All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 265: Roads for Leaving

Dreth’s rider disappeared south while Hajin sent the provisional rank wagon toward town behind Elise plus Sable’s bodies.

Hans remained with the eastern-post runners, leaving Orin to follow their route before the vanguard’s three days expired.

Hajin walked beside Juna through the damaged field road, checking every ditch Mara had marked during her inspection.

The clinic had all six wounded militia inside by the time they reached town, with Vella directing treatment through her burned arm.

Marrick waited outside the registry carrying the defense ledger plus a manor key nobody had used since Hajin arrived.

"The office cannot hold another command meeting," he said, indicating the chair split by the cellar lash, "and every witness page now needs guarded space."

"Use the manor hall," Hajin replied, taking the key while Ash watched from Lana’s arms upstairs, "the building has stood empty since we arrived."

They crossed the square toward the existing manor, followed by Mara, Mila, and three road supervisors carrying fresh estimates.

The structure still had a sound central roof, but cold entered through both side wings where old repairs had stopped.

Its main hall contained a long dining table plus covered furniture intended for a lord who had never lived there.

Juna pulled one sheet from an upper chair, sending dust across the abandoned room before opening the shutters.

"You could have slept here months ago," she said, testing the wall beside the fireplace, "one room would have kept rain off your bed."

"The forge needed timber," Hajin replied, spreading Marrick’s ledger across the dining table, "now the roads need it before this room does."

The first estimate covered a western field loop connecting three shelter posts without crossing the salt road.

The second repaired the quarry track, giving carts another route when Dreth closed the eastern approach.

Both roads needed drainage cuts, bridge boards, lamp posts, and enough packed gravel to carry clinic wagons during rain.

Marrick placed the total beside current wages plus grain, leaving eighteen thousand gold available for immediate defense work.

"The manor crew requested four thousand before your rank update," he said, showing a furnishing page, "a receiving room plus two heated bedrooms would let the region house senior guests properly."

Mila looked around the empty hall without defending the request, keeping her notebook against the witness packet.

"Yenna slept in a survey wagon last night," she said, checking one loose shutter, "she will survive another unfurnished room."

Juna ignored the guest argument, placing one claw beside the proposed bedroom nearest the stairs.

"He needs one dry room," she said, looking toward Marrick instead of Hajin, "put the bed there before somebody turns it into storage."

"Ten thousand to both evacuation roads," Hajin said, drawing the amount beneath the field loop, "six thousand splits between field stores, while the manor gets two thousand for command use."

Marrick adjusted the columns before answering, trying to preserve the bedroom line inside the smaller amount.

"Two thousand covers the main roof, map hall, secure doors, and part of the eastern wing," he said, tapping each cost, "it does not cover guest furniture or your rooms."

"Good," Hajin replied, crossing out the furnishing order, "use the upper rooms for messenger bunks until the roads are finished."

Juna’s tail struck the covered chair behind her while Mara moved the road estimates away from the argument.

"Field stores need distance between them," Mara said, marking five shelter points beyond the town wall, "one burned wagon should not remove every bandage plus ration."

Hajin divided the six-thousand allocation across five sealed caches, keeping grain, water, medicine, spare spearheads, and lamp oil under separate counts.

Each cache received two key holders from different work crews, preventing one missing runner from locking everyone outside.

Every shelter lead signed a separate receipt naming the exact weight stored beneath both assigned keys.

Missing supplies would therefore point to one cache plus one custody pair instead of disappearing inside the regional total.

Marrick added rotation dates so food returned to the market before spoiling, replacing it from later wagon deliveries.

"No permanent guard at the caches," Hans said from the doorway after returning from the eastern post, "Dreth will count fixed men before he chooses which store to burn."

"Bell patrols check them during normal routes," Hajin replied, moving the guard cost back into road crews, "the keys stay with shelter leads."

One supervisor objected when the western loop crossed two profitable fields near the irrigation bank.

The owners had planted late grain there, and a full cart road would remove nearly one quarter of both plots.

"Pay the harvest value now," Hajin said, reading Marrick’s estimate, "then pay road labor if either family joins the crew."

"They may refuse the cut," the supervisor replied, keeping one finger over both names, "the old lords took road ground without asking."

"Then offer the western edge plus the drainage compensation," Hajin said, moving the line around their houses, "if they still refuse, bring back another route."

Mara nodded once before adding the alternate survey, leaving the payment under the regional seal instead of calling it duty.

Work crews entered the hall while Marrick finished the order, carrying map boards before anyone brought a bed upstairs.

The old dining table became the central route table, with the field loop, quarry track, salt road, and eastern posts fixed across its surface.

Carpenters removed the decorative inner doors, widening both passages for messengers carrying frames plus sealed supply boxes.

The former receiving room became a dispatch office, gaining two wall slates plus hooks for patrol rolls.

Hajin marked the eastern ground wing for records, witness intake, and a guarded planning room, though its leaking roof kept that section unfinished.

The upper floor received messenger bunks along the western rooms, while the largest bedroom stayed empty beneath Juna’s crossed-out mark.

Marrick wrote the construction history at the front of a new building ledger before sealing the first allocation.

{Existing Manor Conversion — Command House, Stage One: route hall, dispatch office, messenger bunks, and eastern command wing repairs. Residential furnishing deferred until evacuation roads plus field stores are funded.}

"Command house," Juna said, reading the new label while workers carried the covered bed frame downstairs, "you found a longer way to avoid living here."

"I will be here for meetings," Hajin replied, helping turn the bed frame toward the dispatch wall, "that makes it more useful than a bedroom."

She took the other end without accepting his answer, carrying it into the room assigned for sealed road supplies.

Outside, the first two store wagons left the square under separate shelter leads while gravel crews followed toward the western loop.