After all the purchases are done, Kairos realised that the amount of money that they now have is still more than what they can use. And since the money is unused, it is just sitting there in his pouch.

“Dad always says that if we have any money, it means we aren’t properly using our funds. I guess we need to find proper ways to utilise it…. Any waste is not allowed!”

Kairos nodded to himself, faithfully following his father’s wisdom. Little did he know that this piece of advice was born of the fact that his dad did not know how to answer him why they are so poor?

While his brothers were showing off to each other their purchases, Kairos was thinking how to finish spending… cough… to best use the money they have.

“Let’s open up a shop,” he said suddenly.

When the others heard this, they all turned and looked at him.

A shop of their own! This is the dream for any poor person of the lower caste.

Even Jones who is now rightfully the heir to the Solitary Blades could not stop his excitement.

“Do I get a share?”

“Fat hope Jones. HAHAHA!”

“Hey, no fair. Kairos don’t be mean, I’ve helped too!”

“Well, if you join the Snowdrifts, then I might reconsider”

“If that’s the case, then I better not. In fact, I do love how Snowdrifts is right now, but I’m used to taking independent action. If I enter your group, I might not be able to help you with a single thing except making more enemies for you.”

“You’re afraid of troubling us with your wilfulness? Aww, how sweet big brother.”

“Yeah, you’re making us blush Jones,” even Edward added in.

“H..he..hey!~ Stop teasing me. I’m serious here! Even if I like your group, I will rather die than have my freedom restricted.”

“Then join us, and you can always stay yourself,” Kairos said with a smile and so did most of his brothers.

An odd look appeared on Jones’ face, then after thinking a while, he also smiled.

Jim, who is extremely confused shot off his question, “What? Why are you all smiling? What I miss this time? Come on… please tell me?”

“Kairos is saying that if Jones join the Snowdrifts, he can act as he wishes and not worry about troubling us. And also, because he joined us, he no longer needs to participate in any factions nor power struggles in Saint Empire.”

“You mean….”

“Haven’t you realised by now? Since our captain said he wants to open a shop, he already has taken a step forward in establishing his own faction. While there are only three factions that are extremely large right now, we will soon join them as the fourth!”

“Come on, join our group. This is the first time our captain invited someone you know?”

“Okay, okay… But don’t blame me if I create a lot of chaos out there alright?”

“I’ll probably smack you for that big brother. But you are in the group from now on.”

“Sigh. You’ve always been unreasonable like this since young. Alright, don’t regret it. Bwahahaa!”

“Well then, where is our first stop?”

The excitement once again builds up.

“Trade Federate,” Kairos said simply, and with those two words the group sped off.

…..

The Trade Federate main compound.

When they arrive at the beautiful hanging gardens near the centre of the city, they stopped for a moment, taking in the picturesque architectures in this area. This place is one of the higher class area and the central business district.

When they walked towards the entrance, a young man stationed there stopped them.

He looked at them weirdly.

“What are you kids doing here? Shoo. This place isn’t opened to the public.”

“We are here to tour the Trade Federate,” Kairos flashed the token that Grand Elder Feng had given him.

Even though the young man who is stationed here is rudely talking to them, Kairos did not want to bother with correcting his attitude. It couldn’t be helped that they would receive such a treatment from the destitute-looking robes they wore.

Fortunately showing his token is enough to allow him into the compound without further questions.

The attendant by the door immediately regrets being rude. If a person with the core craftsman token put in a bad word about him, it will mean losing his job.

“I’m sorry for my manners! May… may I help you?”

“We’re looking for the trade and commerce section.”

“Ah! Please go in all the way till the end of the corridor and turn right,” he swung the door open and invited them in with a very low bow, hopeful that the young boys will forget about him soon.

As the group ran in, Jim stopped right in front of the young man. The attendant lifted his face slightly and saw a tongue stuck out at him.

Sweat rolled down the sides of his cheeks.

The boys soon entered a whitewashed hall with huge roomy corridors. The entire interior of the building is elegant and lush, with detailed artwork carved on every pillar, depicting the history of Saint Empire. Paintings after paintings are hung adjourning the walls between each pair of pillars.

The group have stopped running in its halls and started sauntering while admiring the wealth displayed within the compound. It seems that even though the empire did not look highly at craftsmen, the Trade Federate itself is still highly competent.

When they finally turned into the hall of the trade and commerce section, they finally found out the reason. The room was filled with traders from within Saint Empire and outside. Their group did not know that this organisation is more than just found in Saint Empire, but a titan in the business world all over Gaia.

