City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

"Open the gates," said Margaux right and six pm while I walked upstairs to my office; by the time I had reached it, the gates finally opened.

Carla was already by the window, and I joined her, watching the open gates, but no carriage had come. Usually, there are one or two always waiting and entering inside immediately the moment the door opens.

I didn't like the empty gates and felt my thoughts spinning, but I controlled myself and watched the gates.

A minute passed, and no carriage came, and I was really getting worried, which I shouldn't be since only a minute had passed.

A little more than three minutes passed when the first carriage came, and unlike the few before that passed by a road, this one came right inside.

It had just parked when two more carriages turned and entered the gates of the establishment one after another.

"See, you were worried for nothing," said Carla as she turned toward me, with her face right in front of mine and barely an inch of difference between us that we could feel each other's breath.

The tension was palpable, but nobody took a step, and we turned back to the window to see four more carriages coming.

In the next half an hour, more than fifty carriages came inside, the fastest they had ever been.

"It seemed like my advertisement campaign had worked," I said with a smile, looking at all the carriages coming inside.

Off course, I had advertised. What sort of businessman would I be if I didn't advertise my business? Though the advertisement is slightly different from common ads, I could not just post pamphlets on the walls.

I have done the advertisement in the places like gentlemen's clubs, the places preferred by men exclusively, as currently, I am only targeting them.

I have not only targeted the Greltheaven but also neighboring cities of Deerpond and Riverbell and even the merchant cities like Owlspring and a few others, and looking at the response, the huge money I had spent on it is worth it.

"I have never seen so many people in such a short time," she said.

We had closed gates within half an hour of opening, but those were for forty-five-fifty patrons; now, the number of girls has more than doubled, and as such, patrons will also increase.

Less than an hour had passed, and the establishment already had more patrons than it had ever before, and they will only increase.

"Do you think Margaux will handle everything well?" I asked; there are few girls who had experience in management, but I chose her on Carla's words, and in the past month, she had performed exemplarily.

But she had the help of Carla, from today she will be alone and will have to handle everything on her own.

"Don't worry, Margaux is extremely capable; she will not give you any chance to complain," said Carla.

"I hope so," I said while looking out through the window.

It was a fifty-eighth minute when the gate closed, and seeing a big bright smile couldn't help but appear on my face. Closing the gate means only one thing, the establishment is full and can't accept any more patrons.

"Let's go down," I said to Carla, and both of us walked out of the office to the ground floor.

Click!

I opened the door of the tiny room and walked inside before locking the door, sitting on chairs, and looking at the whole view of the hall.

There is no small window anymore, but a hundred-inch painting for which I had to pay quite a lot of money, but seeing its effects, it is worth it.

To others in the hall, it is a beautiful painting made by a level 30+ painter, but for us, it is the one-way mirror through which we can see into the hall; it is in the left corner of the hall, which gives near perfect view of the whole hall.

"One hundred and thirty-four patrons, nearly three times as much as before," said Carla looking at the clients.

"And only twelve are without the girls," I added.

They are sitting in the bar alone, some of them looking at the girls yearningly, while others seem to be content in watching and drinking expensive liquor.

I have noticed some clients come just to drink. They barely talk to girls or any patron; they come, drink, pay a good tip, and leave.

"Margaux should have let some more in people closing the gates," I said after some time. "Give her some time to get used to responsibility. It is her first day, and she is playing safe," said Carla.

To that, I smiled.

I did not give too many instructions to Margaux; she had quite a lot of freedom to operate, and she was doing quite a good job.

She is not just standing by the door but moving around the hall, mingling and flirting with patrons and instructing the staff.

I took out my diary from the pocket of my suit and opened the latch on the modular pad, which became a small table, on which I placed the diary and began to take notes.

I spent a lot of time in this place, so I decided to make it comfortable, and it was worth it.

I am feeling very happy seeing the huge number of clients; they will bring a lot of money to me, especially since I have hiked the rates. Now, the rates are five-hundred crowns per hour, not to mention the money I will get from rooms.

Only the common room is free, while all three grades cost money; I have decided on the rates just this morning.

