The weeks leading up to my last year of school were fast moving. Things had finally somewhat settled down and I wasn’t as busy anymore. I was able to delegate most of the administrative jobs out to the people I had hired and concentrate on the more crucial ones. The most crucial one being the issuing of an id I specially designed to all inhabitants of the territory. The card was designed to serve as a one in all card, from a basic picture id, to a debit card linked to the local bank I built in order to facilitate quick commerce, to transportation as it develops. 

The bank itself became quite famous as just having a card and an account in the bank makes it easy to complete transactions as long as the vendor has some sort of card reader, and I sold those for very cheap. I also made sure to build a sort of hologram interface in the bank that can sync with the card and show expenditure whenever the card is used as well as make other convenient knowledge readily available. There was a bit of a learning curve when it was first introduced but that was quickly overcome.

‘Got to make your service more convenient.’

 I hired an experienced finance guy to help me run the banks that will eventually span the whole territory and he took care of the day to day as well as the hiring. I think it was his efficient advertising that caused a very large number of the vendors who migrated to open an account with the bank and a lot of them ended up buying a card reader once they realised the possibilities. 

‘I wonder how the Medici will feel when they find out I’m in the banking business. Ohh well.’

One of the first things I did with the bank was to open various territory specific accounts like one for collecting taxes to be allocated to other public department accounts, one for public education, which was provided for free until a certain age and one for the heavily subsidised healthcare among others. All this will be paid for by taxes and because of that, I made a conscious effort to separate my personal earnings from the taxes the territory earns to make things easier for me. This way, I don't personally have to pay for the public programs and the people here will thrive. 

I transferred a lot of the money I had had from my account in the Medici owned bank to my own bank and set up a majority of the royalty payments to come to my bank when they are made. I just left a smaller amount of my overall fortune in the Medici bank. I had also set aside a small portion of my fortune to be used as money that can be borrowed from the bank to be paid back with interest for those that need it. 

I had my head finance guy start adding facets to the bank to cover all the financial bases that need to be covered to make the Medici bank obsolete in my territory. 

‘I guess being petty does have its advantages. I haven't forgotten about the Medici girl, what was her name again? Fiona, right. She tried to use me in the war she had with my sister so just take this as light payback. Besides, I’ll end up making too much money from this to ever allow someone else to come into my territory and just take the opportunity from me. Just be glad I have no plans to extend the bank beyond my borders, too much work.’

I took the down time I now had to walk through the growing city and observe the people that were settling in or that had already settled in. I knew the city was big, so big that it would be an inconvenience to walk everywhere and big enough to even be called a megacity, and I needed to formulate some form of public transport. 

‘Well, I’ve already formulated it. I just need to implement it.’ 

Portals, based on my portal spell and similar to the much larger and more magically intensive teleportation arc. I had already finished the design I was going for and it was made entirely of a newly formulated runic array I had developed in secret and a stone ark about ten feet tall as opposed to the humongous teleportation arcs that are commonly used by the empire. I had precisely marked intervals of where each will be built and I decided to make it free to use, as long as you had id.

‘Though that is easier as it doesn’t require a dedicated wizard, unlike the standard arcs available.’

Use was similarly easy, all you had to do was scan the newly issued territory id on the interface that will be made available at all terminals and pick your destination on the map. You will automatically arrive at your destination as you pass through the portal itself. I had already tested it on a small scale and given the blueprints to the master builders. Construction is said to begin about the time I go back to school. 

I finally arrived at the inner garden, housing the world tree. Quite a large number of people came here regularly to bask in the presence of the tree and entrance through the gates required swiping the id. I wanted the inner garden to serve as an idyllic park to just come and relax for the people who lived here and I knew it would be popular.

‘But still, it’s a bit crowded.’ Fortunately, I had the mind to make an opening window to the inner garden. 6 am to 9 pm, then you have to go home.

I swerved around the crowd as I made my way towards the centre while taking my time to watch people as I walked the path. The crowd was made up mainly of nobles, specifically couples who came for the romantic atmosphere of an enchanted forest and wealthy commoners. But somehow, it was still a serene environment. As I was walking through the burgeoning forest on the path, I spied something at the corner of my eye.

‘Oh, yeah. I forgot they showed up a while back.’ 

Fairies, small winged magical fae that reside in deeply magical forests or the feywild. The feywild was a sort of mystical plane that overlaps our reality, and the fae are known to use it as a sort of transport mechanism as it naturally connects to deeply enchanted forests like this one. Various low fae have started populating the forest of the inner garden and the inhabitants had to be told to leave them alone while the fae themselves have yet to cause any problems. 

‘I guess that’s the work of the empress, controlling them. She did hold up her end of the bargain, let's hope she continues to do so.’ Having the fae around helps though, as they take care of the trees in the forest and help in pollinating them

‘I guess some bad things just come with some good.’ I thought as I walked in front of the world tree proper. 

‘Ahh, there it is.’

It had grown significantly taller and stronger over the last few months. Dark, brown bark that seemed to have a hint of gold shining through. Leaves with different shades of green, etched with golden runes radiating a quiet power. It truly was a beautiful tree, and I wasn’t the only one who had stopped to admire it. I turned slightly to observe the crowd that had gathered in a rough circular formation, just looking in reverence at the tree and basking in the mana it gives off. I smiled.

‘Maybe this whole lordship thing won’t be that bad.’