“A bank, huh….”
Calix stroked his chin as though the idea intrigued him.
“Fine. That confident look of yours tells me you’ve already got a plan worked out in your head.”
“Of course. Though we’ll need a very large number of people.”
Elian met Calix’s gaze and began ticking off points on his fingers.
“Your Grace, even if we announce we’re establishing a bank, do you think people will just take us at our word? Telling them there’s gold underground a hundred times over would only make us sound like con artists.”
“Then?”
“We have to show them. Undeniable proof — reserves that’ll make their eyes roll back in their heads.”
Elian tapped the gold vein embedded in the wall.
“We won’t mine all the gold here. But we need to extract at least enough to fill an entire warehouse — then stack it up as gleaming gold bars. Only then will people trust our paper currency enough to use it.”
“Hmm. Collateral to establish credibility.”
“Exactly. Which means we need miners, haulers, and smelters to filter out the impurities — right away. Mining the gold isn’t enough on its own. Turning that gold into standardized currency ultimately has to pass through human hands.”
Elian gazed out at the vast hollow submerged in darkness.
“And this space itself needs to become the most secure underground vault in the empire. Iron doors, defensive barriers, an elevator installed…. We don’t just need ordinary miners — we urgently need specialized construction workers.”
In the end, large-scale recruitment was non-negotiable. Not simply to mine gold, but as the groundwork for constructing the enormous system known as the Northern Central Bank.
“Your Grace, let’s head back up now. There’s a mountain of work ahead.”
Elian surveyed the floor. Broken rock fragments from the excavator’s impact were piled high everywhere. Among them, fist-sized nuggets of pure gold that had broken off from the gold vein tumbled about like gravel. Elian picked up one of the nuggets and stuffed it into his pocket.
It’d be easier to handle everything with BP, but I can’t spend my whole life groping the Grand Duke’s body.
And more than anything… he had to feed the domain’s people.
Handing out bread is a stopgap measure. They needed jobs, the ability to earn their own money, and to get the economy moving. It was, in short, the beginning of the North’s own version of a New Deal.
***
“W-What?! H-Hey, Baron! Is this — is this actually gold?!”
The moment they returned to the surface, Conrad let out a shriek. Even he, the Grand Ducal estate’s Treasurer, lost his composure entirely at the sight of the 99% pure gold nugget Elian handed him. Forgetting all dignity, he bit into it with his teeth, then dropped to his knees on the ground and trembled.
“Good heavens…. To think something like this existed beneath the North’s soil! Your Grace, this is a blessing!”
“Conrad. Save the emotions for later — I need your cooperation on some business.”
Elian coolly patted Conrad on the shoulder.
“We’re going to begin large-scale recruitment starting now. But our domain has no specialists. We’ve got the muscle for pickaxe work, but no one who knows smelting or construction.”
“So?”
“Please put out a notice across the Grand Duchy. Recruiting the North’s finest craftsmen, smelters, and accountants. Compensation matched to the highest industry standards.”
Elian tossed the gold nugget from his pocket into Conrad’s arms.
“That’s your advance payment.”
“Huh — Baron. Are you putting me to work right now? I am the Grand Duke’s retainer!”
Conrad tried to bristle with indignation, but the corners of his mouth kept twitching on their own at the solid, heavy weight of the gold nestled in his arms.
“You don’t want to? Then I’ll commission another retainer.”
“W-Who said I wouldn’t do it! Ahem, ahem. It is work for His Grace and the North — so I shall generously step forward.”
Conrad cleared his throat and tucked the gold nugget away with great care. Money truly was king.
“However, there are conditions.”
Elian’s eyes flashed.
“The specialists will be brought in from the Grand Duchy — but for the 500 unskilled laborers and miners, Valeria Domain residents will be given absolute first priority.”
“Valeria Domain residents? Would those scrawny things even have the strength to work?”
“That’s precisely why we need to make sure they eat well and live well. Isn’t that the foremost duty of a ruler? Daily wages five times the current rate — fifty copper a day. Plus lunch and dinner provided. The menu: meat stew and unlimited bread!”
“F-Five times?! Baron, have you lost your mind? Are you swimming in money?”
“We’re about to be.”
Elian was resolute.
“Don’t worry. The wages we pay out will only be spendable at the Lord’s directly operated shops within the domain. The money has to circulate inside the domain without leaking out.”
Conrad stared blankly, mouth agape. He’d taken this young Baron for nothing more than a lucky young master — but when it came to making money move, his mind was a cut above the Grand Ducal estate’s own officials.
“Ha…. Understood. I’ll dispatch a courier to the Grand Duchy immediately.”
***
From the very next day, the North was turned upside down.
On the bulletin board in the Grand Duchy’s plaza, a notice appeared: “Recruiting Top-Grade Specialists.” And in Valeria Domain, another went up: “Recruiting General Laborers.”
“What? Fifty copper a day?”
