In this medieval period, most troubadours migrated from village to town performing dramas, signing, or playing music. In Guidon, most musical performances happened outside in the city central plaza by the fountain. In the plaza, troubadours would build a small wooden platform on which to perform.

Will's theatre was the first enclosed stage in this era, with large curtains splitting the stage in half. When Mei gave the troubadours a tour and explained that they would be responsible for putting on the stage and would receive a cut of the ticket purchases, their eyes widened. The life of a traveling musician is not a pretty picture, roaming from place to place with no guaranteed income, food, shelter. Often troubadours were pelted with fruit as they receive acclaim. Here though, they were offered a steady job and paying crowd. They quickly agreed to a one-year contract.

The theatre was a four-story tall building, that resembled a small church, with four spiral towers and stained-glass windows. Inside, there was a sturdy two-story stage, with storage underneath. The theatre resembled the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury. Mei showed them how they can change the scenery and the dressing rooms. Their eyes began to bulge. Mei explained the seating chart, the commoners stood on the ground floor, and seats on the above rows were for nobles. There were two suits adjacent to the stage for the City Lord, Will, the royal family, and the last was for sale.

Will purposefully schedule the auction, the same night as the grand opening of the casino and theatre. Will invited the guest from across the kingdom to stay as his guest in the inn, dine at his restaurant, and enjoy the fun of the casino.

Guest arrived from across the country, even dignitaries from other countries arrived. When the guest checked into the inn, they marveled at the ostentatious inn, with gold engraved lines and ornate decorations. According to several guests, the inn resembled a marquis' mansion. The inn's restaurant had superb food and the casino games were thrilling. After learning how to play craps, roulette, baccarat, blackjack, and pai gow they laughed at the fun. There were even tables for reversi and chess. Moreover, the casino was the only place they could purchase auction paddles for bidding. The excitement of the inn, but people in a state of wonder. The awe of the beautiful inn, great restaurant food, and fun games put everyone at ease.

Three weeks after the Knight Academy promotional ceremony, on the last day of the month, the auction is scheduled to commence. People filed into the theatre, the nobles walked in the front doors and the commoners walked in the side entrances. The theatre ushers, who looked like butlers in black suits and white gloves, guided nobles to their seats. Will personally greeted his majesties' Civil Administrator, Duke vont Whitby, and foreign dignitaries. Will and the City Lord opened their suites to guests.

After 30 minutes Will walked onto the stage, Vanessa stood behind him holding the purple beast core.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guest to my new theatre. I hope you enjoyed the inn's food and entertainment. Behind me is the beast core, from a grandmaster giant black panther." Will told them about the battle against the beast, choosing to diminish his role and focus on the heroism of the marshals. "Please enjoy tonight's performance of Fermion's historic founding, the auction will begin at the end of the show," Will bowed and left the stage.

Then the drapes opened, and a narrator came out with a lute. The musical was called the 'Seven Descents of Man.' The musical spoke about the seven human children of Gaia who became the human kings after the great flood that killed Gaia's creations of man. Fermion's first king heroically led his people to safety during a great flood. His militaristic conquest and carved out the first borders of Fermion against armies of beastmen, elves, other human kingdoms. The first king could kill mythical creatures single-handedly and had a harem of beautiful women. His death was tragic, and the country mourned for three years. When the drapes closed, women cried, and men applauded. The stunts, costumes, number of actors, scenery awed the attendants.

After the troubadour's final bow, they ran off stage emotionally themselves. Never before had they had the opportunity to put on this kind of performance. Many felt they reached the pinnacle of their craft.

Vanessa returned to the stage, wearing a tight-fitting red cheongsam, with white flowers. She lauded the performance and encouraged the audience to attend future theatre performances. She informed the crowd after a short 30-minute intermission, the auction would begin.

The auction began with ornate pottery, high-quality swords, staffs, and wands. Terra was a world in which magic and strength were respected, and power meant doing whatever you wanted. People admired Will more for his spellsword magic and combat strength than his large reserve of coin. In Terra, power was the only commodity that mattered. Yet, Will eschewed magic and strength, in favor of coin, it made no sense. Any other person would have hoarded the beast core, kept quiet and used it to level themselves.

Elder Thaddeus chuckled; this was one of the reasons he chose Will as his disciple. Watching this crowd he laughed, 'who but his disciple would do something like this?' This had never been done in the kingdom before, someone reckless enough to auction a grandmaster beast core, in front of these well-dressed vultures.'

Now for the finale, she uncovered the beast core. "This beast core was authenticated by the Guidon Mage and Knight Headmaster. Grandmaster Thaddeus, the king's tutor inspected the beast core and called it 'flawless.'" This excited the crowd, people stirred in their seats to get a better look. "The City Lord, sent his guards to protect the beast core from harm. Dear sirs and madams, today I announce the Giant Panther grandmaster beast core will start the bid of 50,000 gold coins and bids must increase in increments of hundreds.

"Immediately, someone shouted 50,100 gold!"

