n

n

n

"Yuck, everything so dirty,

" Sitra said with disgust as she ran her finger through the brick wall of the first building she entered.

"Are you really not bothered by this, guys?

" she asked while turning her head back to the rest of the group.

n

"Stop it,

" Layn said without even looking at the girl.

"You are well aware that all those buildings were constructed in a hurry and just to satisfy the basic protection needs,

" he pointed out before looking at Irea to his side.

"You did a great job at expanding the camp,

" he patted his girl on the head before turning his head around and looking every member of the party in the eyes.

"You all did a great job,

" he praised the group.

nBefore Layn went away, the camp consisted of measly two buildings. A shared lodging for the first pioneers and a kitchen area. And while the kitchen remained the most complicated building with its heat exchange system, the brick-burning plant wasn't that far off from being far more impressive.

nBut the main point of the comparison wasn't in the production plant but in the scale of the entire place. What used to be a field filled with tents through the day and just two buildings in the night turned into a proper settlement with a single house only required to house two people at once.

n

"Still, this won't do,

" Sitra didn't show even a single hint of remorse after being schooled but fell into a deep thought instead.

"Now I know that the absolute priority will lay in bringing qualified personnel,

" she suddenly announced.

n

"Wouldn't that be quite hard?

" Layn asked, surprised by the notion. 'If I were to just roughly guess... Slavians should be somewhere in either late medieval or early modern level of development. Unless it's the latter, it might be nearly impossible to amass the numbers that I would like to have here,' Layn thought, not even daring to attempt calculating the exact required numbers.

n

"Dealing with the guild might be a pain in the ass, but as long as we get the King on our side, it should be a breeze,

" Sitra replied, casually dropping a valuable piece of information. While others could consider this to be an innocent slip of a tongue, Layn knew better than that.

n'It seems she is slowly starting to open up... Or rather, consider my group as allies, rather than just people to use and then trample on,' Layn thought, keenly observing every last twitch on Sitra's face.

n

"Can I make a request?

" Layn asked, raising his eyes with a poorly hidden hope brimming in them.

n

"Do you want some whores or what?

" Sitra replied with a question on her own, instantly raising her guard.

n

"That could come handy, but not yet and not just like that,

" Layn shook his head before taking a glance at the rest of the group. While he was talking with Sitra, they already distributed the houses between themselves, leaving the most modern one to Layn and Irea while ceding two others to Sitra and her bodyguards.

"What I need are people with actual experience with managing the town. Only they will notice the problems with my plans with a single glance, as they are used to dealing with problems like that.

"

n

"City planners?

" Sitra asked in a half-assed voice, speaking to herself rather than actually posing the question.

"I'm not sure what you meant by that, but I can get any amount of governors and economs. Ever since our borders started burning, we lost a fair number of cities and villages to the enemy,

" Sitra said, gently biting on her lips.

n'Early modern period then,' Layn decided when noticing this small expression.

nFor people in the medieval and alike periods, the notion of patriotism didn't exist. The entire country structure was created just for the strong to exploit the weak in exchange for protection from other strong people. The creation of countries, duchies, and even cities was all dictated by this simple social hierarchy.

nAnd in such a world, even the highest class at the very top of the entire country would lack the notion of love for said country. Not because they were some coldblooded and calculative people. While this part of living at the top had its weight, the crux of the problem laid in something far simpler.

nWith how the country was nothing more but an organized structure of influences and profits, they lacked the awareness that the country and the nation could be something greater. Sure, they valued their own culture and pride, but if anyone were to ask a random person on the street where do they belong to, they would reply with the name of the village, city, or maybe a province, but never a country itself.

n'Since she has the national sentiments, as can be clearly seen in how distressed she was by mentioning her country's losses, there is no way for the Slavians to be still in the high medieval period,' Layn bit his lips as he concluded the analysis of this simple detail.

nA simple detail that changed a lot with how he viewed the other party.

n

"That's great, but there is a question in this suggestion,

" Layn added while raising his eyebrow, clearly anticipating the girl to figure out what he meant on her own.

n

"How quickly can I bring them here, right?

" Sitra guessed before resting her back against the wall of Layn's new house.

"If I get all the horses, then I should be able to return on my own within a week. If you draw me the plans, I can get them to the guild's office and request immediate help, but bringing a mass of people here...

" Sitra shook her head.

"This is not something that can be achieved with fast horses and carriages,

" she said before raising her eyes at Layn's face.

n

"I understand. If I were to guess, about a month?

" he asked while looking up at the bright sky.

n

"More or less,

" Sitra nodded her head before moving away from the house and then even further before turning around and taxing the entire settlement with her gaze.

"It would be a pity to build a place only to tear it down a year later. Give me the plans. I will depart right away,

" Sitra announced after a moment of thought.

n

"I knew you would say this,

" Layn smiled before pulling out a small piece of rolled-up paper from underneath his clothes.

nWhile passing by the plans he redrawn from the carving in the ground on one of few pieces of portable writing material, Layn could appear as someone who was true to his words... But that wasn't the case at all.

n'That went way easier than I anticipated,' he thought, barely able to hold back his excitement. 'It's strange that she didn't ask for some concessions right away,' he thought before shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head. 'No, I bet she didn't want the construction work to stall because of some mistakes neither of us could notice in that plan of mine.'

nWith everything set and decided, the two of them parted ways. Yet, by the time Layn finished cleaning up the interior of his house, he heard knocking on the doors made up from the few wooden planks his people fished out of the lake.

n

"Come in,

" Layn threw towards the door, too focused on moving a small broom around and dusting the insides to move from his spot.

n

"Layn, those Slavians are departing!

" Irea came in and shouted right from the threshold, making Layn lose his focus. As a result, the broom that hovered over the ground as it scraped its surface fell to the ground with a loud bang.

n

"Thanks for telling me,

" Layn shook his head to get rid of the remaining thoughts about magic before turning around and leaving the house. He was cleaning it in the first place so that once Irea would return from the kitchen, she would be able to rest in a place cleaned out to a degree.

n

"Here to see me off?

" Sitra asked jokingly from her saddle when she noticed the archmage walking towards her.

n

"Yes. Did I surprise you?

" Layn replied in a similar manner, gracing the girl with a genuine smile. 'Even if this is all just part of her own plan, it doesn't change the fact that she will be of great help,' Layn thought to rationalize his kind attitude towards the girl.

n

"Not at all,

" Sitra shook her head as she gathered the reins in her hand.

"I will make sure to return as quickly as possible... But there is a chance I won't return alone,

" she said as she averted her eyes, clearly hesitant whether to tackle this topic or not.

n

"I will understand unless you start dumping your prisoners and slaves on us,

" Layn replied while resting his arm on Irea's shoulders. 'While it's not a problem to be nice to her, I can't let Irea have any wrong ideas,' he thought to himself.

n

"I will do my best to pick suitable people...

" Sitra hesitated once again before shaking her head and looking Layn directly in the eyes.

"No. I will do my best, but I hope you will be able to deal with them,

" she said sternly.

n

"I will see what I can do,

" Layn smiled in response while crafting yet another scheme deep in his thoughts.

"But before you go, I want you to remember one thing,

" Layn suddenly said just as Sitra was about to hurry her horse and begin her journey back to Slavian lands.

n

"What's it?

" she asked, troubled to regain her balance after being disturbed right as she was about to do something.

n

"Once you return, you will teach me your magic.

"

n