City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Chapter 521: Bridge and Other Things

"Thank you, Your Excellency. I am truly grateful for your support,"

"Please thank, His Majesty, the archmage for me," I said. 'I will. I hope you will use it well, Lord Silver,' replied the woman from the other side before cutting the call.

"So, what did she say?" asked Valentina as I let go of Zela's hand.

"She agreed to support the proposal," I replied, and a big smile bloomed across her face.

"So, it is happening," she said. 

"Yes, the bridge is happening," I replied, with the smile on my face becoming as big as hers.

We are building a bridge on the Trollmouth River.

We need to.

The trade with Navr and the baronies with the extension of the merchant state is increasing each week, and transporting goods through the river traffic becomes inefficient.

We need a bridge, but given the size of the trollmouth. The bridge will need to be big.

This means it will cost a lot of money.

More money than what even the tower had cost me. I built it using special materials, but the bridge will make up for the material cost with its sheer size.

There are only two ways to finance it. Pay for it ourselves, which we cannot.

It is not something small. Besides, even financing a small bridge would be hard for the city in its current state. The city is growing, earning it more taxes, but also increasing its expenses.

It is not just one city I am in control of, but two. Making things doubly difficult.

Which led me to the second option. Private financing.

I went to the banks, that's where the money is, but even after surviving so many dangers and proving our abilities so many times. They weren't willing to finance it. None of the banks in Greltheaven, the empire, and even merchant states.

So, I went to an unlikely source. Synod: Zenid Synod, to be exact.

It is filthy rich

It is rich, with all of us paying our membership, in essence, every year.

There are over two thousand years' worth of essence in the treasury of the zenid synod.

It is spent on the well-being of legacies. From lobbying to giving grants to those who need it, among other things, but that costs only fractions of what it collects.

It never loans them to kingdoms and territories. Synod's constitution forbids it from doing that.

There are a few exceptions, but I didn't qualify for any.

They just sit on it, and since it is the essence, not the real money. There is no pressure to invest. Seeing the value of the essence increases over time.

The point is, that my territory couldn't get it according to Synod laws, but I am not just a noble, but also a Synod member with a legacy.

Two weeks ago, I was reading the constitution of the synod to prepare for the conclave when I found something.

A loophole.

However, it is not easy to get it, even with loopholes

It requires 60% of the votes of the council, and nearly all of them opposed it.

Some of them don't like me, while others are simply opposed to the idea of funding the infrastructure of a domain's noble. Some were asked to oppose it by their kingdoms.

Thankfully, I only needed to convince one member to get all the votes.

It is the most important member. If they agree, then everyone would agree, no matter how much they hate it.

It was the archmage of the archmage tower.

The biggest legacy on the continent and the most powerful one after the three Titans.

I was able to convince Grand Mage Asin. She represents the archmage's tower and is responsible for all the decisions of the council.

It took some convincing, but she agreed to support me.

"It would be great if you were able to convince them to fund a few more projects in the city," said Valentina, and I couldn't help but sigh with hope.

"It would be difficult. She barely agreed to fund the bridge, but you are right."

"It will help us tremendously. If we can get financing for other projects," I replied.

With financing done. We could move on to the next stage, and thankfully, we had already started.

We have issued the tenders and got the offers from interested parties, including Valentina's company. Financing or not, we would have started on the bridge.

It had become necessary, but construction would have been very slow.

Now, we only need to choose the offer and start building the bridge. The sooner it is done, the bigger the benefits the city will receive from it.

"Is your decision on the entourage final?" she asked. Looking at me accusingly.

"Yes," I replied with a sigh.

"I genuinely want to come. Archmage City is heaven for mages," she said, and it is not the first time. She had expressed this to me.

"I know, but I want and need you here," I replied.

There is not a single mage that hadn't expressed the desire to come with me to the archmage city, but I need them here. Especially her.

It will be a very sensitive time, and I need as many of my trusted people in the city as possible.

"At least help me get those things I want," she said finally. "I will," I replied.

She might not be coming, but her girlfriend is.

I would rather that she stay in the city too, but I need to think about my protection. While the fear of Archmage Tower keeps almost everyone in line.

