With HomeBase now fully hidden from view, I was finally happy to move it around. It still had that… furniture problem, so inviting a large number of people wasn’t something I could do.
But we have an app for that. It is called mass spending. I took Alice, as well as Einar and Eline, with me on a mass shopping spree in Sawyer city, Burch city and even the Hill town of Yuva, buying and ordering a ton of stuff. I put my address in the orders, other than the Sawyer city order, as the local adventurer’s guild. Then I paid the guilds to hold one of my letter exchangers and just put any letters coming to my name into that box. They at first asked about it, but I paid for the service, and I think they assumed it was just something they were supposed to hold the letters in, so I didn’t have much trouble with it. Then I’ll just recover the boxes later, after I’m done picking up all the orders.
As for what we ordered, well the short answer is furniture. Beds, dressers, closets. Chairs and tables. As well as some basic tableware. The tableware wasn’t going to be in use for things like the big dining rooms, as I wanted all of that stuff to be the same stuff, but small things like tea sets and display trays for the guest rooms. Each room can have a different set, as long as all the dishes match. At least that is my opinion.
The shopping ‘rampage’ came with a nice bonus. Because we were ‘big spenders’, we got some attention. Including the attention of Blanken Trading Company. Even if we avoided their stores, or stores they are connected with, like the plague.
“Excuse me. Would you happen to be Lord Brian Wood?” A person wearing a … well the local equivalent of a suit, with a medal pin that had the Blanken Trading Company’s logo on it, came up to us, when we were between stores.
“Yes, I am.” I confirmed for him. “... and you are?” I asked, after a bit, as the person was not introducing himself.
“Yes. I apologize.” He quickly said. “My name is Robert and I’m from the Blanken Company.”
“Okay. Hello Robert. As you already know, my name is Brian Wood. And this is…”
“Alice Watchman.” Alice continued after my prompt.
“Was there something you needed?” I then asked.
“Yes. It is a pleasure, Miss Watchman, Sir Wood.” Robert said, trying to sound overly friendly. “It has been brought to my attention that you have been shopping around town, and I wished to offer some of the Blanken Company products to you.”
“Oh?” I began trying to sound at least a bit interested. “No thanks. We have what we came for.” I then instantly attempted to burst his bubble, in an attempt to make him speak up.
“Are you sure, Sir? I’ve heard that you have placed multiple furniture orders across the city. I can help you void those orders and get you something better.” Robert offered.
I silently looked at Alice, while also communicating with her through our System Link.
(Do you think he knows anything about the slave marks?)
(He might. If we can get him alone, I can try to get some info from him. But he clearly doesn’t know Einar or Eline, so I wouldn’t count on it. But we can give him a bit of time.) Alice reasoned.
I then turned back to Robert.
“Well, I suppose we can share a bit of time. I hope you really do have something good.”
We were led to a big warehouse holding tons of furniture. It was probably something like this, as an actual, nice storefront holding all of this stuff would be too expensive. Maybe.
Robert then began showing us some of the stuff they had, and while I’ll admit it was nice, it wasn’t … amazing. Like the people who made this stuff clearly aren’t the type of people I’d hand an entire treant carcass to, so they could use it to make bed frames. Which I may or may not have done. What can I say? Treant wood is just good, high quality wood. And I have tons of it, even outside of the world treant. … and while it might be a bit grim, I can also use HomeBase to ‘spawn’ treants. Then just kill them, purify the excess miasma with Storage, and I’ll have even more treant materials.
Because I clearly didn’t care about the big furniture items, Robert began to show us things like tableware and he was especially focusing on the most expensive products.
But like with the beds and couches, it was so mid. It didn’t have any of the cool features that some of the other stuff came with, like teapots that kept the tea warm, or teapots with a built-in tea infuser. They were just … pots. Sure they look nice, but I prefer it to both look nice and have utility. Why not add some extra technology into beautiful objects? And considering HomeBase, I think having cool technological things like that will make it more memorable for the guests.
While all of this was going on, Alice was using her unique-racial skill to read the mind of Robert, communicating with me what she was getting. Alice wasn’t that good at it yet, but she could still get some info. And if this guy did know something, we could put him under heavy mind control and have him tell us everything.
“Is nothing really catching your eyes, Sir?” Robert eventually asked.
“They are all nice, yes. But I’ve found better things from other stores and workshops, so I don’t think I really need anything from you.”
“Better things you say? Are you saying our Company doesn’t hold the highest quality of product?” Robert asked, sounding almost annoyed.
