Chương 926: Chapter 925: Secret Meeting

Malvid Donar My carriage stopped in front of the opulent mansion, and I stepped out of it. I looked at the mansion and sighed. I still live in a rented house, focusing all my wealth on my business, which has served me well. Over the past few years, my business has exploded in growth. From a small brothel owner to one of the biggest in Greltheaven. I had even expanded to three cities.

Still, sometimes, I regret not buying the mansion when they were selling at dirt cheap prices, when everybody was leaving because of the undead attack. I used all the money I had to buy the brothels and contracts, instead of a mansion.

"Guildmaster Donar, please follow me," said the woman at the door. I nodded and followed behind. Soon, I reached the parlour, where I saw four men and two women sitting. I should have expected this. Wilson invited me, and I agreed. I thought it would be a business-related meeting, but here it is something else. It made me angry. It might not look good if she found out that I came to such a meeting without informing her.

She isn't the woman to decide without listening to everything, but I would rather not take a chance. I have this position because of her favour. If it disappears, the position would disappear along with all the power I have because of it. I really don't want that; the Guild of Brothel Keepers has huge potential in the dominion. It could become as powerful as the Mage Guild. Enough that it could even become independent from the merchant guild one day.

"Ladies and gentlemen," I finally greeted.

"Donar, forgive me. I knew you wouldn't have agreed to meet if I had told you before hand," stated Wilson, looking at me apologetically. I wanted to curse at the bastard. Instead, I sat down with a smile.

"Since you have called me, I am sure you all have something to talk about," I said. I know what they want to talk about, and I wanted to say, it's a lost cause.

"The proposal," said Hadkir, the bearded man on the right. He is from the House of Hadkir; his family has brothels all across the empire.

"The laws until now were harsh, but manageable. These go beyond that," added Sarva. She was a whore in her younger days before she became madam, before rising to become a brothel owner. She is quite the dangerous woman.

"They now want us to give the whores a commission of 20% to 25%, invest more into the upkeep of the brothels, enforce the hours, and staff leave more strictly."

"Worst of them all, he is officially bringing Exit Nullification," said Doris, a woman in her late twenties. Making exit nullification official had hit a nerve with them all. The dominion passed a law making contracts longer than five years illegal. So, people would shift the whores out of dominion once a few months remained on their contract. Take them to another jurisdiction and force them to sign again for five more years, then bring them to Greltheaven.

It is a common strategy, not only of brothels, but of many other businesses, but with us it works the most, because whores are most desperate. They have nowhere to go other than a brothel. He cracked down on it; he cancelled the licenses of those brothels that did that and threw them out of the dominion. Exit nullification will make that official policy. Every prostitute working under them will sign a new contract. Even those with their contracts expiring in a few months.

The time will remain the same, but the contract language will change. With this, every present whore and the ones who will come to the dominion sign the contract. It will be such that once they cross the boundary of dominion, the contract becomes null. Now, with new laws, we will have to inform them if we want to move the whore. No, whore wants to leave the dominion. Hell, half of my whores are not even renewing their contracts despite the far better earnings that they used to have.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. They want to work in 'respectable jobs.' In other places, nobody would hire them, but here nearly everyone would. Velvet Garden had changed the perception of whores and what they could do. Not to mention, many women of Velvet Garden own businesses, and they prefer to hire whores, even if they are unskilled. Seeing that, other businesses have done the same to curry favour.

They had even opened the schools to teach them things that would help them get other classes and jobs. I don't like any of it; I hate it, as most of the brothel owners do, but the laughable thing is, it didn't change the facts even one bit.

"I even heard that the Lord is letting those bastard merchants open the brothels. With the financial muscle they will come with, they will run us out of business!" said Sarva, with her eyes flashing dangerously. She calmed down and turned to me; they all turned their eyes to me.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked.

"You have a good relationship with her; convince her how bad these laws will be for us, even for her fund and her people," replied Doris, and I wanted to laugh.

"If you can convince her, the Lord will agree," added Wilson. This is the only truthful thing they have said so far. They call her a shadow regent. Everyone in the whole dominion knows how much power she has over Silver. Some say Silver is her puppet, while others say he loves her so much that he will do anything for her. Though one thing everyone agrees on is that she is the only person with the power to change Silver's mind. I shook my head and smiled, but a moment later, it turned into a laugh out of the sudden.

It took me a moment to calm down.