Within the building, this is one of the few areas that are opened to people with a trader’s pass or equivalent documents. In fact, once a person is registered they will be able to enter any Trade Federate compound in the world.

To become a trader, one will require a certain amount of status, or mortgage their personal assets to pledge a guarantee in trading. After fulfilling either requirement, then a person may engage in trading, but if the business fails and the person defaults, either his status will be revoked, or the pledge be seized.

This system no doubt played a large part in the great wealth that they saw.

As the empire’s own crafting technology is rather backwards and is heavily dependent on imports, trades within Saint Empire are especially heavily regulated and becoming a trader isn’t easy.

This is also one of the reasons why Kairos had accepted the offer of this honorary position from the Grand Elder.

They gathered in front of the counter, ignoring the stares of the other traders in the hall. It can’t be helped that both their age and apparel are eye-catching in this place.

“Hi, I would like to register a retail business in the city.”

“Hello, are you helping your parents register? I’m sorry, but they will need to be here personally, can you ask them to come here?”

“No, I am the one registering.”

Looking at Kairos’ clothes, the attendant at the counter couldn’t help feeling surprised.

There are times when a very young noble registers a shop under his own name, which is actually nothing surprising at all. But for a young boy who is dressed in commoner garb, it is the first time for him seeing this.

“I’m really sorry, but to register a trade you will need…..”

“Will this work?” Kairos handed him his token without waiting for him to finish his sentence.

“C…Core craftsman’s token? Yes, yes! This will do. Please fill up this paper.”

Thanking the man, the group went off to a corner to fill up the registration form.

“Hmmm…. Name of establishment….”

“Jim and his merry band?”

*Knock*

“Alan Walker and his boring friends?”

*Knock*

“Heaven first, Earth second and Jones third? We can short form it to Jones Co.”

*Knock*

Kairos smacked the three idiots in his group.

“We are calling it Snowdrifts’ shop of course!”

Ignoring his ‘merry band’ of brothers, he quickly filled up the form.

Name of establishment: Snowdrifts’ shop

Nature of business: Refining weapons and selling them

Shop owner: Kairos

Shop address: None

“Alright, this looks correct. Shall we hand it in?”

“Crafting and selling…… Shouldn’t the nature of business be weapons manufacture & retail?” Alan who read off the form exclaimed.

“Ah! Alright, I’ll quickly change that and hand it in,” he strikes the part he made a mistake several times and then corrected it.

None of them actually have any idea what are the usual terms used for registering a business, and after the attendant received the form, he looked through it and then looked curiously at the young boys.

Even though the sections are filled up with very unusual terms showing just how inexperienced the kids are, the attendant did not bother to advise them to change their form. With this type of high-ranking token in their possession, if possible he would even like to butter up to them.

“Young master, I see that you don’t have a shop location yet. Would you like to peruse our available outlets?”

“Sure thing. Where should I go to see them?”

As each of the departments in the Trade Federate compound handles different tasks, Kairos could guess that the shop outlets are sold at a separate counter.

“One moment please, Sir.”

The attendant smoothly took a crystal copy of the filled up registration form with experienced hands and then came back to the counter. The crystal copy is done by the same method as the crystal recording used during their exams, utilising the effects of different runes. Afterwards, he registered the copied form and assigned a number to it.

Handing back the form to them and in addition, giving them a tag, he said, “Young master, please walk down the hall and head left. Hand them your registration form and this tag, and they will guide you through the rest.”

Nodding with thanks, the group soon left to the shop front counter.

The guy couldn’t help but sigh as he watched them leave, “Who are these bunch of young kids? They look to be only ten to twelve, but they are able to attain a core craftsman token from Grand Elder Feng.”

A while later, when the group reached the right counter, they quickly handed over the form and tag as instructed. After confirming their business registration’s authenticity, the lady at the desk smiled politely at the young boys in front of her.

There is no hint of belittling them in her eyes when she sees how young they are. Any person that is able to register a business and come to her counter to purchase a shop front mustn’t be offended.

If the person she is attending is a young child, it merely means that the person has that much more talent or background compared to her. How would she dare to treat such people with disdain even if they looked to be children?

Besides this, she had heard of a rumour that the commoners’ garb are currently in fashion with Saint Cadets Academy’s students. She rechecked their robes and sighed, “Ah, those badges… they really are from the academy.”

“Welcome young sirs, this is our shop fronts retail counter. Do you have anything in mind?”

Kairos thought for a while. With his funds, it would not be too difficult for him to buy a large shop front, even the cost for manpower needed to run such a shop isn’t a concern for him. If he needed, a hundred or two hundred attendants could be easily gathered. The only problem is the number of refined weapons he could manufacture is extremely limited.