“They might be, but they lack some of the love others put into their product.” I simply said. “Perhaps if you allowed workshop owners to really show their love, instead of oppressing them, you would get something of the quality they can really make.” I added as a not at all subtle hint.
“What are you trying to imply? That our Company doesn’t treat our workshops well?”
“No. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying it doesn’t treat the workshops outside of your own well. And I visited your workshops as well. They have no love. People just make what you want, like they worked in a factory.”
“Factory? Why would you compare our workshops to factories?”
“Because they both make mass produced garbage. Sure it might be good garbage, but it is still just garbage.”
“Excuse me? Garbage? Our master-class product that even Duke Burch praises. And you call that Garbage?”
“Well that is what it is.” I just said. “If you don’t like it, maybe visit some of the other workshops and try to be an honest customer to them. Then you’d see just how wrong you are. The independent workshops make the best stuff. Sure they might not be able to keep up with your impossible demands in terms of volume, but at least they make better stuff than your workshops. Now if you would, we are leaving.” I ended my statement with a small lie, to hopefully get some info from Robert.
Honestly speaking, even if we mind control this guy, I don’t think we are getting anything. He just doesn’t seem to know about how their workshops are run, or how they treat rivaling workshops. So getting him riled up to the point where we get someone slightly higher up the chain is probably the best we can do.
To get to that end, I added one more line.
“If you have product beyond what we have seen here today, I might be interested. But only if it is better than what is shown here.” I told him. “I’m staying in the Babblebrook Inn while in the city, but you can also get in contact with me if you take a letter to the adventurer’s guild.”
“Shame he didn’t know much.” Alice said.
“But he knew something?” I asked to confirm.
“He did seem to have some knowledge about Wilma, but as far as I got, he only knew her as some stubborn workshop owner. No knowledge about the attacks, or anything like that. Not to speak of the other thing.” Alice explained.
“Well, hopefully he takes the bait and gets us a meeting with some higher-up.”
“You and your traps.” Alice said, as she let out a small chuckle.
“And I don’t even use Trap cards for them.” I joked.
It didn’t take long for the Blanken Company to send me a letter, because just a day later, the adventurer’s guild in Burch city had placed one in my letter transfer box, and I got my hands on it in HomeBase.
They had invited us to visit the ‘secret’ warehouse, that is invite only, at our convenience. I wrote a response letter to them, saying I’d like to visit as soon as possible. It was a bit of a pain to deliver the letter, but HomeBase is now somewhat closer to Burch city than it used to be, so the flight over with Gradius only takes some minutes. Then I just dropped the letter off at the adventurer’s guild, told them where it was going and paid a small fee.
For that letter, I got a response the very same day, inviting me to tour the secret warehouse the following day, at a time I can pick myself. I have to say, at least the Blanken Company knows how to pull in customers.
The next day, I took Alice and Ria with me to visit the ‘secret’ warehouse. I didn’t bring the catfolk or Wilma, as I don’t want whoever we are meeting recognizing them.
Alice was dressed in a somewhat casual, but still high quality dress, while Ria was in her maid outfit. I also put on slightly better clothing than my usual jeans and t-shirt, but I’m not sure the straight pants and high quality long sleeved shirt is that much better than the abnormal clothing that is my tricot t-shirt and jeans.
We had been asked to meet in front of the main store of the Blanken Company, and we arrived there in my carriage. Ria was driving the carriage in magic, I mean golem carriage mode. Maybe I should make a mechanical horse that can pull the carriage? It should be easy. All I have to do is make a smaller Trojan Horse.
Spoiler [collapse]
After Ria opened the door for us, Alice and I stepped out. The building we were next to was basically a mansion. A small one, but still a mansion. It wasn’t uncommon for big trading companies to have one as their headquarters, so I didn’t really bat an eye at that fact.
We were quickly welcomed in by a well dressed male, possibly some kind of a butler. He then ordered someone to take our carriage, but I don’t trust them with it, so I instead quickly took the carriage into Storage, causing some strange looks, but no comments.
We followed the butler inside. While we were walking through the manor, he said that anything we see is up for sale, if we saw something we were interested in. That did get me thinking, does that mean he is up for sale? I can see him, so if what he said is accurate, he should be.
We soon arrived at the door leading to some room. At first the butler was trying to have Ria stay in a separate room from where the … person we were meeting would be, but I was going to turn away and walk out, so he had no choice but to let Ria in.
