Necromancer: Kingdom Building with My Legion of Undead Knights

”Who do we hire to build?” Darion asked.

Garren leaned back in his chair.

”It works through craftsmen,” he said. ”A master mason leads the stone work, he knows how to assess what’s structurally compromised, what needs to come down completely, what can be repaired. Carpenters handle the timber. Apprentices work under both. Then laborers for the hauling and lifting, the work that doesn’t require skill but requires bodies.” He paused. ”A blacksmith sometimes gets involved if the structure needs iron reinforcement work like brackets, hinges, that sort of thing.”

”So you find a master mason first and everything else follows from him,” Darion said.

”Broadly, yes. The mason sets the scope of the work, tells you what materials you need and how many men, and manages the project from there. If he’s good, the whole thing runs without you having to supervise every detail.”

Darion nodded.

”There’s something else,” Garren said. ”A master mason willing to bring his crew to your barony, that’s not just a transaction. It means he thinks you can pay and that you’ll be a reasonable person to work for. A skilled craftsman doesn’t take projects in dying territories. They go where they’ll get paid on time and treated fairly.” He looked at Darion. ”Having a good mason agree to come to Percvale says something about Percvale.”

Darion hadn’t thought about it that way but it was correct. Skilled workers chose their clients.

A master mason wasn’t simply ”a worker.” He was a known craftsman with a reputation. The same applied to carpenters and blacksmiths. People knew which territories had good builders and which ones produced poor work.

And more importantly?

A skilled craftsman agreeing to work for a territory actually meant something politically and economically.

Because skilled people avoided dying places.

No experienced mason wanted his name attached to collapsing walls or unpaid projects in a failing Barony.

And Percvale was currently on a lot of debts. Master masons would definitely avoid working for Percvale because they would think they won’t be able to pay up. Craftsmen went where coin flowed steadily and where future work existed.

That was why they would have to he shown the coins they would he paid before the work started or even pay them.

”Does Percvale have any?” he asked.

Garren’s expression answered that before his words did.

”There were some,” he said. ”Years ago, before the worst of the decline. But when the work dried up and the money went away, craftsmen left. Same as the servants, same as the skilled trades generally. You can’t keep practicing a craft in a place where nobody has coin to pay for it.” He paused. ”Whatever remained here, they’ve been doing general labor to survive. The skills are probably still there but they haven’t been used properly in years.”

”So we look outside Percvale.”

”For the mason, yes. For general labor and some of the carpentry, probably inside. There are people here who can haul stone and swing a hammer even if they can’t plan a restoration project.”

Darion sat with the full picture for a moment.

The list was getting long. Farmland workers, seeds, livestock, fencing and pens, road repair on the eastern approach, watchtower rebuilding, wall patching, and now a master mason from outside the barony to lead the castle work. Each item had a cost attached to it and each cost was manageable on its own. Together they added up.

”We do it in stages,” he said. ”The things that affect Percvale’s capacity to function come first. Farmland workers, pens for the livestock, the watchtowers and then the road. Those directly determine what Percvale can produce and how safe it is.”

Garren nodded.

His eyes drifted briefly around the hall again.

Honestly, the place looked miserable for a Baron’s castle.

Not destroyed, just... neglected and so meh. Like something that had slowly been dying for years.

Living in a place like this felt unexciting most times.

The castle was supposed to represent Percvale itself. Show strength, authority and stability.

This place barely managed exhaustion.

Still...

The things they decided to do first mattered more than decorative halls.

A beautiful castle meant nothing if the Barony around it collapsed.

”We’ll hire workers for the castle later,” Darion said eventually. ”After we’ve handled the important parts first.”

Garren gave an approving nod.

”A functional Barony before a luxurious one,” he said.

”Exactly.”

Eventually the castle would be fixed. Because appearances mattered politically.

If neighboring rulers visited Percvale someday, he wanted them walking into a castle that looked stable and respectable, not one held together through stubbornness and luck.

He thought about how to actually find a mason though. You didn’t just wander into a neighboring territory and shout for a mason. You asked the right people.

Garren probably knew someone who knew someone, which was how most things got done in this part of the world.

He would deal with that when the time came.

First things first.

”We’ll need announcements spread throughout the Barony.”

Garren looked at him expectantly.

”Tell them Percvale is hiring.”

”What specifically?” Garren asked.

”Farmers first,” Darion said immediately. ”Experienced ones.”

Garren nodded.

”Then carpenters and laborers.”

”Stable workers too,” Darion added. ”Especially anyone experienced handling livestock.”

Wulfric would probably appreciate competent help instead of random terrified villagers trying to manage horses.

”And payment?” Garren asked.

They discussed payment and it was good. Good enough that people actually want the work. Good enough that he was actually doing them a favor, not desperation wages.

Garren seemed thoughtful for a second before nodding slowly.

”That will spread quickly.”

”It should.”

In small territories like this news traveled fast. Especially news involving coin.

When he had made the announcement for archers, he had gotten good ones almost immediately.

The moment people heard Percvale was openly hiring workers and paying properly, word would move through the villages almost immediately.

Workers who abandoned their trades years ago would definitely start picking up tools again.

For the first time in years, Percvale would actually have projects worth working on.