City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

I watched the carriages leave one after another, leaving behind only me and Carla in front of the manor, which was slowly being engulfed in a pink mist.
 
I watched till the whole manor got covered in the pink mist before walking inside. 
 
The first thing I saw was a huge manor; in little more than a month, the manor’s size had increased by three times.
 
Only ten days had remained till the deadline, and I closed the establishment. Earlier, the closing was supposed to be for the week, but with the new requirement, it had turned to ten days.
 
It will make me lose around six million crowns, but I will manage.
 
From today, the people from the Nielson Guild will break walls and connect the old and new mansion while making changes inside and outside.
 
“It will look amazing when it is finished,” said Carla beside me. “Yes, it will,” I said, looking at it proudly.
 
Earlier, it was too small; now, with its size increasing, it has become capable of serving four times more clients than before.
 
Before we had only twenty-eight rooms for the business, now there are one hundred and two, and from the data I have collected, I know every ten rooms are enough for sixteen clients.
 
As not all go for sex, around 30% to 35% never use the rooms; they just talk to girls, eat, drink, and leave with happy smiles on their faces.
 
So, with this, the establishment could easily have around one hundred fifty girls working. I have one hundred and nineteen girls, but only ninety-one will work, as the rest are underage.
 
I could have brought more girls, and I had enough money to buy the contracts, but I did not, not till these new girls got familiar with the business.
 
I don’t want to flood the establishment with girls who are unfamiliar with my way of business. 
 
It will affect the experience I want to sell, which I will not let happen.
 
So, I will let the new girls get familiar with the business before bringing new girls, which wouldn’t take long after the establishment opened.
 
I was watching people working when the gates opened, and the carriage came inside. A minute later, two men and one woman came out of the carriage.
 
“Have all your people left?” asked Valentina, “Yes, just a few minutes ago,” I replied.  To that, she nodded and turned to three people who looked to be in their late thirties to fifties.
 
“You three can begin,” she said; they nodded and walked inside.
 
“Enchanters?” I asked. “Yes, these three specialize in illusionary enchantment,” she said.
 
“Do you want any more changes? It would be easier now than later,” she asked, “No, I do not need any big changes,”
 
“Your people were good enough to adjust a few things when I asked them,” I replied. Not all things I decided looked good, so I would look around every day and ask to change or modify the things I did not like.
 
I will continue to do it till it is finished.
 
We talked for a few minutes before going inside, where hundreds of people were working.
 
More people have come in the morning, and more will come by evening; they only have ten days, and they have to finish a lot of work, especially inside the original manor, which has been unchanged till now.
 
“How was your trip to the Riverbell?” asked Valentina about the trip, from which I had returned yesterday.
 
“Great, we have signed a lot of agreements,” I replied with a smile.
 
Ever since Locke had taken over, I have made two trips, both of which were not longer than two days considering I had gone to Deerpond and Riverbell, both cities on the banks of Trollmouth river.
 
“Good, I feared it would be a disaster like Deerpond,” she said with an obvious hint of mirth while my expressions stiffened for a moment.
 
As she said, it was a disaster, as we had not signed even a single comprehensive trade document. Those bastards want to plow us, asking for things that are beyond reasonable.
 
Like barely any tax on their goods and services while not even reducing even a quarter of the tax they placed on our goods and services.
 
So, we decided not to sign any agreement; the Deerpond may be a big city, but we held a greater advantage due to being a getaway to merchant cities; they will come around eventually.
 
Still, the failure of his first big task since taking the mantle of the vice-guild master had made Locke nearly cry. If not for the success of the Riverbell, Locke would have literally cried.
 
These Riverbell trip agreements were crafted by me with the old man and Rip, which is why I had leveled up in my lawyer class; I am now a Level 8 lawyer, just two more levels away from level 10.
 
If I reach it, then I will have an attribute point through them.
 
Usually, only a base class gives you the attribute point, but there is an exception. At each milestone, which is at level 10, Level 20, and Level 30, the secondary classes give the attribute points.
 
Though, getting the secondary classes for attribute points is a very bad decision; it will harm instead of help.
 
Both of my secondary classes had a purpose; they were not taken randomly for the purpose of extra attribute points at a milestone.
 
We stopped and watched people breaking another wall connecting old manor and new. It was the last wall of the hall; now, I could clearly see how big the new hall was going to be.
 
“It will be quite big,” said Valentina, “Yes, it will be,” I said with a smile.
 
I wanted this big; with it, I would be able to do many things which I couldn’t do before. 
 
Just thinking about it made my whole face light up.
 
Valentina stayed for about an hour and looked at all the progress before she left, while I stayed around for an hour before leaving for the guild.
 
Since Locke took over, the pressure on me has increased a lot; I am working more than I had planned to, but it is also rewarding. The connections I am making with important people are simply amazing.
 
As we are not the only ones going around the cities signing agreement, others are also coming.
 
I am present in every one of these negotiations; even those with Guildmaster and Vice-Guildmasters are allowed. It is even helping me advertise my business to soirees after meetings.
 
Currently, my establishment is running full, but ten days later, it will suddenly expand, and I will need those clients.
 
I hope it will run full as it has been doing since the first day. I am trying my all for that, which is why I had spent one and a half million crowns for the beauty treatments that girls are going to have for the seven days.
 
