After her first day in the role of accountant, Oriana managed to cause a good bit of mischief. The outcome of it, however, would hopefully pop up in the next few days.

  She would continue to fiddle with records here and there, just to bring a bit more drama into the workplace as well. But now, she was also on the hunt for a way to earn some money from the fun she would have.

  And the next few days were probably the best time for it. With all the issues that will hopefully crop up, that was sure to make it easier to relieve the Guild of their coin.

  After a good night's sleep and a partially fulfilling breakfast made by Robert, Oriana returned to the Guild to continue her job.

  Walking into the backrooms, she was, however, accosted by the very rude man from the day before.

  “Hey, look, you being the new kid, one of your jobs is going out and picking up our drinks order. So here it is, the place is a few buildings down the road. Off you go now,” said the rude man as he handed her a piece of paper and then just flapped his hand to wave her away.

  “…”

  Left standing by the door, Oriana just turned around and headed back into the atrium of the Merchants Guild, somewhat just moving on autopilot.

  “Well, I can see this being the new person's job. But he could have been a little nicer about it.”

  It was at that point that she realised something else.

  “Wait, do I have to pay for it myself?”

  With her lacking funds, if she had to do this every day, she would definitely be strained with living expenses, even with the meagre wage she was actually earning from this job.

  As she walked through the street, she passed by a couple of other shops. One of which she realised was an apothecary. And upon seeing it, she realised there was something she needed to buy.

  Purchase completed, she went to the shop to buy the drinks, which ranged from some kind of juice to a selection of tea and coffee. Having lived in the forest, the drinks were mainly water or tea made from nearby tea leaves. That was the extent of the choice.

  So now, in this rather fancy shop, she had a massive selection to choose from for her own drink. Of which, she decided to go with one of the juices, something called a Sweet Chungo Juice.

  She wasn’t sure what a Sweet Chungo was. It might be something from another kingdom. But, she figured, why not give it a try?

  Now with a selection of drinks in hand, she headed back to the Merchants Guild and found her way to Bethany.

  “Oh, you got the drinks. Thank you for that. We normally have it on a rota, so I was sure it should have been someone else today. Saying that, I don’t even think you’ve been put on it yet.” Bethany looked at her in confusion.

  “Ah, that was a sneaky move,” she thought to herself.

  “Well, I heard someone mention going to get it, but it being my first full day, I offered to go get it,” Michelle said as she smiled sweetly at her.

  “Huh, well, that was nice of you. I'll fix up the rota and add your name to it for the future. Do you have the receipt?”

  “Oh, good. I don’t have to pay for it,” she voiced internally.

  Handing over the receipt, she received the coin back from Bethany for what she purchased. It would seem there was some sort of internal budget for food and drink while in the Guild.

  From there, she headed around to everyone’s desk until she was left with the last drink. A tea of some kind. Which was destined for the rude man who had sent her to get it.

  And so before she brought it to him, hiding it with an illusion, she took out her purchase from the Apothecary, and poured a few drops into the drink.

  Then she handed it over, with no one the wiser.

  Once the drinks were done, Bethany came to her desk. Still in training, it was time for her to learn about other documents they deal with, refunds, and issue forms.

  As you would expect, not every buyer pays the required fee in time, or even in full. Same for the sellers, as there was always the possibility that their goods were not up to snuff.

  And Oriana realised this would be a place she could really do some good.

  Good for herself, she meant.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Coin and goods are stored in the Merchants Guild until both sides are ready. When the Guild has all the coin for the payment and all the goods from the seller, then things are sent to where they need to go.

  The Guild then takes a percentage of the buyer's payment as a commission, and everyone walks away happy.

  But if there is an issue, penalties are applied.

  Granted, it depends on the severity. Major problems cause delays and massive fines, but minor issues, which is what Oriana is going to get involved with, are normally sorted out quite sharpish.

  “So, you see. The crew in the warehouse use this form to check that the goods are up to specification. If everything's fine and it matches the buyer's specification, approve it and send it through. If not, then it's put on hold, and one of us needs to sort it out.”

  Bethany was giving Michelle the rundown on her job for today. She took her through the system, how it ran, and where everything goes.

  But what she didn’t realise was that she also showed Oriana a bit of a loophole.

  “So, do you think you will be able to handle that?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Not getting into the nitty-gritty of the financial world, as even she didn’t actually understand how it worked, Oriana should be able to receive small amounts of coin from problematic purchases, without the Guild really noticing or caring.

