Vivid Stars Online

“Of course, sir,” Mayor Kosfeld responded with a wince. “However, I have to tell you that we are reaching the limits of what a village is permitted to have.”

Good thing Henceforthe was prepared then, I mused with a smile before pulling the town charter from my pack.

“That's not going to be a problem,” I said, passing the scroll over as she looked at me askew.

The Mayor unfolded the scroll before almost dropping it as she took in the contents. “Oh,” she said at last with a bright smile. “I didn’t think we’d ever get one of these so far from the established cities.”

“That might not be the end,” I continued with a broad grin, deciding to put all my cards on the table. “As the only established settlement in my lands so far, and my first town, you're in the running to end up as my regional capital in the future.”

“The excellent location here helps as well,” I finished, gesturing toward the window that looked out over the lake.

She turned toward where I was gesturing before speaking in a hesitant tone. “Ah, about that. We are also reaching the limit of what we can harvest from this area without threatening the fish population.”

"While we could send ships out further, it becomes harder to get a full catch the longer they need to travel each day. The deeper waters hold some very dangerous beasts as well.”

“Ah,” I responded with a nod. “Giant tentacle monster things, I’m guessing?” At her fearful nod, I continued. “Yeah, best not mess with those unless we find a safe way to clear them out. We tangled with one once and only just made it out alive.”

I shared a look back at Linnea as I spoke, thinking back to that horrible night on the side of the lake. It had been the first real challenge we had faced together and while I felt like it had brought us closer, it wasn’t something I was ready to repeat soon.

“Anyway,” I continued as I turned back to the mayor. “Expanding the fishing business isn’t the direction I want to take this town in. We can establish a few more villages further along the lake for that.”

Turning to the other window that faced the plains, I waved her over with me. “But I do still want to focus on food production. Not only is that still one of the largest issues facing the Kingdom, but a plentiful food supply will also help to draw more people to us.”

“So,” I continued, turning to her with a smile. “What do you know about farming around here? I’ve heard that it’s hard this far north, but I’m not sure about the details.”

“Farming?” she asked, sounding surprised. “As far as I know, it can’t be done in the northern provinces. Why, though, I’m not sure. The Climate perhaps? We get much harsher winters than down south. Or the background Psi energy could be it too, that’s why we have so many Beasts around.”

“I’m not even sure if there’s been any kind of official study into it,” she finished with a shrug. “Or if some farmers just tried it and failed.”

“Hmm,” I muttered as my thoughts whirled. The background Psi energy might be the actual issue. I don’t know much about farming, but I’m pretty sure you could harvest long before winter came. People have farmed pretty much everywhere back home.

I gestured to the plains in front of us, which extended as far as the eye could see in a rolling wave of green. From personal experience, I knew that the grass would be over hip high with odd plants growing even higher in places.

“Clearly some things grow here, and grow well,” I continued. “So it may just be a matter of finding crops that have the right tolerance. I’ll have to contact a university or something and see if they have any more information about that.

Professor Henceforthe might be able to help with that, I thought as I made a note on my watch. He has to be a professor at some kind of institution, after all.

“If we could manage it, then that would be amazing,” the Mayor responded excitedly. “From what I understand, only the four southern provinces have well-established farming and they’ve all been hit by the drought. If we can pull it off, we’d be helping to fill a much-needed void.”

Right, the mysterious drought the King said was caused by some kind of hidden Psionic device. The one that coincidentally happened just before they got cut off from the outside. Yeah, that’s not suspicious at all.

If I had the time I’d be interested in heading down to look into it myself, as it was, however, I would need to help in the ways that my new position supported.

Outwardly, I responded with a grin. “Exactly,” I said, happy to see how invested she was becoming. “We may even attract a few experienced farmers who’d be willing to move for a fresh start and free land taxes.”

“After all,” I continued with a wave back toward the lake. “We have an almost unlimited water supply and,” I paused to gesture back to the plains. “A vast, fertile landscape ready to be developed.”

“Right,” Mayor Kosfeld said, already taking notes on her watch. “I can put feelers out for anyone with experience who wants to move here. We won’t get anything grown before winter, even if you can find crops for us, but we can at least start preparing the land for next spring.”

I could see the hope in her eyes as she looked at me and while it added a weight of responsibility, it felt good as well. “Just remember to leave enough space for expansion around the town,” I responded with a nod. “If we can build this place up into the breadbasket of the province, it will be almost inevitable that it will grow into a city.”

“Of course,” she responded with a broad grin. “I’ll begin planning things out as soon as we’re done here. Though you might consider some more villages further out to cut down on travel times to the farmland. We’ll need patrols for Beasts as well.”

“Right,” I said, wincing at the reminder of just how much there was to do. “Look for people interested in joining a local defense force while you're trying for farmers. Try for at least a few veterans that know what they're doing, the rest can be enthusiastic amateurs.”

