Chapter 123: Mana

The days following Althoff’s population report brought another stream of newcomers through the southern gate. M

asons found work along the residential streets, farmers queued to apply for cultivation rights, and merchants discovered that six thousand hungry customers could empty a warehouse faster than expected.

Raymond spent much of that week watching the Administration adjust. More people meant more construction, more purchases, more carts on the roads, and more complaints for the Watch.

It meant opportunity. When Ysabel brought him the trade figures, however, one column caught his attention. Althoff was selling most of its Magic Beast materials as raw hides, horns, bones, and preserved organs. Golden Road bought them, then carried them elsewhere for processing.

Raymond tapped the column with his finger.

"We’re doing the difficult part and letting someone else earn the margin," he said, looking up at Ysabel.

She studied the ledger before replying, "We’re doing the part we have the equipment and craftsmen to perform, my Lord. There is a difference."

Raymond could not argue with that. Hunters risked their lives collecting materials, inspectors sorted them, and the territory paid to store them securely.

Yet a cured hide could sell for more than an untreated one, while cut horns and stabilized mana-bearing organs attracted buyers who would never purchase an unprocessed carcass.

He asked Ysabel to arrange a conversation with Seraphine Dorr before Golden Road’s next shipment departed.

Seraphine arrived that afternoon carrying her crystal lens and a notebook whose pages were filled with precise handwriting.

Raymond welcomed her into the Trade Department’s receiving room, where samples of Althoff’s exports had been arranged across a table.

"How much does Golden Road earn after these materials are processed?" he asked, lifting an untreated horn.

Seraphine regarded him over the rim of her lens. "That depends on the material, the processor, losses during treatment, and the buyer, my Lord."

Raymond smiled. "A wonderfully thorough answer that avoids the number."

Seraphine returned the smile. "Twenty-three years of appraisal work taught me never to give away another company’s margins."

Ysabel, standing beside the table, looked amused.

Instead of pressing her, Raymond asked Seraphine to explain which materials were being wasted through poor handling. That produced a useful discussion.

Some Beast hides deteriorated before curing. Certain glands lost value if opened. Blood needed preservation, while mana-bearing organs could become unstable when stored alongside incompatible materials.

Horns and bones could be cut into usable blanks for craftsmen, but an inexperienced worker might ruin a piece with one careless strike.

Seraphine examined a cracked fang and said, "This would have been worth more intact. Whoever removed it twisted instead of cutting the surrounding tissue."

Raymond looked at Ysabel. "How many of these mistakes are we paying for?"

Ysabel answered, "Enough that we should calculate it."

That evening, Raymond returned to a reward he had left waiting since House Althoff’s evolution. Alone in his study, he opened the System inventory and examined the Beast Processing Complex Blueprint.

He had postponed it while roads, housing, water, food storage, and government facilities demanded attention.

Now those foundations were functioning, and Althoff had the labor, trade connections, and pool of craftsmen needed to make the complex useful.

Raymond studied the blueprint’s divisions: hide curing, bone and horn preparation, controlled extraction, blood preservation, mana-material stabilization, secure core handling, and waste treatment.

"Right," he murmured. "Time to stop selling ingredients when we could sell finished goods."

The following morning, Raymond called Mara, Lucan, Roderic, Selene, Ysabel, Corvin, and Darric to a cleared tract beyond the busiest workshops of the Industrial District.

The location sat downwind of the residential streets and close enough to the logistics roads for wagons to reach it without crossing the Central Market.

Mara walked the marked perimeter while Lucan explained how the complex could be built in stages without delaying other projects.

Roderic wanted cutting benches, reinforced tools, and secure storage for materials suitable for weapons and armor.

Selene insisted that medicinal organs and potentially contaminated remains be handled separately.

"I refuse to have someone preparing healing ingredients beside a vat of rotting Beast blood," she told Raymond.

He nodded. "An excellent rule. Let’s make it permanent."

Corvin’s concerns were practical. Incoming carcasses and parts needed weighing, inspection, classification, and transfer before reaching processing rooms.

Finished goods required storage so nobody confused treated leather with fresh hides or stabilized glands with dangerous raw organs. Darric proposed controlled entrances, inventory checks, and Watch patrols around the sections, after the smuggling arrests.

