Whale Island
Hi guys, here's the first regular chapter of the week! Looks like we're in for some nautical action.
"Milord, I think that the deal you made with Fisablen Family was a really irrational act on your part. From a strategic point of view, this is basically akin to strengthening one's enemy..." Howard who had been bothered by the deal for two whole days could no longer hold back and took the chance during tea time to tell Lorist his thoughts.
Lorist calmly popped a honeyed scone into his mouth before he washed it down with some tea and looked at Howard with a smile.
Howard blushed after Lorist stared at him without saying anything. When he got fed up, he said, "Master, please tell me why you agreed to the deal with the Fisablen Family. Everyone else is saying that it's because you have been beguiled by Princess Sylvia..."
Lorist hurriedly turned behind to take a look and was relieved to find that Telesti was still sitting on the grassy ground nearby with her newborn child along with Little Vinny. Even though Telesti's young maidservant had already grown into a fine young lady, not a trace of her childish and playful personality disappeared as was evident from her continuous toying with the baby's legs. Neither of them heard what Howard had just said.
"Come over here, you brat," Lorist said with a solemn look as he stretched his hand to ruffle Howard's hair into a bird's nest shape. "Looks like you've grown and are able to consider things from a strategic perspective already... Not bad... Alright, sit down right here. It's time to give you a lecture.
"Howard, answer this question of mine first. What is Duke Fisablen and the Frontier Legion to you?" Lorist asked.
Howard gave it some thought before he replied, "Master, even though Duke Fisablen and his Frontier Legion hasn't clashed with us directly so far, no matter what, they're still a potential threat to our family. If we want to attack the Iblia Kingdom in the future, they will become our enemy. Many other people are of the same opinion as I am."
"The Iblia Kingdom? Hehe, Howard, you should set your sights further. Don't just look at things that are right in front of you. In my eyes, I have never took Duke Fisablen and the Frontier Legion seriously as I think that they're not fit to even be considered our enemy," Lorist said arrogantly.
"Master, why do you think so? Duke Fisablen's Frontier Legion has up to 78000 elite soldiers and that number can definitely rival the forces of our family. And after the armament deal with them is carried out, their military might will only increase! You can definitely not be too careless!" Howard advised.
"Hehe..." Lorist snickered and said, "Howard, tell me what you think about Duke Fisablen's abandonment of the position of the regent of the Iblia Kingdom and his return to his lair at Eastwild Province."
"That's because of the plot you laid against him, master. Currently, the Iblia Kingdom is in a really deep mess and there's nothing the duke can do about it, so he has no choice but to give up on it," Howard said after he recalled the details about the situation.
Lorist shook his head and said, "You're wrong about that, Howard. No matter how good a plan or plot is, it would be nothing but a parlor trick in the face of true power and might. Actually, if the duke was ruthless enough, he could've cleansed the nobles that opposed him and gathered up the ones in favor of him to build up support for himself. He definitely has the capability to do so. As long as he can restore order to the kingdom and restart productivity, the Iblia Kingdom will no doubt be able to regain its vitality within five years, and not remain in its current chaotic state as a dying nation.
"But Duke Fisablen gave up on that notion because that was a path of no return. Either he succeeds in his effort or the Fisablen Family dies in vain for it. That's why he was afraid of doing so and was willing to abandon the kingdom so that he could be assured that his family would be able to continue on. As long as he has the Frontier Legion, no matter who it is, one would still have to treat the Fisablen Family with respect. Even if the duke himself was no longer present, the Fisablen Family would still be able to exist and survive based on the Frontier Legion alone.
"From that point, it can be seen that Duke Fisablen had long lost his ambitions. Even though the founding of the Iblia Kingdom was only possible with his support, the kingdom is already pushed to its limit. And Duke Fisablen understands well that his departure would signify that he has abandoned all attempt at saving the Iblia Kingdom.
"Let's look back at the Frontier Legion. Back then, the reason it was formed was to resist the attacks of the grassland barbarians of the northeastern plains. But nobody expected that when Duke Fisablen took command of the legion, its might would increase that quickly. Not only was it able to suppress the grassland barbarians, it was even able to expand the territory of the empire by conquering a whole province at the border. That's why the biggest enemy for the Frontier Legion is still the grassland barbarians of the northeastern plains.
"And while the Frontier Legion does indeed boast a number of 78000 men, half of the soldiers from the legion are actually required to defend against the attacks of the grassland barbarians. In the past, Duke Fisablen only needed three to four cavalry divisions from the legion to suppress his opponents within the Iblia Kingdom. However, ever since our family exterminated the Second Prince's force of 100000, the duke understands that it would be incredibly hard for him to take us four families of the Northlands on with the soldiers he has on hand.
"The act of ordering 100000 sets of equipment from our family with Princess Sylvia being their representative is akin to the Fisablen Family presenting an olive branch to us, signifying that they have no intention of being our enemy as well as to test whether our family really has the might to oppose them. By agreeing to this deal, we have expressed that we don't intend to treat the Fisablen Family as our enemy as well as making a subtle statement that our family doesn't mind the fact that the Frontier Legion's strength would increase from their purchase of our military equipment.
"Many people within our family are worried that the 100000 sets of equipment would greatly increase the strength of the Frontier Legion and think that selling the equipment to them is like making trouble for ourselves. Actually, they are so afraid because they've heard of Duke Fisablen's fearsome reputation as the war god of the plains. Howard, let me ask you, if our family's forces faces off against the whole of the Frontier Legion right now, do you think we would lose?"
"That's impossible. Given the might of our forces, the Frontier Legion has absolutely no chance of success at all. Whether it be the quality of the soldiers or equipment, our forces far surpass the Frontier Legion in those regards," Howard said confidently.
"Then, do you think the Frontier Legion will be able to fight on equal grounds with us or perhaps even defeat us if they're armed with the equipment we sell them?" Lorist asked again.
Howard stayed silent as he pondered upon the possibility before he finally shook his head and said, "They still don't have much odds of success even if that was the case. Our family forces' logistics support is still far superior to the Frontier Legion's. Even if we don't use any tactics whatsoever and fight them by the book, while they might win a number of battles using specific strategies and tactics, they'll still be defeated in the long run. But milord, even if that were the case, our family forces would suffer huge casualties as well, and that's why I think it's bad for us to strengthen the enemy like that..."
Lorist nodded and said, "Howard, you really are quite thorough in your considerations and I'm incredibly glad that you are able to do so. But you have to remember one important thing. As a general or commander, when you set foot on the battlefield, you have to consider your subordinates and soldiers as a mere number and be able to make calm observations about the state of battle at all times. You can definitely not allow anger or sympathy cloud your mind. Naturally, you have to think well about how to defeat the enemy while minimizing casualties to your own forces as well. But you must never forget your original goal just because you are suffering more casualties than expected, because if you don't obtain victory, all the casualties you incur would have been in vain. Only by securing your victory can the sacrifice be justified.
"What you said just now makes a lot of sense and the 100000 sets of equipment will indeed increase the might of the Frontier Legion. But you and the others who worry have forgotten the most important thing. This is a trade and you must consider the price the Fisablen Family and the Frontier Legion must pay to fulfill their end of the bargain. To our family, the 100000 sets of equipment is only 1 year's worth of production. But we are able to get up to 2 million cows and sheep from it.
"Livestock of that number is almost equal to two magical beast waves, each with more than one million beasts. That's definitely not a price the Fisablen Family can afford to pay since the Eastwild Province and the Wild Husbandry Province, the two largest livestock-producing provinces, only has a yearly output of 500000 cows and sheep. They definitely can't give us all the livestock they produce since they have to rely on them to trade for food, mounts, salt and other necessities for daily life. On the other hand, our agreement stipulates that they have to provide us with 400000 cows and sheep yearly for five years while we only have to give them two Frontier Legion divisions' worth of equipment per year, which goes up to 20000 sets yearly.
"That's why the Fisablen Family and the Frontier Legion set their sights on the grassland barbarians to rob their tribes of their livestock. But do you think the barbarians are a bunch that can be easily provoked? The tribes that have up to 100000 or more animals are those that have at least tens of thousands of members with all of them being capable soldiers as well. Even if the troops of the Frontier Legion arm themselves with the equipment provided by our family, that doesn't mean that the soldiers of the Frontier Legion would be impervious to damage and they will still suffer some casualties. I estimate that five years later, the Frontier Legion might need another twenty to thirty thousand sets of equipment to replace the broken ones.
"In some way, the signing of the agreement with us by the Fisablen Family is akin to having them work for our family for five years, all the while causing the grudge between their family and the grassland barbarians to grow even heavier. Even if they get all the gear we agreed to sell them five years later, they can only focus their efforts on resisting the retaliatory efforts of the grassland barbarians. And with five years of time to develop, do you think the might of our family will stay the same? By then, I think that we won't even consider the Frontier Legion to be of the slightest threat to us."
"Five years, huh?" Howard mumbled while scratching his head, before he smiled embarrassedly and said, "Master, I really have forgotten the most crucial factor of all: time..."
