'Sixty mana for a twenty-minute jamming session?' Paula scoffed inside his head. 'And you even used ten of yours to create those fake electric sounds. This method's way too inefficient.'
"Yeah, well," Konrad grumbled as he walked back to his office. "But it was fun."
And he sure needed it. It has been too long.
They would have played longer, too, had Yuki-san not passed out after the third song.
But turns out—the Green Mage's little supporter was dead tired after helping everyone all day.
"Also, let's not forget," he noted, reaching Eyna's busy desk. "She must have gained sixty-or-so mana on her end, too. And the results would have been far better if there were more of us."
During their gig back in Tokyo, he recharged his entire pool and then some.
And that was in a tiny garage club. He was so nervous at the time, but—
'Your pool has been tiny back then, too,' the parallel brain pointed out.
It was Konrad's turn to scoff.
"Well, sure, but imagine if we gathered everyone in the duchy and held one big event."
"Um, we can do that," the purple-eyed beauty offered, blinking up from her work. "Though I'm assuming Master has been using telepathy with someone else again."
"Ah, yes, sorry," he muttered, grabbing a random piece of parchment. "How're you holding up?"
He saw numbers. Lots of 'em.
Trading logs? What was that bitter fruit called again?
'Lazo,' Paula offered. 'And yes, seems like it cost her three times its actual price to haul them all the way here from Cro Aisha's southern port. Now, that doesn't seem efficient, either.'
"What do you even know about logistics and trade?" Konrad grunted, but—
"S-sorry, Master." Eyna froze, looking up. "D-did I make a mistake?"
"Uh oh," he mumbled, dropping the parchment. "No, I was still talking to someone else."
And he should have stopped talking out loud when addressing his brain parasite.
But, well, old habits died hard.
'Hah. You learned telepathy like two months ago,' Paula pointed out. 'And stop calling me that. I'm all that remained of Strelok's sweet twin sister. The last surviving memories of Lady Origin.'
Ugh. Dramatic much. But that reminded him—
"Where are the others?" Konrad asked, looking around. "Are you handling all this by yourself?"
"All this?" Eyna repeated. "But these are simple logistics, Master. I should be more than enough. When it comes to diplomatic matters, Lady Gabrielle might help me out, but—"
"Logistics is never simple," he grunted, looking for a chair. "Here. Let me take a look."
She even downplayed her own work.
What he saw was so much more than logistics.
Eyna laid out the plans for next year's agricultural revitalisation, trade logs, finances—
And they had extra notes attached in her neat handwriting.
Though their content wasn't exactly nice.
"What's this 'bout the landowners' protest?" Konrad picked up one. "Did they cause you trouble?"
"Um, how do I put this?" Eyna scowled, averting her eyes. "Since our main concern is to feed your subjects, Master—I, uh. I proposed focusing on farming only grain the next year."
Hmm. Focusing on a single type of crop was risky for many reasons, but—
"And what was their protest about?" he asked first, wanting to hear it in her own words.
"I'm not sure," the girl admitted. "I've seen surveys, and the lands are fit for grain, but—they kept complaining about the rivers and the wind. Should be enough water to irrigate, though."
"Mhm," Konrad said. "And what do you do with the grain once you harvest it?"
Those big, purple eyes blinked.
"Grind it into flour, Master?"
"Yes. Where?" He pointed at the parchment. "We have exactly one old mechanical mill in Halaima. It's mule-drawn, no less. Now, do you know of others anywhere else in the duchy?"
"W-well, since we'd need much of the food in this town, anyway," she muttered.
But Konrad already figured it out.
"Grain is bulky," he said. "It costs a fortune to haul, but the price itself is low—at least when things go well. To make it worth it for them, they'd have to process it within their own fiefs."
"T-then should I offer financial help to build mills?" Eyna asked.
"Their complaints about the wind and the rivers—it means there aren't enough of them to drive those mills. We're in a basin. The mountains block the wind. And all our big rivers—"
"They all flow around the edges of your grand duchy," the girl realised. "Oh."
"Oh, indeed," Konrad smirked. "And to haul the grain there and back, it would, again, cost way too much. And mule-drawn mills need the extra animals, which also costs, so—"
Hold on. Wait.
This world might have been stuck in the medieval ages, but with his magic—
'What? You'd ride around all autumn to drive every mill with your mana?' Paula scoffed.
Fair. He couldn't make the people too dependent on his unique powers, anyway, but—
"Makes me wonder if we could build something like a steam mill, though."
"A what, Master?" Eyna scowled, but Konrad's mind was already in overdrive.
In fact, both of his were.
'Okay. Let's say you can shape the metal and build a tank that withstands the pressure. Who's gonna operate it, though? What do you use to heat the water? That's more logistical steps, and—'
"I can sort out the logistics part," Konrad grunted. "And we have plenty of forests."
Although coal would have been better, but—
Did the people of this world even discover it yet?
'You would be still better off herding animals instead,' Paula pointed out. 'And I'm not even making this up myself. I'm reading your own age-old suggestions from your memories.'
Yes. In fact, the nomads have already brought plenty of herd animals over the Halaima Pass.
They could let them graze as far as they wanted, then herd them back when needed, but—
"We still need some grain, too. And rice would be nice," Konrad argued. "If we set up four or five mills in the town's thirty-mile radius, that should be more than enough."
He needed a map.
Off the top of his head, he gave the nearby lands to the more problematic nobles.
His own fiefs were around the borders; many ran by the tribes and nomads now, but—
"There we go," he grunted, rolling out a map he drew himself. "See, here, here and there."
Three perfect spots at crossroads, near forests, and with arable lands all around.
"Who owns these areas right now?" Konrad asked, having Eyna dig through a bunch more parchments. "We should establish some lookout towers and coach stations there, anyway."
Right now, they had almost nothing outside of Halaima's town itself.
A vast, empty area with unattended lands, potential bandits, and crumbling roads.
Yeah. Even beyond sorting out next year's agriculture, he had so much more to figure out.
"That first one seems to be your own land," the girl mumbled. "It's a holdover from the reorganisation. The second one is—Stella Nord's. And the third one belongs to Count Rolalt."
Huh. What were the odds?
They were problematic for a different reason, but—
"Great. I can at least work with that."