After listening to the complaints from the others about the food served in the mess hall for a few minutes, I finally decided that the day had gone on long enough and I headed to bed. Of course, being in a large open room did not provide a whole lot of privacy and when the others didn’t immediately go to bed as well, I had a hard time relaxing. Let’s just say it took me awhile to fall asleep. Patrick had worked out some sort of watch schedule in my absence but he didn’t tell me that I had to take a watch, and I didn’t ask, so I had a whole night’s sleep for once.

Of course, I didn’t get a chance to sleep in. We were in a barracks surrounded by a military force and one tradition that had obviously carried over to this world was that training started early. To get some air flowing through the room we had left the windows open the night before and that was a mistake. As soon as the sun rose, I awoke to the sound of people drilling outside singing marching songs. I really hoped that we would have a place of our own before nightfall. I really didn’t want to spend another night in the barracks. After realizing that there was no way I was going to fall back asleep, I got up and started to get cleaned up for the day. Helvia must have had the last watch for the night because she was already awake. I silently waved at her and she waved back. Some of the others were still asleep. I thought they could probably sleep through an earthquake if it came to it.

By the time I made it back out from the bathing facilities, everyone was up and around. That was good because a short time later Barinov and Breban came strutting through the door in clean uniforms looking well rested.

“We’ll take a boat for the first part of the journey,” Barinov said. That sounded good to me because I really didn’t want to waste several hours plodding back through the city.

“Get cleaned up,” I yelled at the others. “We are leaving shortly.” They all scurried to comply, some with more grumbling than others.

It took longer than I wanted to for everyone to get ready and I started to get a little antsy. Barinov didn’t seem to mind, though. After everyone was finally ready to go, we departed. But of course we didn’t head to the boat immediately. Instead we were escorted to a large mess hall. We weren’t the only ones using it, but there was a large table that had been reserved for us. As went went through the food line, I thought that the complaints from the night before may have been warranted. The two main food groups on offer were starches and greasy meat. I am not certain, but I think I may have eaten mashed turnips with several links of some sort of fatty sausage. At least the starch was somewhat turnip like. The only discernible seasoning was salt and it was applied quite liberally. I was going to be so very thirsty later.

After we choked down our meals, Barinov led us back out to the front of the building and then deeper into the complex. We passed parade grounds with units marching around aimlessly, a section of crafters of all types, and a whole lot of massive stone buildings. I marveled at the size of the complex because I would have never guessed it was so big from its unassuming front. We probably walked for twenty minutes until I finally caught sight of the river. This base had a set of private, well guarded, docks. Barinov headed directly to a nondescript river barge and we all boarded. Without any command from him, lines were cast off and we started wallowing gracelessly down the river.

I had to admit, this was better than walking. I stood near the side of the barge and watched the city slide by. First, we passed several industrial neighborhoods but soon we were passing one of the largest open air markets that I had ever seen. A teeming throng of people infested the area. Off to one side, I could see a smaller area where the fishermen who harvested the bounty of the river sold their catch. Soon, my view of the market was lost as we were swept farther downstream by the relentless current. Next up was a fancy neighborhood of some sort, with houses lining the riverbanks on tall brick foundations. After that, more modest neighborhoods started to appear. Before long, we had left the entirety of the city behind us, outlying slums included, and we were out into the countryside.

We only floated a few more minutes down river when I noticed an arched stone bridge up ahead. Near the base of the bridge, there were a couple of small docks, one of which was clearly our destination. The barge crew was well practiced as they brought us in to the dock gently and lashed the barge to it. Once everything was secure, we disembarked. Barinov was nothing if not meticulous in his planning. He led us up a series of steps to the roadway above and we were met by a pair of large wagons pulled by four horses each. He ushered us onto the wagons and we set out across the bridge to the opposite bank. After only a few minutes of travel, we intersected a path headed back upriver. We followed the path, which wound its way slightly inland, until we came upon a gate in a low stone fence. There were four guards at the gate, but obviously recognizing Barinov they quickly opened the gate for us. Then it was several more minutes of travel up a poorly maintained cobblestone driveway. Up ahead was a copse of trees and when we made our way through them the house revealed itself in all of its glory.

