"Are you excited, Josie?" asked Carla as our carriage left the mansion. "Yes," replied the little girls excitedly.
I am taking her to school. Well, both of them.
Today is their first day; they had come yesterday when I had inaugurated the schools and mingled with the children who would be their classmates.
Today would be a proper school day.
I had spent massive money on the schools. I needed to since there are twenty thousand children in the city, of which over 90% had been admitted to the school. I had made it compulsory for every child of fourteen and below to attend the school.
Only those who are being tutored by private tutors have been given the exception. A lot of wealthy people had taken that exception.
Most wealthy didn't have children in the city. They have sent them to safe places like Namdar and merchant states, but those that had only 10% admitted them to the school.
Even they wouldn't have. If not for me admitting my own siblings.
The schools are associated with poverty in the empire. Only the poor children went to the school. The wealthy ones have their tutors to teach them.
I am not much worried. My target was the common people, and I achieved it. While I dislike the method I use, I am not ashamed of it.
As for the wealthy children, they will come eventually.
I looked at my siblings, both of them wearing the uniforms, which are perquisite. They will be going to schools, which I want to turn into most premier schools; I have spent more on those three schools than any other schools.
A few minutes passed, and a carriage stopped in front of a big, beautiful mansion.
It was one of the most beautiful mansions in the city. Designed by the man who had designed the city. It was a second home of Count Darrow, but now it had turned into Esanor Raak School.
I had named it after my mother; the high school that Heron will go to is named after my father.
The preschool after my grandmother. I got the thank-you message from my grandfather, last night, along with big funding from the house of Silver for all three premier schools.
Some had suggested that I use silver as my mother's surname, but I didn't. The woman was quite proud of her name. She wouldn't like it. If she came to know, I had used Silver as her surname.
She was never a Silver and didn't want to be one.
Click!
The door opened, and I walked out, with Josie coming behind, with her little bag on her shoulders.
"Come," I said to Carla, seeing her still sitting in the carriage. She was surprised, but soon a small, but radiant smile appeared on her face as she came down.
She appeared by me, and we walked Josie toward the gates.
There are many parents dropping their children to school, but many come through the school carriages. It might be a premier school, but not all admitted here are rich; half of the pupils aren't rich.
Most of the children are human, but there are also orcs.
Soon we stopped by the gate, and I turned to Josie. "Be good," I said to her, the young girl nodded and hugged me before hugging Carla and walking through the gate nervously.
Both their schools are in the range, and I have made enough preparations for their security.
It would be really hard to harm them.
We watched till she disappeared, before coming back to the carriage. A few minutes later, the carriage stopped again, and we dropped Heron to his school.
"Thank you," said Carla as we sat in the carriage.
I smiled and turned toward the window. She does not need to thank me; she has been taking care of the children since the day they arrived. She deserved to be there at their important moments as I am.
I looked at the city, and it looked so different from what it was three months ago after the first battle.
It looked such, that it would be abandoned within a day. I thought it would, but many stayed in desperation and hope and since then helping in every way.
After three months, the city has already started to look different, not only with the buildings and roads but also with people.
First is, of course, the orcs, one could see them in every area; they are still coming every week.
Now, the most are coming aren't the families of prisoners, but those of different tribes. While most are still coming from the Blackwell's territory, some are coming from the cities of the merchant state.
They are not citizen of the merchant state, but refugees from Mayhurst Island. Even the humans who escaped from Mayhurst Island are coming.
Merchant state is rich, but it's not easy to make a living there, while in my small city, there are a lot of opportunities to make a living.
Still, it is not enough to attract people from the empire. One day, the city will.
I am spending every penny, I am earning. The biggest share is going to the army and the salaries of the employees, but the rest is for development.
I am planting trees, adding fountains, and building parks, among other things and it is improving the city. These changes are one of the reasons why, the people are not leaving the city.
I am aware of the people's thoughts. Many want to make as much as money possible before leaving it. I want them to stay and it has started to work, but it will take a few months before I will know concretely.
Every month, more and more money comes to the city's coffers through the city and the river route.
Today is important, the first batch of goods is coming from Navr after three months of break. It is not us who brought it, but Gailhorn.
It is basic goods, a very few among them are dual.
