Gold Coins (2)
Enjoy the first release of the week! For those who missed our announcement, please check it out at the home page!
Charade looked at Spiel, who was sitting alone quietly on the sofa in the study and couldn't help but wonder if anything went wrong.
Thanks to Howard, who had dragged him over in a hurry at Lorist's instruction, he was rather frustrated. He had quite a lot of matters to deal with as well. He was far too busy with the household's matters. Many things were still piled up on his desk awaiting his attention.
"Well, Supervisor Spiel, you said you instructed the house to stop using imperial gold coins and only bought them with gold Fordes from anyone who wanted to change it without any intent of spending them. So far, we already have up to eight million. This time around, we found that Duke Madras kept a stash of 10 million imperial gold coins with the intent of re-minting them as gold Fordes. It was a shame he perished before his ambitions were realized. I've asked you to come here today because I want to ask whether we can do the same. The exchange rate is far too high," explained Lorist according to what Charade had told him.
"Your Grace, I've seen the reports on the duke's intention to mint gold Fordes and I've also been considering what to do with the imperial gold coins. I wasn't able to come up with a proper proposal, so I didn't bring the matter up. I believe re-minting gold Fordes isn't a good idea," said Charade after some thought.
"Why? Gold Fordes have already become the most-widespread currency in Grindia. Even though the neighboring nations are rather guarded against the Union right now, they also use gold Fordes as their main currency. If we can re-mint imperial gold, we can start spending them right away," said Lorist.
"Your Grace, do you know which merchant guild is in charge of minting gold Fordes?" asked Charade.
He continued when he saw Lorist shake his head.
"Gold Fordes are produced by the largest merchant guild in the Union, the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, who are also the leaders of the big-seven. However, they only own 60 percent of the shares. Each of the six over guilds own just 5 percent. The last ten percent is used for covering the Union's administrative costs.
"As the materials and ratio of gold coins are identical, and the fact that all of them have to go through the liquid test, Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild produces them at a loss. In other words, for every 100 gold Fordes produced, 110 gold Fordes' worth of materials must be prepared. If there are any materials left after the coin production, that would be the profits of the guild. They produce 10 million gold Fordes annually on average. The record is 30 million.
"However, given the loss of ten percent for the production, the profits for producing 10 million gold Fordes per year isn't that high, only around eight percent. After deducting labor costs and maintenance costs, only around 300 thousand gold Fordes of profit is earned for every 10 million produced.
"The Union charges others 30 percent of the number of gold Fordes required to be minted, 25 for factions who have a good relationship with them. Your Grace, do you remember the Jigda kingdom? Marquis Lorf Fustat sent a good amount of gold and silver to the Union to be re-minted and Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild charged a commission of 25 percent. Actually, the real charge was only 20 percent, with the other 5 percent entering the marquis's own pockets. The Jigda kingdom had asked the Union to mint 15 million gold Fordes that year."
The Jigda kingdom... Marquis Lorf Fustat... The middle-aged noble who hugged the fairy-like girl during that moonlit night who wore a gold-ranked badge bearing the insignia of a phoenix... A wave of memories rushed to Lorist's mind, causing him to fall into a daze.
Charade stopped speaking considerately and signaled for Howard to bring him a bottle of fruit wine.
After a good while, Lorist snapped out of his daze. Charade was already having his second cup of wine.
"Why do you know so much about this?" said Lorist with a slight roughness in his voice.
"Well, I have a dumb friend who got heartbroken once. His lover left with Marquis Lorf. I checked the marquis's background and learned that his household was far too rich and powerful, so I didn't have any other way to help my friend out. It's one of the things I regret most. At the same time, I also found out about the re-minting service, so I began to research the matter out of interest. In the end, I realized the conspiracy behind the exchange rate of imperial gold coins and had intended to buy some to earn some quick money, but I gave up when I learned that only Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild dealt with the purchase and sale of imperial gold coins."
"Well, aren't you rather incompetent?" laughed Lorist.
Well, it was just a passing though. The marquis was a gold-ranked knight, so a two-star-silver-ranked knight like me would only be looking for trouble if I tried to stop him. As for the delicious piece of meat Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild had, if a small vice chairman of Dawn Academy's enforcement department tried to bite into it, he'd no doubt be squashed to death," countered Charade.
Lorist took the bottle of wine and drunk straight from it.
"To the good times at Dawn Academy."
The two gulped down their alcohol.
Spiel, who was sitting on the sofa, shook his head helplessly. His lord duke didn't care about behaving in a manner befitting his title at all. How could a duke drink like a farmer or a mercenary at a village inn?
After finishing half a bottle, Lorist wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
"I have a question for you. What method does Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild use to mint the coins? How are they able to produce so much each year?" asked he.
Lorist recalled that the various nations used a molding technique that utilized gypsum. First, they would engrave a piece of coin-shaped metal before pressing it between two gypsum pieces. When they hardened and solidified, the capillaries would be carved onto the gypsum plates to allow for liquid metal to flow in. When the metal cooled, the gypsum plates would be broken and the sides of the coin refined before it was tested. However, using this method generated a lot of waste. Taking into account the labor cost and materials, it was far from profitable.
"Your Grace, Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild uses a metal molding technique. They have a secret alloy they use to make the three plates they use for molds. There's the faceplate, middle plate, and base plate. When they're put together, molten metal is injected. The plates are cooled with water before the base and faceplates are removed. The middle plate is struck with a wooden hammer to remove the minted gold Forde. They just have to shave away at the sides of the coin to finish it off. Each set of mold plates can produce 100 gold Fordes at a time, and each minting factory has tens of molds. If it is required, they can even make close to a million gold Fordes a day.
