It took a while for Ash to hunt down the appropriate city officials and file the necessary paperwork to begin the renovations he would be in charge of. Since he wasn't the first in line for the throne, nor was he the one currently in charge of the city, things had always been rather difficult for him. However, now that he wasn't officially affiliated with Red Wood City anymore, things were even more complicated.
It wasn't exactly uncommon for weaker beasts to try and plan a revolt or otherwise make things difficult when they knew they had no chance of succeeding the throne. When you considered that he had become a citizen of a different city, he looked even more suspicious. So, he had to fill out tablets detailing what he planned to do and why then wait for it to officially be signed off on by the king, his father, and the crown prince, his brother.
Ash couldn't help but find the whole process rather tedious and almost insulting because, if it were up to him, he'd skip this whole thing and go straight home. The only problem was that he had signed a tablet with Iris and sworn before the beast deity that he would hold up his side of the bargain. While not specifically stated, his intentions to renovate Red Wood City using the knowledge the temporary workers would gain from it had been pretty clear. Top it all off with the promises he had made to the workers when they signed their own contracts with him and he was in pretty dangerous territory.
The Beast Deity certainly didn't treat oaths as black and white, but more as a gray area. If one made an oath with specific intentions in mind, even if not explicitly stated at the time, the Beast Deity might still expect it to be carried through with. However, it wasn't like the Beast Deity was merciless either. If one did their best to carry through with their promises and ended up failing, they were often spared their life. Still, that did put Ash in a bind as he now needed to try and carry through with his original plans without the resources he originally had.
The biggest thing was that Ash needed to help the males get jobs in Red Wood City. He didn't really have any political power to do that anymore, but he certainly had other alternatives. That was where his original goals of building stone brick roads, areas for cooking, farmland, etc. would come into play. If he had work that needed to be done and got the work approved then he would be able to choose who to hire for said work.
Ash was even grateful for the fact that, this time, he wouldn't have to use his own money to pay for the work to be completed. Since he wasn't part of Red Wood City anymore, it put his father and brother in a bind. If he had to pay for the construction of everything then it would only be right to consider it, at least partially, his property. That wasn't ideal, though, so they would end up having to pay for things out of the taxes collected in the city or from the funds they had been hoarding all this time. That meant he was free from the burden of worrying about paying the workers!
There were a lot of projects that needed to be completed before Ash could go home, but he was entirely unwilling to spend more than the hot season in Red Wood City. All of the progress he made here no longer mattered to him at all. If he was working to improve Blue Springs City then he could, at least, reassure himself that he was doing so for Iris. Here, it took all that he had just to force himself to get the work done.
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He now had several "blueprints" drawn out for the work he wanted completed. They were nothing like the ones that Hazel used, but, then again, they weren't magical blueprints granted by the Beast Deity either. They were just rough sketches that he had drawn up himself. Today he was going to be leading a few workers to chop down and clear an area in the forest so that they could create some proper farmland.
Much like the farmland in Blue Spring City, it would have valleys for water to travel through and rest in without drowning the crops. He would even ensure the valleys were reinforced with small stones left over from creating stone bricks for projects elsewhere in the city. Then scarecrows would be created and territory would be marked along the outskirts to keep wild animals away. A well would have to be prepared, though, as the closest river wasn't in a suitable location to connect it to the farmland.
Well, Ash already knew that this farmland was going to be far more difficult to manage than the farmland in Blue Spring City was. Even if his mate was willing to sell the specialty seeds they had, his father was likely to be unwilling to spend his coins on such a thing. More than likely, he would have to formulate a plan where the Golden Tradesmen would manage the farmland on behalf of the city. They'd purchase some more normal seeds from their city and then pay workers to manage the farmland. After that, they would get to keep all of the crops which resulted in the stipulation that the crops had to be sold to the people within Red Wood City.
It was similar to the way that Iris did things in their own city, but Ash knew that this would be far less efficient. The workers would be paid far less, have to work far harder for far longer, and then they'd have to pay a small fortune for the same amount of food that someone might get for a single crystal in Blue Springs City. Ash didn't really care about the efficiency since it wouldn't affect him directly. It just seemed like a shame to put in so much work just to make things slightly better for those living in the city his family resided in.
More than likely, his own family would just purchase the plants that the Golden Tradesmen picked up from their city rather than depending on the crops that were grown from this farmland anyway. As it was, his sister and mother frequently bought such goods, not caring how hard their mates had to work in order to afford such luxuries. So, Ash didn't really have any motivation to work hard for their sake. Their mates could continue to work hard to attend to their needs, just as he would for Iris.
The next week, Ash had a different project to work on. The farmland was completed being set up and he didn't have to watch over the area quite as carefully. He could just put some of the males with experience in farming in charge of leading the others who would work there on a daily basis. The Golden Tradesmen had been happy to take the job of managing the farmland off his hands for the long term after his father had shown a lack of interest, just as he had suspected he would. It was really a shame since there was plenty of profit to be made, even with the longer growing and harvest cycles.