Chapter 112: This Was Supposed To Be A Dead Barony

The first thing Edmun encountered on the road into Althoff was a wall that did not exist.

Golden Road’s caravan descended from the ridge and reached a stretch of cleared ground where survey stakes marched across the countryside.

Trenches had been excavated along several sections, piles of foundation stone waited, and a completed stretch of defensive masonry rose beside timber palisades and packed earthworks.

Watch platforms overlooked the road while patrol riders moved between temporary posts. Garrick studied the works from horseback before telling Edmund that the line was far too distant from the old settlement to be an emergency barricade.

"They’re planning to put the city inside this," he said.

Edmund looked toward the old walls visible ahead and understood what bothered him. Althoff was constructing defenses for land it had not finished occupying.

The road itself offered the next surprise. Golden Road’s thirty-two wagons were not forced into single file through ruts or mud. The approach had been graded, drainage channels carried water away from the roadbed, and reinforced sections handled loaded wagons without collapsing beneath them.

Patrolmen directed the caravan around an active construction area where laborers were preparing another foundation near what appeared to be a future gate.

Nobody stopped working to stare at Golden Road. A caravan of their size normally became an event in an isolated settlement. Here, workers glanced up, recognized merchants, and returned to hauling stone.

"Either they were warned about us," Adrian said, "or merchant wagons have stopped being unusual."

Edmund watched two smaller trade wagons pass them in the opposite direction. "Probably both."

Beyond the defensive works came farmland, and Seraphine stopped pretending she was uninterested in agriculture.

The fields seen from the ridge had looked impressive from a distance; traveling beside them made their scale harder to dismiss. Green grain moved in the wind across organized plots. Vegetable fields followed irrigation channels.

Oxen pulled plows across sections being prepared for later planting, while workers repaired water channels and carts carried tools, seed, fodder, and produce between agricultural roads.

Other areas remained uncultivated despite their dark, rich soil, stretching farther than Althoff currently possessed labor to use. He remembered thin harvests and exhausted ground.

This was not starving peasants clawing food from miserable soil. It was agricultural expansion.

He noted wagon traffic, field divisions, irrigation, livestock, and the number of people working outside the old walls.

Edmund was more interested in what happened when the caravan reached the new Residential District. Permanent houses stood along actual streets rather than clustering wherever generations of residents had found space.

Some were modest family homes, others larger or designed for multiple households, but their construction followed recognizable standards. Stone foundations supported timber frames and plastered walls.

Tiled roofs replaced the patchwork coverings Edmund expected from refugee settlements. Drainage openings appeared beside the streets, and public water points served occupied blocks.

Families lived there already. Laundry hung behind houses, children ran between doorways, and a woman shouted at one boy for trying to climb a wagon while it was moving.

Not everything was finished. One street was fully occupied while the next contained roofers, masons, scaffolding, and exposed timber frames.

Farther on, workers were only laying foundations. Golden Road passed carts carrying doors and window frames produced to matching dimensions.

Seraphine watched a crew install identical shutters on three neighboring houses and murmured, "They’re standardizing components."

Garrick nodded before Edmund could answer. "Faster building. Easier repairs too."

Edmund looked back toward the rows already completed. Whatever source had financed this expansion, somebody was thinking beyond appearances.

Then came the sound of the sawmill. Its mana-assisted machinery could be heard before the caravan saw the building, and smoke drifted above the industrial activity surrounding it. Timber arrived as logs and departed as measured boards and beams.

Nearby workshops consumed part of that output immediately. Carpenters built furniture, doors, carts, roof frames, and construction pieces. Blacksmiths worked in open-fronted shops where apprentices carried charcoal and sorted iron fittings.

Quarry wagons rolled in from the west with grey stone, passing empty wagons returning for more. Stonecutters shaped blocks beside organized yards.

Edmund saw production feeding construction directly and understood why Althoff could keep expanding without importing every board, nail, and stone.

The Warehouse and Logistics District was less impressive from a distance and more impressive to a merchant.

Corvin’s storage compounds had numbered sections, loading yards, wagon space, guards, and clerks tracking movement.

