After all of the children went to sleep, Kael had some hard thinking to do. Calling Jessica over, he started to discuss his plans with her.

"Jessica, what do you think we should do with the children when the builders get here? I was thinking of moving them to a different floor while repairs were being done, but I am afraid of them being hurt."

Listening to Kael's concerns she replied, "I did not know you wanted to keep them around. It seemed like this was a temporary thing until the building was fixed up."

Realizing he had never really voiced his overall plan to anyone, he said, "No, my plan is actually to get them to work and live in the building. Of course, it is up to them, but I had hoped to raise a group of them out of the gutters while making some money on the side."

"You're not really planning on exploiting them now that they like you, right?"

"Nothing of the sort, I plan to teach them how to cook, and then have them sell the food. I was going to split profits with them 50/50."

"Oh, well that doesn't sound that bad. You won't be making a lot of money that way though."

"I'm aware that the income they will bring in is minuscule. It should be enough for each of them to make 1 silver per day. Once they are self-sufficient I will start teaching them more. I am looking at a long-term plan, and if I have to leave, I want them to be able to take care of themselves."

"Well good, you're not a typical silk pants. I'm glad I took this job, but I haven't had as much downtime as you described."

"Sorry, getting the foundation up and running is a lot of work. Once the repairs are done and a few renovations are made, your life should get boring."

"Well then, back to your original question. I wouldn't suggest you let them stay here. Although they could help, in reality, they would just be in the way. You could have them clean out their old place though."

"Eh, that's not good. That place is not conducive to health. Nevermind I will figure something out. When were the repair people coming anyway?"

"They said they would come over to do preliminary inspections tomorrow afternoon, and start on the work the following morning."

"Ok, thanks for all the help, Jessica. You should go to sleep, I am going to see if I can find anything to hunt tonight."

"Alright, take care of yourself. I'll watch over the kids."

Watching as Jessica stood up and went to go cultivate by the children's room, Kael stood up and heading out of town again. This time he decided to leave in the opposite direction from before.

Scaling the wall he had a close encounter with the guards. Having to duck back down and hang off the interior of the wall as they passed. They walked close enough by for him to hear the conversation clearly.

"So, you going to work for that ass in the Foaming Mug?"

"I haven't decided yet. The money is pretty good, but he wants us to help him track down his runaways and beat them into submission."

"That is totally fucked up man, don't you have children too? I wouldn't be able to live with myself. What's that guy's name anyway?"

"Yeah, he is a pretty evil bastard. It's strange, he would rather pay bribes to the guards and play himself up as a respectable human rather than treat those kids like they are humans."

"Yeah, it really shows his true nature. He may hide it deeply but in reality, he is just an asshole who hates himself. You didn't tell me his name either, what is it?"

"Oh, he just goes by T, I have never heard his real name. He is pretty shady, probably hiding behind anonymity so he can do mean things without repercussions for his family and friends."

The voices trailed off after that. Kael, still hanging from the wall, pondered what to do. Go hunting for food for kids, or going hunting people in the city. Remembering how his father told him to go there really pissed him off, but at the same time, showing off is what got his parents into trouble.

Deciding to just keep an eye on him until he was secure in the city, Kael flipped up onto the wall, then leapt off the other side into the darkness.

After about an hour of heading into the woods, Kael noticed he was being followed by something at high speeds. Dashing behind a tree and immediately stopping, he listened to sound of whatever was following him to get a bead on its location.

Sneaking a peek around the edge of the tree, Kael saw the familiar outline of a large black cat on a branch not far away. Examining it to be sure, he received the notification he was waiting for.

Soul has examined another living creature.

Living creature, Night Devil Panther, has a favourable impression of the Soul.

Impression level, Tasty.

Disallowing examination due to impression level.

Creatures level of threat to soul, minor.

Finally, he thought, it's payback time. Taking out his weapons, he equipped the hammer in his right hand and his father's dagger in his left. Dashing out from the tree he ran a few hundred meters before pretending to stumble and fall.

