Chapter 30: Chapter 30 - You Have A Sister!?

Now I know what some of you are thinking.

Why not just build a bath for yourself?

Sure, that would have been a lot easier, especially with magic.

But like I said in one of our earlier sessions, I’m not an ambitious man when it comes to leadership, but when it comes to business and money... well that’s an entirely different story.

Another question you might have is how could I already afford to buy land, and build an entire bathhouse.

And to that I would say:

You clearly don’t have any idea how much money you can make if you own the only bar in an entire village.

Pair the clear lack of supply with the overwhelming demand of people who have to wait for their tables at a restaurant, and you have the perfect recipe for making a hell of a lot of money.

Now, would a bathhouse make its capital investment back?

Well, seeing as this is the one and only bathhouse in the village, and everyone else just does the spot wash I’ve had to suffer through since I came to this world, I suspected that it definitely would.

Pair that with the fact that Worick had started to implement some of my suggestions, which at that time suggested to me that he would even listen to my suggestion of some tourism spots, and the location I chose which enabled me to expand in any direction.

And you now had another opportunity of massive income.

People sometimes forget that some of the richest people on Earth didn’t invent something fancy and new.

Yes those people became the most famous, and most of the time extraordinarily rich.

But it’s the people that provided basic services that became wealthy over generations.

All of these plans and strategies ran through my mind as Julia and I entered the reception of the bathhouse.

Behind the counter stood one of the elves that had become a regular at my bar, and one of those that actually hung out with us regularly.

"Hey John," I greeted him as we came to the desk, his name was actually Jonric but I decided that that was just too much work to pronounce each time, especially when I had a couple of drinks.

"Daniel! Here for your bath?"

"Of course." I nodded.

I don’t even know he asked that every night I came in there, I mean apart from that being the case every night, what else would I be doing there.

But oh well, I guess he was just trying to make small talk.

I should probably describe the setup a bit to those of you who haven’t been.

It was a wooden building, like every other building in the village.

The difference was that our entrance was massive, I’m talking three men could fit through the massive double doors side-by-side.

The first thing you saw upon entering was a massive open space with some benches and a big wooden desk nestled against the opposite wall to the entrance.

On each side of the desk was another door that separated the communal men’s and women’s baths.

And another doorway that was through the wall to the right of the entrance, which led to the private baths.

Which is the door Julia and I walked through.

A few minutes later we were sitting in a rather large bath filled with water of the perfect temperature.

Obviously, even though the bath was large enough to fit like five people, Julia was sitting in my lap.

I was lightly rubbing her shoulders, deep in thought.

And by deep in thought I mean I was actually thinking of very important business strategies, not that I was clearing my mind and trying to control my impulses so I wouldn’t do something that should never be done in a public bathhouse.

It was while I was in this deep thought that I noticed the soap I was using to scrub her back was really rather... bad.

I mean it wasn’t lathering up properly, it didn’t have a nice scent, it was just... soap.

"Is all the soap in this world this bad?" I asked.

Julia was quiet for a moment.

And then another.

It wasn’t until I stopped rubbing her shoulders, and lightly tapped her on the cheek that she turned her head towards me, meeting my eyes with dazed ones of her own.

A smile tugged at the corner of my lips.

She had fallen asleep while sitting completely still.

I lightly kissed her forehead, feeling a bit guilty for waking her.

But since I had already done it, I just repeated my question.

"No, in the border city I told you about when we first met there are shops that specialize in luxury soaps." She answered, turning back around and leaning against my chest.

I had to do my very best not to become so distracted by the amazing view, and to actually listen to her answer.

"Is that so?" I muttered, draping my arms around her from behind, and resting my chin on her head.

"Mmhm."

"Is that a large industry in the human territories?"

Julia only shook her head lightly at this question.

Each answer she gave me only made the smile on my lips spread even wider.

It seemed that I had just found my next little gold-mine.

"Is there a chance that you know the owner of that store?" I asked.

"I know her quite well," Julia mumbled. "She’s my sister."

This shocked me to my core.

"You have a sister?"

"Our relationship is... complicated." Julia answered.

It was at that moment that I realised that I didn’t really know anything about the woman I had so brazenly started to call my wife.

But I also realised that even though I am her husband, I had no right to pry into her history if she didn’t want to share it with me.

"Would it be okay if we went to meet with her?" I asked.

Once again Julia went quiet for some time, this time however I knew it wasn’t because she was asleep.

"It should be fine."

Without realising it I had been holding my breath waiting for her answer.

Not because I was afraid that her saying ’no’ would cost me a business opportunity.

You tell me what man wouldn’t be nervous when he asked the woman he loved if he could meet her family.

But with her answer came the anxiety of now knowing that I was actually going to meet the family of the woman I loved.

My first real adventure in this new world would soon start.

After some preparation of course.