It took him almost a week to craft a hundred sword, each weapon taking half an hour of his time. If he focuses on refining weapons, he could probably churn out two or three times that amount within the same length of time, but even with that amount of weapons, it wouldn’t warrant him to get a large shop front.

“I would like to see the medium-sized retail outlets.”

“This way please young sir.”

The lady came out from behind the counter and led the group through a beautiful gold plated door at the back.

When the boys followed her, they entered a large dome-shaped hall with multiple crystal balls. Each is about the size of a melon and placed neatly upon pedestals, arranged in rows.

Underneath each crystal ball is a similar runic formation as the giant crystal ball in the instructors’ room back at the academy.

Unlike the giant crystal ball, however, each of these small crystal balls’ images flickers non-stop, between a view of the street and the model of a building.

The group excitedly scattered to wander about the place. When they see something of interest, they will tap the image to change the view to the interiors of each shop.

At the side of each pedestal shows the lease price and the purchase price of the unit.

Although the price is high, buying the entire shopfront is more cost-effective. Once purchased, the buyer will gain full ownership and is free to remodel or reconstruct the building, and at the end of a hundred years, it must be reacquired, or the empire will purchase the land back.

On the other hand, leasing a shop costs less, but lasts only for a single term. The longer the term, the cheaper it is. However, it is full of restrictions. The building will be limited to renovations, the rental costs often increases, and at the end of the term, the renewal could be an open market bid.

Looking through the prices Kairos quickly decide to make a purchase instead of just renting a shop front. While the prices are somewhat steep, the cash that he has is more than enough to buy a few shops without batting an eye.

After half an hour, the brothers regathered at the entrance of the hall. Since there are no other people here besides the lady attending to them, they did not feel any unease from roaming about the place.

“Found any good locations?”

“There are a few spots with a sizable crowd, captain.”

“Let’s look at the most elegant looking ones among them.”

With his refining speed he simply cannot afford to mass-produce refined weapons, so instead, he thought to make his shop into a luxury brand, and to do so requires him to choose first-rate shopfronts.

In the future, if he found a way to refine more weapons, he can still easily expand by purchasing more of such places, therefore the first shop that he buys need to be set on a high bar for the other shops that follows.

Each brother suggested a few places, and Kairos looked through them one by one. Even though their relationships are very close, the brothers all know that the money is earned by their captain and the decision falls to him. Whatever choice he makes, they would not go against him.

After a looking through all the suggestions, Kairos finally settled on an impressive and beautiful building with tall pillars and a painted dome. Both the exterior and the interior are carefully designed for looking elegant and pristine. The material of the unit itself is maintained with a low-level barrier that could repel the elements.

The exterior of the dorm is adorned with champagne gold coloured paint upon sensible greyish black bricks, while the interior of the dorm celling is a huge painting of a war between angels and demons. This painting immediately caught his eyes, and he immediately liked it.

Not just him alone but Jones who is just as enthusiastic about myths and legends also heavily supported the decision.

The cost to purchase this impressive looking building came to a hundred White Gold, about two hundred times the price of a house.

Even though he now has a thousand White Gold in his pockets, this is still a large amount for him. But after confirming his decision, he immediately approached the attendant and made his purchase.

“O…ooonee… hundred White Gold?!” The guys almost shouted when they saw the shop Kairos picked out.

“Alright, we’re done. Shall we go now?” he spoke as though what he just bought was a cabbage instead of a hundred White Gold building.

The others couldn’t believe their ears. However, it wasn’t that Kairos started splurging after he earned some money, nor is it because he never had such a great amount that he didn’t know how to use it properly, but a decision after careful analysis.

After making his decision, no matter if it is spending one green copper or one thousand White Gold, he wouldn’t regret. The purpose and the worth are what mattered.

Because of this, while his brothers all felt a pinch in their heart, he was wholly unaffected.

With five listless guys in tow, Kairos walked out of the Trade Federate into the busy market street.

The rest of them still felt as if their souls had flown away after seeing that a hundred pieces of beautiful White Gold coins fly out of their captain’s pockets into the attendant lady’s hands.

That lady isn’t even that beautiful!

“…. Captain has gone mad.”

“Do you think that the captain chose the most expensive one to impress that lady?”

“o..oo..ooonee.. thoussssand white golldd?” Edward continued stammering. The words he is saying are no different from the ones he repeated since ten minutes ago when the purchase was made.

His eyes are extremely wide looking at his own hands while counting with his fingers.

“a…a…..hundred…”

Now that the purchase is completed, Kairos is not in a hurry to return to the dorm either.

He still needs to visit three specific families on another side of the market street.