"I visited the guild's minting factories with Academy Head Levins once. The guild doesn't mind visitors of status. Our guide, a guild manager, explained that their coin-minting process was the most advanced in the whole continent. Other nations' minting processes cost 1.5 times the coin's value, whereas the guild's only require 1.1 times. That's the main reason so many nations rely on the Union to mint their coins, and that's also why gold Fordes see so much use across the continent."
Lorist raised his head.
"You're saying there's no need for us mint gold Fordes ourselves since we can just let Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild do it for us?" asked he.
Charade thought for a long while before he shook his head.
"Your Grace, I think it's best if you don't do that. The main reason Duke Madras gathered so many imperial gold coins is probably the fact that he can't ship all of them to the Union due to the lack of a proper route. The exchange rate isn't worth the effort either. The supervisor the duke hired even told me he spent lots of time and money hiring smiths to research how to make the molding plates... to no avail.
"While minting gold Fordes privately sounds easy, it couldn't be harder. While the ingredients used to make gold coins are largely the same, the special characteristics of the molding method and the long-lasting nature of the coins' features make it necessary for any privately minted gold Fordes to look exactly like those minted by the Union. There can't be the slightest difference. It's is the toughest requirement to fulfill when it comes to private minting. Due to the nature of the minting process used by Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, each and every minted coin looks identical. However, there's no way any private minter can get their hands on the alloyed plates, so they can only rely on gypsum minting.
"Perhaps some coins minted using the gypsum process looks rather similar to gold Fordes, but repeated minting with the same molds will no doubt cause the lines to fade ever so slightly. They will eventually be easily distinguishable. The molds will have to be changed every time, and it would raise the cost. The moment it's discovered, the value of the nation's gold Fordes would be decreased by half even if the coins pass the liquid float test. It's a disaster for whatever nation it happens to.
"Duke Madras only bothered to try because he had no other choice. However, there's no need for House Norton to go that far. It's incredibly easy to ship the gold coins across the seas and we can even get a deal on recommendation by Peterson Merchant Guild. We'll get the 20 percent rate rather than the normal 30. It's far more practical than attempting to mint our own coins. However," said Charade hesitantly.
"Would there be any difficulties?" asked Lorist curiously.
Since it would be more practical to just get Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild to do the minting, why did Charade advise him against it?
"Your Grace, I don't really know our house and The Northlands' standing. Given our close relationship with Peterson Merchant Guild, we can be considered a good business partner. But given our allegiance to the Andinaq kingdom, we're considered a vassal house of the second highness, who's the Union's sworn enemy. That's why I feel sending our imperial gold coins would be risky even if we have a written agreement with Peterson Merchant Guild. All it takes is someone's greed and our coins will be lost.
"The Union right now is no longer the one we knew from our days at Dawn Academy. I realized after the implementation of the aristocracy, the Union's people have fewer lines they're not willing to cross in comparison to nobles of other nations. Our trip to Morante last time is a good example. Additionally, I'm rather suspicious of Peterson Merchant Guild. They still owe us 500 thousand gold Fordes even now. While they're paying us back a portion every year, it's already really disappointing for a merchant guild of their size.
"I already gave instructions that our house is to no longer involve ourselves with them until they pay back their debt. They say the problem lies with the closed trade routes. The War of Glass ended several years ago, and yet even now the relations between the Union and its neighbors have yet to improve at all. I doubt severely whether they are even trying to improve their relations. I don't think sending our coins to the Union is a good idea."
Lorist tapped lightly on his desk with his index finger. Charade made a lot of sense. It was indeed far from advisable to let Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild mint the coins. If something were to happen, they'd have to go to war with the Union. While the Union would regret their greed when they met the Nortons' might, waging a campaign against an enemy that far away would no doubt drain them dry even if they emerged victorious. The one who laughed last would no doubt be the second highness. He would no doubt swallow the Nortons whole the moment he saw his chance.
"I guess it's best to keep the imperial gold coins for now," said Lorist as he stopped his tapping.
"Your Grace, I've been considering this for some time now... Should our house start minting our own currency?" asked Charade.
"Our own currency?" mused Lorist, Howard, and Spiel. They were all flabbergasted by Charade's far-out idea.
"Yes, Your Grace. Our dominion already has a population of over 1.3 million. By the time the dominion relocation is complete, we'll control the whole of The Northlands. The area of the southern and eastern parts of The Northlands will no doubt be able to fit seven more settlements the size of Felicitas. As long as we have enough immigrants, we'll end up with a population of at least three million. It's more than some kingdoms and duchies. It's entirely reasonable to start minting our own currency -- let's call it the Ragebear -- for use in our and our allies' dominions. As long as we set the rule for all trade to be done in Ragebear, we will one day be able to remove the Union's influence in our dominion through their currency."
"Forget it, stop dreaming," Lorist said with a laugh when he saw Charade's drooling face, "It's still not the right time for us to release our own currency. First, the second highness definitely won't allow a currency controlled by a noble house in the kingdom. It's something that'll affect the whole kingdom. Additionally, we don't have any gold mines. We won't be able to sustain the increasing demand for our currency. Maintaining enough supply is an issue that we'll have to deeply pay attention to. Not only that, what molding method are you going to use to mint coins? The gypsum method?"
"No, Your Grace," replied Charade seriously, "It's not that we're going to launch our currency right away, so there's no need to worry about the second highness for now. He'll be busy worrying about how to deal with the four central duchies and the Union in the years to come, and he might even thank us for releasing a currency that'll replace both gold Fordes and the defunct imperial gold coin.
"As for the mines, I've already considered the matter. When our house takes all of The Northlands, Grandmaster Sid will form a foraging team to scour the place for any mineable resources. There's also a small gold mine at the eastern Northlands which House Kenmays controls. Even though it's been mined for quite some time, Grandmaster Sid is rather certain there are still gold veins waiting to be found. There's no way a small gold vein would exist just by itself.