A grain warehouse remained under construction nearby, its raised stone base complete while workers assembled roof structures above heavy timber framing. Other warehouses already operated.

Teamsters loaded goods beneath covered areas while carts arrived from farms, workshops, and the market.

Garrick stared longer than he had at the houses. "They planned wagon turning space," he said with approval.

Edmund laughed. "I knew eventually we’d find what moved you."

The caravan was directed toward a dedicated unloading yard near the Central Market, and that was where Edmund’s doubts began disappearing.

The market was busy enough that Golden Road’s arrival caused curiosity without stopping business. Permanent shopfronts surrounded a square. Covered merchant rows held produce, cloth, pottery, leather goods, household items, tools, and food.

Temporary spaces accommodated visiting traders. Public fountains supplied water while storage buildings sat behind the commercial rows. Livestock trading had sensibly been placed farther away.

Golden Road clerks began arranging permits and caravan spaces with Trade personnel who clearly had procedures for handling merchants larger than two wagons.

Edmund walked the square while his people unloaded. Everywhere he looked, money moved without Baron Raymond von Althoff standing nearby directing it.

Construction workers purchased bread and hot meals with their wages. A farmer negotiated future vegetable deliveries with an innkeeper while a clerk recorded the agreement. Two craftsmen argued over the price of treated leather.

A carpenter ordered hinges from a smith and complained about the delivery time. Teamsters competed for a merchant’s transport job. A tailor paid an assistant, then crossed the square to purchase dyed cloth.

At a Trade counter, a shopkeeper submitted a lease payment while another merchant renewed a permit.

Adrian watched the same transactions and said, "This isn’t just government spending."

A ruler could fake prosperity for visiting merchants by cleaning streets, filling stalls, or distributing money before their arrival. This was different because the transactions connected to one another.

Wages became purchases. Purchases became supplier income. Craftsmen hired apprentices because customers existed. Farmers negotiated future produce because businesses expected continued demand.

Teamsters earned money moving private goods. Shops paid rent because occupying commercial space generated enough revenue to justify it. Althoff was certainly spending heavily on construction, but the gold was not flowing outward and disappearing.

It was circulating, creating transactions as it moved. The supposedly bankrupt barony had somehow begun producing economic activity.

Ysabel Merrow received Golden Road on behalf of the territorial administration before Raymond joined them. Edmund immediately recognized competence.

She asked what goods they carried, what storage they required, how long they expected to remain, whether their appraisers needed access to controlled materials, and which purchasing categories interested them.

She did not behave like someone astonished that a merchant company had arrived. When Edmund mentioned Magic Beast resources, Ysabel suggested they inspect the authorized material market before discussing larger government stockpiles.

Seraphine’s attention sharpened instantly.

The beast-material yard was enough to silence Adrian. Treated hides hung from organized racks. Crates contained cleaned claws, fangs, horns, and bones separated by species and grade.

Sealed containers held preserved blood and biological materials under stricter handling rules. Private hunters brought registered kills through inspection stations while craftsmen negotiated for approved components. Seraphine moved from table to table with her crystal lens, checking preservation quality and asking specific questions.

She found several Silver Rank materials handled well enough to retain significant value and looked genuinely pleased when inspection records included species, condition, and origin.

Then Ysabel mentioned the government stockpiles recovered after the Winter Beast Tide.

Edmund expected another warehouse.

He was wrong.

The quantity stored from the battle forced even him to stop calculating for several moments. Hides filled racks beyond what the public market displayed.

Bone, horns, claws, fangs, preserved organs, and mana-bearing components occupied labeled storage sections. This was not a hunter’s collection. It was the remains of an event large enough to supply workshops and external buyers for months if released carefully.

Seraphine’s professional calm began showing cracks as she moved between preserved Silver Rank components and asked whether stock existed.

Ysabel answered that the most valuable materials were stored separately.

Seraphine stopped.

A secured section was opened only after authorization arrived. They were not shown everything. Edmund noticed that immediately. They did not need to be.

Inside a preservation container rested a single black claw.

Seraphine approached it, lifted her crystal lens, examined the surface, then looked at Ysabel with an expression Edmund had never seen from her during twenty years of appraisals.

"You said this came from a Gold Rank Beast?"