In the room, an older male was sitting on what I can only assume to be a super expensive couch. Other than him, the room had two males, dressed up in fine looking plated leather armor, each with a sword on their hip. As well as four barely clothed women, each with a visible slave seal on them. So I guess everything I see really is for sale here.
“Welcome, Lord Wood, Lady Watchman.” The older man sitting on the chair welcomed us. But really, calling us Lord and Lady? How much are you trying to kiss our asses? Alice’s ass is mine to kiss. … That sounded wrong. “I am Troy Blanken. The assistant chairman of the Blanken Trading Company.”
Well there is a little surprise. I know some trading companies are able to buy noble titles, and by extension the right to have a surname. I didn’t know the Blanken Company had done that, but apparently I’m wrong.
“It is nice to meet you, sir Troy Blanken.” I decided to call this guy sir, as he does have a surname. He very well might be an honorary noble like I am, so better not to chance it too much. Or at the very least, he is connected to someone that is an honorary noble.
We talked for a while, about nothing in particular. I was leading the conversation into things I thought might distract Troy while Alice was reading his mind. I kept it up for a while, until Alice told me with the System Link that this guy knows about the illegal slave mark, as well as the harassment that was targeting Wilma. That means that he is at least partially guilty.
Now, how to bring him into further questioning? We could just do it here by overpowering the guards, using binding spells on everyone and Mind Controlling Troy, but that could lead to us being the bad guys. So maybe a different way?
As I kept stalling for time, I came up with a perfect plan. This guy is a criminal. I can mind fuck him all I want, right? And all I have to do is bring him to an isolated place. And I think I know the world’s most difficult to get to place. And there, no one will say if I do something slightly evil. Now, let’s just set the trap that will get him there.
“Sir Troy. Perhaps you would be willing to visit my Home? That way, you could really offer what is needed to make it better?” I asked of him.
“Your home, Lord Wood? I wasn’t aware you had bought a mansion.”
“Well, it is in a somewhat strange place, so most don’t know of it. In fact, you’d be the first human guest, outside of my family and servants.” I egged him on. And technically that is the truth, as Lady Janina isn’t a human.
“Of course. It would be my honor.” Tray quickly accepted my offer, as he fell head first into my trap.
With HomeBase now fully hidden from view, I was finally happy to move it around. It still had that… furniture problem, so inviting a large number of people wasn’t something I could do.
But we have an app for that. It is called mass spending. I took Alice, as well as Einar and Eline, with me on a mass shopping spree in Sawyer city, Burch city and even the Hill town of Yuva, buying and ordering a ton of stuff. I put my address in the orders, other than the Sawyer city order, as the local adventurer’s guild. Then I paid the guilds to hold one of my letter exchangers and just put any letters coming to my name into that box. They at first asked about it, but I paid for the service, and I think they assumed it was just something they were supposed to hold the letters in, so I didn’t have much trouble with it. Then I’ll just recover the boxes later, after I’m done picking up all the orders.
As for what we ordered, well the short answer is furniture. Beds, dressers, closets. Chairs and tables. As well as some basic tableware. The tableware wasn’t going to be in use for things like the big dining rooms, as I wanted all of that stuff to be the same stuff, but small things like tea sets and display trays for the guest rooms. Each room can have a different set, as long as all the dishes match. At least that is my opinion.
The shopping ‘rampage’ came with a nice bonus. Because we were ‘big spenders’, we got some attention. Including the attention of Blanken Trading Company. Even if we avoided their stores, or stores they are connected with, like the plague.
“Excuse me. Would you happen to be Lord Brian Wood?” A person wearing a … well the local equivalent of a suit, with a medal pin that had the Blanken Trading Company’s logo on it, came up to us, when we were between stores.
“Yes, I am.” I confirmed for him. “... and you are?” I asked, after a bit, as the person was not introducing himself.
“Yes. I apologize.” He quickly said. “My name is Robert and I’m from the Blanken Company.”
“Okay. Hello Robert. As you already know, my name is Brian Wood. And this is…”
“Alice Watchman.” Alice continued after my prompt.
“Was there something you needed?” I then asked.
“Yes. It is a pleasure, Miss Watchman, Sir Wood.” Robert said, trying to sound overly friendly. “It has been brought to my attention that you have been shopping around town, and I wished to offer some of the Blanken Company products to you.”
“Oh?” I began trying to sound at least a bit interested. “No thanks. We have what we came for.” I then instantly attempted to burst his bubble, in an attempt to make him speak up.