"And even if we don't find any gold mines, we still have horseshoe gold and the gold dust Count Kenmays paid us with we can use to produce more than 20 million coins with the same volume as gold Fordes. That many is already enough to facilitate trade in the areas our house has influence. Even if we do happen to encounter a shortage, we can still purchase gold ore or gold Fordes for material.
"As for the molding method, I hope to use the same alloyed plates Twinhead Merchant Guild uses. I've already consulted with Grandmaster Julian and he expressed interest in researching a similar alloy. With that as material, we can make molds for our own coins and produce Ragebears at a low cost like Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild."
Upon hearing about the possibility of minting coins at low cost, Spiel stood up.
"Your Grace, I agree with Sir Charade's suggestion. I believe our house should start producing our own currency," said he.
Lorist gave it some thought before he nodded.
"Charade, submit a formal proposal. I'll consider our situation and have a meeting to discuss this soon. Let's end our discussion today."
"Understood, Your Grace."
Bank, Entitlement and Real Estate
Here's the second chapter of the week!
Reminder that the map competition is ongoing for those who missed it! Please check the announcement on the main page!
As a result of the worldview he had, limited by the culture and time he had lived in, Charade only considered releasing one's own currency as a method to increase the house's influence, much to Lorist's dismay. All nations in Grindia produced currency with the same ratio of metals. Their value was thus not determined by the metals inside, but their weight. The only true difference in the different currencies was that the Union's method was far more advanced and efficient than all the others.
It was in a merchant's nature to seek profit out. Lorist remembered attending a course about the history of gold when he was still the owner of his small workshop in his past life. In it, he learned that in the middle ages the Jews, who had lost their homes and traveled across Europe, noticed the profits that could be made in currency trading. They took immediate action and became primarily money-lenders, currency traders, and grocers. It was thanks to their domination of these three trades that they amassed so much wealth that they could even influence the world economy.
But, unlike the middle ages of Lorist's past life, the ones who controlled wealth and trade, and performed part of the functions the Jews had in middle age societies, was the shrine of the goddess Zejin. They did some things better than the Jews, in fact. For example, thanks to the trust they had from the public, they did appraisals for property and real estate. They were also witnesses to many business contracts and also released their gold Forde bills that could be used instead of the coins themselves. They also provided loans to nobles, merchant guilds, and even nations. In some ways, the shrine of the goddess Zejin was akin to a modern-day bank.
However, as opposed to a real bank, the shrine didn't provide services to store one's savings. That was the domain of large merchant guilds or even nations and noble houses. They also played a small part in private businesses, providing only services for exchanging gold Fordes into bills for ease of transport. The shrine's influence wasn't able to grow because they limited their activities. Almost no non-merchant commoners believed in Zejin. When the civil war started, the shrine left the empire. Now the closest branch to The Northlands was in Morante.
The plan that Lorist had to accompany Charade's proposal of releasing their own currency was to start a bank that could provide loans to any new businesses or factories that wished to start up and let commoners store their savings. It would definitely be beneficial to the house as it would own a share of 30 percent of all businesses started within the dominion. Lorist believed that after starting his own bank, he could use it to mitigate the burden of private business owners with his loans, providing an avenue for healthy competition. Not only that, the bank could also function as account auditors to decrease the rates fraud.
The most important thing was that Lorist would be able to regulate the flow of money within the dominion so he could decrease the burden of military and development expenditure on the house. Most people in Grindia had the habit of putting away their savings, normally by burying it, to prepare for urgent times. Given the population of the Norton dominion, which now neared 1.5 million, each household would have no less than ten gold Fordes in savings. Spiel estimated that the average citizen in Felicitas would be the first to gather a good amount of wealth. It was also the reason Spiel had suggested an increase in taxes.
Following the Hanayabarta kingdom's extermination by House Norton, the house obtained around 27 million gold Fordes. Lorist's spending in the following three years used up ten million.
According to Lorist's experience in the previous world, letting such a huge amount of currency into the market should've caused an economic crisis via inflation. However, the household's economic situation wasn't destabilized at all. This was mainly for two reasons: the house's subjects didn't spend much in the first place and were satisfied as long as they had food and a home, and they would save the extra gold without. This meant that Lorist's investments were essentially coins tossed into a well.
Lorist took out a beastskin and wrote the word 'bank' on it. He hoped that, within the year, he could wrap up the management issues within his dominion before launching his attack on the Iblia kingdom the following year and tangling with Duke Fisablen. When he made his move, he would leave most of the house's affairs to Charade, so he planned to write his plans down and leave their implementation to Charade as well.
Lorist spent the 11th month busy with one meeting after another. Charade was awed when Lorist suggested the formation of their own bank and even suggested an idol of Zejin be placed in the building to reassure people that the bank would carry out the functions of Zejin's shrines. It was an act in bad taste on Charade's part, as he wished to see the looks in the clergy's faces when they went to The Northlands to request to be allowed to set up a branch after seeing how rich the place was, only to see that the bank had taken the shrine's place.
Lorist also finished dealing with the list of people to be entitled. The house was to entitle two viscounts and 12 barons in this round. No one expected the two viscount titles to be given to grandmasters Sid and Fellin. Lorist's reasoning was that without them the household wouldn't have gotten Sid steel armor, steel ballistae and catapults, all of which were central to the Nortons' successes. Rumour had it that Grandmaster Sid cried like a small child as he pledged to serve House Norton on behalf of his descendants for eternity during the ceremony. As for Grandmaster Fellin, he was so moved that he fainted on the spot. When he finally woke, he had his son give him a slap to see whether he was still dreaming.
The twelve barons unsurprisingly included Potterfang, Fiercetiger Loze, Ironface Malek, Divine Marksman Josk, White Belnick and Mercenary Freiyar, the first ones to join Lorist. There were supervisors Hansk, Spiel, and Kedan as well. They were the three household supervisors from Maplewoods. They were finally rewarded for their years of service, service that stretched back to even before Lorist inherited his position as head of the household, and their contribution over those years. The final three caused quite a stir.
