City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Chapter 32: Taken

I watched as prince Grelt's ship sailed away toward the Deerpond, and a few minutes later, Lord Darrow entered his carriage and rode away toward the city.
 
Carla and I also sat down in our carriage, but the carriage did not move. 
 
There is huge traffic; thousands of people have come to bid farewell to the prince; it will take some before the rush of people and carriages clears away.
 
"I truly did not think the prince would be able to achieve it," said Carla softly, and even using her new privacy, such words could bring huge trouble if heard by the wrong people.
 
"He is an ambitious man and would do anything to achieve his goals," I replied. 
 
The prince's trip to the Meldhorn had been successful since he returned four days ago; even more, ships are coming from it, and there are whispers that Oksall might also begin to open up in the coming months.
 
It would be a great news as, like Meldhorn, the merchant city-state of Oksall also share a river and large land border with the Oksall.
 
"I think the traffic has now cleared enough," said Carla as the carriage began to move finally; still, it made us wait for nearly forty minutes.
 
We talked about the business and other things before the carriage reached our destination, and we walked out.
 
"I thought it would take me at least four months to achieve a thing, but I did it in less than a month," I said softly as I looked huge store; it is one of the largest stores in the city, and with the things they sell, they would require the big size.
 
"It is all because of your hard work," said Carla. 
 
To that, I smiled and walked toward the blue metallic gates of Norton's carriages.
 
It had been twenty days since the establishment had opened, twelve days since I came back from the harrowing trip of blain. 
 
Since then, I have focused on all my work and the guild, which I visited daily; today is the first day I have taken a leave.
 
The establishment is doing very well, so I have finally decided to buy the carriage. It is not just for convenience but also a symbol.
 
We entered through the gate, and inside, it was a huge space with different types of carriages placed around with people browsing through them.
 
"Remus, welcome," said the voice as we had just entered. I looked toward the voice and saw a man in his late twenties walking toward us.
 
He is a tall man with blue eyes and brown hair and with thin physique but has a handsome face.
 
"Ralph," I greeted as the young man finally appeared in front of me. "So, are you finally ready to buy a carriage from me?" he asked.
 
"That's why I came here, isn't it?" I asked back with a smile. "It's an enchanted one, right? Or I will just hand you to one of the salespeople and leave," he said, joking, "Of course, the enchanted one," I said with a smile.
 
"This way, then," he said joyfully, and we followed.
 
He is Ralph Norton, a friend of Valentina, that's how I know him, we met at party a little more than ago and another one at four days ago.  
 
He is the type of person who will quickly become friends with anyone, a precious skill that is very valuable in his business.
 
Soon, we entered another large hall; while the main hall also had the enchanted carriages, here there were more, nearly all the collection of enchanted carriages they have.
 
"We will start with this red beauty; it is Wright red rose; it has all the standard enchantments for your comfort; you will not feel even the slightest wobble, even if it walked through the potholes," he said, motioning toward the red carriage.
 
It took looked like a normal carriage, but if one looked closely, one would see the enchanted script.
 
"How much is it?" I asked with a look, "Not much, just nine hundred and twenty thousand crowns," he said with a smile, money that regular people could never earn even in their lifetime, and the thing is, it is just a basic model.
 
The enchanted carriages are expensive; their prices start at around a million and reach very high.
 
"Its scrips wore off too early," I said, "No, that's just rumor spread by idiots," he refuted, but I just rolled my eyes.
 
"If you don't like the wright, then how about this Santos pearl? It only cost nine hundred and forty thousand and has the stable enchantments," he said as he walked toward the white carriage. 
 
I have used the carriages made by House Santos; I had one in Redfawn though it was a normal one, but reliable; you can always trust their reliability.
 
"Show me something good," I said, to which he smiled brightly. "If you want good, I will show you good," he said and walked toward the violet carriage.
 
"This is Rain mirage, came straight from meldhorn; it had a very good reputation in merchant-stage, is built quite solidly…" he explained in flowery words before moving toward another.
 
He showed six more before moving to another blue one when I stopped him as it was above my limit.
 
"A million is my limit," I said, and he turned to me bright smile on his face, "So, which one do you choose?" he asked; the bastard is very smart, and he picked up that I had already liked one.
 
"I will take Santos Black," I said; the carriage cost nine hundred and eighty thousand crowns, which is within my budget.
 
"A very good choice; it is most reliable among Santos's basic models and with scripts that don't require servicing for years," he said, and it is true, it is a good carriage.
 
"Do you take the made or will require some modification?" he asked, "Some," I said, and next half an hour, we discussed the modification I needed from the catalogs he had shown me, and I ended up spending one million and twenty thousand, despite him giving me, 5% discount.
 
After paying and signing the contract, I walked out of the store. I will get the delivery in a week, which is earlier than I had thought.
 
