Chapter 55 - 54: Blueprint Finalization
The housing discussion should have ended after lunch.
Instead, it somehow became even more complicated.
Ideas, it turned out, were the easy part.
Everyone could imagine their ideal home. Everyone had suggestions. Everyone could point out flaws in somebody else’s design. Turning all of those wishes into a structure that could actually be built was a completely different challenge.
By the time lunch ended, rough sketches covered nearly every inch of the table.
Most had already been rejected.
One, however, refused to disappear.
Caleb’s slide.
Iris had watched it get crossed out at least three separate times. Somehow it kept returning.
"I swear somebody keeps deleting it," Caleb complained.
"Because somebody keeps adding it back," Daniel replied without looking up.
Caleb placed a hand over his chest.
The expression on his face suggested he had just suffered a personal betrayal.
"One day you’ll all understand my genius."
Nobody seemed interested in continuing that discussion.
The afternoon wore on, and the atmosphere gradually shifted. The earlier conversation had been filled with enthusiasm and imagination. This one felt much more grounded.
People slowly drifted away from the table.
The bodyguards returned to their patrol routes around the territory.
Li Wei and Jin disappeared toward the cooking area to begin preparing dinner.
Elias left with Dog to continue gathering resources.
Even Snow eventually wandered off after deciding architectural planning contained a disappointing lack of snacks.
Before long, only Iris, Henry, Benjamin, Veronica, and Caleb remained around the table. Everyone else had gradually drifted back to their own responsibilities, leaving the actual blueprint team behind.
The people who would actually be responsible for turning an idea into a blueprint.
Henry folded his arms on the table and leaned forward.
The moment Iris saw that expression, she knew exactly what it meant.
Architect mode.
Back on Aurelion, that look usually marked the end of ordinary conversation. Once Henry entered that state, projects happened.
Benjamin clearly recognized it as well. He straightened slightly in his chair. "Alright."
The single word immediately drew everyone’s attention.
Henry’s gaze swept across the collection of sketches scattered over the tabletop. "We’ve discussed what everyone wants." His finger tapped one of the drawings. "Now let’s discuss what we’re actually capable of building."
Caleb sighed. "The boring part."
"The important part."
"The boring important part."
"Exactly."
A smile tugged at Iris’s lips despite herself.
She reopened the customization menu and began reviewing the available information again. Most of it consisted of restrictions and requirements. Building categories. Material costs. Construction conditions.
Then her eyes paused on a particular line.
She blinked... Read it again.
Then read it a third time. The number remained unchanged.
"Huh."
Henry immediately looked over. "What?"
Iris pointed at the display. "The residence limit."
Several heads turned.
Benjamin frowned slightly. "What about it?"
"The maximum build footprint is three hundred square meters."
Silence followed.
Not because the number sounded alarming.
Mostly because nobody seemed entirely certain whether it was supposed to be large or small.
Caleb broke first. "That sounds huge."
"It isn’t." Benjamin’s answer arrived so quickly that Caleb nearly jumped.
The tablet was already in Benjamin’s hands.
Numbers began appearing across the screen as Benjamin worked through several possible configurations. Room dimensions shifted repeatedly while he compared layouts, estimated living space, and calculated how much room remained for future expansion.
After several moments of calculations, he looked up.
"It sounds large because people imagine a mansion when they hear three hundred square meters."
Caleb blinked. "And it isn’t?"
"It can be."
Benjamin tapped the screen. "But we’re not designing a mansion."
That distinction changed everything. As the discussion continued, Iris found herself looking beyond the table and toward the territory outside the walls. The future village existed only in plans and imagination, but she could already picture rows of homes standing where empty land currently stretched across Velaris.
She looked beyond the table and toward the empty land where the future village would eventually stand. As she imagined rows of homes spreading across the territory, a realization slowly settled into place. They weren’t really designing a residence for themselves. What they were creating was a housing model that future residents could use again and again. The blueprint might eventually be built dozens of times, perhaps even hundreds, becoming a standard that would help shape Velaris for years to come.
Once that realization settled over the group, the conversation changed almost immediately.
Storage space suddenly mattered.
Maintenance access mattered.
Water distribution mattered.
