Date- 3 April 2321
Time- 05:21
Location- Sky Blossom City, Guild Association Mall, Warehouse no.234
“Princess, tell me this isn’t happening to me right now,” Agatha said in disbelief. First, her business idea was stolen, and now her new source of income was asked to be donated for the good of humanity. As a semi-demigod with a humble background, Agatha had long since learned that life was not fair, and if one want it to be fair then there was no bigger idiot than them. So, she did not complain when she was embarrassed by a low-level card apprentice, she did not complain when her business idea was stolen, but now the one method she found worth investing in was asked to be donated for the good of humanity? Wasn’t she a human? What about the good of Agatha?
“There, there” Aba who had never needed to worry about earning money for her next meal did not understand the pain of her retainer. She felt her retainer was overreacting over nothing. Therefore she could not find the words to comfort her retainer.
“Me and my luck,” Cole cursed. Cole had lived enough to know about himself thoroughly. He knew that if something good were to happen to him then some bad would also tag along. Take Asong for example, when he was offered Asong as his client he felt that he could reach the stars in a single step by satisfying her request but soon he realized that the single step that he had to climb made up the entire stairs itself. Let’s not go that far, let’s take his family as an example, they did not want to have any relationship with him when his talent as a card apprentice was stagnant but when he found his prowess in making money, his entire family was now leeching of his hard work. He wanted to cut them off but he couldn’t until he had paid off the sins of being born into this family of his, hundred years have passed but he was still paying for his sin.
“…” Asong’s words did come off as a shock to me but before I could react to them the others reacted faster than me but they did not seem to have the guts to blame Asong and could only display their dissatisfaction. Shaking my head I turned to Anna and Ann, “Can she force me to hand over my card recipe?”
“Well, no but yes,” Anna replied ambiguously.
“Is it a no or yes?” I asked seeking a definite answer.
“Yes, but she will have to jump through a lot of hoops to achieve that. You see in the past the cost of the cards was inflated because of the card creationist’s greed. Therefore government and the royal families together had come up with a set of laws known as the fair pricing act. By using that act she can force you to make the card recipe of your Multi-armed butcher card public and apply for a copyright. And in” Ann explained in Anna’s stead.
“Well, bummer. Then I will just set the price of the card recipe accordingly.” It came as a shock to me that Asong can force me to make the card recipe of your Multi-armed butcher card public and apply for copyright. This way my plan to become a franchisor had come to an end. But I decided that if and when I do apply for the copyright of the Multi-armed butcher card I will price it so high that it could cover the losses. But who am I kidding, there was now I could do that. The profits gained by one-time payment per card could never trump profits gained by the regular source of royalty per card. If Asong initiates the fair pricing act on my card then she will have royally screwed me over.
“You can’t do that either, the authorities will decide the price of your card using the standard pricing system based on the ingredients used to create the card. Since your card recipe does not use any regulated ingredients or rule power in its creation, its price is going to be dirt cheap.” Ann explained not feeling the air around her. Her last few words had clearly turned her love’s mood sour as if someone stole his winning lottery ticket. But she did not notice as she was too giddy that her knowledge about the fair pricing act was finally come to use.
Hearing Ann’s explanation everyone in the warehouse looked at her young love with pity. Agatha and Cole had heard about the fair pricing act but they did not know much about the card pricing system used by the authorities. But after hearing, from Ann, that the price of the Multi-armed butcher card recipe was going to be set at dirt cheap rates. Before they were dissatisfied that they lost a good business opportunity but now their dissatisfaction vanished and could not help but gloat thinking about the losses that the young card creationist would be suffering soon. Especially, Agatha, felt that all her grievances with the young card creationist in her heart cleared up in a second.
Hearing Ann’s explanation I could not help but glare at Asong but soon shook my thinking that I should just stick with doing business with the southern royal family. Though with them my profit margin would grow narrow it would be better than selling the card recipe at a dirt cheap price.
As if Asong could hear my inner contemplation she said, “Wyatt, don’t think that southern family can change anything. Your multi-armed butcher card falls directly under the Necessity clause of the fair pricing act. Even the royal family can’t do a thing about it.”
“What?” I looked at Asong in disbelief and turned to look at Ann to check if Asong was telling the truth. In response, Ann just shook her head as if telling me that I could do nothing but hand over the card recipe to the authorities.
…
