4^st of the 1^st month of the year 1839

It was nice seeing the city as I had been in the training camp for the past 3 months whipping the cadets into soldiers. While I was away, I had left plenty of assignments for the construction company to complete aside from the star fortress, these were reconstructing all the other villages and adding in watch towers and small forts for the garrisons aside from the training camp that was currently being turned into a relatively small star fortress. 

I walked to the manor and once inside I asked Otto to call Alina to my chamber. Once inside I checked where I had hidden my blueprints, draft constitution and laws and lastly the draft ‘Republican Manifesto’. The latter was a short book detailing the principles of a democracy, its structure and its strengths while denouncing and pointing out the flaws of oligarchies, theocracies, dictatorship and monarchies. The manifesto stressed the importance of the rights of the people and incorporated elements from the Communist Manifesto, the book was socialist based stressing how the government should use the money from the people to fund state services and the importance of the government having alternative sources of income from tax, not becoming privatised and the consequences of turning into a plutocracy.

This was the type of book that challenged the world itself by calling for an end to oligarchies and would result in my head being hanged if found. Thankfully though the lock of hair I had placed in between the pages was still there, indicating that no one had touched it. after placing the book and documents back into their respective hiding places I heard a knock at the door. ‘’Master you have called for me’’ Alina’s voice rang out. ‘’Yes, come in Alina’’ I responded. Once Alina came inside and shut the door she relaxed, adopting an informal posture as we both sat down at the small table.

‘’It’s been a long time Alina, how have things been on your end’’ I asked. ‘’Things have been good, currently the reconstruction of the villages are going well with the walls and buildings all remade into concrete structures. The garrisons and watchtowers have almost all been completed, all that’s left is the star fortress and the earthworks for the fortress and population centres’’ Alina responded. Nodding my head, I asked ‘’And what has father thought of the development and training’’. Alina sharply breathed in before responding, ‘’the lord is grateful and allowed the development to go ahead, especially the defensive structures and military recruitment, however, he believes that the reconstruction of the villages are unnecessary and wasteful of the money which could be used to bribe or hire mercenaries in the upcoming civil war. On that note the lord still hasn’t picked a side but is leaning towards Theodore's faction as the viscount and barons immediately north and north-east were in Henry’s faction which would leave the barony with room to expand’’.  ‘’I see. And what about the economic status of the territory’’ I asked. Alina looked at me dejectedly before responding, ‘’I’m afraid I don’t know, you will have to ask Charles about that’’. ‘’okay, then I will head down to the shop now’’ I said while standing up. Reaching for the door I looked back, Alina had a lonely look on her face. Feeling a bit guilty about having left her for three months I spoke. ‘’Would you like to accompany me Alina’’ I offered. Her one and a half ears perked up, ‘’yes Nereus’’ she said excitedly standing up from her chair.

Side by side, both of us walked out of the mansion and towards the shop ‘Administration supplies’ to meet Charles. Walking inside we headed up to the office where Charles was inside. Because we were in public Alina reverted to formal behaviour and stood at the wall while I talked with Charles.  

‘’Hello milord, it is a pleasure to see you again after those three months. What may I do for you’’ Charles asked. ‘’Hello Charles, I am here to receive a report about the economic status of the territory and how the business was going under your management while I was away’’ I responded. ‘’Well, so far the territory’s economy has been growing with the influx of migrants and the expansion of the industries offering jobs and employment the unemployment rate is low and the average income is higher than compared to other urban areas. This combined with the free economics course taught at the school has resulted in many of the peasants opening up small businesses selling goods from everyday household items and furniture to eateries serving food and alcohol. The business side of things however has had a drop’’ Charles said while averting his eyes. ‘’Why is that and how bad is it’’ I inquired while leaning forward. ‘’I have heard of paper other than our being manufactured in nearby territories, although on a small scale because we no longer hold a monopoly some of the merchants had left while those that stayed asked for a price decrease on paper. I refused to lower the price and stockpiled what couldn’t be sold. That is not all though. The lords across the country are purchasing iron and grain which has caused a loss of profits due to purchasing the metal for an inflated price’’ Charles huffed while looking down. ‘’What about the funds’’ I asked. ‘’The bank you built is storing the funds and currently it only amounts to ten years’ worth of the territory’s tax after the cost of large construction effort and settlement of migrants. The amount is constantly increasing but now at a slower rate than before, due to the increasing cost of materials and the development effort as well as the free social services like the school and library’’ Charles answered. Charles proceeded to show me the figures and account records to reaffirm what was said. I shifted through the documents until I was satisfied, once I had gotten a good understanding on what the company had gone though in the past three months I put the documents away before ending my talk with Charles with an order. ‘’Charles, I want you to start stockpiling a quarter of the paper being made as well as gather a group of blacksmith. I have some projects for them, the blacksmith slaves are busy right now and I need another group to create some new machines and tools’’. ‘’Will do milord’’ Charles responded.

