"The people"
Fredrick nodded, his mind working out multiple scenarios.
At the end, a grin came upon him.
"Sir Carlos"
Carlos turned to him.
"You have opened my mind to many things"
"Glad to be of help. After all, what are partners for?"
Fredrick nodded.
"Cabrera. Head to the sentinel. Get us a loan five times what is available. Mirahan will work out the numbers"
"Nathan, head to the palace and meet with the advisor. Have him retract the imposed ban"
"Kron. I'll have you begin the recruitment for those seeking help. Have them come to Kingsmere. Since the advisor is such an advocate for the poor. He'll be very pleased to welcome them"
"Of course, we take it upon ourselves to help the poor. I have nothing against weaklings, but I hate useless weaklings. Sift through them thoroughly. We need no cattle in our guild. Send away any deemed unworthy and dispose of any trouble maker"
"That said, bind those useless but extremely in need. We'll find some use for them later"
"As commanded" said Kron.
Bits of Fredrick's aura came out.
"Some think this guild was made in the name of charity. Let them know nothing comes for free"
"Next, get fabric weavers to join us. We need enough clothes for the newcomers. I don't want my members dying of cold"
"Should we? Doing this will set forth precedence that might be better avoided" Nathan chipped in.
"Explain" said Fredrick.
"If we take in these few, word of it will spread. It won't be surprising for an additional ten thousand to arrive at our doorsteps as a result"
Fredrick rubbed his head.
"True, but that's not something we can control"
Nathan went silent.
"But we can always respond" said Fredrick.
"We'll simply make provisions for the eventuality"
He looked at Cabrera.
"Once the loan amount is finalized, triple it. We'll need that much to make efficient use of the incoming members. And with Nathan's words, that's at least thirty thousand"
"Crazy…!" said Mirahan.
"Look at the bright side. If it all works out, we might never need to recruit another member by the end of the ice shower"
"Hmm…" he muttered, looking at Kron.
"Forget my earlier statement. Bind all recruits"
"That would cause an outrage!" warned Kron.
"Outrage? They need us, not the other way round. Besides, it's easy to identify which are actually hopeless. Those who refuse will look for the answers to their problems elsewhere"
Cabrera nodded.
"So…we'll be chasing away the bad eggs while solving our problem of workforce as we absorb the rest. It's brilliant"
Fredrick nodded, looking at Carlos.
"I'm sure such arrangements are to your liking?"
Carlos waved his hands.
"Think nothing of it. Our objectives are our only priorities"
"Well said. The blacksmiths that broke our contract, have them blacklisted"
"Carlos, I'll have you write up a list of lower wages for the workers. That, and commission a recruitment notice for farmers. I'll leave the wage for you to decide"
Carlos wondered.
"Perhaps?"
Fredrick nodded.
"Yes, we'll be purchasing another piece of land. An ice shower doesn't come by often, so we have to make the most of it"
Carlos nodded.
"The seeds of the ice plants?"
Fredrick turned to Mirahan, who shook his head.
"I'm afraid not too many remain"
"Leave it to me. I'll handle the resupply"
Fredrick looked around.
"Find me master farmers and ice mages. With the right amount, we can triple the production speed"
With that attended to, Fredrick ended the meeting.
"You may leave"
As they moved to do their duties, Fredricks called back Mirahan and Carlos. The others were to finish their assignments and head back to Traxford.
"What of the franchises bought, what is their situation?"
"Those refurbished exploded in activity. Many of them have become go-to places for nobility"
"Good. Others?"
"Others are giving less than before. Commoners are scampering their amounts, spending only on essentials"
He looked at Carlos.
"Your thoughts?"
"Half of the underperforming franchises should be emptied of their goods and turned into taverns. Then the wine and food quality should be severely lessened in these places while the prices stay the same"
Mirahan continued.
"My thoughts exactly. The goods of those franchises would be transported to the other half, barring any need for new items. At least until this shower ends"
Carlos nodded.
"I also suggest you build a storage as quickly as possible"
"Why so?" asked Fredrick, as they already had one.
"Separate from what you already have. A storage specifically for the herbs and foods harvested"
"On that note, I advise that herbs harvested in this period be preserved rather than sold" said Mirahan.
"Right now, being easy to grow, we will be unable to sell them for their worth. If preserved, we will be able to sell them for several times that"
"Hmm" said Fredrick while rubbing his short beard.
"We're already doing that"
"Oh? Ok"
"What do you think of purchasing more plots instead of one?"
