Chapter thirty six

It took me a couple of days to make enough inventory to open the shop. First I converted one of the bedrooms next to mine into a workshop by taking out the bed and replacing it with the forge I had stored in my ring. Then I started working on things that I thought that people would want, mostly household appliances that would make life easier. The first things I made were a couple of simple hot plate stoves with simple heat enchantments. Next I made the 'cleaning wand' with the 'remove' and 'dirt' runes. Although the 'remove' rune was a very weak rune it was perfect for this situation. I liked the performance of the cleaning wand so much that I kept one for myself. Next I attempted to make air conditioning. I had one piece of metal enchanted with 'hot' and 'wind' and another with 'cold' and 'wind'. Between them I placed a Bimetallic strip made of copper on one side and steel on the other inscribed with a pentagram to act as a switch, then I put the whole thing in a box and voilà ,an air conditioning system that blows hot air when it is cold and cold air when it is warm. I also made magical lights and other knick knacks to fill out the displays. The prices I came up with considering I was in a big city was twenty five silvers for the hot plates and fifty silvers for the cleaning wand and ac system. I made as much stock of each merchandize as I could in five days which turned out to be a lot.

As I worked I received several letters of thanks and invitations to meet from several members of the mage's council, but I politely declined all the invitations. I had a feeling I wouldn't like them as much as I liked Michael, he was an honest and candid man, the only reason he was even on the council was because he was ridiculously powerful. According to Michael all the other members are embroiled in bitter power struggles and I didn't want to get mixed up in that.

Five days later it was the opening of the store and the owners of the mall made a big event out of it, I didn't even ask them to do it. They were just using my store to attract attention to the mall. There were advertisements everywhere , they even had announcers on the streets. By the time I opened the store there was a large crowd already waiting so we had to form them up into lines so that no more than fifteen people could be in the store at one time. Inside the store the displays contained all the available products and there was a tag next to each one listing what it was and it's price. I had also hired two people from Michael's staff, with his permission of course, to look after the store. Their names were Bryan and Emily and they were pretty competent people.

At first the people were reluctant to pay so much money for something they've never seen before, but by the time the afternoon came everything was selling out like hot cakes. By the end of the day we sold a fifth of the stock and made a mind boggling 300 gold coins .That's 300 gold in one day. I know they say money doesn't buy happiness but then why do I have this warm glowy feeling in my chest?

I had to suppress the urge to break out into song as I made my way back to the castle.