"I still think the rates of the rooms too high, especially of the Diamond room," said Carla, seeing a few clients leaving with the girls for the rooms.

"They are fine," I said.

I have thought deeply and done great research before deciding the number of rooms and their rates.

The crystal room costs five hundred crowns, the ruby room one thousand crowns, while the diamond costs three thousand, which is three times more than Ruby rooms and six times more than crystal rooms.

Carla had said, I should keep the prince of the diamond room to one thousand and reduce the value of ruby to seven hundred.

I did not agree with it; I think my price was perfect. People have money, and as long as I provide them with a good enough service, they will spend it like the water.

We stayed and watched for two hours; in these two hours, the gate had opened four times, and it did not remain open for long.

Now there are one hundred and forty-seven clients, and only sixteen are without girls, while others are with girls; many tables across the hall will have one or two girls and two to five men.

Today, the groups seemed usually high, as normally 80% of tables will only have one patron and one girl, now that number had been reduced to 60%.

I watched for a few minutes more before getting up; I looked at Carla, who shook her head, so I alone walked out of the room and went to the studio, which looked far more amazing than before, with all the stuff and renovations.

When I walked inside, I saw there were two women being worked on by the beautician while Eudo watched and instructed.

Some of the new beauticians and the girls who were working were surprised to see me but saw no reaction from either Eudo, cooper, or the teen girls; they did not say anything while I sat on the corner chair, watching everything and taking notes.

Within a minute, the beautician finished with a redhead woman in her early thirties. She is Olga, and she walked out of the chair to the platform, where her robe fell, and brush came, fixing any marks on her skin, before changing her into new clothes and jewelry.

In less than a minute, she was ready and walked out of the room after nodding respectfully at me.

I stayed there for half an hour before going back to the small room. "How is everything?" asked Carla, without looking away from the hall.

"Perfect," I replied as I sat down on the chair and turned to the hall.

…..

Margaux

"If I didn't have to leave in the very early morning, I would have stayed longer," said the man in his early forties.

"It is fine, mister Rain; I am sure you will stay longer when you come to the Greltheaven," I said, and the smile on his face became bigger. He is a merchant from Riverbell and comes to Greltheaven every week and always.

"You can count on that, Madam Margaux," he said, and the next moment, he placed a check on the table.

"The extra is for Ina," he said and walked through the door while I slid the check-in table.

The majority of clients, being merchants, pay with checks, which are fast and more efficient than coins. We are earning a lot, more than Carla and I had estimated, and it is not just the establishment but also the girls.

The gifts that patrons left for me and the girls also became bigger, just like Master Silver had told me would happen.

A minute later, I opened the gates, and they stayed open for ten minutes before I asked them to close.

I am keeping a number of clients between one hundred forty to one hundred fifty. Around fifty more than the girls we have, but that did not seem to be a problem, with many tables having more patrons than girls.

Everything went smoothly; the clients drank and ate while having a great time with the girls.

I looked around before walking into the hall, talking to patrons and asking them questions. Many of the patrons are regular, but she also recognizes those who have come a few times or never.

Master Silver has provided more a huge information about the merchants, including their sketches, and since she always been good faces, she did not have a hard time memorizing their faces and names.

"Mr. Steel, I hope you are having a good time," I said as I walked to the man in his mid-fifties, nursing the whisky in his hand at the bar.

"How can I have a good time when I am alone, Margaux? Though, it can change if you join me," he said suggestively, to which I smiled.

"I wish I could, mister Steel, but my responsibilities have changed; I can no longer entertain you," I replied. "It is quite sad for people like us that you have become a madam, Margaux," he said as he sipped his whiskey.

"You whore, how dare you to reject me!"

I had opened my mouth to reply when I was suddenly stopped by the loud, angry sound that reverberated through the hall.

"Excuse me, mister Steel," I said and turned before hearing his reply and walked toward the middle table. Where a potbellied man in his early thirties gripping Vana's hand tightly.

Anger blazed in my heart, but I controlled it as I activated Charm Walk. I do not care about the charm right now, but this skill increases the speed of walking when tried, and that is what I want.

