Chapter 5 - What’s The Worst That Could Happen?

“You’d really take my request to the crown?”
“I mean, with that stockpile you’ve got there, it’d almost be irresponsible not to. Great Oak is a sturdy material, and even if you don’t want to sell all of it until it’s been refined, a preexisting route can always be expanded,” Dartigan said with a smile that was giving me a migraine.
“Thank you so much, we’ll do what we can to help clean up the roads here if that helps convince them,” Daniel said, eagerly shaking Dartigan’s hand hard enough that the smaller man nearly lost his balance.
Though Daniel had urged me not to move until we had more time to talk, the moment he realized that Dartigan was part of the Royal Merchants instead of just a local clerk, he was quick to strike. I certainly couldn’t begrudge the man an attempt to move some of his stock, though that had been when I thought Dartigan actually meant that the crown didn’t have a use for a trade route out here. I’d thought the man would shrug the request off, or give him some halfhearted reasoning around improving the roads first.
I wondered if having things reset so many times had given me brain damage… That must have been the reason for the obvious oversight.
The man had paid me six gold over market value per Rockroot Weed because the capital was short on stock. Which meant I should’ve known he’d be willing to make deals whenever it was beneficial. And while I didn’t think about it since it only mattered to me some of the time, I’d also known the crown had recently lost dozens of ships to a lost, lonely little kraken that had only been looking for a safe place to lay her eggs.
Was it really her fault for fighting back when they tried to shoo her away? No. A mother should protect her young.
Was that going to stop the crown from needing replacement ships? Also no. I wasn’t the only one out there who caused trouble for the crown. They might need less ships without me doing my thing… but they did still need them.
Which meant sturdy Great Oak was suddenly a lot more valuable than I’d bothered to consider. And I’d guided a damnable Royal Merchant to a woodpile worth a king’s ransom… actually… maybe a king and two princes’ ransom. Guess it depended on the prince.
“Guess I’ll be seeing you, Corbin. I’ll be interested to see what you do with the place,” Dartigan said after he rattled off the verbal contract with Daniel. He turned and offered me a hand as he put his ledger away.
“Can’t wait,” I said, trying not to sound too sarcastic. I think I failed because it elicited another laugh from Dartigan when I reached out and shook his hand, just because I somehow knew he wouldn’t drop it until I did.
“Something tells me you can. You’re a strange one, Corbin. Try not to get yourself hurt,” he said, releasing my hand and hopping up into his cart.
I stood, watching the wagon go for long enough that I was sure Dartigan wasn’t going to suddenly decide to change his mind. Once I was no longer as worried, I looked back out at my newly purchased land, only to realize that Daniel was still lingering. Like me, he was watching the wagon go, though his dark-green eyes were filled with a rather odd amount of hope for a man of his size.
“You know Corbin, not sure what you want with this piss poor soil around here, but you might just be my new favorite person. Your purchase just caught Danwood up on our overdue crown taxes from the last few months.”
“Hey!”
“Oh hush Bram, you had the title for a whole hour, that was long enough,” Daniel said to the protesting voice coming from the few people that had followed him over.
“Piss poor? Dartigan said it was middling,” I said, drawing an amused look from Daniel.
“And you just believed him? You dumb or something?”
“That’s what I’m starting to wonder,” I said, finally opening the Property Management window. I checked the initial page first just to make sure it hadn’t somehow labeled me as the Lord of Dusk, before selecting a tab that had NEW! blinking next to the name.
[Property Information] Owner: Corbin Sovereign Rights Holder: Dawnmere Crown Claim Name: Unregistered Current Use: Planned Farmland Existing Structures: None Developmental Potential: High Development Work Requirement: Extremely High
[Geological Survey] Soil Quality: Poor Ambient Nutrient Potential: Unusually High (Locked) Rock Density: High Root Intrusion: Severe Water Access: Inconsistent Danger Level: High (Proximity to Grand Oak Forest)
“Remind me to upcharge Dartigan if he ever tries to buy anything I grow,” I said, reaching up and pinching the bridge of my nose.
“Heh, you’re pretty optimistic. I like it,” Daniel said with a nod of approval, running a hand back through his short-cropped hair. “If you’d like, my sister and I have some space at our place. You’re more than welcome to stay and I’m sure the guys would be more than happy to help build you one, though given how much land you just bought, they might expect you to pay them.”
“Somebody should!”
“You’re falling further down the ranks Bram,” Daniel called over his shoulder again, a laugh coming from the crowd.
