The Mechanical Era

In the tall white room with a giant chandelier above, were set many benches. People, coming in through the large door at the back of the room, wearing big expensive coats and holding a colored sign in their hands, took a seat for themselves. In the front of the room, looking straight at them all was an empty wooden podium placed on the tiled marble floor.

Through the large oak door, many more people entered the room and took a seat. Of the people, three of them went by the names 'Jac', 'Alister', and 'Oswald.' The three men were all wearing black coats. They chose a spot enough for 3 people to sit next to each other.

"It appears we made it in time," Jac said. The men all seem to be a little sweaty. They appeared to have been on their horses for longer than they expected as the 'shortcut' was clogged up with a lot of people today.

"Lots of row benches though. I count at least 14." Oswald remarked.

"Do you see anyone that could give us trouble?" Alister asked Oswald, being the man who has the most connections. He looks around and tries to recognize any faces he might have seen before.

"A few, but they seem to be spread out. I see two on the 1st column, 3 on the 3rd and 4th, and only one more on the back of the 6th column right next to us."

"Could they give us trouble?"

"They all apart from each other, so I am assuming that they are not working with each other. So they won't be that big of a hassle." Oswald replied to Alister's question.

"I wonder how they are planning on selling this thing? Are they going to sell the stocks individually, or are they going to have us place offers for it?"

"Well however they do it, it won't matter to be as long as we do not overpay for it. If it comes to a bidding style sale, we should probably start out low and then continuously increase the amount."

"Agreed," Alister replied. A few minutes pass by with many more merchants coming into the room. It was only when the dial read 12, did someone come over. A middle-aged man, wearing a thick black coat and a long top hat walked up to the podium.

He had straight black hair, along with amber-brown eyes. His oval face had a thin mustache placed on it along with his round glasses made of metal. Oswald, being the man with the connections, recognized him as Xavier Hickman.

"Never thought that guy to be there. Then again, it would make sense for him to be the one on the podium," he commented. Xavier coughed twice before he started the auction.

"Everyone please turn your attention to me," he said using his loud voice that echoed throughout the room. The slight noise of chatter vanishes as they all turn their attention to him. He sounded to be rather disinterested in whatever was going on and only came because he was paid a good amount.

"Thank you. Now, the purpose of this auction as the paper bulletin states is to sell off the cement manufacturing company holding ownership of two factories that can produce up to 80 tons of cement a day.

The way in which we sell off the amount is that we have a bidding price. The ones who win the bid can select the amount of money they would want to spend buying the stake in the company. We will then start again with the leftovers.

To make a bid, just raise the sign we have handed out when I speak of a price for a portion of the company. This way, I know of the people who will accept it. I would also like to add something that you do NOT have to fully purchase the company to have control over it. You only need a large share in comparison to the rest.

After the bidding is over, we will give the new shareholders a tour of how the manufacturing process works." he said.

"Now, we will start the bid. Starting at 0.1%, with 1000 shares out of 1,000,000 shares. A price of 1 copper coin for 1 share, totaling a cost of 1000 copper coins. Any bidders?" The entire room raised its signs.

The bidder continued to price the stock higher and higher. As he went on, fewer and fewer people were beginning to raise the sign-up. In the end, a small fraction of the bidders were questioning whether they should pay 85 copper a share for a sizeable chunk of the business.

However, in the minds of the merchant trio, that would still be a steal compared to what they could have paid Kant, which was a 125 copper a share. They kept going and in the end, they wound up paying a price of 98 copper a share.

"Mr. Alister. How many shares would you like to be issued to your name?" Xavier asked. Alister stood up from his seat before he started to talk.

"Oh no, it's not going to be me who will be purchasing it. I am more of a representative of the OSAC group."

"Which is?"

"A corporation separate from us as a legal entity."

"Well then representative of the OSAC Group, state how many shares you desire to be issued to your company?"

"56.4%," he replied. There were a few gasps in the room. They did not expect for the group to attempt to take over the company. Many stood up from their benches and left the room, as they no longer believe that they would be able to purchase enough of the company. Some of them were their rivals.

Xavier however, did not seem to care. He was just seen writing it down on the piece of paper in a book and moving on.

"Alright representative. Sit down. We may now continue the auction. For the representatives of OSAC, you may leave if you desire." he said. With that, the group stood up from their benches and left the room. They have got what they come for.