Standing once before my father’s desk I mentally prepared my case. I needed a loyal, well trained army for when I take over. Knights and their ‘honourable’ values won’t cut it I need disciplined soldiers trained in modern warfare that were loyal to me and orders. All I needed to train the men was father’s approval. While I had proven myself a capable leader, raising an army and personally training them would be seen as a rebellion by father therefore I need his approval before I could begin recruitment and training.

‘’What did you wish to see me about Nereus’’ father said, resting his elbows on the desk and intertwining his ringers. Stepping forward I answered, ‘’Father, with the succession war looming over us I believe that it is time to expand the military. I would like to pick and train the men myself in a new style of warfare ‘’. ‘’Your worries are agreeable, but I’m quite interested in this new style of warfare you mentioned’’ father said. Sucking in a breath I answered, ‘’the style of warfare will be based on several autonomous teams of lightly armoured combatants equipped with crossbows, the idea of it is that any attacking army will constantly be harassed from afar, dropping the numbers and moral’’. ‘’An interesting idea, but what’s stopping them from simply overrunning them with cavalry’’ father asked. ‘’Each man will also be equipped with a long pike, when the cavalry get close the men will form a small group with five men holding pikes in front and the other five behind shooting the advancing cavalry’’ I answered. ‘’An interesting idea, but it doesn’t seem like an honourable type of warfare’’ father retorted. ‘’It isn’t supposed to be, its supposed to be effective. It would be better to win using less savoury means then to lose and be killed’’ I retorted back. Hearing this father laughed ‘’Hahaha, oh yes, I suppose your right about that. Very well I give you permission to recruit and train men in this new style of war’’.

Giving a small bow I thanked father and left, heading out to my shop ‘Administration supplies’ in town. This was one of the many shops owned by me and it sold the paper, books, pens and ink made by the people working for me. Heading inside I asked an employee if Charles was in. ‘’Yes milord, he is in first office on the second floor’’ the employee responded with a respectful bow. Thanking the employee, I climbed the stairs and opened the door to Charles’s office. Inside was a fat, jolly middle-aged man with brown hair. Seeing me he stood up and said ‘’ah Nereus, how can I help you’’. ‘’good evening Charles I would like you to do a few things for me. Firstly, I want you to spread word that I will be doing a large-scale military recruitment for men aged 16-30 as well as recruitment for instructors for; marksmanship, hand to hand combat, unarmed fighting, foraging and hunting. Secondly, I need you to organise or hire someone to organise the mass production of crossbows, knives and pikes as well as regular shipments of food to the training camp which will be east of the forest village. Thirdly I need you to organise the workers to begin construction of a fort to these specifications’’ I say while handing him a star-fortress design. Looking at the paper deep in thought he asked ‘’how many do you want to recruit and how much will they be paid’’. ‘’100 rias per day when in training and 125 rias a day after completing the training and becoming active servicemen. ‘’I see, I will get it done and have the recruits line up in the square a week from now’’ Charles said. ‘’Good, I will look forward to it’’ I said as I left.

Heading out of the shop I immediately left the commercial district and headed to the industrial district. After passing through under the walls that separated the industrial district from the rest of the town and the guards doing border checks, I arrived in front of a building hiding a cluster of forges. Various dwarf and human slaves worked on creating various objects and contraptions. This was the reaseearch and development center where I had gotten the workers to design various products such as the pen and the machines required to mass develop said products. Walking up to a dwarf who was shouting at his underlines I coughed, getting his attention. ‘’Oh Nereus, do you have something else to be made’’ the dwarf asked. ‘’Gonzargo, lets talk in the office shall we’’ I responded. ‘’Alright lets do that’’ Gonzargo replied. The dwarf was bought as a slave and was stubborn at first but gained respect for me after I had him and the other dwarves design various contraptions they had never seen before.

Sitting down at the small office I unfolded the stack of blueprints I had kept hidden in my coat. Placing them in front of the table I said ‘’I need you to create models of these and then tools and machines to mass produce them’’. Looking through the stack of papers he asked ‘’I had expected one or two things but there are quite a few, what do they do, and which ones should I prioritise’’. ‘’I want you to prioritise the field cannon and the siege cannon before focusing of the cartridge, rifle and a bayonet attachment. After that I need you to create the revolver and grenades and Mysorean missiles. The hwachas can be left alone as it is low priority’’ I answered. Looking through the blueprints he said ‘’you seem to have quite a few notes here on these blueprints detailing things I do not understand, this gunpowder thing, what is it’’. ‘’that is a propellant, when ignited it explodes. I will give you some to develop and test the weapons’’ I answered. ‘’Hmm, I will get the team to begin working on these right away’’ he said while getting up and yelling for his subordinates to gather round for the new project.