Once in a while, some fools take risks.

The last incident happened four decades ago. They had kidnapped a host of the legacy and killed him, even after the massive ransom had been paid.

The archmage tower had found every one of them, and the punishment they gave had marked memories as such that no incident had occurred since them.

Still, I couldn't take risks, given my enemies.

Soon, Valentina left, and I didn't stay in the office for too long either.

I got out of the city hall and sat in the carriage. Reaching my destination ten minutes later.

Alyn Tylcharis School.

It is a new school I am opening. It is named after the mother of Safmae Tylcharis. Mistress of Lord of Owlspring. It is the first of three schools she had promised to fund in the next three years.

At the gates, a large crowd had already gathered.

Click!

I got out, and guards made way for me.

I also activated Lord Presence with a faint power of aura mixed with it for the effect.

"Lord Silver," greeted Locke and Principle Salvyn. The elf is the principal of this new school, but my gaze is on the half-elf beside them.

"I hope the school is built to your liking, Mr. Tylcharis?" I asked the man.

The man looked to be in his mid-twenties. He is very handsome and could also be called beautiful. Sharing many similarities with his sister.

"She will love it," he replied.

"It's such a regret that Miss Tylcharis couldn't be here," I said. To that, he smiled.

She couldn't come because of security reasons, but promised that she would be here at the opening of at least one school.

A lot of schools are opening, and I am selling the names to those who are funding it.

To have your name on the schools, there are several conditions.

The first is that you will not only need to pay to build the school and everything inside, but also pay for the salaries of its staff for three years.

It is not a big condition for most people. They are filthy rich and want to leave their name behind on anything.

Having their name also helps a lot, because every year you could ask them for the money. Even if they die, you can ask their families for the money.

That is why I am selling to the named houses with long histories.

It will help these schools a lot in the long term.

However, not all the names of the schools are being sold. Many schools are named after people who have done great work or made sacrifices for the city.

One of the schools that will open next month will be named after Mena.

I cut the ribbon and toured around the school.

This is a big school, with a capacity of two thousand students. It will elevate the burden on other schools.

The population of the city is rapidly increasing. Many are coming here bringing their families and children.

To meet that demand. We are opening new schools every month.

Soon, it was time to leave, and I walked toward my carriage when Locke said something to his wife and came toward me.

"I will ride with you, I have some business in city hall," he said. "Sure," I replied.

That is just an excuse. He likely wants to talk about that.

We stepped into the carriage, and the doors closed before we began to move toward the city hall.

"Have you made any progress on the proposal?" he asked, wasting not even a second.

"Locke, we don't have money," I replied with a sigh.

"Remus, you should understand. We need the Academy. Talented young people are leaving the city, going to the academies in empire and merchant state,"

"We need to retain that talent. We need the academy," he said forcefully, with eyes filled with passion.

He is the same man who didn't want the job but is now loving it.

"I know it, but the academy costs a lot of money," I replied.

An academy is different from a school, which gives them basic knowledge and guides them toward their future path. In the academy, they walk on that path.

It gives them classes and guides them for greater progress.

Students of the academy get better classes than those without it, and I want to build it, but there are so many things to do.

There is a military college, a second park, and even a mage tower. All of them are necessary, but we didn't have money to build them, but we need to.

Since I had got the funding for the bridge, I could now build the military college.

Which we will have to fund ourselves.

There is also the mage tower, which my mages, including Valentina and the old man, are badgering me about, but those things cost massive money.

Though we need it.

Magic tower helps mages advance faster. It will be tremendously useful to the city.

It will help our mages. Make new ones and attract others. It is a magnet for them.

"Please think about it, Remus. The academy will help the city tremendously."

"The old man had even talked to me about setting up a magic department in there," he said, with his eyes shining.

"Our young ones might not get 'Mage' as the class, but the magic department will help them gain 'Scholar' or 'Magic Learner,"

"Which will be able to upgrade to the mage if they work hard enough," he added.

I was about to stop him from pressing me further when I remembered something and an idea came to my mind.

Valorous Lord of Courage Lv. 34

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