We were going to have an early lunch today before heading to meet with the duke, so I had a light breakfast after some morning training. I then went to find Livia to talk to her about what I had been thinking about last night. I was able to talk with her a bit before she had to leave to prepare to meet with the duke, and was able to get her thoughts on my ideas. Once she left, I decided to walk around the area to see what the capital has to offer.
Walking around aimlessly in the area around the inn we were staying at, I saw a bookstore that had a larger selection than the one in Gale. Looking at the titles of the ones cheap enough to be out in the open, and reading the list of books kept in the back, I selected more than a dozen that I ended up buying. Tossing the books into my item box, I walked out and continued my search around the area.
I noticed I was being watched by someone since I left the inn, but they didn't show any hostility, so I just left them alone for now. I continued looking through the stalls and stores, buying things here and there that seemed interesting. By the time I finished looking around the area of the inn, I had spent about 3 large gold, which was a rather enormous sum, but most of that went towards books and some alchemy materials that I couldn't get in Gale.
Grabbing some quick and easy food at a stall, I ate on my way back to the inn. As soon as I got into my room, I quickly changed my clothes and got ready for the meeting. When I finished preparing and walked out, Jay was coming to call for me, so we went downstairs together and got on the already prepared carriage. While the carriage was moving, Jay gave me another quick rundown of what was going to happen when we arrived.
We passed through a checkpoint after stating our names and business at the duke's estate and having the carriage lightly checked. We then proceeded for another few minutes before we came to a stop, and the door was opened for us. Upon stepping out, we were greeted by a few maids and butlers, after which they led us into a waiting room. We were offered drinks while we waited, so I asked for an herbal tea, and Jay asked simply for 'tea'.
Shortly after that, a tray was brought out with our drinks, some tea cakes, and a small bowl of sugar with silver spoons. Being that it wasn't offered, I pulled a small pot of honey out of my item box and used the provided silver spoon to stir it into my tea.
"Mind if I use some of that?" Jay knew that I had Royal Honey, which was even more expensive than sugar.
"Help yourself, I brought more than enough to last this trip." I still hadn't told him that I tamed a Royal Bee queen, and was getting more Royal Honey than I knew what to do with.
"Thanks, don't mind if I do." He seemed to be the same as always despite being in the residence of high nobility.
"Pardon me, but we could provide you with honey so that you don't have to use your own." A butler informed me kindly.
"I appreciate the offer, but this is Royal Honey, I would dream of asking the duke's house to provide such an ingredient," I replied with a gracious smile.
"If you happen to have more of that, would you be willing to part with some? You would be paid appropriately of course." After the butler recovered from the shock of a 10-year-old child pulling out a pot of Royal Honey like it was as common as bread, he politely asked me to sell some.
"I don't mind selling, but how much are you looking for? If it is just a pot this size, I don't mind gifting that much, and if you are looking for a large amount, I'm not sure we can make that large of a transaction without approval." I replied gesturing to the pot of honey on the table and then miming the larger size pots of honey that I have, causing his eyes to go wide once more.
"I will have to confirm whether we can buy that much. Are you certain you would wish to gift a small pot of Royal Honey?" He seemed to doubt my sincerity.
"Sure, I don't mind, here you go." I shrugged and pulled out another small pot of honey to give to him.
"Thank you, the young lady and madam will be pleased." He carefully accepted the pot of honey, before turning and carrying it out.
"It was a fine plan offering such a gift," Jay said meaningfully, causing me to look at him with slight confusion until it dawned on me that he meant it as if I was buying gratitude.
"Don't misunderstand, I simply believe that such a small transaction is a waste of both my and the duke's time. A larger transaction, however, would allow me to recuperate the money I spent on books earlier." I denied his accusation before drinking my tea.
Shortly after that, we were led to another room, where presumably the duke and his wife were sitting on a nice-looking sofa. In front of them was some tea, along with the honey I had given to the butler shortly before, on a fairly large coffee table. Beyond that, was another couch that we were being led towards. Once we were close, Jay and I gave our introductions before being seated, at which point, more tea was brought in.
"I hear you gifted us this honey, thank you, it is rare for even us to get our hands on Royal Honey." Said the duke's wife.
"Indeed, and our butler has informed us that you would be willing to sell it in larger quantities, how large exactly is this quantity?" Duke Arrius continued before I could reply to his wife.
"Well, I could sell as many as 3 of this size, your grace," I said while pulling an approximately 2-gallon jar from my item box and setting it on the table.
"Oh my!" The duke's wife exclaimed in surprise at the amount.
