Chapter 125: The Neighbors Are Watching

The survey expeditions continued beyond Althoff City’s immediate surroundings, and their discoveries soon began influencing the Administration’s plans.

Clay samples were being tested for brickmaking, Ormond’s surveyors were mapping the northern forests, and merchants were already asking whether the newly discovered resources would become available for commercial contracts.

With every passing week, more wagons entered Althoff and more goods left through its gates. Some carried processed Beast materials, others timber, agricultural products, or manufactured goods.

What Raymond had not considered was that every departing caravan also carried something he could neither tax nor control: information. And across Zulor, people who had spent months ignoring the disgraced Baron of Althoff were beginning to pay attention.

The first uncomfortable conversation occurred in the neighboring Barony of Varnholt, where Baron Oswald Varnholt sat behind his desk examining a merchant report with growing disbelief.

His steward, an elderly man named Berengar, stood opposite him while two caravan ledgers lay open between them.

"Read that population figure again," Oswald demanded, tapping the parchment.

Berengar adjusted his spectacles and answered, "The latest commercial estimates place Althoff above six thousand five hundred residents, my Lord. The figure continues increasing as settlers arrive."

Oswald stared at him. "Impossible. That miserable place barely had twelve hundred starving peasants when Raymond was sent there."

Berengar turned another page. "That was several months ago. The Golden Road Merchant Company now maintains a permanent branch there, and three independent trading groups have begun scheduling regular visits."

Oswald rose from his chair and walked toward the window. He had never considered Raymond particularly threatening.

The young noble’s reputation for drinking, laziness, and disgrace had reached neighboring territories long before his exile.

When Oswald heard that Raymond had inherited Althoff, he assumed the barony would collapse quietly and eventually require intervention from another lord.

Instead, the latest reports described new roads, a Central Market, organized government Departments, expanding residential districts, a functioning sawmill, stone quarry, and extensive agricultural development.

Oswald turned sharply. "Where did he get the money?"

Berengar spread his hands. "We haven’t established that, my Lord. Some merchants believe House Althoff possessed reserves that were never publicly recorded."

Oswald frowned. "And you believe that?"

Berengar hesitated before replying, "I believe someone paid for those buildings."

The agricultural figures troubled Oswald even more. Althoff had reportedly transformed large stretches of formerly unproductive land into fertile cultivation zones, with hundreds of hectares already being prepared or worked and additional fields awaiting labor.

Such development should have required years of investment, considerable expertise, and favorable conditions. Yet merchant witnesses insisted they had seen green fields where barren ground had stood during winter.

Oswald dismissed the most extravagant accounts but could not ignore the trade records. Grain, vegetables, livestock products, and other supplies were circulating through a territory that had recently struggled to feed itself.

He finally looked toward Berengar and said, "Send someone who understands agriculture. I want to know whether those fields are real."

Berengar bowed. "At once, my Lord."

Elsewhere in Zulor, Countess Eveline Marwick received the same developments with considerably more interest. Her territory controlled an established commercial route, and she had spent years encouraging merchants to expand their operations.

When her trade administrator reported that Golden Road was redirecting additional caravans toward Althoff, Eveline requested the company’s latest publicly available shipping information.

She studied the figures before smiling. "Processed Beast materials, timber, manufactured goods, and increasing demand for imported tools. Interesting."

Her administrator looked uneasy. "Some merchants are considering Althoff instead of our eastern market, my Lady."

Eveline waved away the concern. "Then we should find something profitable to sell them. A growing market isn’t automatically an enemy."

She paused before adding, "Although I would like to meet the young Baron who accomplished all this."

Not everyone shared her optimism. In the Barony of Greymoor, Lord Edric Halden had received three complaints from landowners whose tenants were leaving for Althoff.

One family had departed after hearing that construction workers could earn reliable wages. Another had relatives who survived the winter there and were encouraging them to follow.

Several young craftsmen had also disappeared from Greymoor’s workshops, apparently attracted by Althoff’s expanding Artisan District.

Edric slammed a letter onto his table and demanded, "Why are my people running toward that frozen wasteland?"

His steward answered carefully, "Because the reports say there is work, my Lord."

Edric’s expression darkened. "There is work here." The steward glanced at the unpaid wage complaints stacked beside the letter but wisely said nothing.

The military reports caused an entirely different reaction. A neighboring minor Baron named Ulric Fenwick had dismissed Althoff’s commercial growth as merchant exaggeration until his household captain returned from speaking with caravan guards who had visited the city.

Ulric listened as the captain described organized patrols, expanding defenses, and disciplined training grounds. Then came the numbers.

"Three Gold Rank Knights, eighteen Silver Rank Knights, and approximately thirty-five Bronze Rank Knights have been identified among Althoff’s elite forces, my Lord," the captain reported.

Ulric’s expression changed immediately. "Thirty-five Bronze Knights?"

The captain nodded. "And those are separate from Captain-General Boris’s conventional territorial troops."

Ulric stared at the report before asking, "Are you certain?"

