Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 326: A Business Venture

As I was sitting on my bed, reading a book, there was a knock on our door.

"Come in." I said.

I looked up to see Skadi enter. "Koyuki, Helena, I need your help."

"Sure, what do you need?" I asked, while putting my book away.

"Please follow me." Skadi said.

I looked at Helena, who shrugged. We got up and followed Skadi. She led us from the dorms towards the alchemy labs.

"Did something go wrong with Cassie's experiments?" I asked.

"No, we just need your help." Skadi replied.

"She wants to experiment on us." Helena suggested.

Skadi smiled. "That is not too far off but nothing will explode. Probably…"

Skadi was deliberately vague, which made me wonder what was going on. I mentally checked on my undead. Nyx and Yoru were walking with us and my other tier threes were somewhere inside the academy. I briefly considered the idea that Skadi was an impersonator but Nyx seemed calm.

As she opened the door to the lab we heard a bang.

"Wohooo, it worked!" I heard Cassie shout.

Hearing an explosion was oddly reassuring. The thought made me chuckle.

"Why do I hear explosions? Nothing today was supposed to explode!" Skadi said, as we entered.

We entered the room and saw Cassie at an alchemy station, next to Hatsumi. As she turned around and saw us she slightly blushed. "Uh, just a side experiment…"

"So, the exploding thing is not why we are here?" Helena asked.

"No, you are here for the beer!" Cassie said.

"Beer?" I asked.

"You remember back in Neth when we all decided to become more politically active? When we decided to help Cassie's mother by making her county more profitable?" Skadi asked.

"Uhhhh, yes?" I was not entirely sure what Skadi was hinting at.

"I have been busy writing letters. To my parents, to Cassie's mother and even to Helena's father." Skadi said.

I looked at Helena, who shrugged.

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"We are going to open a beer garden! Well, not us exactly, Cassie's mother will. I have arranged the imports of dwarven ale. My parents handle the transportation, Helena's father helps with the import paperwork and we will decide on the right kind of ale."

"We are also going to brew some ourselves!" Cassie added.

I looked at them. "I feel lost…"

"Dwarves brew rather strong ale and Thorus is a cold place. Cassie's county is in the south and most people are humans. There are some beastkin and very few elves and dwarves. We need to figure out which dwarven ales will be best to sell." Skadi explained.

"We are here to test beers and ales? Sign me up!" Helena said.

I nodded. "I think I am ok with providing that sort of help. But will a beer garden be a big deal?"

"The concept we have here in Lupos has not really spread yet." Cassie said. "It will be really popular in the south during summer and Skadi thinks we can open more of them all around the south, starting in my county."

"The dwarven connection will help, there is really not much dwarven ale available in the south. We will pair it with a locally brewed beer as an alternative. Cassie has been working on that on the side. I have secured enough money from my parents that we can start an actual brewery here." Skadi said. "Of course, we will need permission for that, thankfully Valeria is friends with the daughter of the local lord…"

"Wow, you have been busy." I stated.

Skadi shrugged. "I have some experience when it comes to running a business from my parents. But don't worry, I threw all of your names around because you have influence."

"Is this really a beer test, or did you just want to celebrate and reveal your plan?" Helena asked.

"Maybe a bit of both." Skadi admitted, then she pulled a crate from under a table and handed us some cold beers. Dwarves loved their glass bottles it seemed, a trend that had not caught on here quite yet.

"The first one is a dwarven stout, it's dark and quite heavy." Skadi explained.

I took a sip. "Hm, comforting and nice for the winter."

"Uh, I think you need to sell those in the north." Helena mused.

"Probably not ideal for a hot day." Cassie added.

"You have written to my father, right? Have you given him any suggestions? Are you planning to open beer gardens there?" Helena asked.

"My focus is on the south. You already have quite a bit of trade with the dwarves, we can charge more if we get further south where dwarven brews are less common." Skadi replied.

"So how are you implementing those beer gardens? If you have a tap for every table it will be hard with multiple beers." I said.

"The plan is to have some tables with taps and some normal ones. We want our beer and one dwarven ale as our main beverage. We will sell some specials on occasion, if there is enough demand." Skadi replied.

"What sort of beer are you brewing, Cassie?" I asked. "And was the explosion earlier related?"

"Oh no, my beers do not explode." Cassie stated. "However, I did involve a tiny bit of alchemy in the normal process…"

"It is perfectly safe." Hatsumi assured us. "I have been helping Cassie with some of her alchemy and she showed me her brewing process."

"I have designed a potion to help with the consistency of the batches." Cassie said. "It has some similarities to a healing potion to be honest. It does not quite heal a person but it helps with the brewing process if you add a bit to the water."

I shrugged. "I am no expert when it comes to brewing, I guess I trust you."

"Ok, so the stout is probably not ideal for the south but it would be a novelty there." Skadi said. "Let's try something else. I have a rather fruity ale..."

We spent some time trying different dwarven brews and settled on a refreshing ale with some light bitterness. There was a hint of fruit as well. Then we tried Cassie's creation.

"Hm. Crisp, refreshing and surprisingly mild." I noted.

"I wanted something that can quench your thirst. I think if we put that in a tap on people's tables it will sell really well." Cassie said. "Now all I have to do is get a proper brewery set up and manage to make enough to sell it."

"And hire staff to do the work." Skadi added. "Setting that up will take longer than just importing beer but my parents agreed that it is a worthwhile investment. Oh, and while we focus on the beer my parent's caravans will transport other dwarven goods as well. They are setting up new trade routes in general. We might want to talk to Valeria and see if we can arrange more trade there as well. Dwarves might be interested in high quality wood."

I had to admit I had neglected politics a bit as soon as we had returned from the capital. It seemed that Skadi had been busy though.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked.

"Providing some undead for security, a brewery we run would be a potential target for our enemies." Skadi stated.

"Sure, I can spare some goblins, or skeletons. Oh, I still have that magical skeleton… Maybe I should work on some commands for that?" I had almost forgotten about my magical skeleton. I still had a few normal ones too.

By the time we finished it was late and I was a bit tipsy. We had no classes tomorrow, otherwise I would have been worried. As I fell into the bed next to Helena I noticed Hatsumi putting a glass of water on our table, before wishing us a good night. I was lucky to have so many great friends, living and undead.