Future expansion mattered.
All the practical details that had seemed boring earlier became impossible to ignore.
If this blueprint worked well, Velaris could continue using it for years.
Henry seemed pleased when everyone arrived at the same conclusion.
"Good." He tapped one of the sketches.
"Now we’re finally asking the right questions."
The discussion continued for nearly an hour.
Some ideas survived.
Many didn’t.
Concepts that sounded impressive often collapsed the moment practical limitations entered the conversation. Others turned out to be far more useful than anyone initially expected.
One of those ideas came from Iris.
While studying possible layouts, her thoughts drifted toward something she had wanted since arriving in Eldilon. Not decorative gardens meant purely for appearance, but practical growing spaces where residents could cultivate vegetables, herbs, medicinal plants, and other useful crops.
Places where people could grow vegetables, medicinal herbs, fruit trees, and experimental crops.
The more she thought about it, the more sense it made.
Food security alone justified the idea.
By the time she finished explaining her reasoning, nobody disagreed.
In fact, Henry appeared genuinely interested. "A built-in growing area."
Iris nodded. "Even a small one could make a difference."
Benjamin immediately began making adjustments to the design.
Several new sketches appeared on the tablet.
A few moments later he rotated the screen toward the others.
The solution was surprisingly elegant.
Every residential unit included a private garden space. The plots weren’t particularly large, but they were more than sufficient for vegetables, herbs, small experiments, and other personal projects that would allow residents to make the space their own.
The idea was accepted almost instantly.
And just like that, the project gained an identity.
A Garden Villa.
The name appeared naturally during the discussion, and once it did, nobody wanted to replace it.
It wasn’t merely a place to live. The design encouraged residents to grow food, develop their land, and establish roots, making it feel like a foundation for the future rather than just another house.
For the first time that afternoon, the blueprint began to feel real.
Henry leaned back slightly, studying the sketches with a rare quiet expression. "If we actually pull this off, it will change everything about how Velaris develops."
Benjamin didn’t look up from the tablet. "It already has. We just haven’t finished realizing it yet."
Iris let her gaze linger on the scattered designs. For a moment, the weight of it settled in. This wasn’t just planning anymore. It was structure. Something that would outlast all of them.
Unfortunately, reality wasn’t finished causing problems.
The bodyguard issue eventually resurfaced, dragging the discussion away from gardens and housing layouts. The problem itself hadn’t changed. The bodyguards still needed to remain nearby, and Iris still intended to keep her status as Lord hidden from future residents. Those two objectives did not work particularly well together.
Building a large estate and placing everyone inside it would solve the security problem immediately. It would also attract attention almost immediately.
People noticed things.
They noticed who lived in the biggest house.
They noticed who received special treatment.
And once questions started appearing, suspicion usually followed close behind.
Velaris already had enough problems without creating new ones.
Several possible solutions were proposed over the next half hour. Most were discarded almost as quickly as they appeared. Some compromised security. Others drew too much attention. A few simply made no practical sense.
The breakthrough came from Veronica.
She had spent most of the discussion quietly listening while the others argued over layouts and logistics. Eventually, she reached forward and tapped one of Benjamin’s sketches.
"What if they’re neighbors?"
The conversation stopped.
Benjamin looked up from the tablet.
Henry’s attention shifted toward her.
Even Caleb paused long enough to stop suggesting unnecessary features.
Veronica shrugged. "Three villas. Built side by side." Nobody interrupted. "From the outside, they look completely ordinary. Just neighboring homes."
Understanding began spreading around the table.
Benjamin immediately pulled the tablet closer and started working through the idea. New lines appeared across the display as he adjusted the layout. Several walls shifted. Property boundaries changed. Pathways were redrawn.
The rough concept took shape surprisingly quickly.
Three separate villas.
Independent residences.
Ordinary homes that would blend naturally into the rest of the settlement.
Benjamin immediately pulled his tablet closer and began refining the layout.
The lines on the screen shifted again as he adjusted the proportions. A few seconds later, he paused, then exhaled slowly. "This actually works better than the original layout."
Veronica leaned in slightly. "So we’re keeping it?"
Henry nodded once. "We are."
That single word settled the matter.