Tou no Madoushi

Episode 44: Theo, Starting a New Business

The light of the solar stone weakens and the book of the night descends on the city of Alfrid.

Lynn and Theo left the room without making a sound after making sure that two of their new roommates fell asleep.

After taking the elevator to the 90 tier, the two head out of downtown the city toward the outer contour.

Alfld at night is quiet as if the bustle of the day were a lie.

The streets are dark and not even moonlight.

The shops closed their doors, and the houses dropped the lights, as if the whole city were asleep.

There are a few buildings with lights on this late night, but none of them are anything but adorable for college students.

The shop was crowded with the city's bushes like moths gathered in the light of night, creating a suspicious atmosphere.

Lynn and Theo relied on the light of the ring to run small through the city at night, avoiding these stores.

Without making a sound that someone would not find you, but in a hurry.

"Theo, how far are you going in the middle of the night?"

I heard Lynn whispering as she plugged into the corner.

"Shit, you'll see when you get there"

Lynn had no choice but to shut up and follow Theo.

This neighborhood was full of buildings that were lonely and had no sign of people.

They used to be factory zones, but they went out of business after cheap labor became available in Renlil.

It is now home to floaters and crows, abandoned dogs and wildcats.

Because of the creeps, no one with the guts wants to come near.

Lynn went down the road taking care to keep an eye out for the residents here.

Where he came about inside the old factory zone, Theo went inside one large building.

Lynn follows after being afraid, too.

The factory is littered with discarded tools and machines, and smells like rust and even oil.

Lynn looked at the odor of the season.

"You smell awful."

Lynn snaps unexpectedly.

"I should have deodorized it when I came in the daytime. I'll take it again."

Theo takes the paper out of his pocket. The paper depicted a magical formation of fairy magic. It was proof that the fairy lived there.

"Fairy. Remove the stench that fills this area."

When Theo casts a spell, the fairy is aroused and takes away the smell.

Lynn was relieved to feel the air sober.

"Theo, it's time for you to explain. What the hell is in here?

"The hammer that made us rich."

Lynn looks at Theo's face in a frigid odor.

"It's more evidence than theory. Look at this room."

Theo invites Lynn to a room in the building.

"This is..."

What Lynn saw in the room was a giant hole.

There is a black hole in the center of the large room.

Lynn felt the wind coming out of the hole. I can tell it's a pretty deep hole. I tried to shine the light on the ring, but that just illuminated the edge of the hole and the bottom was never going to be visible.

"That's a very deep hole. Where the hell is it leading?

"It's Renlil."

"What?"

"You know this area used to be a factory zone. It used to be used as a pit. It seems that a large mass of ore and timber produced from here near the Warcraft Forest had once been brought in via Renlil. Now, as you can see, we've lost our role and been forgotten."

"You've often found something like this."

"I thought it was weird since I heard this was a factory zone. There are too few elevators around here for that. I was wondering if there was an abandoned route, so I checked old materials and found out."

Lynn unexpectedly peeks into the old pit. That was a tunnel built quite coarsely compared to the elevators currently used mainly in the tower. Digged unconstructively, the walls in the holes are paved to an apologetic extent.

It would have been difficult to operate in an era when the magic of elevators was not yet sufficiently developed. Lynn couldn't help complaining about her ancestors' struggles.

"This pit currently also does not manage the Magic Instructors Association. I mean, with this place, I can bring whatever I buy in Renlil to Alflud as long as I want without eating taxes, and if I can get it to the 90th floor, it's this way. Taxes are levied when transporting from Renlil to Alflud, but no matter how many elevators you use inside Alflud. I've already experimented with that. I mean, if we could build an elevator in this pit and carry it this far, we could sprinkle items anywhere in Alfrid. Of course you can bring them into our house."

"I can't believe you built an elevator... can you do that?

"I can. Think about it. The elevator is just a mass magic trick on the box. It's not much of a price for a cage or a box, and we can buy enough. If you set up a passageway to move properly, all you have to do is move it with a spell, as usual."

