Chương 74: Preparing for the Meeting

Five more very normal days passed in the Frost-Grip valley. During that time, the interior of the castle had undergone a transformation. With the twenty slaves working tirelessly, the thick layers of grime, cobwebs, and dust that had plagued the stone halls for years were finally scrubbed away. It wouldn't be accurate to say the castle looked brand new—the stone was still weathered, and the tapestries were still faded—but it was vastly better than before.

On the morning of the sixth day, the scout Giles had sent to the neighboring northern fief finally returned. Jack sat in his study, looking at the scout and Giles.

"The neighboring lord has accepted the invitation, Lord Jack," Giles reported, a hint of nervous excitement in his voice.

"He will arrive at our gates for a formal meeting in ten days."

"Good," Jack said, tapping his fingers against his wooden desk.

"Ten days gives us enough time to change how this valley looks to an outsider." Jack stood up and walked over to the window, looking down at the courtyard. The outer ruins near the main walls had already been cleared away by the villagers while he was in the West, which was a vast improvement. But it wasn't enough.

"Giles, bring Barnaby here. We have a lot of work to do." Twenty minutes later, the lead carpenter and the blacksmith stood in Jack's study.

"We have survived the winter, and we are currently feeding our people," Jack began, looking at the two men.

"But surviving and living are two very different things. To truly improve our living conditions, we need to establish strong, favorable trade agreements with the other northern lords. And to do that, we need a flawless first impression. If they walk in here and see us living like desperate peasants, they will try to exploit us." Giles nodded slowly.

"I understand, My Lord. What do you need? Just say it."

"Timber," Jack said.

"We should already have good quantity of wood if I'm not wrong. I want your carpenters to build brand new wooden gates for the main courtyard. Make them tall and intimidating. Then, I want you to build new wooden frames for the furniture in the Great Hall and the primary guest rooms."

"New furniture frames are easy enough," Giles agreed, rubbing his chin.

"But bare wood is not very welcoming for a visiting lord. We do not have the fabric or the cotton to make new cushions. There are two market cities further north, but it would take a few days to get there and back. Shall I send a team to buy luxury cushions?"

"Absolutely not," Jack said firmly. Giles looked surprised.

"But My Lord, you just said we need a good first impression."

"We do," Jack explained.

"But think about it, Giles. The news that we are hosting a meeting has already spread across the northern roads. If this visiting lord's men see Frost-Grip men desperately rushing into a market city to buy expensive cushions right before a meeting by any chance, what does that tell them?" Barnaby crossed his arms, a slow smile spreading across his face.

"It tells them we are newly rich, and desperate to look like proper nobles. It makes us look weak."

"Exactly," Jack nodded.

"It screams that we are pretending. True nobility does not rush to buy decorations at the last minute. We will use the old cushions currently sitting in the my father's rooms. Have the slaves wash them thoroughly, beat the dust out of them, and mend any tears. Put those clean, older cushions on your brand new wooden frames. It will make us look like a dignified, established house that takes care of its history."

"That is very clever, Lord Jack," Giles said with profound respect.

"I will get the carpenters started immediately." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Before they left, Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag. He took out two Spirit Stones and set them on the desk.

"Barnaby, take these," Jack said. Barnaby looked at the glowing stones, his eyes widening.

"What are these, My Lord?"

"They are the fuel for the spatial rings I gave you," Jack explained.

"The rings are newly charged, so they should work perfectly for the coal extraction right now. But if the silver metal ever stops glowing and the void space won't open, simply press one of these stones against the ring. It will recharge the magic. Keep them safe."

"I will guard them with my life," Barnaby promised, carefully scooping up the Spirit Stones. After the two men left the study, Jack sat back down in his chair and let out a long, heavy sigh. He was putting up a confident front for his men, but internally, the pressure was immense. He had ten days to wait for the political meeting. After that, he had to wait for the Iron-Route Syndicate's wagons to arrive to collect the coal. And finally, in two months, the merchant caravans would return to the valley.

He needed to improve the valley's infrastructure as much as possible before the next winter hit. He needed more greenhouses, better tools, and specialized materials. That required massive amounts of money. He currently had a fortune in gold coins stored safely, converted from the remaining balance of the Gold Vow-Token. But Jack was acutely aware that the gold was not truly his. It belonged to Silas Thorne, and the Gold Core Inquisitor was charging him a twenty percent interest rate.

The debt was a heavy chain around Jack's neck. Even though the valley looked prosperous from the outside, Jack was quietly stressing over every single coin. If the merchants didn't have what he needed in two months, he would have to place expensive custom orders for delivery before winter, which would drain his funds even faster. He needed an independent source of extreme wealth. Later that night, long after Karen had served his dinner and the castle had fallen completely silent, Jack locked his bedroom door.

He sat down in his high-backed chair, closed his eyes, and pushed his mind down into the dark, freezing depths of the crypts. He didn't just awaken the Night Shift tonight. He reached out and connected to all twenty-one of his active skeletons, including Rusty, Dusty, and Bones.

"Awake," Jack commanded mentally. Down in the dark, twenty-one skeletons rose to their feet in unison. Jack guided them out of the crypts, through the smashed stone wall, and deep into the tunnels of the coal mine. He marched them past the standard coal veins and brought them to the deepest, hardest rock walls of the mountain—the exact area where he had started finding the gemstones.

"Grab the iron pickaxes," Jack ordered.

"Dig the stone." Controlling twenty-one undead units simultaneously sounded like a monumental task, but Jack had already advanced to first layer of Iron core, and also had quickly realized a crucial rule about his magic system. The mental strain was not about the number of skeletons, but the complexity of the commands. If Jack tried to make twenty-one skeletons do twenty-one different tasks his brain would completely fry trying to process all those different actions at the same time.

But this was a hive-mind command. He wasn't giving twenty-one different orders. He was giving one single, simple order— swing the pickaxe at the wall —and broadcasting it to twenty-one empty vessels. Because they were all performing the exact same repetitive motion, the mental burden was surprisingly light. His Iron Core handled the wide transmission easily. Jack sat in his chair, feeling the echoing thwack-thwack-thwack of twenty-one pickaxes striking solid rock deep beneath the earth.

They didn't find hoards of treasure. The mountain was stubborn. But with twenty-one tireless workers digging through the hardest rock, they managed to pull three or four raw gemstones from the mine every single night. It wasn't an instant fortune, but it was a steady, highly valuable stream of independent income that Jack could sell to the merchants to help pay off Silas's crushing debt. As the hours ticked by, Jack maintained the connection, his mind wandering to his own personal progression.

The gemstone mining solved a financial problem, but it didn't solve his magical one. To survive in this world, he needed to advance his core. He was currently at Layer One of the Iron Core. To reach Layer Two, he needed to stretch his magical limits. He needed to put his core under strain. But how could he do that safely? He couldn't use his skeletons in the open daylight to train. He couldn't march an army of the dead outside without terrifying the peopleand inviting the Holy Church to execute him.

He had Elias, a highly lethal flesh-bound mage. But what was he supposed to do with him? Order Elias to fight the air? There were no massive beast hordes left to push Jack's limits. Jack opened his eyes, staring into the dark of his bedroom while his skeletons continued to mine far below. He needed a challenge. He needed a way to safely practice his necromancy and expand his core before the real threats arrived at his doorstep.