The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 71: Coffee for the First Time
For the first time in their lives, the two boys were spending money at a sidewalk café.
Before sitting down, they dusted off their clothes several times, making absolutely certain they would not dirty the chairs.
William did not stop them.
He simply watched.
People do not lose their sense of reverence for the world in a single moment. If someone could suddenly lose all reverence for everything around them, that person would not survive for very long.
The arrogant who fear nothing are usually destroyed.
Either by others.
Or by themselves.
Watching the boys sit carefully, cautiously, shoulders slightly hunched and heads lowered, William could tell that reverence still existed in their hearts.
Even after doing something many adults would never dare do.
Murder.
Once the waiter delivered three cups of coffee and three thin pancakes, then sincerely wished them a pleasant afternoon tea, William began explaining the work he could offer them.
“Recently, I established an auction house.”
“At the moment, nobody works for me. Over the next few months, I’ll have far more work than I can handle personally, and I can’t spend every day trapped in an office.”
“I need people.”
The two boys, who had been communicating through glances moments earlier, immediately straightened their backs.
William nodded slightly.
With one hand holding the saucer and the other holding his coffee cup, he took a sip.
“The first job is simple.”
“I need someone to visit every commercial market in Sabine City each day and collect price information on various goods and raw materials.”
“It sounds simple, but it’s actually very detailed work.”
“I need people who can ask questions, read, and write.”
Mr. Fox still had no idea how much trouble those debt-settlement mortgage agreements would eventually create.
Sooner or later, warehouses would be overflowing with miscellaneous goods.
Unlike gold or jewelry, those things could not be sold quickly.
If people possessed valuables like gold or jewelry, they would never bring them to Mr. Fox in the first place.
They would sell them directly to antique shops.
Or pawnshops.
In many cases, those were essentially the same thing.
What ended up in Mr. Fox’s hands were always items connected to daily life.
Things that could not be sold immediately.
Things too valuable to throw away.
Things that consumed space, labor, and attention.
William’s plan was simple.
He would purchase those goods at a discount based on the values listed in the mortgage agreements.
In other words, he would profit from the same transaction twice.
And the second profit might be even larger than the first.
Not that it mattered.
The two businesses were technically separate.
In fact, Mr. Fox would be the one asking William to handle the problem.
Market prices fluctuated constantly.
Determining the correct selling price required research.
And William could already smell something in the air.
The scent of an approaching storm.
As the economy contracted, ordinary people’s spending habits were changing.
More and more families were turning to secondhand goods in order to reduce expenses.
Pricing would soon become a science.
As for raw materials...
Markets occasionally produced strange situations.
Sometimes a product’s market value fell below the value of the materials that composed it.
Used automobiles were among the most common examples.
A worn-out car might sell for only two or three dollars.
Yet if dismantled and sold as parts and raw materials, it could be worth considerably more.
In better times, high labor costs discouraged such practices.
But an economic downturn was coming.
Labor would become cheap.
Workers would compete viciously for jobs they once considered beneath them.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.