Trive and August were relaxing in their carriages which were heading to Town Mith from Krin City, the Viscount's capital. Under the Viscount's orders, August would 'oversee' the reconstruction of the Barony.

This was just an excuse. August was essentially visiting the Barony on a holiday. However, Trive effectively obtained a powerful army to guard his Barony. The relatively large procession of carriages almost seemed like a caravan. However, as they were on the way they made a shocking discovery. 

Their caravan wasn't the longest one. A huge procession of people seemed to be traveling along their route in both directions. The people were of all kinds. Men, women, children. The caravan was stunned. They had only seen such vibrant trade networks in the Count's capital. Not even Krin City had so much travel going on.

Trive was amazed. He didn't know what Locke had done, but it was certainly some sort of miracle.

As they reached Herish Village, they saw an unbelievable site. Several buildings and spires were slowly being built. There were almost a thousand people doing all kinds of work. Structures made of bricks were slowly rising up. Could this even be called a village anymore? This infrastructure was developing better than Mith town. Even Krin City wasn't so well planned. However the city was considerably larger than Herish...Town?

The caravan stopped and Trive and August got down to observe the construction. Trive was stunned into silence and realized how talented Locke was. 'It's good I have him controlled in the palm of my hand.' Trive thought happily.

"Amazing! Trive, you are really a genius!" Was all August was able to say, inflating Trive's ego.

The group soon travelled further. When they were getting closer to Town Mith, they could see that the road was becoming better. Clearly, brick roads were being laid between Town Mith and the newly reconstructed Herish Village.

When they reached the mansion, Locke came out personally to greet them.

"Welcome back Master Trive. Welcome young Lord August!" Locke said as he bowed respectfully.

"Oh, are you the new administrator? Trive truly has a good eye for servants!" August said impatiently before turning to Trive. "Come brother, show me your house!"

The two walked inside, while Locke calmly relaxed. He didn't think August slighted him without purpose. After having seen the development of Herish Village, August must have decided to pull Trive closer as a confidant and used his authority to stomp on Locke. Let him know his place as a servant.

Locke simply smiled. This was all within his calculations. August was still too naive to play such a stupid game against Locke. What Locke's goals were, he alone knew. Leaving the two to their own devices, Locke quickly left the mansion and visited the Town.

He made his way to a small shop in the Town Square. "Dream Trading Company."

The building of an economy couldn't just happen on its own. Just like a ship needs a mast or a propeller to move, an economy needed a controller to arbitrate the movement of goods and services. The government, or in this case, the Baron's household could directly mandate it, but it didn't have the manpower for the job. Instead, the work had been exported to this company, the Dream Trading Company.

Who could have imagined that the owner of Dream Trading Company was a fourteen year old boy. Ofcourse he didn't own it directly. He had created a structure of shell companies to hide his ownership. Being the administrator, legalizing this within the Barony was quick and easy.

It was the Dream Trading Company organizing everything. Inside the company was an old man, organizing the operations. From hiring and paying workers, to collecting earnings from the Baron's treasury, all was being handled by him under Locke's detailed instructions.

Who was this old man? Hess' teacher. He also happened to be one of the prisoners who had escaped. He used to be the Administrator of the Barony before Hess but had stolen away some money when his family had turned sick from Typhus.

Girald, this old man was in awe of Locke's plan. He was using the authority of the Nobility to stimulate the economy, while handing over the administration to Dream Trading Company so it could skim off the profits. From the transport of goods, to the control of hiring and construction, everything was being done by the DTC.

"How is the work going?" Locke asked.

"Perfectly," Girald replied. "Just we will run out money soon."

Locke nodded. He had put in all his savings into establishing this trading company in secret. He would let Trive hog the limelight while he made the money. He took out a sack of gold coins. 

"This should last us till the end of the month. At the end of the month, the first round of the improved taxes will come in. It will be funneled into the company immediately." Locke replied.

"Once the village is completely built, won't demand for our services collapse?" Girald asked.

"I'm working to ensure that doesn't happen. Herish will be tax free and as more people come in, I will continue to expand the village's infrastructure until it turns into a town. Seeing the success of the project, Trive will certainly try to replicate the effect in other villages." Locke said with a smile. "Keep a lookout for any individuals with talent. If any appear, immediately hire them. It doesn't matter what their talent is, I'm sure we can make use of them."

All things had now been set into motion. Trive was busy with the Viscount. The two would frequently go on 'hunts', returning with the bounty heads and also oversee the construction.

Locke spent his time carefully planning his moves. He would take the time to teach Ghost everything. When they were alone in the library, he would let her turn into human form and read books. Sometimes, he would also try to figure out her abilities. 

Locke still wasn't sure what Ghost was, but he was sure she wasn't human. She didn't eat anything except sunlight and could use bizarre magical powers. He soon learnt that the kind of magic she could use was called transformation magic. She was a shapeshifter who could control the shape of her body. However, she had only one human form. The girl whose death Locke had been the ultimate cause of.