The first was Charade. As the chief knight of House Norton, he should've been made a baron without question, however, in comparison to Els, Terman, Yuriy and some others, Charade's promotion seemed a little too fast. The second was Grandmaster Jilian, entitled because of his technical contributions. Due to the nature of his discoveries concerning materials, which were not as eye-catching as those of grandmasters Fellin and Sid, there was much argument about what reward Julian deserved. Camorra was the last one and came with many voices of objection.
Baron Camorra had once been an honorary noble entitled by the former Duke of The Northlands, Duke Loggins. After he wronged the duke and was imprisoned in the water dungeon, however, his title was rescinded. Lorist appreciated his talent and had him serve the house after his release. Camorra had started off as the lowest-ranked official. It was not until Kedan noticed his abilities that he began to climb the ladder step by step, eventually becoming an executive official. In the end, he was given the task of overseeing the most secretive arms-producing forges. Not a single problem had come up since Camorra took up the position. He also managed to increase the forges' efficiency greatly, thus lowering the manufacturing costs of anything produced there. It was precisely because these achievements that Lorist insisted on his entitlement despite the opposition of some in the house.
When he received notice of his impending entitlement, the Camorra shut himself up in his quarters and cried for half a day, before he packed up and headed to Baron Jesder -- one of the seventeen soon-to-be-relocated nobles at Firmrock Castle -- for a visit. The reason for his visit was to propose a marriage between himself and the baron's widowed sister, who -- along with her 7-year-old son -- was living with him. Now that he was to be entitled, he could establish his own house, House Camorra.
Apart from the 14 noble houses already relocated, the nobles whose domains Lorist had conquered, were enfeoffed land in Delamock. They were demoted by a rank and made Norton vassals. In other words, House Norton was now their liege. One example was Count Spenseid, who was made a viscount and had pledged allegiance to Lorist.
To the 17 nobles, it was both a tragedy and a blessing. Those already barons were no doubt happy with the situation, as The Northlands couldn't compare to the once-prosperous Delamock. Their relocation meant a better life was waiting for them. The other nine, however, were rather troubled. The former counts were demoted to viscounts, while viscounts were made barons. Even with the penalties, House Norton was rather benevolent. It was already rather fortunate to retain a dominion even after having stood on the wrong side of history. It was their fault for siding with the second prince in the first place.
After ascertaining the list of relocated nobles and new entitled ones, Lorist also gave out six honorary titles. The first was Governor of Hanayabarta Archipelago, awarded to Hector. The might not come with land, and might not be hereditary, but this didn't mean it was anything to scoff at. An honorary title could be considered a stepping stone; if the awardee didn't make any mistakes, they were on track to receiving a proper, hereditary title at some point in the future.
The second to receive an honorary title was Old Man Balk. Actually, Lorist really wanted to make him a proper landed noble, but almost all of his officials and knights objected. They complained that he had only been the manager of a copper mine. He had nowhere near the contributions of the other nobles-in-waiting. To use an analogy, Balk was the one who erected the foundations while the three supervisors built the walls and floors. Everyone praised the beauty of the finished house, but nobody remembered the hidden foundations and the important role they played.
Next was Grandmaster Ciroba. The genius architect forced by Lorist to serve the house had already taken charge of all of the house's construction projects. He was currently neck deep in projects and had a rather fervent tendency of naming all the projects after himself, for example, Great Ciroba Dam, Ciroba Citadel, Ciroba Highway, and many others. While most of the names were later amended, it didn't change the old architect's habit. Just recently, he had named cannon station and lighthouse at Bullhorn Bay Ciroba Battery and Ciroba Lighthouse. In the end, Lorist changed the Ciroba Battery to Bullhorn Bay Battery, but he allowed the lighthouse to keep its original name.
Lorist's lover Telesti, academy head of Nico Academy, was also on the list for an honorary title. However, she refused to be made baroness. She only wanted to bear the same baronetess title as her mother. It was an honorary title above that of Knight of the Household, but did not actually convey peerage. It was thus the highest title of minor nobility.
The fifth and six titles of honorary baron were given to the house's two rank 1 blademasters, Engelich and Shuss. Shuss had prospects and ambitions of becoming a hereditary noble in the future, Engelich was already satisfied with his life as a rank 1 blademaster. While Shuss still actively served the house, Engelich was only willing to guard Firmrock Castle.
After he signed all the documents, Lorist finally relaxed. The decrees, although already made, would only take effect on the 1st day of the 1st month of the following year. Lorist planned to host a large celebration at Firmrock Castle both to welcome the new year and as an entitlement ceremony for his vassal houses. As the new Duke of The Northlands, Lorist had to hold new year's celebrations during winter just like the other dukes, to make merry with his vassals.
The land to be enfeoffed was in Delamock, but the nobles themselves couldn't stay there as they still had to serve the house. Apart from Josk, who was more than willing to leave his fief to his butler and collect the yearly income it generated, the other nobles let their family or relatives manage their fiefs while they continued to serve the house in order to stand a chance of getting a promotion to a higher rank and being given a larger fief.
Apart from preparing for the launch of a new bank and the entitlements, Lorist still had to deal with real estate. Spiel had once suggested the taxes be raised to cover the house's expenses as the subjects were gradually getting richer, but Lorist turned the idea down. He had many more ideas, inspired by the experiences of his previous life, to make the subjects throw their savings at the house.
He decided to launch a small test run by developing a new residential area. The seven towns of Felicitas and the eight towns of Salus were among the first places the house developed. Seven years had passed since their initial development and their populations had increased substantially. It saw the rise of youths moving to other towns to work as factory workers since the jobs were far more profitable than farming. It also brought about the increase in personally constructed houses, which was an inevitability considering the fact that the house only built wooden houses for the initial settlers. The growth of the population would no doubt prompt some to figure out ways to build their own homes.
