We had a small discussion regarding the split of the profits until we came up to an agreeable distribution. The DevilNet business empire would be run as a joint Phenex enterprise and the shares would be split some ways and saved in others, just like those unclaimed contracts Rigal had gotten for me, a nest egg for future members of the clan.
I would get three-tenths of the profits, in perpetuity, till I passed, after which the shares would be distributed among my future progeny, or lacking which, they would pass to the Phenex Contract Trust, saved for other future Phenexes- this part being the same for all other members and beneficiaries of the enterprise.
Rigal as the primary manager of the business- though everyone would pitch in, managing parts of each industry built- would get two-tenths, mostly because he needed to be pulled up to the standard of power, Ultimate Class sooner than later, after which his share would be reduced by a twentieth, ging back into the Phenex Contract Trust.
Mom and dad would each get a tenth of the share, and my uncles and aunts, all combined would get a twentieth of the share. The other twentieth would go to their children, my niblings once-removed.
One-tenth more would go to Ruval and another twentieth to his children. The final remaining twentieth share would go into the Phenex Contract Trust again, as a nest egg for future generations.
This way, a total of one-tenth would be saved for future generations altogether- after Rigal reached around mid-Ultimate Class- and keep the clan going, long after all of us were gone. Though, I for one, never planned to be gone at all.
"Now that that's done. Lets discuss the nitty gritty details of it." I broached the subject.
"The medium- DevilPhone." Rigal said but I stopped him.
"Let's uh… let's not go with that name. I said that as a tentative placeholder, but if we plan to market it worldwide, the name of this and all the other products have to be digestible to the consumer. In fact, all of the names have to be revamped."
"You have ideas for that?" My father asked.
I nodded.
"The phone we can call the P1 Ruby. P for Phenex of course. And, alongside it we can also sell an upgraded model with marginally better specs and a quality finish, called the P1 Ruby Pro, marketed specifically to the nobility at an insane mark-up on the hardware. Stroke their egos, you see, make them and anyone else able to afford it choose. Do you wanna buy the peasant model or do you wanna be a Pro?"
"Make it a status symbol." Rigal whistled.
"They will go crazy for it." I chuckled, "Then there's the UI. It has to be graphic. Large, cutesy icons, easy to use, intuitive, consumer friendly. No need to add extraneous functions. Ten apps or so. Calls, messages, camera, the proprietary DevilNet browser- Firebird, an app for making contracts, say The Big Deal or oh! Faustian Bargain- Mephistopheles hasn't copyrighted that has he?"
Rigal grinned.
"No, no he hasn't. He's about to regret not doing that."
"That reminds me, I forgot to introduce this earlier but we can also create another smaller microeconomy within this with a delivery service. Every devil knows teleportation magic and instant deliveries at your doorstep, now that is the very definition of convenience. Every whim they have, every craving, appearing right before their eyes before they have either the self-control or good sense to think themselves out of the indulgence. Food, clothes, gadgets. Make them lazy, more dependent on us.
Moreover, by giving the low class devils a way to make more and profitable contracts, cornering that niche too, we can not only gain their support and goodwill, but also skim a little off the top of their work for the connective service rendered.
And that's not all. With all the data we gather from this and other sources, we can also up our recruitment of talented and powerful individuals. Think about it, a devil that makes more deliveries is likely to have higher demonic power. Rank that data, and viola! No more waiting for them to rise through the bureaucracy to mid or high class, then going through a bidding war with the other houses. We'll simply snap up the talent without any competition, and they'll be more grateful and loyal to us for choosing them then, when they weren't anyone special, instead of the pride they have usually when they work hard to rise up and get bid on for service. Humble, ever loyal servants, all with high class power."
"I hadn't even thought of that!" Ruval exclaimed, "That is brilliant Riser."
"What else can we do with the data?" My father asked further.
"Oh, so much more, even more than targeted ads and such. We are about to effectively democratize contracts, the domain of devilkind to the entire world. How many poor but talented magicians are out there, just waiting for someone to give them a chance, to earn a living in the magical world? They make the contracts, but we get the power, because non devils can't benefit in terms of that like us. In return, we pay them above minimum wage, plus tips."
"Thus, discharging our own dues onto the consumer while getting all the benefits of a contract without doing any of the work. A non-stop stream of unclaimed contracts." Rigal nodded giddily.
"Bingo!"
"Anything else?" My father pushed further, only gentler this time.
"Hmm, yeah, but I'll need time to make a whole list of that. Give it to you tomorrow?"
"Sure." He agreed.
"Now, back to the point. I also want us to invest in a magical computer business. You see how difficult it is to tabulate the data and calculate all this stuff by hand? And that's for us devils, with our power of imagination, where we don't even need to do it that much. But just think of the effort it takes a regular human or dwarf or elf." I explained, "What if there was a simpler way?"
"Excel but for magic." Rigal understood.
"Exactly. Our own line of magical personal computers, running our own Bennu OS, cross compatible with our phones, same apps, same everything.
People across the supernatural world surfing the PhoenixNet, not the DevilNet, so as to avoid the stigma of our species name, on their own P-series devices, with their Firebird browser.
Our name on their lips, in their hearts and minds. We will become irreplaceable. At that point even Zekram will have to give up on his designs to curry favour with us." I was about to give a grand finish when something clicked, something I had missed earlier.
"Rigal, that phone call earlier…You know Mephistopheles owns the UTL right?" I pointed out.
"Yeah, what about- Fuck!" The horror dawned on him too, almost at the same time as the rest of us.
