Chapter 282: Agricultural Ledgers
Ragnar sat at his wide table inside his private stone room, counting the silver coins he had collected from the northern tribes after his army of foot soldiers successfully defeated their recent rebellion.
With the northern territories now firmly under his direct control, he decided to temporarily stop building new ships and stop forging weapons for his warriors. Instead, he planned to use his collected silver to improve the basic farming methods across his entire kingdom.
He wanted to build more water mills near the fast-moving rivers and forge heavy iron plows for the local farmers to use in the dirt fields.
After all, focusing entirely on growing more wheat and raising more livestock was a necessary step.
If he successfully increased the amount of food produced within his borders, he could feed a much larger population. A larger population meant that he would eventually have more young men available to defend the kingdom when the rival kings inevitably attacked his lands.
With all these plans taking shape on the paper maps spread across his wooden table, he heard a loud sound coming from his door.
"Enter the room." Ragnar said, looking up from his paper maps and placing his feather pen down on the table.
And so, his wife Gyda walked through the open wooden door and stood in the center of the stone room. She wore a dress made of blue cloth, which was a very rare and expensive material in their geographic region.
Around her neck, she wore a necklace made of clear glass and polished yellow amber.
Despite his busy schedule of managing the kingdom’s resources, Ragnar considered leaving his chair to spend time walking with her in the outside courtyard. However, he quickly dismissed the idea because he possessed a clear personal goal to finish organizing his farming ledgers before the sun went down. He remained seated and waited for her to state her business.
After all, Gyda did not wait for him to initiate the conversation. She walked directly to the table and dropped a thick stack of animal parchment right in front of his face.
"You are looking at the wrong maps, husband. Look at the silver we lost to the river bandits this month." Gyda stated, tapping her finger repeatedly on the parchment to draw his attention.
Ragnar and Gyda both knew that the Iron Kingdom did not actually lose any silver coins to river bandits.
This specific document was a false record created entirely to hide the silver they paid to their hidden network of scouts and informants.
Ragnar needed to send men into the rival kingdoms to listen to the plans of the other kings, so he could know where their armies were marching and how much food they stored in their castles.
He could not publicly announce that he was paying spies, because the other kings would become angry and execute any traveler they suspected of working for the Iron Kingdom.
Therefore, Ragnar labeled these specific payments as lost merchant goods in his official ledgers to ensure no one questioned where the silver was actually going.
And so, Ragnar looked at the numbers written on the parchment, verifying that they had sent enough silver to pay the men who walked in the shadows. He signed his name on the bottom of the parchment using his feather pen and handed the document back to his wife.
He then reached under the table and pulled out a different piece of parchment, which contained a detailed drawing of a new command structure for their informants.
He handed this new document to Gyda, establishing a new and heavy task for her to complete.
"You must organize the scouts into a formal group with ranks and leaders." Ragnar ordered, looking directly at her face with a serious expression.
"If you fail to arrange this properly, we will be blind when the southern armies march against us, so do not fail." Ragnar added.
Despite the harsh tone of his command, Gyda took the parchment and examined the drawings of the new command hierarchy. She did not ask for his help or complain about the difficulty of the work. She knew that the scouts needed a secure location to exchange their messages without being seen, and she needed to establish a system where the information was carried back to City Titan using fast horses.
"I will arrange the men and set up a secure building for them to share their information, and it will be functioning before the winter arrives." Gyda replied.
Gyda turned her body to walk back toward the door. However, Ragnar stopped her by standing up from his chair. He walked over to a small wooden box resting in the corner of the stone room. He opened the top of the box and reached his hands inside.
When he turned back around, he held a young hunting dog with entirely black fur.
"Take this animal..." Ragnar said, holding the young dog out toward Gyda with both of his hands.
Gyda stopped walking toward the door and looked at the young dog. She walked back toward Ragnar, took the animal from his hands, and held it securely against her chest.
She immediately began touching the soft black fur on the animal’s head.
"He is very strong! What should his name be?" Gyda asked, looking up at her husband while the young dog rested comfortably in her arms.
Despite the simple nature of the question, Ragnar wanted a name that sounded dangerous, fitting for a beast that would eventually grow large enough to bite the arms of intruders who tried to steal their silver coins.
"You should name him Bone-breaker!"
Gyda shook her head and rejected his suggestion completely. She looked at Ragnar with a flat expression.
"That is a terrible name for a dog. You only think about hurting people and breaking things!" Gyda replied, laughing a short sound from her throat as she looked back down at the black fur of the animal.
"I will call him Coal." Gyda declared.
Ragnar accepted her choice of name without arguing.
"I will take him outside to the courtyard now." Gyda said, turning her back to Ragnar and walking out through the open door.
She had to manage the new scout network and train her new dog.
And so, Ragnar sat back down on his chair after she left the room. He picked up his feather pen and continued to review the maps of his farming lands and the lists of his iron plows.
For the time being, he had many changes to enact across his territory...
Thus, he focused his entire attention back on the agricultural ledgers.