The land on which the houses were built, however, belonged to the house, strictly speaking. Spiel had thought of collecting rent or a management fee for those who used the lands. It was another way to raise taxes. Lorist, however, said that, since they have allowed them to live like that without paying a fee for so many years, suddenly introducing a tax on it would only harm the house's reputation.
So, Lorist decided to start a real estate business in the 15 towns. He would demolish the ruddy wooden houses and build proper residential areas and villas for the rich. They would have to increase the town's area and build more public and administrative facilities. Felicitas would be the first of the two to undergo the procedure and the funds would be collected from pre-purchases.
Lorist had Ciroba build a simple model of the modified house in Wildnorth Town and put it on display. Those who wished to purchase one had to put down a third of the total price as a deposit. The houses would be ready in two years after purchase.
At first, the folks of Wildnorth Town were rather suspicious. Even though the models and designs were rather nice, they couldn't help but worry about the fact that they would only receive them in two year's time. While their current houses were crude, they were free and served their purpose, there was no good reason for them to spend unnecessary money to buy the new ones. Lorist came up with a great way of dealing with their reluctance. He simply brought over people claiming to be from other towns interested in buying the houses. The sudden influx of outsiders sent the townsfolk into a panic. If the houses were all bought by outsiders, they would no longer have a place to live! Many dug out the gold coins they had buried to make buy the new houses.
"Do you see now?" Lorist asked Spiel, "We managed to get the money they stashed away, and we even let them make the purchase if they don't have enough. Those who incur a debt will just have to work for free for a few years to get their houses. They also have to pay the land lease, which will rise from 30 to 50 percent thanks to the rise in market prices. Even though the houses are theirs, the land belongs to us. If they don't pay their lease, they will be kicked out of their houses and we can even resell them. The next owner will also have to pay the lease, no exceptions. This is the right way to raise our taxes."
Spiel was so fascinated by the scheme that he instantly knelt before Lorist in admiration.
Update on Catapults and Cannons
Here's this week's third release. Enjoy the read!
Nobody could imagine that the 30 thousand folks of Wildnorth Town actually paid close to 200 thousand gold Fordes in deposits alone. Not only would it cover the costs of renovating the whole residential area, it would also be enough for a public square, fountain, park, roads, sewage, and defense facilities, much to Spiel's elation.
The costs of manpower and materials would no longer be a burden as half of the profits filling up the treasuries of the house. If Wildnorth Town's renovation alone netted them close to 300 thousand gold Fordes, then the 15 towns across Felicitas and Salus would probably enrich the house by another 4.5 million.
The one in charge of the town renovation projects, Kedan, however, didn't look too optimistic. After some detailed investigation, he penned a report that stated that the expansion of Wildnorth Town would increase its area over two fold and encompass the three villages surrounding it. The population would also grow from 10 thousand to 30 thousand. He suggested it be named a city instead.
The peace the town had experienced over the past decade had allowed its population to grow considerably. Each family had an average of two to three children and, thanks to the house's initiative for small business and factories in the town, the youths from the villages could easily find jobs there. Kedan suggested the 13 villages around Wildnorth Town be fused into seven, with the leftover farmland reorganized into farm units, accompanied by the construction of town-like residential areas for the folk.
The commoners of Felicitas were also rather rich. The apartment units in four-story buildings, thought to be in the highest demand, selling for 20 plus gold Fordes each, didn't do as well as the house had hoped. Instead, too few three-story, sloped-roof houses with attics built near a small park were planned, unable to meet the unexpected demand. Each of the houses cost at least 60 gold Fordes and there were 960 planned. Two hundred and forty would be grouped into a neighbourhood; four neighborhoods made a borough. The houses were bought out almost immediately. So, Grandmaster Ciroba changed his plans and designed three other boroughs to satisfy the demand. However, the four boroughs combined occupied two times the land of the current Wildnorth Town.
Kedan believed the fact that many households in Felicitas had family members who served in the military and the benefits they enjoyed as a result of that, such as the annual income of more than ten gold Fordes per house and the decreased taxes, was the main driving factors of their ability to purchase houses. Some households even bought two houses for their children to use when they formed their own families. As for the rich commoners that ran successful factories and business, they even purchased all of the units in the 'wealthy boroughs' situated right opposite the commercial district.
Lorist adopted Kedan's suggestion but refused to name the town a city. On Grindia, a city represented a settlement that had a population over 50 thousand and had complete administrative and public facilities. Wildnorth Town's continued development would only cause it to have around 30 thousand citizens, Lorist didn't think it would grow further. In fact, he felt it might lose some of its inhabitants.
The whole of The Northlands would soon become House Norton's dominion, and, as Charade had said, seven more settlements like Felicitas could still be built. The neighboring area would also be in the house's sphere of influence. Lorist didn't think many refugees would settle down in The Northlands. The Northlands had always had a lot of land compared to citizens, and Lorist didn't think it'd change anytime soon.
Having finished his administrative duties, Lorist traveled straight to the eastern part of The Northlands. The new Jaeger Legion was training there. Josk and Yuriy, the commanders-to-be of the legion, came over to receive him. When Lorist asked about the current combat strength of the legion, Josk explained that, so far, only one division of 15 thousand men stood a fighting chance against Duke Fisablen's Frontier Legion. The remaining three divisions still required a lot of training before they were battle ready. Josk and Yuriy had already decided they would resume training in the winter so the 2nd Jaeger Division would be ready for deployment in the coming spring.