  When there is a minor issue, such as the buyer wanting pristine fruit and some of the seller's fruit is found to be bruised, this is flagged. But the seller still wants to sell their perishable goods, and the buyer still wants their fruit. So, the Merchants Guild still sends off the goods as if it were all fine.

  To be safe, there is a way to reimburse the buyer if they are unhappy with their goods. The Guild takes a small percentage from their commission fee and holds it in limbo. It’s sort of a calculated risk: if the issue is minor, the buyer gets a small amount back to cover it. It’s a small-print clause in the contract.

  The thing is, this small percentage is already quite a complex amount being taken, given that it’s from the commission fee, from the buyer’s pay. And because it is generally quite a small amount, it’s just held in limbo until either the buyer complains about the goods, or enough time has passed without a complaint, and it then goes back to the Guild.

  That is the coin that Oriana will be taking.

  “What do we have here, a request for cotton. Conditions state that there can be minor damage, and it can be dirty, as it can be cleaned in their shop.”

  With that being what is requested, the seller would also be aware of this, so their goods should match the conditions. So, all Oriana had to do was adjust the conditions before sending it through to the warehouse.

  “There we go. No dirt is allowed; it must be pure white cotton.”

  With the illusion showing that on the document, Oriana sent it through to the warehouse for them to check the goods.

  While she was waiting on that, she got to work adjusting a few other documents to do the same.

  She did make sure to skip a few here and there. It would look pretty bad if all the goods the Guild received had issues. Someone would be bound to look into that.

  Before long, she got what she needed. The form came back stating that the goods did not match the conditions, but it was not a major issue.

  That meant they would be sent as per usual, and Oriana now had to deal with the final costs.

  Putting together the form, which shows the breakdown of the coin from the buyer and where everything goes, she also included the penalty fee for the minor issue.

  Which, for this case, is around two gold coins.

  A small amount compared to the commission fee and an even smaller amount compared to what the buyer paid.

  But to Oriana, it was just the start to a nice and healthy nest egg of savings, to ensure she could continue to fight the good fight and sow chaos in the city.

  All she had to do now was change the name of the account the small fee would be applied to. With the form already having the buyer and seller information, an account name for the damage penalty fee needed to be added, which was an uncommon occurrence, and so had to be done manually, which she did through the use of an illusion again.

  She couldn’t affect the commission or the coin the buyer paid, as that was too high-profile and generally automatic. But the penalty fee was easily missed, paid out pretty much automatically and would likely be treated as a rounding error if it were lost completely. Especially since reviewing the original form would show that nothing was wrong.

  The copy would show it. But it would be some time before all this was noticed, and it not matching the original would just cause further confusion.

  Oriana didn’t expect she would be able to make these changes long-term. Just long enough to get a decent amount of coin and then make herself scarce.

  Which is why she made the account in another person's name, and once a good amount was present, she would withdraw it, close the account, and never go back to that role again.

  But before that, she sent it through with the change, stored the original, and then did the same to the rest of the documents that came through.

  “Ah, now that is a good day's work.”

  With the day coming to a close, Oriana headed out and ended up hearing the oddest of things at the clerk's counter.

  “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t know what happened.”

  “You don’t know. I ordered apples and got Peach Fire Fruit is what happened. They were used in desserts. Desserts… with cream. Do you know what happens when Peach Fire Fruit comes in contact with a liquid?”

  “Y-yes, I do. It-”

  “It pops. Thankfully, no one got hurt, but everyone got covered in the fruit and the cream. It was terribly embarrassing. But you know, that wasn’t the end of it.”

  “Oh, I thought it was just water that caused that. So it can be any liquid, interesting.” Oriana thought to herself as she heard this.

  “What do you mean-”

  “The apple bobbing. While we were all eating dessert, or what was left of it, the staff poured the fruit into the water barrels. The next thing we hear is several loud pops and the sound of screaming. Three of my servants refuse to come back to work due to the poor work conditions.”

  “I-I’m sorry, sir, but looking at the form, that is what you ordered.”

  “Are you stupid? Why would I order Peach Fire Fruit? Look, it says it right here on my order form…Apples. A, P, P, L, E, S. Can’t you read?”

  “I-I assure you I can, it's just… I need to get my manager real quick.”

  “Yes, you'd better,” the Merchant replied as he crossed his arms in indignation.

  Oriana just looked at the scene with a smile…as did everyone else in the room, although theirs looked a little like a frown for some reason.

  Oh well.

  With that ending to the day, Oriana headed back, already looking forward to what the next day would bring. Hopefully, there would be something she could mess with that would cause quite a big issue.

  What she didn’t know, however, was that she already had, and tomorrow would be the start of something that would lead to a multitude of problems.