The work continued for a while before one of the foremen jogged over, wiping the sweat from his brow.
He stopped in front of Kadar and bowed his head slightly.
"Chief Kadar. We've measured the site and assigned the men. If everything goes as planned, the stall should be finished in three or four days."
He hesitated.
"We're still short on a few things. Some timber, roofing material, and a proper counter. Once those arrive, the rest won't take long."
Kadar gave a single nod.
"Get what you need. Don't waste time."
"Yes, Chief."
The man turned and hurried back to the workers, shouting fresh instructions as he went.
Kadar watched the construction for a moment before turning to me.
"You've got three or four days," he said. "Use them wisely. Figure out what you'll sell, where you'll get your stock, and how you'll price it."
His eyes met mine.
"When those doors open, I don't want excuses. I want customers."
I nodded.
"I understand."
After a moment's hesitation, I asked the question that had been weighing on my mind.
"...How do I repay you for all of this?"
Kadar let out a short chuckle, the corner of his mouth lifting into a faint smile.
"Repay me?"
He shook his head.
"Don't misunderstand."
"I'm not doing this for you."
He looked back toward the workers raising the stall's frame.
"I'm doing this for the Qitt Clan."
"If your business succeeds, the clan gains another steady merchant. More people come through our territory. Trade grows. Coin flows."
He folded his arms.
"So don't think of it as charity."
After a brief pause, he added,
"The clan will take a partnership in the stall's trade. A fair share of the profits goes to us. In return, you get our protection, our support, and a place to do business."
He glanced at me.
"If that doesn't sound fair to you, say it now."
I shook my head immediately.
"No... that's more than fair."
A small stall backed by the Qitt Clan was worth far more than I could have built on my own.
Kadar gave a satisfied nod.
"Good."
"Then stop worrying about how to repay me."
"Build a business that's worth partnering with."
For the first time since arriving in Sous, the future no longer felt like something I had to chase blindly.
It finally felt like I had a place to start.
After speaking with Kadar, I went to find Elara.
The stall would be finished in three or four days, but the building itself was only the beginning. We still needed something to sell, and I didn't want to open the place with nothing more than a few empty shelves.
I found Elara near our home, sorting through several bundles of dried herbs.
"Elara," I called. "We need to start preparing the medicine for the stall."
She looked up from the herbs.
"Already?"
"The Qitt workers are building it now. Kadar said it should be finished within three or four days."
Her eyes moved toward the construction site before returning to me.
"Then we don't have much time."
"No, we don't."
We spent the next few hours planning what we could realistically prepare. I didn't expect us to compete with the larger merchants or established medicine shops. For now, we only needed enough stock to keep the stall running for its first month.
I went to the market and bought several common herbal remedies. I also purchased a few rolls of cotton cloth. The cloth was rough and nowhere near as soft as the material I remembered from my previous life, but it was clean enough to be cut into strips and sold as bandages.
It wasn't much, but it was a beginning.
When I returned, Elara had already separated the herbs into small piles.
As an elf, she knew far more about plants and herbs than I did. She could recognize useful leaves and roots at a glance and understood which herbs could be mixed together and which should be kept apart.
Over the next few days, she prepared several simple medicines.
Some were tinctures made from herbs and other ingredients. Others were basic remedies for common fevers, coughs, stomach pain, and minor wounds. None of them were rare or miraculous, but they were useful—and more importantly, they were things ordinary people could afford.
I helped wherever I could.
We dried herbs, ground roots, measured ingredients, and prepared small portions for sale. The work was slow, and our supplies were limited, but by the time we finished, we had produced a respectable number of medicine sets.
It wasn't enough to fill a large shop.
It certainly wasn't enough to compete with a wealthy merchant.
But it was enough to keep a small stall running for a month.
For now, that was all we needed.
The stall was slowly taking shape.
And so was our business.