Alright, glory may be overselling things a little bit. It looked like it, too, could use quite a few repairs. The structure must have been quite grand at one time. It was actually more an estate than a house. A two story central area was flanked by two single story wings that ran perpendicular to the central area, creating a very overgrown garden area framed by building on three sides. All total, I thought we were looking at at least ten thousand square feet of space, and maybe more. It was at least five times bigger than the house we had built near Greynard.

“This is for us?” I asked Barinov.

“Yes,’ he replied. “Obviously, it is in need of quite a bit of repair. But given the gold that you pulled off the island and the number of people you have with you, you should be able to get it livable in a very short time.”

“Will this property be deeded to us?” I said.

“It will,” he answered. “In addition to the main house there is quite a bit of acreage. I think it will be perfect for your business endeavors. There is also a large stone barn around the other side that you can use to perfect your inventions.”

“Wow,” I exclaimed, “this is a lot more than I was expecting.”

“If you can deliver us to that base on the island,” he said, “you will have more than paid for this place. Training people costs time and money and having a defensible position will save people’s lives. And therefore, it will save many times the worth of this place not having to train replacements for lost troops.”

I will say this for Barinov. He was clearly a pragmatist.

“Shall we talk about my proposed investment?” Breban said.

“Certainly,” I responded. “How much would you like to invest? Also, we have some gold that we still need to liquidate. Can you help us with that?”

“Oh, turning the gold into currency won’t be a problem,” he said. “After all, we can just sell it to the mint. I was thinking about an initial investment of five thousand gold. How does that sound?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“That sounds great to me,” I said. “We can always use more money. What sort of return on investment will we owe you?”

“I was thinking ten percent interest a year until I am paid back in full,” he replied. “Notice, however, that I said initial investment. Once you have products ready to go to market, I would like to be your exclusive distributor. My family has many trade connections throughout the settled lands. We can make certain that your products spread all over the world in short order.”

“Well, since I have no idea how to start a trade empire, I think that sort of partnership is definitely advantageous to us. We need to talk about markup, though. I don’t want to manufacture a bunch of stuff and just scrape by financially. The idea is to get wealthy and secure at the same time.”

“Our standard markup is thirty five percent,” he said. “We will take care of all taxes and duties from that amount.”

“How much are taxes?” I asked.

“Generally around five percent of the value of the item,” he replied.

“So, in the end, we get sixty five percent of the value, you get thirty, and another five goes to the governments involved? And we don’t have to pay for distribution? Sir, you have yourself a deal.”

“Great,” he replied. “I will get the paperwork over to you sometime before you leave.”

Paperwork. Why did there always have to be paperwork? That made me miss Greynard more than a little. There, your word was your bond.

By this point, we had reached the overgrown garden area and were forced to approach the house on foot. We walked up a small flight of steps to a wide veranda. Barinov approached the double front doors and opened one of them. The hinges could stand to be oiled because the door ground open with a tortured scream. Then, we entered the house into a large open entryway. Twin curved staircases led to the floor above. I was surprised to note that the furnishings from the former owners remained, covered by tarps. There was obviously a rodent infestation in the house because I saw droppings all over the place. I walked over to what looked like a low divan and lifted the tarp. Like the house, the furniture had seen better days but since repair usually cost less than replacement I had no room to complain.

We toured the place. Off to one side of the entry, there was a large ballroom of some sort with an entryway into an industrial sized kitchen. There were bedrooms galore. An entire section of one wing was set aside for servant’s quarters. A library finished in warm woods occupied the other side of the entryway. Although there were books still in the room, the roof had obviously leaked at some point and some of them were damaged. A variety of small sitting rooms dotted the place. In one wing, there was a large bathing area with plunge pools and an apparatus to heat the water. There was also a less formal dining room. The place had actual plumbing, although it was a fairly primitive system – clay pipes lined with lead. Knowing about the dangers of heavy metal poisoning, I didn’t think we would be using it for much more than our waste until the pipes had been replaced with something a little less hazardous. All in all, it was just what I would expect a house that had belonged to minor nobility to look like.