After reconsidering the whole situation, Howard's eyes shone with understanding. "Master, so basically if they sign the agreement, it means that the Fisablen Family and the Frontier Legion would have no choice but to be on friendly terms with us and can definitely not antagonize us in any way, because they have to use their elite soldiers to rob the barbarians of their livestock. In fact, they'll be trying their best to get on good terms with us to prevent themselves from being sandwiched by enemies from both sides and also due to the fact that we're in complete control of their supply of military equipment."
"Not bad, that's the gist of it. In the end, the people within our family opposing my decision can only see what's directly in front of them are worrying about nothing," Lorist said with a smile on his face as he lifted his tea cup up.
Right after that, Patt brought a dirty-looking family soldier hurriedly before Lorist and said, "Milord, there is an urgent report from the navy camp. During their drills, the three training ships sustained attacks by whales and two of them were flipped over with many casualties among the marines. So far, up to 370 of them are still missing..."
"What did you say?!" Lorist yelled with a look of shock on his face as he stood up and knocked over the table in front of him along with the teapot and cup placed upon it.
...
Lorist left that night itself along with his guards ad arrived at the navy camp Bullhorn Day on the afternoon of the next day.
"Milord, I have betrayed your trust because of my own incompetence and caused the navy troops so many casualties..." said Gold ranked knight Freiyar with an incredibly regretful look on his face.
Patting on his shoulder, Lorist said, "This is not your fault. I know that you have expended lots of effort on setting up the navy camp and you were also not aboard any of the ships during this training drill, so this incident was beyond your control. First, prepare something for me and the guards to eat. We haven't had anything hot since yesterday afternoon..."
The incident occurred as followed. During the middle of the 10th month when the three ships were handed to the navy camp for the marines to use during their training, they only sailed within Bullhorn Bay to familiarize themselves with the ships' properties and capabilities. But after doing the same thing for ten plus days, the navy troops were a little sick of repeating the same thing again and again and decided to head out of the bay. Just like that, each following sailing drill saw the ships sailing further and further away from the bay until three days prior, they discovered a small island roughly 50 or so kilometers away from Bullhorn Bay. However, that island was surrounded by a school of playful whales.
That island was not documented on the various maps probably because it wasn't large enough and was skimmed over by the Magi when they drew the maps of the Grindia Continent. That's why the maps that were passed down through the generations didn't have a record of that island. So, the marines took it upon themselves to name the place 'Whale Island' after the whales that frolicked around it.
During the training session two days prior, Freiyar himself had also gotten aboard one of the ships and saw the island for himself. At that time, he even refused the request of some soldiers to dock on the shore, mainly because he felt that the whales around the island were too numerous and he was worried that something bad would happen to the training ships if they approached so carelessly without preparation. But little did anyone expect that the group of marines whose turn to train was yesterday would be unable to resist their curiosity to check the island out, causing three training ships each carrying 200 excited people to sail straight towards the island.
Just when they were within 5 kilometers of the island shore, the two ships at the forefront started being assaulted by the whales, the largest of which was as big as a training ship itself. After the largest whale jumped and rammed into one of the ships, causing it to flip over entirely, it rammed against another ship immediately following that. By the time the single remaining ship retreated to a safe distance, its crew only managed to save 23 people by sending smaller life boats in with the remaining 377 marines who were originally riding the two flipped ships still missing in action.
Freiyar explained the details of the situation in a deep voice and everyone understood what it meant to be missing at sea. Apart from the few fortunate ones who had been spared from the horrible fate, the rest have most likely departed from this world.
"Whales are not magical beasts. So, why did they attack our training ships?" Els, the leader of the guard brigade, asked.
"I'm not sure about the reason either," said Freiyar as he shook his head. "Ever since the incident yesterday, I've asked a few older boatmen and some fishing folk and according to their explanations, it's possible that the whales have stopped near Whale Island because they were nursing their young. That's why they might've considered the three training ships to be encroaching upon their territory and launched their attacks.
"Milord, currently all the navy marines are in a very horrible mood due to the incident yesterday. I was considering whether we should punish the marines and captains that managed to return alive. After all, the tragedy only happened because of their overwhelming curiosity and recklessness..."
"If you had formally ordered them to not approach that small island, then I won't oppose to punishing them," Lorist said.
Freiyar gave it some thought and said, "No, I didn't give them the explicit order to not approach the island..."
"Then forget it. Even though the marines on duty must always be disciplined and obedient, having lots of curiosity and desire for exploration is not a bad thing in itself. Even though such a tragedy occurred in the early stages of training, we cannot allow this incident to impact our family's dedication to set sailing into the seas. No matter it be the island or territory of the whales, as long as they are part of the ocean, then the Norton Family's fleet will definitely roam across it unabated!
"Freiyar, you should first focus on consoling the marine troops. I will have the shipyard build whaling ships right away and by spring next year, our family will begin hunting those whales. We will turn that 'dominion' of the whales to become the lands of their demise," Lorist said as he thumped his hand hatefully on the table.
Grandmaster Sid
OMG I almost forgot to release this before going to sleep! This is the second regular chapter of the week and I hope you enjoy it!
While it was easy for Lorist to make that kind of proclamation, he didn't really have a method he could use to take revenge against the whales as he would require whaling ships. Lorist had been to the Relic Islands before and the locals there were adept whalers. However, they mainly used canoes and swarming tactics against the whales like wolves surrounding a wild bull before using harpoons coated with tranquilizers against them and dragged the whales to the shore when they were paralyzed to be cut open and eaten raw.
It was definitely impossible for Lorist to have the marines learn how to hunt whales from the locals of Relic Islands. What he needed now was a huge whaling ship, so he visited the shipyard again and summoned his shipwrights to begin discussing on how they would go about building the whaling ship.
The training ships constructed for the navy troops were merely 24 meters long and according to the report of the marines who returned alive, they said that the gigantic whale that rammed the first training ship was already 30 meters long. The whaling ship had to at least be two times the size of a whale to be able to stand a chance against it. Thus, Lorist turned his attention to the completed keel of the sail-powered survey ship he designed.
The survey ship was planned to be 75 meters long. In stark contrast to the world of his previous life, the Black Forests had lots of huge trees and it was incredibly easy for them to obtain good quality wood, causing them to not have to construct the keel out of smaller composite parts, further simplifying the construction process.
Since they were going to convert that survey ship into a whaling ship, the watertight bulkheads must be strengthened even further to be able to resist direct ramming attacks of the whales. One of the workers suggested that it could be done by adding another layer of 20-centimeter-thick boards and nailing them tight with copper nails. Even though that increased the mass of the ship and would decrease its mobility, the ship would be able to take more punishment without breaking as easily. Lorist happily accepted that suggestion and rewarded that worker with 10 gold Fordes.
Thus, the plan to change the survey ship into a whaling ship was approved by Lorist. But another problem that had to be solved urgently quickly surfaced. It was already the 11th month with winter on the horizon and it was impossible to continue the construction of the ship In the snowy days to come.
Initially, Lorist had intended to build a huge wooden building so that the construction could proceed indoors, but after trying his hand at drafting the blueprint for such a building, he gave up the notion as a building of that size wouldn't be possible with the construction technology and standards of Grindia. At that moment, Old Man Balk suggested a solution, that was to work on the initial construction of the ship at a cave found beneath a cliff near the place where the wood for the shipyard's use was stored. After winter ends, they only had to move the various ship parts out for further assembly such as erecting the mast, etc. That way, the work wouldn't take more than one month to complete.
Lorist personally went to check the cave out for himself and found that it was incredibly wide and agreed to Old Man Balk's suggestion. During the four months of winter, the two whaling boats' hulls would be constructed there at the same time. He assured Old Man Balk that manpower wouldn't be a problem as he believed that the commoners within the dominion who weren't working their farms during the winter definitely wouldn't mind working for some extra cash, which the family would naturally pay for. He only had to make sure that the quality of their work was upheld.
After leaving the shipyard, Lorist rushed to Bladedge Mountains with his guards. This time around, he was headed for Grandmaster Sid's refinery.
As a saying went, 'one must have the right tools prepared for the right job'. Even though the power of the steel ballistas used by the carroballista division were more than enough against the whales since their skin weren't as tough as the strong hide of the magical beasts, they were incredibly huge in size, so the bolts used by those ballistas were a little too short. Additionally, Lorist wouldn't be content on just killing the huge whales as they were very useful animals all the way from their meat, skin, fats and oils. Even their bones were the ideal material to make umbrellas with.
If the usual ballista was used for whaling, there was a risk that the whale would ram against the ship at the moment of its death and shatter the structure of the ship. That's why Lorist planned to have specialized harpoon shooters installed with had hundreds of meters of steel cable loaded onto the ship. He also wanted the normal ballista bolts to be modified into harpoons, allowing the whalers to drag the corpse of the whale all the way back to the port after they killed it.
