CHAPTER 65: PLOT OF LAND AND REJECTION OF SERVICES

A brisk morning wind lazily swept away the remnants of the night's fog from the wide, pristine streets of the Upper City. The air here smelled entirely different from the dirty, crowded alleyways of the Lower City—there was a delicate, remarkably pleasant aroma of fresh lavender, waxed wood, and expensive imported perfume hanging in the breeze. Our journey was slowly entering an entirely new phase. After a night spent in the spotlessly clean, luxurious suites of the Golden Cauldron inn, our entire crew had finally regained full strength. The high-calorie, thick beef roast that Mina had cooked with incredible dedication at dawn in the dining room had placed the energy channels of our Vessels into a state of absolute, rock-solid readiness.

We walked unhurriedly along the stone-paved avenue, heading toward the easternmost fringes of the aristocratic district. I kept my hands deep in the pockets of my black coat, radiating my usual arrogant calm that completely controlled the surrounding space. Silas was not joining us on this morning walk—according to our arrangements, the old fence had been moving through the dark alleyways of the Lower City since dawn, using the capital I had provided to quietly construct a new black-market shadow network and buy up local debt notes. It was pure efficiency of forces. He was managing the finances in the underground, while I intended to secure an unassailable operational base for us on the surface.

Walking by my side, Shnee kept her hand loosely near the hilt of her crystal rapier, her diamond eyes carefully scanning our surroundings. Karys, walking half a step behind me, lowered her head slightly, her shadow-tail gliding softly along the curbstones. Although she accepted my authority as Alpha after last night's demonstration at the gates of Crossgard, her predatory instinct still tactically analyzed every angle and every gate in this noble district. In the rear, walking shoulder to shoulder, were Elena, Luthia, little Ria, and Mina. The entire family was tight-knit, synchronized, and ready to build a new empire.

"Logically, Silas's tavern is a good spot for a black market, but our family needs its own true fortress," I spoke calmly, without taking my hands from my coat pockets. "A home that we design ourselves from the foundations up, to protect our rear and safely process materials from the deep dungeons."

"A plot right by the forest is the best solution, Dave," Luthia noted, narrowing her sharp yellow eyes. "It will provide us with a secure flank and natural cover from the prying eyes of the city guard, while remaining close to the main trade routes."

After fifteen minutes of walking, we reached the very edge of the Upper City, where the pristine stone walls of the wealthy directly bordered the wild tree line of an ancient, dense forest. My eyes immediately locked onto the ideal space. It was a massive, secluded building plot covered in lush grass and surrounded by century-old oaks. The location was simply perfect. It ensured a safe flank on the forest side, which aligned perfectly with Karys's predatory senses, while being close enough for Silas to deliver materials and gold without issue.

In a small official kiosk on the edge of the parcel sat an elderly, sleepy female city clerk, bored by the lack of business in this quiet area. I approached the counter completely on chill.

"Good morning. I would like to purchase this plot near the forest," I said in a pleasant, warm tone, sending her the charming smile of the friendliest guy under the sun.

The woman adjusted her glasses, measuring my black coat and the girls standing behind me with slight reservation.

"This plot is listed for sale, noble sir, but the land fees in this district are extraordinarily high. We require full backing in silver, and the document verification process..." the clerk began in a squeaky voice.

I had zero intention of listening to her bureaucratic complaining or waiting weeks for state stamps. With slow calm, I reached into my coat pocket, pulled out a single hard gold coin from Silas's capital, and placed the gleaming coin directly onto the oak counter with a quiet, resonant thud.

The old clerk froze mid-sentence. Her eyes widened like silver saucers, and her hand stopped dead in mid-air. The city clerk's brain suffered a massive lag in a fraction of a second. A single hard gold coin in this world was an absurd amount of wealth—a fortune that could buy an entire tenement house in provincial Oakhaven, and here it covered all perpetual land taxes and registration fees with a massive surplus.

"Are... are you certain, noble sir?" the elderly woman stammered, her squeaky voice trembling with extreme shock. "This is an... extraordinarily generous payment. This gold will cover all land taxes, perpetual fees, and registration costs for a hundred years in advance!"

"I am entirely certain," I replied with an easy smile, leaning casually against the oak counter. "I always value convenience and express service at the highest rate. Stamp that document and let us finish this quickly."

With hands shaking like jelly, she pulled a heavy brass stamp from her drawer. She slammed it down onto the document with zealous fervor, then offered a low bow, nearly touching her nose to the desk.

"The documents are fully approved! The plot is yours!" she blurted out in awe.

I scooped up the deed and slipped it into my pocket, giving her a brief nod of farewell. The first phase was closed on our own unyielding terms.

The next step was purchasing raw materials. We headed straight for the artisan harbor, where the main construction depot of the western suppliers' guild was located. The place was buzzing with activity, the noise of porters, and the creak of iron-rimmed wagon wheels. Suppliers and merchants argued loudly over stacks of timber, counting every single board.

I approached the head manager of the depot, who was boredom-counting copper coins in a dirty ledger.

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"I need the finest building materials," I began calmly, leaning comfortably against the counter. "One hundred solid oak logs, three hundred chiseled blocks of hard basalt, and fifty barrels of crystalline masonry binder. Everything must be of the highest quality and transported immediately to my new plot by the forest."

The manager looked up, sizing me up with a gaze filled with disdain and commercial coldness.

"You must be joking, boy. That volume of premium materials costs a fortune. Half of the Upper City isn't built from such supplies. The basalt alone requires a dozen heavy wagons for transport, and the guild's markup..."

I had no intention of listening to his boring calculations or arguing over markups. Once again, with absolute, arrogant calm, I pulled another hard gold coin from my coat pocket and tossed it straight onto his pile of ledgers.

