The Asshai's Bloodmage

 Magnus wasn't having a good day. Yesterday he thought he would make a big profit with Lord Leo's bastard, only to be driven to despair today. He was woken up early from his bed by his manager and right-hand man with terrible news brought by his spies. He still had an upset stomach and hadn't been able to eat anything yet. Not only had his biggest rival Kulan closed a deal with Madame Rose Red to buy 1/4 of her business in the city, but his brother Kuzar had also closed a secret expansion deal with Lord Leo regarding the development of new lands. The fact that he hadn't even been considered as an option in these two deals made him extremely angry to the point of wanting to kill some people to release his anger. The worst of all was that he couldn't do anything else. Madame Rose's deal had already been closed and she didn't even accept a visit from him, only sending a message saying that she already had enough for her business. As for Lord Leo, he already had some secret deal with Kuzar and it was too late to invest in these lands. While he was thinking about what to do, his manager said:

"Boss, what about Lord Leo's third brother? Wouldn't it be good to ally with him?"

—WHICH PURPOSE? After his shout, he also hit the table in anger.

"BANG!" 

​​The woman cringed in fear, trying to understand what she had done wrong to irritate her boss even more. Before he said:

—Think a little before you talk nonsense, not only does your third brother have less power than him, but how would I gain anything in this new land by allying with him? I would only make Lord Leo my enemy!

The woman finally realized her mistake and fell silent. At that moment, someone knocked on the door of Magnus' cabin and she took the opportunity to go back to reading her book, sitting as far away from her boss as possible.

"Boss, Rafael and Omar Velaryon are here to see you."

At that moment, an idea finally crossed Magnus' mind. If he could convince Lord Leo's son to invest in his name in the new land, couldn't he also get his hands on a slice of the place? This was a brilliant idea and his last chance to avoid being weakened in the Valyrian crime triarchy. He sent them in and then waited patiently. Soon, the familiar face from yesterday, accompanied by a new one whose description he had only heard, entered his room and sat down after his permission.

Rafael was the first to speak after sitting down, and he listened in silence as he thought about how to approach the subject with the Velaryon boy.

"Good morning, Lord Magnus. Thank you for welcoming us again. As you requested yesterday, I brought my partner Omar Velaryon. However, some events yesterday made our previous agreement no longer necessary."

I raised an eyebrow, thought, and quickly answered:

—If the agreement is no longer necessary, why did you still come here?

"Of course we have a new business, you see yesterday my friend here received a small inheritance from his father Lord Léo Velaryon, thanks to that we no longer need money to supply our ship and we decided to venture into other businesses since we have some coins left over."

Magnus was shocked by the direction the conversation was going, it was going straight to where he wanted. Besides, he understood what Rafael meant by "inheritance" if he is not mistaken, Lord Léo may have finally recognized his bastard son. This made everything even easier and he attacked while Rafael had paused for a moment and said:

—Are you talking about the new island that Lord Léo is developing?

After asking his question, Rafael seemed shocked, but the brat knew how to disguise it quickly, if I, the great Magnus was not an elder in the art of trickery he might not have seen his quick change of expression, but this confirmed his hypothesis, Rafael's surprise was merely because of my ability to obtain information so quickly. The boy then looked at Young Velaryon who nodded at him.

"So you heard about Lord Leo's visit to the bank yesterday. Since you seem to know about it and have more experience in business, let's hear your plan."

 Magnus smiled broadly. Everything went even better than he had planned, and the boys came to his door to raise funds for the new colony. He then continued:

—I am willing to invest 800 gold coins in the new colony. Of this amount of money, I need at least 3 establishments to be created in my name on the island. One of these must be in the main port of the island and be as large as possible. The others can be in any location you can find. Use 500 coins for this. You can use the remaining 300 coins for your own investments on the island, and you only need to pay me 400 coins when your businesses start to make a profit. How about that? Sound good to you? I decided to lower the interest, hoping that with this partnership we can become good friends and work together on other businesses in the future...

I finish using my friendliest possible look while giving a sincere smile. My manager finally looks at me over the book she's been hiding behind the whole time before looking to see the reaction of the two guests. Rafael looks at Omar again and he nods again. I almost celebrate out loud, but I hold myself back. I need to let them think this is just regular business for me.

"We have an agreement then, Lord Magnus, but I must remind you that we're going to Asshai in the next few months so we'll leave this business under the supervision of butler Tom, you can ask for reports on this every few weeks."

—Old Tom is Lord Leo's right-hand man, there's no problem on my part with this arrangement. Cecilia, prepare the documents!

​​While I tell the manager to prepare the paperwork, I go to the safe and use a cloth bag to put 8 gold bars issued by the Valyrian Bank itself. I let them check all the bars, before signing all the documents my manager prepared. At the end, before they leave, I shake hands and greet the two young men, saying goodbye to them and wishing them good luck on their trip.

When I return to my seat, I don't even need to ask before Cecilia brings me the most expensive wine in my collection and congratulates me:

"Boss, you were incredible, as expected of you. Not only did you turn the situation around, but you also put yourself in an even better position than your rivals!"

Cecília's flirtatious smile as she praised me made me even more proud of my successful negotiation. My stomach, which was feeling bad, felt better, and so did my hunger for another type of meat. While I looked at Cecilia's curves, I told her to call her two sisters and bring me a sumptuous breakfast. The day had barely begun and it seemed perfect to start a party.

***

 While Magnus was having a great time partying, the two young men carrying a heavy bag of gold went to the carriage that was still waiting for them. As soon as they entered it, loud laughter could be heard and even after a long 10 minutes it still continued.