Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

Working with Mr. Malin meant meat on the table, which was a point uniformly agreed upon by all the apprentices of the local Church of the God of Commerce — whether it was the previous snack shop or the tool workshop, and including the various types of stores that followed, the apprentices believed that working in Malin’s shop was far better than anywhere else.

Be it the cleanliness of the shop, the design of the lighting, or the arrangement of the goods, they were all unmatched by any other store in the city.

For these apprentices, hearing that Mr. Malin was selecting his financial management team was like a shortcut to heaven — as Merchants in the Sequence, it went without saying that the more wealth one handled, the more business experience one would gain. Moreover, it had a significant positive effect on advancing through the levels of the Sequence.

And the goods in Malin’s shop had received endless praise from any apprentice who had worked there. Not to mention the tool workshop, where many apprentices didn’t even dare to look at the prices, the seemingly affordable daily snacks in the snack shop were gaining more and more attention from the apprentices due to the highly favorable ratings from customers. The younger apprentices simply felt that working in the snack shop was better than helping out in other major stores, while the older group soon confirmed the snacks’ uniqueness — better ingredients, better preparation, better appearance.

That is why the snack shop was popular among gentlemen and Nobles. In matters of snacks, Malin’s snack shop stood at the pinnacle of Carterburg’s snack industry.

Interestingly enough, initially, the snack guild had tried to stymie Malin’s business by cornering him on raw materials, but when Malin negotiated various issues fluently in Thainanese with the Thanan people, the snack guild had already lost — not one among them could speak Thainanese.

Then, those fellows tried to resort to less respectable tactics — like hiring people to act out the drama of poor-quality snacks, but under the watchful eye of a Paladin from the Church of Justice passing by, it all ended with the actors sobbing as they repented their wrongdoings and revealed the behind-the-scenes manipulations.

After that, Malin joined the snack guild, paid the annual fee, and upon exiting, got into a fight with some kid who had just returned from out of town looking to help out his old man, pummeling him into a bruised state with a World Tree Sapling, and all rumors vanished into thin air. Once again, Malin, who always won over people with virtue, rose to the top of morality and strength.

"My Malin has always convinced people with reason." Jessica even made a special effort to learn this phrase from a Thainan classmate, reportedly a favorite saying of a Thainan sage before a brawl.

Malin offered no comment on this and did not stop Jessica, for one’s limited life should not be spent on various brawls.