Pathfinder: Sacred Order - Chapter 54

Jacob had a lot on his mind these last few days. Mostly due to the information he obtained from the study room that Vulcan del Lezhalt used. Not only did he find the ledger that held the financial status of the family and told him which business they owned.

There were also books that told of the past, some on basic meditation, others poetry. While Jacob was not too keen on the majority of the books, he did find some useful.

It was also interesting to find out that there were a few noble families that owned a great sum to the Lezhalt family. If he played his cards right, in exchange for forgiving their debt he could instead gain a favor.

While money was nice and all, there were perks to having people of equal status or higher owe you.

The Lezhalt family owned a dye work in the city, which brought in seven hundred silver coins on a weekly basis. It was their bread and butter, as it gave them the most coin. There was also the Brewery that gave them a hundred fifty silver weekly, and the Ironworks that only netted them eighty silver weekly. In total, the Lezhalt family was making just a little under one thousand silver a week.

Jacob could see why this family was making so much money, but where was it all spent? Vulcan del Lezhalt did not show off anything expensive, nor did the ledger account for any massive spending. Therefore, he must not have used the money from these businesses.

So where in Nessa’s name did the money go?

Thinking about it for a long time would hurt his brain, so he just put it in the back of his mind for now.

Eventually, Delphine left.

She did not say anything either, Jacob just woke up and she was gone. Considering she was still a knight in training, he figured she had to have gone back to her academy.

All that was left was him and Jack.

That is until he woke up to go visit the businesses owned by the family.

Right before he left the estate, he was greeted by ten women. He knew their faces, but not their names.

These were the same women he let go from their life as a prostitute in return for helping him deal with the bishop. Although Jacob had no clue what expression the bishop made when he became caught up in the scheme, Jacob was sure it was not a good one. A pity he missed it, but being there for any longer would be detrimental to himself.

All the bishop would need to do was speak of his blessing and the templar would be sure to check. Jacob wanted no hand in anything the order wanted to accomplish, nor did he want to be a slave that worked for piety.

“How do you do lord?”

One of the women asked as they all bowed to Jacob.

“Decent. I’m assuming you are not all here to tell me your lives are in danger? Work is it?”

Narrowing it down was easy for him. All it took was a glance at their faces and a general idea of their mental state. None of them found it easy to live a normal life now when they were trained for sexual purposes.

Still, that life was hard with mostly bad memories. Some of them would find it hard to go back, but some would also continue for that is all they know.

“Yes anything really.”

“You do not need to pay us much either, we just really don’t want to go back”

“What happened to the other five?”

The women all looked frightened when he brought them up, so something must have happened.

“It is like this”

Jacob recalled this woman, she was older than the others and the one who spoke to him before at the brothel. She seemed to have the most wits about her and worked as their leader.

“After we finished what you asked with the bishop, we all went our separate ways. Well, most of us did, some stayed together as we’ve gotten close over the years. Two days ago at a bar, I found out that one of them men who worked with Ash was tracking us down. He even caused a scene at the brothel we worked at, killing two of the girls who returned there for work”

As he listened, Jacob nodded his head in understanding.

It was not hard for him to say no to them, but they could be useful. Besides, the mansion was large and needed to be maintained, something that was hard for him and Jack to do.

“Alright, I have a general idea of what is going on. You seem to be the most spoken and knowledgeable, so I’ll refer to you when I need to give you orders. What is your name?”

“Ava, lord.”

“Alright Ava, go inside and you’ll find my guard. Tell him I sent you all, and ask for a room. We’ll discuss your jobs and payment once I return.”

His words brought smiles to the women’s faces, and some even cheered in joy. None of them seemed to have a problem with Ava being the leader of their group, mostly due to her taking care of them when they were prostitutes.

The women would be grateful to him for his kindness, but that didn’t mean none of them had no ambition. Might not be to the extent of Oswald, it could be something simple such as becoming his wife or mistress.

Jack could take care of himself, so Jacob was not worried about the ten women going into the estate.

Leaving the mansion, Jacob walked the streets until he found himself at the ‘Lezhalt Dye Works’. Took him more than an hour on foot to get here, but he managed. Mostly took so long due to him wandering around in the industry district trying to find the place. Now that he knew where it was, should not take him as long to come here next time.

The workshop was large, being three stories tall and made of red bricks. Clearly a lot of work went into building the place, due to how well made it was. From outside, Jacob made out a few workers entering and exiting the place taking breaks while conversing with each other.

This was the only dye workshop he saw on the entire street, but it couldn’t be the only one in the city. If it was, the income from this place could reach thousands of silver.

He was left questioning the location of the others.

Citizens walked past him by foot, but most traveled by horse or carriage. Since he arrived in this district he has made out six different carriages carrying crates, barrels, wool, and animals.

