Diving into his monotonous schedule with maximum concentration, Ezra found his time expiring, fast.
In what seemed to be days, three months melted away.
Interestingly enough, Black Jaws grew slowly in members due to the high death rate of newcomers. Nevertheless, many still applied for recruitment.
Meanwhile, Sebastian and Nathan's friends were integrated into the guild.
Having hired multiple (capable) architects and droves of builders, the slums transformed into a site of construction.
The makeshift fence was wrecked and replaced with a new and improved one.
Fredrick didn't cut corners, ordering only top tier materials.
With that, the costs of operations grew exponentially, meaning the payment for workers was immense - and so was the death rate.
But in times of the war, where inflation kept hiking prices, those willing to take such risks were not few.
In such an environment, what would happen if payment was per day, and was measured by how much work one did?
It would result in the current situation.
Efficiency and effectiveness shot through the roof, achieving so much more than what Fredrick estimated.
Maintaining the current speed, the construction would end in less than two months.
Of course, the pay was not the only incentive.
Although Nathan was in disagreement, Fredrick gave the builders a subsidy, an enormous one.
He would contribute half of the amount needed to treat any injury incurred while on site.
And while to Nathan it was a waste of money, the effect was immense. The builders worked with newfound enthusiasm and determination, which in turn caused more injuries.
Many had their bones fractured, and while that was normally a career ender, Fredrick's subsidy had them back to work within a week.
Those who could not pay the other half were healed with the condition of them working off the remaining amount.
With the enthusiasm of paying off their debt as fast as possible, they became even more hardworking, increasing efficiency even more.
Word of mouth had people rush to apply for work and guild recruitment.
They had guild members guard the area to prevent sabotage and be on standby in case of any accidents on site.
Then, Black Jaws's act of teaching children how to write and read was exposed a month ago, making rounds throughout Niton as many Nobles demanded for them to be killed.
Alas, Black Jaws was buffered, so they didn't dare to stretch their wicked palms.
Fredrick wasn't even a bit concerned, both he and Ezra were clear that their actions would make more enemies than friends.
As such, many trade routes were closed off to the guild to diminish their rate of progress.
Along that, bad rumors about them flew around, discouraging many from joining, which they ought to thank Bolton for.
Kogar, on the other hand, was overjoyed.
Fredrick's actions revived the decelerating economy, even if a bit.
When people had more money, they bought more things.
Sales in Kingsmere exploded - as opposed to other places - and the center of this was the ongoing site construction.
With the workers earning substantial amounts, they bought better equipment, better food, better clothes and so and so forth, thereby pumping money into what would have been a stale economy.
However, he couldn't move carelessly, as he knew Bolton was watching closely.
A month went by, revealing a wonderful surprise.
Except for the main building, standing at the slum's center, the others were completed.
Cabrera couldn't be happier.
'Just in time. I was thinking of halting recruitment, but this will do, this will do splendidly'
The available bases had already been filled, and now, the guild had to buy multiple hotels to house new members.
While this wouldn't be a problem, Bolton soon banned them from buying any more buildings in Kingsmere, saying it would affect the economy negatively.
A ridiculous excuse for sure, but what could they do? Especially since he didn't demand that they return the buildings they'd already bought.
It also exposed that Bolton wasn't their friend. He did have a point though. They had bought almost half of Kingsmere's buildings.
The roads in the slums were restructured with irregular stones and then smoothened with gray sand, making for an amazing sight.
The builders looked at the result of their handiwork and beamed with pride, before sighing soon after.
They will now have to look for another route for revenue, and they were sure it would never come close to what they were paid here.
As they turned to leave, a guard obstructed them. He unfolded a scroll and started reading it aloud.
"The guild master has chosen to inform you of numerous upcoming projects just like the one before you, with the exact same payment format"
The builders were flabbergasted, it was literally mulberry wine from the sky.
