Chapter 84: A Hundred Projects, One Treasury

The argument did not end when Raymond realized the next few months were going to be hell. If anything, that was when the real meeting began.

Once everyone stopped competing to prove which problem deserved to be solved first, Lily pulled a clean ledger toward herself and Marianne suggested they stop discussing entire districts and start listing what those districts would actually require.

That simple change made the scale of Raymond’s plans considerably less pleasant. Torren began with construction, estimating timber for housing, scaffolding, roofs, bridges, workshops, warehouses, and temporary worker shelters.

Pell Dorn followed with iron requirements for nails, hinges, brackets, tools, wagon fittings, drainage grates, reinforcement bands, and replacement equipment.

Stone would be needed for roads, foundations, drains, public buildings, walls, and bridges. Lime was necessary for mortar. Clay would be needed for bricks, tiles, pipes, furnaces, and pottery.

Every material required people to extract it, people to process it, people to transport it, and draft animals or wagons to move quantities large enough to matter. Before twenty minutes had passed, Raymond was beginning to miss the Beast Tide.

At least the beasts had possessed the courtesy to attack from one direction.

Torren stood over the city plan with several smaller sheets surrounding him, scratching numbers beside proposed construction zones.

"If you want permanent housing, the warehouse district, drainage, roads, and even the beginning of the new wall worked on simultaneously, then timber becomes our first immediate problem. Not because we lack trees. We have more trees than we could cut in years. The problem is processing them."

He tapped the table with a charcoal-stained finger. "We have carpenters and sawyers, but not enough for this scale. Cutting trees is one thing. Turning them into standardized beams, boards, roof supports, doors, flooring, scaffolding, and wagon parts is another."

Pell nodded and added that iron presented the same problem. Althoff possessed stockpiled metal and several capable blacksmiths, but producing weapons, farming tools, construction fittings, horseshoes, nails, and replacement parts simultaneously would overwhelm them.

"Give me more apprentices and I can expand," Pell said, "but apprentices do not become master smiths because the lord wants a city before summer."

Harlan’s calculations were no kinder.

Construction laborers needed to eat, and spring planting could not be sacrificed simply because Raymond wanted walls and roads.

Every farmer diverted into construction meant fewer hands preparing fields, managing livestock, repairing agricultural tools, spreading fertilizer, clearing irrigation channels, or planting crops.

The five agricultural specialists agreed that Althoff could expand cultivated land significantly, but only if labor was organized before the planting window narrowed.

Gideon pointed toward the eastern side of the map. "We also need oxen here, here, and farther south if we open additional fields. The ten horses are useful, but horses are not replacing every draft animal we need. The livestock package helped, but most of those animals are breeding stock. If we work them too hard now, we hurt ourselves later."

Boris gave him a sympathetic look. "Welcome to my problem. Half the men I want for training are apparently needed to carry stones."

Darric corrected him. "More than half."

Boris looked offended. "Thank you, Darric. Very encouraging."

Lily continued writing while the list grew. Carpenters. Masons. Blacksmiths. Sawyers. Quarrymen. Teamsters. Surveyors. Road crews. Ditch diggers. Stable hands. Warehouse workers. Clerks. Foremen. Medical workers. Cooks for large labor groups. Guards for construction sites and resource convoys.

Torren estimated labor in days rather than people, and that number quickly climbed into the thousands. Then tens of thousands.

A hundred workers employed for thirty days represented three thousand labor-days before accounting for sickness, weather, travel, material delays, or people being reassigned.

Raymond watched Lily turn another page and finally raised a hand. "Stop for a moment. I would like to preserve whatever remains of my happiness."

Lily looked up. "Should I stop writing?"

"Absolutely not. Just stop telling me the totals."

Marianne smiled faintly. "That will not make them smaller."

Raymond sighed. "I am aware. I am practicing responsible avoidance."

The meeting continued for another hour before Raymond finally had enough information to understand the real problem. House Althoff was not poor anymore. It had food, Gold, manpower, land, livestock, military strength, blueprints, Magic Beast materials, and access to resources that would have seemed impossible when he first arrived.

Yet none of those things existed in unlimited quantities, and possessing the means to build everything did not mean possessing the capacity to build everything at once. If he ordered a thousand people onto construction projects, agriculture suffered. If he sent too many wagons for stone, farm transportation suffered.

If every blacksmith produced nails and construction fittings, military equipment and agricultural tools waited. Development was not one problem. It was a collection of systems competing for the same hands, animals, materials, time, and money.

That realization followed Raymond back to his study after the council adjourned. He waited until the corridor outside had gone quiet, locked the door, and opened the System Shop.

