The management tier of Fundus Ferratus had just been promised an empire, but now, the architect of that empire needed to address the reality of paying for it.
"The vision is set. Now, we must feed the beast. Father, I need an immediate calculation. To construct the Castra Umbra, hire the Greek physician, and pay the first three months of salaries for fifty full-time Custodes, what is our total projected expenditure?"
Cassius, whose mind was a steel trap for numbers, didn’t even need to consult the ledgers stacked beside him.
His brow furrowed deeply. "Including the imported timber for the palisades and the medical supplies? It will require roughly sixty thousand silver denarii, Lucius."
Decimus and Titus exchanged a nervous glance.
Sixty thousand denarii was an astronomical sum, enough to purchase an entire city block in Rome!
Lucius kept his expression neutral. "And what is the exact liquidity of our current treasury, Father?"
Cassius let out a frustrated breath. "Between the wholesale of the agricultural tools in the city and the unminted gold Alaric the Germanic trader provided us, our liquid capital sits at exactly forty thousand denarii. It is the most liquid silver this family has ever possessed in three generations, yet we are still twenty thousand short of funding your private fortress."
Lucius nodded, tapping his fingers thoughtfully against the wood. "What is the total valuation of our family’s secondary real estate? The properties disconnected from this forge?"
Cassius, the consummate Roman patrician, knew his assets intimately. "We own the grand domus in Civitas Aurelia, and the coastal retreat in Baiae. Combined, their market value is easily thirty-five thousand denarii."
"But, Lucius," Cassius added quickly, his voice tightening with sudden suspicion, "that wealth is locked in marble and imported gardens. It is not coin."
"It will be," Lucius stated simply.
Before dropping the hammer, Lucius stood up and began to pace.
"Before we discuss asset liquidation, I am formally severing our finances. From this moment onward, the Treasury of the Sun will be completely segregated from the Treasury of the Eclipse, the shadow syndicate."
The men around the table exchanged bewildered looks.
"Severed?" Cassius asked. "Lucius, the estate is the estate. My coin pouch does not care if the silver comes from a steel spatha or a plowshare. Why split the ledgers?"
"..." Lucius sighed. "The Shadow Camp and the elite Custodes are incredibly high-risk investments. If a caravan of steel is captured at the border and our barbarian gold is confiscated, the Eclipse Treasury takes the loss. If the finances are merged, a single catastrophic failure on the black market could bankrupt the legitimate farm, leaving us unable to buy grain or pay the magistrates their taxes. But if they are separated, the farm survives perfectly intact, shielding us from suspicion."
Though the modern corporate phrasing was alien to them, the sheer genius of the strategy slowly dawned on the council.
By separating the money, Lucius was building a financial firewall.
"I understand," Cassius murmured, stroking his chin. "It is a safeguard."
"Exactly," Lucius confirmed. "Now, Father. I need twenty thousand denarii for Valerius to begin raising the army, and ten thousand for Hrorek to build the Schola Processus and fund the Inspectores division."
Cassius grimaced, clearly hating the math, but he nodded.
"I will allocate the funds from our remaining liquid gold."
"That leaves us with ten thousand denarii in emergency reserves," Lucius calculated. He stopped pacing and looked at his father. "Which is insufficient to survive a winter if the border trade halts. Therefore, Father, tomorrow morning, you will send riders to the property brokers in the city. You are going to sell the domus in Civitas Aurelia and the coastal villa in Baiae. Immediately."
The reaction was explosive.
"Have you gone entirely mad?!" Cassius roared, leaping to his feet.
His chair tipped over backwards, crashing onto the floor.
The patriarch’s face was livid, twisted in a mask of horror. "You want me to sell the ancestral domus? The coastal villa where your grandfather entertained senators? You are squandering centuries of patrician dignity! A Roman noble without a city estate is nothing but a glorified dirt-farmer!"
The outburst made Valerius and the freedmen stiffen, but Lucius didn’t so much as blink.
He understood his father’s panic. In Roman society, land and luxury properties were the ultimate markers of status. Selling them to fund a mercenary camp hidden in the woods was cultural heresy.
Lucius walked over, calmly picked up the fallen chair, and gestured for his father to sit.
"I am not squandering our dignity, Father. I am securing our dynasty," Lucius said. "A coastal villa in Baiae produces nothing but a pleasant ocean breeze and a drain on our taxes. The domus in the city is a vanity project. Neither of those properties can stop a legionary cohort from marching in here and crucifying us."
Lucius leaned over the table, locking eyes with Cassius. "I am not donating this wealth to the forge. I am authorizing a thirty-five thousand denarii loan from the House of Cassius to the Eclipse Syndicate. The syndicate will repay your personal treasury with interest the moment we secure a total monopoly over the Gallic weapons trade. We will buy you ten villas in Rome when this is finished. But right now, we need steel, and we need blood."
Cassius stared at his son, his chest heaving as the Roman warred with the merchant within him.
Finally, the merchant won...