Stepping in front of the office management, an organization that worked managing all factories to maintain them in line, he observed the architecture, made of stone with a few windows, it didn't catch the eye and was quite sad looking.
He gave it a five out of ten in the oppression sense.
Getting in he went directly to the person that sitting in the place of a receptionist, he probably wasn't, the person having a bucket and a mop was most likely the janitor, as he approached his steps made a sound that alerted the janitor.
"You arrived just in time; we managed to get you your time with the boss and made sure none notice your way there."
What was happening was no coincidence, he had contacted the janitors beforehand and paid them so he could make way toward his meeting without being noticed, he didn't want to be questioned by any employe of why a teenager was going to meet their boss.
"Good, thank you again for this, I will make sure the water that gets to your house becomes better after this."
He didn't have money to bride them, not yet at least, so he got their cooperation by promising them a water filtrator in their homes.
Getting favors by using human necessity was his only option until he got enough money to start a real base to generate money.
As he walked towards the office of the person in charge, he made sure to pass only in hallways that were being cleaned and making sure not to be seen by anyone else.
Now in front of him was the door to the manager of this succursal he gently knocked on the door.
It opened after a moment and a man stepped out.
He was old, not enough to be called so but one could se a few wrinkles on his skin, his black hair having a few strands of white here and there.
"So, the guy really send a courier instead of coming himself. What an ass."
The man attitude turned sour an instant after seeing him instead of whoever he tough he was.
"Don't fault me I'm just delivering this and leaving after."
He subsequently started acting as an annoyed teenager to maintain the façade.
"Yeah, I know I have worked with couriers before, if you managed to get here you obviously know what you are doing."
So, as the man turned around and started walking back in his office he followed him inside, closing the door behind him he sat in the first chair that he saw.
The office wasn't much to look at, it had a sizable desk at one size with a cushioned seat behind it, and in front of the desk a normal wooden chair.
In terms of decoration it was rather sparce, it was mostly paper and had a few cabinets, a small window next to the desk and nothing more.
"I would expect this office to be more impressive with how important this place is."
Hearing him the man that was taking a seat let out a dry laugh.
"Good joke, but we both know how little we matter to those actually making money."
When the man took his seat he extended his hand, seeing this action he handed him the papers that he had carried all the way here.
"But still, isn't this place the one that manages all factories and business in the city? How come it looks so…"
He trailed off, not really knowing how to express what he wanted without sounding offensive.
"Crass? Shitty? I had heard it all, even from my predecessor, besides, we only make sure that any business big enough is actually meeting deadline, we don't want to deal with an inspection of those do no good leaders of ours."
The man seemed to get more annoyed thinking of his boss more than anything, so he started checking the papers that he had given him, rummaging through the drawer of his desk he continued talking.
"You look old enough to know but most of the other races se humans as little more than servants, helpers, or menials to work in their factories while they govern from high and above. You ask me I think we were better without them and all this Union for the salvation of the cosmos that they keep jabbering about."
The Union for the salvation of the cosmos is the philosophy that the Union used to raise the support of the people towards giving their part in the war effort, even to his standards, while not high, was pretty good.
"So anyway, how much does that guy pay you, you look well feed, and your cloths don't look that bad, are you perhaps related to the guy? Say what I give you fifty silver if you kick him next time you see him."
The man seemed to amuse himself, while thinking of causing him pain.
"What an incredible fun thing to see in this place."
It was rare to have an amicable talk to someone that disliked the Union and wasn't a fanatic screaming how they were the real cause of the war.
While in practice the existence of the union did attract the invasions and incursions to all their members, it wasn't as if it wouldn't have happened anyway.
The propaganda and history books that he managed to got all depicted it, the outer gods were coming for every thinking race that they could find, if the union with its lackluster understanding of planar travel could find them, what was stopping the outer abominations from finding them?
Leaving that aside, the man was looking at the papers and signing them in short order after what.
"He doesn't pay that good, but he has good food that he gives me sometimes, and a roof to sleep under so it's not that bad."
"Really? With how paranoid he acts in his letters I would expect him of having you as his little servant or slave, just so you couldn't betray him."
He blink "He does? Man, I should watch my back, don't wat to get poisoned while sleeping."
"Don't you worry, if you diapered, I'm sure someone will probably notice, probably."
He repeated himself almost to made sure what he said was actually comforting.
"But anyway, I finish this so you can just grab it and leave, this place is falling apart as it is, leave before you trip on something."
Thanking him as he grabbed everything, he made his way to the door, midway he herd the voice of the man.
