Close Combat Mage Chapter 73

Translated by: Taffy
Edited by: mrbaconator, Comfortabull

Chapter 73 – Prospering Business

Seeing the girls’ bewildered expressions, Suo Jia smiled, “Since we’re all going to work together from now on, there are many things I don’t want to hide from you. The goods you all delivered are rare special products. They don’t last long and so under normal circumstances, Holy Light City’s people cannot enjoy these products.”

Suo Jia’s eyes lit up as he happily continued, “However, with your arduous efforts, these special products arrived here within a week’s time so they are still considered fresh. Being able to eat such fresh special products in Holy Light City is something that the rich and powerful aristocrats are definitely willing to pay exorbitant prices for. Thus, the amount of money we earn is greater, and so are your individual portions.”

The fire wind warriors sighed in admiration at Suo Jia’s words. They all understood that these types of income information involved Suo Jia’s business and the girls had absolutely did not need to be involved. The reason why Suo Jia acted like this was because he didn’t regard them as his subjects, but rather as his colleagues!

While speaking, Suo Jia pointed to the trays being held by two of the maids, “There are a total of 36 money pouches here. Each pouch contains 100 gold. This is your earnings for this week. It may not be that much right now, but I can say that this is not your entire earnings either. It’s only a portion of it paid in advance so that you girls can spend some now.”

Suo Jia grew more excited, “Every time you girls deliver merchandise, no matter how much money I earn, I will always give half of it to you. I’ll hand out some of the money after each delivery, and accumulate the rest for you girls. I’ll create accounts for you girls to look over, so that you can check them yourselves. If I commit any type of fraud, you’re welcome to break all ties from me!”

“This….” All of the girls were bewildered at Suo Jia’s words; they could not understand what Suo Jia’s purpose was.

Seeing the girls’ confused expressions, Suo Jia inwardly smiled and sighed in praise at Elder Sister’s foresight. Everything so far had been her idea. In reality, this plan was just for the sake of firmly tying all of the girls onto his own ship.

Amidst his thoughts, Suo Jia looked at the fire wind warriors in front of him and said, “This time, the goods that everyone delivered are separated into 4 things: agate grapes, wild yellow peaches, golden candied jujubes, and mountain mushrooms.”

“Yea….” Hearing Suo Jia’s words, all the girls nodded. They had purchased and delivered the goods, so they obviously knew what the goods they carried were.

Pausing for a bit, Suo Jia continued, “One bag of goods weighing 15kg can fit 30 trays. In other words, during the upcoming weeks, we’ll have 1000+ trays of this special product to sell. This will be the White Villa’s specialty. These things can only be eaten at the White Villa; no other shops in Holy Light City can even imagine enjoying these fruits and special products.””

Suo Jia said in a furtive voice, “Everyone, guess how much 1000 trays of fruit and special products can sell for.”

“This…” All the girls blankly shook their heads. How could they possibly guess?

Seeing the confused expressions on the girls, Suo Jia laughed, “I’ll just save everyone from expending their energies, and tell you. One tray of wild yellow peaches cannot be enjoyed unless one pays at least 1000 gold. In other words, every bag that each of you carried contains White Villa’s pure profits, close to 30000 gold!”

“Wa!” All the girls cried out in shock from Suo Jia’s words. Such large profits; it was practically stealing!

Suo Jia knew from the girls’ shocked expressions that there were some things that the girls had not yet realized. He broke out in laughter and raised a finger, “Notice that amongst this 30000 gold, I’ll be splitting 15000 of it to you girls. In other words, your actual weekly wages are not the 100 gold in front of you, but 15000 gold!”

“Xi!” The girls could not help but sharply inhale at these words. 15000 gold! This was an astronomical value. 2-3 weeks ago, they only had 1 gold to spend on daily living expenses. Now, weeks later, they had unexpectedly earned 15000 gold!

Suo Jia nodded to himself in satisfaction after seeing all the girls’ taken aback expressions. The reason he had decided to do this was to keep the powerful warriors by his side. Unless they didn’t desire the huge amounts of money, there was no way they would be willing to leave Suo Jia. As time passes, the money under their names being held by Suo Jia would increase more and more. It was only 15000 now, but it would eventually become millions, tens of millions. At that point, how could they possibly bring themselves to forsake this amount of money and betray Suo Jia?

