An income that couldn’t be taxed, written off through cash, and done on a daily level.
No, he was beyond excited.
Miu said nothing the entire ride over. She quietly flipped the bar over and over in her hands as she sat there.
She’d apparently gotten a hold of one of his hoodies and looked very similar to Kit in her style of dress.
As her name would imply, she was clearly of an Asian heritage. He’d have guessed Japanese, but he was truly awful at figuring out people’s ethnicity. That and it didn’t matter that much to him.
In a world filled with Elves, Dwarves, Beastkin, and every other fairytale creature under the sun, race didn’t matter that much.
She was a touch prettier than Kit, though her face held no emotion. She seemed more akin to a doll at times.
Felix shook himself from his thoughts as he pulled into a parking spot in front of the pawn shop.
“May I handle the sale?” Miu asked, patting the silver against her palm.
Felix looked at her and then nodded once. “Sure. You might be able to get more than me anyways. Being pretty helps.
“Sell it, don’t pawn it. I was hoping to get at least eighty percent of the melt value for silver.”
Miu nodded her head and then got out of the car, walking straight for the front door. Felix locked the car and fell in behind her.
Right up until she headed for the sales counter.
Felix turned off to one side to look around.
All around him were things that the pawn shop had purchased and was reselling. Jewelry, instruments, weapons, anything and everything.
And if I were the owner of this shop, I could upgrade and resell at an even higher price.
Screw transmutation. Pawn shop! We’ll do this alchemist thing for a bit, buy a pawn shop, then really get the money rolling in.
Felix grinned, leaning into a display case and doing hypothetical point checks on watches, rings, necklaces, earrings.
It was all well within his power to turn these low-grade metal pieces into much more expensive ones. Even if he only did everything in silver. Or converted a low-value gold into a higher-value gold.
Or diamonds.
Technically, diamonds would be easier than gold, since diamonds are more common. Hah. This is it.
Or if he got really lucky, a damaged antique.
Fixing something that had a low material value but a high intrinsic value.
That’s the real money.
“I got you ninety percent.” Miu sidled up next to him. “Going to buy us jewelry?”
“No. Besides, this is all rather cheap. But this trip did give me an idea. A big one, in fact.” He turned and exited the pawn shop quickly, getting back into the car. It wasn’t until they were both seated and the car had been fired up that he continued.
“We’re going to buy a pawn shop. Or make one. We’ll pay a bit more than others to purchase items to draw customers in. Then I modify, fix, or whatever, then we sell it at a higher return. It’s perfect.”
Miu digested that, turning her head to one side. Black hair as dark as night covered her deep brown eyes. “Yes. I think that would be a good direction. Though I do not think you have the money for this, no?”
“No. Not yet. But you have to spend it to make it. And that,” Felix said, pointing to the money in Miu’s hand, “is the start. Off to buy some lead. Then I have to get ready for work tomorrow. If I can get myself fired, they have to give me a paycheck immediately. I think I have something like four weeks of vacation accrued and several weeks of sick time. By law, they have to pay it out to me as it was earned time, not given.”
Miu raised her eyebrows at that, then gave him a small smile. “Bold. And stupid. Craven, too.”
“Sounds like me, I guess.” Felix shrugged, backing up out of the parking space.
Felix walked through the front door of the fast food restaurant where he spent his days with a big shit-eating grin. Dropping his time card into the punch clock two hours early, he immediately called his regional manager.
Much to his surprise, he heard a phone going off from his office. Spinning towards the door to his office, he lifted the handle and turned it.
It opened easily enough and he found Joe hunched over his computer. Pecking at the keys, he glanced up as Felix entered.
“There you are. Kind of you to actually show up. Now, I need—”
“Fuck off, Joe,” Felix said with a grin. “Actually, first. Janessa!”
The woman whom Felix had learned to loathe jerked in response to his sudden shout. She was in the back, putting on makeup, of course.
“You’re fired. Here’s your final paycheck. I took care of it this morning through accounting. Go finish your makeup in your car.” Felix held out the final check to her.
He’d spent the better part of his morning going over Joe’s head to HR, payroll, and legal.
Joe was going to be in a world of hurt once HR started up its investigation. For now, this was more of a means to an end.
Janessa snatched the paper from his hands with a squawk. She looked between him and Joe, then fled the building quickly.
Felix entered the rest of the way into his office and then closed the door. He sat down in a chair in front of Joe with a huff.
“What the fu—”
“Shut up, Joe.” Felix shook his head and rolled his eyes. “We all know you only kept her on to try and bang her. Don’t worry, I’m sure you can hire her on somewhere else.”
He grinned at the sweating regional manager. It’d only make it worse for him when he had to explain that.
“One more word and I’ll have you fired—”
“Then do it. Fire me. Now.”
“Felix, what the he—”
“Fire me, you disgusting bastard. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve covered for your incompetence? No? Whatever. Fire me.”
“You’re asking me to fire you.”
“No, I’m calling you a disgusting piece of shit.”
Joe glared at him and then leaned forward with a sick smile. “You’re fired. Effective immediately.”
“Great. Here’s what you owe me. I’ve already made sure of everything with payroll and accounting in advance. Let me just get them on the phone,” Felix said, laying down a slip of paper with his balance sheet on it. In the other hand, he dialed up HR.
It was going to be a hell of a final paycheck that would probably screw up Joe’s entire bottom line for the month. With any luck, the store would underperform at the same time.
Going to be a bad month for you, Joe.
“Hello, this is Susan.”
“Hey, Susan? This is Felix. We spoke earlier. Joe has officially fired me.”
“I see. Could you please put me on speaker so I can confirm this?” came back the voice on the other end.
Felix set his phone down in front of himself and thumbed the speaker phone button.
“You’re on,” Felix said.
“Hi, Joe, this is Susan over at Human Resources. I understand you’ve terminated Felix from his position?”
Joe looked confused, glaring first at Felix then his phone. Clearing his throat, he leaned over the phone. “That is, we were—”
“You told me I was fired. Effective immediately. Did you not?” Felix said, grinning at Joe.
Hesitating for a moment more, Joe finally nodded his head. “Yes. Felix is terminated immediately.”
“Thank you,” came back Susan’s voice.
Felix flipped it off speaker and put it back to his ear.
“Alright, Susan, you’re back with me now. Was that all you needed?”
“Yes. Was this immediately after you terminated Janessa?” Susan asked.
“Sure was. About two minutes.”
“I’m sorry about this. We’ll be in touch with you soon. I’ve cleared your final paycheck to your account.”
“Whatever. Doesn’t matter,” Felix said, disconnecting the line.
“Alright. With that, I’m done. You’re a scumbag, Joe. I hope you get what’s coming to you in the future,” Felix said brightly.