The man who greeted them led them to a room in the back of the tavern, smiling as he said, "Your men helped us a lot that day. If not for them, half the tavern would have been destroyed, and we would have lost up to 10 gold coins!
So I really appreciate what your men did. It saved us from having to close our business."
"Oh? Are you doing badly?" Rory asked, frowning.
As someone who wanted to sell his services, it would suck if his potential first customer went bankrupt!
This man called River said in a more serious tone. "Things are complicated for people like us, young man. Our tavern has good customers, people who have been coming here for decades, and I'm confident in saying that we have the best beer in town.
But having good products is not enough. Some customers sometimes lose control of their actions and cause us losses. Since some of them are people from a higher class than us, sometimes we don't have the option to ask for compensation, and these people don't always have the good sense to pay us for what they destroy.
In addition, there are petty criminals who harm our tavern and other small businesses. Who do we complain to? The Royal Guard, who is subservient to the groups behind these rats?
Tsk, that's why it's hard to grow and compete with places patronized by the local nobility."
Vicente and Rory looked at each other when they heard this, seeing that the situation of these brothers was not good and needed to be fixed, but this was just the kind of favorable situation for them to gain customers!
River said before showing his brother's office to the young men. "Because of these losses we have from time to time, we hardly make any profit even after decades of operation.
We only continue this business because we don't know how to do anything else. But if another incident happens, we may not be able to continue our business."
"I see," Vicente commented as he sat on a sofa beside Rory.
"We will try to help you. We don't have enough to guarantee that more trouble won't catch up with you, but we have enough to at least try." Rory said.
The man smiled upon hearing this and said nothing until Zander arrived after being informed of the young men's visit.
A man similar to the one who had received them appeared at the room's door and entered, speaking. "Are you Vicente and Rory? I heard about you from one of your men."
Looking at the man a little taller than River, a level 2 Acolyte, Vicente, and Rory stood up to greet him.
River and Zander were stronger in magic cultivation than Vicente and Rory. However, the magic forms of these two young men were focused on combat. In contrast, the forms of the brothers behind this tavern were compatible with cooking.
In particular, Zander was a beverage specialist, while his younger brother was a cook.
Their mana was many times denser than those two young men's, but they could not use combat spells, and even if they strengthened their bodies, they would not fight well.
They even had a lot of strength, moved well, etc., but directing their powers incorrectly, they didn't know how to battle.
Vicente and his people, though weaker, could do more in battle than these men. That was the difference in their abilities!
"Yes, nice to meet you," Vicente said with Rory.
"So, one of your men told me that you are willing to work with us. Is that true?" Zander asked, getting straight to the point since there were often trouble and attacks by criminals in his tavern, and the sooner he got partners, the less chance his business would end.
"Yes, we can work with you and put some of our men at your disposal," Vicente said. "My purpose is not only to prevent the deterioration of your tavern but also to allow you to open for more hours a day. I heard you close the tavern at sunset. Is that true?"
River, still there, nodded affirmatively. "Yes. After dark, the chances of establishments like ours being damaged increase greatly.
As corrupt as the guards are, they still protect the city during the day. But at night, we are pretty much on our own, so we usually close the tavern and only open at dawn."
Rory saw the big problem with this place. If the tavern worked like that, it probably missed the best hours when many workers and people were free to go out and eat and drink.
His mother had a brothel. He knew that people frequented places at night much more than during the day.
Rory then said, "We can put some of our men here, but you will have to pay for their food while they are here. As for our wages, we won't ask for much, just 1 gold coin a month."
"1 gold coin?" The brothers asked at the same time.
"How many men are we talking about?" Zander asked first.
"Two or three, depending on how busy your tavern is. More than that, we would double the price." Rory replied.
'But that's too cheap!' River looked at his brother, knowing it wouldn't even pay for an ordinary person to work as a guard in a place like this.
But Vicente and Rory were talking about 2 or 3 men!
Zander liked to make good deals, but he was suspicious when things were too good.
He asked. "What would you get out of it? I doubt that you would be able to pay those men with those sums."
Vicente replied. "In Seidel Kingdom, you have the right to protect your property. As much as there are ways for troublemakers to try to act against the punishments or rules of other people's property, an owner cannot be punished in broad daylight by the rules of his business.
From now on, anyone who causes trouble in your tavern will be stopped by our men and have their items collected as punishment for breaking the establishment's rules.
We will take what criminals and troublemakers have if they dare to come here. That's what we get."
"Their belongings?" Zander and River were surprised to hear that.
"Are you sure? Many troublemakers are arrogant, but they have their reasons for being arrogant. Won't that be a problem for us?" River asked, more concerned about his business having more trouble than the safety of Vicente's men.
"To that end, we will form a group of mercenaries to stand behind the men you will receive from us," Rory said. "Then any trouble will come to us first and not to you."
Vicente agreed. "We will take care of those who want deeper trouble because of the punishments we mete out. Anyway, our income will come from that. But eventually, we will raise the price of our services if you manage to increase your profits because of our help.
We can renegotiate the prices when you start getting results. What do you think?"