When Lorist arrived, Grandmaster Sid thought that he had come for the 100000 sets of armor ordered by the Fisablen Family and even reassured Lorist that there would be no problem for them to produce 8000 stainless steel armor plates without issue, since he was only in charge of the plates. After that, he would send those plates to the armament production plant and the workers there would take over and use the plates to make proper sets of armor.
Right after that, Grandmaster Sid brought Lorist to see his latest breakthrough which concerned the catapult Lorist tasked him to redesign some time prior. Lorist was surprised when he reached the test area as he saw a six-wheeled mobile catapult as opposed to the heavy and immobile lever-based catapult he designed some time ago. However, the torque-based mechanism of the initial torsion catapult design was replaced by a steel wire spring mechanism.
Originally, Lorist had wanted to make a torsion catapult that utilized a halter, but he was quite troubled when he couldn't recall which animal tendon he should use so that the catapult would be able to launch the payload. So, he had no choice but to settle for a lever-based catapult instead. He didn't expect that Grandmaster Sid would give him such a pleasant surprise by using an elastic wire spring to replace the torque mechanism he had originally designed.[1]
"Grandmaster Sid, how did you manage to think of using a spring to make a catapult?" Lorist asked, feeling a little ashamed. Even though he had come from a world where technology and industry developed at breakneck speed, Lorist wasn't able to come up with that simple solution that solved all the problems as he had only managed to recall a replica of the roman catapult he saw on the television once, causing him much embarrassment as he was a transmigrator from a far more advanced society.
Grandmaster Sid stroked his beard gleefully and said humbly, "Milord, actually, I made the discovery by accident."
Pointing at the water-powered machines by the waterfall, Grandmaster Sid recalled and said, "Before, the largest water-powered presser has always posed a problem when it came to resetting the position of the setter, so we used a U-shaped metal circlip to keep it in place. However, that kind of usage stressed the circlips too much and eventually we had to make a lot of them to replace the worn-out ones. During one of the times when a circlip lost all elasticity, we decided that we might as well coil the circlip a few more times before putting it back in. We didn't expect that the coiled circlip regained its function and took far longer to wear out from usage than it did before.
After you tasked me to improve the design of the catapult, it made me think of the coiled circlip we accidently made previously so I started experimenting immediately and realized that this type of coiled up metal wire circlip had the best effect. Then again, I feel that instead of calling them coiled up circlips, it's better to just call them metal wire springs. Yeah, we'll do just that from now on.
"Milord, look over here," Grandmaster Sid said as he pointed at a metal plate that looked like a minor segment of a circle on which five straight lines were carved along with a few rows of words. "This plate measures the distance we can launch the rocks and if the catapult is set to the highermost line, it will be able to launch the payload 100 meters away. The lowermost line is the setting that will allow the catapult to launch it 500 meters away. However, this catapult can only throw stone projectiles of a unique shape made by us because rocks of different sizes will affect the firing distance of the catapult unpredictably.
"Look here, milord. I've used both steel and wood to construct the body of the catapult, so it's incredibly sturdy. As for the six-wheels at the base of the catapult, taking the stability and recoil into consideration, we had no choice but to increase the weight of the base. While the catapults are a little slow to move, they are incredibly flexible in that they can fire regardless whether the army is on the march or not because it only requires three people to operate.
"One person will be in charge of its movement, another will load the stone projectiles and the last will fire it. Milord, this metal wheel over here rotates after the payload is launched and pulls the catapult arm back to the metal plate so that an operator can set the firing distance by aligning the arm with the corresponding line. After that, a stone projectile can be loaded onto the bucket and the projectile can be launched by pulling the control lever."
"Grandmaster Sid, you really surprise me greatly with your genius in mechanics and design. I take that this catapult can already be moulded and mass-produced?" Lorist asked.
"Milord, I still feel that this catapult has two shortcomings. First, the heaviest projectile it can launch is 25 kilograms, and second, the steel wire springs still don't last long enough. After around a hundred launches, the spring will have to be swapped out. I have been trying hard to figure out how I can reduce the wear on the springs but I still haven't managed to succeed so far," Grandmaster Sid explained.
"No, Grandmaster Sid, you have already done exceptionally well. The endurance of the springs are due to the material used and not the fault of your design. As for the maximum projectile weight of 25 kilograms, that can already be considered to be rather good because if the projectiles get any heavier, they will no doubt affect the mobility of the catapult. If that's all the shortcomings you can think of, then they're not big deals. For now, produce 300 of these catapults for me. I am going to form a catapult division," Lorist said.
"As you wish, milord. I will arrange for my men to begin manufacturing them immediately. However, do you want to see how I have optimized the catapult you designed?" the old grandmaster asked.
"Oh? You've even improved upon that one?" Lorist mused curiously as he wondered how the revamped catapult looked like.
Grandmaster Sid brought Lorist to the side of a four-wheeled carriage within which a lot of parts were stored. The carriage was even covered with a rainproof oiled cloth. The grandmaster called five other people over and instructed them to move the carriage to an empty lot further away and begin assembling the parts it carried.
After the oiled cloth was removed, blocks of wood and a few other steel parts could be seen. Lorist instantly understood that it was a disassemblable catapult. Within a short half hour, a 5-meter-tall lever grounded catapult appeared before Lorist.
"Milord, the only shortcomings of your catapult design is the time it requires for assembly which can only be done quickly by trained personnel. But the advantages are obvious: the heaviest weight it can launch is 75 kilograms and the furthest firing distance is 600 meters. That's why I modified it so that it can be disassembled for ease of transport by carriage to another place," Grandmaster Sid said.
"Not bad, you've done a great job. This design is really ingenious. With the catapult you designed and this disassemblable one, I believe that no castle or citadel will be able to stop the advance of the forces of our family," Lorist praised.
"How about this, grandmaster, make 10 units of this assembly-based catapult as well. I think I'll have 200 of those wheeled catapults and ten assembly-based grounded catapults in one brigade. Let's call it the Thunderbolt Brigade then. Submit a report on the production cost of the catapults and submit it to me. I will approve it right away."
"Thank you, milord," Grandmaster Sid said.
Howard who was following behind Lorist to make records reminded, "Milord, do you have anybody in mind to command the Thunderbolt Brigade yet? Should we also classify information about this brigade?"
Lorist gave it some thought and answered, "Howard, record my orders. Transfer the commander of the First Local Defense Brigade, Ovidis, here to become the commander of the Thunderbolt Brigade and order him to bring along half of the more experienced family soldiers from his brigade along with him. As for the other vacancies, have the veteran soldiers from the other units fill them up.
"Second, Family Knight Paulobins will be promoted to become the Firmrock Castle First Local Defense Brigade's commander with the transferred soldiers replaced by new ones from the new recruit camp. Other than that, the Thunderbolt Brigade doesn't need to be categorized as top secret, just confidential would do."
"Yes, milord," Howard said as he handed the orders he wrote down to Lorist for his stamp and signature before putting it into a silver container to be sent out by the guards.
"Oh, and before I forget, Grandmaster Sid, I have come here for something else," Lorist said as he stopped the grandmaster who was about to leave. "The family navy marine brigade got attacked by whales during their last training session and we lost two training ships as a result and incurred heavy casualties. I plan to deal with these whales and a large whaling ship is already in construction back at the shipyard, but we still require a large harpooning ballista to use against the whales."
"A large ballista? Milord, you should've sought out Grandmaster Fellin for this..." said Grandmaster Sid with a troubled look. He believed that ballistas were Grandmaster Fellin's department and his workshop was not far away from his own either.
"Grandmaster Fellin, huh... Hehehe, he won't do," Lorist said as he shook his head. "While Grandmaster Fellin is indeed an expert in the construction of ballistas, he always designs his creations by the book and doesn't have any spark of innovation or creative insight. That's why I am unable to hand such an important task to him. Additionally, the time limit for this task is quite limited and we'll have to begin the production during the coming spring. I still feel more assured if I have you work on this."
Lorist's compliments caused the grandmaster to be in an incredibly good mood. He smiled and said, "Since milord looks up on me so much, I will give it a try. However, I still hope that you can have Grandmaster Fellin research in collaboration with me since it'll be more convenient for him to answer some of the questions I might have..."
"No problem," Lorist agreed, before he turned back and instructed, "Howard, go to the ballista workshop and invite Grandmaster Fellin over. After that, bring a few guards to move the one carroballista and super ballista from the workshop over here."
"Yes, milord."
Grandmaster Sid was incredibly interested in the super ballista and he even wanted to try firing it once, much to the shock of Lorist and Grandmaster Fellin. If an elite family soldier had to rest for at least one hour to recover from the firing recoil, an old man like Grandmaster Sid might just lose his life during the attempt. It was only until Lorist ordered one of the guards to demonstrate firing the super ballista that Grandmaster Sid realized that it wasn't a simple toy that could be fired by just anyone.
"Milord, can you tell me some of the requirements you want for the large ballista?" Grandmaster Sid asked.
