Dead Tired - Volume Four - Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

I wasn’t impressed on seeing the arena and the city going up in record time. Being impressed implied that this wasn’t the expected result.

One wasn’t impressed that a baker could bake bread, or that a bricklayer could lay brick. It was what they did. An army of undead with magical support from Death Butlers and a (small) nation’s resources to rely upon should be able to build a city in a matter of days, and that’s what happened.

Still, to say that I wasn’t to say that I wasn’t happy to see a city raised by the undead.

The undead were quite good at raising, after all... hmm. No, I could make that one better. 

The new city, which was yet unnamed but I was leaning towards New Xiang because it rhymed with Yu Xiang in a way that amused me, was nearly complete.

At the moment, roving bands of undead with brooms and mops were canvasing the streets while ghosts and ghasts became just corporeal enough to rise wet rags up and into the air where they were splashed against the upper walls of the arena. 

Teams of undead horses were pulling along wagons, some filled with tools, some with detritus, and others with barrels of water for the cleaning crews.

At the same time, teams of undead decorators were hard at work putting up banners and drawing corded ropes across the streets with bright paper lanterns hanging from them. It helped bring a bit of colour to the city.

We’d mostly ended up using the local stone, pulling it up from the earth below to form giant blocks or to shape entire homes. That meant that the city, in its entirety, was a sort of pale beige-yellow. The same colour as the sandstone it was constructed on. 

The arena in the centre of the city was receiving quite a bit of attention at the moment. The statues ringing its upper levels were being polished to a mirror-sheen. They were all silver. Not because I couldn’t afford to conjure up gold, but because the silver accented the natural stonework of the building a little better, in my opinion. The banners we were hanging off the sides were helping too, of course. 

“Osteopapa,” someone said from a step behind me.

I turned and discovered Alex standing there, hands folded demurely and every pleat and bow in place. The maid was taking their job extra seriously recently. I suspect that Alex was worried about some competition from the Death Butlers that had joined us recently. 

“Yes?” I asked.

“I’m just curious. I would have thought you’d be at the library, or with the Limpet,” Alex said. “Not on this hill.”

I shrugged. We were on a short hill some ways from New Xiang. It offered an acceptable view of the new city as well as the old. The space between them was teeming with life at the moment. People were carrying things to the new city. 

“The view is acceptable,” I replied. “Are those the merchants that the Limpet has been working with?”

“Some of them,” Alex said. “She cut a deal. In exchange for some future concessions, the biggest merchants in the city will support the tournament. They get priority stall placement, access to some of the shops that were built by the arena, and the merchants under them can profit from their deals as well.”

“Therefore consolidating more of the merchants under a single banner,” I said. “Or two, as the base may be. Will she be playing them off each other?”

Alex nodded.

“Is she aware that that won’t work forever?”

“I think so, yes,” Alex replied. “For now, the Limpet is hoping that these concessions will bring in enough wealth and keep the merchants so busy that they won’t be upset if she raises taxes a little.”

“Ah, I see.”

The Limpet had lowered them as an initial move, to appease people, but gold had to flow back into the coffers eventually. It was... not a terrible strategy to slowly reverse that choice while also keeping the merchants happy.

Worse case, if they were upset in a year or two, she could re-lower them back to that point of stability. And in the meantime, new, visiting merchants might be enticed by what they saw. Yu Xiang was an older, weather-beaten city, but it was being spruced up. The New Xiang constructions were all clean and new, and while I hadn’t visited the vaunted Jade City yet, I was certain that it wasn’t nice all over like this was. 

New infrastructure, large investments from the state, non-monopolized merchant guilds and houses, and a hungry market would all look very appetizing to foreign investors. 

That was probably a good mood. The province that the Limpet had turned into her empire was far from rich in natural resources, but that didn’t mean that it had to remain poor. There were other things that might appeal.

“Has the Limpet come up with other ideas?” I asked.

Alex nodded. “One that I think daddy would like to hear.”

“Oh?”

“Schools. Since the sects have been... diminished, it might be a good idea to implement schools across the nation. One in every large city, at least.”

“At what level?” I asked.

“All of them, I think,” Alex replied. “The Limpet was doing the numbers. It’s a long-term idea, but I think it might be a good one?”

It was! “I’ll have to chat with her about it, but yes, tht is a decent idea. I ran a few empires and kingdoms in my day, and while there are some downsides, educating the population has a lot of upsides.”

“What are the downsides?” Alex asked.

“Well, if people get smarter, they start to have ideas about self-rule and silly things like ‘voting’ or ‘rights.’ Once people learn to count, they start counting how little they’re paid.”

“I think I understand,” Alex said. “It’s hard to sell candles when everyone is enlightened?”

“Oh-hoh! Good! Yes, that’s part of it. The other is that people start to strive to better themselves and their environment, which changes that environment. Sometimes when things were working just fine enough for those at the top already. There’s also the loss of inequality to think of.”

“Ah, and that’s bad when it’s unequal in your favour.”

I nodded. “Just so. Still, an educated population can work smarter, and there are advantages. You just need to find a nice middleground.”

“I’m sure the Limpet would love to discuss it more. As well as her own education?”

That last little hint was a little unsubtle, but I supposed that was fine. I had been neglecting the Limpet’s education in magical matters a little, hadn’t I? As it was, she was barely scratching the toes of even my least talented former apprentices. Most of those I had taken on when they were already showing signs of extreme talent and skill, and had a few decades of experience under their robes. The Limpet... was not that. 

Still, she wasn’t a little wizardling, she was a warlock. A whole other thing. 

“Hmm, I suppose. Let’s take care of this little tournament first. We can see about empowering the Limpet once it’s done. She has been keeping up with her personal studies?”

“With surprising diligence, considering the workload she has,” Alex said.

“Good good. Now, look over there, off to the side of New Xiang.” I gestured ahead, to a wide field off to the side of the newer city. It was some ways away from Yu Xiang, so that from that field, the city would be little more than a distant wall with only some of the taller buildings poking out above. Otherwise, someone standing on that field would mostly have their attention captured by the main thoroughfare leading right up and into New Xiang. 

“Is that field important?” Alex asked. “It seems as if it has been levelled.”

“It was, yes. Seventeen created a few undead golems to move the earth and rocks and flatten the space out. That is where the portal installation will go.”

“Not within the city?” Alex asked.

“I considered it, but realized that it may well lead us to having to rebuild parts of the city. I’m certain that some of the people coming through will be antagonistic.”

Alex bobbed their head in agreement. “The Jade Throne will likely send spies, and some cultivators who come will be displeased.”

“Exactly. So, we’re going to have sixteen gates here.”

“Sixteen?” Alex asked.

“Accoriding to the Limpet, and more importantly some of the maps I’ve perused, there are eighteen major sects across this continent and just as many major cities. Two of those are Yu Xiang and the Jade Throne itself, so there’s no need to open access to either of those.”

“I see,” Alex replied.

“And Sixteen is also just a far more pleasing number.”

“Of course.”

 “We’re going to build a hexadecagon-shaped platform from which to install the portals. And soon, we’ll start letting people in. I, for one, am looking forward to it.”

***