Heinrich answered before the room had fully moved into silence.

"I would not need long," he said. "I have been here two weeks."

He folded his hands. Beorn recognized the gesture from their previous exchange, Heinrich used it when he intended to organize his thoughts from the ground up instead of isolated points.

"The city was not built as a unified structure, but repaired one failure at a time."

He tapped one finger lightly against his hand as he continued. "Currently, Ashmark’s administration is a series of patches implemented as a partial correction to stop the immediate damage. The food distribution system exists because of the refugee influx and crisis, not because anyone designed a stable civic mechanism. The military force was built as an emergency militia to the immediate conflict in a hurry."

His voice remained steady. "I’m inclined to believe the mine revenue has returned, yet the system is still essentially the one that permitted systematic corruption for decades."

He paused for a breath, likely considering whether Beorn was following the implications.

Then he continued. "What exists in Ashmark is a stack of interventions put forward in the order the crises arrived. Each one prevented a specific collapse, but none of them were capable to reform the foundation issues that plague the city.

His tone remained even, but the conclusion had weight because the reasoning beneath it was difficult to dispute.

"From what I gathered, the whole protectorate lacks a centralized bureaucracy."

Heinrich said. "Thereafter it is impossible to measure how many people you govern, what is the territory production output, what happens in practice on the towns and villages outside Ashmark’s direct influence."

He leaned back slightly. "Decisions made against unknown numbers are improvised rather than administered. You have governed effectively through improvisation, but that method is only feasible in a scale you can micro manage the situation itself."

Beorn stayed still while Heinrich spoke.

None of this was unfamiliar.

Hearing another man study the city for two weeks and arrive easily at that diagnosis made it clear to him how urgent the protectorate needed its reforms.

Beorn tapped one finger against the table, "In terms of population, Ashmark has an substantial bottom layer, exiled travelers as you know well, refugees from the Badlands themselves and beyond, laborers cycling through the mines constantly. A direct count would create false numbers almost immediately."

He leaned slightly further.

"How would you handle it?"

"Through secure methods instead of direct enumeration."

Heinrich replied without hesitation. "Food distribution records, housing registrations, gate entry and exit logs, work rolls from the foundry and the mines."

He folded his hands together. "Those records either already exist or can be required to exist without creating the kind of direct contact that encourages evasion."

Heinrich leaned slightly forward as he continued, building the logic step by step. "When two secure methods show the same population range, you establish a reliable floor. When they conflict, the discrepancy becomes an identifiable gap that can be investigated instead of an uncertainty that cannot be resolved."

He moved immediately into the next implication.

"Naturally, the criminal layer will never cooperate with formal enumeration."

Heinrich said. "That is predictable, but commerce generates records whether the commerce is legal or not."

He glanced briefly toward the ledger. "A household accepting food from a distribution cart does not need to register by name. The quantity itself already reveals how many citizens rely on that location. That shows you the minimum population of the neighborhood surrounding it."

He spread one hand slightly. "You estimate population through data and repeated cross-checking, not through declarations people are incentivized to falsify."

Beorn nodded in approval. The method reduced dependence on honesty and replaced it with measurable behavior in a way that made the system harder to manipulate at scale.

"About the revenue from the mines."

Beorn continued to the next topic. "Under the previous system, the foremen self-reported their production. How would you change it?"

"The standard correction is administrative presence at the point of production," Heinrich said.

He answered immediately, as though the solution belonged to a familiar category of failure. "A crown-appointed... protectorate-appointed auditor stationed at each mine to track ore weight mined against the product leaving. The auditor reports directly to the seat instead of through the foremen’s channels."

Beorn nodded to the solution and continued forward instead of interrupting the flow. "The outer settlements have ignored taxation and census demands for years. The army cannot reliably compel compliance at that distance."

He lifted his hand slightly.

"How to induce cooperation without direct enforcement?"

Heinrich answered immediately. "By having the cooperation benefit them. Any town or village that registers and pays its tax becomes eligible for army coverage, transit protection, and tool credits issued through the administrative budget."

Heinrich rested one palm against the table.

His expression did not change. "If the settlement already wants protection, trade stability, and access to resources, then compliance becomes the lowest-cost path."

Beorn leaned back in satisfaction. The framework was consistent, and more importantly, it scaled. "In the case the administration requires literate staff, Ashmark’s literacy rate is not high enough for direct recruitment."

He continued to idly match the old steward gaze.

"Where does the labor pool come from?"

"Merchant families already train for literacy because commerce requires it," Heinrich informed. "Former court staff displaced by the conflict are another source."

He paused briefly. "Given the refugee influx, several are likely already inside the city. The commercial operations will also have educated children, regardless of whether those operations remained fully within formal law."

He folded his hands again. "Beyond that, you identify capable candidates within the existing administrative staff and train them directly. Those groups together form the initial administrative core."

"That pool remains narrow."

Beorn noted. "It recruits from a limited class structure while the city continues expanding."

Heinrich studied him for a moment, then recognized the direction of the concern.

"I find it much more reliable to create a systematic literacy program." Beorn concluded.

For the first time, Heinrich took slightly longer before answering. "It would require teachers trained for that purpose, dedicated instructional facilities, families willing to commit children to attendance instead of immediate labor contribution."

He spoke carefully, as though laying out requirements in sequence.

"Teachers can be taught, facilities can be built, citizens can be convinced." Beorn said.

Heinrich inclined his head once. It was the closest he had come to open commentary on the scale of what Beorn was implying.

"That is a possibility, yes," he agreed.

The exchange came naturally after that.

Heinrich had replied to questions long enough that patience no longer felt performative. The conversation had changed into professional interview.

He now looked across the table at Beorn, waiting to learn the actual intention behind it.

"May I ask the purpose of this conversation?" he asked.

"I need a steward," Beorn said.

Beorn put it forward simply, "The position is yours if you want it. The formal written terms can follow thereafter."

Heinrich paused, but only briefly. He had likely understood the direction of the discussion several questions earlier.

The offer itself did not surprise him. He moved immediately to the issue that mattered before any answer could be given.

"I have one condition," he said. "Before terms are discussed."

He did not glance toward the window, which made the omission more noticeable. "Princess Mathild requires formal recognition as a political refugee under this protectorate’s authority, officially and available to any legitimate inquiry."

His tone remained steady. "What happened in Brennmark is not finished. If the new nobility council sends agents to retrieve her, that retrieval must legally constitute an action against the protectorate’s jurisdiction rather than a private dispute between houses."

Beorn evaluated the request quickly. The political cost was negligible compared to the administrative value Heinrich represented, and the legal framing created a clean jurisdictional boundary.

"Very well," Beorn said. "Brennmark has no political weight against this seat’s authority."

He answered without hesitation.

"From today forward, she is under my formal protection."

At the window, Mathild released the frame.

She had been standing there since before Beorn entered the room, positioned half toward the conversation and half toward the city beyond the glass.

Beorn suspected she had intended to appear detached from the exchange, though she had not missed a single word.

Now she stepped fully away from the window and crossed into the room. The table stood in front of her, there was no longer any barrier between her and the conversation she had been pretending not to follow.

Her hands rested at her sides.

The composure remained.

But the purpose behind it had changed completely.

Neither man commented on the action.

Heinrich looked back at Beorn.

"Then I accept," he said.