Mardhan.
The name of the low self-esteemed brother of the triplets.
The next day after the meeting in the inn.
Mardhan is walking towards the most luxurious bar in the city. He doesn't look anywhere near like a person of his status should. He looked ragged and his eyes are clearly screaming that he is a drunkard.
He went to the bar and sat at his special reserved table as he drank one drink after another. Soon, a woman walked in and sat beside him. Mardhan placed his hand around her as both of them flirted with each other.
"Who do you want to take today, Young Master?"
She is the owner of the largest brothel in the city. The brothel has a specialty. None of the women that worked there are being forced to work there. They all took the job as a prostitute willingly.
And it was known that the owner of the brothel never sleeps with anyone, except for Mardhan of course.
While they are talking like that, a middle-aged-looking man with a large frame and a refined look walked into the bar. A waitress welcomed him and the middle-aged man asked.
"Is there any regular customer of your bar present at the moment?"
The Waitress felt confused for a bit on why he is asking but still showed Mardhan sitting in the corner.
"Bring one of everything on your menu to that table. Including the Side dishes."
With that, the middle-aged man walked to that table and asked the flirting couple politely.
"Hello Sir, if you don't mind. May I sit with you?"
Mardhan was surprised and confused which was apparent on his face.
"I am a merchant and I need to know a few things about the alcohol in this bar. The waiter said that you are a regular customer here. If you don't mind, I would like to talk to you for a few minutes."
Mardhan thought for a moment and gestured him to sit. From the looks of it, the other party clearly doesn't know who he is. If he does, he wouldn't come and talk to him like this. Everyone who knows his identity wouldn't respect him that much.
"Are you new to this city?"
"I am new to this realm actually. I used to do business in another realm and I want to break into a new market. And I heard that the Ash Demon realm has a large chunk of consumers."
"That depends on your product actually."
"My product is alcohol. At least, the one that I want to use now. That is why I came to this bar. I heard this bar has the widest variety of liquors in the whole city. I want the opinion of a regular customer to break into the market with a proper liquor."
"Alcohol? That is actually a tough market to break into in this realm. Ash Demons are really fond of liquor and they drink a lot. For that reason, many races already brought many varieties of liquor. If I must say, the market is stable than ever. You might get disappointed."
"I hope you would say the same again after you drink my liquor."
By now the waitress brought all the drinks and snacks.
The middle-aged man looked through the drinks and took out different jars from his storage and matched one with every drink.
"These are the drinks that are somewhat similar to the ones that are available here. Taste both of them and give me your opinion."
Mardhan was surprised, but he obliged. Anyway, all he does is drink and whore around. Since someone is paying for it, he is even more satisfied.
But as he drunk one liquor after another, his facial expression kept on changing.
"How is this possible?" He muttered as he looked at the middle-aged man.
"Just who are you?"
"I am sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Ranki. As I said, I am a merchant that deals with different businesses."
"Your alcohol is the best that I tasted. How do you proceed with this business? Are you going to open bars?"
"Not really. As I said, alcohol is only one of my many businesses and it is not even the main one. There are a lot more businesses I handle. I am just using this to break into the market of the Ash Demon realm. So, I would be selling recipes."
"Oh? What is the price?" Mardhan's eyes lit up."
"That depends on the size of the Ash Demon realm's market. As much as it would benefit the buyer if they have a fixed price, I didn't get these things for a cheap price. I need a considerable profit. But I am sure no matter who buys it they would make a dozen times of what they paid for me if they utilize them properly.
Don't you think so?"
"Yes, they definitely would."
Mardhan looked at the alcohol greedily.
"Okay, thanks for your opinion. I still have to go to other places to do some survey."
As Ranki was about to leave, Mardhan stopped him and said.
"No, you don't have to."
"Why is that?"
"Can you come back here tomorrow? I think I have a proposal that you would be interested in."
Ranki frowned for a minute in thought and said.
"Sure."
The next day, Ranki once again came to the bar but this time, he met with the sobered-up Mardhan and the brothel owner is not near him.
He looked sophisticated as if he is back to his noble self.
"Let me reintroduce myself. I am Mardhan, the brother of the family head of the Ash Demon family. Now, can we talk business?"
Ranki was surprised, but he sat down.
Mardhan took out a bunch of documents regarding the population in many areas in the realm where the market would be flourished.
And then proceeded to explain the business plan. Ranki was surprised, in fact even Sam would have been surprised if he saw this. Because the current business plan that was presented in front of Ranki is of a franchise.
Mardhan wants to open a franchise based on Alcohol.
Partnering with local bar owners they would create a brand all over the realm. His business acumen is brilliant.
But he lacks capital. He doesn't have enough capital to enter and since his brothers and peers along with his family counted him as useless and he acted in such a way, there is no way they would take out capital.
He needs Ranki to place the initial capital which he would use to show his brothers and take the money required for the franchise operation. Just when he thought, Ranki would refuse, he agreed immediately.
"This would also help the rest of my businesses. I am in, but I need a share in franchise operations."
"Of course."
The preparations started immediately and the bar in the capital was planned to open in the next two days.
Mardhan was feeling ecstatic as he found the ticket to gold. His family is in the liquor business as the Ash demons are great consumers are liquor, but with this new one, he would be able to get tons of money and increase his standing in the family in a single shot.
As he thought of the income he would get and the jealousy from his peers, he got reminded of Ranki.
"What are the other businesses you were talking about?"
"Well, Alcohol is at most my side business. I mainly operate in the special weapons business and physical enhancement drug business. There is an inventor I know who is proficient in many things and he sells these products and recipes instead of making a business of his own as his business already got too big.
I got the alcohol recipes from him. Apart from that, I have food recipes, pills, drugs, and blueprints for some special weapons that are good for low-level cultivators in the mortal plane.
They are all just tones of money waiting for us to take. Recently, he made some new types of drugs that would enhance the body in long term.
For example, there is a fire elemental drug that could be consumed by the wood elemental beings and they would get fire elemental resistance.
The fire elemental beings that consume a frost drug he made would be able to gain ice elemental resistance.
I want to use that frost drug to enter this market. But it is hard to gain credibility for such a drug, so I want to inject myself with alcohol, then food, and then weapons before I go to the drugs.
Since the Ash demons are a high-level fire elemental beings, I think it would be a profitable business."
"Profitable? I think this is beyond profitable."
Mardhan said and started pacing.
He couldn't help but think of that kind of drug, the only weakness of the Ash demons is their inability to defend against ice. This would change the phase of Ash demons and it would be a new era if that drug could be mass-produced.
He cannot let go of this chance.
"I think I have an idea. Why don't we partner up now and sell that drug now?"
