"So you want to be an accountant?" Margarete summed up.
"That is what I said, I think. Yes."
"
Our
accountant," she mumbled with a smoking cigarette between her teeth. "Well, that's certainly ambitious of you. But I can't call it undeservedly so, outright. I understand that you have experience?"
"I was helping in my father´s office," Anri said sheepishly. "I was writing letters for him, copying documents, doing calculus et cetera. Sometimes I would help with overseeing trade between towns and documenting the transactions."
He was looking to the ground, trying to avoid her piercing gaze. They stood in the middle of Margarete´s office, which was hastily converted into a beauty salon as a troop of tailors ran around carrying silk cloths and scissors, ribbons and tapes. She posed with her arms spread wide while a pair of assistants took her measurements, which naturally meant that she was wearing only tight, one piece dress with a corset and a pair of stockings. She didn't mind him seeing her, apparently, since she let him in when he knocked. Formalities and relations aside, if he didn't want to come across as a creep, that meant either he had to look her in the eyes or to the floor. He chose the floor.
"Interesting." She shooed the assistants aside when they were done and finally took the cigarette out of her mouth. "You have a LOT to learn before advancing into such a prominent position, however. You know that?"
"I was counting on it, Mrs. Margarete," Anri reassured her.
"Well, I considered the proposition when Jarill told me. I got to say, I almost told her to bugger off. Out of all her daring ideas, this one might just be where the line is. But as it turns out... you're not half that bad."
She sat down behind her desk which was pushed to the corner of the room and flicked the cigarette dust into the ashtray. When the tailors rushed to the side with their equipment and started to draw some designs, she continued: "You are a smart man Anri, but just that. For now. This establishment is the best this kingdom has to offer, therefore I always hired the best it has to offer as well. But compared to all of the high-class university upstarts I had employed, you have one glaring advantage: I trust you."
Anri was sweating like he was awaiting his sentence. He felt dumb coming here with this insane idea, and even dumber discussing it while his interviewer wasn't bothered to dress appropriately. He made a mental note to make Jarill pay for this later.
"Tell me," she continued, "do you have any imagination of how many of the snobs who worked for me are now rotting in prison for embezzlement or have had their manhood cut off for abusing my staff?" She shook her head. "Of course you wouldn't. Are you okay? You look a little pale."
"No, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Can I get you some water? Or maybe a cigarette? Really? Well, back to the topic. Point is you have been living here for months and you haven't done anything to make me distrust you. Not even a minor transgression, nothing. In fact, you keep acting like you owe me something just for keeping you alive. You even have good relations with my employees! And Jarill... Jarill likes you," she said with the look of utmost seriousness in her eyes. But the corner of her mouth betrayed her. "Plus, my sister wouldn't raise no bad man. I can see her influence in you, you know? The way you talk, the way you deal with people around you. You never said a bad word about her either. And that's enough for me."
For the first time since he came here, Anri could breathe. His "not aunt´s" words of validation filled him with a kind of pride he rarely felt since he left home. He actually felt like he had a purpose again.
"You
will
have standards to meet though. This is not trading potatoes for flour bags. It will take a few years perhaps. You need a higher education in law and to understand the flow of my business. Getting you a tutor will be more efficient than university and my secretaries will be able to get you into the gist of things. Jarill will be your supervisor when she´s not in the university since she ever-so-graciously offered you the position. Unless you start slacking off, everything will be taken care of, at least you won't die of boredom around here hahaha! If you can hold up to my expectations until one of my accountants retires, the position is yours. If not, I am sure you won't have a problem finding a different job with your new set of skills. Agreed?"
"Of course! Thank you Mrs. Margarete!"
"Now I believe you must have more important things to do than breathe in my cigarette fumes. It was nice talking to you again. As always, if you need anything else, you know where to find me. Or tell Jarill."
"Sure. Thank you for your time, and help," he said as he turned to the door. Margarete waved him a quick goodbye tainted with a reflexive dismissal, while she turned her attention to some of her tailors´ schematics.
Anri really had something important to do. First he needed a celebratory drink. Then he would be preparing something between a thank you and some well-deserved justice for Jarill. Something likely involving bedroom and a shower afterwards.
* * *
Brothels were complicated. That was one of the first thing Anri learned after starting his training.
For customers it was simple. You walk in, you pay and you have fun. Managing that circus, as it turned out, didn't share a common language with "simple". Try managing the biggest and most notorious brothel in history and you will find yourself in a special kind of bureaucratic hell.
Luckily for Anri, he didn't have to understand all of it, just where the money went. Where to, where from, what for, how much. The costs of each action, each trade or innovation, the earnings from every type of service, workers´ salaries, what portion of the money went to where.
The numbers. He was good with numbers.
His first task was to become familiar with every "division" of the house. Not all of it was just paid sex. There was a whole bunch of things customers were willing to pay money for. Food, drinks, potions, rooms, pools, performances, even illusions. The brothel employed exotic dancers, musicians, actors, had its own transportation system, its own mage and much more.
Margarete´s secretary was nice to him and managed to present the basics in such a way, he started to understand the concepts within a week. Jarill, on the other hand, got into the role of his supervisor way too quickly for his liking and almost took over the whole training. He enjoyed studying with her until Margarete got him a proper tutor, but her "passionate nature" ended up interfering with the flow of his education more often than it helped.
Soon he was in over his head with the things he had to memorize and Jarill started preparing for her inevitable departure as new semester drew near. That meant they had less time for each other and more responsibilities to fill in that time. Anri had more space to progress in his training that way but also became more stressed as a result.
