17^th of the eighth month of 1836

Exactly a year had passed since I first made paper. Since then I had accomplished much. I had made a paper manufactory near the forest village and employed thirty men to collect bark and thirty women to pulp and create the paper. The men and women were both grateful to have opportunities to work and earn an income as the small village has to get by in selling firewood and pelts to the town and passing merchants, there was little development and job opportunities. Each employee had to sign a nondisclosure contract and were paid 100 rias, double of what a normal day wage for a labourer is. Despite the daily expense of 6,000 rias the manufactory pumps out close to 1,000 papers a day, each selling for half the price of parchment at 1,000 rias. This lower cost and higher quality has made merchants come in droves. This had the unintended effect of inciting bandits to come and prey on the roads leading out of the barony. To deal with this father has the knights continuously patrol the roads and escort the merchants.

Along with my newfound wealth I also gained interest from several of the nobility that wanted to seek a political marriage. I knew this from father bringing it up but I managed to convince his to wait until I was 15 and my fame and wealth had grown and was known all around the kingdom, that way I would have options from higher ranking court officials. In my heart though I didn’t want to marry but as I cannot go against father the only thing, I could do was pretend to agree and convince him to not have me married yet, but that did not stop the marriage requests.

My wealth didn’t go unused sitting in the family treasury as I had contacted several merchant companies and bought 100 labour slaves and a small mountain of tools, grain and limestone. I first had the labour slaves who were mostly male beast-kin build public latrines for the town and houses for themselves before I directed them to build an orderly expansion to the town with wide streets, pavements and buildings with first floors that could double as a shop or restaurant and the second floors holding the space and rooms needed to for a small family to live. Ordinarily in this world creating a single house would take a month depending on the size but I had something others didn’t, concrete and modern building techniques. After designing the structure for a two-story house I got the labour slaves split into five groups to build copies in along the streets laid out, creating the residential district and marketplace.

They had started working in spring and five months had passed, their progress was swift as I utilised what the Asians did, condense manpower and equipment to complete a project than have them scattered doing several. So far they had progressed well with half of the buildings completed and the residential area expected to be completed by winter. For now though they were taking a break from houses to build a large two story school and library. The library will be empty when it is completed but, in the meantime,, I am writing textbooks on math, biology and basic science. I plan on adding legal studies in the near future but first I will need to reinvent the laws from Australia in my past life.

I plan to educate the townspeople and villagers once winter begins as the people of this world spend the winter indoors creating crafts to sell once winter ends. I will need to buy carriages to transport the villagers to the town to learn at the school as walking in winter was not enticing and would discourage many form taking part. Once the school is finished being built, I will hire several literate scholars and have them teach and write up an education system for the subjects.

After the residential district is built, I will focus on the infrastructure, industrial district, statehouse and courthouse. After all that I have renovate the village houses and build walls around the town and a military training ground/ star fortress.

A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts, ‘’come in’’ I said. ‘’Master, a merchant is here to see you’’ Alina reported, opening the door and bowing. She was definitely healthier and happier than when she had first arrived. Though she wasn’t very expressive she did seem to have recovered from her trauma by a bit with the life in her eyes showing.

Getting up from my desk I walked out of my room and reached the drawing room where the guest waited. I did have several contracts with merchants and companies to import limestone, tools and metals, so I didn’t know who I’d be facing. Walking in I saw the familiar face of a prominent merchant I had contracted.

‘’Good evening lord I am here to fulfil the contract for transportation of migrants’’ the merchant said, standing up from the couch. ‘’Yes, how much have you brought this month’’ I inquired eagerly. I needed a large increase in population and a strong labour force to finish the projects in a timely manner, I also needed skilled professional in metal work, tailoring and woodwork. Buying slaves was out of the question as buying bulk in slaves would increase their demand and more raids would occur as a result. The one hundred that I bought was due to an immediate need for a workforce to construct the new buildings. I did of course employ some of the local townspeople and treat the slaves with respect and ensure that they had proper living conditions.

‘’My lord I have brought over 284 people to settle in your territory, 14 are blacksmiths, 36 are tailors, 23 are woodworkers and the rest are farmers or unskilled labourers’’. ‘’Good, will you get paid in paper or rias’’ I asked smiling. The merchant thought for a few seconds ‘’I would like to be paid half in rias and the other in paper’’. ‘’That can be arranged, Alina, can you go and collect the payment, about … 500,000 rias and 500 sheets of paper’’ I said after doing a mental calculation. Whilst waiting for Alina to bring the payment me and the merchant had an idle chat about rumours circulating. Apparently after the king’s crown prince fell bedridden due to an illness that couldn’t be cure with magic his other children are hosting several balls and are having an active social life, or in other words making connections to be the next ruler.

Alina came back with the money and a box of papers in her arms. Paying the merchant for his help in inviting and transporting migrants to my territory I bid him farewell and went out into the town to organise and settle the new inhabitants who had arrived via a conga line of merchant carriages. I preceded to give each family a house and a small sum of money to get by until the industrial sector was up and running. For the time being though many were settled in the plains as farmers or a select few in the paper manufactory at the forest village while the rest were employed either as  construction workers or as trainees to the skilled workers with the exception of the blacksmiths which will have to wait until the smithies were built.