Necromancer: Kingdom Building with My Legion of Undead Knights

The next morning arrived quietly.

Sunlight filtered through the windows of the great hall. The castle was slowly waking up, and so was Percvale.

Darion and Garren sat at the great hall table eating breakfast. The meal was a simple one. They were currently discussing rebuilding efforts.

”We’ll begin construction first.”

Garren looked up.

That was the obvious thing to do. Even Garren knew it. There was no point in debating something so straightforward. Construction before livestock. Build first, buy later. It was simple logic that anyone with common sense would arrive at on their own. Garren had probably been thinking the same thing before Darion even said it out loud.

There was no point rushing to purchase dozens of animals if there was nowhere appropriate to keep them afterward. The livestock would need barns. Storage areas. Fenced sections. Places where they could be fed and managed properly. Bringing animals into Percvale now would only create unnecessary problems. Some would wander and others would get injured. Disease could spread if everything became overcrowded.

When he took livestock from Gonnb and just put them on the farmlands back then, that was because the fencing was still standing. The old pens had been functional, not perfect, but good enough to keep the animals contained. The situation now was completely different. Valdenmoor had seen to that. Everything that had been standing before was gone now. Burned, broken, or trampled into the dirt.

They couldn’t just keep animals outside with nowhere to put them now. The old fences had been destroyed during Valdenmoor’s attack, the fencing torn down, everything burned. There was nothing left to contain animals even if they bought them today.

And beyond that, animals needed proper housing. Shelter from the weather. Fencing to keep them from wandering off or getting eaten by whatever creatures prowled the forests at night. Space divided by type, cows in one area, sheep in another, pigs somewhere else so they didn’t tear up the wrong sections. Chickens needed coops. Horses needed stables.

If they bought livestock first, they would have nowhere to put them. The animals would be standing in open fields, vulnerable to predators, weather, and theft. They would wander, get lost, or destroy the farmland that Seren had worked so hard to restore.

But if they built first, if they constructed proper pens, sturdy fencing, and shelter before a single animal arrived, then when the livestock came, everything would be ready. The animals would go straight into safe, secure spaces. No chaos, no losses, and no unnecessary deaths.

Darion wasn’t an expert on livestock management, but even he understood that buying animals before preparing for them was putting the cart before the horse.

”So we build the places to put the animals first,” Darion said. ”Then we buy the animals.”

Garren nodded slowly. ”That makes sense.”

Now for the animals to buy. They had to know what animals would be on the farmlands before they started any process of buying anything. There was no point in purchasing a herd of goats if there was no space designated for goats. No point in buying cattle if the cattle pens hadn’t been built yet.

So they went through it. The goat places should be made first, goats were the easiest to start with, they bred fast and required less space. Then cattle pens, larger and sturdier because cows were bigger and stronger. Then chickens. Darion had loved chicken back on his Earth: grilled, roasted, in soups...

This world should definitely have them. He asked Garren to confirm, and Garren nodded. Yes, chickens existed. Eggs, meat, feathers for arrows: they were useful in multiple ways.

After they were done mapping out which animals needed which spaces, Darion spoke.

”Send word to the carpenters. Tell them we’re ready to start.”

Garren stood from the table. ”I’ll go now.”

---

Just as Garren left the hall, footsteps sounded on the stairs.

Seren came down, already fully dressed, not in the sleeping clothes she had worn the night before, but in practical riding gear. Boots, trousers, a sturdy jacket. Her bow was slung across her back, and she carried a quiver of arrows in one hand.

She looked ready for something.

Darion raised a hand in greeting. ”Morning.”

”Morning,” Seren replied.

She walked to the table and sat down across from him. Maret appeared from the kitchen and placed a plate in front of her, but Seren didn’t immediately eat. She looked at Darion first.

”The meeting must have been a successful one,” she said.

Darion smiled slightly. ”It was. More than I expected, actually.”

”That’s... good,” she said.

