Santa Roberto was in a battered state after the encounter with Nora. Without the priests and nuns to look after it, most of the structure became dusty and covered in cobwebs.
It also had a huge hole near the entrance, which Siderius had dug out with his explosives to get into Santa Roberto in the first place.
Overall, Santa Roberto was still a very respectable castle but it needed a lot of care to return to its former glory.
After Siderius adjusted the management plan, he gave it to George and let him pass it to the people. A few messengers went out to inform the 'residents'. A bulletin board and an office were also quickly constructed to register the residents and assign tasks to them.
Residents were their new name. Siderius had deliberately removed the word 'commoner' or 'peasant'. He wanted to build loyalty within his people. He wasn't a rich noble nor the most powerful one. So to achieve that, Siderius had to use some tricks that the usual noble wouldn't do.
It took a few days for George and Roland to register everyone.
The result was as Siderius expected. Most of the residents fell into the Agriculture and Extraction Groups. A few were able to join the Military. Only two people amongst the residents joined the Artisans.
One came from the miners with a little skill in making and fixing shoes. He became a cobbler.
One came from the helpers with experience in butchering, so he had become a butcher.
There were a lot of professions left that needed to be filled up. But those needed more time to deal with. What Siderius cared about was to make sure every resident had a job or a place that they could be useful at.
As for fixing the castle, Siderius did it himself. He had the skill and means to redesign the castle and fix any parts. He didn't do everything himself however.
Siderius only made the required materials then commanded a group of builders to fix the castle.
It took three more days for Siderius to block the hole at the entrance and also fixed any remaining issues with the main castle.
On the afternoon of the seventh day, Siderius didn't see Ashe anywhere so he went around to look for her. She found a small room at the top of the castle to look at the scenery below.
When Siderius entered, the door let out a loud creak and echoed in the room. Ashe turned back to see her master with no surprise at all on her expression.
"Master..."
"How are you doing, my apprentice?" Siderius said.
"I'm fine, Master... I think so."
"Why the long face then?"
"It's nothing, Master. It's just..."
"Do not be afraid. You can tell me."
"Yes, Master. It feels like I'm returning to my clan. All the people rushing back and forth to do their job. The large castle. The solemn atmosphere.
It just felt incredibly familiar."
Siderius nodded. "It should be. After all, this place and your clan are both an organization. And in an organization, people have jobs to do and purposes to fulfill."
"I understand."
"How have you been training lately?"
"Not good, Master. I haven't got enough time to focus on training. I need to go around and make sure Santa Roberto is operating correctly."
Siderius nodded. "Your organization can be very useful. It can help you achieve things you can never do alone.
But never be distracted by it, my apprentice. The final and most important thing to us witch hunters is power. Nothing more and nothing less.
I only constructed a new monastery because it will help me get stronger in the future. You can only count on your own strength."
"Yes, Master." Ashe nodded. "I am once again pulled out of the fog by you."
"Come. Follow me. I need your help around Santa Roberto."
With the food that Siderius acquired from Germort, he was able to secure ration for the castle for half a month. After that, he would have to spend his own coins to feed the residents.
Luckily, Siderius had quite a lot of coins to do that. He was able to snatch a coin cart with thousands of bronze coins when he rescued Henry and Roland. They spent quite a lot of time counting everything and were able to know the exact number in the end.
6,542 bronze coins. That was the equivalent of 6 Gold Coins, 5 Silver Coins, and 42 Bronze Coins.
Siderius also acquired a little bit of wealth from Germort. He only had a few hundred silver coins.
231 silver coins. That was the equivalent of 2 Gold Coins, and 31 silver coins. A little bit less than the coin cart.
Siderius also had his own personal savings. Most of it was the reward from helping Jude in dealing with the Phantom. He had a total of 5 Gold Coins, 12 Silver Coins, and 50 Bronze Coins.
In total, Siderius had 13 Gold Coins, 43 Silver Coins, and 92 Bronze Coins.
The thousands of bronze coins were being kept inside the vault of the monastery and only George had the key. Siderius added the bronze coins he had to the vault as well and only kept the big gold and silver coins. Bronze coins were the main currency for food, water, and basic necessity. They were better with Santa Roberto to help regulate the wealth.
So in reality, Siderius kept only 7 Gold Coins, and 12 Silver Coins.
This amount should be more than enough to keep Santa Roberto operated for at least two years. With his personal savings, the monastery could operate for another two. After that, Siderius would be as poor as the day he transmigrated to this world. Siderius had no intention to run his pocket dry like that.
He needed the castle to sustain itself and when it did, the flourishing state began. Once they could take care of themselves, they would be able to produce more. These products would be bought by Siderius at an acceptable price, much better than any other lords, than traded them for more coins.
That was the plan but the execution would have a lot of unexpected issues.
The most glaring problem was the death of Germort. Siderius needed to deal with that if he wanted to become a real noble in Eldoria. He needed that title.
A good title could be very useful. It would legalize a lot of things that Siderius wanted to do.
But that wasn't his problem at the moment because whoever the executioner was, they didn't arrive at Mucktown yet. Kraus had left some spies behind to keep an eye on Mucktown. If there was some witch who arrived there, Siderius would know immediately.
Once the status of the castle was stabilized, Siderius repurposed an empty room inside the castle into a training room. He also used Mercury to make another set of weight equipment for Strength practices.
The previous pieces of equipment had been left at the Underground Hideout.
Siderius' Strength increased two points in a week. He could feel that the potency of the tonic was still effective toward him. For the next few weeks, Siderius would focus on building as much strength as possible before the tonic became completely useless to him.
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