CHAPTER 271: CITY PLANNING

Dinner quickly devolved into plans to upgrade the village, and hastily scrawled potential city maps.

The open area between the village and the Manor was turning out to be their greatest asset, as it gave them the perfect place to put the new housing, while still being attractive to the occupants.

Living on the outskirts of town was nice, if you had a large family and enough money to support a staff to take care of a large compound.

But for most of the residents, especially the ones who were coming to work in other shops, it was better to have smaller units available, and in an area that could be said to be relatively safe.

Putting those houses in between the Manor and the Sheriff’s Office was perfect as far as safety was concerned.

Plus, it gave them the opportunity to make the new housing resistant to invasion.

All they had to do was to turn the buildings to face each other, with an end building turning the area into a dead-end street.

But there was an issue with that as well, and Dominic noticed it immediately.

"Streets like this in the city are the most dangerous areas to be. The criminal elements will move in and monitor the entrance, knowing that those who come in have no other way out.

Not just for outsiders, but it can be incredibly dangerous for the locals as well, and it might lead to problems that we’re just not ready to deal with." He noted.

Alexis looked at her proposed map in dismay.

From a military standpoint, it was brilliant. As long as you were the defenders.

But trying to clear the area if it became overrun with gang activity? A pure nightmare. The area wasn’t just a trap, it was a shooting gallery.

"Alright, that might not be the best. But what if we left both ends open? Then the side streets would be residential facing each other, and from the main road, the first floors of the buildings could all be used as shops, with residential above them, which enters from the back?" She suggested.

Dominic and Julio both nodded.

"That works for me. Normally, I would suggest putting the shops up about three metres, with no basement windows on the main street side. But this village isn’t expecting much horse traffic, is it?" Julio suggested.

Alexis laughed. The man was utterly practical. Moving the main floor up, and having windowless basements, or low walls between the basement entrance and the street, was standard design for older cities with many horses.

The dung tended to pile up, and gave the main roads a rather distinct odour.

However, that issue had long since been solved in the more advanced cities.

Even in most of the villages in Cygnia, they limited the places that you could take a horse so that the cleanup was relatively easy.

Which reminded Dominic, he would have to have someone make a street sweeper at some point. Wistover had originally just had a mage come through with magic and push it all into a compost pile for the farmers to gather fertilizer from.

However, he hadn’t found a spell gem of any sort in the village, so the technique was likely lost.

Once dinner finished, Dominic and Alexis retired to the Library for the evening.

The Princess was in the middle of a romance novel, and Dominic needed to work on his spell book a little more. He was getting close to advancing it again, and while it took a lot of work to get to every level, even one or two more would make such a large difference to the speed with which he could do infrastructure projects that it would definitely be worth it.

An hour after they curled up together on one of the sofas, Alexis tilted her head back to look at him.

"Do you think that we are going to see more attacks by mages and monsters right away?"

Dominic wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her forehead.

"I can almost guarantee it. But we’ve got people looking into where these last ones might have come from, and we will have a defence force soon enough.

Having monsters attacking the village isn’t optimal. But it is also a chance to stock up on monster cores for the future city guard force.

They’re going to need spell gems once we have a real force and not just a militia, and that means they’ll need to level them up, and the officers will need a bit of a boost." He replied.

Alexis slumped down against his chest. "You know, I had thought that they had given up on that. But now that we’ve found one, I’m wondering if there are more still hiding in the region.

There are no other people around to have reported them, so there could actually be a significant force still hiding in the wilderness of the Stansia Province."

The Princess slapped at Dominic’s hand as it wandered a bit too high up her belly, but Dominic was mostly lost in thought.

"I will speak to the General and have him change the training to make a town guard immediately and not just a militia. We might not have many who can take up the position, but we have a lot of soldiers.

If nothing else, I can at least arm the Duchy well enough that scattered groups like the one that we encountered won’t become a major threat.

However, it might be best to report this to the King.

If these mages are still affiliated with Dagos, or Prince Kaizon, he will want to know."

Alexis nodded.

"I will inform them in the next message. I don’t expect any sort of reinforcements for at least a few months, but we might get a shipment of military supplies at the very least." She agreed.

"That would go a long way. I will leave the details to you, you’re better versed than I am in all things military anyhow." Dominic agreed with a teasing smile.

"And you love me for it. Now, enough deep talk, it’s time for bed, husband."