"I must admit, I didn't expect that a student of the Elendir Institute of Magic would approach me about an old business of mine, hahaha," the middle-aged man seated opposite Cæ laughed nervously.
"As I mentioned over the phone, Mr. Norton," Cæ began with a polite tone. "I am interested in the niche of cheap, small, and low-end housing units that are mana-independent. I was hoping to understand your perspective and your experience in this sector."
"…I am surprised that a student of magic from such a nationally prestigious nation would be this interested in such a niche topic," the short man readjusted his glasses with a surprised expression.
He was clearly a little unnerved by Cæ.
The cafe that they had chosen to meet in was classy but had smaller tables that reduced the distance between the two people sitting opposite each other. Cæ's face was menacing, with scars running from his face down his neck from his accident nearly a year ago. His right eye was a significantly lighter shade of gray, partially blending in with his iris, leading his appearance to be even more creepy.
On top of that, the reserved severity that lingered in his gray eyes was intimidating to the average person. His hardened demeanor and body language made it difficult to relax around him.
Norton would be scared to learn that this was after Cæ had made some effort to be less unapproachable.
"I am interested because I intend to enter this field and industry, you see," Cæ replied with an impassive tone. "Understanding those who have experience with this manner of housing is important to me."
"Oh? Do you wish to become an artificer and enchanter specializing in mini-housing units?" Mr Norton readjusted his glasses with lit eyes.
"Not quite, no. Although I do intend to brush up on this niche of magic, I do not intend to specialize in it," Cæ explained patiently. "Rather, I seek to enter this field as a businessman rather than a mage."
"…Eh?" Mr. Norton did a double-take as surprise took over his nervousness. "You—a student of the Elendir Institute of Magic, that too he who got rank two on the magic aptitude test—want to start a business?"
"Why the surprise?" Cæ raised an eyebrow. "You speak as though no mage has ever started a company."
"…Well, at the very least, I don't think I know of any mage that started a business that wasn't centered around selling their magical services," Mr. Norton pointed out with an absorbed expression. "Well, I'm sure there are at least a few, but they are unusual, to say the least. Mages eventually enter business, and those who become wealthy eventually enter magic."
This was a known trend.
As long as one went deeper into either, they would eventually dabble in the other field. After all, the benefits of mastering magic were vastly greater the more magicapita one had. And the benefits of earning more money were vastly greater the more magic one mastered.
"Regardless, I hope you can enlighten me on your past business endeavors," Cæ redirected the conversation.
"Of course," Mr. Norton managed to relax a little. "Well, as you know, I founded Norton Housings ten years ago. My rationale was to create small, almost portable housing units that would alleviate the high demand for urban housing at the time. After all, at the time, the regulatory impedance to the conventional housing industry was absurdly high."
"…You mean the red tape surrounding the construction of housing units like houses and apartments?" Cæ raised an eyebrow.
"Correct," Mr. Norton nodded thoughtfully as he recollected memories of old. "Back then, the civil and magical regulatory standards of the former Housing Regulatory Act were so absurdly high and difficult to meet that you would think it was impossible to achieve. This increased the cost of production and reduced supply, causing real estate prices to be absurdly high. I cannot stress how absurdly expensive housing was back then."
"I see…" Cæ murmured with an intrigued expression.
He didn't have an intuition about that.
He was still living in the Colohen Slums back then, the sorry excuse of a housing market that never adhered to regulations in the first place.
"It took almost three years to get all the necessary permits, which meant that each housing project needed to be planned many years in advance," he heaved an exasperated sigh. "All those irritating district-level, city-level, and central-level permits that we needed to get from different disjointed governmental regulatory bodies, each with their own protocols and whatnot. Construction companies used to have management teams just to deal with the bureaucracy alone. It was truly frustrating."
"That does sound excruciatingly painful," Cæ mused with a hint of sympathy. "That must have made conventional housing a torturous industry. I'm assuming that you came up with your idea to tap into the growing demand for alternatives?"
"Precisely," Mr. Norton nodded, readjusting his glasses. "I used to work as a senior manager of a construction company back then and almost had mental breakdowns because of how frustrating this process used to be. However, it also helped me understand that there was a growing demand for alternatives at the time. And hence, I came with mini-housing units that were categorized differently and were subject to far fewer regulations due to being too small previously to have caused any government to regulate it."
"…I see," Cæ's eyes lit up with understanding. "Not only would it being a mini-housing unit cause its cost to be much lower, it being under-regulated would drastically lower the cost of production even more. So you thought to fulfill the demand for housing through this vastly cheaper option. That's… genius."
It was a very good business strategy, the kind that Cæ would come up with himself. Cæ glanced at the short middle-aged man with a new look of respect.
He was unassuming in his appearance but was definitely a good businessman.