Lorist took out some writing instruments and proceeded to draw a ballista bolt. The ones who saw the drawing gasped as it looked incredibly savage and vicious. The bolt itself was three meters in length with the sharp tip of the bolt taking up half a meter of the whole thing. The tip had three sharp edges that all had deep blood grooves as well as three reverse hooks at the end of the head of the bolt. There was also a round ring behind the bolt that was used to secure the metal cable and the whole bolt was to be constructed with stainless steel.
"I want the large ballistas to be able to fire these specialized bolts which we will use to capture the whales with. They must be larger than the steel ballistas for the carroballistas to be able to fire a bolt of this size, but can't be as large as the super ballista because we can't have that kind of recoil when firing on a ship. The firing distance should be between 100 to 150 meters and the main criteria is for the head of the bolt to be able to successfully penetrate the body of a whale. Additionally, the course of the bolt must also not be affected by the cable attached to it, so the force of the ballista must be higher."
After looking at the drawing and contemplating the requirements Lorist gave him for a long moment, Grandmaster Sid finally said, "Alright, milord, I already have a rough idea in my mind. I will try my best to make this new ballista for you within three months."
"Alright, then I'll be leaving this to you."
[1] For those who want to see what a spring catapult looks like, here's a video of it. Link. Credits to the original source.
Flying Fish of Dawn
Here's the first bonus chapter of the week courtesy of Benjamin R. from France. Have fun reading!
This was an incredibly weird ship as her body was slender like a sharp razor blade. On Grindia, the ratio between the length and width of a ship was 5 to 1 at the very least, but this ship was different with its length being 30 meters but its widest part being only 5 meters wide. She floated on the surface of the ocean, proudly showing off the figurehead sculpted in the image of the dragon-slaying Dawn Goddess with one silver nameplate on each side, both engraved with the name of the ship: Flying Fish of Dawn.
At that moment, the seven white sails hanging on the three masts the Flying Fish of Dawn were fully opened, capturing the winds and propelling the ship across the deep blue ocean like a speedy arrow with the view of Bladedge Mountains in the distance slowly fading away.
Lorist stood on the bridge of the ship and welcomed the wind that blew straight at him and caused his black cloak to flap around nonstop. Standing beside him was his student and attendant, Howard, along with Els, Patt, and Jim, the three leaders of the guards. Also present were the leader of the mounted archers, Gold ranked marksman Josk, the vice leader of the carroballista brigade, Dulles as well as Gold ranked knight and commander of the marine brigade, Freiyar. The captain of the ship was Silver ranked family knight Wilson with his quartermaster being Old Jack.
Wilson was a huge man of 30 or so years of age and he was originally a captain of a merchant vessel. However, due to his encounter with pirates, the goods he was transporting had all been taken and he was apprehended by the owner of the goods despite surviving his encounter. Having no way to pay back the goods he lost, his whole family of five were sold to slave traders by the owner in a fit of rage. In the end, they were purchased by Potterfang who bought the slaves to form the very first forces of the northbound convoy. During the northbound journey, Wilson managed to rake in some achievements and was made a family knight by Lorist in the main camp of Nadegas City. Since Lorist had heard about his past and experiences, he elected to make Wilson the captain of the Flying Fish of Dawn.
Quartermaster Jack was 50 years old that year and he also had a background of a slave. However, his experiences were even more shocking. He had been a sailor for 30 or so years and he got to know a widow when he was 40 and decided to settle down and spend the rest of his life with her. And so, Jack resigned from his job and brought the widow back to his hometown. But before two months even passed, the First Prince initiated his rebellion and sent the Krissen Empire spiraling into the chaotic times of war. His small hometown had been invaded by the forces of the First Prince and his wife died as a result, with him being captured and made a slave and eventually becoming one of the workers of the Kenmays Family. He was finally released when Lorist returned to the Northlands. Now that Lorist wanted to form his naval team, an experienced sailor like Jack could finally be of some use and thus he was made the quartermaster of the ship.
It was currently the 8th month of Year 1773. At the 4th month of that year, the Norton Family had two whaling ships built equipped with the harpoon cannons designed by Grandmaster Sid and began a frenzied massacre against the whales of Whale Island and managed to rake in near a hundred whales for the Norton Family. During that time, much manpower and resources had been gathered up at Bullhorn Bay and it only took three months for this three-masted sailing ship Lorist designed to be built.
"Milord, this is the fastest ship I've ever seen so far and she is even able to travel at 11 knots on full sail. I believe that we won't be able to find a faster ship than her anywhere on Grindia," said Captain Wilson excitedly as he never even dreamed that he would one day become the captain of a magnificent new ship like this.
"That's right. I believe that this is no doubt the fastest ship on Grindia. I estimate that we will be able to see the Platinum Beach which is within the Sidgler Province of the Madras Duchy tomorrow afternoon," praised Old Jack as he agreed with Captain Wilson.
"Oh, Old Jack, have you been to this part of the sea before?" Lorist asked.
"Yes, milord. 30 years back, a few of the larger merchant guilds in the empire formed a coastal survey team and hoped that we can find a good spot along the coasts of the empire to build a port and establish a sea transportation route. Back then, I was only 23 and had already worked as a sailor for 8 years, so I was part of the team as well. The survey team set out from Armatrin Harbor of the Lormo Duchy and traveled along the coast of the continent northward for a little more than three months. The furthest we managed to go was the Lost Forest which is located north from the Black Forests," replied Old Jack.
"Did you manage to find a place to build a port in the end?" Lorist asked.
"No. Back then, the survey team stopped their efforts after reaching the Jillin Harbor of the Andinaq Kingdom because further up north, the condition of the coast would be the same along the Bladedge Mountains. Even though the coasts were shallow, they were filled densely with dangerous reefs and there was no way for ships to approach the coast. Had we not used smaller boats to resupply our ship, the crew would've lost their wits completely. I still recall back then when the president of the merchant guild that organized the effort said that the coastlines there must've been cursed by the gods because we weren't able to find a suitable place to dock at all," Old Jack said.
"Then what happened after that?" asked Howard, who was enraptured with the story.
"After that we continued on northward. After all, we're paid to sail so we had no reason to stop. Also, the merchant guilds that organized the effort said that they wouldn't stop until they found somewhere to build a port and doubled our pay. In the end, we finally found a place to dock near the Lost Forest and those few merchant guilds started to discuss about occupying the place and moving some commoners there to expand their territory before gaining acknowledgement from the empire to become landed nobles themselves.
"But the night three days after we docked, our camp got attacked by gigantic magical beast gorillas that came from the depths of the forests. They tore apart every man they saw and I was incredibly lucky back then as my shift required me to be on the ship. I personally witnessed the bodyguard of one merchant guild's president, a Two Star Gold ranked swordsman, being torn apart into two halves by a magical gorilla who later ate him whole. I continued to have nightmares about that for almost one whole month...
"Of the 700 plus people who were on shore, only 41 of them made it back. We had to give up on two transport ships to even have enough people to man the remaining five ships and returned to Armatrin Harbor in shambles before disbanding shortly after collecting our payment. It's even rumored that the three merchant guilds had lost so much from that venture that they went bankrupt. However, for a low-ranked sailor like me, it's already incredibly lucky that I survived at all. That's why I refused to join any other survey teams after that and only worked securely on the merchant vessel for a living..."
After Old Jack finally concluded the story of his adventures, Howard turned to Lorist and asked, "Are magical gorillas that strong?"
Lorist patted Howard's head and said, "Didn't you read one of the books in my collection about magical beasts? The information recorded on it is pretty accurate, but the part about the magical gorillas occupying the Lost Forest was only confirmed after the survey team Old Jack was part of returned. An adult magical gorilla is about 4 meters tall and it is blessed with unparalleled strength and can be said to be one of the top three strongest magical beasts. If a Gold ranked knight can calmly circle around the gorilla, there was a good chance he could escape without being harmed. The one Old Jack witnessed dying was an exception and he probably lost his life because he panicked. That's why, retaining your calm is always the most important."
Howard lowered his head respectfully and said, "Thank you, milord. I understand now that no matter what situation we encounter, we must always stay calm and keep a clear mind. Only by doing that can we escape our predicament."
"Hehe," Josk who was listening smirked as he came over to ruffle Howard's hair. "This kid is sounding more and more like an adult day by day. Did he mature overnight after his engagement? Having a wife really does change a person..."
During the 12th month of the previous year before the snow fell, Baron Felim went over to the Firmrock Castle with his 15-year-old daughter as promised. According to him, the mother of his daughter was more like his junior apprentice sister. When he was learning from an old knight, he fell in love with the knight's only daughter and the young couple couldn't control their lust for each other and the young maiden ended up conceiving a girl at the tender age of 16. During the 11th month of that same year, she gave birth to a daughter.
Two years later, the wandering Baron Felim got a piece of bad news about how his lover had attracted the undue attention of a new baron's son when she was out in town to purchase medicine for her sick father. The girl gave her harasser a harsh kick in a fit of retaliation, embarrassing the baron's son greatly. As a result, the baron's son killed Baron Felim's lover with a sword and burned her bedridden knight father alive. Fortunately, Baron Felim's daughter was in the care of their neighbor because the old knight was too sick to take care of her, allowing her to escape the misfortunate incident.
