Shades of the New World

"Abvelgail just sent me some money. Says it's for you. Here, 144 gold coins,12 silver and 64 bronze," Rith said and took out a bulging coin purse from somewhere. Evin took it in his hand and started counting. Sure enough, the stated amount was in the purse.

'Just send me 144 gold. Why did that OCD inflected bastard have to send me a bunch of bronze coins,' grumbled Evin.

"Oh yeah, I told you to send it monthly when the total income exceeds 100 gold. Seems like your new business is starting to thrive," replied Evin.

"We made about 120000 gold's worth of income in the past month. Adding on the rest, we made 144126.43 gold's worth of income for the past eight months. It's much more profitable from what we tried previously," Rith said with a smile.

'Wait, ain't I short of 0.3 bronze coins? This is ridiculous!' Evin thought, but the idea of his profits increasing gradually made him feel happy.

"That's great! Though you seem happier than me, why is that?"

"I receive 0.1 percent of the income, since I'm technically in control of you and your project," Rith replied with a smile.

"What?! What is this blatant nepotism?! I made all the effort and you get all the benefits? Gimme half of that and pray to the Empress for forgiveness," Evin replied in an outrage.

"Shush, don't call it effort. We both know you did nothing"

"I existed! If I didn't exist, you'd still be looking for some dumb little kids and trying to talk them into buying your services!"

"Hey, existing isn't that hard either. I'm pretty sure everyone on this World is doing it pretty successfully," Rith grinned.

"Fuck off! Do you know how many years I spent just to receive the right to exist alongside you people. And what do I get? Constant verbal abuse and now I'm also getting abused for my labor," Evin murmured.

"Boo-hoo. The story of the sad, sad spirit," Rith said with a gleeful smile.

"Go away, I don't wanna talk to you anymore"

"No, wait, wait. I need you to evaluate some projects. You have to do it. If you don't, you're gonna turn into a gold coin forever,"

"Say that first, then! Why do you have to destroy my will to work, and only then tell me there's work to be done!?"

"Oh, shut your complaints. Life isn't fair. Here you go. That's the list of projects, and if you're interested in one of them, I have the full files of each of them in my storage," Rith said, and a few documents appeared in Evin's hands through a portal.

'How do Felines even make documents like these?' A thought glanced through Evin's head.

He took a glance at the page and found many ideas and business pitches.

"Road building project that connects the capitals of the countries with Tower City,"

"Blacksmithing shop that specializes in customized armor for your pets,"

"Mass plantations for an indigenous fruit,"

"Artificial Ivari Horn production,"

"A toy company that specializes in puzzles,"

"Refreshment store that sells beverage made from a unique roast of a bean that originates from the East,"

"Pill that gives commoners the same amount of sexual stamina as mages,"

"Beer with 48 percent alcohol by volume,"

"Automated blacksmithing with the support of golems,"

"Book renting store"

"Financial company that pivots towards poor citizens,"

And a bunch of clothing companies.

Looking at the list, Evin realized that the Cosmics could slowly learn about Earth through these projects that he had to give comments on. 

And thinking about it, Evin also reasoned that the deal he made with the Cosmics was also much too disadvantageous for him. He probably could've asked for a higher percentage, but he chose not to.

'Well, it's understandable, since I was feeling super insecure after that attack from Norna...' 

He just wanted some control over his life, so he jumped into a losing deal with the Cosmics. He wasn't someone perfect after all... 

'And now they're trying to dig out information about Earth from me... Well I agreed to tell them about it, so it would be stupid of the Cosmics to not use the chance...' Evin pondered. 

'But do I care?'

Evin thought a bit more and decided that he really didn't care. Living in society was all about winning and losing. Sometimes you lost, and you had to accept it as part of life. It wasn't possible to always win. 

Even if there came a day when he needed more money, Evin would just curse his stupidity and try to think of another way to sell his ideas.

And besides, It wasn't like he was trying to become the richest man in Alvox, he wasn't someone so fixated on money. 

Shaking his head, Evin took another look at the list and removed the ones he thought were doomed from start, book renting store and the customized pet armor. The first was basically a library and while the latter might have customers at first, it would soon die out since no pet would want to wear such a thing.

Financial company for the poor sounded nice on the surface, but it was basically trying to do what the bank did, but in a much riskier environment. Not only that, they would be in the debt of a bank, so that one was also a no-go.

Evin was interested in the projects that had magic involved in it, so he looked at the full project of the automated blacksmithing project. The project sounded nice, but it was very, very expensive. One golem required about 120 gold up front and its yearly maintenance costs were half of that. Evin told Rith that if they should accept it, they should only advertise it towards the super-rich.

The artificial Ivari Horn project was very interesting to Evin, but it was starting to look like a scam from what he could see in the project file.

The indigenous plant looked like a mango. For some stupid reason, the project pitcher did not bring a real mango to demonstrate its flavor, instead he decided to write a dozen page essay about it. As for how he was going to plant it, he wanted to simulate the proper environment using magic. This one received a pass from Evin.

The unique bean, on the other hand, turned out to be coffee beans. The definition was: "Slightly bitter, but it has the ability to keep the drinker awake". And it had the picture of the thing which was undoubtedly a coffee bean. The Cosmics were unsure, since the thing tasted like rubbish for first-time drinkers, so they decided to ask Evin. It obviously received a pass from him. He even put in a bunch of ideas on how to make the thing more tasty. This project was the most promising for Evin, so he asked Rith if he could become an investor for this business, and the latter approved it, not really thinking much about it.

The toy puzzles were quite interesting as well. Since most of the puzzles were created using wood the finished product was quite cheap. But the project pitcher wanted capital to train a bunch of low-class citizens so he had enough workforce.

He also agreed to the 48% alcoholic beer. Why not? People would be interested. And the price wasn't that big either.

The stamina pills also got Evin's approval. If it worked, then it would probably become one of the most successful businesses in the World. Just look at Viagra sales. Even if it didn't, it was just one project, the Cosmics could withstand one failure.

The clothing shops, though, were a bit hard for him. He didn't know what the fashion was for the era, so he could only say the truth to Rith. The Feline asked what kind of fashion his home planet was keen to, and Evin pointed out some of the clothes that looked similar to Earth for Rith.

The road project was also quite difficult. Even though the Empire was supposed to be a unified entity, reality was a bit different. Three of countries were at war with each other, with only the North in a relatively peaceful state. Not to mention the South was a bit problematic to build a road to… In the end, he gave the project back to Rith, saying that it's nice if it actually worked, but there were too many problems in the process.

But he indicated that it might be risky, but it was something that was going to happen at one point anyway, so if the Cosmics spearheaded it, their influence would be immense.

Finally done with his work, they continued his journey home.

Karan looked at the amount of gold the kid and the Feline was casually discussing, and could not help but feel greedy. He was thinking about leaving the kid after he found civilization, but the riches the kid possessed were definitely not small. The skinshifter would end up in someone's hands anyway, so why not this kid?

The trip home was uneventful, and they reached the forest's entrance after a couple days. They managed to hunt another deer on the way back and decided to bring it home. Nearing the end, Evin asked Karan about what he wanted to do when he reached the town.

Karan replied that he didn't have a plan, so he didn't mind sticking with Evin's family. He wanted to know more about his race, so he could decide on what to do in the future.

Evin did not mind, since he hoped that Karan would opt to stay with him in the future. A shape-shifting weapon was very useful to have.

The four finally reached their house. Evin wondered what kind of conclusion his parents reached.

…