“So the veterans can train the others?” She asked, before continuing at my nod. “Right, though we’ll have to start slow at first with the budget. It should be enough just to defend this area, though. I imagine the army will slowly pull back now the area has been assigned a lord.”

“I’ll have to check in with someone on that,” I said, making another note. “Hopefully, we can get them to stay until we’re ready to take over.”

With that organized, the meeting wound down. All that was left was to get the boring details of their industry and life in the town. This took two more hours before I could finally bring the meeting to a close.

“Thank you for all your work so far, and in the future,” I said, reaching forward to shake the mayor’s hand. “I’m glad I can leave most of the details in your hands.” I meant it too, I had seen just how much work went into administering just a small village during this meeting and I wanted no part of it.

I’ll have to promote her, or something, if she actually builds it up to a full town. Maybe a knighthood or even something more? Though it would suck to lose her to another town. I’ll have to see what’s possible.

“Of course, Sir,” she said, blushing a little at the praise. “Oh,” she continued, just as I was turning away. “Would you like me to draw up plans for a mansion?”

“I hadn’t thought of it,” I said, turning back. “Though it’s probably unnecessary. I’ll be making my primary base of operations on the frigate. That will give me a mobile base that can I can deploy anywhere I need.”

This was something that I had already decided on. While there might be something to be said about having a permanent presence in the town, it would just slow down its expansion at this time. Perhaps it would be worth it if the place actually became my capital, but for now, the ship would work better.

I still had plans to eventually move out into the greater universe, though they would be delayed for some time now. Still, it would help a lot to have everything set up on my ship for long-term habitation before then.

“Yeah,” I said after thinking it over. “It’s better to put the resources that would be used for that back into the town, for now. Spend the money on developing a set of landing pads, instead. This will probably become something of a trade hub for the villages that spread out from here.

“Also, if you could rig up some kind of covering for the Frigate, that would be great. It doesn’t need to be anything permanent at this stage, I understand how much work that would be. But we need to at least cover the holes with tarps, or something, in case it rains.”

“Of course, Sir, I’ll get the building team out to have a look. I’m sure they can come up with something,” she responded, looking happy that I was investing in the village instead of something grandiose for myself. While I appreciated her asking, I got the feeling that she hadn’t been too enthused about the idea, either.

With that done, I organized for her to set up a town meeting the next morning before we said our goodbyes. Informing the rest of the town residents that I was now in charge would be the last thing I needed to do before I could finally head back to exploring.

While I could have gotten the mayor to do it, I wanted to make sure that I got off on the right foot with my citizens. Being there myself would help to reassure them that things would only improve from here on out.

Leaving the town hall, we moved out past a group of watching villagers. No townspeople now, I reminded myself with a grin. That’s something else I’ll have to bring up tomorrow.

A few people shouted questions, however, I simply responded that the mayor was organizing a town meeting tomorrow morning. This clearly confused some as to who I was, however, I ignored them for now and moved on.

It wasn’t like I was particularly well dressed, having just come back from adventuring, so it made sense they wouldn’t recognize me as someone important. Thinking on that, I made a note that getting some higher quality clothes, and potentially adventuring gear as well, was something I would have to do.

Once we were clear of the town, we moved back toward the frigate to camp for the evening. While much of it was still broken, and most of the furnishings would have rotted away, I was sure we could find somewhere cozy to spend the night.

Not only would this give us a place to stay that was out of the way and avoided any more questions that night, but it would also allow us to monitor the ship. While I thought I was the only person who could get the doors open, just about anyone with the right gear could make it through the holes in the hull.

The AI might notice if this happened, but it was helpless to do anything with the current restrictions on the ship’s systems. I would have to find out just how much that could be changed and then decide how much control I was willing to give it.

We finally found one of the living quarters that was still intact and we set up our bedrolls inside. “Quiet at last,” I said with a sigh as I flopped down on one of them.

“You did a great job out there, Jared,” Linnea responded with a smile. “Not to say that I didn’t believe in you, but it surprised me just how smooth you were.”

“Hah,” I responded with a laugh. “I just copied what I thought the Duchess would do, or Felisa to a lesser extent. They both have this kind of commanding presence that made you want to listen.”

“Well, it worked,” she said, moving over to snuggle into a hug. “And I’m looking forward to the future. Those plans for the town you had sounded fantastic.”

“Yeah,” I responded, before leaning in for a kiss. “Though we’ll have to shift tactics if the farming doesn’t work out. If nothing else, I think it will still turn into something of a transport hub for the area. Being there first will just make that naturally happen.”

While there was still a lot to do, I felt like I had done all I could here for now. I just had the town meeting tomorrow and a few messages to send before I would be free to explore again.

With Linnea now funded by her position as my retainer, I could afford for her to come along whenever she didn’t have flying lessons. While solo exploring was great, doing it with her could only be better.

I could barely wait.