“Are you sure, Sir? I’ve heard that you have placed multiple furniture orders across the city. I can help you void those orders and get you something better.” Robert offered.
I silently looked at Alice, while also communicating with her through our System Link.
(Do you think he knows anything about the slave marks?)
(He might. If we can get him alone, I can try to get some info from him. But he clearly doesn’t know Einar or Eline, so I wouldn’t count on it. But we can give him a bit of time.) Alice reasoned.
I then turned back to Robert.
“Well, I suppose we can share a bit of time. I hope you really do have something good.”
We were led to a big warehouse holding tons of furniture. It was probably something like this, as an actual, nice storefront holding all of this stuff would be too expensive. Maybe.
Robert then began showing us some of the stuff they had, and while I’ll admit it was nice, it wasn’t … amazing. Like the people who made this stuff clearly aren’t the type of people I’d hand an entire treant carcass to, so they could use it to make bed frames. Which I may or may not have done. What can I say? Treant wood is just good, high quality wood. And I have tons of it, even outside of the world treant. … and while it might be a bit grim, I can also use HomeBase to ‘spawn’ treants. Then just kill them, purify the excess miasma with Storage, and I’ll have even more treant materials.
Because I clearly didn’t care about the big furniture items, Robert began to show us things like tableware and he was especially focusing on the most expensive products.
But like with the beds and couches, it was so mid. It didn’t have any of the cool features that some of the other stuff came with, like teapots that kept the tea warm, or teapots with a built-in tea infuser. They were just … pots. Sure they look nice, but I prefer it to both look nice and have utility. Why not add some extra technology into beautiful objects? And considering HomeBase, I think having cool technological things like that will make it more memorable for the guests.
While all of this was going on, Alice was using her unique-racial skill to read the mind of Robert, communicating with me what she was getting. Alice wasn’t that good at it yet, but she could still get some info. And if this guy did know something, we could put him under heavy mind control and have him tell us everything.
“Is nothing really catching your eyes, Sir?” Robert eventually asked.
“They are all nice, yes. But I’ve found better things from other stores and workshops, so I don’t think I really need anything from you.”
“Better things you say? Are you saying our Company doesn’t hold the highest quality of product?” Robert asked, sounding almost annoyed.
“They might be, but they lack some of the love others put into their product.” I simply said. “Perhaps if you allowed workshop owners to really show their love, instead of oppressing them, you would get something of the quality they can really make.” I added as a not at all subtle hint.
“What are you trying to imply? That our Company doesn’t treat our workshops well?”
“No. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying it doesn’t treat the workshops outside of your own well. And I visited your workshops as well. They have no love. People just make what you want, like they worked in a factory.”
“Factory? Why would you compare our workshops to factories?”
“Because they both make mass produced garbage. Sure it might be good garbage, but it is still just garbage.”
“Excuse me? Garbage? Our master-class product that even Duke Burch praises. And you call that Garbage?”
“Well that is what it is.” I just said. “If you don’t like it, maybe visit some of the other workshops and try to be an honest customer to them. Then you’d see just how wrong you are. The independent workshops make the best stuff. Sure they might not be able to keep up with your impossible demands in terms of volume, but at least they make better stuff than your workshops. Now if you would, we are leaving.” I ended my statement with a small lie, to hopefully get some info from Robert.
Honestly speaking, even if we mind control this guy, I don’t think we are getting anything. He just doesn’t seem to know about how their workshops are run, or how they treat rivaling workshops. So getting him riled up to the point where we get someone slightly higher up the chain is probably the best we can do.
To get to that end, I added one more line.
“If you have product beyond what we have seen here today, I might be interested. But only if it is better than what is shown here.” I told him. “I’m staying in the Babblebrook Inn while in the city, but you can also get in contact with me if you take a letter to the adventurer’s guild.”
“Shame he didn’t know much.” Alice said.
“But he knew something?” I asked to confirm.
“He did seem to have some knowledge about Wilma, but as far as I got, he only knew her as some stubborn workshop owner. No knowledge about the attacks, or anything like that. Not to speak of the other thing.” Alice explained.
“Well, hopefully he takes the bait and gets us a meeting with some higher-up.”
“You and your traps.” Alice said, as she let out a small chuckle.
“And I don’t even use Trap cards for them.” I joked.
It didn’t take long for the Blanken Company to send me a letter, because just a day later, the adventurer’s guild in Burch city had placed one in my letter transfer box, and I got my hands on it in HomeBase.
