Wizard: Building a Cultivation Family from Scratch

Immediately afterwards, Orianna's voice rang out from outside the door: "Ancestor, are you available now?"

Gordon snapped out of his reverie and immediately said, "Come in."

"Squeak—"

The door was gently pushed open.

Immediately afterwards, Orianna, with her golden ponytail tied back, walked in carrying a thick ledger.

During this period, with the Roland family officially taking over the Hoover family's territory, Oriana was practically running around non-stop.

As the head of the Roland family, she not only needed to appease the former Hoover family members who had been taken over along with the territory.

They also had to handle the handover of various old territories: taxes, armaments, manors, mills, ranches, armies, servants, caravans, mines, and so on...

Almost everything needs to be re-registered and recorded.

If it were in the past, Orianna, who had always been engrossed in studying mystical knowledge, would probably have felt dizzy upon hearing these titles.

But now, she has to force herself to get familiar with all of this as soon as possible.

Because she is now the head of the Roland family, no longer the girl who could hide behind Baron Cade.

"My ancestor, these are the main assets that the Hoover family has been inventoryed so far."

Oriana walked to the desk and put down the thick ledger she had been holding.

"Uncle Granger and Uncle Jess have already checked it once. However, the ledgers copied from the Hoover family are still somewhat disorganized, so there are many places that need to be checked again."

At this point, Oriana couldn't help but sigh and said, "Especially the debt part; it seems that Baron Hoover owed more money than we had anticipated."

Hearing Orianna's words, Gordon reached out his bony hand and opened the heavy ledger.

The ledger was filled with very detailed records, and it was clear that Orianna had indeed devoted a great deal of effort to this matter…

Hoover Castle.

[The lord owns four manors, two of which are well-managed, one is temporarily abandoned due to a lack of manpower, and the other was attacked by monsters and has not yet been repaired.]

Seven mills.

[Two ranches.]

[Two areas of forest park.]

  

A vineyard.

[Sixty-three warhorses and twenty-seven slow horses.]

[One hundred and twenty-seven sets of standard armor, over three hundred spears, twelve crossbows, and over seven thousand ordinary arrows.]

[Three caravans...]

Gordon already knew very well about the assets he had inherited from the Hoover family through the family panel, so he was not interested.

His gaze quickly moved down and found the debt column.

[The White Crow Merchants Association of León Province owes 640 gold shields.]

[We owe black market arms dealer Marlow Hayes two hundred and seventy gold shields.]

[The Red Fort School is owed a portion of tuition and material fees; the amount is yet to be confirmed.]

[The Viscount Wolf is owed approximately five hundred gold shields for the previous year's military levy.]

……

Seeing the dense list of dozens of debts, Gordon couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

A rough calculation suggests that the Hoover family currently has nearly 10,000 gold shields in outstanding debts.

This even includes tuition fees owed to the Red Fort School that have not yet been fully investigated.

Gordon had previously heard that Baron Hoover lived a life of extreme luxury and had even sent his eldest son, Daniel, to study at the Red Keep School, the most renowned school in the Kingdom of Loen.

Therefore, he naturally assumed that Baron Hoover's financial situation must be very good.

But to everyone's surprise, this damned old man actually owed so much money in secret...

It's no wonder that the new Baron Hoover, named Evan, readily agreed to Oriana's offer.

Clearly, the other party is simply unable to repay these debts on their own.

What a blunder!

Gordon felt a little annoyed.

However, he persisted and turned the pages one by one.

Because Gordon knew very well that for a family that was gradually embarking on the path of cultivation, the assets recorded in this ledger were the cornerstone of the family's future development.

Unlike individual cultivators, it is not easy to establish a large cultivation family.

These assets are precisely the key to the family's long-term operation and continuous expansion.

"Lord Ancestor..."

Seeing that Gordon remained silent, Orianna couldn't help but ask:

"So, what do you think we should do next regarding these assets and debts?"

She hesitated for a moment, then continued:

"Uncle Jess means that we now have all the Hoover family's debts."

Moreover, our military expansion has been too rapid, putting immense pressure on our finances...

Therefore, he suggested that we should resume the operation of the Hoover family's caravans as soon as possible, so that a steady stream of funds could be brought in to alleviate the financial strain...

In addition, Uncle Granger suggested that we could mortgage some of the Hoover family's estates to alleviate some of the pressure.

There were also soldiers from the Hoover family...

They generally don't identify with us much, and controlling them is a problem...

As Oriana spoke, her brows furrowed more and more deeply.

She now finally understood that the expansion of the family was not as simple as adding another piece of territory on the map.

Although these things belonging to the Hoover family have nominally come under the control of the Roland family, it will still take a lot of time, manpower, and money to truly turn them into the Roland family's own power.

Gordon was silent for a moment, then looked up at Oriana and said:

"You and Granger can decide this matter."

"what?"

Oriana was suddenly stunned, clearly not expecting Gordon to give such an answer.

She had originally thought that her ancestor would make arrangements for all of the Hoover family’s assets, after all, this was the largest expansion of the Roland family in nearly a hundred years.

In fact, Gordon knew very well what was going on.

It's impossible to handle the daily affairs of a territory like this forever.

Orianna will have to learn to handle these things sooner or later.

Moreover, with the family's growing influence, he should focus his energy on more important matters.

At this moment, Gordon, who was sitting behind his desk, did not offer any further explanation.

He extended a slender, pale, bony finger and lightly tapped it on the ledger:

"Where exactly is this mixed crystal mine located?"

"A mixed crystal mine?"

Orianna blinked, momentarily stunned.

She quickly looked down at the ledger and soon found the record in that line.

Only then did she remember that Gordon had repeatedly mentioned the mixed crystal mine to her before.

But she still couldn't understand why her ancestor would be interested in mixed crystals, a mineral with little value and considered extremely useless.

However, she quickly replied:

"This mixed crystal mine is located on the edge of the northern Knoway, near a stream on the southern side of the Misty Forest."

She hesitated for a moment, then added:

"However, this mine was not highly valued by the Hoover family in the past."

According to records, Baron Hoover did not invest much manpower in this mine, and its annual revenue was even less than that of the mills.

Baron Hoover had tried to sell it several times, but had never found a buyer willing to take it over.