(Right. So you were reading so many books about elevators and mass magic)

Lynn finally got to grips with Theo's behavior over the past few days.

"I see. Sure. Then you're going to be able to build an elevator and transport things from Renlil to Alfld.... but I don't know if they'd be mad at me like that."

"Yeah. So I'll sneak up on you"

Trial and error between the two began the next day.

Lynn and Theo don't even go to the factory after class, they don't even go to the library and get in the elevator to the 90th floor.

After that, we went to a secret pit so that it wouldn't go unnoticed, and experimented with the transport of goods.

It didn't go very well at first.

I'll try to enchant you to the cage from where you think it's the Renlil side entrance to the pit, but you'll get caught or damaged along the way.

Each time, the two compare the tower plan and the old material of the pit to see what is going on in the pit, and argue that the drawing is neither ah nor ah.

It's worth the effort. Finally, the two succeed in removing all obstacles in the pit.

The elevator can now also be moved correctly along the road.

Another problem arose this time when I thought the cage had finally reached the entrance to Alfrid.

The contents of the elevator were buried in massive amounts of sand, or damaged and messed up.

For this reason, the two had to reinforce the boxes with metallurgical magic to make them strong, or independently design and make boxes with no gaps, not cages.

In this way many obstacles are overcome, many attempts and errors are made, and finally the mass transport of goods is successful.

When the box and its contents reached Alfrid intact, the two voiced joy.

The Magic Instructors Association tax collectors never came to take it up.

"You did it. Now we can continue our lives in Alfredo."

Lynn was innocently pleased to say so.

But Theo wasn't satisfied with that alone.

Not only did he carry into his room the daily groceries and consumables he bought in Renlil, but he started a dark deal.

In other words, make money with the sheath of interest generated by the difference in prices between Renlil and Alfrid.

He only talked to people with a strong mouth, created his own network, and created a dark market.

At first, we just sneaked out of the city to sell, but there were more buyers than we expected.

Sooner or later, let downtown enter the dark market as well.

Naturally, complaints came from other shops.

"You're selling too cheap. What the hell are you thinking?"

But Theo turned this adversity rather into an opportunity.

"Could you please let your store wholesale our products? I'm sure I can buy it cheaper than where I buy it now."

The other stores welcomed this suggestion by Theo. The two sellers changed from consumers to shops.

While Theo was responsible for negotiating with the store, Lynn took on the role of transporting supplies from the secret corridor.

He becomes Theo's hand, his leg and he gets used up, but instead, he can quit part-time, and he took more time and earned more money than before.

Theo didn't just end up with this.

I saw that my thoughts were acceptable to the market. No, I thought I would expand my business further.

He imported goods straight from the harbor and tried to spread his hand in distribution. That wasn't all.

We started planning to build more elevators in order to increase the number and lineup of products that could be wholesaled and even reach out to non-daily groceries and consumables.

(Absolutely find out. hands too wide)

Lynn was harassed.

I didn't ask Theo to stop.

"It's bad to have such an irrational regulation, a tax collection system. What I'm doing is justice from the market!

"If you say that, you break the rules, the punishment will come down. Hey, let's not do this anymore. You've earned enough."

But Theo didn't listen to Lynn.

Instead, he began to explore more radical ways.

I came up with an idea to acquire it by adhering to the people of the association.

(This is the business I grew up in. I won't let anyone crush me)

"You're approaching the organization that's controlling that sort of thing in the association. Let them hold the money."

Lynn turns bright blue on Theo's big idea.

"This is a fight against unfair regulation! Will you ever give in?"

Theo breathed like that every time something happened.

(I'm changing my mind...)

Lynn would have done well had she lived comfortably in Alfld.

But things were about to go well beyond his thoughts.

Lynn's income grew steadily.

But every time my income increased, my anxiety also increased.

Next time, Episode 45: Obituary