Making his way to the workshop, he entered through the front door.

Inside, he could hear people shouting while giving orders and machinery chugging. No one could speak softly here, you needed to have a powerful voice to be heard here.

Various materials were placed in large crates, but some were open so Jacob could see inside. Majority were flowers or berries that were the main ingredients for making dyes, but he could also see stuff that appeared to be tree roots.

Those who worked here were taking items here and there, putting them in a mixer or placing them into large tubs.

“Who let the kid in?”

A voice that clearly belonged to a man shouted.

“Kid? What kid?”

Another voice asked.

Soon, the workers scanned the area only to spot Jacob standing in the middle of the floor.

A door opened as a stout man came out wondering what the fuss was all about. His clothing was dirty, and hair a greasy mess. However, he looked like the boss here since everyone shut up and started working again when he appeared.

“Boss, there’s a kid here.”

“Kid? What?”

Did not take him long before he noticed Jacob’s small body. Squinting his eyes, he opened his mouth wide.

“Do you not know the owner’s face? This is lord Lezhalt. Apologize for not recognizing him and get back to work!”

He roared at his worker who quickly rushed to Jacob’s side pleading him not to fire him for his mistake. Jacob dismissed him and the stout man arrived by his side.

“Lord, I feared I would not see you anymore with the news going around. Old Henry here did not believe a word of it though, I knew you survived.”

Gloating, the man patted his large belly.

“How is business? Everything fairing well I hope?”

Henry eagerly nodded.

“Yes, yes. I’ve done as you asked and kept the money in the warehouse, I have the account books in my office if you want to check them.”

“Lead the way. Has profit been steady?”

“More than that, three months ago the Livingston’s dye work was tampered with. Their machines were broken so they could no longer support their clients, meaning more work for us. We’ve been busy keeping the place running and maintaining our quality. I had to hire twenty more hands for help due to the increase in demand.”

Henry stood behind his desk that was filled with documents and a large brown book. He opened the book to show Jacob the contents.

Jacob read it and saw the increase in their profit, he was unsure of when the last time Vulcan del Lezhalt had someone take accountability for this place. Currently, this workshop was bringing in one thousand two hundred silver coins a week.

“What happened here? It went from two thousand to one thousand in a matter of two weeks.”

Henry scratched the back of his head while trying to think of a suitable answer.

“We were overloaded without enough workers, so there were some mistakes in the orders. However, we fixed it now but sadly we lost the trust of those clients.”

“How much would it cost us to expand to increase our output?”

“How much are you talking lord? We can hire some people to build us more machines, but we have a limited space so only one or two more can be built.”

Jacob shook his head.

“No, I want to open up another dye workshop. Preferability close to the city, or the next city over.”

“Why in Nessa’s name would you do that? Are you disappointed?”

Henry was confused and worried that Jacob would replace him and his workers. Henry has worked here for twenty-two years. He did not get to his position just by luck and ass-kissing.

“I need to make sure I’ll have enough money to employ a few knights and a trainer.”

Seeing the confusion on Henry’s face, Jacob laughed a little.

“Do not worry about it. Just give me an estimate if you can.”

“Buying land should be easy for you here, but where it is and how much means it can be expensive. Easily costing two thousand silver to twenty thousand. Building a workshop like this one means you’ll be spending ten thousand silver, then the workers”

‘So, buying and creating enterprises are the same. Means making money will come easier if I can open up a few more businesses.’

As he paid attention to Henry’s words, Jacob was thinking about how the system was the same as it was in Pathfinder.

From the account book, Jacob could see that there was over twenty thousand silver stored in the storage from this place. That was more than enough to buy himself high-end equipment.

However, he was not too interested in that at the moment. Frankly, he was scared of the unknown threat that was likely to come after him in the coming times. The same one who killed Lezhalt’s parents.

He was no longer a double now who could be used, he was living the life of a real lord. The time it would take for Veronica to come here and for him to enlist into her army was still a ways away. Until then, he needed to be protected.

Talking to Henry for a while longer, Jacob decided to get the money sent to the mansion. Eventually, he left and visited the other enterprises as well and told them the same thing.

It would take a few days before he received all the money, but he had nothing but time right now.

He still needed to improve his strength, but that would be difficult to do unless he left the city and found bandits. The best way for him to become stronger was the find a teacher, someone with a high training ability.

For that, he had to find the crazy drunkard. A formidable warrior that lost everything and drowned his sorrows in booze daily. But that man wandered around, never staying in one place too long. So Jacob had little hope he would encounter him.

As Jacob was walking back to the mansion, two young children spotted him.

They wore tattered clothing, with mud and dirt all over their body. However, their eyes shined brilliantly as they saw Jacob walk the streets.