Sewo retires to his bed. The night sky which seems usually bright, the sharp breeze and the temperature drop all seems pale against his heartbeats.

  Rolling around his bed, dreaming about possibilities, Sewo becomes a Fool.

  Sighs of relief break down his excitement as he drowns into the dreamworld.

  As the sun rises, the air heats up ,

  The world shines bright,

  The light seeps within , the winds push open, the eyes of the subject ,

  Lost in the dreamworld, he dreams of a certain loving sunlight.

  Sewo wakes up and gets ready for his meeting with Theia. Arriving at the location at 10'O clock, Sewo and Theia sit down as Sewo elaborates his plans for the future.

  The art of business is one of mind games, to prove your importance and to maintain it is the key. Sewo knows this all well , not by experience, but by instincts.

  Sewo explains himself to Theia saying" Theia, we both know our finances can't support factories or companies or anything grand. This is why I chose this materials market. With my life at the line , I can provide the businesses here with more and more high quality materials , the bigger the risk I take , the better the profit we generate. I want to work with you , towards this business. Don't decline my offer ."

  Theia feels unsure about him, Sewo moves at an absurdly fast pace in life, it's hard to keep up . He even confessed to her when they had barely met yesterday. But she knows that competence matters less than intentions. Sewo has always had the right intentions , even when helping the homeless. It's not right to deny someone who is so selfless . Not to mention that he can pull his own weight and give results even when under bad conditions.

  Theia agrees on working together.

  Sewo feels really really happy, a surge of energy rushes through his body as he feels so excited for the future.

  Sewo explains to Theia , how his business works " Okay, now let's make plans , I'll write down stuff so we have a more trackable method of knowing what comes next."

  The sun shins brightly above their head as the meeting comes to an end.

  The two business partners have made blueprints for their business. The plan is simple - The establish themselves as an organisation which gathers materials requested by the customers as well as provides daily material stocks.

  The key is to allow citizens to get access to materials of their own choice which allows them to get a better insight on how the want to use these materials to get products , they can request leathers for clothes, Quartz for houses, Gems and ores for jewels and utensils ,etc.

  Sewo realises that while the current materials market is in the worst condition it has ever been , it has so much potential to be more than that.

  After their meeting, Sewo didn't waste a single moment. He headed straight to the innkeeper of the humble establishment where he had booked his room.

  The inn was a weathered building with creaking floorboards and the constant smell of roasted barley. Sewo approached the man behind the counter, a stout fellow with a tired face.

  Sewo placed two gold coins on the counter. The metallic clink drew the man's eyes instantly. Sewo didn't ask for a better room or finer wine.

  Instead, he pointed toward the narrow, stone-paved alleyway that ran along the side of the inn, hidden from the main street by a heavy wooden fence.

  "I need that space," Sewo said firmly. "And I need your receptionist to be my eyes. If someone looks for high-grade leather or rare minerals, send them to the back. Tell them the Agency is open."

  The innkeeper, seeing the gold, didn't ask questions. For a man who lived on copper and silver, two gold coins were enough to buy his silence and his cooperation for months.

  Sewo and Theia spent the next few hours transforming the alley. It was a makeshift setup, consisting of a heavy oak table they dragged from the cellar and two mismatched chairs.

  Theia brought a stack of parchment and ink, while Sewo focused on the logistics of communication. He knew that elite managers wouldn't wander into a back alley on a whim.

  He spent the rest of his gold on a small coop of messenger birds-mostly pigeons trained to fly between the market gates and the inn's rooftop.

  Sewo wrote dozens of small notes. His handwriting was jagged but clear. He listed their services: Bespoke Material Gathering. Reptilian Leathers. Raw Ores. Rapid Delivery.

  He instructed Theia to distribute these notes at the gates of the major garment factories and the jeweler's guildhall. He wanted the "Top Dogs" to know they existed.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  While Theia handled the outreach, Sewo went to the slums. He found the homeless people he had helped before, those who were still strong but had lost their spark.

