Vivid Stars Online

The doors opened into a small, but comfortable-looking foyer. While it was far from the luxury I had seen at the palace or the Explorers Guild, it was still rather impressive for such a small village.

They had constructed everything from smooth timber, which I had a hunch was from the nearby forest based on the colouring. That would cut down on costs, I mused as I looked around, it wouldn’t be cheap to ship materials out here after all.

There was a single, small reception desk with a young man behind it. He stood and bowed as soon as I looked over, before nervously walking out to meet me.

“Count Hope?” he asked as he walked over, a slight waver in his voice. At my responding nod, he continued. “We’ve been expecting you, of course. A call came in from the capital earlier, soon followed by your retainer arriving. She is upstairs with the mayor now.”

Thanking him, I moved toward the stairs on the other side of the room. They felt solid and well-built as I strode up them, dispelling thoughts of the ramshackle construction I had rather been expecting.

While it might be a new village out in the middle of nowhere, whoever had built this place knew what they were doing. That bodes well for future expansion if we can keep this quality up, then it might actually develop into a city one day.

While the first floor had been open between the foyer and some form of community hall I had seen further in, they had designed the second floor to be full of small offices. Half a dozen of them branched off a central hallway that led deeper into the building.

The one at the far end was marked ‘Mayor Kosfeld’, and I moved over to it. I had just raised a hand to knock when Linnea pulled the door open.

“Welcome Sir,” she said in a professional tone, though she winked at the end. “I have swept the room for threats and listening devices and it appears to be secure,” she continued with a smile.

“Thanks, Linnea,” I responded a little off balance. She’s taking her new position seriously, I thought. I really shouldn’t be surprised. Despite her new playful side, she’s still very efficient when on the job. Though how does she even know how to sweep for bugs? Elana maybe?

Realizing that now wasn’t the time for that kind of musing, I entered the room as she stepped aside. While her large rifle was nowhere in sight, she had a sidearm on her hip and looked ready to use it at a moment’s notice.

Beyond her, the office opened up to cover the full width of the building, with a desk seated in the middle of it. Light filtered into the room from windows on each of the side walls, showing the lake in one direction and the flowing plains in the other.

It was a pleasant office and while it was quite large for the size of the building, the filing cabinets lining the back wall showed it served a dual purpose. Whoever had designed it had valued function over having something grandiose.

It’s a little odd that they still use paper so much, I mused as I glanced over at them. Though given the troubles they’ve had with higher-tech neighbours, it might make sense. A paper copy would help guard against any alterations done through hacking.

I had recently learned that even the fleet had trouble with their communications being hacked. If even the military struggled that much, I could only imagine that the civilian side had it worse.

Hopefully, Technokinesis will help with that as more people gain it. It would be worth checking over the systems here before I leave.

That was a thought for later, however, as I realized I left the poor woman hanging for too long. She’d started twitching uncomfortably behind the desk as I gazed around her office as if worried I would find fault with it.

“Mayor Kosfeld,” I started with a smile, trying to sound confident even if I didn’t feel it. Just act like the Duchess, I thought as I continued. “It's good to meet you. I have been quite impressed with what I’ve seen since arriving in the village.”

She visibly relaxed at the praise, which had been my intention. “Thank you, My Lord,” she responded with something halfway between a smile and surprise on her face. “While it’s only been a short time since the village was founded, everyone has worked hard to help with the food crisis.”

“And you’ve all done a good job, the situation in Elendes has improved a lot in the last few months. Given the amount of fish I’ve seen showing up in the city’s dining options, I’m sure this village has had a large hand in that.”

Her face shifted into a look of pride as she nodded along with me, the tension draining from her body. Seeing that, I moved over and took the seat across from her. Linnea moved up to stand behind me, eschewing the extra seat that was available.

“Now,” I continued once I was seated. “Give me an overview of the village, please. There is much we need to discuss.”

The village was doing just as well as I’d thought when moving through it. Mayor Kosfeld revealed that she’d been an architect out of Elendes before the village was founded, after which she moved over because of a lack of work in the capital.

Crises, it seemed, left people more eager to save than to spend their money on buildings or renovation. Then, for the same reason, she’d been able to entice a small building company she’d worked with to shift out here in its entirety.

It was their work. and her designs, which had gone into all the well-fashioned buildings I’d seen around here. They’d even erected a small saw-mill on the edge of town that processed local timber into building materials.

“It keeps costs down a lot,” she finished with a proud smile. “While we were authorised to draw on the village’s goods tax to fund industrial and community buildings, we have done all we could to limit how much we took.”

