Karlos bowed and said.
"Good morning, Sire."
Galahad nodded and responded
"Good morning Karlos. On the topics we discussed yesterday, I have considered the fact that we need to plan further ahead and have a way to distinguish between more and less important issues. As such, I decided to plan out or fiefs course for at least the next trimester. After all, it is best to be prepared. Additionally, I spend quite a long time last night contemplating on how to distinguish between issues. I believe that the best way to improve our fief is to separate our goals into long term, middle term, and short term. Additionally, we should color code them based on importance. With purple for extremely important matters, red for important matters, yellow for issues that might cause trouble if not addressed properly, and green for improvements."
Karlos thought for a second and responded.
"Hmm yes, it does seem like a good system. What color and length would you suggest we set our current issues as? Additionally, some issues should be termed as recurring. After all, some are about repeating tasks or maintenance."
Galahad nodded and responded.
" That is indeed a good idea.
Long Term: General Census every four years, yellow, recurring. New shrines, yellow. Road construction green.
Mid Term: Housing shortage, red. Planting red recurring. Diversify our food sources yellow.
Safe water source, yellow. Expansion of the guard yellow. Diversify our craftsmen, yellow.
Harvest festival green, recurring.The statue commemorating the invasion, Green. Market district growth, green.
Short Term: Implementation of the three-field system, red. Monthly tax collection, red, recurring. Monthly income from mine, red, recurring.
Some of those are quite general so I would like to set up the goals for the next three months"
Karlos agreed and said.
"Currently it is may we are expecting refugees to start arriving in the next three weeks. It won't be a long term tide and should be over by autumn. However, their numbers are currently inconclusive. I would suggest we first finish planting and then focus your laborers on building houses. Additionally, the Day of Exoristoi is drawing ever closer. My suggestion is not to buy anything with merits, while you did earn a fair amount of merits by dealing with the Borean Lions. This year the cost of Exoristoi will be inflated thanks to our catastrophic loss in the war. It will be wiser if you abstained from the whole thing and waited until after the lords cleaned up the bandits and rogue peasants infesting their fiefs. If everything goes well, this should lower the merit cost by quite a bit. Additionally, you will have two years of merits instead of one. On the topic of food diversification, we shall check if the refugees have any skill in fishing, aquaculture, and orchard management. Hopefully, we will also get some of the craftsmen we require. But it is more of a hope than a realistic possibility. Since the refugees passed through several realms before reaching Duke Elbert's territory and most semi-wise rulers would want more skilled craftsmen. On another note, Sire, you should seek the advice of your brother on the clean water issue. If there is an easy solution, it could severely decrease our running costs. As for expanding the guard, I would suggest we wait until after we have gained a good sense of how many refugees are coming and what is their skill set."
Galahad nodded and said.
"Seems good. Anything else you want to bring up?"
Karlos shook his head and responded.
"No, my liege."
Galahad nodded and said.
"Alright dismissed."
Later in the day, Galahad went to Nickolas's tower. After a small boat trip, he reached the half-built tower.
Even half-built the tower had a majesty which was clearly missing from his keep. First and foremost Nickolas was using pure white marble imported from the independent county of Atisa. The tower was circular with seven circular pillars also made out of white marble reaching all the way up to the start of the second floor. They were decorated with vertical fluting, while their helms were styled with a volute and an ornamental place between the volutes. The ornamental places were depicting a flame slowly growing from nothing but a spark in the first pillar, to a blazing inferno in the seventh pillar. The pillars were connected by a giant circular band of marble which rested on the top of their helms with the exception of the gateway. The gateway proper instead had six semi-circles with the first starting at the minimal distance between the helms and the last at the middle. The rest was covered with a square slab of marble reaching the same height as the band finally connecting the gate proper with the rest of the pillars. On top of the two furthest points of the two connecting slabs rested a triangulated roof. The band was decorated with carvings of different alchemical and magical symbols. While the space between the last circular band and the triangulated roof from left to right was depicting the rise of the god of magic from a mere mortal to godhood and him then returning the favor to the descendants of his friends and helpers by gifting them the ability to use magic. Additionally, the carving also showed how the more magical knowledge and ability someone had the closer he was to the god. Finally, the band and the roof were covered with orange tiles. Blocking the view inside was a pair of reinforced dark oak doors.