Baron Felim said that since he was only a wandering knight back then and he was busy searching for a way to restore the glory of the Felim Family, he had to endure it even though he developed a huge grudge for that noble family. It was only after five years during the civil war of the empire when he served under the Second Prince that he was valued and given command of a troop of soldiers. He used that chance when he was marching back from an expedition to assault the town of that baron who was also allied to the Second Prince and buried almost a hundred of the people affiliated with that family alive to avenge his dead master and lover.
Baron Felim's daughter Katrina was an incredibly obedient and mature girl who was blessed with a delicate, beautiful look. After Katrina and Howard met, the both of them got along pretty well and Potterfang felt quite satisfied to have a daughter-in-law like her. So, Lorist organized the engagement ceremony for Howard and Katrina and the two of them would marry after Katrina reached the age of 20 and underwent the ceremony of adulthood.
Lorist saw Howard's flushed face and decided to step in to spare him the embarrassment. "That's enough, Joe. Stop messing with my disciple. You know how easily embarrassed he is, so stop wasting your efforts to tease him and use that time to find yourself a wife instead."
Josk shrugged and said, "Milord, you know me. My heart is already sealed tight and will no longer beat for another woman. I think that I will be better off spending the rest of my life freely by myself."
Lorist shook his head and said, "That won't do, you have to form a family and give birth to a few healthy children to pass down your impressive marksmanship heritage. I'm sure that Baron Omador and that lover of yours will be cheering for your bliss from the paradise of the war god."
Josk merely stayed quiet without saying anything else.
Sensing that it would be insensible to continue pestering Josk, Lorist didn't press on and said to Howard, "Go check out on Knight Charade and see if he's feeling any better."
The Flying Fish of Dawn's current voyage destination was the Andinaq Kingdom. There were a few reasons that prompted Lorist to take this journey, with the first being the transportation of the imprisoned Second Prince there so that the family no longer had to waste any food feeding him. As a prisoner, the Second Prince was still pretty arrogant and even promised others who visited him empty positions of power in hopes that they would break him out of jail. There were some idiots who actually believed his words and thought that it would be a good opportunity for them to shoot for the moon and actually bothered to bring the Second Prince's letter to request for help to the dominion of the Fisablen Family, only to end up being captured by them and sent back to the Norton Family's dominion to be hanged in front of Firmrock Castle.
Apart from that, Lorist wanted to visit his other piece of land, Silowas Island. Five years ago when Lorist accepted the Andinaq Kingdom's entitlement of the position of the count, the Second Highness enfeoffed his own principality, Silowas Island, to Lorist in an effort to make up for his mistake. However, as Silowas Island was a lone islands amidst the seas, and Lorist was busy leading the northbound convoy back to the dominion at that time, he had no time to bother with the island. Now that the Bullhorn Bay was developed and there was a way out to sea, Lorist could finally check his new dominion out.
After hearing that Lorist was about to leave on a trip, many family knights all scrambled to join in. As they had spent too much time working on nothing but development paperwork for so long, many of them couldn't help but want to experience something new by going along with Lorist on that trip. However, even though the newly-constructed Flying Fish of Dawn was 30 meters long, it was rather narrow. Apart from requiring 28 sailors and a captain, vice-captain, and quartermaster, they could at most bring along 27 more people.
Josk was dead set on following Lorist no matter what so he naturally took one of the places. Freiyar on the other hand said that since he was the commander of the navy marine brigade, he naturally couldn't miss out on the virgin voyage of the Flying Fish of Dawn and took the second place on the ship. Dulles said that since the ship would be outfitted with five new steel ballistas, he had a responsibility to teach the marines how to use those ranged weapons to their full potential, so he brought along five other steel ballista shooters from his unit on board.
Since Lorist was on board, Howard would naturally be there as well, followed by Els and Patt with the reason of ensuring Lorist's safety. The Second Prince also had to be there. Charade on the other hand wasn't the slightest interested in going, but as Lorist said that the family didn't have a specialized officer for this trip, he dragged Charade along with him and left Shadekampf in charge of the former's tasks temporarily. After all, he was going to the royal capital of the Andinaq Kingdom, the former imperial capital of the Krissen Empire, and he would need someone to persuade some high-ranking and capable officers to go back with them to the family dominion.
Just like that, 14 of the 27 places had been taken up. Initially, Charade got seasick and frequently vomited all over the place. Within only one day, he had turned into a bedridden patient and it was only after Lorist made some medicine to help with his dizziness that he managed to get some sleep at all.
The night of the 8th month brought with it the cold breeze from sea. Lorist put on an outer cloak and sat on the bridge of the ship as he stared at the starry sky in deep thought.
Apart from the lookout crew on the mast of the ship, everyone else were sound asleep. The sails on the three masts had also been retracted with only the vertical sails at the head and tail of the ship still catching any wind at all, causing the ship to sail ever so slowly across the calm surface of the sea.
A silhouette appeared on the bridge, followed by the thumping of firm footsteps before the figure sat down beside Lorist with a small barrel of fruit wine and a silver cup in hand.
"Are you feeling any better?" Lorist asked.
The one who just came over was Charade. "After having some medicine and sleep, I no longer feel like puking, but I'm still a little dizzy nevertheless. It's weird, you know. I remember that I never got seasick when I was younger. Why would it hit me like that now that I've grown? Well, I slept too much during the day so I can't get any more sleep now and decided to come look for you."
Pouring some fruit wine into a cup and toasting Charade, Lorist said as he continued to stare at the stars, "Fatty, I was thinking whether we should use this chance to check out on Morante City. Old Jack said that given the speed of this ship, we can reach the Buried Treasure Bay within one month. Don't you want to go back and check on the academy? You can also write your father a letter and tell him you're doing very well with us."
"Forget it, I'll only tell him when you give me some land and make me a landed noble. I will surprise him when that happens," Charade said after taking a swig of wine.
"Then you'll have to wait four years more. Without serving the family for at least ten years, you won't be given a dominion. However, I'm only a count right now so I can at most entitle two viscounts and four barons. Additionally, I can't enfeoff the land within the family dominion so I'll have to see what we have to work with when we go to Silowas Island. If I can become the Duke of the Northlands, then I can enfeoff you guys richer lands."
"Locke, I actually have a thought. If you actually become the Duke of the Northlands, it's better if you don't enfeoff the land of the Northlands to anyone else. Naturally, you can have some manors and bastides for your Gold ranked knights, but it's better if you don't keep any landed nobles within it. I think that the Northlands should be unified and ruled only by the Norton Family. Only with that can the family have a secure foundation to continue on for the next hundreds or thousands of years. As long as we can seal off the two bridges and one crossing point that link the Northlands to the rest of the continent, the Northlands can exist as its own unit. No matter what happens in the outside world, the Norton Family will still be able to sit calmly in the Northlands and watch the happenings unaffected. Even so, given that we now have Bullhorn Bay, we must also form a strong armada to ensure the safety of the family dominion."
"What you said makes sense and those are my thoughts exactly. But we still have to wait for the opportune time to be able to achieve all that. What our family has to focus on now is to continue consolidating our power."
As the Silvermoon continued to shine upon the peaceful surface of the ocean, the waves sparkled with its light. The Flying Fish of Dawn continued sailing upon the silver, sparkling waves towards the distance...
Tax Collection
This second bonus chapter of the week was brought to you by Paulo S. from Brazil! Thanks a lot and enjoy the read.
On the 32nd day of the 8th month, the Flying Fish of Dawn arrived at Silowas Island. The journey from Bullhorn Bay all the way to the island took 17 days and that was mainly because it was their first voyage there and the crew was unfamiliar with the situation at sea, so they elected to travel more slowly at night just to be safe. Old Jack said that when the sailors get used to traveling that route, it would take at most 10 days for them to make the same trip again.
Silowas Island was the only large island near the coasts of the Andinaq Kingdom and it was almost 150 kilometers away from shore. Usually, it would take a ship one day to travel from the coast of the kingdom to the island. The surface area of the island was enough to fit one county and three viscounties. But it was a shame that it was a dormant volcanic island, so two-thirds of the island's surface was covered by volcanic mountain ranges, beaches and forests with not much land to farm on at all.
According to the information Lorist was given when he accepted the enfeoffment of the island from Second Highness Auguslo, the total population of Silowas Island numbered fewer than 5000 with it having three villages and a small town called Whitebird Town. Given that it was quite inconvenient to travel to and fro the kingdom by sea, the nobles of the former empire and the current ones of Andinaq Kingdom considered Silowas Island to be a rural place, with there being precedent some refusing enfeoffment there in the past.
After the civil war of the empire ended, the Third Prince who founded the Andinaq Kingdom was worried that Second Highness Auguslo, who had incredible military achievements, would threaten the First Highness who was better at management and administration for the inheritance of the throne. The Third Prince didn't want his two sons to reenact the civil war that broke the empire into pieces, and he believed that war would not break out for a long period of time and that the state of the kingdoms and various duchies would stay the same, with the reason being that he thought that they would require some time to recover from their losses of the war.
