The high quarter belonged to the seat because the people who had once owned the buildings there no longer possessed any legal claim. The evidence for that existed in Lewin’s seized documents, Wulfric’s testimony dragged out between broken ribs in the dungeon, the financial records taken from the warehouse district.

The oligarchic class had either run when the network collapsed or now sat imprisoned beneath the citadel. Every property had reverted through forfeit.

The reason to place a garrison company in the empty buildings afterward had been a practical answer to an immediate problem. Soldiers in a district were better than nobody in a district, and over time, the temporary decision had hardened into the present situation.

The buildings were in good condition. That much Beorn owed to the oligarchic class, who required luxury to represent status. In these buildings, the ironwork had been cleaned recently, the roofs remained solid, and the rooms had been designed for merchant dinners rather than three families packed into single quarters.

Beorn turned from the map.

"I have been thinking of two plans for the high quarter."

He mused it over his mind first before starting, "One would be to assimilate it to the surrounding residential district. These are the best housing buildings in the city, and converting them into multi-family blocks of apartments would reduce the pressure in the residential district and permit us to funnel the refugee influx into proper habitation. The structures are already habitable, so most of the work would be to reform them."

Heinrich had put down his quill when the discussion changed topics. He waited without interrupting.

Beorn continued without a break, "The other one would be a commercial hub. We convert the central plaza to Ashmark’s primary market, and the surrounding buildings become merchant establishments, a registry office, the administrative structure formal trade requires."

He tapped the map once.

"The location is by far the best for a commercial center in Ashmark."

He then stopped and watched Heinrich consider it.

The old steward didn’t reply immediately. He let the idea firm in his thoughts, only offering an opinion when he was sure of his position.

Eventually, he spoke in an invested tone.

"The residential option uses the location without benefiting from it."

Heinrich continued. "I’m not familiar with this blocks of apartment concept, but I imagine they could be created in the residential district with the same effect on density. The high quarter’s elevation and visibility contribute nothing essential to housing that another building would not also provide."

He flattened a hand against the desk. "Additionally, the construction effort is already distributed across concurrent projects. Adding a major conversion project would disperse the crews inefficiently."

He reached for the second stack and pulled free the revenue ledger. "There is also the financial question. As you are aware, the city revenue and taxation are still negligible, and the administration and military has only added more expenses. The only reason we are not on risk of bankrupt is due the large influx of seized assets and marks from the oligarchic class."

He rested the ledger on the desk.

"Yet these funds are limited. They will run out in few couple months at this rate."

Beorn looked at the ledger without opening it. He knew the numbers already. He had been doing daily adjustments to their expenses ever since the army expansion and industrial program began running side by side.

Investments required money before they showed returns. The marsh would yield crops eventually. The industrial district would produce surplus eventually. He would spent months paying for eventually.

"The commercial hub then. Revenue is the urgent issue."

Heinrich gave a single nod.

"We will convert the plaza to a market," Beorn continued, returning to the map.

He placed a finger on the center of the high quarter, on the plaza where the militia had fought during the city wide conflict. The space was large to support the commercial flow.

Heinrich studied the map.

He considered the buildings near the plaza and on the high quarter itself. "These can be adapted cleanly for registry functions, merchant establishments, and standards administration. The primary construction requirement is reforming the plaza."

"In this case, I have an idea in mind."

The idea arrived attached to a workable design. Columns spaced along the plaza’s open sides. A roof carried by columns instead of walls. Enough clearance for loaded carts and dense crowds to move through without restriction.

A Roman solution to the problem of large covered public space, with stone columns and timber roof span providing open sides for light and air, shelter overhead against weather.

He measured the structure against the plaza from memory and started to explain.

Heinrich considered the engineering implications. By then he knew about cement, and how it facilitated construction. It wouldn’t require much to set up the columns, and they would stand out from the rest of the district even from further into the city.

Beorn kept studying the high quarter section of the map when one more idea formed.

That concept had come from Roman architecture. He had reached the idea through the design of the plaza and his memory of that building tradition.

But Roman tradition had not only built markets and civic halls. They had built everything. Roads. Bridges. Fortifications. Standardized encampments.

Roman doctrine had treated the soldier as an engineer by default, soldiers trained for construction alongside combat.

Beorn had a considerably amount of soldiers in the city with only garrison duty.

"One more matter, the companies in the city."

He thought through the idea while speaking, testing it as he formed the words. "I will expand their training to include basic construction technique. If every company carries construction competency, basic road laying, fortification work, foundation work, then an army turns into an mobile workforce."

He looked toward Heinrich.

"Every company will have two functions, military and construction."

Heinrich looked at him, confronted by something entirely outside his training.

In every type of government he knew, civil work belonged to civilians and military work belonged to soldiers. The separation had not been debated into existence, it simply existed. He searched for an objection and found none, mostly because he possessed no concept that created one.

"I’m afraid that falls outside my area, expertise." he cautiously informed.

"I’ll arrange it with Godric," Beorn waved the concern away.

His thoughts were already moving into implementation. A baseline training requirement absorbed into every company alongside combat drill.

Construction fundamentals. Road preparation. Basic fortification. Standardized enough that tools could be issued without creating a new logistics burden.

The outcome was straightforward. The companies beyond Ashmark’s walls would carry two responsibilities. To project the seat’s authority across the territory, and construction of the physical infrastructure that would make that authority outlast their presence.

A company on a road that could also improve the road created more value than one that merely safeguarded it.

Beorn wrote two notes in the ledger and let the matter rest for later.

Then his attention returned across the map, toward the western side, where the commercial district had failed to develop and was now deteriorating under refugee pressure.

He considered it for a moment.

The high quarter conversion had created an answer. The commercial district lost the purpose it had already failed to achieve. An entire section of the city without function, drifting towards a transformation into another part of the city slums.

He kept the problem in place, waiting for a solution that did not yet exist.