Chương 544: Barony Under Construction

As their Fae guests left in the early morning, Billy and Layla gave up on sleep and made the logical decision to substitute coffee and stamina potions. They retreated to a small dining room where breakfast was waiting for them, along with two large mugs of steaming coffee brought to them by a pair of brownies. The little fae set out crocks of cream, honey, and brown sugar on the table before disappearing as quickly as they had come.

Billy took a long pull on his mug, grimaced at how strong the coffee was, then smiled as it hit his system." Wow, does this stuff wake a guy up! Suzette convincing a tribe of brownies to relocate here was one of the best things to happen in this game." With a little bit of room in the cup, he added cream and as much sugar as would fit.

"If I'd had coffee like this when I was younger, I'd have been Vice President ten years earlier." Layla had already finished her own, preferring it harsh and black, enjoying the burn as it scalded her throat.

"Or we'd have killed each other. That almost happened a couple of times, as I recall. Or were those dates?"

"Hard to remember, we always mixed a lot of violence and betrayal into our romance back then. Fun times. But now that we are responsible nobles with people depending on us, we need to cooperate and get to work. I'm feeling like time is going to become our enemy if we don't get a lot of building done, and quickly. Lots of defense contracts to take care of. We need a team down south to rebuild Black Rock into a small fortress. It's going to take a steady stream of raw materials to get that done quickly.

We can turn Jon and Cham loose, give them a crew each, and see how fast they can generate the hundred wagonloads of wood we need."

"Might as well have them keep going as long as there are trees to cut. Having a stockpile of seasoned lumber is a good thing. This won't be the last time we need building materials. If they work next to the road from Sedgewick to Gadobhra, other workers can load the wagons quickly, and we can store excess in the city. Some of the ruins still have roofs and will make good temporary storage. And the damned forest is working hard to close the road. Whatever spell the Druids put on this place, it isn't giving up."

"Good points, and thank the gods they made that spell to last. Endless wood is a blessing, almost as much as unlimited bacon. And we should do the same with stones for the walls. If we support the stonemasons with crews to do all the hauling, they can quarry rock continuously, and we can ship it down south, and then store the extra at the quarry site. If we finish with Blackrock, we start on the new barns for the hamlets. I want to have some buildings that will withstand a siege.

We have to throw away the idea that normal buildings will stop a wolfpack. We're dealing with monsters, magic, and people who can batter down wooden walls with their fists. Screw the straw and twigs, I want bricks, and better yet, solid stone." Layla sketched out some low buildings.

"Then, let's make it as difficult as possible for them. We dig down, creating huge root cellars. Then line the walls with stone blocks so nothing can dig in, and place stone slabs over heavy timbers for the roofs. On top of that, we put a foot of sod. Good for storing grain, root vegetables, and fodder. In an emergency, we can use them for animals. Hell, depending on what the weather does, we may need them for the herds just to keep them from freezing. And I'm worried about tornados.

Ozzy said another one of them is out there, and raising hell in the rest of the north."

"Right. That will take care of the animals and give us extra food storage. And, since we're already digging down, we might as well connect them all by tunnels, with heavy doors at each end. Next, we need to take a look at the defenses of the Hamlets. They didn't get hit too hard, which is good. That thorn barrier was good for the wolves, but Snarlfangs can probably jump right over it."

"They did. The hamlets had to deal with four of them."

"Shit. How many were hurt and killed?" That brought a laugh from Layla.

"No one died from those four overgrown dogs. They came over the wall while I was there. My bodyguard charged one of them and chopped into it with those big diamond-tipped axes. It wasn't pretty. Unicorn packs dealt with two more. They may look like cute little plush toys, but they're nasty. Don't let their prancing and big eyes fool you. They tore into those Snarlfangs with a vengeance. When they charge, they bury their horns deep and then slash back and forth, tearing huge wounds.

And if any of them get hurt, they heal each other. There were packs of them patrolling the border, constantly. My bodyguards compared the wounds they inflicted with their axes to the wounds on the Snarlfangs killed by the unicorns and were very impressed."

"What got the last one?"

"Wyverns. A pack of twenty wyverns. I don't even know where they came from. One minute, a Snarlfang is leaping over the wall, and the next, a pack of angry wyverns is swarming all over it. They were spooky as shit. And some of them were talking. Usually, all they say is "Fishy?" But this was different. They were screaming "For Lindy!" as they swarmed the thing. And no, I have no idea who that is. After it was dead, they ate it down to the bone like a swarm of piranha.

My bodyguards laughed and applauded, then started talking to them!"

