think about is already imprinted.
 
“I had time, but I couldn’t think may. I only have twelve enchantments. We have already imprinted everything and anything in the establishment.” She said with an embarrassed smile.
 
“Still think hard. We have a wonderful thing here. We shouldn’t let it go to waste,” I said, to which she nodded.
 
Click!
 
She opened her mouth to say something when suddenly the door of my office opened and the only person who could come without knocking had stepped in.
 
She was looking excited, but also a little nervous as she took a seat beside Caena.
 
“Tomorrow. She will give her answer tomorrow,” said Carla. Give an answer, mean, she will come to the establishment.
 
She is talking about Francesca Charlette, the madam of Red Fragrance, whom Carla had been trying to poach from Lucas for months. I was against it, but she had worn me down, till I agreed, saying it would be worth it.
 
“Do you think, she will accept?” asked Caena.
 
“I don’t know, but I hope she does. We need talented people like her in the establishment,” replied Carla.

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