Lucia instantly understood the heart of the problem with just that hint and uttered. "Capital."
"Yep We're penniless," he confirmed. "The initial expansion was fast because we had merit to burn. That's drying up. If we don't figure out how to sustain growth without outside investment, we're going to stagnate right when momentum matters most."
"And we don't want outside investors…" Alice half-asked.
"Not if I can help it… In fact, I'd rather grow slowly and stay sovereign than grow fast and lose control."
Ashen looked at the three, "I hope we are on the same page…?"
"Yup."
"Yes."
"Of course."
Three nods answered back, and Ashen sighed in satisfaction.
Lucia carried over. "So the alternative is recruiting and buying talent directly." She leaned forward slightly, "Skilled people and stable settlers are your growth engine. You need to fund them yourself, which means converting merit into long-term commitments instead of short-term hires."
She lightly tapped a finger against her cheek.
"For example, we can offer land parcels and workshop rights in return for service contracts. A blacksmith gets a forge, a carpenter gets a workspace and housing materials, and a healer gets a clinic. We can make them stay in that way, since they will be invested in the territory's success because their livelihood is tied to it."
"And for general population growth," she continued, "We have to settle families. But that can be difficult for our situation, so it's better to target widows with children, especially.
"Down the line, we can even offer defense guarantees and tax holidays for the first few years. Those Family units would surely breed stable labor pools and faster population growth than individual settlers."
Ashen absorbed that. "Since we're so broke right now, you're suggesting I buy growth with land and time instead."
"Yes. Land you have. Time you can afford if you structure the contracts correctly. Points… you don't."
Seraphine raised her hand, "I have something for the revenue side."
He gestured for her to speak.
"Monster hunting." She revealed with such confidence that it made Ashen suddenly remember that their resident bundle of joy was, in fact, a businesswoman. "Right now, your soldiers hunt when they need to, but it's disorganized. You're losing efficiency and taking unnecessary casualties because they're going in without intelligence."
She leaned forward, her hands coming together on the table.
"How about we hire a dedicated group of hunters. Let's not target your best soldiers… but the underperforming ones… "
Ashen tilted his head, while the other two focused on her.
"We fund them properly, giving them specialized traps, bait, poisons… whatever they need to perform better and return safely. We can also map the monster lairs and their hunting patterns… and place that information directly into their hands."
"...Pay them a salary and let them keep a share of their kills," she continued. "After the initial expenditure, their hunts will be stable, and the revenue from that will be ours."
Ashen nodded, impressed, "Nice catch. That was a blind spot. Thanks for reminding me, Sera. I will implement it in the coming days."
But she just wagged her manicured finger in response, "That's not the main point, mister. Hehe."
With a teasing smile, she explained, "We have a group of previously underperforming hunters suddenly working with fewer casualties and more efficiency… doing the same work as their betters with safer conditions…"
"How do you think those more experienced hunters will feel?"
"Oh." Ashen tapped his forehead for missing something so obvious.
Alice nodded with a smile, "They'll think it's unfair."
Lucia continued, "... and eventually, they'll demand the same conditions."
"Yep!" Sera smiled mischievously at Ashen's way, "All you have to do then, is extend the same offer, maybe be a bit more generous, but!" She exclaimed.
"Either way, by the end of it, the entire hunting sector will fall under your command… and it will grant our treasury the breath of life it so desperately needs."
Alice was already nodding. "Timber, furs, hides, alchemical herbs, processed monster parts if they have value in Seravelle markets."
"Exactly." Seraphine's expression brightened. "And eventually, you open a secure trade gate. Charge tolls. Run an escorted caravan schedule. Turn the territory into a waypoint instead of a dead end."
Lucia looked at Seraphine for a moment, then nodded with visible approval. "That works. It also works well with the reputation angle."
She turned back to Ashen.
"Your war-hero status is currency. If you make this place even remotely stable, I will convert that into a recruitment narrative that sustains itself. 'The Count protects and provides.' Families will cling to that, laborers will swallow it whole, and they will start coming to you instead of you having to go find them. The fact that the human territories are already saturated will also work in our favor."
"Which brings us to the core problem," Alice said.
Everyone looked at her.
She gestured at the map, specifically at the sections marked with troop concentrations. "You have twenty thousand soldiers. You can't maintain wages for all of them indefinitely, and you can't keep them all as active military without bleeding resources you need for infrastructure."
