Afterwards I visited Josef, who claimed he was making progress but did not have a working solution for the slave runes yet. Then I went back to the castle.

I spent the evening catching up with Lucy's family. Overall it was a rather successful day. When it was time for bed I was impressed by our accommodation. The master suite, or however this was called, had a sitting room, a bar, a large bedroom, a walkable closet and a luxurious bathroom. It included a hot tub and a large shower. I guess being a countess had its advantages. Oh, and the bed was very sturdy.

The next day I toured the city, talked with people and visited Tyrell, our smith. He was rather intrigued about the train. Sadly I had no instant communication with Iron Rock. So I did not know how far along the project was.

There were communication crystals in this world though. So I visited Sandra next, she used to be a merchant and was handling the administration of our county.

"Sandra! I do have a request." I said as I walked into her office.

"Ok. What is it?" She asked.

"We need to be able to communicate with Iron Rock. I want to acquire a communication crystal." I said.

"Those are relatively expensive and need to be powered with spell slots if you use them. There is a reason why they are only used for important things." She replied.

"Well, we have the magic and we want to talk with the university in Iron Rock…" I pointed out.

"Long conversations would require a lot of spell slots. And unless you want to pay someone to sit in front of the crystal all the time you can't just call them." Sandra replied. "But a crystal might be good to communicate with the queens. You are not just a countess, you are an archfey and it might be good if someone can call you during emergencies."

"Eh…" I was planning to use it for fun, not to get more work.

"Anyway, when do you plan to meet your barons?" Sandra asked.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Barons?" I replied.

"Your territory has two barons." Sandra stood up and grabbed a map. She unrolled it and put it on her desk. "This is your county. Half of it is under your direct control. This includes the border to the Black Forest. The north east is controlled by Baron Finn Marsh and the south east is controlled by Baroness Ariya Amaryllis."

I scratched my head. "I suppose I should invite them, or something."

"Yes, they should formally swear fealty to their new lord." Sandra confirmed.

"Lords, Lucy is also their countess." I pointed out.

Sandra nodded. "From what I have heard about Lucy she is not very interested in the administration of the county."

"Well, that is why we have hired you! And we can hire more, if you need help…" I offered.

"Thank you. I shall hire an assistant." Sandra replied.

Puh. I had feared she wanted me to do more work. If she was fine with more staff that was doable.

"Now about our finances. Right now we are using your money to build, expand and hire. But you seem to have a few profitable ideas and once we send hunters into the forest I expect we can make a profit. I will trust your long term plans." Sandra said.

"Actually, I should visit our fields and plan our crops." I said, then I retreated before Sandra could propose any administrative work I should be doing.

I asked Ash to join me. Soon we were standing on a field near town. Currently it was filled with wheat. Ash examined the plants, then crouched down and put her hand into the soil.

"The earth is decent and the plants are strong. But they are nothing special. I detect some traces of magic to keep pests away." She said.

"Could we plant something magical?" I asked.

"You have to be careful with magical plants. You need to ensure that they remain edible for regular people. And it is not enough to plant them. They need magic. A single plant can just take it from the environment but an entire field would need a source." Ash explained.

"Could you feed them with rituals?" I wondered.

Ash nodded. "Yes but you would need to conduct them regularly. Do you want us to tend to your fields?"

"I am not sure. I expect the grove to keep the city safe. How much time and power would it take for you to tend to some fields?" I asked.

"It would depend on how many fields you want. And how much power the demon lord's corpse will grant us." Ash replied.

"True. We should focus on that first. Do your trees need some time to recover from being replanted?" I asked.

"Our root network is still growing but the grove stands. Any additional power would only hasten our recovery." Ash replied.

"Then I better plan this ritual." I concluded.

I had some ideas. I wanted to get the most out of this corpse. Thankfully my storage should have preserved it pretty well. So what runes did I know that could help? Well, creating the maid knights involved granting them power. Creating a warlock involved transferring power, well that also involved the soul. I did not want to mess with souls.

Actually, in some way power was a fundamental part of any ritual. They used spell slots to activate. I wanted to transfer the power of the corpse into the soil so the dryads could absorb it. Devour it…

I had watched my devour magic a few times now. It was very efficient. Could I create a similar effect to devour the corpse and then make use of the magic? Could I invent a ritual like that? I grinned, I had some experimenting to do.

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