The next two weeks passed in a blur. Before August knew it, a convoy of soldiers arrived on his doorstep.
"You work fast, Bastion," Kuda said. August recognized him as Anna's beastkin adviser, and possibly also a servant.
His red wolf's tail remained surprisingly still behind his body.
If August were to describe Kuda in a word, it would be "disciplined." It was common for beastkin to be servants, but they were often unruly.
Their animal features weren't for show. They often displayed animalistic behaviors, and those behaviors couldn't be trained or educated out of them.
It was part of their nature, the same way that fairies needed to fly, and humans breathed.
Wolf beastkin were social animals, desiring constant contact with those they accepted or desired.
At the same time, they were wary of anybody outside of their social circle. August sometimes spent days convincing a wolf beastkin to speak with him at all when they first started working for him.
So for Kuda to have no issues at all being Anna's liaison with August surprised him. Trusted adviser or not, Kuda's faith in Anna must be absurdly high.
Or somebody had somehow trained the shyness out of Kuda. The man's poker face was too good for August to tell if the beastkin was anxious.
"Construction is something I'm good at," August said. He looked past the beastkin at the half-dozen wagons. "I expected more soldiers and fewer clerks."
"As you proved at Trantia, ordinary soldiers are no match for the power of a Bastion, Champion, or sorcerer.
Lady von Clair is happy to provide you one half-company of her private guards to help with patrolling the keep. The rest are to assist me in my duties," Kuda explained.
The two men watched the hundred soldiers unload their wagons. Armor, weapons, food, barrels of booze, spare uniforms. Typical stuff.
The other wagons were of more interest to August.
"I understand that. But the clerks?" he asked.
Kuda smiled and said nothing.
Two of the wagons had carried people, rather than goods. Unlike soldiers, civilians aren't used to marching all day long. While August had expected some administrative staff to help Kuda, there were far too many clerks here.
A couple dozen paper pushers bumbled around the wagons, doing a terrible job of unloading their supplies.
One wandered over to the outer gatehouse, looking thoughtful. The rest seemed awed by the fortress they found themselves in.
August had been busy these past two weeks. One item he had knocked off his to-do list was finishing the fortress.
The keep stood tall, casting a shadow over everybody in the courtyard. But it now stood on top of a hill, giving it a height advantage, and a thick wall ringed the entire courtyard.
August hadn't wasted much effort making the wall too high. Ten meters was plenty. Champions could still hop over the wall, but it was enough to deter a normal army.
Especially as two layers of defenses sat outside the wall. One was a simple ditch.
It was empty, but any attackers had to first run uphill, then traverse a three-meter-deep ditch. When the attacker got past the first ditch, he'd find himself facing another ditch.
Except this one was filled with barbed stakes.
It wasn't the strongest fortification that August had built, but he felt it would cause a lot more trouble to a conventional army than they likely bargained for.
The limestone in the wall was reinforced by the binding stone, so siege weapons would be less effective than normal.
With another week or two, August would have the power to add a magical barrier to the fortress, preventing a sorcerer or Champion from easily destroying the wall or ditches.
Given the fortress had been a pile of rubble two weeks ago, he forgave the clerks for being a little shocked.
"The clerks?" August asked again.
"This is the border with the Amica Federation.
It is also the fortress of the Bastion responsible for keeping the peace of the county," Kuda explained. "Lady von Clair plans to re-institute the tariffs she is lawfully allowed to collect on goods entering and leaving the Empire.
Furthermore, I suspect you will need some clerks to help you. You seem to be by yourself here. When merchants and others come to take advantage of the security of your fort, you'll need a hand."