  "I'm not giving you bread today," Sewo told them, his voice echoing in the cold shadows of the slums. "I'm giving you a job. You know the hills, the caves, and the forests better than anyone."

  He recruited ten men and women. He promised them a share of the profits and, eventually, a place to call home. For now, they were his scouts, his eyes in the wild.

  A few days passed in agonizing silence. Sewo sat in the alleyway, sharpening his skinning knife, while Theia organized the bird coop and kept a ledger of their remaining copper.

  The alley was damp and the wind whistled through the gaps in the fence, but Sewo didn't move. He waited with the patience of a predator.

  On the fourth day, the bell at the front of the inn chimed. The receptionist, remembering his bribe, whispered something to a visitor.

  Heavy, polished leather boots soon crunched against the gravel of the alleyway. A man appeared, wearing a cloak lined with fine fur and rings that glinted in the dim light.

  This was Master Thorne, one of the city's most respected jewelers. He looked around the dirty alley with an expression of pure disgust, his nose wrinkling at the smell.

  "I received a bird," Thorne said, holding up a small, crumpled piece of parchment. "It claimed you could find materials that the regular guilds cannot."

  Sewo didn't stand up. He remained seated, his red-rimmed eyes locking onto the jeweler's gaze. Theia stood behind him, her strong frame casting a shadow.

  "Guilds are slow," Sewo replied coldly. "They follow the roads. My people follow the veins of the earth. What do you need that they can't give you?"

  Thorne sighed, his desperation breaking through his arrogant facade. "A noblewoman has commissioned a set of ceremonial daggers. I need raw Quartz and Garnet."

  "The regular mines collapsed from the recent rains," the jeweler continued. "I need at least five pounds of high-grade ore by the week's end or I lose my license."

  Sewo tilted his head. He knew the caves near the northern ridge were dangerous, infested with small rock-dwellers, but they were rich in exactly what Thorne needed.

  The jeweler looked at Sewo's young face and scoffed. "You're just a boy. How can you promise me what the Master Miners cannot?"

  Sewo leaned forward, the intensity in his eyes making Thorne take a step back. "Because I have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. The price is three gold coins."

  Thorne gasped. "Three gold? That's highway robbery! The market price is barely half of that!"

  "The market has no stock," Sewo countered. "You aren't paying for the stone. You're paying for the speed and the risk. Three gold, or you can leave my alley."

  Theia watched in silence, amazed at how Sewo handled the man. He wasn't begging; he was dominating the conversation with raw necessity.

  Thorne looked at his gold watch, then back at Sewo. The silence stretched until the only sound was the fluttering of the birds in the coop above.

  "Fine," Thorne hissed, pulling a leather pouch from his belt. "One gold now as a deposit. Two when the stones are in my hands. If you fail, I'll have the guards toss you out of the city."

  Sewo reached out and took the gold coin. He didn't smile. He simply stood up and looked toward the northern mountains visible over the city walls.

  "Theia, get the scouts ready," Sewo commanded. "We leave within the hour. Tell them to bring the heavy picks and the lanterns."

  Thorne watched as the "homeless" men began to emerge from the shadows of the inn, looking more like a specialized military unit than a group of beggars.

  Sewo turned back to the jeweler one last time. "Have your scales ready, Master Thorne. The quality will be higher than anything you've seen in years."

  The jeweler left the alley, still looking confused as to how he had just handed a gold coin to a boy in a back-alley office.

  Sewo felt the weight of the coin in his palm. It was the start. He looked at Theia, who was already strapping on her gear and checking the supplies.

  "This is the first brick," Sewo whispered to himself. "Soon, the alley won't be enough. Soon, the whole city will know our name."

  His heart, which had been heavy with grief and tears only nights before, was now a cold engine of ambition. He suppressed the memory of his mother's face.

  He replaced the image of his sister's bruised lips with the image of a massive warehouse, a place where he would be the master of his own destiny.