They had invited us to visit the ‘secret’ warehouse, that is invite only, at our convenience. I wrote a response letter to them, saying I’d like to visit as soon as possible. It was a bit of a pain to deliver the letter, but HomeBase is now somewhat closer to Burch city than it used to be, so the flight over with Gradius only takes some minutes. Then I just dropped the letter off at the adventurer’s guild, told them where it was going and paid a small fee.
For that letter, I got a response the very same day, inviting me to tour the secret warehouse the following day, at a time I can pick myself. I have to say, at least the Blanken Company knows how to pull in customers.
The next day, I took Alice and Ria with me to visit the ‘secret’ warehouse. I didn’t bring the catfolk or Wilma, as I don’t want whoever we are meeting recognizing them.
Alice was dressed in a somewhat casual, but still high quality dress, while Ria was in her maid outfit. I also put on slightly better clothing than my usual jeans and t-shirt, but I’m not sure the straight pants and high quality long sleeved shirt is that much better than the abnormal clothing that is my tricot t-shirt and jeans.
We had been asked to meet in front of the main store of the Blanken Company, and we arrived there in my carriage. Ria was driving the carriage in magic, I mean golem carriage mode. Maybe I should make a mechanical horse that can pull the carriage? It should be easy. All I have to do is make a smaller Trojan Horse.
Spoiler [collapse]
After Ria opened the door for us, Alice and I stepped out. The building we were next to was basically a mansion. A small one, but still a mansion. It wasn’t uncommon for big trading companies to have one as their headquarters, so I didn’t really bat an eye at that fact.
We were quickly welcomed in by a well dressed male, possibly some kind of a butler. He then ordered someone to take our carriage, but I don’t trust them with it, so I instead quickly took the carriage into Storage, causing some strange looks, but no comments.
We followed the butler inside. While we were walking through the manor, he said that anything we see is up for sale, if we saw something we were interested in. That did get me thinking, does that mean he is up for sale? I can see him, so if what he said is accurate, he should be.
We soon arrived at the door leading to some room. At first the butler was trying to have Ria stay in a separate room from where the … person we were meeting would be, but I was going to turn away and walk out, so he had no choice but to let Ria in.
In the room, an older male was sitting on what I can only assume to be a super expensive couch. Other than him, the room had two males, dressed up in fine looking plated leather armor, each with a sword on their hip. As well as four barely clothed women, each with a visible slave seal on them. So I guess everything I see really is for sale here.
“Welcome, Lord Wood, Lady Watchman.” The older man sitting on the chair welcomed us. But really, calling us Lord and Lady? How much are you trying to kiss our asses? Alice’s ass is mine to kiss. … That sounded wrong. “I am Troy Blanken. The assistant chairman of the Blanken Trading Company.”
Well there is a little surprise. I know some trading companies are able to buy noble titles, and by extension the right to have a surname. I didn’t know the Blanken Company had done that, but apparently I’m wrong.
“It is nice to meet you, sir Troy Blanken.” I decided to call this guy sir, as he does have a surname. He very well might be an honorary noble like I am, so better not to chance it too much. Or at the very least, he is connected to someone that is an honorary noble.
We talked for a while, about nothing in particular. I was leading the conversation into things I thought might distract Troy while Alice was reading his mind. I kept it up for a while, until Alice told me with the System Link that this guy knows about the illegal slave mark, as well as the harassment that was targeting Wilma. That means that he is at least partially guilty.
Now, how to bring him into further questioning? We could just do it here by overpowering the guards, using binding spells on everyone and Mind Controlling Troy, but that could lead to us being the bad guys. So maybe a different way?
As I kept stalling for time, I came up with a perfect plan. This guy is a criminal. I can mind fuck him all I want, right? And all I have to do is bring him to an isolated place. And I think I know the world’s most difficult to get to place. And there, no one will say if I do something slightly evil. Now, let’s just set the trap that will get him there.
“Sir Troy. Perhaps you would be willing to visit my Home? That way, you could really offer what is needed to make it better?” I asked of him.
“Your home, Lord Wood? I wasn’t aware you had bought a mansion.”
“Well, it is in a somewhat strange place, so most don’t know of it. In fact, you’d be the first human guest, outside of my family and servants.” I egged him on. And technically that is the truth, as Lady Janina isn’t a human.
“Of course. It would be my honor.” Tray quickly accepted my offer, as he fell head first into my trap.
