Secret Agent Chapter 077 - The Temptation of Easy Money (Patreon)

Sister Paula pitched her voice lower, and spoke more softly, so that the playing children wouldn’t hear what she was about to say.

Henrietta would, but she was nearly old enough to leave the orphanage and start caring for herself.

“Most of these children were abandoned, for one reason or another. It’s the same at every orphanage.”

Zack Adder frowned, but listened quietly.

“The Church and the Kingdom work together to ensure the children are taken care of… but only to a minimal standard, as you can see. Food and shelter, and anything more is charity. I volunteered to run St. Bella’s, but, generally speaking, running an orphanage is seen as an undesirable position within the Church.”

Zack’s jaw tightened. He couldn’t imagine any of the grey-robed priests from the Castle working at an orphanage. And even if they did…

He remembered his own history with Child Protective Services, and how close he’d come to falling into the local foster care ‘system.’

Frankly, he would have preferred growing up in an orphanage like this. Sister Paula sincerely cared about the children. But…

There weren’t public schools here, as far as he could tell.

And public schooling had been his escape.

He was able to get away from home for almost the entire day, and he’d been able to apply his education and seize the chances the Army, the NSA, the CIA had offered…

[Calm Down].

It wasn’t time to think about that. Hopefully it never would be. This was a new life.

He had to focus. Sister Paula was still talking.

“Beyond the basic needs of the children, there’s very little I can do for them by myself. So once they reach about Henrietta’s age, I introduce them to tradesmen and women around town, based on any talents they might have. As apprentices, they earn enough to cover their room and board, and develop skills that can support them throughout the rest of their lives. Roxy, you remember Temblin? He just promoted to Journeyman Tanner.”

Roxy smiled warmly. “That’s wonderful.”

Sister Paula turned back to Zack with a stern expression. “I specifically warn the children away from Adventuring. The Guild is no good for the young, Jack. You yourself probably know. It’s just too risky, and the training leaves a lot to be desired.”

Zack nodded, which made Sister Paula widen her eyes slightly. She’d thought he might reflexively disagree. “You’re right. Training is expensive, and the Guild does a poor job explaining what is expected of low-ranking Adventurers.”

Based on what Zack had seen so far, the Guild seemed to be either severely understaffed or just very poorly managed. At least, by the standards he had come to expect from Earth. There were receptionists who were excellent at their job, like Claude, and then there was Stacy… Lang was a responsible adventurer and capable mentor, but then there was the confusion of the thurgenrat emergency that had seen Zack and Sienna operating independently, poorly armed and armored.

But that very inefficiency was exploitable for monetary gain.

Zack recalled an anecdote from when he was a child in school, about the California Gold Rush. Tons of people had flocked to the distant land to find gold and strike it rich, but the people who most consistently got rich during the whole thing were the people selling shovels and denim.

“So,” he continued, “is there any reason the children couldn’t work here in the orphanage now? They copy the posters for the Theater, right?”

Sister Paula leaned back in her chair like Zack had earlier. “It is Henrietta and I who copy the posters. We both possess the [Drawing] and [Painting] skills. Some of the older boys go out and put the posters up.”

“I also have the [Transcribe] skill,” Henrietta said, speaking up for the first time. “I think it helps out with drawing the letters.”

Zack furrowed his brow. “You don’t have [Writing]?” he asked.

Henrietta shook her head sadly. “Nor [Reading].”

“And neither do I,” Sister Paula said evenly.

“The posters don’t have much text on them in the first place,” Roxy explained. “Mainly it’s pictures of scenes from the play, and a drawing of the Rose Theater’s sign, you know, with the Rose and the masques.”

Zack rubbed his jaw. He’d have to adjust some of his plan, then. More symbols and illustrations, and less text.

It could still work, though.

“Can any of the other children [Draw]?” he asked.

“Some would like to, but paper, ink, and paints are all expensive, and our budget is tight enough as it is. Only the children who draw in the dirt enough to get the [Drawing] skill, not just [Sketching], are allowed to help with the posters.”

“I see,” Zack said. It would be easier if he taught them to read and write, but he didn’t have time for that.

Still, Henrietta had [Transcribe].

“I’d like to check something.” Zack stood, picked up a stick from the ground nearby, and wrote out a test sentence.

The quick brown fox jomps over the lazy dog.

He intentionally left a misspelling in the sentence.

“Henrietta, can you copy this text?” He extended the stick to her. She took it with a nod, and faithfully copied what he had written, not only the misspelling, but even his style of writing.

