Agnes and Ki

Ki went to see her grandmother right away and sat in front of her while pouring a glass of wine between them both.

After taking a sip, she began to be immersed in her thoughts as they became more clear. "The festival was a good thing after all and can continue… however there needs to be some things set in place to provide better security. There needs to be a limitation on how many people can enter the city during that time to avoid overcrowding the streets so much that accidents can happen. Security needs to also be much tighter during the whole time and on the look out for suspicious activities no matter if it's as small as someone stealing within the busy crowds or a stabbing that is taking place in a place that is difficult to notice right away. If it is a big thing then it would be best to investigate several days before the opening of the festival to make sure no planned attacks will take place but also any other possible disturbances like poisoned food or water or someone smuggling in anything that could cause harm to many people even if it means checking every structure to make sure nothing will fall from above or collapse when stood on when there are a lot of people enjoying the festival. Besides that I think that it will not be long until we have more business and visitors within Wolfden City but during this time we really need to make use of our position to make sure that everything remains fair within the city but also everyone will remain safe from the criminal elements or outside attacks."

Agnes enjoyed her own wine and listened quietly to her granddaughter then agreed. "You are right but we cannot control every aspect. We can only try to find ways to expand the law department within the city and village but there is a limit to the amount of talented or highly educated people that we can recruit to assist the city management and handling of such things."

Ki nodded and continued. "That is why I would like to put forward a proposal.. just like the orphanages that have been provided with a teacher but also others have been allowed access to the lessons and also gain access to the libraries, I feel that it is time to give opportunities to the commoners and add them to our workforce."

Agnes looked intrigued. "How?"

Ki smiled and then replied. "We can set up a small school for commoners in different parts of the city to allow the young to gain access to a teacher at an early age or we can use the orphanages as a place to set up a connected school. There can also be a more difficult school that will teach what is needed for various positions within a workplace whether it be calculating numbers, writing or management skills so a basic reading, writing and math skills will be needed to pass the entry test. Of course for learning more advanced skills, it would be best for them to gain some work experience within one of the businesses or with who ever may wish to employ them after they have graduated and are able to work. It is just a rough idea so it will take some planning… within the capital, they have many schools but even the shared schools rarely grant commoners the chances to do anything special in their lives besides doing ordinary tasks because of the discrimination against them or their lack of support when faced with difficult situations. Isaac would be an example of this and we have no schools or real education systems this far out so I hope to change that starting with Wolfden City."

Agnes frowned as she listened and then said. "It will be costly to employ skilled teachers but since you are teaching the common peoples young children, the requirements will not be high so long as they can handle the job and have the basic knowledge needed for the subjects. The more advanced school ideas would be more costly as the teachers will require a higher payment. There is also the building construction, buying books and materials to cover."

Ki nodded and agreed with her. "Mm.. we can always find ways to gain support from those within the city to fund this change but if they do not wish to help them we can support it ourselves and reap the rewards. After all we will be the ones to take in the most capable students among them into our work force. For this we can use our status as the city lord to bring awareness of what is lacking but also request aid to raise funds for such things like building schools or disaster prevention emergency funds. The next flood disaster will be coming soon and the village and Wolfden city have been making our own preparations, we have also passed on word to the affiliated families that are serving the family that are within the other two cities so if they believe our warning they should begin making their own preparations. All we need to do is stock up on goods and supplies to make sure that everyone is safe through this disaster but we can also assist a couple of others."

Now that the problem of the Herb Pavilion had been dealt with and some of the stores had been sold, there would be some opportunities to take advantage of the increased need for medicines and treatments without worries about competitors or her own workers causing problems.

Some stores in different cities may have to be closed because of the usual trading or travelling routes being disturbed by the floods but it was not too much of a problem so long as they can stock up on supplies early.

Ki thought for a while and said. "Mom's clothing store should stock up on cheap fabrics to make warm clothing on bulk before the floods take place as I can predict the growing need for such items by the masses and it will be likely if some wish to aid those suffering then they would most likely purchase either warm clothes or food for them. Although we may not be able to keep all of our businesses running smoothly without going through their supplies quickly in some places, some of them should be able to make many profits so we will not suffer any losses. As for the luxury goods, it would be best to anonymously sell a certain percentage of our supply when the prices reach their peak for a slightly lower price during that time many should still be holding onto their own goods to keep to themselves until the flood is over so we can use this chance to make a big profit."

Agnes looked at her granddaughter and asked. "You don't want to mess around with the prices of the luxury goods while they are in high demand do you?"

Ki nodded. "After that, some may wish to buy what we have sold and keep it for themselves or sell it for a higher price but it doesn't matter so long as we can sell it all at a high enough price to gain a large profit but also keep a safe supply of goods for ourselves if we need some of it for other purposes."

Agnes sighed and then said. "Yes.. it would be best to prepare but are you sure that you want to make such a big gamble on this? If you are wrong then you would be stocking up on many things for no reason at all."

Ki calmly sat there enjoying her wine and picked up her glass to bring with her as she was leaving to go towards her training room before going to bed. "I am sure. Goodnight grandmother."

Agnes looked at her granddaughters retreating figure and sighed. "It looks like she is determined to take the gamble after all. Either we can win big from this or we can fall hard if she is wrong. However she has provided evidence and as the heir of the family this will just be another test for her to show how much she has grown."

Unlike ordinary families who could not afford such a casual gamble of a large amount of money, the Bombyx family was different.

In order to properly train her heir and invest in her future, Agnes was willing to put some of the families private savings into her granddaughters plan and would not even complain even if it failed.

If she failed then it would be a lesson for Ki to learn to investigate things further and not make a large gamble and focus more on long term gains in the future.

However if it was successful and everything happened according to plan then the family had nothing to lose and it will also allow her to trust Ki with other larger decisions in the future.

Agnes lay back in her seat calmly drinking her glass of wine with an affectionate look on her face. "In the distant past.. were all of our early ancestors so bold in their actions and decisions? Is that how they were able to rise up to there position from nothing all those years back?"

She sighed as she looked down into the drink in her hand. "But even they had no choice but to retreat to these lands in the end… however with appearance of little Ki, I cannot help but dream big for the future. Although she is not so little anymore, she is already growing up and becoming more mature at such a fast pace. It is hard to keep up with her changes recently."

She then looked up at the ceiling. "I will have to talk to Miranda and Isaac tomorrow to begin drawing up plans for what has been discussed tonight so she does not have too much to busy herself with."

After practicing the evil yin qi art, she had regained her youthful vigour but also felt more energetic the more she practiced the martial arts along with her sacrificial mystical arts so she began to step back into the family business once again to help out with many things.

Since she wasn't able to make any big moves and had to keep the family business steady even during her youth all on her own as the head of the family, now she could afford to make more bold moves now that she had her family to support her and she was no longer held back by her age.