A brief silence passed between them. Then Seren picked up her bread and took a bite.

”I’m taking the archers hunting today,” she said between chews.

Darion blinked. ”Hunting?”

”Yes. We haven’t practiced on moving targets in a while. And the castle stores could use fresh meat.”

Darion thought about it. It would be good for them to get out of Percvale and into the forest. The archers had trained on stationary targets for weeks: the wall, the rooftop, the practice boards.

They had even played a part in Percvale’s wars. First with Valdenmoor’s initial attack, where the archers had shot from the walls and rooftops, picking off knights where they could. Then during the storming of Valdenmoor itself, where they had shot the fire accelerant arrows that had done the burning. They had proven themselves in combat already. They weren’t just trainees anymore. They were soldiers, real ones.

But hunting was different. Animals moved. They dodged. They disappeared into brush and trees. Hitting a deer or a boar was harder than hitting a painted circle on a wooden board.

Still, he wondered how they would cope in the forest. They were archers, not infantry. What if they faced a creature that required a quick physical attack? Something that closed distance faster than they could draw another arrow? A boar could charge. A wolf could flank. Not every threat stayed at range.

He didn’t know for sure how sharp their arrows were, or how fast they could shoot under pressure. What if the first shot missed and there wasn’t time for a second?

”Will you be going with any knights?” he asked.

Seren nodded. ”A few.”

Darion felt relief settle in his chest. That was good. Knights could handle close combat if something went wrong. Archers could shoot from a distance. Together, they covered each other’s weaknesses.

”Just stay safe,” he told her.

Seren nodded. ”I will.”

She finished her bread, stood, and adjusted the quiver on her shoulder. Then she headed for the door.

Darion watched her go.

Before Garren returned, Darion remained alone in the great hall.

The morning meeting had ended, Seren had already left to prepare for her hunting trip, and for the first time since waking up, he found himself with nothing immediate demanding his attention.

So naturally, his mind drifted back toward thinking.

Darion stared toward the ceiling.

The carpenters would be arriving soon. Construction would begin. And construction meant materials. Materials meant expenses. Expenses meant fewer coins.

His thoughts shifted toward the actual construction process.

How exactly would the carpenters get the wood they needed?

Would they simply walk into the forest, cut down trees and begin building from there?

Or would they purchase already processed lumber from somewhere else?

Darion considered the first option.

The more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed.

Cutting down trees sounded simple when someone said it aloud. In reality? It was an enormous amount of work.

Back on Earth, entire industries existed around harvesting timber.

There were chainsaws, heavy machinery, transport vehicles and teams dedicated specifically to that task.

Without all those things, the work became significantly harder.

Before modern equipment, people had relied on axes, saws and sheer manpower.

Which meant hours of chopping, hours of hauling and hours of processing.

And that was before the wood could even be used.

The tree still needed to be stripped, cut into usable sections and properly prepared.

It wasn’t something a carpenter would casually do before starting construction.

At least Darion didn’t think so.

Carpenters built things. There were probably other people whose entire profession revolved around cutting trees.

Lumbermen and Woodcutters.Something along those lines. That made far more sense. Which brought him back to the second option.

Buying prepared wood.

That was probably what would happen.

The carpenters would likely purchase timber that had already been cut and processed, then simply focus on the construction itself.

It was faster, more efficient and undoubtedly more expensive.

Darion rubbed his forehead. Hopefully not too expensive.

They had recovered three thousand gold coins from Thandor with four thousand canceled.

That amount felt enormous.

But experience had already taught him something important.

Money disappeared frighteningly fast once rebuilding started.

You spent a little here. A little there. A few purchases. A few wages. A few repairs. And suddenly hundreds of gold coins were gone.

It was almost magical. A very unpleasant kind of magic.

His thoughts continued drifting through possibilities.

How much wood would they need? How many animal pens? How large would the barns have to be?

Not long afterward, he heard footsteps approaching from outside, interrupting him from thinking.

Then the door opened. Garren had returned.