With that consideration in mind, the Third Prince appointed the more reliable and resourceful First Highness to be his successor and decided to deprive the Second Highness of his soldiers so that he wouldn't pose a threat to his elder brother's position. Thus the Third Prince used the excuse that they were unable to sustain three huge armies to disband the Second Highness's Whitelion Legion and also sent the Fiercegale Legion to the Melein Duchy to help Duke Melein resist the Second Prince's assault.
In the end, the Third Prince also converted the whole of Silowas Island into one principality and gave it to the Second Highness as his hereditary dominion. The Second Highness was also ordered to go there and wasn't allowed to leave unless he was summoned back, effectively sealing his fate as an exile in stone. To the Third Prince, with the First Highness whom he personally taught managing the affairs of the kingdom and the threat that was the Second Highness gone, he felt that his first son would soon easily be able to succeed his throne and allow the state of the Andinaq Kingdom to stabilize.
What the Third Prince didn't expect was that he would actually be the target of the waves of assassins sent by the First and Second Princes and eventually got hit by a poisonous arrow despite his best preventive efforts. Even though the Third Prince managed to get rescued in the end, he became bedridden and ill. And the First Highness whom he thought was reliable and steady turned out to be a person of weak character and was taken advantage of the allied nobles of the Andinaq Kingdom who saw through his facade, causing much pressure to build up on the Andinaq Royal Family to the point that the territory of the royal family was divided between the nobles. Thus, the kingdom plummeted into yet another state of unrest.
The Second HIghness who had lost his army could only panic on Silowas Island as he had no power at all to affect the royal family and the kingdom's predicament. But during that time, Second Highness Auguslo got news about an incredibly large-scale convoy entering the borders of the kingdom that boasted a huge military escort force. Back then, that convoy was already in conflict with the Andinaq Kingdom nobles at the Green Plains.
Thus, the Second Highness left Silowas Island on a ship and hoped that he could mediate the conflict between the convoy and the noble faction while gaining some advantages for himself. What he did not expect however was before he even arrived, he got more news of the Battle of the Green Plains. The convoy's forces which numbered half of those of the allied nobles actually won a landslide victory and all the nobles that participated in the conflict were hanged by the convoy's forces as they continued their travels, razing one dominion after another to the ground.
Most crucially, that convoy flew the Raging Bear flag of the Norton Family and seemed to be intent on returning to their dominion in the Northlands, and the Second Highness's female knight and lover, Norton Glacia, was someone from the Norton Family. So, the Second Highness traveled to the camp of the convoy one night and used his lover's relationship with the Norton Family and the gear of his disbanded Whitelion Legion to successfully persuade Charade, Potterfang and the rest to agree to a cooperative relationship, successfully using the convoy to his advantage to cleanse the Andinaq Kingdom of those nobles and helping him rise to prominence.
After gaining enough power and influence in the kingdom, Second Highness Auguslo summoned the Fiercegale Legion back and restructured the Royal Family's Local Defense Legion and tossed a huge number of vagabonds and refugees to the northbound convoy while he proceeded to stabilize the kingdom and restore agricultural production.
Back then, the northbound convoy was in a precarious position as it still had strong enemies to deal with ahead in their journey and was also facing a food crisis, having been stopped from advancing at the border of the Madras Duchy. Had it not been for Lorist's trip to help out the northbound convoy, it might have collapsed in due time or forced to walk a path of blood and death to continue their journey.
The moment Lorist reached the convoy, he saw through the plan of the Second Highness almost right away. To bring Lorist to his side, Second Highness Auguslo even promoted Lorist to a count to elevate his status and enfeoffed his own hereditary dominion, Silowas Island, to Lorist as compensation for his troubles.
Right after that, Lorist led the convoy's troops to cross Egret Lake and attacked the army camp at Bread Hills during the night and managed to encircle Lichtana Citadel, thus securing a route for the convoy to continue traveling northwards. Following that, he barged into the Madras Duchy and conquered Kobo City during a snowy night and finally managed to bring the northbound convoy back into the Northlands. On the other hand, in concert with Lorist's movements, the Second Highness forced the Ironguard Legion who guarded Lichtana Citadel to surrender and occupied the Madras Duchy's Yungechandler Province.
When Lorist led the family convoy back to the Northlands, the Second Highness overhauled the citadel on the mountain path as a defense for Yungechandler Province and used the Madras Duchy's largest trade city, Vanades City, to turn Duke Madras's Seamountain Legion against the Second Prince's 'reinforcements', successfully causing the two sides to clash against each other. Following that they, would no longer pose a threat to the Second Highness.
After that, Second Highness Auguslo consolidated his soldiers and resisted the invading First Prince and his army of 70000. Initially, he ordered the Fiercegale Legion to steadily resist the First Prince's forces, forcing the First Prince to lose over half of his army of 70000. After that, Auguslo attacked the First Prince's remaining 30000 elite troops at Flowater Creek and managed to eliminate them altogether, forcing the First Prince to don the disguise of a refugee to escape.
After the attack at Flowater Creek, the Second Highness led his soldiers on a counterattack against the Redlis Kingdom and managed to force the First Prince to sign the peace treaty which stipulated that two of the provinces of the Redlis Kingdom would be given to the Andinaq Kingdom. After the Second Highness pulled his soldiers back, Duke Madras who had suffered heavy casualties against the Second Prince sent someone to him to request for peace as well, causing Yungechandler Province to be given to the Andinaq Kingdom, allowing it to become the largest nation after the fall of the Krissen Empire with Second Highness Auguslo's reputation soaring to the point that he was called a war god of the new generation.
It has been five years since then and Lorist finally managed to stabilize the situation of the Northlands and further expand and develop his family dominion. This trip to his new dominion, Silowas Island, was his first.
Silowas Island's port was built at the coast near Whitebird Town. It was a curved wooden bridge that stretched into the clear and blue ocean that boasted a clean and white beach.
What surprised Lorist was there were seven to eight other ships docked on both sides of the wooden bridge, a few of which were decorated rather grandiosely with their flags flying the emblem of some other noble families. It seemed that Silowas Island wasn't as rural and secluded as what others had said after all.
With no docking guide boats around, the people of the town near the coast were uninformed of the Flying Fish of Dawn's arrival. Not even one person showed up at the port to look at what was going on.
The Flying Fish of Dawn had already had her three sails retracted and only relied on the sails at the front and back to slowly propel herself forward to the wooden bridge. When she was near enough, a few of the sailors jumped onto the bridge and tossed over the mooring lines, fastening the ship to the wooden moorings of the bridge.
Lorist instructed, "Wilson, leave half of the crew on board to keep watch. Dulles, have your five ballista shooters stay back to defend the ship. I feel that something is off with Whitebird Town as there isn't a single soul on the port here. The others, follow me into the town to see what's going on."
It didn't take long until Lorist found out that it wasn't the case that the people of Whitebird Town had disappeared. Instead, they were all gathered in the central plaza, squeezing against one another tightly, with occasional waves of chatter and shouts of objection.
After tapping a man of forty or fifty years of age who was dressed like a sailor on the shoulder, Lorist asked, "Friend, can you tell me what is going on over here?"
That man didn't turn back and cursed out loudly with frustration. "What else? That son of a bitch Viscount Aslan is here to collect taxes again..."
"Collecting taxes?!" Lorist exclaimed. Isn't Silowas Island the new dominion of the Norton Family? Why would somebody else be sent here to collect taxes?
"Explain yourself! Who's here to collect taxes?!" When it came to money and taxes, Charade was the one who cared about it the most. He instantly burst out angrily as he thought, this is the dominion of the Norton Family. Even though the family hasn't sent anyone here to set things in order for five years now, to think that someone would dare to collect taxes here... This is no longer a small matter of offending the Norton Family... This is basically slapping us in the face! Charade grabbed the guy dressed like the sailor and pulled him right in front of him.
Even though the man had wanted to cry out in rage, when he saw the fully-armed guards standing around Lorist, he turned mute immediately. Anyone who had some experience in life would be able to recognize that the group was one that couldn't be trifled with. The man instantly lowered his head to beg for mercy and said that he would tell them everything he knew.
"It's like this... Today, Viscount Aslan brought a squad of soldiers here to collect taxes. Even though our town mayor, Old Hugo, refused his unreasonable request, Viscount Aslan flipped out angrily and even wanted to cane him publicly here at the plaza 50 times. Even though the garrison force of Whitebird Town was mobilized, Viscount Aslan brought a Gold ranked knight along with him. While the garrison soldiers are quite numerous, not one of them could take on the knight and the two factions are now at a stalemate. We've come over because we heard of the news and hope that someone can save Old Hugo, quick..." explained the man quickly.
"Isn't this island the dominion of the Norton Family? On what grounds is Viscount Aslan collecting taxes on?" Howard asked.
The man didn't overlook Howard just because of his youth and said, "Viscount Aslan claimed that he was entrusted to collect taxes by the Second Highness of our kingdom."
