Tales Of The Mighty Dragonair

He trusted Agnus, and he was such a capable person indeed. Plus he was a blacksmith, someone very familiar with finding and evaluating ores.

"After establishing the coin, you need to make it recognized. This is a tricky part, as you don't need only to spread it inside your empire, you need to distribute it everywhere."

He glanced strangely at her. "Even to my enemies?"

"Especially to your enemies," she replied before adding, "you miss the biggest point of the coin; it's a weapon! Imagine the entire world here recognizing your coin. Then you will be the sole controller of the trade and economy everywhere! If anyone becomes your enemy, he or she will risk losing the coins you supported, and lose the trade ability with everyone else."

"They will be secluded, right?"

"Bravo, that's the biggest strength of any coin. Plus, the more coins scattered in the world, the easier for you to gain resources. This will also help in turning your empire into the center of this world, the center of any world."

She seemed quite enthusiastic about this, so he said: "I will see about the source of the ore, while you should provide the coin and the system to imply it. If you found anyone worthy of taking the responsibility of ruling this entire system; don't delay and introduce him or her to me."

"Agreed," she nodded, before adding, "and you need to know a trade can't be done without enough security and the presence of a good and complicated road network."

"Roads?" This was another vague concept for him.

"Merchants would arrive here easier and faster if there were a network of roads connecting everywhere! Road network is a must, and this is considered a big project in itself. Either in building or securing them from thieves; this task would take time, effort, and resources."

"Sigh, all your words contain this resources thing. Is there anything cheap here?"

She laughed as she replied: "Building an empire isn't a child's game, or a beggar's aim."

"That's a fact," he couldn't refute her logic, "and these roads must be built to link cities like this one or towns?"

"Towns, even villages. If you can, link everything inside your empire with roads, and leave the rest of the world barren like the way it is."

"That's…" he didn't know what to say.

"This is important to make sure your empire thrive while others struggle to survive. Plus roads aren't only used for trade; armies also march easier and faster on roads. By keeping the roads off at your empire borders, you will guarantee no one will attack you out of nowhere."

Her logic was interesting for him to nod.

"As for the internal affairs, this is a giant project. As you can see, building just one city took such time, effort, and resources."

"Sure, this is going to be the capital."

"Indeed, yet it won't be your only city."

"You mean…?"

"You will need to build cities, more actually than you think. And you need to select places to build them. Each city will rule over a certain area of your empire, making itself like a small kingdom under your reign. How to select their location, and how many towns and villages you will build around would be the task of the ones responsible for this."

She seemed not ready to take this job, and he knew she had a point here. After all she was tasked with the science and currency missions. "I will find people to do this job," he said.

"You should be, and you should do it fast. The true authority of any empire is demonstrated by how much space it actually holds through these cities, towns, and village systems.

It will take time, so you need to start it soon."

"I understand."

"Then you need to do certain things beside just building cities. Selecting their governors is another challenge for you. Plus, you need first to determine the true lands your empire will control."

"I already had that determined," he replied, referring to the map he just drew a while back.

"This is a good start, yet the space you control is small," she honestly said, "you need to expand it."

"I intend to," he simply replied, as this was his next step here; invading other clans' lands and gaining more population and resources.

"That's good, then you need to train a good army to defend your borders and maintain your hold over them. You can also establish cities far away at the border to strengthen your grip there. But, roads would be important, and also walls."

"To protect the lands?"

"And line up your dominion. Walls aren't only for defense, they are a great tool to determine domains."

"I see," he nodded as he thought of his wall here. 'This wall won't do, it will need massive number of pillars to make it cover all this area,' he inwardly sighed before saying:

"I prefer to start building cities at the border."

"To migrate population and resources to them?" she read his mind easily here as she already understood his ambition and plans, "that indeed will work. But, you need to know building such cities way away from here would be a risky task."

He understood her meaning, "don't worry, I will make sure these clans won't be free to even worry about my cities and walls."

"That's a relief," she commended, before adding, "these are the essential pillars of any empire. After establishing the empire, you will need to refine it further. Like selecting ladies and defining the royal family to the masses. Like establishing the law."

"Law?"

"Sure, you don't want your empire to be ruled by the law of the jungle! Laws are important, yet they need a strong system and many people to be applied. So, you can postpone them for now."

He didn't fully understand her logic here, as he didn't see anything wrong about the rule of the jungle. He was the strongest power in his empire, so no one would ever threaten him.

As for his citizens, he thought being able to take what you want with your strength wasn't a bad thing! 'I lived in such a world for my entire life, can't see anything wrong in it!' he muttered to himself before saying:

"Alright, leave it for later than. Anything else?"

"No, those are enough for now."

"Good, first we will go to hit some bad clans, then when we return here we will start working on your plan," he said before turning to leave from the mansion.

She glanced at her back, with conflicted thoughts. "Sigh, it seems I can't escape his sharp senses," she helplessly shook her head before hurrying after him.

She knew he suspected her, and she knew he didn't trust her much anymore.

And she just hoped he wouldn't decide to kill her! So she tried her best to show him she was still valuable, and he needed her.

And he fully understood her aim through what she just said and did.

As she exited the mansion, she spotted his big dragon body flying in the air already.. "So impatient, tsk," she hurried to change into her tigress form before hurrying to follow him.