"Damn, would have loved to see that. Sounds like Rolly is building up a little army of his own. Not that we'll mention that to Gus or anyone. If they were worried about a few mercenaries, they'd shit bricks about an army of wyverns and unicorns. We'll save that little tidbit for later, maybe when the Emperor invites us to court. So, we have projects in the hamlets. We can start a team working with them and mapping out where the new buildings go.

And I want to put in a strongly-built keep in the center of the hamlets as a last-ditch defense if something is heading our way, and we don't think the houses will stand up to the damage. It doesn't need to be fancy, and it's not something to live in for long. Maybe four stories tall and two deep. We can connect it to the deep storage area with a tunnel as well." A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Layla sketched out a small keep in the center of six long, low buildings, three on each side. Billy nodded, "Looks good."

"You're really worried about the second tornado, aren't you?"

"You bet your last dollar I am. Ben and Rolly's reports mention too many destroyed villages, forests, and bridges. The damn thing could level a lot of our infrastructure and kill off our workforce." Layla suddenly looked uneasy, "Is this why the Empire is made up of a few strong cities and a lot of small villages. Does shit like this happen often?" Billy scratched his head, "A damned good question. Ozzy told me some crazy story about a horde of mutant grasshoppers wiping out a lot of towns. So maybe?

Let's add acquiring a set of history books to our next shopping list."

"Got it. Wine and history books. A good combination. You read, I'll drink."

"I'll make Ben read them and give us a report while we drink the wine." She nodded, "I like that better, and Ben loves his books. What's next on your building agenda?" He pointed at the string of towns he'd agreed to defend. We can't neglect these folks. We need multiple teams to look at the damage to Hurlsford and the villages between there and Thunder Falls. We can't build them all up like Hurslford. You and I may have to take a run down that way." She shook her head.

"Either you or I. Not both. We need one of us always sticking close to home and keeping things under control. Or leading the charge. We got lucky that we made it back before the wolves hit us." She paused, " And, I notice you haven't mentioned Sedgewick."

"Yeah, I haven't, for obvious reasons. Four very obvious reasons, and Suzette in particular. She wanted to be the Mayor and handle things, and I don't see any reason to waste resources on a town that handles its own problems. She's got Ozzy, Ben, Rolly, and half the workforce answering to her. They got hit by the brunt of that invasion and survived without much damage to the town. And then Ben pulled a rabbit out of his hat and took an army of zombie dogs off to fight winter. Didn't see that one coming."

"Or a bunch of Elf Princes showing up just as we need them. The Fae connection paid off for her again. That was a good investment of town-building points. She's managing to get a lot out of that deal."

"We did pretty well with that ourselves. That four thousand gold for permits to hunt our enemies was a nice little bonus. And those guys are fun to party with. Their faces when we walked into the Endless Danse were classic. Good to know that the new solarium is impressive even to Fae nobility."

"I was impressed that any of us could dance at all after the damage we did to the wine cellar. But that's one of the advantages of being whirled around by people with a few centuries of experience. Once the music starts, you get swept away, and they handle the hard part, no matter how drunk you are. Seeing a slim old lady do a full lift and twirl with the Bear Knight was amazing." Billy fell silent for a moment, thinking.

"You know, sometimes that's how this damned game feels. The music starts, and you either start dancing or find the door. There's shit happening all over the place, but it's exciting and fun." Layla agreed.

"It is fun. We just have to make sure we stay on our feet, stay profitable, outwit our enemies, and keep expanding our power base."

"Chaos is good for that. It's giving us opportunities. One of which is figuring out how to keep all this lovely territory that our new best customer wants to give to us." She started another page, "Speaking of which, I think we need to increase production of warmachines, smoked meat, and sausage. Why wait for orders from the slow-ass imperial bureaucracy? We're going to be hauling wagon loads of gold out of the jungle.

We should just start shipping goods to Duchess Claudia and Blackrock, and use them to offset the taxes on the gold."

"Damn, you're right. We can cut out the middlemen. But we need more workers for that. I'll have to talk to HR and get them to shift work crews from underperforming villages to Gadobhra. There are idiots out there with level one and two contract workers, still growing low-quality groats. It means we have to take on the costs, but I don't have a problem with that."

"No, neither do I, and we have some very good people who can train up those workers. Having another twenty-five lumberjacks, stone cutters, farmers, and haulers would get things started. Do we have to set up a special meeting with Senior Vice President Belmont? That might take some time." Billy grinned and slid a piece of paper over to her.

"Especially since he took an eight-week vacation so he could explore the southern jungles as Dr. Barklight and never have to log out of the game. I helpfully took on a few tasks to make sure he wasn't interrupted. I've got temporary authority to reassign teams. We just have notify HR, and to show that we made a profit to justify the decision."

"Then let's see how many people we can steal. Temporary authority means we have limited time to abuse it, and I want to make the most of it."