Garren entered the great hall not long afterward.
"The carpenters will be here soon, my lord," he said. "Just a few minutes."
Darion nodded and rose from his chair. "Let’s et them outside."
The two left the hall together and stepped into the castle courtyard.
The morning was already well underway.
Seren and the archers had departed earlier for their hunting trip. Darion could no longer see them anywhere around the settlent. They were probably already heading toward the forests by now, moving through the trees with bows ready, looking for deer or boar or whatever else wandered into range.
Elsewhere, the rest of Percvale was busy.
Like the knights’ barracks.
Several knights were currently training near the barracks. The sound of wooden practice swords striking each other echoed occasionally across the courtyard. So sparred in pairs while others practiced formations under the watchful eyes of more experienced knights. The clack of training weapons mixed with shouted corrections and the occasional grunt of soone who had taken a hit too hard.
Further beyond, the farmlands were already active. Farrs worked beneath the morning sun while several senior knights supervised the area. The supervision wasn’t because the farrs couldn’t be trusted. Rather, the knights helped maintain order and security while also ensuring nobody overworked themselves trying to rush the rebuilding efforts. It was a balance, push hard enough to make progress, but not so hard that people collapsed from exhaustion.
Before long, the carpenters arrived.
There were several of them, led by n who appeared to be the main craftsn. The rest looked younger and were likely assistants or laborers. They walked in a loose group, carrying tool belts and asuring sticks, their eyes scanning the castle as they approached.
Darion greeted them briefly. Paynt had already been discussed beforehand. The master carpenters would receive higher wages while additional laborers would receive sothing lower.
From what Darion rembered, he had selected twenty n for the work. Nine who identified as main builders with real structural knowledge: n who understood load-bearing walls, proper timber joins, and how to make sothing that wouldn’t collapse in the first strong wind.
The rest were laborers who could haul timber and assist where needed but lacked the deeper expertise of the masters.
The nine n were the main part, though. They were the ones who would design the structures, asure the spaces, and tell everyone else where to put things. Without them, the laborers would just be moving wood around with no direction.
Perhaps the laborers wouldn’t be enough.
Darion wasn’t sure twenty n could handle the scale of what he was aiming for and actually be quick about it.
Building pens for cattle, goats, and chickens. Building shelters and storage buildings. Fencing off large sections of farmland. That was a lot of work for twenty people. They might need to hire more n later once the initial layout was established. He would see how the first few days went before making that decision.
Now ca the important part.
Actually figuring out what needed to be built.
The group left the castle afterward and headed toward the farmlands.
Darion and Garren rode horses, escorted by two guards, while the carpenters used their feet. Darion and Garren rode very slowly to match the pace of the walking n. The horses stepped carefully, reins loose in Darion’s hands as he looked out over the fields.
As they rode, Darion looked around the surrounding terrain.
The restored fields stretched far into the distance. Seren’s work had truly transford the place. Green crops now occupied large portions of land that had once looked barren and exhausted. Where there had been pale, cracked earth just weeks ago, there were now rows of healthy plants pushing up toward the sun. The difference was almost hard to believe.
When they finally reached the farmlands, the carpenters imdiately began surveying the area. They walked in different directions, so crouching to examine the soil, others pacing out distances and muttering calculations under their breath.
Darion explained what he wanted.
"We’ll be purchasing livestock soon," he began.
The carpenters stopped what they were doing and turned to listen. Their attention shifted fully to him.
"We’ll need cattle pens. Goat pens. Chicken coops. Fencing. Storage buildings and shelters."
As he spoke, he pointed toward different sections of land. There, along the eastern edge, that’s where the cattle should go. Further south, nearer to the treeline, that was better for goats, they liked having cover nearby. Chickens could go closer to the road, sowhere accessible for collecting eggs and butchering.
The n occasionally nodded while ntally calculating asurents and materials. One of them pulled out a small notebook and began sketching, his pencil moving in short, quick strokes.
Garren added details where necessary. He knew the land better than Darion did, had walked these fields for years during Percvale’s decline. He pointed out where the old pens had been, where the drainage was better, which sections stayed dry after heavy rain.
Together, they walked across the fields while discussing layouts. Where the cattle should go. Where the goats would be placed. Where future expansion could occur. Where fencing should be constructed. The discussion continued for quite so ti, the sun seemingly climbing higher as they moved from section to section.
Eventually another question erged.
How much of the farmland should actually be dedicated to livestock?
Darion folded his arms while staring across the massive stretch of land. The farmlands were large, larger than what Percvale currently needed. The previous Barons had never fully utilized the space, and the years of decline had only made the underuse worse. But that ant they had room to work with now. They could afford to divide sections without hurting crop production.
"Half?" one of the carpenters suggested.
Garren shook his head slightly. "Too much."
Darion agreed. If they devoted half the farmland to livestock imdiately, a large portion of that space would remain empty for a long ti. Percvale wasn’t buying hundreds upon hundreds of animals overnight. They would start small, let the herds breed, and expand gradually. There was no point fencing off massive areas that would sit unused for months.
At the sa ti, making the livestock area too small would create future problems. Eventually they would expand. Eventually they would buy more cattle, more goats, more chickens. Planning only for present needs was short-sighted. They needed to think ahead, to build sothing that would still make sense a year from now.
After discussing it further, they eventually reached a decision.
"Forty percent," Darion said.
Garren nodded. "Forty percent for livestock."
"And sixty percent for crops."
The arrangent felt balanced. Food production still remained Percvale’s highest priority. Crops fed people. Crops generated trade. Crops generated taxes for the treasury. Without food, nothing else mattered, not the livestock, not the military, not the rebuilding of the castle.
At the sa ti, livestock would beco another major source of growth. Cattle provided at and milk. Goats reproduced quickly, providing a steady supply of at and milk in a shorter tifra. Chickens provided eggs, feathers for arrows, and at for the table.
Over ti, livestock would beco one of Percvale’s most valuable assets, a source of both food and inco that didn’t depend on growing seasons or weather.
Forty percent gave them enough room to expand comfortably without sacrificing too much farmland. It was a compromise that looked in both directions, backward at what Percvale had been, forward at what it could beco.
The carpenters agreed. The allocation made sense.
One of the older craftsn spent several minutes studying the area afterward before finally speaking.
"My lord."
Darion looked toward him.
The man scratched his beard thoughtfully. "If we’re building on this scale..." He paused briefly. "We’ll need significantly more timber than I originally expected."
Darion exchanged a glance with Garren.
Yup. He had been expecting sothing like this. In fact, he had even gone over sothing similar in his mind before coming here. Since he would be building sothing this large — pens, shelters, fencing, coops, storage buildings — he would be needing lots of wood. More wood than he had initially estimated when he first started planning. The scale of the project had grown as he thought through all the requirents.
The carpenter continued. "The fencing alone will require a great amount of wood." He pointed toward the sections they had designated for livestock. "Then the cattle shelters. The goat pens. The chicken coops. Storage buildings." The more he listed, the more expensive everything sounded.
One of the other carpenters spoke up. "To be honest, my lord, this is less like building a few animal pens..." He looked around the massive stretch of land. "And more like constructing an entirely new section of Percvale."
Darion absorbed that.
Even though it sounded like an exaggeration to an extent. He wasn’t wrong. What they were planning wasn’t just a handful of small structures. It was a proper livestock operation, the kind of thing a functioning barony maintained, not the improvised setup that had existed before the attack. This would take ti, resources, and careful managent.
But that was fine. Percvale had ti now.
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