When he reached the doors Galahad grabbed the door knocker and knocked. After about five minutes give or take not-Jimmy appeared.
He bowed deeply and then said softly.
"Greetings Sire, How may I be of service?"
Galahad looked at him and said.
"I would like to have a meeting with my brother, is he available?"
The boy nodded and said.
"Yes follow me inside, Sire"
The inside of the first floor in stark contrast with the exterior had only one defining characteristic it was rather cramped. The room was filled to the brim with vials containing all manners of things, tightly packed bookshelves, a rather large cauldron, several brewing stands, different minerals, and even a crystal ball. The only other person in the hall outside not-jimmy was Emaria which was currently reading a book. After a while looking around Not-Jimmy helped Galahad navigate through the labyrinth of stacked shelves. Eventually being led to a simple wooden door.
After knocking the door Nicolas was heard saying.
"Yes, come inside."
As Galahad headed inside the barely navigable room Nickolas looked at him and said.
"Ah, Brother long time no see. What are you doing here?"
Galahad smiled and said.
"Ah, I came to wish you a happy marriage. It seems like you really took a liking to miss Emaria."
Nickolas scoffed and responded.
"This woman is definitely not marriage material. But she is very talented when it comes to Alchemy it is quite disappointing that she has no talent for magic. If she was even half as talent in magic as she was with alchemy she could make an excellent assistant."
Galahad smiled and said.
"I am only jesting, Honestly I wanted to ask your expert opinion about the clean water issue?"
Nicolas raised an eyebrow and asked.
"What is exactly the issue? Is the river polluted? Or something else?"
Galahad shook his head and responded.
"No, we just don't have truly clean drinking water. I mean drinking from the river most likely won't kill you but you might fall ill."
Nickolas thought for a while and responded.
"Well in the capital they take water from the river and store it into a big copper tank and then boil it before use. I can't think of a much better method but this should minimize the harm. Alternatively, you could try to find a spring up in the mountains and use an aqueduct instead. Both options would be great but the first one is at least possible. Honestly, for now, small beers are the best option when it comes to drinking water."
Galahad nodded and then asked.
"Any new discoveries you made? Or any suggestions for the Hamlet?"
Nikolas thought for a while and responded.
"What about runes? Have you considered those?"
Galahad looked intrigued
"Runes? What can they do?"
Nikolas gave a big toothy smile and responded.
"Well, the best way to describe runes is as a closed system using the energy inherent in some materials to power them. Hm, let me show you an example"
He then picked up two normal-looking pieces of armor. He then pointed to the first gauntlet and said.
"This is a steel gauntlet plated with Dio. In this case, the runes are between the layers but normally they are inside the armor. Dio is the only metal which can be used to power a gauntlet. Each one of those beauties can cast a projectile 0.33cm^2 cube of flame ten times before they can't be used ever again since they ran out of energy. The user doesn't even need to know magic he just needs to wear it and say Ignis. But most rune bearing objects are like this helmet"
He then pointed towards the rather opulent looking helmet with the black gems.
"This is a common enchanted helmet, it is made out of steel the black gems are actually purified carbon. This is generally superior to Dio enchanted armor in the sense that if you replace the carbon you can reuse it. This piece will generate a force powerful enough to repel any attack in the head for about four seconds. You just need to say Aer to activate it."
Galahad raised his eyebrow and said.
"Those seem extremely useful why haven't I seen them more commonly."
Nickolas shook his head and responded.
"First and foremost in the case of the reusable ones the black gems cost their weight in gold. Secondly to even get an armor piece enchanted you will need to pay at least three hundred gold and finally, the enchanter will need to be at least tier four and quite elegant. In short, demand exceeds supply by far. Finally, to draw the runes you need magically imbued blood and nobody is keen on cutting himself."
Galahad sighed and said
"But what if we used runes to purify water?"
Nickolas shook his head and responded.