The merchant froze in the exact same manner as the clerk at the land office. His pipe slipped from his mouth, and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets in awe and fear. A single hard gold coin in this world was an absurd capital that covered the cost of that entire massive shipment, the labor of porters, and express transport with a monumental surplus. It was an amount an average craftsman could live on comfortably for an entire year.

"By all the gods..." he muttered under his breath, delicately grasping the coin with two fingers as if it were made of fragile glass. "This gold... it covers the expenses with a monumental surplus! I will personally hire the strongest porters and heavy wagons in the guild! Everything will be on your plot before noon, I guarantee it on my own head!"

"I am counting on it," I stated briefly, adjusting my coat collar and turning toward the exit with complete ease.

Shnee and Karys walked right behind me, their eyes gleaming with quiet satisfaction at how easily I forced the local market into obedience. Both understood my logic perfectly. To us, hard gold from the deep dungeon floors was simply free raw material that could buy anything we needed without wasting time on useless bartering.

The manager rushed to offer subservient bows, tripping over his own chair as he barked orders at all his porters.

"Immediately, noble sir! I will personally oversee the transport! Everything will be on site before noon!" he shouted at his men, his trembling hands stashing the gold into a safe.

Half an hour later, our crew stood on the empty, grass-covered plot. As agreed, heavy construction wagons began arriving at the parcel, the steel wheels rumbling loudly alongside the shouts of the drivers. Sweating porters, terrified by my presence, quickly began unloading materials at the edge of the plot. Massive oak logs, chiseled blocks of black basalt, and heavy barrels of binder formed great geometric stacks, smelling of raw timber and damp stone.

When the last wagon drove off with a loud clatter and relative quiet settled over the clearing, a delegation unexpectedly appeared on the property.

These were officials from the local Construction Guild of Crossgard. Leading them was a burly, pompous manager wearing an overly ornate silk tunic of deep purple. Accompanying him were two armored guards with heavy halberds and an elderly, stooped master mason with a leather ledger tucked under his arm. They approached us with a confident, arrogant stride, representing the local guild monopoly.

The manager stopped before the stacks of basalt, spat ostentatiously onto the ground, and measured me with a look of pure superiority.

"Well, well, some brave little noble bought land and hauled in materials," the manager began with an arrogant smirk, resting his hands on his hips. "Listen here, kid. This is Crossgard. No construction here has the right to begin without official plan approval from our guild and payment of the guild markup. The cost of hiring our masters and masons is thirty silver coins, and any attempt at independent work on this ground will result in the immediate confiscation of these materials by the city guard and severe punishment. The construction monopoly belongs to us."

I listened to his words in absolute calm, analyzing the entire situation purely on logic.

I cupped my chin with my left hand, supporting my left elbow with my right arm, instinctively adopting my habitual analytical stance for processing problems. My sapphire eyes coldly measured the officials standing before me.

Paying these fools to spend six months building me a house with drafty walls and crooked doorframes was a complete waste of my energy and gold. I could lay these building blocks myself significantly faster and infinitely better. Their monopoly meant absolute zero to me.

I lowered my hand from my chin, adjusted the collar of my black coat, and looked at the pompous manager with casual arrogance.

"Thank you for the offer, but your construction services are entirely unnecessary to me," I replied with an easy, completely relaxed smile, keeping my hands inside my coat pockets. "Logically speaking, your tools are far too primitive for my plans. I can handle this myself in a single afternoon."

A brief, ringing silence fell over the guild delegation. The purple-clad manager narrowed his eyes furiously upon hearing my words. His hand, adorned with several heavy gold rings, clenched tightly around his leather belt. He was unaccustomed to anyone in the Upper City treating his guild authority with such total disregard and easy arrogance.

"Handle it yourself?! In a single afternoon?!" the manager roared, his face turning the shade of a ripe beet. "You sound completely out of your mind! This volume of material requires forty masons working for at least six months! Do you think you can mock the Construction Guild of Crossgard?!"

"You are misjudging my stance," I replied with an arrogant smile, keeping my hands inside my coat pockets. "Logically, your construction methods require far too many unnecessary movements and waste too much energy. I approach this process from a completely different, much more efficient angle."

The manager in the purple silk tunic turned red with fury, feeling his authority crumble to dust right before the eyes of the shocked porters who still stood at the edge of the plot.

"This is blatant rebellion!" the manager barked, pointing an accusatory finger at me. "You will break city law, and then my guards will confiscate this material and haul it to the guild's warehouses! We are returning to the town hall, and this evening we will return with a full city guard squad! We shall see how you sing before the guard's dungeons!"

The delegation turned on their heels, their purple cloaks snapping in the wind as they marched back toward the Upper City with loud huffs and promises of severe punishment.

When their footsteps completely faded on the distant cobblestones and a soothing forest quiet settled over our plot, I took a deep breath and looked at my crew.

Mina, Elena, and Luthia sat comfortably on a clean blanket they had spread across the soft grass under a spreading oak. Karys stood right nearby, her amethyst eyes gleaming with immense intrigue as she tried to logically process my words about laying those tons of material myself. Shnee snuggled closer against my shoulder, waiting with a proud smile for her Master's demonstration.

From my left ear, little Kaede slowly emerged. The spider climbed onto my epaulet, looking at the massive stacks of oak logs and black basalt with amused delight, before chirping softly in our tactical Polish code:

"Man, those builders are real fools. Looks like we've got free tickets to a Lego brick show!"

I smiled predatorily in Polish under my breath, which immediately triggered another minor lag in Karys. Everything was set for my personal display of power.