“I appreciate that,” I said with a nod, surprised at how sincere she was at that. Far from most of the politicians, I’d read about back in the real world she seemed to be a hard-working individual who cared more about building up the village than lining her own pockets.

“I’ll have more questions later, particularly about the fishing industry,” I continued with a smile. “But for now, let’s go over the village taxes. I need to know what I’m working with.”

“Of course,” she responded, tensing up again as she stood up. “I’ll get the hard copies now,” she continued, moving over to a filing cabinet.

Looks like I was right, I mused as she returned with a stack of papers before pulling up information on her screen and making it double-sided. Looks like she’s checking each figure against both the hard copy and the soft copy as she goes.

While it wasn’t the most efficient practice, it would help guard against hacking attempts. Though they must go through a lot of paper. I wonder if they're making that locally or shipping it in.

Her voice drew me from my thoughts before I could pose that question, so I put it aside for later.

“To start with, the land taxes," she said tensing up again as she spoke. “As I hope you are expecting, the income from those is currently zero. We were each promised three years of zero land taxes as an incentive to move here,” she continued defensively as if expecting me to object at any second.

Before I could speak up to reassure her, she kept going in a rush. “Since we are all funding our own housing, this is quite important. I hope you understand that,” she finished, looking at me nervously.

Holding up a hand, I spoke up. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of going against what has been agreed on.” Seeing how important those three years seemed to be, I made a snap decision on something I’d been considering.

“In fact,” I continued with a broad grin. “I’m going to extend the period.” I’d played enough city and civilisation builders to know that getting the population of my land up would be one of the most important factors in developing it.

If three years without land taxes was enough to entice this many people out already, how effective would a longer period be? While it would delay the time before I was making personal income from the taxes, I was OK with that.

I was looking at that side of things as a long-term investment, one that I would be fine with seeing no money from for ten or more years. I had proven to myself that I could make a profit with my exploring in the meantime, so this was more a development for some eventual form of retirement.

“Extend it?” She croaked in shock, as if unable to comprehend the turn of events that had just taken place.

“Yes,” I responded with a nod. “For another five years after the first three I will only raise the taxes to twenty-five percent of what they would be normally. This is the percentage that my own liege will expect, and it is all I will charge until any new resident’s ninth year in my lands.”

That should do it, I thought with a grin at the look on her face. That way, anyone who moves here in the next two years will pay me full taxes by year ten or earlier, with more to come in after that. Not a bad timeframe for a long-term investment.

“That, uh. Why?” she stuttered as she stared at me.

“I’m not sure if you know the full extent,” I started as I pulled up a map on my watch. She quickly fiddled with her screen, allowing me to take control of the desk’s projector.

“But I have been assigned a vast area of land,” I continued as I showed the full map. “If I am going to have any chance of settling even a fraction of this in the near future, then I need to bring in people from more than just Elendes.”

“While it’s a city, in the end, it is quite a small one,” I continued with a frown. “And while I’m sure there are people in the other provinces interested in moving out here with our more stable food situation, there is no guarantee they would move to my lands.”

“Thus, it is in my best long-term interests to ensure that we are the most attractive option. That will bring them here, rather than to the lands of one of the other counts.”

“Ah,” she nodded in understanding. “And because the others are so established, they have a lot more demands placed on their income. It would be hard for them to match your offer.”

“Yes,” I responded, faking confidence, even though I hadn’t thought of that. “Now, let’s move on to the goods tax,” I continued, eager to see the income I could put toward repairing and manning my ship.

The details of that were quite a pleasant surprise to me. While the income wasn’t massive, it was far beyond what I would have expected from such a small village. It seemed I had underestimated the need for fresh food within the province.

This had pushed prices almost sky high, which had a direct improvement on the value of my taxes. Though it won’t last forever, I thought, trying to keep a lid on my excitement, prices will start to stabilize as more people push into food production.

That was hard to do when she showed me the current backlog of funds, however. True to her word, she had drawn as little as possible from the taxes when building up the non-residential areas of the town.

This led to quite a build-up of funds, which would be very helpful in rebuilding the ship. I hoped it would be enough to get it running, though I would probably have to increase my tax income if I wanted to hire everyone I needed.

In the short term, though, the income would be enough to hire Linnea, Elana, Brian and perhaps a couple more full-time. That was a great relief, as it meant that all of my exploring income could be kept for my personal expenses.

“Excellent,” I said as I settled back in my chair. “You’ve done an even better job than you suggested to me. I hope you will continue to do so in the future.”

“Of course,” she responded with a nod, the last of her tension seeming to dissipate at my confirmation that she would keep her job.

“Now, let’s talk expansion, “ I continued with a grin. “I have a lot of ideas I want to walk through.”