Lorist expressed his satisfaction. Lately, since leaving The Northlands was forbidden, there was no way House Fisablen could know that Lorist had formed yet another light cavalry legion. It meant that when Tigersoar and Firmrock attacked the Iblia kingdom the following year and clashed with the Fisablen forces in Southern and Winston, Jaeger would be able to deal a fatal blow from the rear, catching them off guard and driving them all the way through Wild Husbandry. It would force the Fisablens to retreat to Eastwild to protect the greater and lesser golden creeks and surrender the initiative to the Nortons.
After leaving Jaegar, Lorist went to check on Tigersoar and Firmrock. The two had just returned to The Northlands. During their rampage to the imperial capital, Tigersoar played a pivotal part and rushed through one territory after another. Firmrock, on the other hand, came from the seas to assault Madras. The two's reputations soared almost instantly. The main focus was their relatively low casualty rates. After returning to The Northlands, the two legions rested in preparation to serve as the main force for the next year's campaign.
All the household knights were rather excited, apart from Ovidis, who seemed rather down. Lorist knew what he was worried about. When Tigersoar was on its way back, Lorist ordered 150 of the remaining catapults given to House Kenmays, 120 to House Felim, and 100 to House Shazin. The remaining 50 were left to Kobo's garrison.
All that remained of Thunderbolt Brigade were its members. Not a single catapult returned. He didn't understand why Lorist would just give the catapults away, even if the recipients were their allies. Those were the house's secret weapons! Their campaign across the empire was a testament to the might of the contraptions. The citadels that barred their way were unable to withstand the rocky barrages and fell one after another. Had it not been for the catapults, who knew how many would have had to be sacrificed to occupy the citadels.
Lorist patted lightly on Ovidis's shoulders.
"Didn't you notice that your catapults' firing range was getting shorter and shorter?"
"Yes, Your Grace," Ovidis nodded, "I noticed the catapults' original range of 400 meters decreased to around 300 or so by the time we fought the royal defense legion. I thought it was because of the irregular shapes of the rocks."
Lorist shook his head.
"No, the problem lies with the catapults themselves. As they rely on the compressed steel springs to fire, it's only natural they'd wear down over time. Grandmaster Julian had tested them before and learned that the springs would wear out after around a thousand shots. The contortions are hard to spot with the naked eye and can only be noticed under close scrutiny. As a result of the wear, the catapults' ranges are constantly decreasing. Only replacing the springs will remedy the situation.
"Your Thunderbolt Brigade turned the tables of many battles and it's no doubt a great achievement on your part. We could've transported the catapults back and switched out the steel springs, but Baron Camorra, in charge of logistics, thinks changing to new ones would save more money. There's no need to be sentimental about the old catapults. Since our three allies have long expressed their interest, leaving the catapults with them and gaining their favor and funds was the best course of action. That's why I followed Baron Camorra's advice.
"You should go look for the baron. He's already prepared 500 new catapults for you. During next year's campaign, you'll be deployed defensively most of the time, though. You'll also, once again, leave the catapults behind when you're moved."
"Will we get replacement catapults then again?" asked Ovidis joyfully.
"No, I will give you an even better weapon. The catch is, you'll have to put in a lot of effort to familiarize yourself its operation. I promise you'll definitely fall in love with it after witnessing its might."
Lorist was referring to the bronze cannons he had originally intended to allocate to the various legions. He felt it was a little too difficult to arm so many units; the cost was just too high. Each shot cost a lot of money! While the catapults could use rocks in nearby areas as projectiles, the same couldn't be done with cannons. Each shot cost at least a few large silvers.
Not too long ago, grandmasters Sid, Fellin, and Julian were so moved by their entitlement that they dove straight back into their research. A little later, they sent Lorist a report and stated that a new bronze alloy would decrease the production cost of the cannons by a third and increase their durability as well. They were still testing the material, and should it ever work out, they could begin producing even more of them.
The cannons' construction, however, was relatively cheap compared to the costs of gunpowder and projectiles used. Even if Lorist desperately wanted the cost to produce gunpowder to decrease, he could only hope. Professor Balbo's gunpowder research lab had, so far, not yet found a replacement for saltpeter, so they could only be obtained laboriously using the regular way of scraping them off wall corners.
The new alloyed bronze cannon grandmasters Sid and Julian designed did have another redeeming point: its weight. It made them easier to transport. Lorist believed when Ovidis saw the cannons for himself, he would definitely ditch the catapults like a heartless man who found a hot new lover.
Ovidis, who was in a rush to meet Camorra, made a knight's salute before he left in a hurry. He seemed to recall something just as he was about to close the door behind him and stopped.
"Your Grace, I'm not sure if the commander has reported this to you... I don't know if I should bring it up."
"Feel free."
"Well, when the legion was at the imperial capital, didn't His Highness want a few catapults for himself? After he was refused, His Highness brought a few scholars and worksmiths to our camp to inspect them. As it was His Highness, it wasn't my place to stop him, but later, I was severely reprimanded by the legion commander. He said I shouldn't have let him into the camp. It was His Highness, though. I didn't dare to refuse! In the end, I took responsibility and submitted a report. I wonder if you've received it from the legion commander? I've been waiting for my punishment for a good while now."
Lorist laughed. Loze had indeed informed him of the matter earlier, but he hadn't submitted the report. Lorist didn't really mind, he had been prepared for the technology to leak the moment he deployed the brigade. It was only a matter of time; Grindia was rife with talented people who could reverse engineer the catapults. Just like a sleight of hand, once the illusion was understood, it would no longer be worth witnessing any longer.
While Ovidis was a crude man, one who had been a bandit at one point, he was a deserter before that and used to serve as a squad leader in the Krissen Empire's forces. Naturally, he had an innate fear of the imperial family and really couldn't find it in him to stop the second highness. Since his status was far from Loze's, he couldn't afford to not give the second highness any face.