"51,000"

"52,000"

...…

"100,00 gold"

"100,500 gold"

"101,000 gold"

...…

"150,000 gold"

After 150,00 gold people became more cautious and started to observe their competitors more closely. This was the battle amount the nobility, what viscount would choose to compete against a count, or what count would compete against a marquis. Would insult a noble of being worth the cost? However, if the beast core could help them or their heir breakthrough from journeyman to master wouldn't it be worth it. Who would face off against a master swordsman or mage, they would only be courting death.

"150, 250 gold"

"150,500 gold"

"155,000 gold"

...…

"Fools betting against the king, can't they see that's why I came here today. Who could outspend the crow," said the king's Civil Administrator. Before he shouted, "200,000 gold!"

Everyone became quiet, who would bet against the king?

Then an emissary, a woman wearing a white dress with a hood and veil covering her face, spoke up, "220,000 gold!"

The Civil Administrator was stunned, someone willing chose to bid against the crown, and embarrass him as well. Fine, the crown would not lose, if "240,000 gold."

Then another voice shouted, "I represent his Supreme Sultan Albus d'Aristae of Albania. Who would dare bid against him, "400,000 gold!"

The Civil Administrator began to fume, "who allowed this dog in here! Fermion has never lost to Albania before, and we won't lose today. Even though Fermion failed several times to conquer Albania, according to history war became a stalemate and was thus considered a drawl.

"450,000 gold" is my final offer said the woman dressed in white.

"460,000 gold" shouted the Albania emissary, and said, "Albania has never lost to Fermion either."

"500,000 gold" shouted the Civil Administrator who staggered out the number. The personally requested this item.

The entire audience was stunned into silence. If 100 coppers equaled one silver, and 100 silver equaled one gold then Will earned five million copper coins. No one, even Will, thought this auction would become a proxy war between Albania and Fermion. Moreover, who was the mysterious woman in white? This auction would certainly be remembered and provide an excellent dinner conversation.

"Thank you for attending tonight's theatre and auction, the Silver Pheonix company wishes you a safe evening. Honorable Civil Administrator, you may pick up the beast core backstage, an usher will escort you.

Behind the drapes, Will was stunned. He received 100,000 times his asking price. Will thought the price would top out around 200,000 gold, but instead, the price doubled. 'And who was the lady in white?' he thought.

The stuffy, exhausted, cherry red, Civil Administrator has been ushered backstage. Elder Thaddeus and both headmasters stood behind Will.

"Greetings Honorable Administrator," said Will respectfully bowing.

"Greeting to you as well young noble William vont Ballard. I have 200,000 gold coins on hand, he passed Will 2,000 grand gold coins. I will write you a promissory note for the other 300,000 gold from the royal treasury when you are in the capital," he huffed before grabbing the beast core and walking away. He was visibly angry. The man thought he could purchase the beast core for a low price and ended up having to shell out more money than he brought.

"Mei take 100,000 gold, the promissory note, and head for the capital. Also here are my letters addressing the Merchant Guild and Land Office. Remember after your expense, buy me a small house and donate the rest to The Church of Gaia." Will said.

"Boss Will, are you sure?" Mei asked. The most merchant didn't give this type of responsibility to senior clerks. Yet, Will was used to delegating. A good manager knew to hire good people and let them do their job. Mei had worked with Will for over four months, and he knew she was a hard worker with a trustworthy character.

"Yes, it's fine. Coordinate with Vanessa before you go. Make sure you find the best junior clerk in the capital, that is very important." Will instructed her, keeping the other 1000 grand gold coins in his coin purse.

Tomorrow, Mei and Will would both leave Guidon. Mei would travel north to the capital. And Will would travel west with Lawrence and Holo to his parents' barony.

Accounting for the café, inn, and theatre will make over 100,000 in profit in two days. Will wished he could invest his money in the stock market, or shipping voyage. He had over 200,000 sitting in his cottage bedroom and the amount only increased over time. Every economist knows that money loses value over time, this was certainly one of the many problems with being a capitalist in a mercantile economy.

Mercantile economies concentrated on building a wealthy and powerful country. Mercantile countries would export finished goods, and discourage imports by creating high tariffs. However, a global economic system where everyone exports and no one imports are doomed to fail. This is why mercantile countries were also warmongers who needed more land, more resources, for which to export, to earn more gold, to hoard. By forcing colonizers to purchase imported goods, the home country could stockpile more gold.

However, the mercantile and aristocracy worked well to keep unemployment low, it also impoverished a large swarth of the economy, and kept the rich, rich, and the poor, poor. Even worse, the gold hoarded by the state was used to fund Fermion's useless wars. Wars that in reality we're used to paying poor people from rebelling by recruiting them into the army and paying them a fair wage. Even worse, the government created this redistribution of wealth establishing high taxes on the merchants and nobles.

Every month, tax collectors would visit his shop asking for 40% of his profit, expecting Will to hand over his hard earn coin with joy and happily fulfill his patriotic duty. It was no wonder why people stockpiled coins, who knew when the taxes would increase?