City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Chapter 29 Legal Adviser

Miss Cain left after finalizing a few details; she will start for the order immediately and tailer three dresses for three girls, including Carla, by the end of the week.
 
We have already chosen the designs, and she made a few changes to them according to our suggestions. She said she would have three dresses ready in the week, and she would also hire people to make this massive order within two months.
 
Carla had left with her to take the measurements and discuss the design adjustment with two other girls.
 
As they left, I walked to my room and changed into the better cloth before walking out of the manor. 
 
Twenty minutes later, the carriage pulled into the large compound of the merchant guild. As it parked, I got out of it and walked into the huge building of the merchant guild.
 
It is filled with people; hundreds of them could be seen getting in and out of the large lobby. There are offices of many guilds inside the merchant guild; from cobblers to blacksmiths, one will find the office representing nearly every trade.
 
I looked around and turned before walking toward the magical elevator; there was a guard there, but I flashed him my merchant badge, which stopped him in his tracks.
 
The badge is different from the normal merchant id badge.
 
It is purple in color and is only given to members of powerful mercantile houses. There is a sigil house of silver in the center, and below it is a unique id number that belongs to me.
 
This badge is rare, even in powerful mercantile houses, as each mercantile house allocated only hundreds of special badges. 
 
Edwin’s badge had been taken away by the house, which he was quite angry about, but it was the condition of the deal father had made with grandfather to let Edwin get the title noble.
 
I stepped into the elevator, and it rose quickly, and a couple of seconds later, it reached the top, and the energy cover surrounding it had disappeared. 
 
I stepped inside and walked toward the office of Damon Hardt.
 
“Remus Silver, I have an appointment with the Guildmaster at eleven,” I said; there were only four minutes to eleven.
 
“The Guildmaster will see you soon,” said the dark blue-haired receptionist. I nodded and sat down in a comfortable chair.
 
“Mister Silver, the Guildmaster will see you now,” she said, right at eleven. “Thank you,” I said and walked to the office of Damon Hardt, whose door had opened on its own.
 
Soon, I walked into an opulent office with a great view and saw Damon Hardt sitting behind the huge table. He is not the only one; there is a man in his early fifties sitting on the couch by the glass window.
 
“Guildmaster Hardt, vice-guild master Ramos,” I greeted two of them. “Young silver, take a seat,” said Damon Hardt.
 
“Thank you, Guildmaster,” I said as I took a seat in front of him.
 
“Remus, you applied for the position of the legal adviser of the guild, and we intend to give it to you as respect to your grandfather,” he said, clearly telling me why he gave me the job while making no mention of Soren Arryn and the thing I did for him.
 
“Thank you, Guildmaster,” I said with a smile.
 
I knew the letter from my Grandfather would work; we might be merchants, but deep politics run in business. If they had not given me this harmless position, Grandfather would have taken a note, and they did not want that.
 
Especially for a harmless position as a legal adviser.
 
“The position is yours, and john will take you to your office; he is responsible for the legal department,” he said, turning to John Ramon, who is also a leader of the wool guild, which contains the businesses of weavers, dyers, and fullers.
 
The trade might not be powerful, but like Silver and Hardt, the merchant house Ramos is powerful; they deal in clothing, mundane and magical.
 
“Come, Mister Remus,” he said as he got up. I, once again, thanked Damon Hardt and walked out of his office with John Ramos.
 
“The legal office is on the third floor,” he said as we walked toward the stairs in silence.
 
“Soren Arryn said quite a thing about you, that you helped him quite a lot with his contract,” he said as we walked down the stairs.
 
“I was just lucky,” I replied humbly, to which he smiled. 
 
“We are going to sign thousands of contracts in the coming weeks, and there will be a lot of work,”
 
“If you are capable of doing what Arryn had said you are, then you will be a great asset to our guild,” he said. To that, I smiled.
 
He did not say anything further, and soon we reached the third floor and walked through the hallway till we reached the door, which had ‘legal’ written on it, before entering inside.
 
What is inside is a huge hall, with people sitting at desks working on the papers in front of them; there are fifty people working on different things.
 
“We have fifty-two lawyers in the legal department; they handle crafting contracts, finding loopholes, solving disputes, among other things,”
 
“You will be responsible for the contracts,” he said, and I nodded without a word.
 
As we walked, an old man in his late sixties came toward us, “Vice-guild master,” greeted the old man as he appeared. “Remus, this is Philip Oakley, responsible for the legal department of the guild,” he introduced.
 
“Philip, this is Remus Silver; he will be the legal adviser,” he said. “Mr. Silver, it will be great to have a member of a distinguished mercantile house,” said the old man and shook my hand.
 
“It will be a pleasure to work with you, mister Oakley,” I shook his hand back.
 
Looking at the expression of the old man, it is clear he did not want me here, a young upstart from a powerful house who would make a mess of things.
 
“You are the final and fifth adviser; I hope you will have a pleasant time working here,” he said as she took to my office. 
 
It is a small square space with a table and three chairs, but I have privacy, which is the thing that matter to me the most.
 
“Thank you for the tour, vice-guild master,” I said, “It is the least I could do,” he said and left after giving a pat on my shoulder.
 
“When will you start working, Mister Silver; tomorrow or the next week?” asked the old man after the vice-guild master left.
 
“Today seemed to be good as any,” I said and walked inside the tiny office; the old man seemed a little surprised by it but quickly controlled his expression.
 
“I will send you the contracts then,” he said and left while I sat down and closed my eyes for a moment.
 
