Chapter 89: Appointment

Creating ten Departments had been surprisingly easy.

Filling them with people who could actually be trusted to make decisions was harder.

Raymond refused to treat appointments as rewards for surviving winter, and he refused to hand impressive titles to whoever happened to be standing closest when a Department was created.

By noon the following day, the Lord’s Council had gathered again, joined by Gideon, Darric, and the specialists whose names had already begun appearing beside particular responsibilities.

Alaric placed the ten Department charters across the table and said, "A structure without authority is only a drawing, my Lord. Whoever leads each Department needs to know what decisions they can make without asking you."

Raymond nodded. That was exactly the point. Althoff had spent months depending on good people improvising. Now those people needed defined positions, deputies, staff, and limits.

"Then we do this properly," Raymond said. "Nobody gets a title because I like them. Nobody gets one because they worked hard during winter. They get the chair because they’re the best person we currently have for it."

Alaric was first, though his appointment required the least debate. Raymond confirmed him as Chief Administrator of Althoff, responsible for coordinating civil government beneath the Lord’s Council, but added temporary oversight of the Department of Treasury and Revenue until a capable Administrator and accounting staff could be trained beneath him.

Alaric accepted without ceremony, then immediately warned Raymond not to mistake temporary oversight for a permanent arrangement. "Treasury will eventually require someone whose attention is entirely financial. If I am reviewing every Department while personally checking every payment, one of those responsibilities will suffer."

Raymond pointed at him. "That answer is why you’re sitting there."

Alaric’s mouth twitched. He would establish treasury procedures, separate territorial accounts from House Althoff’s private finances, train clerks, and recommend a permanent Administrator once someone suitable emerged.

Until then, no more collection boxes, household ledgers, merchant fees, and public expenditures pretending to be one financial system simply because somebody eventually carried all the numbers into the castle.

Agriculture produced the first real argument. Harlan stared at the proposed title as though

Raymond had offered him a crown.

"Master of Fields?" he repeated. "I’m a farmer."

Raymond leaned back. "Yes. A farmer who helped feed twelve hundred starving people, managed our first fifteen hectares, coordinated refugee farmers through winter, and is currently helping plan food production for more than five thousand people."

Harlan glanced toward the specialists. "They know more than I do."

One of them answered before Raymond could. "About certain methods, yes. About Althoff’s farmers, local soil history, available labor, habits, and what people here will actually listen to? No."

Gideon grinned at Harlan’s discomfort.

Raymond appointed Harlan Master of Fields and Administrator of the Department of Agriculture and Husbandry, with the five specialists serving as technical advisers and senior managers beneath him.

Gideon became his principal deputy.

"Congratulations," Gideon murmured. "You have paperwork now."

Harlan looked betrayed. "You do too."

Gideon’s smile disappeared.

Mara accepted leadership of the Department of Construction and Public Works with considerably less resistance.

As a civil engineer, she had spent the previous days examining Althoff’s roads, drainage, damaged walls, building methods, and construction crews, and had already produced one list of things Torren was doing correctly and another list he did not appreciate nearly as much.

Raymond named her Master of Works, placing public construction, infrastructure planning, maintenance, permits, and engineering coordination beneath her authority. Torren would remain one of the most important practical construction leaders, working with Mara and Master Architect Lucan rather than being forced to decide territorial policy himself.

"Can I send people asking for building permission to her now?" Torren asked.

"Immediately," Raymond said.

Mara looked at him. "Not without the property records."

Torren’s brief happiness vanished.

Raymond laughed. "Welcome to government. Apparently even escaping paperwork requires paperwork."

Torren muttered something about preferring collapsed roofs, which at least stayed where they were placed.

Ysabel became Mistress of Trade and Administrator of the Department of Trade and Commerce. She accepted with a calm nod before asking for authority to reorganize the winter market, establish merchant registration, and begin drafting standard weights and measures.

Raymond approved the preparatory work but required major fees and commercial regulations to return to the Lord’s Council before implementation.

Selene became Mistress of Physic and Administrator of Health and Sanitation, immediately beginning the transfer of medical coordination from Marianne.

Marianne looked almost indecently pleased when Selene asked for every clinic inventory, healer list, patient record, sanitation report, and medical supply ledger.

"They’re yours," Marianne said. Selene raised an eyebrow.

"All of them?"

"Every beautiful page."

Raymond watched Marianne slide two heavy ledgers across the table and decided that freedom had rarely looked so much like dumping paperwork onto someone else’s lap.

Selene opened the first ledger without complaint, which only confirmed that Raymond had summoned the correct woman for the job.

Natural Resources and Territorial Survey remained separate Departments, but Raymond did not yet have enough qualified leadership to justify pretending otherwise.

Ormond therefore became Master of Survey and Resources, temporarily administering both.

He objected only to the workload, not the logic. Survey teams needed to locate forests, clay, stone, mineral deposits, waterways, abandoned sites, and usable routes before Resources could regulate extraction properly.

