Second World

"We will have to go to the City Administration Bureau to process this deed and legalize the ownership of the land. I have asked around, it was nearby where the Academies were located."

"Where are the Academies?" Bill blurted out.

"I will take you there…" Jack said.

Ellie gave Bill a stare which shut him up again. She then said to Jack, "do you already have a property in mind?"

Jack nodded, he then took them to see the plot next door. After looking for a while, Ellie glanced at Amy's Bakery which seemed to have many customers coming and going. She nodded, "all right, let's go with this plot."

The three of them went to the City Administration Bureau. Jack decided to use a carriage to the Bureau. This saved them traveling time and also the time that might be wasted if they searched for the place themselves, since he was only being told its rough location.

The building was not as impressive as its name. It was a simple box-shaped building with clean white finishing. It was so simple that none of them would perceive the structure as an important place. The interior inside was the same simplistic design as its exterior. The building was purely there only to serve its function. They were guided by a uniformed guard to a clerk, who was an old woman with thick glasses.

"State your business here," the old woman spoke.

Jack presented his Thereath Property Deed to her. She took the deed and lifted her glasses to take a close look at it. She shifted her gaze to Jack for a moment, before turning his attention back to the deed.

"You have a friend in the high place, young man," the old clerk said with his eyes still on the deed.

Jack didn't know what to say to that, so he just kept silent.

The old clerk finally put the deed down. She took out some kind of a device, worked on it for some time. A holographic map suddenly appeared in front of them. Bill made a loud startled shout, he then kept on asking Jack and Ellie what that was. Jack and Ellie's faces were red with embarrassment. Ellie finally scolded him after his incessant ramblings and ordered him to pipe down. Jack, on the other hand, ignored him and studied the holographic map.

After observing it for a while, he recognized It as the map of the business district of the capital. The buildings were portrayed in three different colors, blue, green, and red. After studying it more, he surmised that the blue represented plots that had been owned, while green ones were ownerless. For the red one, he assumed it was important facilities or government buildings. The Associations and Academies were depicted as red on this map.

As if confirming Jack's inference, the old lady said, "choose one from the green color ones."

Jack searched for the landmark which could point him to Amy's Bakery. It took him some time as the plot was not as big as those Associations and Academies' buildings, but he finally found it. He used his finger to point at the small plot on the holographic map. The small plot lighted up with his touch.

"Are you sure about your choice?" The old lady asked with her hoarse voice.

Jack nodded, "yes."

The old clerk input something into her device, she then said, "Okay, that land is now registered under your name. Do you intend to process it as well into a facility?"

"Yes," Jack answered.

"Residential or business?"

"Business."

The old clerk made some swift input, a list of choices came out, shop, hotel, restaurant, factory, hospital, school, warehouse.

"Take your pick," the old lady said.

Jack clicked on the restaurant option. Another series of options appeared.

Simple: 10 gold coins

Medium: 50 gold coins

Large: 150 gold coins

Luxurious: 500 gold coins

The medium to luxurious prices were the same as the amount needed to invest in shops, so he guessed the simple grade was the same as Amy's Bakery grade when he had not yet invested in it.

Ten gold coins, luckily he could still afford it. If not, they would just have an empty plot of land without being able to use it yet.

"By the way, this deed comes with a construction fund attached to it," the old lady said.

"Oh? What does it mean?" Jack asked.

"It means the noble that gave you this deed included a fund when constructing on the land you choose. There are 50 gold coins here, so you can at least build a medium-grade restaurant."

Jack was dazed, he did not expect the Duke to be so generous. He would have to make sure to thank him when they met again.

"So are you going to build a medium one or do you have more funds to build a higher grade?"

"Medium one please," Jack said. The next grades were way out of his reach at the moment.

The old lady nodded and inputted some more commands into her device.

"Okay, now for the management. Do you have your own workers or do you want to hire some workers via our services?"

Jack turned to Ellie, "How many people do you think are needed to run that restaurant?"

Ellie gave the matter some thought, she then said, "well, I will be the manager and cook, Bill here will be a cook as well. Considering the size of that place you showed us. I would say we need at least one cashier and two waitresses."

Jack relayed the request to the old clerk. The clerk then showed another list of options.

1-star worker: 7 silver coins

2-star worker: 15 silver coins

3-star worker: 35 silver coins

4-star worker: 70 silver coins

5-star worker: 1 gold, 40 silver coins

"The prices indicated here are for general workers and their weekly salary. For specialized workers with specific skills, for example a cook, the prices will be different. Please make your choice," the old lady said.

If he hired three 5-star workers, their total salary would be 4 gold and 20 silver coins weekly. He could still afford it, but how much would the restaurant generate for income? Spending too much on the workers' salary might end up lowering their profit, despite the workers' high productivity.

He turned to Ellie and asked, "What do you think?"

Ellie shrugged, "I don't know, I have no idea how much difference is this 5-star compared to the 1-star."

"How much profit do you usually generated on a weekly basis, when you are selling on the street?" Jack changed his approach.

Ellie gave the matter some thought. "Well, average after deducting the cost for buying ingredients, I will say around 3 to 5 gold coins weekly."

3 gold coins, not much. If they hire three 3-star workers, they would instead get a loss. However, by opening the restaurant, the profits should easily increase by three or five folds. In that case, they should be able to afford it.

After giving a bit more thought to the issue, Jack finally decided. "We will take two 3-star workers, and two 4-star workers."

"Four?" Ellie whispered. "I thought I told you we should only need three?"

"The existing building you see should be if it was the simple grade version. We have built a medium grade restaurant, I bet it would be larger than the building you saw," Jack explained. Jack was using Amy's Bakery as a reference. There was a chance this medium-grade restaurant would end up having three floors as well.

"Okay, it was your money," Ellie said.

"That will be 2 gold and 10 silver coins. I will need their first-week payment in advance please," the old clerk uttered.

Jack took out the coins and passed them onto her. She accepted it and proceeded with the required steps. Not long after, she said, "All right, you are set. The construction of the restaurant will begin immediately. It takes twenty-four hours to complete. Once finished, you can start your activity. In the restaurant, you will also find a package containing recipes and ingredients. Different recipes and ingredients will be provided based on the grade of the restaurant. These registered recipes are only available for the cooks who work in the restaurant. If said cooks left the restaurant, the recipes will no longer available to them. The workers will stand by at the restaurant once the construction is finished. I advise you to be present when the restaurant opened, so you can set all the necessary procedures to start your restaurant's activity."

"Can I entrust the procedures to someone else?" Jack asked.

"You can, I will need to register the person though," the old clerk said.

"These two will be the ones who run the restaurant," Jack pointed to Ellie and Bill.

The old lady proceeded to register their name into the restaurant, giving them management rights to operate the facility.

"One other thing," the old clerk said, "there will be a 20% sales tax on all revenues under registered business. The tax will be automatically deducted when you receive payments from your customers."