"Kid you forgot the fifteen."
Throwing him a little paper bag filled with some coins, he sat down again.
Looking at the bag and at the man in confusion a question on his face.
"I told you next time you meet that guy kick him where it hurts, on my part."
Laughing a little as he exited, he checked the bag, inside he could see some coins their silver reflexional of some coins.
He exited taking the same route that he used when entering, the entire process unseen by anyone else besides those already in the know of his visit.
Stepping out of the building he didn't go to his house, as part of his deal with the janitors that helped create his meeting and got his papers to meet the man in charge of the place, he didn't actually submit any paperwork to meet him he had used the janitors for it too.
All things considered, the fact that he hadn't considered suspicious the fact that a courier was sent to hand such valuable paperwork was weird on of itself, not that he had anything against it at the moment.
Instead of going home he bought a few groceries using the money that he was given, not really knowing what else to do to it. Considering it was supposed to be for him kicking himself it was a little amusing.
For all that is worth he was still a little lost of the situation with his business, at first it was to make some materials to learn more about chemistry, the field that was needed for his projects but now he really didn't find any motivation to continue it.
He wasn't a genius as people proclaim him to be, he was mostly using his knowledge of things of earth, and considering that most of it consisted of being a politician, a little of a businessperson and engineering that put his repertory in a somewhat strange position.
At first, he was planning to work his way into a position in the government but scraped that idea when he learned just how convoluted the Union governed itself.
Then it was becoming someone strong to find a way with magic or something to try and reach earth but considering that he didn't find feel something special withing himself he didn't believe he could use magic, and a weapon wasn't something he could really know how to use.
At most he was starting to practice using a halberd, if he remembered correctly, they were considered one of the greatest weapons to use until the wider use of gunpowder, so he thought it was a good idea to learn to use it.
Even if it was hard to learn with no teacher and with just a book that he found it was going ok.
He hope.
Back to it, at his home he started to clean a little, with his new business he would receive a good amount of money each month so he could hire a teacher to learn chemistry or alchemy as it was called here.
So, to not raise any weird questions he decided to store his big projects in an abandoned place that he found.
His lather plan to buy land outside the city next to the mountain was something that he could only do after a few months, but considering that his plans to build a warehouse would require too many materials and it would be too obvious to hide.
That was why he was trying to get termite, in the mountain there was an old abandon bronze mine long abandoned, so he planned to buy the terrain in it and hire a few workers to make a sizeable space to start a rudimentary bunker.
He wasn't very hopeful with it as it would require that he obtained a sizeable amount of cement to construct and a water source, and while the water could be managed if he flooded a road.
But that was something that he wasn't sure to do, he had realized a short while ago that he was overwhelming himself with his projects, learning, preparations and interactions with people.
This came when he had submitted his discovery of flares to the academic circles and was sent a contract, that was when he realized that he was getting to overextended in his actions.
After thinking about it for a while he had decided to put a pause to his projects and concentrate on learning chemistry first and try to see if he could delegate some things to have a less hands-on approach with his not so savory actions.
Already he was sure that some people in the government were interested in him due to his innovations and papers, and the locals that desperately attempted to get better water.
To live in a society where people fought for simple things as simple as water and water of quality was a novel experience to remind him that he was not that monster that started a revolution.
But the fact that some things with this life and his past overlapped really made him uncomfortable.
He shook his head, his mind liked to wander when he didn't have something to do or was not feeling well. One would expect for such a thing to not be so detrimental to one's perception of oneself.
He hadn't really felt any need to really act as fast as he was doing now, all that he did was to reduce the rate at which the planet was being contaminated by all the factories and give a little help in an existential war that was.
He just had as his objective see or know what was of earth at this moment, he was really, really hoping that everything was well and to pay his respect to is fallen comrades at their graves.
He didn't really feel any real desire to do anything anymore.
As he reminded himself of this, he finish eating, and started writing a letter about the mayor of the city complaining about the horrible water supply once again and asking him to stop the water from the river that was already a dumping site.
After which he started to write the real letter, the content being the house of the janitors that he bribed.
He couldn't really do all of it himself, so he simply sold the blueprint to a local gang and told them to use it to form a syndicate around water.
After a weird explanation of what a syndicate was, they had made themselves the self-proclaimed water purifiers, he found the name odd, but he wasn't the leader or anything like that, so he didn't care either way, the point was to make them in circulation, so he bribe people more easily.
Strangely enough, they found him a month later and met their leader which lead to a discussion that ended in him having the ability to give them away.
Life sure likes to throw odd balls his way sometimes.