The quick brown fox jomps over the lazy dog.

“And you could do that too, right, Sister Paula?”

“It would take me longer than Henrietta,” she admitted, looking pensively at the text on the ground. “And I’m usually busy caring for the children, anyway.”

“Of course.” Zack nodded. “Then, Henrietta, can you copy this?”

Zack took the stick back and attempted to draw a simplified illustration of the Belladonna primitva flower and stalk. It didn’t come out well at all, despite being able to clearly [Recall] the flower’s appearance in his mind.

“Yes,” Henrietta quickly copied out the image.

“Well, that’s all I really need.” Zack said.

Roxy frowned. “Are you sure, Jack?”

Zack held his thumbs and index fingers out in L-shapes, indicating the size of a piece of paper roughly a quarter as large as a piece of standard printer paper. “Yes. I’m thinking of designing information cards about this size. If Henrietta, and ideally other children as well, can make copies of them, that’s what I want.

Sister Paula frowned, too. “I don’t understand how you expect to make money. The posters I understand—people see them and then go and pay to see the play. But the posters you’re talking about would be tiny. Would you attach them to the request forms you talked about, earlier?”

Zack smiled, showing his teeth.

“Nope, I’m going to rent them out to adventurers, through the receptionists. As far as I can tell, adventurers aren’t taking some pretty simple requests because they don’t know how to do it right, or don’t even know the request is there because they can’t read. So I’m thinking for somewhere around three to five lindra, an adventurer can rent out one of the information cards to take with them into the forest, gather the requested plant, and then return the card. I would take one lindra, one lindra would go to supplies to replace damaged cards, and the rest could come back to the orphanage as pay for the copyists.”

“Jack…” Roxy said. “Would adventurers even do that, though? Five lindra’s pretty steep just to borrow a card.”

“I think so,” he said confidently. “I gathered almost seven pounds of that flower today, right on the edge of the forest, and got almost one and a half fortin for it.”

Henrietta’s eyes nearly popped out of her head she opened them so wide, and Sister Paula gasped softly.

“Do keep your voice down,” she said sternly. “The forest is dangerous, and I’d ask you not tempt the children.” She glared at Henrietta, who nodded once she noticed the sister’s gaze.

“Not everyone would get that much,” Zack admitted readily. “Because the quality of the gathered plants matters for how much one gets paid. That’s probably why the requests are unpopular, since the requests don’t explain how to properly gather the plants, even if an adventurer could read the request and knew what the plant looked like.”

“Okay, but you want to rent out the cards,” Roxy challenged. “What if they get damaged or destroyed?”

Zack pursed his lips. “There’s a trick to making paper sturdier,” he said. “I need to talk to an alchemist and see if it can be done.”

Lamination.

It wasn’t complicated, and it wouldn’t even need to be particularly well done. He just didn’t know if the concept of lamination already existed in this world, or if he’d have to invent it. Either way, he was confident he could figure it out with an alchemist, and he intended to do so later this very afternoon.

Zack took the stick back from Henrietta and drew a box around his rendition of the flower, and then next to it drew an identical sized box.

“I had intended to just write instructions for gathering on the other side of the card from the picture identifying the plant, but I can come up with pictures, too.” Very simply, he sketched the flower and stalk and a knife cutting at the base of the plant, and then an illustration showing how much to pack in a container, the flowers touching but not squishing each other, and then an illustration of them all packed in too tightly, and he drew the classic circle with a line indicating not to do that.

*ding!* The skill [Sketching] has been acquired!

“Like this. A bit of explanation from the receptionist can clarify, and the pictures will act as a reminder for the adventurer when they’re out in the forest with the plant in front of them.”

It was similar to how the Army did maintenance. Soldiers would go out with printouts and follow the directions step by step to maintain their equipment, following along with pictures illustrating exactly what to do. Of course, all the soldiers could read… more or less.

It wasn’t a perfect system, but it worked well enough.

Everyone was leaning forward and looking down at the ground, so nobody saw as she approached.

“Well, well, well, doesn’t that all sound interesting!”

Belatedly, Zack’s [Paranoia] activated and he could feel someone’s gaze upon himself. He quickly straightened up and looked over beyond the fence, where a young woman with blue hair and vivid blue eyes and remarkably clear, sun-kissed skin was smiling in their direction. She was dressed like any other commoner woman in her late teens: a long patterned skirt and blouse, but the way she showed her teeth brought the word ‘foxy’ to the forefront of Zack’s mind.

She had walked right up and learned Zack’s idea to make money fast and easy.