POV David
June 17th 913 (2016)
I sighed, resting my head in my hands as I poured over the map sprawled across my desk. I hadn't been paying it too much attention… But now I needed to and it was a problem I hadn't thought that I'd have to deal with… well not anywhere near this scale at least.
Aucterfilth, the capital of the Barony of Lobau. It was a large prosperous city sitting upon the banks of Lake Lobau which in turn fed the mighty river Lobau which ran all the way out to the distant Gulf of Rilna. Aucterfilth was also the unofficial border of the Barony, the northernmost city before the County of Centuria.
It wasn't the northern border that was his concern at the moment. No was it something far more concerning, something far more treacherous at the far end of the Verity lay the lekhov pass. That pass, if traveled far enough, would eventually take one into the land of the dragons. And that was something most people wanted to avoid. Though it was now his headache. At least according to the lady before him.
I poured over the map again, looking at all the towns and Villages between Aucterfilth in the pass. I supposed I could start tracing the map and he placed his finger upon the capital, slowly tracing the winding roads south.
Glean sitting upon the southern end of Lake Lobau, a large town that sat astride the other portion of the Lobau river, all that iron ore and most of the lumber and bricks I'd been happily buying up had come from or through there.
Erstonia, a smallish town, located in the central northern end of the valley, home to vast sprawling farms, most of the towns of the central valley were of little note aside from the support they gave the farmers that toiled in the valley. Arcine, Amswell, Conishirk, and Gelfen were all similar, large towns that focused on supporting the sprawling farms around them, local transportation hubs. Arcine was a bit special though, as to its west was where the majority of the iron mines were.
But finally my finger stopped tracing the road, stopping at a small, fortified city at the base of the pass. Lunaris, the walled bastion of Lobau. A veritable fortress built at the foot of one of the few passes easily navigable at any time of year. I grit my teeth and looked at the woman standing before me. She wore the leather chestguard so common to adventurers that i'd mistaken her for one at first, but noooooo. She was someone actually important, and not corrupt for once, which I suppose was a rarity, though it wasn't stopping Shyora from hovering a few feet behind her like a starved lion.
"Lady Urnor was it?" i asked, somewhat hesitantly, finally looking up from my map again.
"Felicity Urnor regent." she replied bluntly.
I blinked for a moment, staring into her muddy eyes before I cleared my throat and spoke. "So, the fortifications of Lunaris are suffering from misrepair, and need funding for their repair? Did I get that right?"
"Yes regent, you said it exactly." she replied with a dull look in her eye, like she'd had this conversation too many times and was going through the motions for the sake of it at this point.
"Damn it. I'll see what I can carve from the budget. It won't be much, maybe a few hundred silvers at most." I said slowly while sitting back in my chair.
Felicity's eyes brightened. "Really? You'll fund the repairs?"
"I'll see what I can do. Whatever funding I can get will take some time for me to gather… much less to make the eighty mile trek there…" I said while starting to run through the expenses I'd outlined, trying to figure out what I could cut that wouldn't affect the development of industry or education.
"For now, speak with my brother, Smith. He's probably finished building a training camp north of the city, he'll be able to work out a temporary solution until the problem can be properly fixed." I said, watching as Felicity bowed her head before leaving.
Shyora skulked over to my desk. "Master, please… I'm famished."
"Those prisoners weren't enough to satisfy your appetite?" I asked.
"Defiled souls are little more than crumbs next to a pure soul." she protested.
"Deal with it." I replied, glancing at her face as anger flashed across it. She spun on her heel and stormed from the office. Thank god, she was annoying.
Lobau was facing so many problems. Firstly and the longest running issue was the corruption of the old government, which I was dealing with everyday, replacing and training new staff constantly. Next was the appalling censuses, I'd yet to find accurate reports from the last decade. Then there was the investments I was making into industrialization, trying to turn this little backwater into an industrial hub…
I groaned and leaned back in my seat. I need to hire myself an assistant, someone who can truck through piles of paperwork and get them properly sorted for me. But that's another person to train, he'll if they can't read I'd have to teach them how to do that too
Wait… now that I think about it I'm also going to have to set up public education. Why do these tasks keep piling up? Maybe I can just hire all the tutors in the territory to create some kind of ad-hoc school to at least get the basics of education into everyone's heads.
There was just so much to do and so little time. What in the world was I going to do? Smith was busy training soldiers, and that required nearly his whole attention, we'd talked on and off about it… but at this point, a peaceful revolution was doubtful, best to prepare in advance.
So he was creating a system of training a few thousand soldiers, then discharging them to the reserves to bulk up the existing force. This was going to cost a small fortune as well, the armor and weapons another small fortune, no wonder 'modern' warfare was so recent compared to earth's long history.
I grumbled to myself and reached for a pen and paper, I should write to Rebecca about this, maybe she can provide some insight on how the court is reacting, give some advance warning if the shit starts to hit the fan.