Just as he fell, he heard the snapping of a branch and growl that was quickly closing on him. Rolling to the side and then to his feet, he got up in time to see a dark blur fly past. Missing its attack the panther started to flee to gain more distance.

Not waiting for the cat to fully react Kael flung his hammer at it with full strength. With his single arm strength being close to 4,000 pounds, he knew his hammer was going to do some serious damage. Not needing to pretend at the moment, his body felt like it erupted as he quickly dashed towards the running panther.

His hammer ripped through the air, striking the panther on the rear flank. The sounds of bones being crushed were audible through the silent forest as Kael quickly closed in.

Leaping directly onto the creatures back, he grabbed the bottom of its chin, pulling up, while slashing its throat with his free hand. Riding the back of the frantic creature, he held on tightly until it finally succumbed to the massive blood loss.

Climbing off the creatures back he kicked it once for good measure, just to be sure it wasn't playing dead. Finding it was truly a goner, he quickly dressed down its carcass and stored it before heading back to the city.

While rushing back to his new home he was happy he finally got his revenge. Making a quick stop outside the building he released enough water from his ring to give himself a quick rinse. Going inside, he dried off and decided to just sleep in his storeroom.

The next morning, Kael went out to buy some fruits and buns for the children's breakfast. Returning to the building with two bags of food, he woke up the kids and handed out the food.

Once they were done eating, Kael looked at them and said, "So, we are done clearing out the building now. I have labourers coming soon to do repairs and changes the layout. "

Watching the happiness on the faces of the children slowly disappear as they realized their good days were over, Kael continued;

"We have a few options now. First, you can go back to doing whatever it is you do on a daily basis. If you want to leave, I won't stop you. However, I hope you can leave the sick children with me until they are better.

"Second, you can come work for me. I will teach you how to cook, where to sell, and basically how to make money. You will live and work here. Unlike other places though, you will have complete freedom. If you don't want to work for a day you just won't make money. You can leave at any time you want and no one will stop you. Whatever profits you make will be split evenly with me though.

"Lastly, you can choose to come work for me doing basic cleaning and labour. If you choose this, you will get paid very little, but you will be supplied food and a nice place to live. Discuss it amongst yourselves, and I'll come back in a little while for your decision."

Kael turned and left amidst the mummers of quiet discussion from the kids. Taking Jessica to the side he told her he had another pile of errands for her to do.

"I need you to go find a stone mason and ask them the price to build a very large bread oven. The size should be about one third the length of this building. So about 100 feet in length. It should be 2 feet in height and about 3 feet deep. The top of it needs to have a raised edge the encircles the entire thing. The raised edge should be about 6 by 6 inches. We want it to create a trough type shape on top. The interior of the oven should be split in half by a shelf.

"When you are done with that, go find a blacksmith and order me 150 cooking racks that are 3 feet in length and 2 feet in width. Also, ask him about making some rectangular pans that are about 3 inches deep. We need them to sit on top of the trough on the oven. We will also need cooking racks to cover those. Finally, ask him about making metal cooking plates that can be swapped in place of the rectangular pans."

Looking at Jessica's deadpan face, he couldn't tell if she understood or not. Confirming with her that she got all of that, he gave her a gold piece and told her he would need the change.

After she left, Kael went into his storeroom and dumped out the panther he had killed the night before. Using the time he gave the kids he skinned and stripped the meat from the beast. Storing the meat, he left the claws, bones, and hide in the storeroom. Looking at the head that still intact he was pondering whether or not he should mount it or extract the teeth when he felt a subtle energy coming from it.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he ended up digging into the skull of the creature to find out what was giving off energy. After digging in a bit he found an interesting little black ball. Storing it he decided to ask Jessica about it later. Finally taking out its canines, he destroyed the skull and used fire qi to turn the leftover bits into ash.

Done with his bloody task, Kael cleaned up, the left to go talk to the kids again. Entering the large back room that they were living in he saw them all sitting around with some trepidation. Not really sure how this was going to go, Kael took a seat by the kids and asked;

"So, it is going to be really hard to talk to everyone at once. Let's do it this way. If you want to leave, go ahead and take off, I'll talk to the rest once whoever wants to go is gone."

