The Archaic System

My mouth began salivating at the thought of being able to eat at Boar's Belly! In the last timeline I was only able to eat there once when Mike took me for a celebration after one of his expeditions. He had gotten lucky and found an artifact that Morrow wanted and was rewarded with 5 gold. To us at the time it was a small fortune and we celebrated by spending one gold on a meal at Boar's Belly.

Thinking about it now I couldn't help but laugh at us. I looked down at the sack hanging around my waist. Inside were exactly 101 gold coins. Over the span of one day I had amassed a fortune that Mike and I would have considered impossible in my past life. Even though I had amassed a large amount of gold quickly Morrow would not let me participate in the arena everyday and even when I did it would only be as the finalist. On top of that my odds would be significantly lower now that I had proven my strength. In short, the arena was no longer a way to quickly make gold.

I mulled over this problem in my head as I entered the Boar's Belly. I would need a significant amount of funds in my plan to overthrow Morrow. Due to Sauer's betrayal Morrow would be guarded against anyone trying to embezzle funds from the city again and I despised using such a method anyway. I continued to ruminate over the issue as I sat on a wooden chair in the center of the restaurant.

A young waitress walked over to me breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Can I help you?" She meekly said.

I looked up at her, she was pretty, in a girl next door kind of way. She began fidgeting when I looked at her, clearly she was quite shy.

"Yes, is there a menu I can see?"

"Certainly," she walked to the back and returned with a rough paper in her hand.

How to make paper out of local plants was one of the basic technologies that many of the society elites had acquired knowledge on before coming to Agartha. Humans were too dependent on written systems and the government knew that for humans to regain some systems in society we must have at least something to write on and with. So many villages had there own paper processingfacilities were they turned trees and plants into paper and used pieces of charcoal to write with. Black Lion Village had been established for months so most of these basic facilities were already running and products were available. Of course, all these facilities were owned by Morrow and the profits went to him.

After the waitress arrived she handed me the menu. The menu was crude, much unlike the fancy hologram menus most restaurants had back on Earth. Restaurants were considered luxuries since most people were issued food by the government. Only the very wealthy still went to restaurants.

I browsed the menu and finally settled an item that interested me, Rack of Wild Boar Ribs. It was listed for the price of 20 silver and was one of the more expensive items on the menu. The prices now were obviously much lower than when Mike and I went almost 2 years in the future.

As I waited for my ribs to arrive I began to look around the restaurant. It was fairly small, the seating area only had five tables each surrounded by four chairs. The building was only slightly larger than the surrounding houses. All of the buildings around here were built of wood and they are barely solid enough to keep out the elements. This one had been modified to have a slightly larger "living room" which is where the seating area was. I was the only person in the restaurant at the moment so I quietly waited at my seat pondering the possible avenues I could take to build up my wealth.

After a while of being lost in thought I almost didn't notice a portly man who was approaching me from the side. I looked at the large man who almost seemed to waddle his way over to me.

He stuck his rather large hand towards me and said, "Hello young man, my name is Travis Miller! I'm the owner here. I wanted to come and meet my first customer in person!"

I stood up and shook his hand almost instantly regretting the decision as I felt his sweaty palm. He strongly shook my hand as I responded, "My name is Troy Hargrave, I wasn't aware I was your first customer."

Obviously, I couldn't use my real last name Williams, that would cause unnecessary problems if Morrow found out. I wanted to wipe his sweat off my hand but didn't want to appear rude so I just let it dangle awkwardly at my side.

Travis loudly responded, "Good to meet ya Troy. I'm happy we finally drew someone in. It's been a hard road getting this place going without my boys."

I could notice a bit of melancholy and loneliness leak out of his eyes. Then I remembered how he spread his restaurant across Agartha and realized that he must have used his restaurant and the money gained from it in part to find his sons. Suddenly, it hit me if I could invest in Boar's Belly early I could make more gold than I knew what to do with when it expanded. I could also use the restaurant chain as a base for an information network to help me find Brad. I had to approach this carefully, this is a massive opportunity I can't pass up. As I started to make a plan in my mind I took the chance to sit back down and sneakily wipe my hand off on my trousers.

