CHAPTER 250: MAKING MONEY

Dominic looked at the four mana revolvers he managed to make that day and nodded in satisfaction.

All Rare Grade, all level 10. The sort of expensive weapon that only the most senior of Guild members or Noblemen could afford.

But his storage still had a bunch of level five uncommon grade pistols made with [Clay to Steel]. Once he showed the merchant the good stuff, he could offer the cheap stuff as an alternative, and make a bulk sale.

One caravan was unlikely to want all four of the Rare grade revolvers, they were simply too expensive. But offering them one plus some of the uncommon grade ones would do the job and keep the Duchy funded.

"What are your plans for the rest of the week?" Pops asked as Dominic packed up and cleaned his station for the evening.

"I think that I will sit at the house and work on my spell levels. It’s a vulnerability if someone comes to cause trouble." Dominic replied seriously.

Pops nodded. "Best to do it now while they’re still sorting things out in Albroles. Once they’re done there and things really start getting bad, who knows what the situation will be.

Fortunately, we have a number of former City Guard officers in town. If they’re armed, they should be able to help with small troubles."

Dominic nodded. "I will start to organize them soon. I just don’t want to start pulling people from establishing their homes to deal with a problem that hasn’t started yet.

If we start getting enough residents that we need a town guard to keep order, I will reconsider."

Pops smiled and pointed to a block of clay in the corner of the room. "I don’t suppose I could prevail upon your Lordship to make me a block of copper? I need it for some of the tools and to make brass for the Techno Wizards."

Dominic laughed at Pops’ irreverent tone. "It’s just weird hearing you say that. The Lordship part. I will make you the copper right away. That’s got to be a hundred kilos worth, so it should last you at least a few days."

Pops wasn’t so sure. They were expecting another convoy in a few days, and the first ones from Cygnia should be showing up anytime. With how things were going, he couldn’t guarantee that the steam fitter wouldn’t buy out every bit of metal that he had on hand just to repair the convoys.

Dominic returned to the manor for the evening as Pops continued to work. More often lately, he was sleeping at the forge after working late hours, so they would have to rebuild the smithy’s house portion soon.

But the old Dwarf would still show up at the Manor in the morning to get breakfast and bring lunch back to the forge.

Things in the Manor were beginning to settle into a state of normalcy, with the pantry and root cellar stocked, freshly ground flour and corn meal in sacks stacked in storage, and the helpful Garden Witch working to have the manor grow a fresh wave of produce.

It was beginning to feel like home here already, and Dominic listened quietly as Alexis and the Royal Guard argued about which direction would be the best to go and search for roaming monsters and game animals first.

There weren’t any people to contest their claim if they went anywhere within the border regions of the Stansia Province, so they could explore the entire holding and recommend upgrades to the Barony Manors that they found along the way.

They were actually fairly close to the main Ducal Manor, each of the Barony estates in the region had been small holdings to begin with, barely a thousand acres each in most cases.

Now, that was more than enough for a minor Lord to make a suitable living. But it also meant that most of the Barony Estates were only a few kilometres apart.

They weren’t usually large enough to have a full town next to them, only a cluster of farms, and a few craftsmen’s shops within the Barony Manor grounds. That made it slow-going for the Merchant Guild caravans when the area was highly populated, but most of them weren’t ordering or buying anything from every caravan.

They would just signal the Baron and wait a few minutes to see if they needed anything before moving along.

Peasants didn’t usually get that courtesy, unless it was a wealthy family. You had to flag down the merchant’s caravan if you needed something, and ask what they had, or go to a town, where they would stop for a day or two and set up.

"You know, we could expand the old Baronies. Most of the ones in Cygnia are huge, much larger than what Wavemates granted their Barons. If I recall our peerage properly, the King only intends to assign twenty Barons to five hundred square kilometres." Dominic noted.

"And that is likely to expand, given how empty the region is, and how few new upper Nobles he will want to elevate. But how large were the old Baronies?" Alexis asked, ready to make notes on her map.

"About four square kilometres each? A thousand acres or so. If they’re built on a hill, you can usually see one Manor from the next." Dominic replied with a shrug.

The Royal Guards laughed. "There will be so many empty Barony houses that the wealthier commoners will want to move into. Wait, does that mean the larger family compound about five kilometres away was a separate Barony? It’s not fortified or anything, but it’s a good stone house."

Dominic tried for a moment to remember, then nodded. "Yes, that was a Baron. The farms around him were almost all run by his family, though. I don’t think that there was anyone else living there."

Alexis sighed. "We are going to have to completely redraw the maps before the Barons start to arrive. If Barons simply decided not to have serfs so that they could claim the entire Barony was family land, some of them will show up and find nowhere for farmers to live."

Dominic chuckled. "We should probably get some mechanical horses for that. Or just a proper stable of regular horses. Walking the whole thing would take forever."

One more thing for the list.