"Hmm, it's difficult to say without knowing where these plots will be. That aside, it would spread our forces thin, as I do not think you have enough people to supervise such an undertaking" said Carlos.
"True. Not many plots lay within walking distance. No, buying those lands would call far too much attention"
"Might I ask where the first plot is?"
"Pierland"
Carlos furrowed his brow.
"That's far, but I guess sir must have his reasons. How many plots lay beside it?"
"At least five. It's right before a beast region"
"What?!" Carlos was alarmed.
Growing crops at the edge of a forest filled with hungry beasts didn't seem to be the brightest of ideas.
"It's a task for our guild members. They'll kill beasts to protect the farmers" said Fredrick.
"You're using the farmers as bait?"
"It gets the job done" Fredrick shrugged.
"At the end of the day, we get both herbs and beasts. They'll have worked their worth"
"If a beast tide forms, they'll all be killed"
"A beast tide in an ice shower? It'll never happen. Besides, they'll be given rare quality armor. If they die to E and D ranks even then, so be it. So long as they survive, the guild will cure their illnesses and heal their wounds"
"Right" Carlos muttered.
"Father wouldn't allowed me to partner with them if they were some ordinary guild"
Coughing, Mirahan captured Fredrick's attention.
"Why not buy off the rest of the lands?"
"I plan to do just that" said Fredrick.
"Seems we're done here"
Carlos and Mirahan stood up.
"We'll be taking our leave then"
With a nod from Fredrick, they headed out.
Out of sight, Fredrick's mind wandered to his next action.
'Sebastian's expertise will be needed to arouse the people so we can get the loan'
Quickly, Fredricks got into action.
Awaking, Ezra was drowsy as he cleaned his eyes and sat up.
"You've awakened"
While stretching, Bard handed him water, which he chugged down.
He tapped his bandaged chest, feeling a lingering pain, then remembered the events that led to his collapse.
"What happened?"
"Sire, did you cultivate your elements?"
"How did you know?"
"The resonance wouldn't have failed otherwise"
"Resonance?"
"When your elements aligned, they resonated, forming a harmonic alignment which would have allowed better and easier control over elements" Bard said.
"It happens to mages at the Advanced-rank and beyond. Yet I doubt you've reached that stage. Or have you?"
Ezra shook his head.
"Hmm. I suspect it's a perk of your physique. The body of a Miller is said to be blessed"
"O-K, then why did it fail?"
"Which of your elements have you cultivated?"
"Just Fire and Ice, to the Adept-rank"
"I see. You need to cultivate the rest to the same stage for harmonic alignment to occur"
"I see" said Ezra.
He liked that Bard didn't ask unnecessary questions.
"I'll be returning to my chambers now"
Getting to his chambers, he dove right into element cultivation.
'Let's go about this one at a time'
He began with Darkness.
A day later, Darkness advances in rank.
Thereafter, he cultivates Lightning and then Blood.
Eight days later, all elements are now at the Adept-rank.
Having memorized the weavings of mana as Bard was doing it, Ezra initiated element resonance on his own.
The orbs lit up at once as Ezra rose above ground while he stood.
The orbs' colors shone from his chest as they began rotating.
At the start came Darkness.
Like before, the darkness orb let out Dark fumes that traveled his meridians before escaping through the pores while clearing out impurities. The fumes covered half of the chamber.
A minute went by and Ice replaced it as winds of frost were let out. Ezra quivered as cold winds traveled his internals, freezing the walls as well.
After that was Blood. This brought about the most excruciating of pains as Ezra's blood spiraled and boiled. His eyes became bloodshot as it refined itself, letting impurities flow out the pores.
Right after came Fire, engulfing his body in heat as his meridians were aggressively tempered and burnt out another section of impurities.
Ezra's silver hair put up more luster once done, and subsequently rose to attention and shone white as sparks of white lightning came about.
*Zinnng*
Crackling and sparking, Ezra was thankful the chambers were made with such things in mind.
The lightning simply tapped off the walls.
Then, it receded and Ezra's chest heaved as his body and eyes lit up with a black hue that changed to blue to crimson to red to complete white and then turned back to black.
At the same time, he fell to the floor, holding his stomach as he puked out a hefty bile of black goo.
From his eyes and ears, drops of the black substance fell.
Soon enough, it began pouring out of his pores.
Feeling weightless, he fell on his back, his face to the ceiling.
Soon after, his eyelids fell and he was drawn into the darkness, all the while holding a smile.
