TBATE - What if Tessia was the legacy ? - The legacy of it all

Ionized auction

Vincent Helsteas

-It's an honor to have you here with us, your majesty." I said with a large, welcoming smile as the king and his family walked up to the auction house entrance.

-Same for my Vincent!" He answered in a loud, booming voice with a laugh. "The auction you prepared is, as I was told, truly spectacular." He praised with an excited tone, his impatience barely hidden.

-It is not every day that a humble merchant can celebrate the success of his enterprise and the presence of royalty."I answered as I took a better look at the 5 people who were approaching me.

First was King Glayder with his short, spiky red hairs, cunning eyes, confident smile and wearing his usual overbearing coat made from the fur of the B class monster Lagrav Lyon. Next to him was his wife, the queen, downing a long black dress with shining trims and dots along with her magical wand which stood out particularly, probably to show off.

-Do you mean that the ceremony would have been less grandiose if we had declined?" Asked Priscilla with a joking half smile.

-I certainly would not have ordered five packs of Sartran white rum for the bar." I answered with a half joking expression causing her to make a pleased smile as I saw her eyes light up just from hearing the name of the alcohol.

Preparing this much of the highest quality beverage from count Sartran had certainly been a pain, but, if it helped to make the royals feel more relaxed and inclined to spend, it would be more than worth it.

Looking past the king and queen, I saw Prince Curtis standing tall and proud from his 10 years of age with a haircut very similar to his fathers and wearing an only slightly less expensive costume. About a foot behind him and bit to the side was Princess Kathyln with an expression as blank and bored as usual, as if she didn't care about anything.

-Why don't we go straight to the VIP room I have prepared for your majesty, you will be much more comfortable there." I proposed as I was already gesturing to the grand front door, more than 20 meters tall and 10-meter wide that already had most guests in awe.

Quickly agreeing to my offer, the king gestured for his small army of servants, telling them to be on standby and assist my staff if need be. Although the assistance was appreciated, it was far from necessary as I had already hired twice as many servants as planned.

Most of them were Ex-employs from other auction houses, warehouses, small nobles and the bourgeoisie who were affiliated with the slave trades and had to greatly reduce their operations, if not cancel them entirely.

And, although the strictly analytic part of my brain wanted to offer them a lower pay than for the previous employees due to the increase in available manpower. Which is to say; to follow the harsh rules of economics, I decided against it.

Instead of focusing on the short-term benefits, I knew that offering normal paying jobs to those people would greatly augment the Helstea enterprise prestige and likability with the general public.

The only exception to that rule were for the guards who had seen their payment increase on average despite the sheer number of unemployed warriors. Not only had a large minority retired all together out of fear following the actions of the Unity group two months ago, but others had also switched to becoming adventurers and a significant fraction were, well, dead.

This conjecture of events caused a spike in the demand for warriors from people affiliated with slave trading and less overall fighters available, causing their salaries to spike.
"We would have lost a few guards for better paying jobs if I hadn't increased their pay significantly." I reminded myself as I could already feel the incoming headache from the accounting I'd have to do.