"Entrusted?!" roared Charade angrily. "This is already the dominion of the Norton Family. Why the heck would the Second Highness send people here to collect taxes?"
"This... I'm not too clear about this. However, I've heard that five years ago when Viscount Aslan first came over, he only collected a 10 percent production tax. On the following year, he collected 20 percent and said that the Second Highness had raised their taxation rate and even stated that they would collect poll taxes. On the third year, he came over to collect 30 percent of our income as tax and said that it was because the Second Highness wanted to raise an army. And apart from the poll tax, he introduced an alcohol tax, a port tax, and so on. The taxes for the previous two years were 50 percent and it also came with property tax, transport tax, mountain-and-forest tax and a fishing boat tax with unifying and restoring the Krissen Empire as the excuse for the raise," recalled the man.
"Good Sol!" Charade was so mad that he would blow up at any moment at hearing the ridiculous taxes that even he had never dared to imagine, let alone enforce. What was the point of enfeoffing that dominion to the Norton Family if the tax rate was that high?
"Then what other tax did he say he wanted to collect today? And why did the mayor refuse it?" Lorist asked.
"Well, I'm not too sure about the specifics either. But I did hear some rumors saying that the Norton Family that haven't shown their faces even once also has another dominion apart from this island. It's said that since their dominion is too far away, the taxes that should be levied on them are not given to the Second Highness. So, Viscount Aslan was sent over here to collect the taxes that the Norton Family owed the kingdom. If that were really the case, even if we handed over every single belonging of ours, that wouldn't be nearly enough and we would have to end up in debt! I heard that everyone would have to pay 3000 gold Fordes in order to be clear of that debt. That's why we're all gathered here with the intention of saving the mayor and also to express our objection to the ridiculous situation," said the sailor nervously.
"Hehe... Hahahaha..." Lorist was so mad that he was laughing uncontrollably. I see, so they can even come up with ridiculous excuses like that... That has really expanded my horizons. Usually, for an island like that which was thousands of kilometers away from the enemy nations with no close relation to the main kingdom itself, not only should the kingdom not collect any taxes, they should be subsidizing and supporting the folk of the island instead to make sure they stay loyal to the kingdom.
Lorist was incredibly enraged as he wasn't sure if Viscount Aslan truly was sent there by the Second Highness or if he did it on his own accord. In the beginning, Lorist had no intention on actually coming over to manage Silowas Island himself and there was no need for the Second Highness to send anyone over to collect taxes from the Norton Family either since he could just record the debt and claim it at another time as was usually practiced by most nobles. Lorist believed that it was possible that the Second Highness wasn't aware of this situation, meaning that Viscount Aslan would be in deep trouble.
"Blow our anthem and show our banners. I want to let everyone on Silowas Island know that the Norton Family, and their dominion lord, is here!" Lorist instructed as he turned back to face his subordinates.
"Yes, milord!"
Arrival of the Dominion Lord
The third bonus chapter of the week is brought to you by Alan W. from the USA! This was a rather long one, so is the next chapter ><
The sudden anthem blown from the horn resounded throughout the crowded plaza. There was one long note, 2 short ones, followed by another long one and that pattern repeated three times in total, signifying the arrival of the dominion lord. The people all turned to look and started chattering all over, all wanting to know what was going on.
As the crowd slowly stepped aside, they revealed a path straight to the center of the plaza. Faced with the fully-armed family guards, the crowd of people revealed looks of fear and automatically shirked to the sides to make some way as they understood that a person of high standing was present.
The battalion leader of the guards, Jim, and 9 other guards held up their spears, each with a swallowtail flag bearing the crest of the Norton Family upon it, and lined up into two rows, protecting Lorist and the others at their middle. Els and Patt stood in front of Lorist whereas Howard stood to his right, carrying a horn. Behind him were Charade, Josk, and Dulles. Freiyar on the other hand ordered the 10 other sailors to line up in four rows to follow the rest from behind.
"You, come over here," Lorist said to the sailor who was gradually stepping backwards. "What's your name?"
The sailor slumped to the ground limply and said, "Mi-milord... Please forgive me... I shouldn't have offended you..."
A shiny gold Forde was tossed in front of the sailor. Lorist waved to him and said, "This is your reward. You didn't offend me in the slightest. Stand up and lead the way."
Looking at the gold Forde beside him, the sailor was sent into a daze. However, he quickly snapped out of it and took the coin before taking a bite on it with his teeth out of habit. After that, he saw that the guards who were staring at him were trying hard not to laugh and hurriedly stood up before bowing towards Lorist. "Milord, I'm called Porter. It is my pleasure to be of service..."
Lorist didn't say anything and merely pointed to the front. Conscious of his role, Porter moved to the front of the troupe and began to call out loudly, "Scram, make way! The dominion lord is here!"
"Porter, what did you say?"
"Dominion lord? From where?"
"What did you say? Count Norton, our dominion lord, is here?"
The center of the plaza was surrounded by lots of people. Porter was waving his hands and saying something to a few other guards armed with pikes and shields but wearing no armor. Els stepped forward and called out, "Who are you people? Why are you blocking the way?"
Porter hurriedly said, "Sir, this is the garrison force of Whitebird Town..."
"Since they're the garrison force, step aside. The dominion lord is here, why aren't you getting in line to receive him?!"
The few unarmored garrison guards hurriedly stepped aside and bowed towards Lorist and the others who were passing by.
The center of the plaza that was surrounded by people wasn't that big and right in the middle was a wooden structure on which an old man looking to be around 60 with white hair was tied up naked. He had a rather well-built physique, but at that moment, three long bleeding whip lashes could be seen on his body. Beneath the wooden structure, around one hundred or so grey-armored soldiers equipped with pikes, swords and shields could be seen standing off against around 200 other armed members of the garrison force who didn't have a standardized uniform who stood in front of the rioting civilians with ten or so other garrison soldiers trying to maintain order.
"Eh? The garrison force here is not bad. They actually know enough to bother to maintain the order of the crowd," Lorist mused in a surprised tone.
Currently, everyone within the plaza had their eyes focused on Lorist and the rest's arrival.
Pointing at the old man who was tied up on the wooden structure, Lorist asked, "Porter, is that man Mayor Hugo?"
Porter hurriedly nodded and said, "Yes, milord. Old Hugo is a fair and just person and every one of the townsfolk have deep trust in him. Five years ago when the Second Highness departed, he left behind a huge pile of trouble. It was all due to Old Hugo's efforts in leading the rest to rebuild Whitebird Town and restoring its order that the rest of us have somewhere to rely on. That's why everyone chose him to become the mayor..."
Lorist nodded and said, "Els, Patt, go and fetch Old Hugo over here."
"Yes, milord."
Els and Patt walked casually over to the wooden structure as if they couldn't see the people surrounding it, causing some of the intimidated armed guards to step aside gradually.
Patt slashed the ropes tying Old Hugo up with his sword, causing the old man to start falling. But Els stepped forward and caught him as he said, "Are you alright? Can you walk?"
Old Hugo said, "I'm fine for now. I just feel a little stiff after being tied up for so long, but it won't stop me from walking."
Patt said, "Come with me. Our lord wants to see you."
A few of the armed guards snapped out of their stupor and attempted to obstruct them. Els didn't even bother to look at them and shouted, "Scram! Those who block our path will die!"
"Those are big words coming from your mouth! Who are you people? Leave the old man here obediently!" said a knight who stood to the forward left direction of Els and Patt wearing green-colored armor. With a loud hum, he drew his sword and projected his golden blade glow onto it. He was actually a Gold ranked knight.
"Huh? Locke, isn't this the official armor of the Andinaq Royal Family's Local Defense Legion? So they really are sent here by the Second Highness?" Charade muttered.
"Joe," Lorist said, "Be careful. Don't hurt the bystanders."
The long arrow shot out like a bolt of green lightning and knocked straight onto the center of the golden blade glow of that knight. His sword snapped immediately with the arrow deflecting off it and burrowing itself into the ground not far away. The knight wearing the green armor stepped three steps back as if he had received a huge blow and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood all of a sudden. Never would he have imagined that a single arrow could be so mysterious and arcane to the point that it could snap the sword in his hand while sending a huge wave of Battle Force into his body at the same time, gravely injuring his internal organs.
The injury of the Gold ranked knight greatly startled the other soldiers and the men who obstructed Els and the others' way quickly dodged to the side, being able to do nothing but stare wide-mouthed as Els and the others returned to Lorist.
"Milord, I pay my respects to you. May I know who you are and why you have come to Whitebird Town?" Old Hugo said as he clasped his chest and lowered his head to Lorist.
"I am Count Norton, your dominion lord. Are you the mayor that was chosen by the people of Whitebird Town, Old Hugo?" Lorist said as he eyed the healthy and fit 60-year-old man.
Old Hugo revealed a look of surprise as he stared at Lorist and said, "Milord, are you really Count Norton? Forgive me for my insolence, but could you perhaps show me the proof of your rank and dominion?"