"The next project will happen at the slums of Traxford. All those willing to participate, head to the hall"
They rushed to the hall without another word, forming a stampede enough to scare the guard into moving afar.
They lined up as they arrived with personnel ready to receive them.
The first quickly went ahead.
Quickly, he signed the documents, when a question popped up.
"Ah yes, when does the work start? So I know when to begin travel"
The personnel, a woman, smiled at him.
"In two weeks. Of course, we provide traveling carriages to assist with travels. Would you like to enlist one?"
'They did this too?' he thought.
"For how much?"
"35 silver, with a few more for cargo"
He nodded, and gave her 35 silver.
Two months ago, Nathan formed a traveling business by bringing together most of the existing traveling merchants after luring them with lucrative deals and binding them to contracts.
After changing their carriages to those of better quality as well as their horses, then reducing just a bit below market prices, the business ballooned in profit.
You had the cost of hiring protection against bandits and repairs, but it was well worth it, with more people applying for work.
The guild members hunted beasts and gathered herbs on a daily basis, Kron included.
Such exercises gave them plenty of life and death experiences, steadily increasing their skills as they did.
Then, they trained formally on weekends, perfecting their basic movements.
The worst of the slum dwellers had grown to F-rank as opposed to their former G-rank status.
At the end of the month, the members take bouts at one another, with the top ten being given rare cultivation herbs or artifacts.
Fedrick sent Sebastian to Traxford, along with the children with the most promise.
Among them was James and Ruby, Fredrick having erased Ezra's visage from their minds.
Sebastian was to establish the information agency in Traxford as opposed to Kingsmere because of many reasons.
But he didn't go alone, Nathan's friends lest Mirahan - who was put in charge of the traveling carriage business - followed him, and so did Nathan himself.
Fredrick affirmed Nathan that he was needed more in Traxford than in Kingsmere.
The wood brothers were ecstatic, hiring workers and expanding their workforce.
Fredrick was outsourcing the furniture for the newly built homes in the slums from them.
A week later, Sebastian arrived at Traxford's slums, finding it far better off than the one in Kingsmere, not to mention that it was bigger.
Here, plenty of slum dwellers took to begging as a lucrative business.
It was to be expected, since Traxford was Niton's center of commerce, its most affluent city. It was also one of the biggest cities, being more than twice Kingsmere's size.
Repeating their act in Kingsmere, the slums got cleared, with the fewer slum dwellers joining, while the slums's destruction and subsequent construction took place smoothly.
But the effects were not so simple.
As a hub of commerce, many informants roamed the streets cloaked as your common man.
Therefore, news of their actions reached farther than it did before, and with much more impact.
That didn't stop anything though, for even dukes, no, even Bolton, could not nullify the buffer zone.
Their members increased, though many didn't come with good intentions, but Cabrera could easily handle them.
After all, applicants had to be D-rank or below, another weird phenomenon that had many deduce that the guild itself was weak and didn't seek D-ranks because the Guildmaster was a D-rank himself.
But then, how'd they defeat Firescar?
They only got more confused the more they thought of it.
Many things came into place as Fredrick and Ezra conversed through the communication artifacts.
After going back and forth for days, Fredrick commissioned for a high-rise to be built, something unseen in modern day Orion, but very real in Ezra's memories.
Many enlisted as workers solely for the fact the building was said to be the tallest Orion had ever seen.
After all, who didn't want to tell such tales to their grandchildren?
Sebastian bought a building with compartments underground and had it refurbished, forming the Black Silence guild as he began permeating Traxford, placing his informants at strategic spots.
Before, informants mainly consisted of thieves and assassins, but now, Sebastians brought in beggars and slum dwellers.
The war only got fiercer as time went on, with men arriving at the warzone everyday. Some came for the rewards, some to prove chivalry on their quest for knighthood, some to tell tales of the great war, and so many more.
In what seemed to be no time at all, a year elapsed.
In his chamber, Ezra took a look at himself and sighed.
'This is a lot harder than I'd thought it'd be'
