Thud!

I fell down hard and remained there breathing hard.

This man didn’t know how to spar. Well, it was me, who asked him to spar with me.

It was worth it.

“Once again, I apologize, adviser. I had told you; I am not the one for sparring,” said Captain Oliver.

“As I said, it is fine, Captain. It was fun; I will be asking you to fight with me a lot,” I said to the blond-haired man, who just shook his head in defeat.

Stone had said, that this man was the most technical fighter he had ever seen. He had been impressed by the young captain and I could see why.

He is really amazing.

I stayed on the ground for a few more minutes before getting up. Every part of me hurts like hell. Captain Oliver really hit hard, any more force, and he would have broken my bones.

It was a struggle for me to not scream or grit my teeth as I walked out of the practice field.

I am the leader here and I have to maintain the dignity of it.

It was a challenge to reach my suit, but I did. The moment I did, I removed my clothes and walked into the bathroom, where I mixed a few drops of healing potion into the numbing cream.

I wanted to add more, but it is not wise to get used to the healing potion.

Even the numbing cream I used is of lower grade.

I wouldn’t have even used it, but my training sessions are intense. Far more than normal.

Even soldiers do not train as hard as I do. It is necessary, as unlike them I am not professional and couldn’t put many hours into it.

So, I try to get as much out of those few hours as possible.

I put the cream all over my body, which is another challenge in itself. I could have asked for help, I should have asked for help, but it feels uncomfortable in my prudish mind to take help for such things.

I stayed on the floor for over ten minutes before taking a shower.

“Major Jarvis,” I said as I sat across from him at the breakfast table. Every day, we would have breakfast at eight-thirty.

“Adviser, it looked like you have pushed yourself a little too hard today,” he said, looking at me from up to down.

“Yes, today was a little rough,” I replied and thanked the maid, as she served me the breakfast.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. Balance is key to the training, otherwise, you will burn out fast,” he advised, to which I nodded.

“I heard the mission was a bust yesterday,” I said, and disappointment appeared on his face. “Yes, there was no sign of bandits when my guys went there,” he replied.

“Keep searching. It would be good if we cached them, but even if didn’t, this constant raiding will keep them running and we will eventually catch them,” I said.

To which he nodded.

Soon, the breakfast finished, and I entered my office, where the first thing I did was to read the messages.

My heart was beating loudly and even fear appeared in my mind as I began to read the letter from the Count, but even after I finished, I saw no mention of yesterday’s incident.

It was all business, especially about the bids the merchants would place.

I am quite surprised. He didn’t mention or even hinted his choice. Though he had hinted, the people from construction companies have come to him.

Which is not a surprise. I already expected they would go to the Count.

I am thankful that there is no pressure from him, but also understand very well that there would be a price to pay if I failed.

A few hours passed, and the carriages began rolling into the castle.

Today is the day they will submit the bids.

“Many of them are name-dropping to meet you,” said Lola as she came back.

"Well, I am not going to meet any of them personally till the winner of the bids is decided,” I replied.

I don’t care whether they drop the name of the Count or the Prince.

“It is time,” she informed an hour later.

I nodded and got up. A minute later, I entered a room where I had met these people three days ago.

As I walked into the room, everyone looked at me with different emotions in their eyes.

From hope, and expectation to anger.

“Thank you, everyone, for coming today. I hope you all have the bids ready,” I said to all of them.

To which they nodded.

“Good, submit them,”

Immediately, they begin to place their proposal in front of them. With Lola’s instructions, the clerks begin to gather the proposals from them.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for participation in the process. I will have to winners of the bids, by tomorrow evening,” I informed and walked out.

Lola and the clerks stayed; they will inform the process in more detail.

To be honest, I would have loved to have a week or even two weeks to analyze all the bids, but I have already wasted time doing this process.

I couldn’t afford to waste any time anymore. There are less than two weeks before the end of the month when the first shipment will come from the merchant state.

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I want those merchants to see some progress when they come.

My sister, Baron Harrods, and other nobles have already started with their preparations.

Building inns, stores, and other things near the road, on their territories.

I heard the old man had taken a huge loan and formed a partnership with my sister on some business.

Which is a wise thing; he doesn’t much about business. It is better for him to learn the ropes of partnership before starting something solo.

Speaking of that, I have to sell the plots for businesses around the castle and there are already inquiries about it.

I planned to turn the area around the castle into the town. Count is in very much support of the idea; the only thing is he does not support spending the extra money on it.

Thankfully, Oksall had forced the Count to spend big on development as a condition to trade.

Some of which I plan to save from the construction fund and spend on building a proper town.

We already agreed to build things that a typical town has in our contract with the merchant-state. I will only need to add a few extra things, and a town will be ready.

I thought deeply about the contract signed with the merchant guild and there are many things there that the Count wouldn’t agree with given his nature, but he did.

I think the push to agree had come from above. I didn’t dare to voice my opinion to anyone; it didn’t concern me.

For the plot auction, I will be meeting with merchants and nobles in the coming days. The Count had agreed to let me add half of the money, got from it into the construction fund.

Though it will not be much, it will be helpful.

Half an hour later, Lola returned, bringing boxes of proposals.

We will have to study and select the winners within a little more than a day; it is a huge task.

Thankfully, there is help.

“Everyone, take a seat and pick up the proposals. We have a job to do,” I said to six clerks.

They are from the city hall and are quite good. I have worked with them before, and they have all the required skills that are needed for this job to be done well.

“Zela,” I said, and she set the huge board.

A minute later, everyone had the copies of proposal and began studying them, while Zela handled the board.

I crafted the three bids myself and asked the merchants to craft the proposals in a way I had set the conditions.

It is why there is much less non-essential clutter and more substance.

Hours passed, and evening came except for small bathroom breaks. No one had left the room, and those who left had a guard followed.

I want nothing of this room to get out, till I announced the winners of the bids.

While these people are trustworthy; I am taking precautions.

The bids involve large money and, most importantly, the exposure they will gain through it. They might try to bribe or even intimidation, to gain things in their favor.

I looked through proposal after proposal and each one of them surprised me. Telling me, how great an idea it had been to make them bid for it, instead of directly giving it to the top ones.

“Everyone take a break of an hour,” I said to all when eight rang in.

They stopped and put out the proposal's downs before walking out of my office.

After they left, I slumped back in my chair and massaged my head. It is not easy to go through all these proposals when these bastards have attached skills to them, to make them more pleasing.

“Do these people even want to earn a profit?” asked Lola, seeing the notes in front of her.

“Yes, they do, but they want exposure more. If you look clearly, the bids of small and medium firms are lower than the big firms,” I replied.

“It is unlikely they will earn any money, but it is good for us,” she said, shaking her head.

Some of them will, but as I said. Earning money isn’t their target for this bid; it is to get exposure through these contracts.

I turned back to the table and turned to things I had wanted to look at in the past few hours.

I took six square things longer than my palm and placed them in front of me. They look like wedding cards, white and in a perfect square shape.

I opened their seal; they began to open up and turned into paper models.

“Valentina had done a really good job,” I said as I looked at models of the establishment.

“These are the new changes?” asked Lola from the side. “Yes,” I said.

“They won’t be able to do these changes without keeping the establishment close for a few weeks,” she said.

“Likely a month,” I replied, looking at these models.

If it had been just breaking walls and adding some; it would have been done within a week but I am upgrading all the enchantments. Changing the whole furniture, among other things.

It will be a very expensive change.

I looked at them for a few minutes before taking out the blueprints.

I put them back after a few minutes and went to the kitchen for dinner. By the time I had returned; it was time to start again.