Ch32.First Preparations.

At the end of the week, the restoration of my house has been completed and I must say that the house looks a lot better. All the old broken and rotten wood has been magically fixed and the house has been completely restored to the original look. Since this was done by professionals, I have paid in quite a bit extra for them to add some modifications to the house for me.

Firstly I have asked them to build an underground basement that goes down quite deep and is the size of the property. It looks like a massive hall, with Rune reinforced walls, special lighting, some singular rooms attached to the corners of the roof, I have also had certain defense measures put in place. When I need to do some particularly intense training, I will be able to do it there without worrying about any interference or damaging anything. I have also bought some training equipment that is portable and can be easily packed away when needed. I have supplied the builders with some designs so they have built a few different sparring rings at each corner of the basement, and then one larger one in the center of that is surrounded by an octagon cage, I have grand plans for these that will be put in place in the near future.

After the tailored suits were done, I forced everyone to wear them, even though most of them were confused as to why they had to wear them. The sense of fashion in this world is different from that of my own world, so they don't see the suits as smart and rather view them as unnecessary, stiff and uncomfortable but I believe that, with enough time, I will make them realize the greatness of suits!! Even if I can't, they will, at the very least become a unique identifier for everyone that is in my gang.

After gathering everyone in the underground basement, which I will now call the arena, I was looking at everyone in their suits. The suit pants and blazer are a dark pitch black, while the under shirt and tie are different shades of black. This is finished off with a nice pair of black leather dress shoes and I must say, they look awesome! That tailor has done an amazing job, I may have to add her shop to my territory when I get the chance. After waiting for everyone to arrive, I started explaining a few of my plans for the near future, "I see that everyone is looking nice and smart today."

After a slight pause, I continued, "I am sure you are confused as to why you must wear these clothes, and I know that it will take a while to get used to. On this topic, I will just say that I want you to have a distinct image that lets everyone know you are working for me. Now, I may not be well known yet but I believe that in the near future, when I become a Circle mage, things will change. I am just making preparations early."

I then paused for a bit, to let that sink in before I continued, "Now onto my plans for the next few months, I don't want us to be known as a gang of common criminals. What I want, is for us to take a very different route. I want us to be more sophisticated by having people believe that we are merely businessmen, thereby allowing us to hide our true occupation." I then continued explaining a few specifics, including the massive impact that image can have on the public and that in order to accomplish my first goal, everyone must behave in a particular way in public.

I then continued by saying "I have two plans for the immediate future; My first plan has multiple layers and purposes, but all you need to know that it will provide us some passive income. What I need you to do for now, is to convince all the houses and businesses in our territory to 'agree' to pay us a certain 'protection fee'. What I mean by this, is that by paying us a certain fee every month, we promise to not cause any trouble for them, allowing them to sleep peacefully at night knowing that nobody will break into their property or disturb them. This in turn means that as long as they pay us our fee, we will provide them with a certain level of protection against those who cause trouble for them, be it a rival gang or just a random person who doesn't pay attention to our rules."

After making sure they understood what I was saying, I take out a wooden sign that has the words 'Shadow Clan' etched onto it. In the future I want to change the design and add some functional Runes onto them, but this will do for now.

I then say, "Those that 'agree' to be under us, will be provided a plaque like this, this must be visibly placed at the front of their home or shop, having this means that we are covering them. Birdhead will explain the specifics to you later. Before I move on though, I will state with utmost importance that you are to follow my rules by the book! If I find out that you are stealing from me or making our 'clients' pay more than is needed, I will ensure that you disappear without so much as having a chance to explain yourself!"

"My second plan is what you see around you, I will turn these sparring pits into an underground fighting arena! We will invite local ruffians and people who desperately need money to come and fight against each other for money. We will then scout out specific targets to invite as an audience, they will need a certain amount of money as we will encourage them to on the matches. We will first start with just an average audience, but as I become more powerful and I am confident enough to secure our benefits, we will then start inviting more privileged individuals. These are those from the higher ends of society, particularly those who enjoy violence, to come and watch these matches, placing much larger bets on who they think will win. This will be how we amass money and influence, it will, however; be a slow process so there is no need to rush."

"Now onto the last point of my little speech, I will be paying those who work for me a certain wage at the end of every week. Those who work harder, will be paid more and those who fuck up, will get their pay cut. I am sure most of you have noticed the change Birdhead has gone through, this includes the fact that he can now use magic. If anyone impresses me enough, I don't mind doing the same for you." After saying that I can hear some excited clamoring amongst the crowd, this will be a good tool to ensure their loyalty for now. I am sure I will find a better method when I learn Magic, but until then, this will have to do. It is also not a bad idea to have more powerful people under me, assuming I can control them.