"Is there any problem, sir?" I asked politely to the man as I reached the table. The man is drunk and angry that his nostrils and flaring; he is also gripping Vana's hand tightly, and even I look at it, he does not release her hand.

"Yes, there is a problem; this whore refused to come with me," he said, nearly shouting, spit flying.

I feared my expression cracking as I faced the man, and for a moment, I thought about what the madam at my last brothel had done; she would have slapped Vana and apologized to the man.

"It is her choice, sir; you cannot force her to come with you if she does not want to," I said, failing hard to be polite, and this shocked the man.

This is not her old brothel, and she will not hit her girls ever.

The man's face reddened, and he got angrier, gripping Vana's hand even more tightly; the teen girl began whimpering.

"She is a whore, and since I paid, I could do whatever the hell I can," he said and tried to pull her to him, but she stopped him by picking Vana's hand, but it was hard, the stronger than he looked.

"Yes, she is whore, but she has a choice here, and she clearly does not want to go with you," I said, and the pudgy man got angrier as he finally released Vana's hand and raised it to hit me.

I nearly closed my eyes and waited for the stinging pain, but it did not come.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Gates," said the familiar cultured voice; I opened my eyes and saw Master Silver beside me, wearing his impeccable suit and a small smile on his face.

Though when I looked at his eyes, I did not see any mirth, instead raging anger as he looked at the pudgy hand stopped midway.

"What kind of business are you running, Silver; your whore had refused to come with me," said the pudgy man angrily.

"A business for respectable people, but you obviously do not fit into that category," he said directly that making the pudgy man shake in rage.

"I had not believed it when your cousin had said you had the manners of a gorilla despite looking like a human, but now, I could see she was telling the truth,"

If the earlier insult was bad enough, this one seemed to have hit the nerve.

"You bastard!" shouted the pudgy man and punched Master Silver with all his strength, while Master Silver kept looking at him with that unchanging smile on his face.

I opened my mouth to shout the warning when the hand came in between and stopped the punch effortlessly.

"Dan, Gina, mister Gates is obviously heavily intoxicated; please take him to his carriage," said Master Silver, and two guards quickly picked up the pudgy man and began to carry him away, despite his obvious resistance.

"You bastard, I will remember it," he screamed, but Master Silver even looked at him and turned to me

"You did good, and do add him add to the banned list," he said, saying the last sentence a little loudly and before turning to people watching.

"My apologies for the disturbance, gentlemen. I hope the glass Argon 16 from the house would be enough to erase this unsavory incident from your memories," he said and turned to me.

"Margaux, a glass of Argon 16 for everyone," he said to me before taking Vana with him.

…

Caena

Hun!

A surprise couldn't help but appear on my face, not because of the incident but because the speed of absorption of desires had increased instantly, almost doubled.

It clearly happened due to the incident.

The night had been full of surprises; the first was the rapid charging of my spell, that instead of months and weeks that, I had imagined, it would be fully charged within four to five days.

It surprised me, and now I am surprised again, twice in a matter of seconds.

The charging of my spell had increased again, and now I am completely sure that this place was helping me.

The spell is not harnessing the desire and lust this place is absorbing but harnessing the one which had been directed at me more efficiently than before, which couldn't help but make her extremely happy.

"What happened, Caena? What made you all freeze up?" asked the young man in the middle. "Don't worry, we wouldn't force you like that bull," said the one beside him with the mirth.

Hearing their words brought me back to myself, and my eyes turned seductive and my expressions suggestive.

"It would please me to no end if you did that," I said throatily in my most seductive voice, and it seemed to work, seeing how their expressions changed.

I had been entertaining these three friends for half an hour, and I planned to bed each of them; the emotions I would harness from them would help me charge the spell faster.

Seeing how easily I am getting clients, I might not even need the spell, but I know having more spells ready is always better, not to mention she will get a commission from the rooms on top of her hours.

She needs that money; there are a lot of things she needs to buy to create the spells she needs, and taking more patrons to the rooms will help her with that.

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Chapter 69: Goddess (18+)