Ysabel wanted grades and records that merchants could trust. Raymond listened as the specialists argued over the placement of doors, drains, drying racks, and storage chambers. Months ago, he would have tried to solve everything himself.

Now he asked, "Can we begin with a working section and expand without tearing it apart later?"

Mara answered, "Yes, my Lord. If we follow this layout, the remaining buildings can rise around it."

Construction began before the week ended. Workers dug drainage trenches while masons prepared foundations and carpenters assembled curing sheds.

Roderic’s smiths produced cutting tools and reinforced frames, and Selene trained workers in safe handling before the dangerous materials arrived.

The waste-treatment area received attention. Nobody wanted foul runoff reaching wells, farms, or the city’s water network. Raymond visited during the days and discovered that an unfinished Beast-processing yard possessed an ability to smell terrible.

He stopped beside a curing pit, covered his nose, and asked Mara, "Are we certain the wind blows away from the houses?"

Mara barely glanced up from her plans. "Yes, my Lord."

Raymond stared at the pit. "Then perhaps we should negotiate with the wind."

The project drew interest from craftsmen. Among them was a leatherworker named Tovin, who had spent winter repairing boots in a cramped shed and accepting payment in grain.

He approached Ysabel with a proposal to cure hides under contract, provided the territory supplied access to facilities. Raymond was present when the proposal arrived and asked how much work Tovin could handle.

The leatherworker rubbed his calloused hands together. "More than I could before, my Lord, if I can hire help. I know the trade, but my old equipment limited me."

Raymond glanced at Ysabel, who examined the rates before answering, "The Department can offer a trial contract with inspection standards. You’ll be paid for accepted work, not merely for putting hides through a vat."

Tovin nodded. "That’s fair, Mistress Merrow. I can manage that."

Within days, Tovin hired three apprentices, including a young newcomer who had reached Althoff the previous week.

Their batches were imperfect, and several hides required treatment, but the workers improved under supervision. Elsewhere, Roderic tested prepared horn blanks and Beast bone components with smiths.

One blacksmith fitted a hardened Beast-bone grip onto a hunting blade, producing a sturdier and more valuable item than his work.

The results were modest compared with the enchanted weapons sold in cities, but they demonstrated something Raymond cared about more than impressive prototypes.

Althoff’s craftsmen were learning to turn resources into products other people wanted to buy.

Seraphine returned to inspect the batches. She examined the leather, checked the prepared horn pieces, and spent minutes studying sealed containers of stabilized materials.

"Your finish needs improvement," she told Tovin, pointing toward an uneven section of hide. The leatherworker frowned, then nodded. "I’ll correct it on the next batch, Mistress Dorr."

Seraphine turned toward Raymond. "But this is usable. Golden Road can purchase it at a higher rate than untreated stock."

Raymond folded his arms. "And you’ll make money processing it further?"

Seraphine smiled. "Of course, my Lord. We are merchants."

Raymond laughed. "Good. Then we’ll both keep improving our side of the bargain."

The shipment departed several mornings later. Corvin supervised the loading while Trade clerks checked weights, grades, seals, and invoices.

Alongside goods sat bundles of cured Beast leather, cut horn blanks, prepared bone components, and stabilized materials packed for buyers.

The cargo was smaller than a raw-material shipment of equivalent value, easier to assess, and worth more because Althoff had performed work that happened elsewhere.

Tovin stood beside his apprentices watching the wagons, his expression caught somewhere between pride and disbelief.

Raymond noticed him and asked, "Satisfied?" Tovin shook his head with a smile. "Not yet, my Lord. If these sell, we’ll need more workers."

Raymond grinned. "Now that sounds like a problem worth having."

As the caravan rolled toward the southern road, Raymond watched the final wagon pass beneath the gate.

New arrivals were entering Althoff on the opposite side, carrying tools, bundles, and hopes of finding work. Some of those people would help produce the goods leaving today. He looked at the shipping manifest in Ysabel’s hands.

For the time, its description did not identify a collection of raw Beast remains. The goods had been graded, treated, prepared, and certified by Althoff’s own workers.

At the bottom of the document, beneath the quantities and merchant signatures, a designation had been stamped: Processed in Althoff.