"Are, you certain you are willing to sell that much? You don't need to get permission from your parents or anything?" The duke asked.
"It's no problem, your grace, I both made the pots, and collected the honey. Additionally, I am not selling my personal stock, only the extra." I replied, taking out 2 more pots of identical size.
"I see, then if you don't mind, I will have them checked for quality, and if everything is good, I will pay you market price for the 3 jars." His words caused me to be a bit surprised, I had only offered to sell 3 because I believed he wouldn't even want to buy that many, but I still have over a dozen more in my item box.
"That's fine, your grace, and Guildmaster Livia can vouch for me if you need further assurance," I replied, knowing that she had been here earlier, and why she had been here.
"That's enough of that, my name is Reinhardt Arrius, you can simply call me Reinhardt, and this is my wife Emily." The duke didn't seem to like me calling him 'your grace' all the time. "We are not in a public setting, you may be more casual."
"You can call me Emily, no need for any fancy titles, someone around the same age as our daughter should be more at ease." His wife doubled down on what her husband said.
"My apologies, I will speak in my normal tone then," I replied, trying to be more casual as I told.
"You could still be more casual, but well, that's still better than before. So, Jay, what's with taking years before moving to spread this 'baseball' we discussed way back when." He was acting like he wasn't a duke, and we weren't sitting in a room that cost more to build than the Cat's Paw.
"Well, there are many reasons for that, there was simply no chance before now…" Jay was skirting the topic in an obvious manner, possibly because it involved me.
"Most of it is my fault." I butted in, not wanting to beat around the bush.
"How do you mean?" The duke seemed genuinely confused, while Jay just shrugged like it couldn't be helped.
"I mean, I still own the rights to all baseball-related sales, seeing as how I came up with the idea and didn't sell it outright. I probably would have held off on popularizing it for another 3 years had I not been pushed into this whole ordeal at this time. I'm also the one who sold him multiple toys and games, keeping him busy with the production of other items." I replied nonchalantly, causing his and his wife's eyes to widen the most so far.
"Is that true?" The duke asked Jay.
"Right, that's the short of it, the long would take more time than you could spare right now. He does indeed own the rights to all the baseball products, and our contract has him maintaining the rights for any product developed by him or my company in the future." Jay replied having given up.
"What did he mean by being 'pushed into this whole ordeal'?" Emily looked at Jay with rather scary eyes, causing him to start sweating.
"I was already scolded by Livia, and explicitly warned not to go too far. I've made peace with Cero since then." He replied nervously. She then turned to me with a questioning look.
"Livia corrected his behavior, so I have no reason to pursue the topic further, besides, he had already contacted the duke, who told him to bring me here, so it was no longer the time to be attacking him for his lack of judgment." I quickly answered her unspoken question.
"Dear," she said, her head whipping towards her husband, "we will be discussing your lack of propriety later."
"Yes dear, but for now I think we should move the topic along to not waste any of our time, should we not?" He was sweating bullets and moved to quickly change the topic. "You wanted to propose a city expansion or a new town?"
"Right, I would suggest a city expansion, on the southwest side of Parth, to be precise." I started saying, as I moved our tea cups and pulled the model out of my item box. "Essentially, this would function as a town in its own right but would be connected to this city as a separate district. I call this the sports entertainment district, and I have designed it so that only related industries would be found in it.
This area would be closest to the current city wall and possesses large parks and areas set up where parents and children, along with other interested individuals could play or practice sports. Further in you have room for food vendors with covered and outdoor seating, along with restaurants for more formal dining. Next, we have inns and stores, the stores would be for selling merchandise related to sports, be it the equipment for playing, or articles related to professional teams.
Last up, we have the arenas here. As you can see, there are multiple arenas, and each arena is different, for different sports. This one is the baseball stadium, which is an outdoor stadium but capable of producing a rain-warding barrier to prevent having to cancel a planned game. This is a football stadium, also an outdoor stadium, that can similarly create a rain-warding barrier when necessary.
This last arena is an indoor arena, while I haven't made any indoor sports yet, for now, this arena can be used to hold chess tournaments and such, which would draw a different kind of crowd while bringing in plenty of revenue. I have also left some open areas for future development, so you can build an indoor stage for music and plays if you want. With the inclusion of other activities, the types of stores can expand as well.
With the construction of this district and particularly the baseball stadium, you would need to have your knights and perhaps the town guard create teams. You could have them train while the construction is going on, and then invite other nobles and possibly even the royal family to watch a game played between 2 teams.