"I already know. Even if they copy our design, they won't be able to make catapults like ours. They can't fabricate the steel springs we use. They won't be able to replicate them even if they had one in their possession. I forgive you this time, Ovidis. But I don't want to hear anything like this again. Don't forget that you're a knight of House Norton. You don't have to care about anybody not your commanding officer, not even a king. Besides, I didn't assign Thunderbolt Brigade to you because of your careful attention to detail, but your courage and work ethic," said Lorist calmly.
Ovidis's face flushed. He straightened his back and gazed directly at Lorist.
"There definitely won't be a next time, Your Grace! I promise!" replied he.
"Good. Remember it well. Now, go see Baron Camorra."
Lorist felt a little annoyed after sending Ovidis off.
That bastard was so shameless he even dared to send people to inspect my catapults... Even though he can't exactly make identical ones, the principle behind how they work isn't difficult to understand. It won't take long for counterfeits to start popping up... I guess battles in the future will definitely involve both sides throwing rocks at one another.
Just as he sat down to take a sip from his cup of tea, Tarkel rushed over.
"Your Grace, something bad just happened! Sir Reidy is being hunted down!" reported he.
Lorist raised his head ferociously.
"What? Wasn't Reidy traveling in the four central duchies? I thought he was heading to Morante next! What happened? Who are his pursuers?" exclaimed he.
"Sir Reidy was there when we were setting up our information network, so I asked him to kill a few pests in our way. He was eventually confronted by a messenger from Duke Fisablen in Handra who accused him of being a spy. In a fit of rage, Sir Reidy killed the man.
"Now, he's wanted by the four central duchies and being pursued as we speak. Sir Reidy killed a good number of their gold-ranked knights, so the four central duchies sent two rank 1 blademasters after him. Duke Fisablen also sent Blademaster Xanthi to seek revenge for their messenger. Right now, our informants aren't able to interfere. All we know is that he was last seen near Egret Lake."
"Blademaster Xanthi?! Hmph!" Lorist spat before he stood up angrily, "Prepare my horse! I will find Reidy!"
Reidy's Encounters
Fourth release of the week!
Darn it, are they no longer bothering to hold back? thought Lorist hatefully.
Reidy was Lorist's first disciple and, in some sense, he was one of the people Lorist trusted the most alongside Howard. Those two held a different place in Lorist's heart than Potterfang, Charade, Els, and the others.
While Reidy was only a one-star silver rank, he wasn't training in battleforce. Instead, he was practicing the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique, which Lorist had passed down to him, so he was especially close to Lorist. Naturally, Reidy had no way of knowing that the internal techniques he learned were from Lorist's family in the previous world. He was instead told that they were passed down from the days of the eastern combat monks.
As Lorist's eldest disciple, Reidy had never let him down. In fact, Lorist had expressed more than a couple of times that his disciple was more talented in training than he was, having only taken around five years to break through the bottleneck that was the third level of the technique and approaching the fourth.
As the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique was an internal technique passed down in Lorist's family of his previous life, it was the only one that non-family-related disciples were allowed to learn. It was easy to start and hard to master. The first two stages were rather fast on the pickup for most. But only very few actually manage to reach the third level and approach the peak of the Bright Stage. Breaking through to the fourth level signified one's arrival at the Dark Stage. As for the fifth, Lorist had heard his grandfather mention that only one disciple had ever managed to reach it, at the end of the Qing dynasty, and became a grandmaster. However, they had lost all contact with him after he joined a resistance movement against foreign invaders. He was never heard from again.
Reidy was already near the fourth level and, according to Lorist, was already beyond the abilities of gold-ranked swordsmen. However, he was still a little shy of the level of blademasters. This was Reidy's true talent. Lorist himself had taken more than ten years to reach the level of blademasters after a dozen years of struggling and his fair share of near-death experiences, but Reidy only used five years to catch up.
However, breaking through to the fourth level required understanding and insight. At first, Lorist had wanted Reidy to go adventuring on his own to expand his horizons. Unfortunately, almost all the house's knights went into secluded training at once, including Lorist's personal guard, Jim, so Reidy was left with no choice but to take up the position of Leader of the Guard until Pak could come and relieve him. By the time Els broke through to become a gold-ranked knight, Duke Fisablen's knighthood tournament was just around the corner. Reidy participated in the swordsmanship section and managed to win.
Finally, after the bulk of things stabilized, Reidy was able to travel the continent. He had planned to travel by land all the way to Morante before going to the Romon Empire where his hometown was. The whole journey was estimated to take around two years. When Tarkel found out about it, he had Reidy go to the four central duchies to help solve some troubles Furybear agents were having due to the local criminal syndicates.
Reidy had seen much during his time as the guard captain and knew that the unit carried out many covert operations. For instance, he helped Tarkel wipe out a few underground syndicates when they were in Windbury. Reidy agreed without contest to help him once more. While most of his objectives in Handra and Farkel were completed without issue, he ran into trouble in Handra's capital when he tried to deal with a crime boss.
The boss ran a large inn and was also a relative of one of the duchy's counts -- a complete weakling. The count's wife had an affair with Duke Handra himself. While it wasn't spoken about in public, it was not much of a secret either. The crime boss was the count's elder cousin and profited the count's adulterous wife quite a bit. He collected protection money, threatened merchants, and ran brothels and scams in the capital, Nawulis.
Tarkel attempted to infiltrate a couple in their fifties as his informants. They were locals and had two sons who helped out with the family leather trade. During the civil war, they escaped when the first prince attacked and ended up heading to The Northlands with the northbound convoy when they passed through the Andinaq kingdom. Their two sons joined the Norton forces. The eldest was now a squad leader and would soon be promoted to a household knight. The couple, having started to miss home, wanted to visit it, but their two sons were reluctant to accompany them. When Tarkel found out about it, he had someone act as the younger son to accompany the couple back home.