The carriage is an expense I could have avoided, but one needs to keep the appearance, and the enchanted carriage is a must, not to mention I wanted the enchanted carriage. It makes travel quite comfortable.
 
We sat in our normal carriage, and fifteen minutes later, the carriage passed through the gate to the establishment.
 
We walked out of the carriage and into the establishment, which now had more mix of voices and notes of music.
 
In these past twelve days, all the teachers we needed have begun teaching, and now, the establishment had nineteen teachers teaching the thirty-nine girls, including Carla and the teens.
 
These new teachers are teaching them many things, music, dance, painting, mathematics, and other things, and the results have already begun to show. 
 
It seemed to have increased their confidence; one could clearly see this when they interacted with the clients.
 
It is when they barely know anything about the subjects they are teaching; when they truly learn them and get a basic grasp on them, their confidence in themselves will skyrocket.
 
Hun!
 
We walked the stairs of the office, and to my surprise, there were people waiting by my office three of them. 
 
One was Margaux, who did not look to be in a good mood. The other was Frank, the driver I hired for the ladies; he would take them whenever they wanted to on their leave day.
 
The last one was an unfamiliar middle-aged in a suit sitting with a professional smile on his face while Margaux stared daggers at him.
 
“Margaux, what happened?” I asked, "They kidnapped Lesli and Donna," she said, pointing the finger at the man in a suit.
 
"You are completely wrong, miss; they have come to us with their own will," he said without a change in my expression.
 
My expression became serious; I don't know the whole thing, but I could guess what had happened, and to be honest, it had happened much earlier than I had imagined.
 
"Margaux, Frank, in my office," I said and walked into the office with Carla while the other two followed behind.
 
"What happened?" I asked as I took my seat. "I...I was taking the girls to the shopping, but suddenly a couple of gentlemen stopped the carriage, and the girls came out and went with them," he said, a little stutteringly.
 
"Do they tell you who they are?" I asked the old man, "Yes, they said they work for scarlet pleasure," he replied, and I could hear Carla take a sharp breath, hearing that, as all the pieces clicked.
 
"Did they get out of the carriage in their own will?" I asked to be sure. "Yes, the moment carriage stopped, both of them got out, I tried to stop them, but those men, come between," he replied, feeling a little scared.
 
"It is not fault, Frank," I said to the old man and could see him taking a sigh of relief.
 
"And that man is?" I asked Margaux.
 
"He said his name was Clark Chase, and he was sent by Norman Lucas," she replied. To that, I nodded and turned to Frank.
 
"Frank and Margaux, take a rest." I said to them with a smile and turned to Carla, "Ask mister chase to come inside,"
 
Three of them left the office, and a couple of seconds later, Carla brought in a middle-aged who still had a professional smile on his face.
 
"Your boss had taken my girls, mister Chase," I said to the middle-aged sternly. "We did no such thing, Mister Silver; they have come in their own violation," he defended as he sat on the seat I had offered.
 
To that, I smiled.
 
"And they have sent me to ask you to relieve them of their contracts," he said and took out the copies of their contracts; it is original, and I could feel the effect of my skills on them.
 
"I am sure you have read the terms of that carefully," I said, "Yes, and we are willing to pay the price as stipulated in the contract," he said and placed two checks in front of me, each with two million value.
 
"Well, since everything is according to the contract, I will release them from the service of my establishment," I said and activated the skills and released them; at the same, I burned those copies and the copies I have, releasing the two girls from my service.
 
"Tell the girls I wish them good luck for their future," I said to the stumped face of middle-aged.
 
He might have expected me to rave and rage and shout threats at his boss, but there was no need. As the girls did nothing wrong, they left my service by paying the price stipulated in the contracts; there is no hard feeling in my heart.
 
"Is there anything, mister chase?" I asked. "No, nothing, mister Silver," he said and got up as he tried to school his emotions as he walked out of my office.
 
"Those ungrateful bitches," said Carla with gritted teeth after the lift, "They did nothing wrong, Carla," I said to her surprise.
 
"You have given them so much, taught them, given them the opportunity to earn that could have never dreamed in their life, but they betrayed you, the first chance they have got," she said, seething in a fury.
 
To be honest, she kind of looked hot in anger; I felt my little brother rise before I controlled my emotions.
 
"Calm down, Carla; they have done nothing wrong. They saw the better opportunity and took it by following the contract," I said, and I truly did not blame them.
 
Such things are common on earth, and I completely agree with the decision to leave when they did it lawfully.
 
Carla opened her mouth to say something but closed it, and a moment later, she began to calm down.
 
"Still, I did not expect them to leave. If they had any brains and eyes for the future, they would have stayed," she said finally. I did not say anything. I had already expected it would happen with the success of the establishment.
 
It just happened earlier than I had thought.

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