There are these boxes above the normal seating that have limited access and are easily defensible, that wealthy merchants and nobles could rent to watch the game from a safe, private place. You could then sell tickets to the regular seats, with the better, closer seats costing more money, and the worse seating costing less.
Down here near the entrance, there is an area for food and drink vendors to sell their goods on game days. Of course, they would need to buy permits to sell inside the arena, and you could give the vendors discounts for buying a seasonal permit, which would give them a place to sell for the entire sports season. For obvious reasons, this would be a sport played mostly in the mid-spring to mid-fall, the idea can't make money if people can't travel to get watch it.
There are also private kitchens upstairs with the boxes, so nobles and such could use their personal chefs if they so choose. Lastly, there are toilets located in these areas, and the toilets used would be the flushing toilet magic tools to prevent smells. Oh right, and there is enough seating to hold over 10,000 spectators, based on this design.
I would of course suggest making the first game free for the public to view, to increase the spread of information about it. After that, the cheapest seats way out here should be cheap enough for the average commoner to afford, so a large copper at most. The general entrances should each have a ticket gate where people can show their previously purchased tickets or buy a ticket on the day of.
This is a guarded entrance for nobles, and this is a guarded entrance for the players. Through the player entrance, there are rooms for each of the teams, where they can get changed and rest before and after the game. There is also an equipment storage room for extra equipment, for the field and game, as well as a storage room for stadium maintenance, such as extra seats, magic tools, etc. for the spectators part of the stadium.
That should about cover it, did you have any questions?" I pointed out all the parts of my model as I spoke about them, and eventually concluded my pitch, looking up for the first time since I started. Everyone seemed to be staring at me blankly as I looked around the room. A little later, the butler in the room intentionally cleared his throat, causing everyone to come to their senses.
"Ahem, I have to say, this proposal is far more well-planned and detailed than I had anticipated." Reinhardt eventually said.
"Right, this is beyond what I expected as well." Jay agreed.
"Yes, this is by far the most well-prepared proposal we have heard since taking part in the domestic affairs of the duchy." Emily was a bit more eloquent compared to the others.
"I can't speak on behalf of those others you mentioned, but as far as I am concerned, if you are seeking permission, and more importantly, funding, it is best to have a well-detailed plan to propose," I replied, not understanding why someone would make such a proposal without thinking it through.
"If only other people thought the same way as you." Lamented the duke and his wife. "With this proposal, I see no reason why I shouldn't agree, it seems to be designed to bring in a large amount of revenue, so it would quickly pay for itself. My only concern is if such a structure would be able to support the weight of that amount of people." The duke seemed worried about safety.
"I had planned to incorporate magic circuits into the design of the stadium to reinforce the stadium and seating area as a whole. I've also planned to incorporate magic circuits around the playing field to prevent spells and physical enhancements from being used." I had already taken into account potential safety concerns and taken steps to prevent cheating.
"How are you planning to power those magic circuits?" Emily asked me. It seems that she is more knowledgeable about magic-related stuff considering she was the only one in the group who seemed to understand what I had just said.
"There is no need for external power. The circuits will contain mana absorption circles, and the entire circuit will be carved out and filled with a magic stone powder mixture that I made, and then melted in using what is commonly referred to as metal magic. This will allow for the absorption, storage, and subsequent release of mana as needed." I explained.
"Interesting, I have not heard of this method before, where did you learn about it?" She asked, displaying her curiosity.
"I didn't," I smiled and answered, "I read research books about magic circuits, and enchantment magic, both having the same issue that many people tried to solve using different methods. I then read a book about Rune Magic research, which gave me the idea to combine aspects from each subject of study to solve the issue of powering an enchantment."
"If this works, it could change our understanding of the subject on a fundamental level." She replied excitedly.
"The method is already in use, and functioning as expected, so there is no 'if' to this plan. While I agree that this method has a lot of potential, it also has its drawbacks and limitations. First is the cost of the magic stones, the stronger the enchantment being powered, the more magic stones you will have to use. Also, crystal quartz powder needs to be mixed with the magic stone powder so it will melt and leave all the magic stone powder interconnected.
There is also a limit on its uses, not every effect can be achieved, and not every material can withstand the process. Then, if the magic circuit cracks or breaks, it is likely that the entire circuit will collapse, and there is no telling what would happen to the accumulated mana in that case. Lastly, the design has to be well planned out and engraved precisely or it may not activate. Even worse, it may exhibit unknown effects from what was planned, which has the potential for almost anything." I stated the negatives of this method, not wanting to cause a misunderstanding.