Some of the others looked a little crestfallen at the condition of the place. “Don’t worry,” I told them. “We will have this house cleaned up and livable in short order. Well, at least you will because Aleyda and I have to go on a mission soon.” That elicited more than a few groans.

“I see a lot of potential here,” Helvia said. “Getting everything the way we want it will take some time and quite a bit of money, but when we are done we will have something that we can be proud of.”

I walked over to Werner. “All of this plumbing needs to be replaced,” I said.

“Do you think so?” he replied. “Or maybe we could all just start having seizures and lose quite a bit of our intelligence.”

Good old Werner. Never change, buddy. Never change.

“Do you think you can get this fixed up?” I asked.

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “I am an engineer.”

“I know you are,” I said. “Which is why I am talking to you instead of Patrick or someone else.”

“Alright,” I announced loudly. “We need to get a couple of rooms livable for tonight and then we will go from there. Everyone, go explore and find us some cleaning equipment. If there isn’t any, I will need to head back into town.”

Thankfully, there was some cleaning equipment that was near at hand. It was nothing fancy, just mops and brooms, scrub buckets and lye soap. But there was more than enough to go around.

“Patrick and Helvia,” I said. “Can you two take stocks of the furnishings and triage it? Try to find what we can use right now, what we can repair, and mark the rest for disposal. We can burn it or something. I need to go back into town and see about getting us some supplies.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Barinov said. “I had several crates of foodstuffs delivered yesterday. I don’t want to be a poor host.”

“Jahhaf,” I said, “can you check out the food, Hopefully the mice or rats or whatever haven’t eaten it all.”

“Are you satisfied with this house?” Barinov asked.

“Very,” I said. “I think that once we get things cleaned up, we will be able to live very comfortably. Thanks for all your help. I am not just saying that, I truly mean it.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” he replied. “I will get plenty of value from your service.”

“Of that, I have no doubt,” I said.

Aleyda wandered over to me. “James,” she said. “You really do take a girl to all of the nicest places.”

I reached out and hugged her because, for once, she was not saying it ironically. Then, I grabbed a broom and she grabbed a mop and we started the laborious process of cleaning. I didn’t notice when Barinov and Breban left but I was certain I would be seeing a whole lot more of both of them.

We didn’t manage to clean too many rooms that day, but we did get the kitchen clean, the small dining room and three or four rooms to sleep in. We would have to bunk together for another couple of nights, but that was alright. As Helvia said, this place had a ton of potential. We just needed to put in the effort to realize it.

That night, I sat lost in thought. I considered the many things that I had experienced since I had reached this world. I thought a lot about trust and how I had often extended it when I shouldn’t have and the rewards that I had received when I offered that trust wisely. I thought we had a good thing going here. My people were free. We had quite a bit of wealth. I liked Barinov and Breban was starting to grow on me. I had no doubt that there would be more times of struggle and strife because that was life. But life was also spending time with people you care about and who care about you. Life was about building things together. And finally, I had to admit to myself that life was not having all the answers all of the time. No matter how much I though, no matter how much effort I put into planning, there would always be something that I couldn’t account for and I needed to learn to live with that uncertainty.

Aleyda let me brood in silence for awhile, but eventually she must have decided enough was enough. She walked over to me and reached out her hand, pulling me to my feet, and making me rejoin the others. When we approached them, I realized that everyone seemed happy, and I basked in their happiness. We laughed together, joked together, and planned together until my eyes started getting heavy.

Then, Aleyda led me to bed, and I spent the night wrapped in the loving embrace of her strong arms.