Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich was carefully reviewing the paperwork regarding Dane's coffee and pastry. Dane was the name of Marl's grandfather who first started the business.

The circumstances that made Marl unable to keep paying the debt was his own rising cost of life style, he hired private tutors for his sons and sold his family's ancestral house to live in too big an apartment, in a too expensive street.

He bought useless art pieces that lost their value the moment he bought them, he bought slaves and gave them away as gifts.

He was basically indulging in greedy consumption without any reservations, eventually while money was good, the debt increased exponentially.

Of course if Marl was quick on his feet he might have been able to avert this fate and get back on track. But he was too drunk to notice, while almost everyone around him knew it was coming he must have thought that hit came from a left field.

It seems like Marl's grandfather was a miner before he saved up and took that loan, his father was careful and diligent, he even saved up quite a bit.

But Marl despite his talent in managing the business and the good coffee he made he had too big of a flaw. From what an outsider like Aldrich could see, it looked to him like Marl had an underlying obsession to be a nobleman.

Aldrich wore his new suit and got a fresh cut, the new silver ring and black ring he got from Cazmer created a good contrast on his right hand.

Yesterday they had already sent Marl a letter to arrange a meeting to discuss the business at hand. Today he got a reply letter in which Marl expressed his agreement.

The meeting was at lunch time and it was in Dane's, this was so Aldrich could take a look at the establishment itself, even brows through the accounts and try the various coffees and pastries of the house.

Yasbel was not coming, after all she was a middle management employee of the imperial bank it would look suspicious if she came with. Besides she still had to go over the company's finer details.

As Aldrich was sitting in a private carriage thinking about that as he fiddled with his new ring.

In truth Aldrich already went through these papers and could have done most of the work himself but he gave it to Yasbel as a test.

After all, he had to keep a close eye on this girl. She might have not truly given in, so he wanted to use this chance to prob her, if she actually tried to do anything funny then Aldrich would have no choice but to dispose of her.

If she was going to be a core part of this whole operation and a representative of the Holy Grail then he needed to trust her. That is not something that can happen over night, he needed to be sure.

So Aldrich created an opening which Yasbel could exploit if she had malicious intentions by looking as if he didn't bother with the small 'details'.

Aldrich walked into Dane's coffee house and took a broad look, now that he was in the mood to admire the place he took a good look at it. Last time he was too focused on Yasbel.

Hmm, the place definitely had a classy look but it was obvious the decor was old, and the walls had dents here and there. The tables and chairs were strategically covering the most damning disrepair.

But despite this the place was successful because the actual product they served made up for the other inadequacies. Even now the tables were almost full.

The waitress that opened the door for him smiled sweetly at him and gestured for him to take a seat.

"Sir, you can take a seat and then order when you're ready or if you already have something in mind you can tell me now."

"Thank you, but actually I'm here to meet Marl Fizznick."

The girl looked taken back, "eh, can I ask your name and who you're with, sir?"

"My name is Aldrich and I represent the Holy Grail."

"Oh, that's great. The boss has been waiting for you. Come with me."

Aldrich followed the waitress to the second floor, there were three special rooms and she guided him into one of them.

As he entered Aldrich's eyes fell on a fat bald man in his fifties, he had a thick mustache but no beard to speak of. He looked paler than what was healthy.

He was smoking from a disposable cigarette and he stood up when the door was opened.

"Boss, this is the man you told me about, he's here for the Holy Grail."

"Aldrich?" Marl stretched his hand for a handshake while asking and looking a little doubtful.

Aldrich took his hand and smiled as he introduced himself, "Aldrich, indeed. Representative of the Holy Grail, I'm here about the advertisement you posted on the paper."

Marl nodded, "yes, yes. Don't be offended I was just surprised by how young you look. Come take a seat. Why don't you try our special for today? It's a caramel coffee with blueberries, or maybe our signature Tarzel cake it's a crowd favorite."

"Well I can't turn down this generosity, sure I would love to try them both."

Marl gave the waitress by the door a look and she closed the door softly as she left.

"I heard that you personally work in the kitchen."

"True, I do. I love making coffee but I also trained some disciples to take some of the load off of my old shoulders."

"That makes sense. We saw that your work payed off, Dane's is very popular makes me wonder why you listed it for sale…"

Marl put off the cigarette in the ashtray and coughed, "well, you know this how life is sometimes. My sons are not interested in my work they're both studying in engineering and law respectively. They won't ever do this kind of work."

Aldrich caught on to the feeling of dissatisfaction and conflicting emotions in Marl.

"Yeah, I must agree life might surprise you. So, let's get to the main topic, the price you listed was…"

"A little too high? I understand that it might seem like that," Marl nodded, "but the house has a loyal base of customers. In three or four years you guys will probably make back 30 gold."

"How can you guarantee that?" Aldrich asked skeptically.

Marl smiled confidently as if was waiting for this question, "I can't guarantee anything, this is business, there's always certain risks involved. But I can show you our accounting books for the last ten years. Even in the worst of times we have always managed to turn a profit."

Marl took opened the drawers of a cabinet beside him and took out several huge files. Lined them up in order from 2451 to 2461.

The door opened and in came that waitress carrying a tray she put down the coffee and the cake and left seemingly without noticing the tense atmosphere or the files on the table.

"The staff look well trained." Aldrich remarked.

Marl nodded with a proud look, "Absolutely, most of them have been working here since they were fifteen. They know their jobs."

"That is great. But still 30 gold with the condition of the place, it's still too much."

Marl looked troubled for a moment before he said, "alright, I never said the price was not negotiable. How much would you say is a reasonable sum?"

"Hmm, well I would say 10 gold. Honestly that sounds like a perfect price." Aldrich said calmly as his sipped his coffee.

Marl looked like he swallowed a fly, "y-you must be joking! That's less than a year's earnings! Get out! Get out! I'm not going to waste my time on this pointless conversation."

Aldrich put the coffee cup down on the table, "oh, but I really don't think you want me out of here."

Marl looked like he calmed down, "mr. Aldrich, your honorable company doesn't truly want to buy for less than my yearly profit right? Even of you wish to negotiate there is a certain limit."

Aldrich nodded and said, "I understand, please excuse me for not explaining my position clearly. Under normal circumstances I would say 24 gold probably the price you has in mind."

Marl didn't interrupt but took out another cigarette and lit it.

"So why didn't you say that from the start? If it's 24 we can still talk…"

Aldrich coughed because of the smoke, the room was small to begin with, "well, lets start with the obvious, this coffee here is garbage."

"W-what?"

"Did I stutter? The coffee made by your so called apprentices tastes like it was made in barn boots. But I tried some coffee her myself a few days ago, it was a world of difference. I assume you made that one?"

Marl didn't reply but he didn't need to the answer was written all over his face.

Aldrich continued unbothered by his silence, "meaning, if you leave, this establishment will be run to the gutter. I would say this accounts to 40% of the value."