Chapter 80: Chapter 80: Planning for the Future

“What do you suggest we do then? I am ruling out selling to Burn Merchant Company, it is just not a good idea to be reckless when it comes to trading with him.” Braydon was unequivocal about this, he had felt that Duke Burn was weird when he had not demanded any great sacrifice for trading through his faction’s ports and cities and did not want to deal with him again all too soon.

“It would not do us any good if we were to straight out reject them without hearing their offer. We don’t want to drop all pretences with one of the most powerful men in the Kingdom if we don't have to.” Nela stopped Braydon before he decided to do something rash. Just because he didn’t like the man did not mean that he would never have to deal with him in the future. The only people that they could be sure they would not have to deal with in future were those that were already dead, and even then that was not a hard and fast rule.

“Then we should send word to all of them and ask what their offers are? How should we do that, in person meetings or by letter?” Braydon asked, merchant companies were slightly different from independent merchants, they hired more people so there was usually someone with authority around to speak with. If it had been independent merchants, the only way would be by letter, meeting in person with several of them was just not practical when they were often off on long journeys.

“Since the mine is no longer a secret and there are now troops to protect it, we can invite them here to inspect it. If they see the scale of the mine for themselves, they should be more likely to offer favourable terms. And if they don’t we can just go to someone else, it is not like we are in desperate need for their money.” Nela made a good suggestion, especially if they could get the three groups to come around the same time. Getting the negotiations over with all at once, was preferable to waiting for letters to go back and forth.

“Then I will write letters to the three groups after we finish here. Now that that is decided on, let's move onto something that the good Father here is more interested in. Where should we build this school? After all, if we are turning Midbury into a town it would not hurt to build it there, but Mapjess has infrastructure already in place. Or it could be somewhere else if you want, so which do you think would be better?” There were several advantages and disadvantages to building the school in either town, or there was the more unorthodox idea of putting it outside of a population centre.

“Most of your subjects are in Kirton, but the troops spend more time in Cliforge. So on that front, it doesn't really matter but there are other things to consider, like if we want to stop news of this from spreading outside or if it is not a problem.” Colin chipped in with some useful information to think about when  thinking about the decision.

“Once we start educating normal subjects, it will not be long before word of this school reaches outside ears, so it is probably not worth putting much effort into covering it up. And Father Odom has the consent of Cardinal Allmon to be here so we are not breaking any rules by having him here. Even still, it might be good to have it in Midbury to encourage the town to grow. If the merchants get word of it, they might start travelling to Midbury to try and sell to the students of the school. And with the town getting walls and a garrison, they will be more at ease going there.” Nela was thinking way more steps ahead than Braydon had been thinking when he had asked where to put the school. Doing that would solve problems that Braydon had not even started to consider yet, that was if it worked out the way they hoped it would.

“What about you, Father? Do you have any preference on where we put the school?” Braydon asked Father Odom’s opinion, being the person who would be spending the most time of anyone at the school it would be a good idea to get his input on the matter.

“Well, it doesn’t bother me if I am in either town. I haven't been to either to form an opinion but will have a look  around both. I am led to believe I will be staying in Mapjess for the next while?” Father Odom made a good point, how could he have  a preference when he had only been in the territory for less than a day at this point?

“Yes, there are more amenities there and there are a number of servants there who can serve you whilst you look around. Most of the servants in the castle already have jobs that they cannot be removed from easily, but the ones over there just have to clean and deal with Rhydian, my knight, when he stays in the town. Steven, we should probably start training more servants, can you put out news that we are recruiting servants to serve in my properties?” When Braydon thought about it, there were going to be more people working for him eventually and they were going to run thin on servants at some point. It would be better to train them early than to have none when they were needed. That had already happened once when Nela first arrived.

“Yes, Sire.” Steven nodded his head before leaving to get that sorted out. If anyone, Steven and the butler in Mapjess were the ones with the best knowledge on what to do about the servants that Braydon employed.

“Then, nominally the school is going to be in Midbury, but that is subject to change for the next month or so at least. We will probably be able to hire some people from Wathamalin to build it at the same time that we are building the walls of Midbury. Is there anything else that we need to deal with that we can get done now, or do we need to wait for Rhydian to return for that?” Most of the decisions made meant that Braydon would have to spend the next several hours writing letters, which he did not look forward to. He was just glad that Nela’s ‘spartan training’ had made him much better at writing letters and in much less time.