"I wonder why Arcenne told me to come to this place." Following the day where he and Arcenne met up regarding the badge, as well as the name of his business, the latter sent a message to him early in the morning through the chat function to head to a certain place.
Looking around his surroundings at first glance, Valyr thought that Arcenne just chose a random arbitrary place within the city that would be easy for him and her to reach within minutes. After all, ever since he had arrived at Clossbay once more, he had been staying at an inn for the meantime.
However, after looking around for a bit more, he eventually noticed that one of the buildings felt empty. Raising his eyebrow in curiosity, he walked closer to it before looking inside, a light grin adorning his face once he did.
Though the building was only one story and did not stand out that much among the other buildings due to how narrow the building looked, Valyr had a feeling that the building made up for it with it being longer than wider, thinking that there would be more space in the building once he started looking back.
But as he wasn't sure if what he had in mind was what Arcenne also had in mind when she had him come here, he decided to limit himself to the front of the building for now, becoming acquainted with how the space at the front of the building was decorated.
Though there was a thin layer of dust over everything, Valyr could not help but notice that one section of the building contained all of the tools and items that anyone that dabbled in forging might use. Aside from that, two large furnaces could be found in the rear portion of the building that was visible to Valyr.
Just as he was about to take a few steps closer to the building and take a closer look, a notification sound resounded in his mind, informing him that he had received a message from someone in his friend list. With that, he commanded the system to bring up the chat function, only to see that the one who sent him a message was actually Tryndall.
"Hey, Valyr. Just wanted to remind you that today's the day we finally find out who among the five suspects is the Clossbay Killer." Reading the message that Tryndall had sent to him, it did not take long for Valyr to come up with a proper reply.
"Did you enlist the help of those from the Adventurer's Guild, just like I suggested a few days ago?"
"Yeah. Five people that have variants of the Assassin class that focus on greater stealth." Valyr received a message from Tryndall not long after his reply. "They're actually following the five people around as we speak, updating me from time to time regarding what the suspects are doing."
"What time do we have to start moving?" Valyr asked not long after.
"Sometime later into the night, but I'll just give you a go signal through these messages. In fact, I noticed you've been busy for the past couple of days." As Valyr read this message from Tryndall, he could not help but imagine the latter chuckling as he sent this.
With that, he let out a chuckle as well, sending a response to it soon after. "In the process of establishing a smithy in the city. Once it's up and running, you should come by sometime."
"I'll definitely keep that in mind." After exchanging a few more messages with Tryndall, Valyr eventually closed the chat function, a bitter smile adorning his face once he noticed that Arcenne hadn't appeared yet.
Though, this bitter smile swiftly turned into a genuine one once he noticed a young woman slowly making her way to where he was, carrying a pair of rolled-up parchment with her.
Eventually, the young woman stopped in front of Valyr before shifting her gaze towards the building that was in front of them. Looking back at Valyr, she let out a chuckle before posing a question to him. "So, have you already checked out where the Crimson Forge shall be established?"
"It seems my hunch was correct." Hearing that, the smile on Valyr's face became wider as he nodded in response to her question. "I only checked out the part that was visible from where we're standing since I wasn't sure of the reason why you had me come here. But now that I know, I should have entered."
"Speaking of which, here's the deed to the building, as well as the official business permit from the government." In response to Valyr's words, Arcenne gave the rolls of parchment to Valyr, prompting the latter to unfurl the parchments and read through it as the former continued to speak.
"For the business permit, the agreement is basically to pay a base fee of five gold coins to the city every month, as well as 5% of the profit you've made from the sales for that month."
Seeing Valyr nod in response to her words, she continued to speak, a smug smile plastered on her face. "To be honest, if you took the normal route to process the business permit, the agreement you'd get would be to pay 10 gold coins to the city a month, plus 20% of the profit you make from sales."
"Of course, I was able to reduce that thanks to the reputation and prestige my clan holds." Feeling as if she was waiting for him to give her words of praise, Valyr went ahead and did just that, causing the smug smile on her face to grow more smug.
Recalling that she hadn't given back Valyr's identification badge yet, Arcenne rummaged the badge out of her pocket and gave it back to him as she continued to talk about the second parchment. "As for the deed to the building, the building actually used to be a failing smithy since it ran out of competent blacksmiths that could forge good quality equipment. With that, Father struck a deal with the owner and got the smithy for a good price."
"In fact, the owner even agreed to leave the tools and remaining materials behind." Saying this, the smug smile on her face turned into a grin as Valyr inwardly suppressed the urge to laugh.
'Then again, who would turn down the offer of a marquis?' With this thought in mind, Valyr posed the question he had in mind to Arcenne.
"How much does the building cost?"
Naturally, Valyr planned to pay for the building, not wanting to owe Arcenne and Aster even more than the help they've already given to him through processing the paperwork. However, once he heard the price that came out of Arcenne's mouth, he instantly shifted gears, wondering if it was fine for him to owe them for a just bit longer.
"With the deal Father made, we were able to reduce it to 2,000 gold coins… or 20 platinum coins, in Father's case," Arcenne said to him. Noticing the incredulous expression Valyr had when he heard her words, she stifled the chuckle that wanted to come out of her mouth.
"Though we expect you to pay us the 2,000 gold coins back, there's no time limit whatsoever. There's no interest as well," she continued. "Just make sure to pay us once you have the capability to do so."
"I'll definitely keep that in mind." Nodding in response to her words, Arcenne thanked Valyr once more for her help, which the former definitely appreciated. After that, Arcenne told him that the building had a partitioned space at the back specifically made for living, to which Valyr nodded in response, telling her that he would relocate to this place as soon as possible.
"Well, it'll be a while before I get this smithy fully up and running." As the two of them walked into the building to get a better look of the place, Valyr headed towards the section that contained all of the forging tools before looking back at Arcenne. "Aside from cleaning the place, I'll also have to contact the suppliers, as well as a few other people."
"In any case, you and Marquis Stelyra have been a huge help. With that…"
"How about I forge a weapon for you?"
