"Prince Bari, what do you want to do now?"
Truth be told, when Bari looked at Landon, he didn't know how to react.
After all, this was their first meeting, and Landon was younger than him.
So he was perplexed on how to address him.
He kept wondering whether Landon would feel threatened because he used to be a prince.
Bari was an honest man who would never take what didn't belong to him.
When he was 'supposedly' given cities to run, his father had let the city lords deal with politics and ruling the city while he just fought and trained hard.
As the 9th prince, he was brought up to basically never even dream of being ruler.
Because his father didn't want to give any sort of power to any of his other sons apart from the first 5, the king asked the city lords to run the cities alongside his sons.
This was the best way to spy or keep tabs on them.
They were to report if any of his sons were planning or scheming to kill or even dream about killing himself or his 5 eldest sons.
Initially, the city lords obeyed the king's orders, but when he got to know Bari, he changed his mind.
In his opinion, Bari had never even thought of the throne for a single day.
So there was nothing to report about.
And as he got to know Bari, he began to form a strong bond with him as well.
.
The queen would never allow any other child to rule the empire other than her son.
So she made sure that Bari and his other brothers were trained as knights.
They were brought up only to serve the real heir to the throne.
That woman worked in the shadows.
If any of the other children got more land or more followers, for sure, they would have to die.
With all this, as a prince, Bari was only trained with the way of the sword.
In a way, he was similar to the old Landon.
The old Landon didn't give 2 F's about running an empire or controlling a city.
In fact, the old Landon was surprised that his father even gave him land at all.
He honestly thought that when he turned 15, he would move to a small village with his mom and Lucy and then work like any other peasant.
The money they had saved was enough to take care for 3 mouths for the next 15 years if they lived as peasants.
The old Landon was also a humble, quiet and simple-minded person.
He never bit off more than what he could chew.
As Bari looked at Landon, he became somewhat nervous.
If Landon didn't like him, he might get thrown out of Baymard, along with his family.
He didn't have a home anymore and was scared of rejection.
.
"To be honest, I want to be a knight," Bari answered nervously.
Landon looked at him and smiled.
"Hahahaha, why are you so stiff?
Since you are brothers with San... I mean Benjamin, then I will be your brother as well." Landon said while hitting his back playfully.
"Look over there, elder bro. Aunty is already smiling and laughing with my mom." Landon continued while pointing towards Bari's mother.
Bari looked and was a little stunned.
His mom would only ever laugh in front of him or his sister.
No one, not even his father, had seen her laugh.
A deep and warm smile formed on his face.
'It seemed I worried for nothing,' he thought
Landon looked at him and sighed in relief.
He didn't want Bari to feel any discomfort towards him.
He knew that given Santa's personality, Only those who were truly honest could be friends with Santa.
Santa would never bring anyone who wanted to harm or take his position as king to Baymard.
And even if he did, for sure, Landon would kill the threat.
"If that's the case, once you complete your training under my army, I will make you a Captain under my father-to-be and your Army General, Lucius."
Once he was done, Landon stocked 1 of Santa's ships with a lot of Feldspar and other rare mineral ores.
He also gave him more chalk and paint samples.
In the end, he had made 1,200,000 silver coins from Santa.
Good.
.
With 14,150 new people, Landon had more than enough workers to start his numerous projects.
Landon had all the knights help everyone sign a non-disclosure agreement stating that within the next 20 years, whatever they learn can never be shared with those out of Baymard.
He also read the rules and punishments that would follow if anyone disobeyed them. Especially the disclosure form.
The punishment was the death of the individual and his entire family.
Everyone already swore in their hearts that they would keep whatever they had learnt in their hearts.
Plus, they didn't know the empire well and weren't sure that any other nobles would care for them as Landon had promised.
They weren't about to risk it at all.
Amongst the group, 1600 people volunteered to be knights and moved to the barracks.
Landon decided to count Beri and his family of 3 out of the work schedule as well.
Lucky for him, some people had professions while they were in Vienna.
There were 7 physicians (doctors), 14 wetnurses, 6 teachers, 20 blacksmiths and carpenters, 9 Alchemists and 3 people who used to work as Government officials for Vienna's city lord... Making it a total of 59 people with well-sorted after professions.
He also realized that there were 2,127 children from ages 0-14 within the group.
.
Presently, while the adults worked, the children would spend the entire day in one of the school estate buildings.
They would play, eat and study sometimes.
Landon had only assigned 28 caretakers for those children, kinda' like a preschool kindergarten vibe.
They were divided according to their ages and placed in separate rooms.
He had made sure that for every age, there was someone to attend to them.
Some were very young and still learning how to walk, while others were around 14 and liked running around and playing energetically in their classrooms.
Little Momo was also very lively in his classroom as well.
Landon had made schedules that gave the children nap times, breaks, class time, playtime, lunch, dinner and breakfast as well.
And when the parents finished work, they would come over and take their children away.
Many parents appreciated this system, as It gave them time to do their own things without worrying about their kids.
With this service, the adults at work, especially the women, felt very free and happy.
These women felt liberated.
They had always stayed at home, cooked, took care of the kids all day while their husbands go out and come back whenever.
They had always dreamt of trying out their husbands' jobs or even doing something more with their lives.
Some of them even work alongside their husbands presently.
How exciting.
.
Generally, the daycare opens from 8 A.M to 10 P.M.
So for those with night shifts, when they finished their jobs at 9 P.M, they would still have time to pick up their kids.
Landon was sure that if he ever stopped this daycare service, there would be riots and fights within the city.
He had also built 10 iron swings in the playground and cleared the fields for them to play in.
In future, he would provide colouring books and toys for sure.
Now that 2,127 more children were added to this number, Landon decided to add 1 more building towards daycare and also add 292 more caretakers... making it a total of 2,428 children in Baymard.
So each caretaker would be in charge of about 20 kids at once while doing rotational shifts.
Also, there were 369 elderly people who were between the age of 60 and above who had arrived in Baymard as well.
And when Landon asked them what they wanted to do, all of them said that they wanted to stay at home with either their sons or daughters and look after the house while they were away.
Landon agreed to their request and told them that if they needed anything, they should just tell any of the guards that they see.
But there were also some that seriously surprised Landon as well.