The Good Teacher

"Teacher Larks, you didn't have to come all the way here," Karmin greeted jollily while reaching forward for a sincere hug.

As Guy embraced the man in return, he noticed a few changes in his demeanour. For one, Karmin appeared much, much stress-free as opposed to the last time. It was also evident that he had put on a little weight and his face had gained more colour.

'It looks like business is good,' Guy thought to himself. If only he checked his bank account first, he would realise just how much of an understatement that comment was. The Burning Forge was raking in an ungodly amount of money. After people realised the ubiquity and base strength of steel, they started to adopt it everywhere. Mercenary corps, sects, clans, businesses, heck even the Royal Family placed orders for steel weapons and armours, both enchanted and regular.

It got so out of hand that Karmin was forced to loosen the restrictions on the purchase and sale of the alloy, which was preceded by an extremely heated negotiation with the Head of the Smithing and Enchanting Guild. Although a few concessions were made, there were no substantial losses. The Burning Forge, and Guy, still held the patents for the alloy and would receive a set percentage share from every unit mass of steel sold through the Guild and its channels. The guild and its members could sell steel as ingots and as forged weapons and armours, but enchanting was only allowed through The Burning Forge's stamp.

Thanks to these events, Guy's account had ballooned significantly, and the bank had taken the initiative to upgrade his status to VVIP. Of course, Guy did not know of this yet since his registered address had expired and they could not correspond with him.

"Since it was I who needed a favour, it was only right that I approached you. Besides that, I don't qualify for the 'Teacher' title. You can just call me Guy," Guy said while waving his hands.

"If that is what you prefer, then let's be casual. I believe we've earned this given our business entanglements. You can be comfortable with me and call me Karmin," the man responded jovially and gestured for Guy to take a seat. They were currently in The Burning Forge's office in Radiant City. Guy travelled to the commercial hub of the Maika Duchy to accomplish many things in preparation for setting up his Sect. One of which would require the involvement of backers with wide sales channels, an established and substantial business, and an open mind with the willingness to take risks.

"I received your mail earlier, it indicated that you wanted to discuss something?" Karmin directed the conversation. After getting to know Guy, he understood that just like himself, the man wasn't a fan of useless small talk.

"That is true. Before I get to that, though, I would like to talk about a few prerequisite details that will support my request," Guy responded and proceeded to explain his goal of starting a Sect.

Now that Guy had a name for his Sect as well as a location where it could be established, he started to move down the checklist and addressed the next order of business which was income. A sect needed money to sustain itself. Escort missions were a sect's bread and butter, but those were hard to come by since most businesses preferred established sects instead of hedging their bets on fledgelings. Those that did commission new and less renowned sects wouldn't be able to pay as much. So Guy was sure that his sect wouldn't be able to recoup its expenses by relying only on escort missions. Furthermore, those missions were often dangerous and he wasn't sure if his students were strong enough to handle them so soon.

An alternative that did not involve underage kids putting their lives on the line was through conducting business. This could involve providing a specialised service or selling unique products.

To that end, Guy found through research that there were exceedingly complex steps involved in starting a business affiliated with a Sect. Especially within the Solar Empire, where the market was heavily controlled, there were a plethora of requirements that needed to be fulfilled. The most stringent of said requirements was that any company spawned off a Sect could not have physical stores within any commercial districts - purchases must be made directly with the Sect. To elaborate, if Guy created a company that provided a good or service, customers could only purchase that good or commission the service by contacting the Sect's sales representative. They could not go to a storefront that acted as the point-of-sale. This was a massive disadvantage because it automatically removed the primary mode of promotion in this world. Essentially, it turns Sects into e-commerce businesses, but without the internet.

Apart from this, Guy was faced with other roadblocks common to new businesses, most of which could be solved by building lucrative connections. This could be accomplished by bringing in investors. Investors hold a stake in a business and have an active motivation to assure its success. This was Guy's purpose in approaching Karmin.

"I see," Karmin hummed once Guy finished speaking. "So I am guessing that your request has something to do with your Sect's possible revenue stream?"

"That is correct," Guy affirmed.

"So?" Karmin inquired as he leaned into his table.

