"Right. Thank you for the suggestions and the coffee," Lara said as she stood from the couch. "I will get busy with setting up the various guilds."
She shook Orazio's hand before turning toward the door. There was no hesitation in her movements anymore, because she finally had a clear idea of what needed to be done. The moment she left the room, she was already thinking about which professions should receive guilds first and how she could organize the enormous task ahead of her.
Lara was serious about establishing as many guilds as possible. She understood that the work would be difficult, expensive, and politically complicated, but she also saw something much greater in it. If Europe survived for millions of years, then these organizations could become part of the foundation upon which future generations built their civilization.
That thought excited her more than she wanted to admit. She could imagine people millions of years in the future looking through history books and pointing toward one of the institutions she had helped establish. They might say, "See, she established that institution," and perhaps that achievement would be enough to preserve her name long after almost everything else about her life had disappeared.
There was an amusing possibility hidden inside that ambition. With trillions of humans potentially living in the distant future, Lara did not need everyone to know her name to become more famous than Caesar was in the present day. Even if Caesar's story continued to be remembered, the sheer number of people who could one day know Lara's achievements meant that her legacy could become enormous.
Of course, she understood that such a future could never be guaranteed. Europe itself might not survive that long, and humanity could face countless disasters before reaching such a distant age. Yet Lara was no longer particularly worried about Europe's ability to survive.
She had been allowed a brief glimpse behind the curtains of Europe's foundations. What she had seen was enough to give her confidence in the continent's future, even if she still did not understand everything that existed behind those curtains. For the first time in her career, she felt that she could pursue her ambitions without constantly worrying that the entire foundation beneath her would collapse.
There was another reason her legacy could survive even if individual people forgot her name. The European governments had already ordered historians to begin compiling a comprehensive history of Europe and the world. It would not be treated as some optional academic project but as a major historical record intended to preserve humanity's understanding of its own past.
The plan was for the history to be taught separately in schools. Every child would learn about the history of their continent and country, particularly the period before the arrival of the System and mana. The goal was to ensure that future generations would understand what humanity had been like before the world changed.
The governments were taking the matter so seriously that they were even working on writing the principle into their constitutions. No one would be allowed to arbitrarily alter the historical record, and the subject would have to be taught in schools across the country. Students would even be required to pass the history class before being allowed to advance to the next school year.
Europe was not alone in doing this. Lara knew that China and India were taking similar measures to preserve their histories. Most of the rest of the world was not far behind, because every major government had realized that the arrival of mana and the System had created a dividing line in human history.
With that knowledge in mind, Lara left Orazio's study with a renewed sense of purpose. She had no idea exactly how long her institutions would survive, but she intended to make them strong enough that future generations would have a reason to preserve them. For someone who had spent so many years being pushed away from meaningful positions, the opportunity was almost intoxicating.
Elsewhere, however, another group of officials was facing a much less inspiring problem.
"Jesus, these are expensive," Herman muttered as he stared at the projected cost of constructing a proving ground. His expression became increasingly grim as he continued reading through the requirements. The building was not simply expensive in the conventional sense; it required resources that were already in extremely high demand.
"Yes, they are not something we can build in massive numbers," Rian replied as he watched Herman's expression. He could hardly blame the man for looking miserable because the proposal in front of them was enormous. The military wanted multiple proving grounds, and every single one of them required an investment that made even experienced officials uncomfortable.
The first requirement alone was enough to cause problems. A proving ground required access to a mana vein. It did not necessarily have to use an entire mana vein to function, but if the military wanted the full effect of the structure, then using the entire vein was strongly recommended.
"That is ridiculous," Herman muttered as he looked over the requirements again. The military already had enormous problems securing enough resources for its existing operations. Now it was being asked to dedicate some of its most valuable magical resources to specialized training facilities.
The government and military together possessed only around fifteen mana veins that were not currently being used. Even that number was somewhat misleading, because most of those veins had only been discovered during the previous year. They were located in extremely remote areas, meaning that simply reaching them was already a major logistical challenge.
If the government wanted to make proper use of those mana veins, it would have to construct entire facilities around them. Roads, housing, supply lines, defensive structures, and everything else required to support the personnel working there would have to be established. The proving grounds themselves would therefore become the center of much larger construction projects.
Unfortunately, the mana vein was only the first problem.
"The second requirement is even worse," Rian continued. "We have to pay the System one million silver coins to write and arrange the runes needed to make the entire building function."
Herman stared at him.
"One million silver coins?" he repeated.
"Yes," Rian answered.
The number hung in the air for several seconds. Once the System had completed the magical foundation, however, the government could build almost anything it wanted on top of the prepared mana vein. The structure would then provide soldiers with a specialized environment in which they could work, train, and practice.
"Right," Herman finally said. "This is going to be a difficult one to explain."
"Yes, sir, it is," Rian admitted. "But they are needed, and it would be good for the soldiers to have those buildings available."
Rian looked back toward the projected proposal. He knew exactly how absurd the expense appeared, but he also understood why the military wanted them. The new world demanded soldiers who could train properly with mana, weapons, and the changing conditions of modern warfare.
"And as for the cost," Rian added with a wry smile, "we are already so deeply in debt. What is a little more?"
Herman gave him a tired look because, unfortunately, Rian was not wrong.
The amount of money governments were borrowing had become almost comical. The situation had become particularly difficult because every house they constructed required more than simply paying for the building itself. The governments also had to help finance entire districts around those houses.
For every house constructed, they had to spend around ten silver coins on the associated infrastructure. Roads, water systems, public facilities, transportation, defensive structures, and countless other necessities all had to be established alongside the homes.
Then there were the weapons.
The armed forces were consuming money at an unbelievable rate. New weapons, armor, ammunition, magical equipment, training facilities, transportation, and countless other necessities all demanded enormous amounts of funding.
The cavalry was certainly not helping the situation. Heavy cavalry equipment alone could consume resources that would have been enough to equip many infantry soldiers, and the military was still trying to expand its forces at the same time.
Unfortunately, Europe was not the only region experiencing this problem. Governments across the world were facing the same financial pressure. There simply was not enough conventional money circulating through the economy to cover everything that needed to be built.
That forced governments to continue borrowing.
Fortunately, there was one important difference between this debt crisis and the financial disasters of the old world. The governments were borrowing from the System itself. The System provided the loans necessary to keep the economy moving, and so far, the strategy was actually working.
The economy had begun recovering during the previous year. Production was increasing, trade was returning, and large-scale construction was finally becoming possible again. The biggest problem was no longer a lack of money alone but a lack of people capable of turning that money into actual infrastructure.
Construction companies were practically begging people to come and work for them. Every company needed as many workers as it could find, and the demand for labor was becoming one of the largest bottlenecks in the recovery.
Even with all of that money being spent, however, one million silver coins remained an enormous amount of money.
"With one million silver coins, we could build one hundred thousand houses," Herman said, staring at the proposal again. "And this plan calls for fifteen proving grounds."
Rian nodded.
That meant the System's rune fees alone would amount to fifteen million silver coins. The figure did not even include the construction materials, transportation, labor, defensive infrastructure, roads, housing, and everything else required to make the proving grounds operational.
Yet the money was not the only problem.
The mana veins themselves were extraordinarily valuable. The concentration of mana around one of these locations was roughly four times greater than the surrounding area even without additional magical structures.
With a proper magic circle established, that concentration could rise to an astonishing ten times the normal level.
"That is going to make people angry," Herman said quietly.
Rian nodded again.