Once this gold was split up amongst the girls. Suo Jia would not feel any regret. The main purpose of opening the White Villa was not to earn money. At least, it didn’t rely on selling dishes to earn money. These special fruits only served to raise the White Villa’s class and style. The actual source of income was still Suo Jia himself. With a wave of his hands, he had gained the position of an eighth ranked lord and the White Villa. He had even gained the few hundred millions in net worth with Faerie’s Soul and Vulcan’s Roar. Even the priceless Atlantis’ Wisdom was now in his hands.

Moreover, knowing that their work would earn tons of gold, the girls’ motivations would increase. In their hearts, the work was no longer for Suo Jia’s sake, but their own sakes. Their enthusiasm and initiative would definitely go up even without Suo Jia urging them. They would still deliver the goods as much and as quickly as possible.

Through their arduous work, they would not only earn large amounts of money, they’d also be able to exponentially improve their strength. This was exactly what Suo Jia was hoping for. Everything had been planned based on 2 main objectives: the first was to firmly tie the girls to his side, and the second was to allow their strengths to shoot up. Although this plan cost him a lot of money, even if he didn’t give these amounts of gold to the girls, Suo Jia would still be paying for their equipment from his own pockets.

Although buying them equipment would make them feel slightly touched, who would vow loyalty and devotion to someone for a set of equipment? The reason Suo Jia had done this earlier was to temporarily earn their feelings of gratitude and accumulate a long-term emotional attachment over time. These types of feelings would eventually develop into loyalty. This was the recommendation that Eldest Sister had passed onto Suo Jia!

Suo Jia smiled at the spirited fire wind girls, “Ladies, although this money is in my hands, I’m only withholding it to prevent everyone from recklessly spending it. As long as you have a sensible reason, you girls can come here and retrieve the stored money. You can even overdraft. You girls must understand that I’m only temporarily safekeeping the money. After all….since you girls will constantly be outside, it’s not appropriate to carry so much money around.”

Suo Jia paused at this moment before sternly saying, “I understand that you girls do not just want money; you also desire statuses and positions. In regards to this, I can promise everyone that as long as you continue to work diligently and improve your tyrannical strengths, I can grant you noble statuses.”

At this point, Suo Jia glanced at Eldest Sister. Noticing his glance, Eldest Sister nodded, and pulled out the grants, handing them to the fire wind warriors.

All of the fire wind warriors were shocked by these documents. Normally speaking, only royalty had the power to confer noble statuses. However, Lord Suo Jia held these grants. Exactly what was going on?

Seeing the bewildered expressions on everyone’s faces, Suo Jia mysteriously smiled, “You girls don’t need to know how I got these grants. The only thing you do need to know is that as long as you continue to work hard and behave well, then you will have the chance to receive a grant.”

As he was speaking, footsteps could be heard from outside the door. Noticing this, Suo Jia said in a low voice, “Alright, I still have matters to attend to tonight, so I won’t send you off tomorrow morning. Right now, we need to discuss what goods you girls want to deliver.”

Hearing Suo Jia’s words, Eldest Sister walked over and smiled, “The longer the routes and the shorter-lasting the fruits and special products are, the higher their selling prices. However, at the same time, you will also need to run longer distances. For example, if you deliver the southern lychees to Holy Light City, then you can each earn 300000 gold of pure profits within those little money pouches. However, completing the journey would require running for 4 weeks without stopping to rest!”

“Four weeks, 300000!” Hearing Eldest Sister’s words, all the fire wind warriors inhaled sharply. The profits were so large that even when split with Suo Jia, they’d still gain 150000.

These calculations were something that all of them could do. If they continuously delivered the fruits and special products from the trip they had just completed, then they could run the journey twice in 4 weeks, only earning 30000 gold. However, if they ran with the lychees, then although they’d only be able to complete 1 journey in 4 weeks, they could earn 150000 gold, which was five times higher. The only thing was….if they chose this path, the girls would have to go for 4 weeks without receiving moisturizing treatments.

After hesitating for a long time, finally….all the fire wind warriors decided to deliver the lychees. There was absolutely no way they could reject such high profits.

Chapter end