He Was Almost Absorbed By The System - Part Two

Chapter One Hundred And Sixty Nine - Money Makes The World Go Round

It had been a month since Kyan had been reborn into the body of Lucian Stoker and he felt that it was no wonder that his bride had left him on the night of their wedding. While it was true that Lucian was a large and self-indulged man, that was just his physical appearance could be look passed. However, his heart had been by far uglier.

The Stoker family business was in textiles and the original Lucian had examined every way to not only make as many cheap shortcuts within the factories without causing him too much backlash, he also produced poorer quality cloth that he sold at the same price as the better cotton, to gullible fools who did not know better. His wealth was based on charlatan tricks and the lifeblood of commoners, who worked in perhaps the worst conditions in the country. Kyan sighed as he placed the papers down upon his desk. He would have to be very careful in this life, for while he could act a little different excusing his behaviour to the shock of his defecting bride, he could not alter everything over night!

He scribbled down a list of reforms to slowly improve the conditions of the factories as well as the cloth they produced, starting with something simple. He could introduce goggles to protect their eyes and masks to protect their nose and lungs. He could reduce the number of hours they worked to allow them to rest, a heightened mind would produce less mistakes and less accidents after all. Yet the best thing to do, at this time, would be to increase their wages, not by much, he still had to act the part of a miser for now, but a few pence a month would ease their burden and not effect him too much.

Having made the decision, he also added a note to reduce the cost of the poor quality cloth. Even selling it cheap and admitting to its faults, there would be someone who wished to purchase it. Such cloth still had its uses.

Kyan pushed back the heavy oak chair from the desk and rose upon his sore feet. He had lost, he estimated, around a stone in weight thus far, a small loss considering his sheer bulk, but losing weight too fast brought its own issues and Kyan admitted that he was vain enough not to wish to deal with such. He picked up the ornate, brass telephone receiver from where it rested upon its metal cradle, before winding the handle on the side of the device.

This world was strange, consisting of an odd blending of eras. For example, the dress was both conservative and on occasion suggestive, with the frills, laces and ribbons he knew from his life as Cornelius, but with leathers from later eras and formal military style coats and brass buttons from yet another time thrown into the mix. Another thing was their technology, for at times it seemed too advanced, with communication devices that were wireless and the streetlights that used electricity to shine, while he still used candles to light up dark evenings. He had even found a gun that did not contain bullets, but some sort of power cell. And yet they used coal to heat house and water, the factories machines relied on steam and horse drawn carriages mixed with steam-powered automobiles upon the cobblestone streets outside his three storey town house.

Medicine was part of the more primitive side of things, so there were no pills to assist his weight loss nor vitamins in tablet form, so he had taken to ordering ginger tea and a herb salad made with dandelion leaves, nettles, chives, parsley and spinach with his lunch. He had been a pharmacist in a previous life, he was aware of what could not only help his weight loss, but also improve his overall health. He placed the receiver down once more after contacting the butler, before looking at the black and silver device upon his thick arm.

He had found Yin while on a trip to a factory to inspect the impossibly tight ship that his predecessor had formed. It was sitting on display in a shop window for all and sundry to witness. Naturally, he had purchased it. Yin's form was a black leather bracer with odd dials, a working time piece and visible mechanics, as if someone wished to show off the delicacy and intricacy of the clockworks. As he had worked with clockworks before, he knew that some of the cogs were actually superfluous, but said nothing. The little silver pieces turned before his eyes.