 
…
Margaux
 
 
“I am glad all of you slept well,” I said to the girls lined up in front of me; it was not just girls, but Carla and I had also slept for more than fourteen hours.
 
I can’t remember the last time; I had slept for so long.
 
It was the requirement; manager Havel had said all of them needed twelve hours of sleep. He had his people use their skills and spells to make us sleep, and the effect was visible.
 
Every face looked rested, and while Master Silver strictly asked the girls to sleep for at least five hours, they did, but in the past few weeks, they have become little tens.
 
It is the new girls; they have made some girls feel little pressure, thinking their earnings might be affected due to them.
 
Silly girls.
 
The new girls will not affect their earnings at all; with all the new changes, their earnings will increase further.
 
“From today, you all need to relax and listen to every instruction that Havel and his people told you.” 
 
“If you face any difficulty, you come to me, Carla, or Eudo here,” I said.
 
The girls nodded, and I turned to the middle-aged man, who was impeccably groomed with glowing skin, that I couldn’t help but feel jealous about it.
 
“Master Havel, you can begin,” I said to the middled aged man. “Thank you, Margaux,” he said and turned to his people who were standing around the hall.
 
“All right, everyone, take the girls to stations and start working on them. They are our first clients; I do not want to hear any complaints about their experience in our place,” he said, and his people moved, ushering the girls to the different rooms.
 
He and his people looked at the girls yesterday and decided on the treatments they would need for the next seven days.
 
“Clove, take Madam Margaux and Madam Carla for their treatments,” he said, and a woman who looked to be in her early thirties led us toward the hallway.
 
We are in the new spa that hasn’t been officially opened; its opening day is in two weeks, but everything is ready.
 
Master Silver had booked for a whole week.
 
It was very expensive, Carla had told me that the establishment had paid one and a half million crowns for the whole week of treatment, and she said the owner had given them a big discount.
 
It will give these people a chance to familiarize themselves with new places.
 
To me, it was extremely expensive and unnecessary, but what I knew; I had never been to the spa in my whole life.
 
My clients mentioned it many times with stress and happiness; stress because it is expensive and happy because of how their wives would look after its treatment, and they wish they would look the same a month later.
 
Despite my reservation, I couldn’t help but feel excited and nervous about it at the same time.
 
I looked at Carla and wished I could be like her; she was walking confidently like she owned the place.
 
“Ladies, we will start with the sauna. The sauna room is special; it is made of Sangal wood from magic reason and has oil of vera and hymn roses,” said Clove and took us into the changing room.
 
Where we took off all our clothes and wrapped the towels around our bodies before walking into the sauna.
 
“It is hot,” said Carla as she removed the towel and sat down; I did the same, albeit with a little embarrassment.
 
Getting naked every day in front of other people does not make the embarrassment go away.
 
“Relax, Margaux, you are acting too tense,” said Carla seeing expressions. “It all feels a little overwhelming,” I said with a voice barely audible.
 
“Yes, it is too much, but you should embrace it instead of resisting it.” She spoke as she comfortably rested her back. 
 
I nodded and took a deep breath to relax myself, taking the aromatic steamy air inside, which began to relax me.
 
I sat more comfortably on a wooden bench, which was only slightly warm, and looked at a large glass window with a view of a huge garden.
 
This spa is huge and capable of serving over three hundred people at the same time. It also had a huge garden.
 
Seeing it, I couldn’t help but think about my daughter.
 
Ellie loved the park when she was little; I used to plead and beg madams for small breaks to take my daughter to the park; the smile on her face was worth all the pain I had to go through for that little time with my daughter.
 
“Thinking of Ellie,” asked Carla. “Yes,” I replied as I wiped my eyes. “You should go meet her; I don’t think Master Remus will decline your leave,” she said.
 
“I will, but not now,” I replied.
 
I missed my daughter very much, but I couldn’t go to meet her yet. I had so much to do here, prove my worth, before going to meet my daughter.
 
Most of my worries had already disappeared. 
 
I was extremely worried about the academy fees; I was only able to pay half of the fees because everyone had helped, and now I had paid the other half and fees for the next year just a few days ago.
 
I am nearly empty now, but I am not worried; the money will soon come.
 
Half an hour had passed, and they were staying for another half an hour. Clove said they should come out within half an hour if their vitality were below ten. If it is above ten, then they could stay for an hour or more.
 
I had thirteen points in vitality and similar charm but a little less in strength and intelligence.
 
Charm is very important to me, and vitality slows aging, which had become very important, as those who looked above mortal fifty couldn’t get more clients.
 
It makes me a little worried about Della and others.
 
When I came here, I planned to use all my points of future level in vitality, but after hearing master silver, I only used one attribute point from my three level-ups to vitality.
 
While the other two went to charm and intelligence each, which had been a wise choice, given my new responsibility.
 
The rest forty-five passed quickly in comfortable silence before they got up and wiped themselves towels before getting out.
 
A few minutes later, they were ushered into the most unconformable bath in my entire life.
 
The day passed before I knew it as I went through one treatment after another; while all were comfortable, the result was visible. 
 
I looked good and felt so relaxed mentally and physically I had never felt before, and this was just the first day; there were six more days where I would get many more of these wonderful treatments.
 
Experiencing the spa, I had already decided that one day, I would bring my daughter to a place like this.
 
She deserves it.

An.

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Chapter 64: Count Darrow