His captain answered, "Multiple caravan guards confirmed the presence of Gold Rank commanders. The exact deployment of the others remains difficult to verify."

Ulric rose and paced behind his desk. His household possessed only a handful of capable Knights, with most of his armed retainers belonging to ordinary infantry and mounted patrols.

The thought that Raymond von Althoff commanded three Gold Rank Knights was disturbing enough. Eighteen Silver Knights made the comparison humiliating.

Even without counting the thirty-five Bronze Knights or Boris’s soldiers, Althoff’s elite force exceeded what Ulric could assemble from his own household.

"Where did a disgraced drunk find those warriors?" he demanded.

The captain shook his head. "Nobody seems to know, my Lord. Some believe they were retained through hidden family connections."

Ulric stopped pacing. "Then somebody powerful may be supporting him." The captain offered no answer.

Back in Althoff, Boris was discovering the same reality from the opposite direction. He stood beside Jonathan overlooking a training exercise while Cassian directed coordinated infantry formations across the practice ground.

Bram supervised a heavy defensive line, while Silas’s scouts moved around the formation’s flanks. Conventional soldiers drilled nearby under their own officers, and the combined organization looked nothing like the desperate defenders who had survived winter.

Boris watched a formation execute its maneuver before remarking, "I’ve served nobles who couldn’t assemble this many disciplined men for a campaign."

Jonathan glanced toward him. "And we aren’t finished training them."

Boris folded his arms, considering the growing responsibility resting on his shoulders. "That’s what worries me."

He had commanded Althoff’s conventional forces through starvation, rebellion, and Beast attacks.

Now he was responsible for maintaining troops capable of protecting an expanding territory whose wealth would inevitably attract attention.

Cassian’s battlefield expertise had improved coordination, while Bram and Silas strengthened areas the old military had barely possessed. Yet every improvement created new obligations.

Roads needed patrols, resource sites required protection, and future settlements would need garrisons.

Boris watched the soldiers reform their lines and understood that Althoff was no longer preparing merely to survive another winter. It was developing the military responsibilities of a territory that other nobles might eventually consider worth challenging.

Across Zulor, explanations multiplied. Some nobles suspected Raymond’s late father had secretly prepared resources for him.

Others believed a powerful faction was financing House Althoff through intermediaries. Merchants suggested that the young Baron had discovered profitable resources and reinvested aggressively.

Reports of his supposed connection to the Goddess of Life circulated alongside accounts of miraculous agricultural recovery, although most experienced nobles treated those stories cautiously.

One administrator suggested that Althoff’s achievements might simply be exaggerated by merchants hoping to attract investment. Unfortunately, the shipping figures continued contradicting that explanation.

Goods were being purchased, transported, processed, and sold. Taxes and commercial fees were being collected. The money existed.

Eventually, those figures traveled beyond neighboring territories. Golden Road’s commercial reports reached larger regional branches, while letters from noble households began moving through Zulor’s administrative channels.

A provincial official responsible for reviewing territorial revenue noticed that Althoff’s recent commercial activity bore little resemblance to its recorded condition. The discrepancy was large enough that he requested additional documentation rather than dismissing it as an accounting error.

Merchant statements, caravan manifests, population estimates, and reports concerning the territory’s growing military strength were gathered into a single file. The official examined the evidence before ordering a formal summary prepared for higher authorities.

Weeks later, that summary reached the Royal Capital of Solaria. Within a government chamber overlooking a broad stone courtyard, a senior royal administrator named Lord Chancellor Matthias Renwald examined the documents while his secretary waited nearby.

The first page identified the territory as Althoff Barony, Zulor Region, governed by Baron Raymond von Althoff.

Its older records described an impoverished settlement of approximately twelve hundred inhabitants, limited agricultural production, negligible commercial significance, and persistent instability.

The newer reports described a growing city, more than six thousand five hundred residents, substantial agricultural expansion, regular caravans, processed Beast exports, organized administrative Departments, and military strength far beyond what its previous condition suggested.

Matthias turned several pages before looking toward his secretary.

"Are these reports independently confirmed?" he asked, his expression unreadable.

The secretary nodded. "The commercial figures come from multiple merchant sources, my Lord. The population remains an estimate, but the accounts are consistent. Regional officials have also confirmed increased traffic toward Althoff."

Matthias returned his attention to the documents. "And the Baron responsible is the same Raymond von Althoff who was exiled there?"

The secretary answered, "Yes, my Lord. There is no indication of a change in territorial lordship."

For several moments, Matthias said nothing. A forgotten barony did not become a prosperous regional center without attracting consequences.

If even half the reports were accurate, the Crown’s understanding of Althoff was badly outdated. Its population, productive capacity, military strength, and strategic importance required proper assessment.

Matthias closed the file and handed it back to his secretary.

"Prepare an official inquiry," he instructed. "I want verified figures, territorial records, and an explanation of how Baron Raymond von Althoff accomplished this transformation."

The secretary bowed and departed with the documents.

Far away in Zulor, Raymond continued developing his territory, unaware that his achievements had finally reached the attention of the Royal Capital.

Althoff was no longer a forgotten name.