Ormond proposed creating joint field teams first, then separating the Departments once each possessed enough trained surveyors, clerks, and administrators to function independently.

Raymond approved. Corvin received the title Master of Stores and leadership of Logistics and Stores. Government warehouses, wagon allocation, public supply chains, material distribution, emergency reserves, transport coordination, and inventories became his responsibility.

Corvin’s first request was a complete inventory of every government-controlled warehouse. Lily, who had been sitting quietly beside Raymond, pushed three old ledgers toward him.

"These will help."

Corvin looked at their thickness. Lily smiled with suspicious innocence.

Population and Civil Registry still lacked a permanent Administrator, so Alaric would supervise it temporarily while experienced clerks were evaluated and Oren helped reconcile refugee records.

Raymond preferred leaving a position vacant over filling it badly merely to make his organizational chart look complete.

Then the discussion reached Military Affairs, and the atmosphere changed.

Boris had commanded Althoff’s guards before Raymond became anything resembling a competent lord.

He had survived the near mutiny, refugee waves, winter patrols, and Beast Tide. Yet the force forming now was no longer thirty-two guards protecting a dying settlement.

It would eventually include trained soldiers, gate forces, scouts, recruits, defensive units, and specialized formations.

Raymond looked directly at him. "Captain isn’t enough for what you’re already doing. I’m naming you Captain-General of Althoff Forces."

Boris was silent for a moment, then leaned back slightly. "That’s a dangerous amount of confidence."

Raymond smiled. "Don’t make me regret it."

As Captain-General, Boris would oversee conventional territorial defense and the developing army beneath the Department of Military Affairs.

Recruitment, training, readiness, ordinary military deployments, defensive planning, and coordination between conventional units would ultimately pass through his command.

But Raymond deliberately removed everyday civil security from Boris’s future workload.

Darric , former guard captain and one of the refugees who had proven himself repeatedly since arriving from Marden, straightened when Raymond turned toward him.

"Darric, you’re taking the Watch."

Darric blinked. "My Lord?"

Raymond gestured toward the security records. "Gates, town patrols, night security, thefts, disturbances, prisoners, and ordinary enforcement. You’re Captain of the Althoff Watch. You coordinate with Boris whenever military support is necessary, but your people are not the army. I don’t want soldiers chasing every drunk who starts a fight in the market."

Darric absorbed the appointment slowly before bowing his head. "Understood, my Lord. I’ll need men who know the streets and people, not merely fighters."

Boris nodded before Raymond could answer. "Take some of the older guards. Men who know how to stop trouble without turning every argument into a battlefield. I’ll keep the recruits who are better suited for military training."

Raymond watched them immediately begin dividing responsibilities and felt a small piece of the larger problem click into place. The Watch was not yet a sophisticated policing institution, nor did Althoff need one.

It was simply a clear civil security force handling gates, streets, disturbances, and ordinary enforcement, leaving Boris free to think about territorial defense instead of missing chickens and tavern arguments.

As the city grew, the Watch could grow with it. For now, Darric finally possessed an authority matching the work he had already been doing.

That left Jonathan. Raymond had deliberately saved him for last because his position required the clearest distinction. Jonathan and the other summoned Knights were not ordinary territorial soldiers.

They were absolutely loyal to Raymond and House Althoff, far stronger than conventional recruits, and increasingly numerous.

Raymond could never explain their true origin, but he could formalize what everyone already understood about their place within the territory.

"Jonathan, from today onward, you’re Commander of the Household Knights. Bronze, Silver, and our three Gold Knights fall within that structure. You’ll coordinate training, deployment, readiness, and internal organization. Major deployments remain under my authority. You’ll cooperate with Boris during territorial defense, but the Household Knights remain directly sworn to House Althoff."

Jonathan rose from his chair and placed a fist over his chest. "I accept, my Lord. The Household Knights will remain ready."

Raymond surveyed the table after Jonathan sat again. Harlan still looked uncomfortable with his title. Gideon looked delighted by Harlan’s discomfort despite having acquired additional work himself.

Marianne had successfully surrendered half the responsibilities winter had dumped onto her. Boris was already studying the military charter with Darric beside him. Mara and Torren were quietly arguing over construction records.

Selene had claimed Marianne’s medical ledgers. Corvin was examining warehouse inventories. Ysabel had started marking problems in the market records, while Kael was discussing potential survey routes with Edran near the end of the table.

These people were no longer merely useful individuals waiting for Raymond to point them toward the next emergency.

They had jurisdictions, responsibilities, authority, and people beneath them who could eventually carry out the work.

Not every Department had a permanent Administrator.

Not every chain of command was complete.

Some people were temporarily carrying two responsibilities because Althoff still lacked enough trained professionals to fill every position properly.

Raymond was perfectly comfortable with that. Building a government did not mean pretending the government was finished.

For the first time, however, Raymond could point at almost any major problem in Althoff and know who was supposed to handle it.

Not every chair was filled.

That was fine.

The important thing was that the chairs finally existed.