I stood up straight, with a respectable posture and hands clasped behind my back as I stood in the centre of the room, facing my adversary sitting behind his desk. My father brushed his brown hair to the side, a trait that I had inherited, and gave me a piercing gaze before beginning his interrogation. ‘’Son, tell me exactly why you bought a slave, a demi no less, when we clearly do not need one’’ father states.  Gulping I did my best to utilise my superior mental age to come up with a logical answer that would satisfy father and his ideals. ‘’Because she is young she can be trained extensively in combat while learning how to become a maid in the meantime’’ taking in a deep breath I continued ‘’I plan for her to serve as both a bodyguard and an assassin which will be useful as this house has only one heir and as we are but a small barony we do not possess the means to go against other nobles so we will have to resort to more subversive activities of either gathering information to blackmail or assassinate certain threats’’ I finished, winded from my long answer.

My opposition was stunned, no doubt by how his ten-year-old son was already ambitious and thinking far ahead, with such a convincing statement there was no way he would be able to refute what I had just said. Nodding his head in approval he said ‘’very well, that certainly makes sense but who would you use her against’’ narrowing his eyes as he asked the question. ‘’Against those that ridicule or oppose our house’’ I answered. Giving a smile, probably for me showing support for his ideologies and ambition in raising the Fintan house he said ‘’in that case then I’ll allow you to keep your slave, since it does have the potential to benefit our house, even if it is a demi’’. Disgusted at my father and his views I gave a short bow before turning and leaving my father’s study.

Success, I had managed to convince father to let me keep Alina instead of having to throw her away or sell her to someone else who would most likely treat her by her status, as a slave with little value.

After coming back to the manor from the tax collection I had gotten Otto to have Alina fed, washed and clothed, ready to work as a maid for the remainder of the day as instructed. Nereus didn’t like having the malnourished and traumatised girl work but if he didn’t have her his father and others would wonder why a mere slave girl was lazing about and would likely punish or sell her. The only thing that he agreed with father on was training Alina in combat and other useful skills, he did after all need help and protection if he was to start a revolution. The other things he needed besides allies and subordinates was the support of the people, money and military power. He could gain the support of the people easily, after all in this medieval world the common man lives in fear and suffers at the hands of tyrannical nobles. By giving them a voice for themselves, treating them as equals and spending money to increase their standard of living I will be able to gain their support.

The only problem with this was religion. The humans of this world are highly religious and if the church declares me a heretic or excommunicate me, which they will likely do after ‘donations’ from other nobles and kingdoms, then the people will view me with distrust and be harder to gain loyalty from. Moving onto military power that is fairly simple, I already knew the recipe for gunpowder and the weapons and tactics it brings, all I need to do is gather the resources necessary and get specialists to reverse engineer cannons and firearms from my descriptions. Though to go against a country I will need a large military, but I will be able to recruit from liberated territories or freed slaves after I rebel. Last but not least was money. It makes the world go around and in a necessity from any state. It is needed to fund projects and the military as well as administer and educate the people. Money will be easy to gain as I already had enough funds to start a company and I knew of plenty of products from earth that this world is lacking.

Leaving my train of thoughts for some other time as I had reached the courtyard. Putting on padding I grabbed my practice sword and began training with one of the knights. Finishing up my afternoon routine with diner and a bath I laid down on my bed and thought about Alina and the future. I pitied her and wanted her to recuperate, both physically and mentally but I also needed her to learn combat skills and be used as an assassin and bodyguard to further my goals. I didn’t want to force such a life onto a child but pragmaticism trumped my ideals, I knew that I needed a subordinate that could carry out any order and not let any secrets slip. I guess I will have to keep up this facade and pretend to be the noble father wants and the person society expects until I am ready to fight against this kingdom and possibly the world if I want to make a democracy that will stand the test of time.

With mixed feelings and resolution in my heart I tossed and turned until I eventually descended into deep sleep.