Travis continued talking, "If it wasn't for Amelia helping me out I don't know if we would even be open yet."

He gestured towards the waitress who was working in the back.

Taking this chance to further the conversation I said, "Have you struggled with establishing Boar's Belly?"

He sighed, "In every way you could imagine. From procuring meat from hunters, spices from herbalist, water from the city, even bringing items through the gate requires me to pay off the guards. Every step cost money if business doesn't get good soon I don't know if we can stay open."

Naturally I knew he would be fine, but gifting coal in winter will be appreciated more than summer.

"What if I said I could fix all of that for you?"

Travis who was looking around at his restaurant spun with an agility I didn't think possible for his size and stared at me, "Could you?"

Before I could respond he turned back around and said, "Of course not. This isn't something a teenager with a few silver coins can fix."

I coughed, "I really can help you."

He looked over his shoulder and stared at me intensely. Then he squarely faced me and said, "Ok, I will hear you out. If you can really help me I will not be ungrateful. However, I don't think it'll be as easy as you think."

I pulled my sack from my waist opened it up and said, "Will 100 gold do the trick?"

Travis looked at the gold as if he had been smashed over the head with a rock. He dazedly stared at it, for a moment I feared his massive body would fall breaking the furniture behind him.

"After months of hard work I was barely able to scrounge together 5 gold to get started. Even that much was only possible because I won a few bets in the arena. Most people wouldn't have 1 gold even if they saved every penny. How do you have this much money?"

I calmly responded, "Even if I told you, you might not believe me. However, I can assure you it was all legal. I wouldn't give you tainted money."

He stammered, "With this I could move to the main street and have tons of regular customers."

Then he shook his head, "No it's too late, all the properties available have been sold or promised to those with connections."

"Actually, I think I can help with that too."

Travis removed his gaze from the gold and stared at me, "How? Who are you?"

Clearly despite me saying I acquired the money legally he was still suspicious.

"I've told you I'm Troy Hargrave and as you will find out tomorrow Lord Morrow has appointed me the new Captain."

Travis looked me up and down then nodded his head, "If that is true then it all makes sense."

He sighed in relief, he must have been thinking I was some criminal mastermind.

His eyes gained an amount of reverence and small amount of fear in them. After all the last Captain wasn't the nice sort.

"What do you want in exchange?"

I calmly replied, "A 10% cut of future profits and a promise to pass on any information your restaurant manages to hear about things of interest to me."

"What kind of things interest you?"

"It depends, it may be a person or an item or a particular beast. You don't have to actively seek out the information. Just if you or your employees happen to overhear information regarding it I want that information to be passed to me."

He quickly responded, "I can agree with that, as far as the 10% profits, I'm afraid it may be a long time before we return your investment."

I nodded my head, "Maybe, however, as long as you ensure me that no matter how big your restaurant gets you will stay true to this agreement I am fine with 10%.

Travis quickly nodded his head, "Of course, you are my benefactor I will always stay true to our agreement."

There is no way to enforce contracts right now so we had no choice but to go by a verbal agreement. Even then I have confidence the man will stay true to his word. He couldn't have developed his previous restaurant empire by going back on his promises.

"For now take this gold and use it as you see fit. As far as moving into a building on main street I will visit you tomorrow evening with more details."

Travis nodded his head. He took the gold into the back and came back in a few minutes with the ribs I ordered.

As he sat them down he said, "They're on the house."

I chuckled and said, "Looks good!"

I had complete confidence he would use the money well. As far as the building on main street, I refuse to abuse my power as Captain to take someones property. When going through Sauer's documents I noticed one of the Lieutenants on his pay role owned one of the buildings on main street near the Black Claw Inn I was staying at. After tonight the Lieutenant would most likely no longer need it.