Guy smiled and reached into his bag, retrieving a half-inch thick, A4-sized bound stack of papers and placed it in front of Karmin.

"What's this?" Karmin asked with furrowed brows as he pulled the stack towards himself.

"The business proposal," Guy explained.

Karmin glossed the cover page, "Verum Trading Company? What's Verum?"

"It means 'truth' in an extinct language," Guy answered. "If you peruse the Executive Summary on the subsequent page, you will see that my sect is called 'True World Sect'. Hence, to establish a relationship between the company and the Sect, I decided to name the company as such."

Karmin hummed and proceeded to read through the proposal. Contrary to his expectations, going as far as to exceed them, the report was thorough. Extremely so. It started with a description of the company's purpose.

"It says here that, 'The Verum Trading Company seeks to fulfil gaps in the market that the public isn't fully aware of.' This sounds a little vague, can you expand on it?"

"Surely. There is a saying where I come from that 'Necessity is the mother of creation.' People seek out solutions and invent when a vital need is found unfulfilled. People built carts when the need to travel over long distances while transporting heavy goods was found unfulfilled. People built roads when the need for said travel grew perilous and unstable," Guy started. He then shifted his tone and professed a few counterpoints, "But what happens when a large portion of these needs get fulfilled? This is where we encroach upon the territory of the 'wants'. This is a slippery slope since satisfying wants is not crucial, but merely enjoyable. People needed clothing to protect themselves from the environment, but they wanted fashion to express their individuality and in some cases flaunt their wealth. But that is beyond the scope of our discussion."

"Ironically, it is by satisfying wants that businesses thrive. This is also what separates the lucrative businesses from the ones that just get by. Through my research over the past few weeks in the commercial districts of Radiant City and Wayward Town, I found out that most, if not all businesses that cater to consumer 'wants' do so exclusively with a market segment that has an excess of disposable income and savings. I would like to draw your attention to-" Guy leaned forward and turned the pages of the report. "-here. On this page, I have described my observation comparing a Carpenter's Shop in Wayward Town against a Furniture Emporium here in Radiant City. In the Shop, 88% of the clients were of a segment from the low-income bracket. On a side note, I've defined my criteria for such labels on the reference page at the front. 8% were from businesses looking for cheap and disposable furniture, while the rest were simply miscellaneous. However, the Emporium exclusively catered to a wealthy clientele. And by wealthy, I mean in both money and power. In fact, I saw them kick out a man who had the finances to purchase their products but lacked sufficient fame."

"How did you get this information?" Karmin asked incredulously.

"I stalked outside the stores and took surveys. The people visiting the Shop were more upfront with their answers. For the Emporium, I had to rely solely on my observations, hence they may be skewed or biased - just a fair warning," Guy clarified. "But I want to point out that the Emporium made a heck of a lot more out of their sparse sales as opposed to the carpenter with his apprentices who outputted more units per order. I also noticed that the variety of products sold by the carpenter was sorely lacking, while the Emporium had a myriad of products with varying designs."

"Well the Carpenter's clients don't really seek such ornamentations," Karmin pointed out.

"Exactly!" Guy said while snapping his fingers. "Why is that?"

"Why is what?"

"Why is it that the Carpenter's clients don't seek these ornamentations? Why is everyone - by that I am referring to the large segment of the market that falls under the middle to low-income brackets - suddenly just content with mediocrity and living a mundane life?" Guy professed animatedly.

Guy decided to pull a few tricks he learned from his sister in his past life and blasted Karmin with a declaration that shook the man to his core.

"Everyone wants," he said with a weighty voice that started to crescendo as he spoke. "Everyone wants, but most lack the frame of mind to pursue it. People believe that certain excesses are beyond their station - that they are solely for the rich and powerful - and that they don't deserve it. But the Verum Trading Company aims to disprove this mentality. A farmer can enjoy the luxury of owning their very own chaise lounge without having to feel heartache over shelling out an inhuman amount of currency. And similarly, a carpenter need not fret over being unable to fulfil that demand should the farmer approach them."

"Every need or want can be fulfilled by ingenuity and creativity. This is Verum Trading Company's motto. We seek to output products that address the overlooked gaps in the market that are reservoirs of wealth just waiting to be tapped."