Turning around I walked out of the office with Alina and into the street. After visiting Charles, I walked with Alina down to the industrial district to meet with Gonzargo to see for myself the progress with the weapon development. Passing through the town I entered the industrial district, making my way towards the research centre. Once inside the building I was immediately met with Gonzargo who was informed by an apprentice blacksmith of my arrival. Huffing, the dwarf met us at the entrance.

‘’Nereus, your back, oh and you brought a missy here, are you sure that she can see what’s been made’’ the dwarf asked. ‘’This is Alina and she has permission to see the weapons. On that note how has the progress been so far’’ I replied. ‘’In the past three months we managed to complete the development of the field and siege cannons. Our progress was slowed as the prototypes had to be transported a great distance away to test, lest we destroy our forge or cause suspicion’’ the dwarf answered. Taking a deep breath, he continued, ‘’ just recently we started to try and develop the flintlock rifle showed in the blueprints you left us. A type that utilised a breech loader and brass cartridges. Unfortunately, the new design and the gunpowder has made it difficult. So far, the best the smiths had managed to produce were firearms that either exploded in hand or broke immediately after firing. Still they had managed to produce workable muzzle loading rifle and the proper mechanism for breech loading. All they had to figure out was putting both parts together and the specifics of the mechanism so that the explosion didn’t break or jam the gun, then we should be able to produce a breech-loading, flintlock rifle. I estimate by the progress so far that they will be able to produce a suitable version within another six months or up to eight if you want us to perfect the design to the specifications’’. ‘’I see, firearms can be very complicated. About the field and siege cannon, what is their range and power’’ I asked. Gonzargo huffed, ‘’the range of the field cannon going by the demi-culverin design is able to fire at range of 500 meters and punch through a series of plate armour. The progress of the demi-culverin was slowed by the need to keep secrecy due to transportation issues. Similarly, the kartouwe siege cannon has yet to been tested due to its weight needing many horses to transport but in theory it should work’’. ‘’Shelve the siege cannon for now, what I want is for you to continue your development on the cartridges and rifle after the tools and machines to produce the demi-culverin and the cannon balls have been made’’ I ordered. Gonzargo grunted, ‘’well if that’s all I’ll get back to my forge to work on it’’. Turning around the dwarf made his way back, shouting at his underlings whenever he saw them do something wrong.

Having received my report on the weapons development I left the dwarves to do their work and returned to the mansion with Alina after getting some treats for us both. While walking I lamented on my thoughts. There was no doubt to say that the dwarves were excellent blacksmiths and despite their high price, they were well worth it. Without them I could only dream of creating rifles and I would just be stuck to simple cannons and maybe muzzle-loading pistols. Having the dwarves greatly reduced the time to recreate firearms and black powder weapons. With the dwarves working for me hopefully they will be able to produce a working rifle model by the time I turn fifteen when I will be able to legally succeed my father’s territory if he were to die in an unfortunate accident during his patrolling of the forest to clear monsters. In the meantime, I will have to busy myself with fortification development and drafting the constitution and set of laws as well as the Rebuplica Manifesto. Once Charles assembles a new group of blacksmiths, I will have them start the construction of the printing press and then have them focus on hand pumps, steam engine and steam powered tractors for ploughing and harvesting. Hopefully the civil war doesn’t start soon.

demi-culverin

kartouwe

these images are from google and i do not own them