"The best you can do is minimize the impurities in the water through runes. But tell you what you could get George to enchant your copper basin to concentrate all earth elements into the bottom. But for such a runic system it will be preferable to create a system that gathers mana from the surrounding area. Such a system would take a long while to set up even for me and I will need at least seven litters of magical blood. After I am done with the second floor I could come over to set it up. But it will take at least a month for the floor to be done and two weeks to set up the system."
Galahad thought for a while and responded.
"Well, that would hopefully vastly improve the quality of the water, thanks."
Nickolas then grinned and said.
"Will you stay for dinner? I have something special planned."
Galahad nodded and said.
"Count me in."
After that Nickolas led Galahad to a small kitchen with a cellar. After going inside the cellar he quickly returned with some already butchered meat. Nickolas then proceeded to quickly cook it using fire magic to a point close to perfection. After quickly setting up a table. They started eating. The meat was delicious and oddly filling after finishing his meal he felt weird but not in a negative sense.
Galahad then said with a hint of curiosity.
"I haven't had meat quite like that before. What is it? It gave me a unique feeling of fulfillment?"
Nickolas smiled and responded.
"That is because the meat you just had comes from a red wyvern. It is known for having positive effects on the human body. Have you never heard of the story of the hero who killed the dragon and then bathed in the dragon's blood? While terribly wasteful as there much better uses in alchemy for dragon blood. It is true that bathing and drinking dragon blood is one of the best ways for a warrior to increase his strength. It seems like most magical creatures can strengthen their very bodies with magic and blood, in general blood tends to have quite strange properties. An apt example is the fact that blood while mostly water can't be controlled by water mages to kill people. Additionally, the blood of almost all magical beasts tends to change the humans that get in contact with it. The humans will become stronger, faster, some of them will even develop visible features of their received bloodline or receive memories and character traits.
Galahad smiled and said.
"Does that mean I am now zero point one percent red wyvern."
Nickolas shook his head and said.
"No, not really but magical beast meat really does have positive effects on us humans. Wyvern is in the low end of the spectrum."
After that, they made some more small talk and just before nightfall Galahad was back to his keep.
Outside commissioning the copper basin. The next two weeks went by at a fast pace with the planting and house construction underway. The first refugee arrival was a single cog with about twenty sailors and a hundred refugees. Most of them were women and children with a few men. Sadly none of them were skilled craftsmen or aquafarmers. But one of the men had a long career working in an orchard, definitely long enough to know how to set one up.
Soon after he was discovered the middle-aged farmer was ushered to the keep and was currently bowing deeply before Galahad.
Galahad looked at him and said.
"Rise, I have a query for you. Is it true that you have experience working in orchards? And are you confident with being able to set one up?"
The man nodded and said.
"Aye, Sire I have worked in an orchard as far I can remember myself. I have seen it all the buying of new saplings, the planting, the harvesting and even how to treat an ill tree."
Galahad nodded and then asked so I would like to set up an orchard can you help me with that?
The man stroked his beardless chin for a while before responding.
"I can and will. But I don't know how well it will go. While the climate should be good enough for apple trees. It will still take a decade before they start growing fruit. Additionally, the planting season is already past us."
Galahad sighed and said.
"Is there no way to quicken it?"
The man sighed and shook his head.
"No sire sadly there is no way. But in the bright side trees don't need as much care as crops and they don't fall, victim, to the same diseases."
Galahad sighed and responded.
"I see, Still in the meantime I want you to find a good place for an orchard."
The man nodded and said.
"I will do so my liege."
Galahad nodded and said.
"Dismissed."
After the farmer left Galahad looked towards Karlos and said.
"Any ideas on how to increase their growth speed. "
Karlos shook his head and responded.
"Sadly Sire, there is no easy way to do that. There is a reason after all that even Gragon doesn't have an apple orchard. Orchards are significant investments that take a long time to mature."
Galahad nodded and responded.
"Alright, either way, I hope we will find a way to speed up their growth if not let it be as it is. Anyways we are adding this to the list as a yellow issue for next late winter."
Karlos nodded and said.
"Noted. Now if you will excuse me, Sire. I have to settle in the newly arrived refugees."
Galahad nodded and said.
"Dismissed."