The Hero Should've Known Better

Chapter 6: Shov-ar

"Mister Billers," General Forge asked. "You seem pretty enthusiastic about this."

"Who wouldn't be?" he asked. "Double pay, and land! It's a rather good deal, if you ask me."

"I agree, it is," General Forge replied. "But I have a favor to ask regarding that. Mind hearing me out?"

"Sure, why not?" he asked. The man adjusted his monocle. "Doesn't necessarily mean I'll accept it, since I do need to be somewhat selfish here. But go ahead, tell me!"

"So, the land," General Forge said. He held out his hand to signify the land. "It's a good deal and all, but Sollar and I don't really need the land."

Mister Billers raised an eyebrow. "You don't? Even if you can't do much with it now, holding onto it is best. The price of land on the frontier is steadily rising, you can sell it for good money months from now."

"Sollar and I just need money right now. We can't afford to wait months," General Forge replied. "But I don't want to sell it for pennies to some random individual. Are you willing to buy the deed to it?"

"That's certainly a tempting offer," Mr. Billings said. "Despite my looks, however, I'm not made of money myself. So I might have to hold off on buying the land."

"Ah," General Forge replied, giving a nod of understanding. "That's fine, I just—"

"Or, you can also lease it to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm still interested in the land! Can't buy it, though."

"A lease?"

"Like... a renting agreement. I rent the land and till it. You still own it, I pay you a renting fee plus a portion of what I make. Deal?"

General Forge held his hand out. "We can do away with the fractional fees, I'd prefer it most upfront. With that, you've got yourself a deal."

"Ah, let's not shake our hands on it so soon. Can't count your chickens before they hatch, we need to get the railroad done quickly!"

"Huh? But it's nearing sunset. We're going to get to work already?"

"We need to get the beginning preparations done, of course!" the entrepreneur exclaimed. He clapped his hands together. "Remember, we're being paid twice the usual rate per hour, so every hour you work is two hours you're getting paid! Here's the blueprints for it."

Mister Billers handed to General Forge a large, rolled-up sheet of paper.

General Forge nodded. "Alright. Give me a moment to look..."

He unrolled the sheet of paper and peered over it. "Let's see... We can definitely complete this project within two days. But we'll need to be clever when it comes to how we allocate labor. I'll rally the Demonfolk together and we'll—"

"Two days?" Mister Billers asked. "We have about a day and a half!"

"That'll be stretching it," the Demonfolk General replied. He rolled up the sheet of paper and looked at the entrepreneur. "But I'll see what I can do."

General Forge then raised his hand into the air and called out in a loud, commandeering voice: "All crew leaders, gather on me!"

Within thirty seconds, the bustling crowd of Demonfolk reorganized around the tent, this time circling around the table that was in the middle. General Forge had laid out the paper plans right in front of him, so anyone nearby could lean in for a good look. Sollar was next to him, peering at the plans too.

"Looks like we'll need to break the ground and do some gravel work," General Forge said to all the others. "They've dropped off the earlier shipments of supplies that we need, but we can't get started 'till we prepare the ground itself. Got that?"