"I am sorry to burst your bubble, but she is in favour of it. She was even saying, Lord Silver, didn't go far enough with it," I replied, turning their faces ugly. Which made me want to laugh more, but I controlled myself.

"I don't know why you are even surprised?" I asked.

"He had already indicated he would do such things," She or Silver never hid their thoughts about the business; they clearly stated their goals for prostitution from the beginning, but we all thought it was just usual noble talk. Most nobles like to talk big, but not do a single thing. Silver is not like most.

"We thought he would not do it. Even if he does it, it would take years, but he is moving too fast, just like those Bi.. woman of Velvet Garden," said Hadkir. Many sighed hearing that, including me. He really moved fast. So, has the Velvet Garden and those women of it. The woman of Velvet Garden had bought a brothel, and so had that fund of Velvet Garden. They have not only invested in brothels of their members but also in those of others. The fund owns a 32% stake in my brothels.

From the whispers I heard, it had invested in others as well. If I were to guess, they own a total third of all the brothels, and it is only increasing. Thank God for the closing of Velvet Garden; it had slowed down their rapid acquisitions. Though their activities had not slowed, they are investing more in the business they have. She had even asked me if I needed more funds to expand my business. I do not. Instead, I will reduce the stake owned by the fund over the next year.

She dictates what I do as Guildmaster; I don't like her giving me instructions on how to run my very own business. She rarely interferes, but when she does, I have to listen.

"Sorry to waste your efforts, but I don't think I could help you at all," I said.

"You are Guildmaster, for God's sake, have some spine!" cursed Rendim, and I looked at the tall, middle-aged man.

"What did you say, little bastard?" I asked the man, feeling angry. Hesitation appeared on his face, but his expression became firm.

"I said, have some spine!" he replied defiantly. I got up and appeared before the man, grabbing and holding his neck, before he could react. His guards noticed the movement, but my guards moved to stop his.

"I am Guildmaster, and you will speak to me respectfully," I said, squeezing his neck tightly while he struggled. I could feel him activating his skills, but the man is lower level than me. His skills are purely mercantile, while mine are martial. My class descended from a fusion of merchants and warriors. Seconds passed, and his face began to turn pale as he struggled to breathe.

"I have a spine, and it's because of that spine that I have been lobbying hard against the proposal, while you fucking cowards didn't even dare to utter a word in front of her," I stated. Yes, I am lobbying, despite knowing it is fruitless. It is not only for their business but also for mine. I don't want those whores of Velvet Garden controlling everything.

"Guildmaster, that's enough. I am sure Rendim is regretful for his choice of words," said Sarva. She said, 'choice of words,' not that he shouldn't have used those words. I looked at the bitch before letting him go. She might be speaking against her right now, but I have seen how she tries to flatter her. If anyone is a threat to my position, then it would be her. Rendim took rapid breaths, and slowly color returned to his face. When he got his breathing under control, he glared at me, but didn't utter a word.

"The point of the meeting is that we are making good money, and we want nothing to jeopardise that," said Wilson. Well, he is right about that. We are earning a lot, better than anyone had imagined. Our rates are higher than even the merchant state, but people do not care; they would come to our establishment to fuck. Greltheaven is developing a reputation for its whorehouses. It is because of Velvet Garden and its influence. It brings many people to the city.

Most of these people could not see more than the store floors. So, they come to us. We have an advantage over other brothels in cities outside our dominion because of Velvet Garden. The biggest advantage we have is the classes and levels of our whores. Because of the influence of the legacy, they get better classes and skills and level up faster. Though I will say a beautiful red-light district with pristine buildings and clean rooms to fuck in, even at the lowest-level brothel, helps with appeal.

They maintain the standard strictly, with agents making surprise inspections. Those who failed got their businesses suspended for a day or even had their license revoked, depending on the violation. It stops most of them from cutting corners. Besides, business is good; even now, after Velvet Garden closed, we are still getting patrons. It is not as good as when it was open, but it is still good, and it will be amazing when it opens again.

This is why we are so opposed to the new proposal, especially the permission to open new brothels. I pushed the thoughts away and turned to the people in front of me.

"The new proposal is going to be enacted into law. The only thing we could manage was to dilute some points."

"I believe we could manage that as long as we all request her together," I stated. It would be a victory if we could delay the merchant's entry by even six months. Fifteen minutes later, I walked out of the mansion before stepping into the carriage.

"Connect me to Lady Carla's office," I ordered the mage while the carriage moved onto the road. I didn't want to give her the opportunity to remove me from my position. I will sell those bastards if I have to keep my position.