3 Ashan 722
Balthazar walked down the street, leading Simula by the reigns rather than riding her. It would have been some practice to ride the Scalvwing around town but he wouldn't go at the speeds that would knock him off, so he figured it wasn't worth the testing. He had come to Scalvoris Town for a few different reasons, all of them related to business more than pleasure. He and Robin had some preliminary success in gathering a following from the Decked Halls, but most of the people they had found were fighters. Balthazar understood that they would need fighters if they intended to use the front of a mercenary company, but he wanted individuals who would be more fit to find information than to win a fight. If it came to a battle, he could share his physical skills and their own would not matter. He wanted good minds and quiet feet. People who could end a fight before it even began. In Scalvoris Town, he hoped he could find that class of person.
That was only one of the reasons he had come to Scalvoris Town though. Almund was sorely lacking in substantial libraries and Balthazar was embarking on an endeavor he had never really tried before. Between the war in Quacia, the settlement, the Elements, the expedition, and the various times he'd been pulled into chaos by immortals, he had plenty of experience leading others. He could bring out talent that they did not know they had when they worked with him. However he did not know how to run a business. He didn't know how to set it up, what dues he would have to pay, and what the difference between a business and a mercenary company would be. If Elisabeth had taught him anything, it was probably best to start off by reading about it.
He tied Simula to a post a little bit outside the library and gently stroked the side of her mane. Balthazar's hand traced the white pattern that looked like the horse's spine. A beautiful creature that was trained far better than the man riding it. "I'll be back soon." Balthazar said to Simula before going into the library. It was a slow trial for the librarians, or at least Balthazar assumed it must have been based on how quickly he was flanked by a woman he did not recognize. His nose was immediately assaulted by a strong floral scent and his eyes were attacked by an abundance of bright colors. The woman's clothing was well made, but it looked almost like she was trying too hard to look nice for the job she had.
"Hello!" The woman with the floral smell said with a wide smile. If his mutations bothered her, she was hiding it well. "I'm Rose Lefluer, the head librarian here. Are you here about the missing books?" Lefluer? Balthazar recognized that name from somewhere but he didn't comment on it in the moment. He'd bring it up to Elisabeth when they began to work on finding the daughters but it was probably nothing. It certainly had nothing to do with why he had come to the library.
"Missing books? I'm sorry I don't know anything about that." Balthazar said. His curiosity had been piqued but he didn't press. He had his own matters to attend to and if he really needed work he could come back and ask Rose about it. It was a library after all, he suspected that he would be returning rather frequently to exchange books once he figured out how it work.
"Ah, never mind then. Who might you be and what might you be looking for?" Rose asked, adjusting her outfit a little bit.
"I'm Balthazar Black, I was hoping you could help me find books on starting and running a business." Balthazar replied, trying to return the kind tone even though it didn't seem as natural for him. Rose seemed to think for a moment and then she seemed to come up with an idea.
"I think we have something that might be able to help you." She said before turning and beginning to walk towards one of the rows of books. "Follow me!" She declared a bit more loudly than Balthazar would have expected a librarian to. He followed her down the aisle and turned with her down a row of books that all looked the same to Balthazar. Rose knew where she was going. She walked with so much purpose that she almost left Balthazar behind but he managed to keep up until suddenly she stopped and turned to the books on her left. Balthazar stopped and stood quietly, watching Rose and waiting to see what she picked off the bookshelf. "What sort of business are you thinking about starting?" She asked.
"Right now my partner and I are split between starting a blacksmith shop and starting a mercenary company." Balthazar admit. Rose gave him an odd look for a trill before a small laugh escaped and she went back to looking at the books.
"Well those are certainly very different enterprises." She said, her grin persisting as she began to pull books from the shelf. "You can only check out three books at a time and you can only keep them for five trials. We have a small fee for joining the library but the access to knowledge is more than worth it."
"I'll pay the fee and I will bring the books back." Balthazar said before gesturing to the three books she had taken off the shelf, "What are those about?"
"This one," Rose said as she handed over the first book, "is a general primer on setting up a business. It'll walk you through the costs, supply and demand principles, the differences between small and large businesses, and a few other particulars that you won't really understand until you read it. This one, " Rose handed him another book, "will go a little more into detail on the concepts that you learn about in the first one. Don't try to read it first, it'll only confuse you. Lastly, this one," Rose handed him the final book, "will be a little more useful to you if you're looking to start a company of mercenaries. It is focused on the leadership aspects of running a business. It deals with managing employees and issues within the business that can arise after start up."
"This is wonderful, thank you." Balthazar said. Rose took him over to a desk and he paid the fee to join the library before filling out a little paper so the library would have record of where the three books were. He thanked Rose again for her help and departed from the library with the books under his arm. He returned to Simula and put the books in the steed's saddlebags before untying her and leading her off by the reigns again. He'd read the books later but he thought it was important to get ahold of them now.
His next stop was the town square where he used to frequent the notice boards before he began working for the Elements. With them, the cases came to him. When he had an office established, the cases would come to him again, but for the time being he had to look into the things that he was curious about on his own. There were plenty of rumors going around Scalvoris Town and Balthazar knew the two places he needed to go to find out about them- the Cabin Boy and town square. He and Simula arrived in the square, specifically at the notice board, a little past mid trial and Balthazar looked over the jobs that were available. Bounty hunting would have been the most immediately profitable choice. It always paid well and there were some hefty bounties this season.
However it was not the bounties that ended up drawing the former detective's attention. No. There were plenty of bounties that offered a pretty nel but it was the notice on the board with no listed reward that interested Balthazar the most. A poorly written note, as if done by the hand of a child. It spoke of a fire in the orphanage and the death of a little boy. The notice was not signed but Balthazar knew where the orphanage was. He pulled the note off the board and folded it a few times before slipping it into his satchel's side pocket. It wasn't much but it was a mystery that would hold him over until Robin arrived. Once Robin was in town, the two of them could go to Anton Callipo for a better lead.
Until then, he would help some children.