Howard kept the horn he was holding and took out the certificate Lorist received when he was entitled from a leather bag. As Old Hugo had learned to read, he inspected the documents and breathed a sigh of relief, before bowing to Lorist and saying, "I welcome your arrival, dominion lord. I am indeed the mayor that was elected by the folk of Whitebird Town, Hugo. I shall hand the right to rule Whitebird Town to you right now."
"There's no need for that. Continue to fulfill your role as the mayor of the town. I will adjust your position as I see fit after I understand more about the situation of the dominion," Lorist said, before turning to look at the garrison force. "Old Hugo, who's the regiment leader of this unit? I'd like to meet with him."
"Erm..." Old Hugo said as he turned to his back and looked at the garrison soldiers of Whitebird Town. "Victor, get your ass over here right now! Are you not going to greet our dominion lord who has just arrived?"
A man wearing a set of torn, old leather armor limped forward from the group of soldiers and walked towards Lorist. He casually greeted the group as he said, "Leader of the Whitebird Town Garrison, Victor, reporting for duty, milord."
Lorist looked straight at the man called Victor, causing the latter to feel intimidated by Lorist's sharp gaze and lowering his head to avoid direct eye contact.
"You have done rather well and managed to remember to instruct your men to maintain the order of the situation despite facing off against the enemy. That is extremely praiseworthy," Lorist said.
"Milord, Victor used to be a military officer of the Fiercegale Legion. Had it not been for his injury that caused him to retire from that army, he would definitely qualify as a regiment leader," Old Hugo added.
"What about you, Old Hugo? You seem to have the look of a military man yourself," Lorist said with a smile.
"Milord, I used to be one of the logistics officers of the Whitelion Legion and I came back here after it was disbanded. Whitebird Town is my hometown and I have left it for 35 years to serve as a soldier. It's already incredibly fortunate for me to be able to survive and return here compared to my other comrades who died on the battlefield," Old Hugo said as he sighed.
"Oh, the Whitelion Legion, huh? It seems that you're no outsider, Old Hugo. A few of my family knights used to be part of the Whitelion Legion as well, like Potterfang, Lode Wales, and Malek. Do you know them?" Lorist said, with his interest piqued.
"Potterfang? Of course I know him. I heard that his hometown was somewhere in the Northlands. Even Loze has become your family knight too? Oh, that's right, he was good friends with Potterfang after all. But the truly surprising thing is how that iron-faced Malek also became one of your knights... He's always so emotionless and only cares for the regulations and doesn't bother about friendship or favors at all. I recall that there was once when Malek caught Loze when he was drunk and caned him 10 times personally. At that time, Loze cried out that Malek wasn't his friend, but Malek said that it was precisely because he considered himself a friend of Loze that he had to personally cane him to ensure that he remembers his lesson..." Old Hugo described the three perfectly as if they were as familiar to him as his own family jewels.
"Milord, we have lots of time after this to talk. Let's settle the main issue first and disband the townsfolk for now. It's not like we can leave them here like that after all," Charade said as he interrupted Lorist and Old Hugo's conversation while pointing at the other soldiers wearing grey leather armor.
"Alright, Old Hugo. Let's talk later. I want to see what they have to say about coming to my dominion to collect taxes," said Lorist as he made his way forward directly towards the group of armed soldiers with the rest following behind him hurriedly.
"I am Count Norton. Have your leader step out to speak with me."
Even though the armed group numbered around a hundred, not one of them were bold enough to resist Lorist. Other things aside, the mere sight of Lorist's guards who were armed with silvery-grey metal armor had blinded their sights. Additionally, the Gold ranked knight that brought them on the mission was even gravely wounded by a single arrow, completely squashing the slightest remaining bit of their intention to resist. When Lorist said that he wanted to meet their leader, they instantly turned their heads to look at the fallen Gold ranked knight.
"He's your leader?" said Lorist, troubled. He thought that the soldiers were brought over by the so-called Viscount Aslan and didn't even consider that they were led there by the Gold ranked knight wearing the armor of the Royal Local Defense Legion.
Lorist walked towards the knight and asked, "Who are you and why have you brought your soldiers to the dominion of my family?"
The Gold ranked knight looked at Lorist and said, "A bloody count like you actually dared to ambush me? Do you know the consequences of your actions?!"
Lorist spit on the ground without a single care in the world and said, "Well, it's true that I don't know the consequences... All I know is that you have come to the dominion of my family with soldiers without any permission or invitation, and that, to me, is basically a declaration of war. I'll give you one more chance to tell me who you are and where these soldiers are from. Otherwise, I will hang all of you like I would bandits."
"Try it if you dare. Do you not fear the repercussions of incurring the rage of Second Highness Auguslo that will burn your family to ashes?" grumbled the Gold ranked knight stubbornly.
Whack! Lorist gave the Gold ranked knight a slap without warning and said, "The rage of the Second Highness? Hahaha... Wow, I'm so scared. Now that I've touched you, what will you do?"
The Gold ranked knight cried out in an angry frenzy before launching himself with both his hands stretched out. "I'll show you!"
"Ugh!" The Gold ranked knight suffered a blow to his abdomen at that moment and curled up like a cooked shrimp.
"Bffooo!" grunted the knight as his right face suffered another punch, before he spat out two of his teeth.
"Gah..." The knight suffered yet another strike on his chest, causing him to kneel on the ground. Even though he felt like puking, he couldn't do so with his face full of bloody tears.
Lorist stretched out his hand to grab the Gold ranked knight before giving him another seven to eight slaps on the face, causing the knight's head to swell up like a pig's head, before he was tossed to the ground unconscious.
"Discard your weapons. I will count to three and anyone who hasn't done so will be killed without question!" Lorist said as he turned to the black leather-armored soldiers. "One..."
Before he even said 'two', continuous clattering could be heard as the soldiers all cast their weapons to the ground. Given that the Gold ranked knight that was far superior than them was beaten around by the dominion lord like a sandbag, the soldiers knew that Lorist wasn't joking around. Of the hundred or so soldiers, the strongest one only had Iron ranked Battle Force. Anyone who resisted would only be causing trouble for themselves.
Lorist didn't expect that the soldiers would give up so easily and he said with a surprised tone, "You guys are rather wise. And to think I was ready to hang a few of you imbeciles... Can't you even let me release some stress? Tell me now, which one of you here is the squad leader?"
The rest of the soldiers thus turned to look at one man who was sweating profusely.
"Do you want to step forward yourself or do you need me to escort you here?" Lorist said with a laugh.
The man with a fearful looked instantly kneeled before Lorist as he said, "Mi-milord... Please have mercy..."
Why are these soldiers so pathetic? Lorist didn't think that him beating up the Gold ranked knight would cause the rest of the soldiers to be so shocked.
"Tell me about you guys."
"Milord, I am the squad leader of the Iblia Kingdom's First Legion, Third Division, First Regiment, Second Company's Seventh Squad. I'm called Sillit and our forces are stationed at Jillin Harbor. Gold ranked knight Fewermante is our division commander. That's him over there," said Sillit as he pointed at the Gold ranked knight who laid sprawling on the ground. "We have received orders from him to come assist Viscount Aslan to collect taxes on behalf of the Second Highness. Milord, please have mercy, we are just following orders..."
"Collect taxes? Then where is Viscount Aslan? Why hasn't he come here to meet me? I want to hear why the Second Highness sent him here to my dominion to collect taxes, Lorist said as he gave the rest of the soldiers a look and noting that not one of them seemed like they could be the viscount.
Wait, Viscount Aslan should be coming forward to receive me, the dominion lord. But despite that, the soldiers and the Gold ranked knight here didn't even consider that... Isn't that a little weird, thought some of the soldiers who turned to look around for the viscount. After a few moments, someone cried out, "That viscount has escaped! Curses... We were duped!"
The soldiers all began to cry out in anger.
"Escape? Where would he hide on Silowas Island? Jim, bring two guards and four sailors back to the port to keep watch and tell Wilson to not let a single person board any ship. Anyone who resists shall be sunk right away!"
"Yes, milord."
"Victor, as the garrison force leader of Whitebird Town, have your men lock these soldiers up for now, but don't treat them as prisoners of war yet. I believe that they are also the victims of fraud, so don't treat them badly. Prepare some food for them for now to settle them down, understood?" Lorist instructed.
"But milord, we can't afford to feed them," Victor said.
Lorist laughed and said, "Howard, give this man 10 gold Fordes and have him give his men one small silver coin each as their reward for defending Whitebird Town. I believe the rest will be enough for the other soldiers to have a huge meal."
10 gold Fordes could be exchanged for 1000 small silver coins. With each garrison soldier receiving one, the rest would definitely be enough for everyone to have a huge meal for the next few days.
Victor finally lowered his head and bowed as he said, "Thank you, milord, for your gracious reward. I will settle these soldiers down for now."
"Alright. Old Hugo, disband the townsfolk here. I won't provide food to anyone who stays back."
Old Hugo clasped his chest to salute Lorist and said, "Understood, dominion lord."