After leaving the casino, Will walked to the Merchant Guild to purchase a new building for his bank. As Will walked to the Merchant Guild he received greetings from the merchants and nobles he passed on the promenade.

Will businesses had catapulted him into fame, his casino, café, and theatre were major attractions. Since entertainment options were limited in Fermion, nobles surrounding Guidon and the capital flocked to his companies.

Slowly Will's name and Silver Phoenix became synonymous, similar to Bill Gates, Jack Ma, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, being respectfully associated with Microsoft, Alibaba, Amazon, and Facebook. Will's board games, cards, dominos were considered must-haves among Fermion nobles.

Nobles' parties now included a game of cards, dominos, or board games as entertainment. Noble children were growing up learning to play these games. In six months, Will had become the titan of the entertainment industry.

After walking through the Merchant Guild doors, the once stern indifferent front door clerk ran to greet him at the door with a wide warm smile. On the prior occasions, Will visited the Merchant Guild this woman treated him flippantly. Yet now the dismissive woman was acting as servile and amenable.

"Honorable sir, please follow me to the Guild Master's office. We have a waiting room for our more successful merchants. Please follow me," she led Will down a corridor that was opposite Mr. Murray's office.

As Will walked behind her, he noticed this passageway held golden statues, expensive art, and gold floor tiles. The clerk led him to a conference room, that served as the waiting room, and offered him tea and butter cookies. The waiting room had a long table, cushioned armless chairs, and a full liquor rack. On the long table sat a map of Guidon with colored lined demarking trade routes.

Will sat admiring the waiting room, when a large fat, well dressed, balding man walked in with Mr. Murray walking behind.

"Greetings Sir. William vont Ballard, my name is Arwin vont Navarrete, I serve as guild master. It is a pity we've never met, but surely you understand how busy I am." All this means is that Will was not important enough to talk to until now.

"Greeting Sir. Vont Navarrete, it is a pleasure to meet you. To meet the guild master, what do I owe the honor?" Will asked curious to learn the reason why.

"To be friends, sir. I wish to be friends. I know all the wealthy merchants, and I make a point to cultivate those friendships. Your businesses have made you one of the wealthiest men in Guidon, and wealthy merchants tend to receive certain perks if you get my meeting?" He said slyly.

Will had expected this, he knew the merchant guild would reach out at some point, to offer some privileges. Regardless of the era, wealth led to privilege, and privilege had its perks.

"Why Sir. Vont Navarrete and Mr. Murray, I already count you among my closest colleagues," Will said charismatically.

"Wonderful then, let me tell you some privileges. You are aware that your guild fees and taxes are due in four months, those fees will be reduced. Your companies have brought the Merchant Guild much wealth and notoriety. My compatriot in the capital was angry you reside here. Thanks to you, I got back at that backstabber," he chuckled with glee.

"In addition to reduced fees, you'll also be privy to secret guild business, discrete luxury items for sale. I know you understand the value of such things," he said.

"Yes, I am well aware of the privileges that friendships gain, but I also understand that friendship is a two-way street. Sir. Vont Navarette I would like to offer you a private box in my theatre, a dedicated seat in my casino, and 100 gold in credit on the gambling floor,"

Will knew that reciprocating favors was a diplomatic necessity. One-sided agreement always led to resentment for both parties. The guild master and Mr. Murphy sat in amazement. First, the guild master was amazed at the generosity.

On the other hand, we were afraid of savant diplomacy to turn a one-sided trade to his advantage. He had given this same offer to countless others, bringing them into his fraction. In the future, he could coerce Will to follow his orders by threatening to take away these privileges. It was apparent that Will saw this and offered substantially more privileges in return, removing the guild master's leverage over him.

"I accept," said the stunned guild master. He was not used to being countered so easily, and worse still he didn't have anything else with which to negotiate. In the past, everyone accepted the benefits without negotiating. The guild master knew this 14-year-old boy in front of him was not to be trifled with.

"Wonderful, now that the pleasantries are out of the way, Will let's discuss your capital auction. This merchant guild has never heard of something like this before, can you describe it in more detail," Mr. Murphy said, holding up Will's letter.

"It's quite easy really, I plan to sell portions or shares of my company bidder. My company the Silver Phoenix Holding Company, will sell shares of each of my companies. The shares are divided into distinct two classes voting and non-voting. Voting shares get a say in how the company operates, non-voting shares do not get a say in how the company operates," Will explained.

Will plan to retain 51% control of each company, at least early on. As people understood stocks, shares, and dividends, he could sell more shares while retaining ownership of the company.

Moreover, he decided for his initial offering to model his company of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathway company. Berkshire Hathway's A-shares were exorbitant, but his B shares were accessible and affordable. Will planned to auction his A shares starting at 100,000 gold and his B shares at 1,000 gold. In addition to selling shares, he also planned to lease the blueprints for his games.

