Dominic shrugged. "I take it that the amount of magitech expected to be in a house does not warrant having a Techno Wizard on staff?"
Pops nodded. "Most definitely not. Plus, you’re a blacksmith. How much of the magitech can you not fix yourself? Bring in a standard handyman to fix plumbing leaks and change magitech lights or broken windows."
Dominic laughed. "You know, I believe that I may have been overthinking things. It’s not just any Manor, but my own. Thanks, Pops."
Miss Lucy rolled her eyes. "Men are simple creatures, are they not? I would have gone into so much more detail about what and why you should be cutting expenses, but it all boils down to ’because you can do it yourself’, doesn’t it?"
Pops shrugged and sipped his morning ale. "It’s a great cost savings to be able to do things yourself, and as a Royal Smith, or former Royal Smith if he gets a peerage after winning the contest to become the Princess’ betrothed, he will also have the status to sell crafted magitech and tools."
Dominic smiled. "Oh, that is a great point. A few hours in the forge every day will give some extra budget to overcome the shortfalls in the first two years."
It would also make it extremely inexpensive to equip the guards.
Pops left for work, and Dominic sighed. "You know, they’re going to fire me from the forge one of these days. I’m hardly there anymore."
Lucy laughed. "Just assemble a few rifles and turn them at the end of the day, and they’ll consider you to be ahead of half the staff in production. You’ve likely got spare parts, don’t you?"
Dominic nodded. "I used a lot of them for the Natural Sons’ Regiment, but I’ve got a few rifles worth left. I left with a lot of spare rifle parts."
He had also left with his jigs and tooling. Making the raw parts would take time, but he could make the rifles themselves quickly enough once he had the raw stock.
The Tutor accepted that as the end of the topic, and turned back to Dominic’s budgetary plans.
"Alright, let’s start again using these numbers, then subtract what you can do yourself to help establish the estate, but don’t forget to plan for raw materials costs.
The King might expect you to fund most of it yourself, but he might also grant a large stipend to the chosen fiancé. If that’s the case, then making the operation of the manor as affordable as possible becomes even more important, as it reduces the load on the new residents when they move in.
The more appealing you can make it, the higher the quality of the farmers and craftsmen you can recruit." She explained.
"Ah, I see what you’re talking about. If I cut these positions, which aren’t really full-time jobs, and then downgrade these others to basic Journeymen, not specialists like we had at home when I was young, that leaves a huge extra amount of money.
Then, if I do these parts of the repairs myself, that’s even better.
I wonder if there is a magitech orb that will let me make stone walls and tile roofs? Or even copper roofing. I have a clay to steel spell, a similar one for copper would let me do most of the roofing repairs." Dominic suggested.
"Both of those exist. [Fieldstone Wall] and [Clay to Copper] are both specialty orbs, but they’re available in the city. However, I know a way that you can get them much more affordably."
Dominic folded his hands into a pleading position. "Master Engineer Lucy, would you be so kind as to help me acquire the needed technical magitech for this project?"
She was his Magical Engineering tutor, she definitely knew how to make them.
"Finish this budget first, then we can start on the Magitech that you will need for the job. But the Clay to Copper spell is a magical gem, not a magitech orb. You will need to buy one of them, and they’re not cheap, even with my connections.
Copper is the most highly demanded metal in the city, so clay to copper isn’t a spell gem that comes up on the open market, you need to go to the Royal Engineers to get one." She explained.
"Will they accept trades?" Dominic asked.
"They don’t need Rifles, they’re engineers."
"What about Mana Revolvers? Those are much more convenient for self-defence, and less clumsy than a sword when a formal event requires that you be armed. Plus, if you must use them, they can be instantly charged without breaking the restriction on displayed munitions and explosives." Dominic suggested.
Lucy nodded. "I think that they will accept that trade for the spell gems that you need. Fieldstone wall is a specialty orb, but it’s mostly used by commoner labourers. It’s not expensive."
"Perfect, I will make a properly decorative mana revolver tonight. Now, if I can recreate the fieldstone walls and the roofing, we should be able to cut the cost of home renovations to nearly nothing, as long as we bring the woodcutters and the sawmill operator first to create the joists and flooring for the houses.
Then, with the cuts to the manor, I can still maintain appearances with this amount of annual funding. And that’s following the standard festival and hosting schedules from the textbook." Dominic noted.
"Alright, let’s start on the revenue. Don’t count what you can make for yourself, at least not yet. After the two years, this is the cropland that you should have worked. These are the crops that are suitable, according to the data, and the wholesale price, if they sell to a merchant to take it to market.
Most won’t, as it is worth the effort to do the transportation themselves most of the time. But it’s more applicable as a minimum price for your calculations."
Line after line of math, then more math to determine what everyone needed to survive on, what Dominic needed to pay out in wages, what would happen in a poor crop year, and more math just because there was always more math.
"You know, I used to think that Royal Etiquette lessons were stressful, but they’ve got nothing on this budget project. We’re looking good on the budget so far, but we haven’t even started on the numbers for recruiting a guard force." Dominic sighed.
"And that’s why we did it last. First, make sure that all the people are well taken care of, then work out the security force that you need and can afford."