“You are saying it is possible to ship these to the city?” Roland said thoughtfully, sitting back in Lawrence’s comfortable chair. Right now, Roland, Jacob, Craig and Lawrence were all sitting in Lawrence’s house, a glass of wine in hand.

“I am. I’m thinking of making them a popup stand.” Lawrence said and the other three had a confused appearance.

“A pop-up stand?” Craig the hunter asked, scratching his head. Of course, the idea of a pop-up restaurant only came up with the advent of social media, where mobile dining places, or rather, meals on wheels, would be able to travel around a nation while advertising to their fans where they are.

These concepts worked especially well in Singapore, where rents of buildings are sky high, while renting a food van may seem more economical. On the other hand, Singapore is small, where travelling from one end to another will take at most two hours by rail.

However, Lawrence had a different idea for it. The place will simply be a large horse wagon where people could buy bread and buns from the side. He intended to make it double the size of a normal horse carriage so there was enough space for at least two staff to move around and more space for dozens of Dragon’s Nest.

He estimated that at the rate in which he sold the croissants and bread, he would be able to break even for the cost of a single large carriage and the wage of their staff in two weeks and corner a sizeable market share in another two.

Having asked Jacob who often travelled to the city to sell dried meat, there were indeed possible places for the safe parking of a large wagon with a stable near enough to supply horses for it if need be.

“Why not just a normal bakery?” Roland asked and Lawrence shook his head.

“If a noble decides to pay a premium fee, we will be able to bake in their mansions and serve them extremely fresh items. Think of the novelty!” Lawrence replied and the three slowly nodded.

To Lawrence, however, it was of little importance on whether he passed or failed in this business concept. He had enough money here that he could just throw at it again and again if he could surrender. He was essentially bankrolling the business. In Singapore, Grab and Uber were locked in a price war that Grab ultimately started to win as Uber was a company with too many goals in too many nations while Grab craved for only Southeast Asia.

Lawrence knew that even though he had money, he still needed to have a sound strategy or no one was ever going to hear of his brand, The Guardian’s Bakery.

“Ah, anyway, where do all of you keep your gold?” Lawrence asked and there was an awkward silence.

“Well, if you are asking about the town’s gold, there is a nice little safe somewhere that I stash it all in. Please don’t rob us, I think you are wealthy enough.” Roland replied, pointing at the stag mounted on his wall which had what seemed like an emerald in its’ eyes instead.

Lawrence scowled before continuing, “Don’t you have something like a bank?”

Another silence.

“Your country of Sinkapur must be great, to have all these things I never heard of before,” Craig said dryly before Lawrence twitched in annoyance.

“Singapore, not Sinkapur, please. I see…” Lawrence went into deep thought. He had enough gold bars in his inventory to form a central bank but then again, it would be hard to enforce banking regulations without significant backing.

Well, that will be a question for another day.

“Now that you have a bakery, how are you going to actually do anything else?” Lawrence asked,

“But bake every day?” Jacob asked and Lawrence laughed.

To make any great food, there is a great recipe as well as great ingredients. Lawrence planned to buy land in the area to cultivate all the ingredients needed to make his bread while hiring locals here to help him look after his crops while paying them a decent wage. In this way, with the wage, the workers will be able to afford even more products that Lawrence created.

“Roland, I need you to level with me here,” Lawrence said, going to his room and taking out a small chest. As he opened it, Roland blinked rapidly, breathing in deeply. Jacob and Craig looked as if they had been hammered.

Inside the chest was a few gold bars, alongside several other gems and jewellery. Roland swallowed his saliva.

“I want as much land I can buy in this village. How much of it do you have? I’ll need you to help arrange for cows and goats for me.” Lawrence asked and before Roland could reply, Jacob quickly shot his hand up.

“I used to work as a herder before I became a butcher, I can help with the latter.” The fat man’s cheeks trembled with excitement, his beer belly seemingly agreeing.

Craig was awfully silent, probably thinking of how he can be of help.

“I’ll also need someone to construct a mill and a kitchen that connects to it. I’m going to need someone to help me build a large wooden mill as well with skilled craftsmen. I already believe there is a forge so I wish to buy over the forge and hire the family already running it.” Lawrence went on to throw a few more of his plans out there and that was when Craig finally cheered up.

“I can go to the city and write a few letters home. I know some people who can be of help in construction!” the hunter said cheerfully and Lawrence clapped his hands.

“Shall we write a contract then?” Lawrence smiled widely and the grins on the faces of the three villagers widened as they clapped their own hands, then downed their glasses.

History books in the future would note this day as the day in which people will refer to as The Council of Four’s first meeting.