Darion figured that she had probably guessed they took coins from Valdenmoor.

She had seen the knights returning with heavy bags strapped across the horses during the ride back into Percvale. Even if nobody explained it directly, it wasn’t difficult to put things together after watching an entire kingdom get raided in a single morning.

"I paid your mother," Darion said. "One thousand silver coins instead of the seven hundred we originally agreed on."

Seren nodded once.

She didn’t look especially surprised by it. If anything, she looked like she had expected Darion to do something like that after seeing the outcome of the battle.

Without Vera’s compounds, the attack on Valdenmoor would’ve failed completely.

Darion looked at Seren for a moment and then realized something.

They had never actually agreed on a price for her own work.

When he first brought her from Gonnb, he had only promised that she would be paid well for helping Percvale’s farmland recover. That had been it.

No fixed number and no contract.

And somehow, even now, after everything that had happened, they still hadn’t properly discussed payment.

He found that mildly ridiculous.

Especially considering how important she had become to Percvale.

The farmland restoration alone would’ve been worth a significant amount already. Then there was the archery training and the role she had played during the Valdenmoor attack itself.

She had become valuable far beyond what he originally expected.

Still, he wasn’t worried about the payment discussion.

Once the farmland restoration was complete and he had fully seen the final results of her work, they would settle on an amount properly.

And he intended to pay her well.

Percvale could finally afford that now.

The thought made him glance at her again.

Standing beside him near the castle entrance, Seren looked calmer than she had when she first arrived in Percvale and less guarded. Back then she had looked ready to leave at any moment.

Now she looked like someone who had slowly gotten used to staying.

Which made Darion realize something else.

Her time here was limited.

Once the farmland work was finished, Seren was free to leave whenever she wanted.

The agreement between them would be fulfilled.

And if that happened, Percvale would lose more than just a Soilsinger.

She would also leave behind her position as head of the archers.

The ten archers listened to her naturally now. They had improved quickly under her guidance too. Losing her would leave a noticeable gap in Percvale’s military structure, especially after seeing how effective trained archers could be during the Valdenmoor assault.

Darion frowned slightly at the thought.

He hadn’t really considered the possibility seriously before now.

Somehow he had just... assumed Seren would continue being around.

But there was no actual reason for that assumption.

Once the farmland restoration was complete and she received payment, she had no obligation to stay in Percvale anymore...

——

Darion and Garren sat in the great hall later that morning with an almost completely empty table between them.

The emptiness itself was the problem.

Percvale had run out of food.

The final portions had been eaten earlier that morning after the return from Valdenmoor. The remaining dried meat, the last preserved grain, even the hard bread reserves they had been stretching carefully... all gone.

The attack preparations had consumed most of it.

Sixty people preparing for a military operation needed food, especially one that involved marching through the night, attacking before dawn and returning the next day.

The knights had eaten heavily before departure because fighting on an empty stomach was a stupid idea.

It wasn’t exactly stupid.

Sure, technically they could have rationed the food better before leaving for Valdenmoor. They could have eaten lightly, enough to fight properly without exhausting Percvale’s remaining supplies in one night.

And realistically? They still probably would’ve won.

But that hadn’t been the point.

The heavy meal before the march had been intentional and deliberate.

Darion himself had ordered it.

He had told Maret to cook everything. The remaining meat, and a large part of the stored food. He had wanted the knights fed properly before the attack.

Because there had been a very real possibility that many of them would not come back alive.

Darion remembered the atmosphere that night now that he thought about it.

The smell of cooked meat filling the castle halls.

Knights eating heavily for probably the first time in weeks.

People talking louder than usual.

Nervous and at the same time excited. Even Darion had been nervous too in a way.

Sixty people marching against over two thousand trained soldiers was not a normal military operation.

It was the kind of thing people usually died attempting.

Darion had known that too, even with Vera’s compounds, his undeads and planning, he would still lose men.

It was normally impossible to head into a war and retain all of your men alive when the war was over. .

One mistake and Percvale’s remaining military force could’ve disappeared in a single morning.

So he had decided something simple.

If they were potentially walking toward death, then they would at least do it after eating well.

No starving knight of Percvale would go into what might be his final battle with an empty stomach.

And seven of them actually had died.

Compared to the scale of Valdenmoor’s losses, it was unbelievably small.

But those seven still mattered. They had names and faces.