"Should I call and cancel the-" Rigal bumbled but my father stopped him.
"Too late. No. We move, now and fast. Right now, he only knows you made a mistake in the market. He'll be watching that line like a hawk. We need to use that distraction to set up this business, manufacturing, copyright, logistics. We need to be in production before he realizes what we're doing and moves to undercut us. This is a threat to his business. He won't just let it go. Riser."
"Yes. Golden Dawn has recently released a modern magical programming language. We use them for the coding side, keep it nice and secret. Strict NDAs, ironclad contracts. Pay whatever you need to, to get them to agree.
They are also associated with the Gremorys through Macgregor Mathers, their founder and Sirzechs' bishop. Powerful as he may be, Mephistopheles will think twice before moving against a Satan. That will buy us time to get a leg in. By the time he catches up, it'll too late." I pulled out another batch of notes and handed them to Rigal.
"These are the rough designs and coding suggestions I made. Also, the blueprints for the phone and the PC, including the microcamera spell and real time bandwidth distribution. The towers and satellites are a bit rough but you and Ruval can refine the designs there.
Dad, you need to get exclusive permissions for land and underground rights from all the territories before he notices. Be discreet, they'll know what we're planning but not the scale of it. Don't let them know it.
Move fast. Meet them today and finalize the deal."
My father nodded.
"And weed out the Grauzauberer spies in their midst while you're at it. This is the Manhattan Project for the Phenex clan. This will make or break our future. Do not slip up again." My father warned, "Go, go, go!"
----------x----------
I went out to the garden for a stroll to relax and found Dulio and Ravel sitting there along with a third unexpected visitor- Magdaran Bael, a mountain of flower crowns on his head as he played along with her fantasies.
We had kept them out of the meeting with an excuse, because frankly, Dulio was too kind and gentle for that sort of talk and Ravel was too young.
"And another one for Riser…" She placed an eighth flower crown on him, the collective laurels drooping off of his head and well onto his eyes now.
"Riser!" Ravel jumped into my arms, and clung to me like a koala, climbing onto my back, screaming, "Piggyback! Piggyback!"
I laughed and planted a kiss on her cheek, before placing her on my shoulders and turned to Magdaran.
"Oh my~ Who's this pretty princess?" I pulled up the crowns off of Magdaran as I teased him and he smiled back so purely that I almost felt bad for trying to usurp his birthright. Almost.
"It's me, Magdaran. We met at your birthday-"
"I'm just playing with you, Magdaran." I ruffled his hair as I lifted the flower crowns off of him and placed them on Dulio's head.
"Eh, that's a relief." He said sincerely, "I know I came unannounced but I wanted to meet Lady Phenex to discuss a new plant I made."
"But Dulio said they were in a meeting so I decided to wait." He replied, playing with the grass, his dark gold seamed pants soaked in dew.
"Oh really?" I raised an eyebrow in concern, and sat down beside Dulio, giving him the look, as he realized something and shrunk back a little in guilt, "What else did he say?"
"Oh, he also told me Sairaorg was coming for a sleepover tomorrow."
Dammit, Dulio!
I pinched him in the side and he whispered a soft 'sorry' under his breath.
"Was it supposed to be a secret?" My actions did not go unnoticed, and Magdaran asked, "Because, I wanted to ask if I could come too? I…want to see Sairaorg again and um…" He twiddled his thumbs nervously, looking up at me with the most adorable puppy dog eyes, ugh- "I don't have a lot of friends, so I have never been to a sleepover before."
"But will your parents allow it? If they know Sairaorg is here?" I tried to brush him off.
"I'll come secretly at night!" He offered his brilliant solution.
"But then if they don't find you in bed in the morning, they'll think we kidnapped you!" I pointed out, "And you'll never be allowed to visit us again."
He paled at the thought and hung his head.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked…"
I sighed. If he goes back like this and blunders something to the wrong people…
"You know what? If you keep Sairaorg being here a secret, I'll invite you to Ravel's birthday and all of us can have another, secret sleepover. How about it?"
His eyes lit up at the thought and he nodded vigorously, shaking my hands.
"Yes, thankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"Remember, Sairaorg wasn't here. He will never be here." I ran a pinch across my lips like a zipper, "Secret."
He nodded and giggled, "Secret."
"Now, my mom is actually going to be really busy today, so I don't think she can meet you, but maybe some other day?"
"Okay. I was getting late anyway. My mother will be looking for me soon." He got up and patted his pants clean, and I just cast a cleaning spell on him.
"Thank you." He waved us goodbye, and disappeared into a teleportation circle.
I turned to Dulio and gave him the dirtiest look I could muster.
"What were you thinking? It was-"
"Ravel said it first!" He threw her under the bus, and I sighed. He's becoming a true Phenex, through and through.
"Is that so?" I picked Ravel off my shoulders and she 'eeped' as I threw her into the grass, "You've been giving out secrets, have you, you little traitor?"
"Wait! Riser, big brother Riser no-"
"I sentence you to tickle jail!" I went down on her, pressing her into the dirt and tickling her sides vigorously as she squirmed with laughter, giggling away and Dulio watched in mock horror.
"No- shtooohp, I'm gunna peheee~"
.................................
This thing has stretched. Streeeeetched.
Riser avoids a disaster, Ravel needs to learn to keep her mouth shut.
Final part next time and back to training.
Thanks for reading. Tell me what you thought of the chappy.
Till next time. Don't forget to donate your powerstones.
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