Chris was in an excellent mood this morning. His precious pillow was lost, but he didn't mind.

He was currently picking a new mount as he was spotted by his lieutenants.

"Thank you for giving back Dalahan, my Lord. Petunia is very happy." Said Titus with a smile.

"Haha, well, she did win our bet." Answered Chris with a smile.

He was, of course, talking about the time Petunia won Dalahan's playing right by playing Hopscotch.

Titus was surprised, he expected his lord to be more reluctant and to be in a worse mood. It felt like he got closer to Dalahan after all.

Berg noticed his surprised and said. "Looks like you don't know! Miss Mia was spotted leaving our lord's tent late last night!"

"No wonder you are in such a good mood my Lord! Did you have a nice time?" said Ferlin.

"Hm." He nodded his head and continued. "She tricked me and took something precious from me, but her smile was so cute you know? I feel it was worth it." Said Chris.

"N-no way?!" They all surrounded him.

Berg continued, "M-my lord did you..."

Ferlin said with a smile. "Looks like we can expect a successor soon!"

Cid looked approvingly at Ferlin. "A successor is a good thing, indeed."

"You idiots!" Shouted Cat. "Mia went to his tent to discuss governmental affairs and left with his feather pillow! Nothing happened!"

"Really, you guys are all the same!"

"O-ohh..." They answered.

"Well nevermind then." Said Berg as he started leaving.

"Tch. I knew it." Said Ferlin.

"Dammit. I had this week in the pool." Grumbled Titus.

Chris looked at his closest and most loyal of subordinates as they were leaving while cursing and wondered where he took a wrong turn in his life.

Cid tapped on Chris' shoulder and sighed. "Don't be too sad my lord. Remember, suicide is not the answer."

"Hey! You bastards! What did you come here for? Was it just to bully me? Is that it?" Shouted Chris at their backs.

Chris kept grumbling as he picked his horse. Cat who was waiting nearby could sometimes hear words like: "bastards", "ungrateful", "daughter-con."

The selection of horses was not big. Most of them were already set aside for the different caravans needed to transport goods and people. Some were set aside for the scouts and only a dozen or so horses were left for Chris.

He picked a black horse as he felt that the black coat would allow him to stand out more with his white and golden robe.

He rode around the stable for a few times and was somewhat satisfied. Still, he avoided looking in Dalahan's direction, who of course shared the stables with the hoses, as he felt guilty.

[Damnit, I've got to win him back from Petunia.] Thought Chris.

Chris noticed that Cat was still around as he left the stables. Her face had a much more serious expression than before.

"Is this about your recent findings?" Asked Chris.

Cat nodded and said in a self-derogatory tone. "Looks like I brought us more troubles."

"Haha. You sure did. But it's better to be the first to find out. I can't even imagine what would happen if bandits or another race found the ruins first." Said Chris. "But let's not talk about it right now. Let's set up a meeting with everyone else after lunch. It will be more private."

"Very well." But she added before taking her leave. "Carmelo and Rinat have finished working on the prototype and have started mass production. They are waiting for you. Mia also sent word that the loot from the necromancer cave arrived this morning. She is doing one final inventory and should be done before noon."

"Perfect!" Chris was overjoyed that the handcarts were finally done. With this, he could start much bigger projects. "Let's add the defense wall to this afternoon's meeting."

"Yes!" Said Cat as she left to pass word to Mia, Berg, and the rest.

Chris went directly to the industrial park. It was located north of Brine City. It was quite easy to find as the tallest buildings were the Blacksmith's and the Carpenter's workshops. The rest was mostly made up of tents in which people lived until better accommodations could be provided.

He was barely there when he heard Carmelo's jovial voice booming from afar.

"My lord! The hand cart is incredible! Our workers are already fighting over who gets to use it!"

Chris looked in his direction, and as always Chris could only feel a 'cheerful dwarves' vibe coming from him.

"The plans were perfect. We just had to craft each piece according to the specified dimensions and it all fit together perfectly. We only did a few modifications to accommodate for heavier loads but that's all." Said Rinat who was standing next to Carmelo, she was clearly quite excited, but she was naturally much more restrained. Chris felt an "Amazonian vibe" with her tall and muscular body and long ponytail.

"This is great! Very good work! Did you say you already tried it? How did it feel?" Chris was very happy.

"Haha! How about I show you instead of explaining!" Said Carmelo as he pointed to his surroundings."Look at those lazy bastards! They are all waiting for this meeting to be over so they can be the first to snatch the handcarts!"

"Perfect!" Chris was worried that the wooden wheel would be too uncomfortable, but it seems the hand cart was such an improvement that they didn't even consider this an issue.

[If I want softer wheels, we'll need to find a way to manufacture rubber. I wonder if there are rubber trees in this world?] An image of the yellow barfing tree came to his mind. [I wonder if I can do something with it.]

But Chris pushed it for later, there were plenty of more important things to work on. They were currently defenseless and basically homeless as they all lived in tents.

"I see you already started manufacturing them. Good job." Praised Chris, every hour was precious, and subordinates that could take the initiative were a rare commodity.

"Yes, the materials needed for the handcarts aren't expensive, and they are already very useful in this state, so there is no loss." Explained Carmelo.

"This is model is as good as we can make it for now. We can start mass production." Decided Chris.

"Carmelo, Rinat, we need at least 200 of these as soon as possible. We will soon start building fortifications, and I certainly don't need to tell you how important those will be for our survival."

"You can request additional workers from Miss Mia. I'd recommend looking for potential apprentices amongst them. Your workload will only increase from now on!"

**** ****

It was now past lunch and Chris was back in his tent. He was looking at a checklist of everything that needed to be done in the short term. Wooing Mia was at the top of the list, followed by the city defense wall.

Other items included, a better water delivery system, taming horses, improving tools for every job, workshops for all tradeskills, stockpiling food for winter, creating new coins and so on.

The list was very long, but he was happy that there was progress for some of those items.

"Lord, it is time for your meeting in miss Mia's tent." Said one of his two escorts from outside the tent.

"That's right. Just one second." Chris cleaned his desk and put his list underneath his bed, on top of another leather scroll titled. "Winning over Mia."

Chris entered Mia's tent. The first thing he noticed, was the usual leathery smell of scrolls and books.

Mia, Cat, Berg, Titus, Ferlin, and Cid were sitting at the table and looking up at him.

"You might have heard about it already, but there are two items in today's agenda." Started Chris. "Carmelo, Rinat and Aiden will join us later as the first one has to be discussed in private."

"What should we do about the dungeon discovery?"