Merchant state had warned about it and their representative was present at the Mirador Hold to check things. We also going to check them in the city; we don't want to empower the enemy, who wants to conquer us.
Many of the goods will go to the undead without a doubt, but they will also provide us with taxes. They have brought a massive number of goods, and the number will increase even further.
After all, they control half of the cities of the region, and a lot of people, still live in those cities.
It is expensive to bring the goods from the Mayhurst island. It is much easier to get them locally.
This trade will provide us with a lot of money. Most importantly, it will force our merchants to do business with Navr. Till now they are careful, but they could see the profit, they could earn from trading with undead or rather Gailhorn.
We will never trade directly with the undead. It is Gailhorn we are trading with, which is an ally of the undead.
The merchants won't be able to resist for long.
I think some will start trading within a week, seeing the number of inquiries the trade department is getting from the merchants.
Soon, the carriage reached the open ground. It is not so open anymore. The trees are being planted everywhere, with a lot of artificial hills, ponds, and lakes, which are yet to be filled with water.
There is a massive excavation going around the edges of the establishment's estates. It is a new addition to the plan.
In these three months, we have made many changes to the plans, and we will make further. We wouldn't have, if had months or even a year, to develop the plans, but we did not.
We didn't have a proper week before we started working on them. Especially the plan of establishments estate.
It had taken more money than the initial budget of the establishment, but seeing how it is going. I know, it will be worth it.
I turned to the establishment; the tower had already gone over ten floors and its progress was getting faster every day. In a month, the shell will be finished, and other work will start at full speed.
It had already started.
Miss Rolgath had started even before the first brick of the tower was laid. She had needed to work immediately, seeing the timeline of the project.
She is doing great.
I heard there was quite a disagreement going on with her and the sisters. It is a vision dispute, and nobody seemed to be backing down.
I am not going to interfere unless it affects the work.
"How is the proposal?" I asked Carla. She turned to me from the file she was reading. "You will have it on a desk in three days," she replied.
The establishment won't take up all the space in the tower. Half of the space would be open for the other businesses, but not every business will be able to get the space.
We will only give space to those with the capability to generate greater emotions for legacy to harvest.
In Grade 2, the establishment can only cover half of the tower, but I am confident once it reaches Grade 3, it will cover the whole tower.
It will take a few years, but it will happen, and I want to be ready for it.
The carriage stopped, and we got out. In front of me, is the tower, which had more than completed. I could already imagine how it could look and can't wait for it to be completed.
I looked at it for a minute before looking around.
There is a big garden being built around the tower. It was my original plan, before it became bigger and bigger, before transformed into the park.
The plants are beautiful, that I just want to touch them. Some even had flowers on them, that many people are admiring. Though they are nothing compared to magical plants, that are coming from the hidden city.
Currently, they are in a special greenhouse. Taken care of by the people sent by that person from the hidden city.
Every week, I had to give them bottles of emotions essence to grow those plants. My heart bleeds with every bottle, but it is necessary.
When I had made the deal, many wanted to me reject it, but all the alchemists I had talked to had asked to accept it. Even if I get 10% of the harvest, they said it would be worth it.
Of course, I had not listened to them alone.
Still, I got an estimate on the value of the plants from them and compared it to the other estimate, I had gotten from the sisters.
The difference is massive.
Even if I give 50% of the harvest; I would earn at least six times more. They also had a far bigger strategic value than other plants, I was going to plant.
There is extremely high-demand for the plants grown using the emotion essence. Only legacies could grow them, and there are not many legacies that grew them in the large amount to satiate, the need to market.
They couldn't satiate even 1%.
The earlier estimate was conservative. The value could easily go above ten times.
Alchemists are crazy about these things, and willing to pay any price. I have seen it, with the undead bones.
Those mad bastards are willing to pay any price for them. There are also the hidden hands that want them.
The bones turned out far more valuable than I had thought. Everybody is willing to pay a massive price for them. I am selling them every week in a small number, but sometimes, I want to sell them all, given the price they are offering.
I needed money, and I could get a lot of it from it, but I did not.
The bones value doesn't lie in only money. They offer a lot of more.
Every week, I have been contacted by powerful people, not just alchemists. I was able to convince a few of them to make an investment in the city.
The plants will have an even bigger effect. I will need to use those resources wisely for my benefit and the benefit of my city.