Chapter 1795 The New Arcadina
It was his, all his.
Looking at the Winterland through his window, Sebastien felt it was good for these lowly peasants to slowly develop their wealth. So that when the time was rope, he could swoop in and collect it all. Heh. Peasants trying to break the poverty cycle was the most absurd thing he ever heard. If they were smart, they would stay in their lane and never challenge him when he takes the throne. He, Sebastien, wasn't as weak as William. Anyone who dares talk back will get executed without haste. It was a hard-known fact that killings brought about fear, and fear brought about Obedience. Obedience was what he wanted, and not their silly trust. They were now passing through a town called Damascus. It was a small but prominent town that had its unique charm.
"In 3 more hours, the darkness will cover the land," Sebastien noted. "We stop here for today." "Sure, you're the boss."
Rudolf knocked at the wall behind him, before opening a small sealed-up square box section of the wall that also had a peculiar metal mouth with holes in it.
The metal square was for communication. With Rudolf's words, it didn't take long for the coachman to come to a halt before a well-known Hotel that had its own hot spring at the back It was very famous for providing top services and also had a 2-star revenue. This was a great accomplishment for any hotel outside Baymard. Many are stuck at 1-star, but a grand hotel in a small town was able to break through. Sebastien and Rudolf didn't know it yet, but even they have now changed their standards on what sort of place they can stay in. In the last city, they slept overnight in, the first thing they asked was where the 2-star hotels were. And when they were told everything was booked solid, they had no choice but to turn to the 1-star hotels, wanting to only look at those at the top echelon of the 1-star category. Do you know now that every city has a compiled booklet of hotels?
There are now famous Tourist buildings in every city/
town that allow people to go in and look over these magazines in a lounge area. Of course, you will have to pay for lounge time to go in. That's one of the ways the establishment makes money. .
Unlike modern times, people don't just come in for a few minutes and leave. They come in and stay in there for hours, trying to absorb and memorize everything by heart. As said, people in this era trust their brains more and work 100 times harder to recall every little detail since it might one day save them. No internet, no data, no cellphones outside...they need to know it by heart.
That's why even hotels were known to them by heart.
You pay for your time in the tourist lounge, so you can go in and see the many booklets they have about their town. There were restaurant booklets, places for fun, clinics and physician/healing homes all in there. Beautiful sceneries and activity booklets too. Thanks to many businesses joining several associations in Baymard, they were given free publicity as a welcome gift to them. So Baymard came here, took pictures and even wrote about their establishments, putting it all in booklets and books. Many noticed that after having their establishments put in these booklets, their businesses soared even more. It was amazing how such a simple thing had triggered a heavy chain reaction. Who would have known that such a little marketing trick would bring them more money? There were also your guides available and carriage renting sites now popping up everywhere and there. You can rent a carriage and a coachman from them for a day, or even a week.
When renting, you must also rent out a coachman who will follow the carriage everywhere.
This way, they are guaranteed to have their carriage returned to them. These coachmen are actually guards that will double as your protection when traveling around the city or town. These people also know the rules of the city/town, so any troubles or confusion you have can be easily solved by them. .
Yes. Everything's as now organized in detail for tourists or passerbys to see. That being said, those who do break the 2-star rank, are given more advertising perks. Billboards in Baymard, radio and TV advertisements. Of course, in their territories, they also get billboard advertising. With the approval of William, Baymardian will place several Billboards around the city during any 4 seasons. They are guaranteed 2 months of billboard advertisements anytime they choose in a year. Additionally, they will have their establishment's images blown up on the walls of these tourist buildings and many areas across their territories. And lastly, there will be newspaper articles about them. In the end, the higher you climb, the more marketing opportunities they will get, thus getting them for customers. That was how things operated here. Sebastien and his team had already passed through this town a while back when heading closer to the Capital. But now that they were traveling towards Baymard, they still chose to go through a path they were fairly comfortable with. At least, the path will take them to the first coastal city they arrived in after docking in Arcadina. They planned to stop in that city to send word out via sea, before continuing their journey to Baymard. It was because this path was familiar, that they chose to sleep in towns and cities they slept in before. So for them, they didn't need to go to the tourist building to look up hotels anymore. They had a list of hotel sites in mind.
Don't think that just because they mastered most information, they won't be going to the tourist building before they leave. Everyone in this world knows that information is always changing. Last week's news might not be the same as this week's news. So what they saw several months ago might not be the same now. It might sound silly to modern people for them to keep looking up restaurants and other tourist sites, but to them, knowledge is power. This was a way for them to know what new businesses had sprung up during this time they hadn't passed by. .
Again, you might think some places were simple, but only those in the underworld could see some assassin hotels hidden in plain sight from the masses. There were strange inns here, that only took in assassins. There were also information cafes and other peculiar sites only those with power would be intrigued by. Keeping up with the current trend was a must in this cruel world. This was again another reason why the Tourist building will never run out of customers, paying to use the lounge. Understand that even the newly sprung taxi drivers who migrated here, come in here to study the routes to these places. There was no outside map yet, however, the site the establishments were on was noted down in the description. One could see well-detailed explanations like; Gilligan Hotel: Nestled between the Grand Molengian Stone and the Whitewood Dancing Square, the Gilligan Hotel has blah, blah, blah. The taxi drivers would memorize these descriptions, knowing the Gilligan Hotel was found on the street close to the Whitewood Dancing Square. From there, it was up to them to go out and find those places themselves. They will spend several weeks mastering the streets before taking in their first customer. One must first gain knowledge of where all these tourist sites are so they can do their jobs well and get their customers there on time. Cab drivers, merchants and those always on the road were the most frequent visitors to the tourist establishment, which made the place always full, as if one was in a public library. Arcadina syre has changed, from what it used to be under Alec Barn's rule. At least that was what Sebastien and Rudolf have heard time and time again. Reaching the grand 1-star Inn, their guards quickly aided in checking in, and soon, Rudolf and Sebastien found themselves in an enormous suite made for a Pharaoh. The bed was grand, the floors were made of pure gold and the pillars were also gold, with fine black rope tied around the pillar. The theme here was gold, brown and black. There were several floor-to-ceiling mirrors around the place and many artifacts that looked befitting of Sebastien's prestige Complementary Champaign and other items could be seen on the table too. The room also had today's technology, like Baymardian battery and remote control lights. There was a fireplace that was now lit and a beautiful balcony that could make many lost for words. However, before the duo could get any more comfortable, a strange wind blew, followed by the sound of an object being dropped on the floor -- A Letter.
Sebastien's eyes flickered coldly, "It seems we have an assignment."