His balance remained at the top of the interface.

[ System Points: 411,000 SP ]

The number still looked impressive, but he no longer saw wealth when he looked at it. He saw choices.

Agriculture could consume tens of thousands. Infrastructure could consume hundreds of thousands. Industry could swallow the entire balance if he became careless.

He searched for ordinary construction materials and immediately found packages of treated timber, cut stone, iron fittings, lime, tools, and other supplies. With enough SP, he could make several shortages disappear overnight.

That was precisely why doing so felt wrong.

Raymond selected a timber package, studied its price, then dismissed it.

"Why am I buying trees?" he muttered.

House Althoff controlled fifteen hundred square kilometers now. The known portions included woodland, and more would undoubtedly be discovered once proper surveys began.

Spending irreplaceable System Points to purchase ordinary timber because his processing capacity was poor would solve the wrong problem.

Tomorrow he would need more timber again. The same logic applied to stone if local quarries could be opened, clay if deposits could be found, and basic tools once Althoff expanded its smithing capacity.

The System could provide shortcuts, but if Raymond used it to replace every ordinary industry, Althoff would become dependent on his private supply of SP rather than developing an economy capable of supporting itself.

He reopened Industry and selected the item that had caught his attention earlier.

[ Tier-II Sawmill — 45,000 SP ]

The description mattered more now. It was not a pile of lumber. It was a permanent production facility with efficient cutting equipment capable of processing local timber faster and more consistently than Althoff’s current manual operations.

Forty-five thousand SP was expensive, but unlike buying timber, the investment could continue producing value every season. Raymond did not purchase it.

Not yet. He marked it as a priority and moved to the Stone Processing Yard, then the Iron Foundry Blueprint, water infrastructure, construction equipment, and several agricultural tools.

A pattern gradually emerged.

Raymond pulled an empty sheet of parchment toward himself and began writing rules.

The first was simple.

Never buy what Althoff could reasonably produce itself.

Underneath it, he wrote five exceptions. Buy what Althoff could not currently produce. Buy what removed a serious bottleneck. Buy technology that permanently increased productivity. Buy emergency supplies when time mattered more than efficiency. Buy strategic assets whose value could not be measured by ordinary production.

Raymond read the list twice and nodded. That was how the Shop needed to function. Not as an infinite warehouse that allowed him to ignore economics, but as leverage.

If forty-five thousand SP turned local forests into a functioning timber industry, that was better than spending ten thousand repeatedly whenever construction crews ran short of boards. If a water facility prevented disease across an expanding city, its value exceeded the immediate price.

If a defensive artifact saved thousands during another Beast Tide, complaining about the cost afterward would be ridiculous.

The rule also forced him to think differently about his Gold. System Points purchased opportunities ordinary money could not easily provide, while Gold should circulate through the territory whenever possible. Pay workers. Hire craftsmen.

Purchase materials from residents. Buy livestock from merchants. Encourage workshops. Contract wagons. Let people earn money building Althoff and then spend that money in Althoff’s growing market. Raymond did not want a city where every useful object mysteriously came from his private stores.

He wanted carpenters competing for contracts, blacksmiths hiring apprentices, merchants bringing goods because profit existed, farmers selling surpluses, and workers receiving wages they could spend. The System could accelerate that process, but it should not replace it.

Raymond leaned back and rubbed his eyes. The problem was that even permanent facilities needed knowledgeable people. A sawmill required someone capable of organizing its operation.

A foundry needed metallurgical knowledge. A citywide drainage network needed more than men with shovels. Roads required surveying. Water systems required engineering.

Quarrying needed people who understood stone quality and safe extraction.

The City Master Development Blueprint could show him where things belonged, but it could not turn Torren into ten different professionals. Althoff had thousands of willing hands.

What it lacked were enough experienced minds to direct those hands efficiently.

That thought made Raymond pause.

He closed the System Shop and opened his inventory.

The summoning section appeared.

[ Bronze Knight Summoning Tickets: 65 ]

[ Silver Knight Summoning Tickets: 20 ]

[ Specialized Civilian Summoning Tickets: 10 ]

Raymond ignored the Knights this time. His attention remained on the final line. Ten people. Not soldiers. Specialists. The kind of people he had treated as a useful reward without deciding where they belonged.

Now he understood exactly what Althoff needed from them.

The territory did not desperately need more workers.

It needed expertise.

Raymond smiled as he selected the final entry.

[ ×10 Specialized Civilian Summoning Tickets ]

"I think I know what we’re missing."