"Please…" A self-deprecating smile emerged on his face. "Don't look at me with those eyes of regard. After all…"
His expression fell even further.
"After all, my business failed miserably, and the company went into bankruptcy. I just barely managed to avoid a slave contract."
The man shivered lightly at the thought of the old memory.
"But why…" A faint murmur escaped Cæ. "Why did the company fail? Your business strategy seems very sound on paper. Was it an operational failure? A marketing failure? Or was it—"
"It was none of that."
His tone was melancholic.
He heaved a sigh. "Frankly, everything was in order. I… I even conservatively estimated that we would make billions of leenars. But, you see, Norton Housings' initial price offering, its IPO, occurred just a week before the new Mischel Administration came into power in the government. The Mischel Government… abolished the old Housing Regulatory Act and introduced the modern Civil Liberalization Act that, is still in effect at the moment. This legislative maneuver changed everything."
Cæ simply remained silent as the man narrated his story with a sorrowful tone.
"You see…" Mr. Norton continued. "The Civil Liberalization Act revolutionized the housing sector. It got rid of the tedious, convoluted, and complex maze of bureaucratic red tape and instead opened up a straightforward path."
He sipped his cochil drink. "It streamlined and centralized all permit application protocols, making it elementarily simple to get permits. It abolished the scattered, messy set of independent regulatory bodies into a single Central Elendir Housing Board that handled all things permit-related. It liberalized outdated suffocating housing criteria that hadn't changed since the dawn of the Magindustrial Revolution. A permit that took almost three years now took less than three months."
Cæ's expression grew more grave. "That destroyed the root cause of supply-side inflationary pressures on housing costs, allowing for swift supply of housing within a year or two of the regulations. It also must have destroyed demand for alternative housing like Norton Housings."
"Yes, it was good for the nation but bad for my company, but you see, that wasn't the final nail in the coffin," he shook his head. "After all, eliminating the root cause would ensure that the problem wouldn't exacerbate, but it wouldn't undo all the existing damage in a short timeframe. Or so I thought. Unfortunately for me, the Mischel Government went even further. It subsidized housing with a bill of nearly five hundred billion lennars, causing the supply to skyrocket."
A defeated expression appeared on his face. "Who in the world would want to buy alternative mini-housing units in such a situation? Nobody. And thus, my company died, revenue plummeted, and its valuation. I filed for bankruptcy, and the dissolution of the company along with the salary of my current jobs barely covered the debt financing that we had undertaken, expecting high revenue."
He shook his head. "And I've been working in the same job for the past decade since. A decent job at a conventional housing company."
He finally returned all his attention back to Cæ. "A pathetic story, isn't it? That's why I'm not worthy of being gazed at with that kind of regard."
The air grew solemn as he finally completed narrating his story.
His expression had grown even more sullen.
His short frame had slouched over.
"I do not think your story is pathetic."
Cæ's firm voice stirred the middle-aged man. Yet, he simply smiled melancholically. "Thank you. Thank you for trying to comfort me, but I'm not so weak that I need to be protected from the plain truth."
Cæ shook his head. "I'm not saying this to protect you from the truth. A failure is hardly pathetic. If that were the case, then every single human being to have ever existed is pathetic, including me."
This time, he didn't appear to dismiss Cæ's words as gentle comfort.
"N-Now that I think about it," Mr. Norton's eyes widened. "This is the first time I have ever gone this in-depth into the story of my past. I… inadvertently ended up getting caught in the past and opened up so candidly to a stranger. Forgive me. I unnecessarily burdened you with my venting."
He grew flustered and nervous as he realized how much he had borne his heart to a stranger. That, too, someone as intimidating and scary as Cæ was. Yet, there was something about the man and the topic itself that caused him to reveal the pain that he hid in his heart.
"I don't mind," Cæ's tone was uncharacteristically gentle. "I don't mind. Your candor has helped me gain insights that I didn't have before. I am deeply grateful that you have been this candid with me about the past. The emotion that you have shown has confirmed something that I first suspected when you told me your story."
Cæ's powerful gaze fixed itself on the man before him.
"Mr. Norton, I would like to invite you to join my business venture into the mini-housing units sector."
Norton shook where he sat as his eyes widened with shock. "…What?"
"As I have already mentioned, mini-housing units as a technological paradigm is the most optimal way of tapping into the untapped latent housing demand in the slums,' Cæ remarked. "I would like to invite an expert such as yourself on board this project as an owner or an employee and lend your expertise to this business endeavor of mine. Rest assured, I will ensure that you are perfectly well-compensated, more so than your current job. On top of that, you will have the opportunity to relive your dream."
Mr. Norton stared at Cæ with a bewildered expression and a shocked gaze.
"…What?"