“Meals are free too! They say meat stew and unlimited bread?”
“Impossible. What money could that famously broke Valeria Lord possibly have?”
Unlike the skeptical people of the Grand Duchy, the residents of Valeria Domain trusted Elian. Following his instructions, they watched the sacks of flour and piles of smoked meat stacking up in the plaza — and their eyes went wide.
“It’s real! It’s actually meat!”
“Long live our Lord! Long live the Grand Duke!”
Hundreds of domain residents clutching shovels and pickaxes swarmed the hiring site. The domain, which had been peaceful but idle — kept warm and fed through the Lord’s generosity yet with nothing to do — suddenly, impossibly, began to pulse with life. Gaunt men ate meat stew, found their strength, and headed off to work. Women cooked meals in the communal kitchens.
The number of unemployed within the domain dropped to zero. It even reached the point where retired elders came out declaring, “I can still carry bricks!” and the butler Hans had to break a sweat turning them away.
And a few days later. The downstream side of the dam — the entrance to the mine construction site.
“Hey, Baron! Take a look over there!”
Conrad, who had been checking the gold transport route at the mine entrance, urgently called out to Elian. Elian looked up from the blueprints and gazed toward the main road leading into the domain.
“…Well.”
Stretching all the way to the distant horizon, a procession of carriages and people extended without end. Craftsmen summoned from the Grand Duchy, merchants who had heard the news and come from all across the North, and displaced wanderers seeking work.
“The craftsmen are here! The magical engineers and master smelters from the Grand Duchy have arrived!”
At the guard’s announcement, Elian broke into a satisfied smile. Capital was in place, skills had arrived, and labor had gathered. The preparations to take hold of the North’s financial lifeline were complete.
Calix, who had been watching the magnificent procession from atop the watchtower, murmured quietly.
“Remarkable.”
Barely a month ago, this had been a land where frozen corpses rolled across the ground. Yet the moment Elian laid his hands on it, blood began to flow through the dead earth and a heartbeat returned.
It wasn’t only my body he thawed.
This man — he was thawing the entire frozen North.
Elian’s back, busy issuing instructions, was etched deeply into Calix’s red eyes. It was no longer mere interest or curiosity. Awe — and an intense, burning desire to make this miracle-maker entirely his own.
The night deepened. But Valeria Domain did not sleep. The entrance to the underground mine was lit up as bright as midday with torches, and from the smeltery’s chimneys, running in round-the-clock shifts, pale grey smoke billowed endlessly.
The pounding of hammers. The rumble of cart wheels. The loud, boisterous laughter of people raising glasses after hard labor. Not mere noise — but the sound of hope, beating the dying North’s heart back to life.
By the window of the Lord’s office.
Elian stood with a glass of wine in hand, gazing down at the blazing lights below.
“It’s beautiful.”
“What is?”
Calix approached from behind. He still seemed unfamiliar with the view outside the window. The domain that had been still and cold had transformed in an instant into a roaring, blazing furnace of noise.
“That’s not just noise, Your Grace.”
Elian turned around to face Calix. Catching the light of the torches, Elian’s eyes sparkled like gemstones.
“It’s the sound of people living. The happy cries of people who are full and warm.”
Elian was proud of the scene he had created. Not something achieved through BP alone, but a truly living domain filled with people’s sweat and vitality.
“Your Grace’s might protected them, and my wisdom fed them… so this is something we built together.”
Together. That phrase struck hard against Calix’s chest. Calix stared at Elian. At first he’d taken him for nothing more than a brazen human furnace. But this man was reshaping not only his body — but this very land he ruled, root and all.
“You….”
Calix slowly reached out and brushed Elian’s hair back.
“You really do intend to end the North’s winter.”
“Of course. I absolutely despise being cold and poor.”
Elian smiled softly and nuzzled his cheek into Calix’s hand. From outside the window, a lively work song drifted in. Inside, a warm tenderness settled between the two of them.
“When winter ends.”
Calix’s voice dropped low.
“Once spring has come — are you thinking of leaving?”
“Hm? Not a chance. Do you have any idea how much I’ve set in motion?”
Elian answered without a second thought, gesturing toward the blazing lights outside.
“We’ve only just gathered the people. To actually run a real bank, we need to mint currency. A mint needs to be built, anti-counterfeiting magic needs to be installed….”
Elian muttered, folding down his fingers one by one. Then, as though he had suddenly realized something important, he paused.
[Current BP: 500]
He’d wiped out all his points buying the excavator and financing the mine construction. But to build a mint? He’d need another astronomical amount of points.
In an instant, Elian’s expression shifted — from moved to covetous. He slowly turned his head to look at Calix. The Grand Duke’s sculpted face in the moonlight, and the firm muscles visible beneath his shirt. All of that was points.
“So, Your Grace — there’s something I’d like to ask.”
Elian grabbed Calix by the shirt collar and whispered.
“Would you be willing to be my bedmate?”