People who had followed him into something completely insane because they trusted him enough to believe it might somehow work.

At least they hadn’t died hungry.

Then the return trip consumed the rest of the food remaining.

Now there was nothing left.

Darion leaned back slightly in his chair.

Honestly, the timing was almost funny.

Percvale had twenty thousand gold coins sitting in secured storage and absolutely nothing to eat for lunch.

Well he had already dealt with the immediate problem.

Earlier that morning he had sent two senior knights with several horses toward a nearby settlement to purchase food supplies. Grain, salted meat, vegetables if available, literally anything edible in reasonable quantity.

He specifically avoided sending them far from Percvale.

Valdenmoor technically shouldn’t be a threat anymore after what happened to them, but Darion wasn’t willing to assume absolute safety yet.

There could be road thieves too, like what had happened with Gonbb. His men could be attacked.

Sending important personnel too far from the Barony right now felt reckless.

The nearby settlement would be enough temporarily.

Once the knights returned, Percvale could stabilize its food situation again while they figured out long-term plans.

The great hall was quiet now.

Wulfric was outside dealing with the horses, which now took considerably more work than before thanks to the Valdenmoor additions overcrowding the stable.

This reminded him again that he needed to employ more servants

Seren was somewhere outside with the archers.

Maret and Aldra were somewhere inside the castle, though Darion honestly had no idea where exactly.

That left only him and Garren in the hall.

Which meant it was finally time for actual planning.

Not battle planning but Kingdom planning.

Kingdom building!

Darion rested his arms lightly against the table as he looked across at Garren.

This was technically what rulers were supposed to do, wasn’t it?

Sit around discussing logistics and economics and rebuilding strategies while other people handled the physical labor.

Back on Earth he would’ve found that incredibly boring. Now it was weirdly satisfying.

And even so because now Percvale finally had something worth planning around.

They had resources, money, horses and lands.

Actual possibilities.

A month ago every conversation about Percvale’s future had basically sounded like two men trying to calculate how long a corpse could survive before fully realizing it was dead.

Now?

Now they were discussing expansion and reconstruction.

Darion exhaled quietly.

The strange thing was that Garren had become his only real advisor without either of them intentionally deciding that would happen.

In a properly functioning Barony there would’ve been multiple advisors. Military advisors. Financial advisors. Agricultural advisors. Administrative officials. Probably old nobles standing around pretending to be useful while giving conflicting opinions about everything.

A ruler would’ve had multiple perspectives to choose from.

Different recommendations, different strategies. And different political angles.

Darion had Garren.

That was it. And somehow... It worked.

The older knight was smart. He wasn’t scholarly smart like some court strategist surrounded by books and maps all day, but practical smart. The kind of intelligence built through surviving years of Percvale collapsing around him without giving up.

Most of their major planning discussions had happened together from the beginning.

The farmland restoration.. the knight patrol structure... the undead deployment strategies... the handling of Gonnb... the Valdenmoor operation.

Although admittedly, the Valdenmoor attack had expanded beyond just him and Garren. That plan had involved multiple people contributing useful ideas.

The senior knights had helped refine the military structure.

Seren had contributed the archery logistics and positioning.

Vera had practically transformed the entire operation with her compounds.

Darion tapped lightly against the wooden table once as he organized his thoughts.

There were too many things needing attention now.

Farmland reconstruction. Castle repairs. Livestock purchases. Debt management. Military expansion. Trade recovery. Population stability.

Housing repairs.

And underneath all of it sat the largest long-term issue.

The debts.

Valdenmoor’s portion was gone now thanks to Aldric’s oath, but Percvale still owed an enormous amount elsewhere.

Darion had been thinking about that constantly since seeing the treasury count.

Twenty thousand coins sounded massive until compared against thirty six thousand in total debt.

Then suddenly it sounded much smaller.

He couldn’t afford another Valdenmoor situation either.

That pressure had turned into war because Aldric wanted repayment immediately and Percvale physically couldn’t provide it at the time.

Darion needed to know exactly who the remaining creditors were before deciding anything else.

Which kingdoms were patient?

Which ones were dangerous?

Which ones might demand immediate payment the moment they heard Percvale suddenly had money again?

He looked directly at Garren.

"Let’s start with the debts," Darion said.

Garren nodded once immediately.

Darion folded his hands loosely.

"Which exact kingdoms are we currently owing now?" he asked.