All the funds he raised would then transfer to his banks, for his new investments. Most revenue would go to the bank, so he could immediately start lending money. The remainder he planned to use to invest in his new vehicle, the bicycle.

On Earth, the bicycle market was valued at over 30 million euros. While that number might now sound as outrageous as 30 billion, but in a medieval period, million were billions. Crude oil, refined oil, oil pipelines, made up a significant amount of Will's former stock portfolio. In the 20th and 21st century oil was used to make almost everything. With the lack of oil, the manufacturing of cars was not possible. But, bicycles could disrupt the transportation industry.

"And you say, you'll pay these shareholders money if the company profits increase, but what if the company profits decline? Will the shareholders be paid less?" the Merchant Guild Master questioned.

"Yes, of course. What I offer the shareholders are a risk and reward. When the company's value rises, they gain more money; and when the company loses value, they gain less money. Owning shares is a gamble," Will explained.

"But you said you'd sell the licenses for the game blueprints; wouldn't shareholders lose money as other merchants sold the secondhand games?" Mr. Murphy asked Will could see his head was hurting trying to understand this rudimentary stock market.

"Not necessarily, I plan to include the license profit as a part of the café's overall profit," Will explained reassuring these gentlemen.

"This is all well and good, but what assurances do we have you won't lie about your accounts?" Mr. Murphy questioned. Merchants were greedy and wanted to keep every scrap of coin they could, he knew Will was no different.

"Nothing is stopping me from lying or falsifying my accounts, except my honor as a noble gentleman. I daresay my character and achievements speak to my honor, or would you have me ask Marshall Rolf to come here as my character witness," Will said indignantly.

"We meant no harm, yes your honor is sufficient," both men echoed each other trying to race to finish the sentence. Neither wanted to involve the Guardian Guild.

"Wonderful! Any more questions before we move onto the new topic at hand?" Will asked. Inside his thoughts he celebrated, seeing these powerful men cowing before him, excited him. He was excited because slowly, he was returning to his former self. Outwardly he was a young man, but inside his head, he was a ruthless businessman.

"First, I wish for the Merchant Guild to support me in executing my former employees..." the guild master interrupted.

"Already done. The Merchant Guild does not tolerate thieves. It's best to kill them as an example to others. I've already sent the City Lord a letter about this.

"Thank you!" Will bowed as a show of respect. "Second, I wish to purchase two new properties. One warehouse and one storefront," Will said as a matter of fact.

"Great sir., these would be your fifth and sixth buildings, I fear you are swallowing Guidon whole," the Merchant Guild Master said chuckling. "Surely, your appetite knows no bounds. Mr. Murphy fetch the map!"

"Yes guild master," Mr. Murphy said and ran to his office to get the map and necessary paperwork.

A short moment later and Mr. Murphy returned, sweating, and huffing for breath. He placed the map and paperwork on the table, before saying, "I took the liberty of notifying the Thompson brothers, they should be on their way.

"There is not much property available Sir. vont Ballard since your last property purchases. Moreover, there is no available property near your court," Mr. Murphy said.

The café, theatre, and casino were all located in a court or cul de sac. The general store was located outside the cul de sac entrance. On the other side of the cul, de sac sat a profitable tailor.

"Would the tailor be interested in selling his store?" Will asked curiously.

"No, he would not. You are not the first to ask and he has rejected every offer. He has become the envy of every merchant. His businesses increased four-fold since your companies took off," said Sir. vont Navarette sadly.

"During the summer a store went up for sale, a block over from your general store, a caused quite a frenzy. Originally the store was marketed under 10,000 because the store is old and falling apart. In the end, the store sold for just over 15,000. The renovation on that store will cost the same," Mr. Murphy said excitedly.

"Yes, that was a very profitable day for the guild," said the Merchant Guild Master.

"Depending on the size of the storefront you want, there are smaller shops located near the entrance of the northern district and larger shops near the administration building," Mr. Murphy explained.

"This store here, the one catty-corner to the administration building is fine. What are the exact measurements?" Will said. He thought the location was perfect, the building sat on the corner in a high traffic zone.

"It's a rather average building, it's 15 meters by 17 meters. The current owner is a grocer, who ironically enough wants the money to move closer to your current businesses," laughed Mr. Murphy.

The irony was not lost on Will, but he agreed to purchase the property. He also decided to enlarge the warehouse behind the general store instead of purchasing anew.

After Will's affirmation, Sir. vont Navarette called in the front desk clerk to send for the grocer. He also asked her to bring in a sumptuous dinner, saying business deals between friends were best over dinner.

The receptionist had only left for a minute when she returned with Thompson brothers. The brothers walked into the conference room boisterously and excitedly greeted Will.

"Ah, there he is, I knew you'd reach out to us again eventually. What do you want us to build this time, your mansion Sir. Baronet," they bowed and greeted Will with energetic handshakes.

"No this time around I plan to build a bank," Will answered.

"Eh, what's a bank?" said one of the Thompson brothers.