606 The Situation in Saltstar City
After talking about his plans for the altars of the Cataclysm Order, Vicente managed to get his friends and family members interested in exploring the outposts he and Torne wanted to go to.
Vicente didn't want to hide everything about his goals from his most important companions, so getting them involved was important and would be the first step for them to learn other things in the future.
Since both of them liked this new option on his path, he easily got their cooperation without them asking unnecessary questions or ones he didn't want to answer.
"Sigh... Those were the good and the annoying things I got involved in during this journey." Vicente sighed after he finished talking about the most important points related to his trip to these two states and then his return.
Then he asked. "How are things here in Scott Province? When I arrived earlier, I heard some comments from the locals about the growth of the local faction we're controlling."
"Hmm, we've greatly improved our territory and our control of the underworld business in Saltstar City." Rory nodded positively. "We now hold 55% of the business of the former Ruby Devils. We still have two competing groups in the city, but frankly, we don't intend to increase our influence much more through that group. We're working to take control of those two factions and keep them in operation to give the ignorant people the impression that there is competition in the local underworld."
"That's good. Do it like that." Vicente liked what he heard.
"In addition to our growth in Saltstar City, we have increased the number of cities under our control in the province. We now have 13 cities dominated by our branches, and we are in the process of dominating three more. We follow the same business model in all of these places.
Where there is more than one group of underworld factions, we work to keep at least two of them in each city and eliminate the others. But in cities where a faction, such as Dryhaven, has never dominated, we're investing in putting just one of our groups in those places.
The results have been fantastic so far." Rory smiled as he commented. "We're currently making a profit of 3,000 coins a month, and we're looking to increase that considerably over the next six months."
Three thousand gold coins a month may not seem like much for a group that dominates the underworld business in 13 cities. But Vicente's group had to spend a lot to maintain its operations, pay the family soldiers, feed each of them, and also invest in infrastructure, weapons, defensive and offensive artifacts, transportation, and so on.
When the family soldiers advanced to one level and were able to absorb new pentagrams, the family guaranteed the entire hunting process and paid for the entire hunt, the group of protectors and hunters.
That cost a lot!
So, 3,000 gold coins were not small; it was enough. There were large families in the province who earned practically nothing and were just able to pay their bills!
"This is good. With these resources, we can continue our expansion without worrying about robberies and kidnappings." Vicente commented.
If he had to break into the estates of wealthy nobles to commit robberies or even kidnap people for ransom, he would do whatever it took to improve his family's situation. But with a sustainable business model that didn't depend on such actions, he preferred not to risk himself in that way.
Rory nodded and said. "The family currently has 400 direct members and about 3,000 indirect members spread across the province. With our expansion work, we should reach 500 internal members and 5,000 external members in the next six months.
But I must create new internal groups to occupy the altars that we will eventually dominate. That will take time, but I believe it will also take 12 to 20 months before we can send one of our groups to such a place.
Internal members were those who actually belonged to the Fuller family and had Vicente as their leader. As for the external members, they were people who didn't know of the existence of the Fuller family or even of Vicente. They were subordinates of young Fuller's subordinates!
Among the people who had control over these outside members were Bart, Sarah, several others, and even Rory.
Vicente told Rory, "Invest what is necessary to expand our arms throughout this kingdom. It's time for our branches to reach out to other provinces.
They talked a little more about the business of the group's remnants before moving on to the official business of the family in the light of day.
The Fuller family was officially a merchant family. Therefore, Rory and Eve had worked to expand the family's official business to not arouse suspicion about the source of their funds.
Thus, they increased the number of nobles and even wealthy commoners with whom they did business.
Currently, 35 nobles and 12 large wealthy families in the province had business agreements with the Fuller family, which alone brought the family a profit of at least 800 gold coins per month.
That was just a fraction of what they made from their underworld business, but they were much bigger in the underworld than they were in the daylight.
In any case, most of their public spending didn't escape their ability to generate cash, so that was enough for the time being.
But the Fuller family had grown so much in recent months that even the Duke of the Province had requested a meeting with Vicente.
After hearing this from Eve, Vicente agreed to meet with the most powerful nobleman in the province in the next few days and see what the Duke wanted.
After talking about it for a while, Nina finally woke up and went down to the kitchen to have breakfast.
When she got there, she was startled to see her brother there, but soon she hugged him and shed a few tears of joy to see him again after months of not seeing him.
She had grown a lot in the past few months, and her feminine features were even more pronounced than when he had left.
She was almost 11, but she already looked less childish than when she had turned 10.
But that was normal, and Vicente wasn't worried. People in Polaris Realm changed a lot between the ages of 10 and 14.
At 10, one would still be a child. But at 14, the same person would be an adult. In the time between these two ages, maturation was very fast, and if you were away from a young person like Nina for weeks, it would be enough to find many differences in her when you saw her again.
After his meeting with Nina, Vicente ate with her, Eve, and Rory while they talked about simpler things.
He asked the group. "How are our friends and allies? How is Nova? Have you heard from her?"