"How expensive is this method exactly?" Her curiosity had not abated.
"It depends on how strong you want the effect to be, but for instance, if you just wanted to improve the durability of a medium-sized store, it would cost about two small gold in materials alone. If you wanted other effects, or to increase the durability to the point that a carriage crashing into it would not bring down the wall, then it jumps up to 4 small gold coins. I'm estimating a cost of 4 to 6 million Lorn per arena, just for the materials to produce the effects I mentioned before."
"Hm, that would be a problem for the general populace, and combined with the other negatives you mentioned, that would restrict where it could potentially be used…" Emily seems to have gotten lost in her thoughts.
"Essentially, with labor, I estimate this project to cost around 6 to 8 small mithril coins, a large mithril at most. For the foundation of the arenas, I had planned to use brick-shaped rock made from earth magic, because they can easily be combined into a solid surface with no breaks, perfect for etching magic circles. Other stone or wood can be used to cover it after the magic circuits are finished so that it looks nice." I said to the duke since Emily was off in her own little world.
"I see, and how much revenue can this project potentially bring in?" The duke asked, causing Jay to stare at me as well.
"Assuming that this year is mainly used for construction, filling the district with inns, stores, and restaurants, then getting people interested in the sport and spreading the word about the games… I would say that starting next year, this district could earn you a minimum of 4 small mithril anually. That is not including potential tax increases from the sale of baseball equipment and merchandise, nor any increase in export tax generated. However, I am not able to provide an estimated revenue for this year, because there are too many unknown variables." I replied honestly.
"Minimum? You mean there is a potential to earn more, beyond revenue from tax?" The duke asked, not sure how that could be the minimum.
"Right, so that number was based on not filling more than 70% of the seats on average, and only accounting for baseball selling tickets. If football also becomes popular, that would for obvious reasons increase the revenue, and a similar situation occurs for events held outside of those sports, such as a chess tournament. I'm also accounting for 10% of the income from ticket sales of each game going towards the team owners to pay the players and team manager." I explained to him how I had come up with that figure as a minimum estimate.
"I see, you seem to have thought of basically everything. I would like some time to think about this and get back to you within a few days. Would you mind waiting and leaving this model here with me for now?" He looked very apologetic as he asked me that.
"That's no problem." I easily replied. "On a different topic, if you can answer this, have you heard from the adventurer's guild since yesterday evening regarding a potential discovery? If so, do you know if any progress has been made on that front?"
"Thank you for your understanding. How do you even know about that? It has been ordered to remain completely confidential until further notice." He replied, seeming taken aback by my question.
"That's simple, I was in one way or another involved in 3 of the events. I was the one who suggested the possibility and narrowed down the likely location. I was planning to stop by the guild regularly while I'm here to stay up-to-date on the situation, but if I can find out now, it would save me from having to go there today." I answered like it was obvious.
"I see, well an investigation is underway, there will likely not be any new information for 3 or 4 days at the earliest. That's all I can tell you." I was given the bare minimum of information, but it answered my question.
"I see, then, the last question, do the two people watching me earlier work for you? Only one followed the carriage here, so I was curious." I had thought that his eyes couldn't open any wider than they did earlier, but I stand corrected.
"I only know without a doubt that 1 of my men was watching you, but it was just the standard procedure. I will have to talk with them later about not letting their guard down." His reply said it all, but he was about to be even more shocked.
"You don't have to do that, it's not like they were being negligent, and since they are in this room, there is no need to talk to them about it later." When I said that, I could feel their presence shake, not having expected me to notice them.
"What kind of child can detect our stealth squad so easily?" Reinhardt accidentally murmured aloud.
"This one right here, a half-elf born to former adventurers," I answered with a smile to his barely audible question.
"Ahem… Right, well, you'll have to excuse me for that. I will look into the second person you mentioned and let you know if I learn anything. Expect to hear from me within a few days regarding the proposed new district." Reinhardt spoke to bring the meeting to an end.
"Of course, thank you. You don't have to worry about the second watcher though, they most certainly belonged to either the adventurer's guild or merchant's guild." I replied.
We were soon shown out of the manor where we boarded the carriage back to our inn. Emily was still off in her own little world as we were leaving, so we only said our goodbyes to the duke. I also received payment for the Royal Honey before leaving; I was surprised to receive the money physically rather than having it transferred to my guild account.
Jay asked me many questions during the return trip, but I could not answer all of them because they involved secrets. We arrived at the inn shortly after, with plenty of daylight remaining still.
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Cero being Cero as usual, eh?