  The sun began to dip toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of bruised purple and orange. Sewo led his small group out of the back alley.

  As they walked through the city gates, the guards barely looked at them, seeing only a group of laborers headed for the hills. They had no idea an empire was being born.

  The path to the northern caves was treacherous, filled with jagged rocks and the sound of distant, unseen beasts, but Sewo didn't feel fear.

  He felt a strange sense of peace. The danger of the wild was easier to handle than the suffocating pain of his memories. Here, he could fight back.

  Theia walked beside him, her black eyes scanning the treeline. She noticed how Sewo's messy hair caught the wind, his expression frozen in a mask of focus.

  "Are you sure about the Garnet?" she asked softly. "The lower levels of those caves are known to be unstable. It's a big risk for my first job."

  Sewo didn't slow his pace. "If we don't take the risks no one else will, we will never grow. We need that jeweler to tell everyone how we did the impossible."

  He wanted the reputation of a man who could provide the impossible. He wanted the world to realize that Sewo was no longer a victim.

  They reached the mouth of the cave as the first stars began to pierce the darkening sky. The scouts lit the lanterns, their glows reflecting off the damp stone walls.

  Sewo took a pickaxe from one of the men. He didn't stand back and watch; he led them into the darkness, his eyes searching for the glint of Quartz.

  The work was grueling. For hours, the only sound was the rhythmic strike of metal against stone and the heavy breathing of the workers.

  Sewo's hands began to blister, but he didn't stop. Each strike of the pickaxe felt like he was hitting the people who had destroyed his family.

  By the time the moon was high in the sky, they had found the vein. It was a cluster of deep, wine-red Garnet and clear, crystalline Quartz.

  The workers cheered softly, their faces covered in dust and sweat, but Sewo remained quiet. He carefully extracted the finest pieces, inspecting their clarity.

  "This is it," he said, handing a large chunk of Quartz to Theia. "This is what five gold coins look like. This is our future."

  They packed the materials into heavy burlap sacks and began the long trek back to the city. Sewo's body was exhausted, but his mind was racing.

  He was already thinking about the next step-hiring more people, buying better tools, and finding a place larger than a back alley.

  As they re-entered the city at dawn, Sewo looked at the garment sector in the distance. He saw the chimneys of the factories beginning to smoke.

  He knew that soon, he wouldn't just be selling them snake skins. He would be the one providing the gems for their buttons and the quartz for their displays.

  They returned to the inn, and the receptionist greeted them with a look of genuine surprise. He hadn't expected them to return so soon, or at all.

  Sewo went straight to the alley and sat at his table. He didn't even wash the dust from his face. He waited for Master Thorne to arrive.

  When the jeweler appeared an hour later, he was shocked. Sewo placed the sacks on the table, the raw ores shimmering even in the dim morning light.

  Thorne inspected the stones with a magnifying glass, his hands trembling slightly. "The quality... it's incredible. These are cleaner than the guild's stock."

  He paid the remaining two gold coins without a single complaint. He even promised to mention Sewo's name to the other members of the Jeweler's Guild.

  Sewo watched him leave, his pouch now heavy with gold. He looked at Theia and the tired but hopeful faces of his workers.

  "Take this money," Sewo told the workers, handing them a generous portion of the silver. "Eat well. Get some rest. Tomorrow, we find more."

  Theia smiled at him, a look of pride in her eyes. "You really did it, Sewo. You're a businessman now. A real one."

  Sewo looked at the gold remaining on the table. It wasn't enough to forgive the past, but it was enough to build a weapon against the future.

  He knew his next target. He had heard of an abandoned warehouse at the northeastern corner of the city. A place large enough to house a hundred workers.

  "Theia," Sewo said, his voice dropping to a serious tone. "Tomorrow, we stop being an alley agency. We're moving to the Warehouse. We're going to give everyone a home."

  Sewo looks at his reflection in a small puddle in the alley. He saw the messy hair and the red eyes, but for the first time, he saw a leader.