One of the older children stood up, looked at Kael, and said, "We are not sure yet. I have some questions for you. If we stay how much money will we make and how much do we have to work? If we leave are you going to do anything bad to us? And if we want to work as labourers and maids, how much will you pay?"

"Those are pretty easy questions," Kael responded, "First, you make as much money as you are willing to work. You will be selling food in the city, three times a day. If you sell all the food you will make about two silvers, of which one is mine.

"If you leave, I obviously will not do anything bad to you. However, there may not be work in the future.

"As for the general labour, I will pay you two silvers a month. That will include food and a place to stay. Anything else?"

The older child asked, "Yeah, if we are making the food and selling it, why do you get half the money?"

Kael said, "Of course I get half of it. I will train you, I will give you a safe and healthy place to live and work, I will feed you, and I will be the one buying all of the materials for the food. If you want to leave after I train you guys, feel free. Renting a large scale place to work is more expensive than you think."

"Ok, give us two minutes, the people who want to leave will be gone by then."

Leaving the room again, Kael headed back into the storeroom. Looking at all the wooden boards he thought, Damn, it is going to require a lot more hide to cover the boxes I want than I thought. Doing some quick calculations, he found his 3x3x2 foot boxes would need 42 square feet of leather. Since he was making 50 of them, it would take 2,100 square feet of leather.

Sighing, he started to review what he had in his ring. Realizing he only had rank 7 and rank 8 hides left, he figured he would have to buy more. Making a food carrying pack out of such a high-quality hide would be a total waste. Taking the hides out so he would not forget, he stored them in the corner of the room and hid them under some wood.

Figuring his time was up he went back to talk to the kids one last time before he could start to officially begin the Empire of the Bun.

Entering the room he did a quick count of the children left. Surprising him, he counted up 32 children. Adding the sick kids, he was up to 39 of 50 for his food sales quota.

Looking at the children he said, "Congratulations on making an excellent decision. Those who want to work as general labour and maids, step off to the right so I can get a count of you."

Watching the children separate out, he found that 6 of the girls and two of the boys had left the group. Thinking about it, he would need 2 more boys to do general labour, and 16 kids to make and sell food.

"Ok then, for the next week or so you won't have much work. Go get cleaned up and put on your cotton clothes. Meet me down here in 30 minutes."

Shooing the children out of the room, he started to consider his next problem. What the hell to do with all the kids while everything gets sorted out here. Deciding to just throw more of his diminishing money at it, he reminded himself, Long term plan Kael, long-term.

After a half hour passed, Kael sent 10 boys out to look for a large empty building he could rent for a week or a cheap tavern that had 10 rooms free. While they were away Jessica came back.

Reporting to Kael, the carpenter team could get the building done in 3 to 4 days made him happy. The stonemason was going to charge him 500 silver due to the rush job, and the blacksmith was going to charge him 250 silver, for the same reason. She said the baking racks he wanted would be done tomorrow, and she had paid 25 silver for them. She also had paid the stonemason and blacksmith upfront for their work to help clench the rush job.

Taking the 225 silver she had left from her, Kael told her had 40 hides in the back for her to sell. Asking her to find a trustworthy leatherworker with tight lips to sell them to. He also told her his needs for the boxes he was building. Asking her to have the shop she bought them from deliver them, and reminding her, rank 1 beast hide was fine.

After listening to all the craziness coming out of her child employer's mouth Jessica once again fled to avoid more nonsense. Leaving with a loaded up cart of hides, she hopped off to finish his errands as soon as possible.

When all the kids were rounded back up, Kael ended up taking them to a tavern. Paying 250 copper per room, per day, and another 150 copper for 2 meals each day, he handed over 4 silver. The gaggle of children with him all stared at the money like it was gold. Thinking, If only they knew I blew almost a gold piece on renovations not an hour ago, I wonder what they would say.

Getting the kids situated and out of his hair, Kael went back to his soon to be headquarters to wait for the carpenter's team.