The last few weeks had been boring, following my own employees around and doing the type of casing that I would usually save for my adversaries. It was always boring, but it was always interesting because you could learn things. I watched my employees' daily lives, and I found something odd.
Very odd.
The prices of my goods were not lower; I even did ghost shopping at my own companies, and I found that my service and people were better. My goods were good at a reasonable price, and the location was good too. I was not trained in business like many in my past world. But I did know my thing about business as a natural in it. I grew an empire in my past world as a boss. There was no way I would be incompetent in it.
So something was fishy, and I felt like I should imitate the mob a bit and give some people cement shoes. Although cement would be nice to sell, I did not want to do that at this point in time. I had no idea what was happening at the top of A rank, even with memories. They were all so blurry, but they did seem to care about gold.
But there was something wrong.
And it was not my business.
Was it the culture?
Was it like what happened with Coffee in Japan?
No, that was the fact that there was no market in a tea-dominated culture. No, this was something else, something that did not completely kill business but made it so that it was barely profitable. Even now, trying to sell fenced items, it was not profitable, and I could not figure out why.
Well, for the first few weeks, I watched employees and customers, and finally, I started to see the problem. Something I had not expected as I watched the customers of one of my general stores.
I was wearing my cloak, watching from the roof, the air was moist like normal, and I watched this woman as she finished shopping in my store and walked home. She walked with the goods in her basket and covered; she was a vampire, her pale skin flawless. She walked home, and I felt this woman was nothing more than a D-ranker. Clearly, that did not bother her at this moment as she headed home, but was stopped by another woman. My ears twitched as I randomly selected her in search of reasons why my business was not doing well.
"Hey Melody, how are you doing?" Her friend asked.
"Not bad, just went to that general good store, I am honestly surprised more people don't shop there," She said, looking down with a smile, "More for me though." She chuckled as she finished, and her friend looked at her with a peculiar look.
"I can't believe you went there," The woman's friend gasped a moment later, and my customer tilted her head.
"Why?" She asked.
"Because it's bad luck, like, fifty people who bought the goods there died!" She half-exclaimed, and my customer looked shocked, and my brow furrowed.
They continued to talk, but I could not help but tilt my head and wonder.
What the fuck?
Bad luck?
Sure, there were a lot of goods that went through a necromancer's hands. Sure, they were pilfered from galleys that had been robbed, turned into undead, and subsequently pirated undead. Then, they sold it back to the populace for gold so they could do it even more. But that did not mean they were haunted.
The Necromancers would never allow that.
They would use it for research instead.
Haunted products would be akin to giving a dog a bone. They would not allow it out of their hands afterward. They would love it too much. So if it was bad luck, then those necromancers would never let it go.
Then there was Carl, who took those fenced items too. He got them at a discount, but for cash up front. He knew vaguely where things were coming from; he was not stupid. But his business did not suffer from bad luck. The fact that the authorities did not start to address these rumors was another thing.
Something was up.
This was not normal.
Even when I put up sales, they did not bring in a lot of people, and so there was only one thing it could be.
Someone was sabotaging my business.
I had no proof, but I knew it now.
With the thought of it, my instincts decided for me as I felt certain. This was something I would do in my past life if I thought it would work. The peace and guard here are not corrupt enough to allow the more blatant things a gang or mob could do. Then my eyes narrowed because if it was sabotage through rumors, I had a few competitors, but I was not near many of them. In fact, one of the reasons I chose my current location was that it was an area that did not have general stores nearby. Which meant I knew who was sabotaging me through this soft method.
It was also hard to detect.
I also knew that they were a criminal, and this is something a good scheming gang member would do.
I found myself smiling because I already got a little bitch to start calling that Devil Daddy and hate me.
I chuckled as my mind settled on it.
Back in the Empire, I had to fight gang wars. More often than I liked, and it seemed that Carl had gotten the party started without me even knowing about it. But with a foreign dignitary coming, security in the capital will be at an all-time high. The guards will be twitchy, and that means I need to be discreet.
So I was already at war without even noticing. Was I losing my old edge?
I chuckled darkly, and I realized, "I am about to get someone else's toys into my hands. I wonder what their screams will be like when I play with them with the intent of breaking them?"
My question went out to the void, but I knew it was time to start acting.
Question was: Where would I start? Business, or Blood?
-----
Thank you for reading, if you want to support my hard work, please check out my patreon @Patreon.com/madjic
Or my Amazon, where I have a short story you can read on Kindle Unlimited.
Thanks again :D
Madjic