“Actually… The help for the house would be nice, but I could actually use a few of your guys for a week or two if you could spare them. It would take me months to cut all these trees on the claim by myself. And I can pay a fair rate, two gold a day if-”
“Can we start now?!”
The interruption had once again come from Bram, but judging by the way every head in the group snapped toward me, he wasn’t the only one thinking it. Daniel didn’t look any less eager and I realized that I may have accidentally offered too much. This place really was poor…
“Er… I mean, the sun’s still high, and the wood from these smaller trees is probably what we’d need for my house anyway. I don’t want to take up space at your place for too long,” I said, briefly looking at the sky to try and place the time.
“Well stars, how many of my guys you want then? You’re right, it’d be a boarshit idea to waste the light,” Daniel said and his entire crew shifted my way.
“Umm,” I said, stalling for a moment while I thought about it.
I was really going to need to sit down and get a better feel for the local economy, because I just had put myself into a position where one, I may cause accidental animosity between any of them depending on who I chose; and two, where the rest of them suddenly knew I had a lot of coin. That left a little too much room for one or more of them to make the fatal decision to try to rob me just because I looked like an easy target to them. Last thing I needed was to have Dartigan coming back and finding out that I was the only one left around.
“How about… instead of two gold a day a person for a few of you, I hire your entire crew for a total of three gold a day, for five days, and I’ll pay in advance. That way you guys can split it up between you better,” I offered. The crew deflated just slightly, but they all looked around and started to murmur to each other.
“Well, that probably would be better than all of us making whoever you paid buy everything on the next trip out to Gold’s Lodge,” Daniel said with a pleased look. He looked over his shoulder and called out, “what say yah boys?”
A chorus of cheers erupted from the crowd, the eagerness for work actually rather impressive.
“Then let’s jump to it. Go grab the tools, we gotta make space for a house for our new friend here,” Daniel barked out, his tone shifting from friendly to commanding in an instant. Once his crew started to move, he looked back at me with another smile, “okay boss, show me where you want your house.”
My head turned from the crew rushing back towards their worksite and looked over my new land, considering the question. The obvious answer was a spot somewhere near the road here just to leave as much possible field behind it to eventually convert into a farm, not to mention the easy wagon access if I did ship some of what I grew out of town. But the land was hilly and removing all of them would be just as irresponsible and the smarter choice thankfully wasn’t too far away from the road.
“Right there,” I said, pointing at one of the tallest, widest sections of the land off the southern edge of the road.
“You sure?” Daniel asked, following my gesture. “Most folks would prefer a spot closer to the road.”
“Most folks enjoy their homes getting flooded during the first bad storm?”
He stared at the slope again, then back at me, before grunting, “that’s fair.”
As I further settled on the location, a new window opened.
[New Projects Available!] Project Name: Land Clearing Required Materials: Timber Cutting and Rock Breaking Tools, Labor Estimated Completion: 1 day per 10 acres with Good Quality Tools Assigned Labor: 0/11 Available Labor: 11/11
Project Name: Basic Homestead Required Materials: Timber, Stone, Construction Tools, Labor Estimated Completion: Determined upon selection of design Assigned Labor: 0/11 Available Labor: 11/11
The home designs were available in a separate section and after I found and selected one that looked like a rustic cabin, complete with a front porch, the completion date was updated to four days. That date only really mattered if I assigned all of the people to it at the same time, which would have been pointless to start with for one main, exceptionally obvious reason.
The materials section of my interface was still woefully empty.
I’d never exactly seen a point to hoarding buildings worth of construction goods when I could harvest them—at least in normal circumstances—pretty easily. That might have left me a bit concerned about my priorities for this life but as I saw the crew coming running back with axes and picks, the worry passed and I knew that I’d probably have everything I needed for the cabin by the end of the day.
With a thought, I assigned all of the crew to land clearing.
“Okay Daniel, start your crew at the hill there and then expand outward, once we’ve got enough supplies, you can split them up so half can start working on the house,” I said, turning my head to look around the rest of the field.
Hiring an entire crew of people wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind when I’d initially thought of setting up the farm, but it was certainly quicker than the alternative. And hey, if everything went well and I did eventually open a tavern too, I’d have quite the loyal customers. Though… that really did only matter if they started to make reliable wages that weren’t coming just from me.
As much as I wanted to disappear into this hamlet and be left alone, it was already proving more difficult than most monsters I’d tamed. But, I wasn’t afraid of a little discomfort. If this town had to get a little bit better so that I could have a quiet life and it only took a few weeks to get that going… well, what’s the worst that could happen?