Ashen said nothing, allowing them to keep the reins of the meeting.
"You have already done partial demobilization," Alice said. "But you can't stop halfway."
She looked at him, "How about we offer land-for-service deals. A plot of land, a small house, along with a tax exemption for a set number of years in exchange for transitioning from soldier to farmer-slash-militiaman. Of course, they will still train and respond to threats, but their primary function becomes agricultural, and their wages come from the plot of land or house that you granted them."
She leaned back slightly.
"Of course, it's better to keep your rapid-response corps as a mobile garrison. And a town guard for day-to-day security, while demobilizing the rest into landholders."
She faintly smiled, but her eyes danced with a thousand calculations, "...That's not all. By giving away land, you not only settle the problem of maintaining your army for the next five years at least, but you also give them a sense of belonging".
She tapped lightly on his territory's position on the map. "They will go from soldiers executing orders to men valiantly defending their homes."
"And… that's another dimension of commitment." Her gaze lifted to him, "I will even venture to say, if a threat comes our way, you won't even have to speak a word before you realise they have already raised arms by themselves."
"..."
"..."
The man and his little harem held a few seconds of silence, appreciating that every idea seemed to have at least three layers underneath it.
Lucia eventually took over. "That solves the wage problem and the population stability problem simultaneously. Families settle faster around established landholders."
Seraphine looked between all of them, then at Ashen. "Hehe… we're turning soldiers into farmers, hunters into professionals, and reputation into immigration policy. Tsk tsk…"
"Essentially," Ashen said. Inwardly, though, a nonsensical thought found its way to his head, 'Is this how the emperors of old felt when their ministers were overly competent? Why do I suddenly feel like a secondary character even though I'm supposed to be the man of the house?'
He looked at the three of them…. Lucia to his left, Alice to his right, Seraphine beside Lucia… and suddenly felt that having overly competent lovers wasn't all sunshine and rainbows!
'It seems that I have to pick up some slack myself, or I would be really usurped! What a tragedy… '
The three women looked at him, shaking their heads with an obviously fake sorrowful look, then looked back at each other.
'He is having another silly thought, isn't he?' Alice's gaze seemed to convey.
'A 100%'
'Unfortunately…'
Lucia and Seraphine's peculiar looks answered in turn…
"Alright!"
Clap—
Ashen wiped away the funny face and continued with a laugh.
"Lucia, I'll need you to start identifying families and skilled laborers from the inner walls who'd be willing to relocate. Prioritize people who won't cause any trouble."
"Already compiling a list," she said.
"Seraphine, I'll leave working with the garrison officers on identifying soldiers with tracking and beast-lore skills. I want a hunter corps operational within two weeks."
"I can do that."
"Alice, draw up the demobilization framework. I want to see the land-for-service contract structure and the projected cost before I announce anything to the men. Also, I want a blueprint for the design of our future fief… Make a plan that we can extend upon later."
"I'll have it ready in three days."
He paused, then added, "Thank you. All of you."
Lucia's expression didn't change, but her gaze softened. "You say that like we're doing you a favor."
"Right.. It's not a favor. This is yours, too… After all, you're all my little wives."
""Hmph!"" A couple of cute snorts rang out, but there was no denying the statement.
Alice stretched in her chair, with a lazy, satisfied motion. "...Besides, watching you try to build a functioning state from scratch is excellent entertainment~"
"I'm so glad I can provide that for you," Ashen said dryly.
"You're welcome." She smiled at him, a smile she used when she was trying to be deliberately insufferable.
Seraphine laughed at that. "I think it's fun. It's like we're playing house, except the house is a whole territory and there are monsters."
"That is a deeply concerning way to describe statecraft," Lucia observed.
"We aren't half bad at it despite that," Alice added.
Seraphine beamed, making the two usually cool women follow with smiles of their own… and seeing how lovely his ladies were being, of course, Ashen's lips drifted upwards in turn.
And just like that, the four of them shared smiles… smiles that grew increasingly devilish the longer one dared to look
Thankfully, the edges of the dreamscape began to quietly unravel around them before the wholesome moment was blemished any further.
The white walls faded first. The pillars followed. The sun dimmed through the cloud gaps, and the table started losing definition.
The last thing to fade were the letters above the four chairs.
Ἁγνεία. Φθόνος. Πορνεία. ἀκηδία
⛧ ⛧ ⛧