The legal adviser is a useless job; the position is created to oversee the staff of the legal department but is filled with loyalists of powerful, mostly guild heads, vice guild-heads, and even the lord of the city, who would less after the interest of guild, most after the interest of their bosses.
 
The vice guild leader is the overseer of the department, while Mr. Oakley is the head, who is an employee, like the rest of the lawyers working.
 
The advisers are independent and work directly under the overseer; the legal head has no authority over them. It could be said we have indirect authority over him, as supposed bosses run this place.
 
The job of a legal adviser is to advise if we find any problem with anything Mr. Oakley and the lawyers have worked on and give advice, which could make their job difficult.
 
Most advisers don’t do anything, they just look through the contract, and if they do not find anything that harms their boss’s interests, they will ok it; some won’t even read it if it does not relate to their bosses.
 
So, it could be said it is a useless position, and the merchant should send his people to do it but never do it by themselves.
 
Though, for me, it is very useful
 
First and most important, it will help me in advance in my class; second, I will be able to gain the knowledge of the information I would usually not in my position; and third, most important, it is a great opportunity to build the connection.
 
Not to mention, I will not work here forever, just till I achieve my goals.
 
I opened my eyes and looked at the box in front of me; there was a stamp with my name, some stationary, and a typewriter.
 
Knock Knock
 
I was looking through the things in the box when the knock rang out at the door. 
 
“Come in,” I said, and the door opened, and a young man in a ponytail, in his early twenties, came up with a pile of papers, the contracts.
 
“Mr. Silver, mister Oakley had asked me to give them to you,” he said and put the pile on my table. 
 
“Thank you,” I said; he seemed surprised by that. “It is my job. If you need anything, call me; I am Kevin,” said the young man, a little hesitantly.
 
“I will,” I replied, “Ok,” he replied nervously and left.
 
I watched the door close and look at the contracts; I quickly glanced through their front pages, and a small couldn’t help but appear on my face.
 
The contract they gave me minor; there is barely anything important here. It had not surprised me, but I did not expect they would let me see those important contracts on the first day.
 
There are ten contracts here, each being ten to twenty-five pages long. I picked up the first contract from the pile and began to read it.
 
The contract does not have any skills attached to them, though I could still feel the effects of skills used when creating it. There is nothing in the contracts which disrupts my reading and understanding of them. Those skills will be attached at the final stage.
 
It makes things very easy for me, as I do not have to struggle through the effect of the skills.
 
Five minutes later, I took the page on the stationary and wrote something; before I started resuming the reading, every few minutes, I would write something down on the papers.
 
The first contract took twenty minutes, the second one took half an hour, the third one took only fifteen minutes, and the fourth one took twenty-five. 
 
I read one contract after another while taking notes side by side, and three and three hours later, I was finished reading.
 
Back on earth, I could never work this fast, or even a few months ago, but now I could. The mental attributes and skills, combined with my knowledge, help me work fast.
 
I looked at my notes before putting a piece of paper inside the typewriter; the typewriters of this world are magical in nature.
 
The one in front of me looked like a thick black square slate with letters and numbers carved on it, like a touchscreen keyboard. As I touched the eyes, the letter would be printed on paper through the heat.
 
I fixed the paper in the long seam of the typewriter and began to type, looking through my notes; sometimes, I would open the contract to check double. 
 
Half an hour later, I was finished; I took out the papers on which I typed and attached them to each contract and stamped them with my stamp.
 
Click!
 
“Kevin,” I said, and a few seconds later, the door opened. “Have you called me Mister Silver?” he asked. 
 
“Yes, take these to mister Oakley,” I said, motioning toward the contracts; he seemed a little surprised but quickly took the contracts and walked out.
 
Seeing there was still little time, I decided to read the book; it is a good thing I have brough it with me. Even with me reading quite much on my journey to Blain and return trip, I was still quite behind my target.
 
Knock Knock
 
I was reading my book when a knock sounded on my door. “Come in,” I said as I put the book down.
 
The door opened, and mister Oakley with an expression of amazement lingering in his eyes, walked inside.
 
“Mister Silver, are you really the one to find these flaws?” he asked as he put down the contracts in his hand.
 
“Do you see anyone other than me, Mr. Oakley?” I asked back, which startled the old man. “It is not, I mean, Mister Silver,” replied the quickly, apologetically, with a faint hint of fear appearing in his eyes.
 
“I am joking, Mr. Oakley,” I said with a smile and could see him visibly relaxed. “The contracts were good; there is only a single flaw in a small severance contract, while the rest were fixing the lines, with weaker meaning to be more precise,” I added.
 
“The weaker lines create the loopholes if interpreted loosely,” he said, and to that, I smiled. I have written how they could be interpreted and made suggestions.
 
“You have done a wonderful job, Mr. Silver; there are few more contracts that I want you to look at,” said the old man, to which I shook my head.
 
“Not today, mister Oakley; it is nearly time for me to leave,” I said as I looked at my pocket watch; there were only five minutes to four.
 
“Will you be coming back tomorrow?” he asked expectantly, “Yes, I will come daily unless I am busy and stay for four to five hours,” I said as I picked up my book and put it into my bag, and turned toward the door.
 
“See you tomorrow, Mr. Oakley,” I said and walked out of my office.
 
A few minutes later, I was in the carriage riding toward the establishment; when I heard the buzz in my mind; a text appeared in front of me.
 
[Lawyer level 4]
[Skill Gained: Fast Reading]

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