However, when they made it to their hometown, they realized their home had been occupied by the local crime boss. When they confronted him, they were told their whole family were considered deserters who had abandoned the duchy in times of trouble. The couple left with a beating in the place of their house and all their belongings were taken. The moment word got back, Tarkel fumed with rage and issued an assassination order on the one responsible. He asked Reidy to uproot the whole syndicate.
Thus, Reidy began on his path of bloodshed across the taverns and brothels owned by the crime boss. By the time he was mostly done with the minions, he began to seek out the man himself.
Unfortunately, he encountered the noble envoy of Duke Fisablen who was lodging at the inn belonging to the crime boss. The envoy was a very close nephew of the duke himself who recognized Reidy as one of the victors from the knighthood tournament and knew he was a member of House Norton.
If Reidy had stuck to killing the crime boss and jumping out the inn's window to escape, that would be the end of it. However, due to his constant stream of victories over the last two years, Reidy developed a sense of arrogance that prompted him to leave at his own pace after slaughtering the crime boss in broad daylight. He bumped into the Envoy.
The envoy was stunned and asked why Reidy was there before he assumed he was actually there to spy on him. As he was there to represent House Fisablen to negotiate a trade deal with the duchy, he was under the impression that his mission was a grave one and jumped to the conclusion that Reidy was, in fact, tailing him. He ordered Reidy's capture without a second thought, accusing him of being a spy in the process.
The moment the few nobles and guards following the envoy heard his command, they roared and drew their weapons. In a fit of rage, Reidy killed everyone, which included half of the group the envoy came with. When he saw the envoy attempt to escape, he leaped and drove his sword through him before leaving nonchalantly. The whole duchy was in a state of panic as a result.
Having one's envoy killed was no small slight on a noble's reputation. Additionally, the man was the duke's nephew, not just some disposable noble, so the very least the Handra authorities could do was capture the murderer. Duke Handra raged and sealed the borders before launching an extensive search.
At first, the ones sent to confront Reidy were mostly local garrison soldiers. Every time he intended to resupply at a town, he would be entangled by its guards, not that he minded much. However, when one of the gold-ranked knights fell at his sword, the Handra duchy began to deploy military personnel before ordering all towns and villages to forbid all lone travelers from entering. At the same time, they sent a rank 1 blademaster out as well.
Reidy's journey began to go south. While garrison soldiers were easy to deal with, he couldn't do much against them if he wasn't even allowed to enter. The moment anyone got close enough, the guards on the walls would order them to stop and send a few archers over to investigate. They were only allowed to enter once it was confirmed they weren't Reidy. There were a number of times he held a few of the ones sent to investigate hostage but the guards on the walls still fired their arrows without hesitation.
Reidy was finally suffering the consequences of his actions, and it only worsened when the blademaster caught wind of him. Just as Lorist expected, Reidy was still far from being able to deal with a blademaster. Even though he wouldn't be as disadvantaged as a gold-ranked swordsman, he still found it hard to fight on the same level. Fortunately, he was still able to escape when he wanted, so Reidy changed his original route and planned to go through the Shabaj duchy to reach the province of Messen, which used to be the Melein duchy's territory. He would then head to Egret Lake and reach the Andinaq kingdom before taking a huge detour to Morante.
What he didn't expect was that the four duchies were in it together. Duke Handra's messenger arrived at Shabaj first, and they also began to hunt him. He had only managed to relax for two days before he was forced to run for his life again.
His anger grew ever worse and more intense, along with it grew his cruelty. When two of the Shabaj duchy's gold-ranked knights were killed, Duke Shabaj also sent out the duchy's blademaster and swore to see Reidy's corpse torn to a thousand pieces.
Being the target of two blademasters caused Reidy endless trouble. Fortunately, while he wasn't able to handle the blademasters themselves, he was able to defeat their minions easily. The high-up blademasters normally wouldn't act until they got a definitive lead on where Reidy was. This gave him the opportunity to kill off his weaker pursuers before he continued his escape. The small fry became terrified of him, they didn't dare to leave the blademasters' sides.
Reidy was finally able to take a short breather. His swordsmanship had been honed quite substantially during his escapade, especially during his confrontations with the blademasters. Having familiarized himself with the first blademaster's moves, he was even able to gain a slight advantage during the fights. When the second blademaster made his way there, he made his escape with a hearty laugh.
It was too bad that pleasant situation didn't last long. Having not heard anything about the capture of the one that murdered his nephew, Duke Fisablen finally decided to send his lover, rank 2 Blademaster Xanthi, to join the hunt. In only a single clash, Reidy suffered three wounds. Luckily, he made his escape quickly and jumped into a nearby river, if not, he would not have been able to get away.
The last time Reidy was spotted was near Egret Lake. So far, his pursuers were on their way there as well. Even the four duchies' combined army. stationed at Centerlake Island, were alerted. Many search parties were deployed to scour the lake.
"Map," said Lorist.
Howard, who was worried about his senior apprentice brother, had already prepared the map of Egret Lake and laid it out before Lorist.
Egret Lake was the largest plot of undeveloped land within the territory of the former empire. It separated the Great Andalou Plains from the rest of the empire's rich land and bordered Cloudsnap Mountains, The Northlands, and the Liden Mountains. The center of the empire only had two main roads, one through the Madras straight to Melein and Shabaj, and another towards the two southwestern provinces, Majik and Farkel.
The two roads could be described as a large detour. There was actually another unconventional path, across Egret Lake itself when its surface froze up in the winter. One would first go through the swamp to Centerlake Island before crossing another swampy area to arrive at Messen. The was the one Duke Melein used to transport Fiercegale Legion to resist the second prince's invasion.
Strictly speaking, the swamp around Egret Lake should be called Egret Basin. It was a large expanse of wetlands of roughly five hundred square kilometers, whereas Egret Lake was only about five square kilometers. While some parts of the swamp would freeze up during winter, most of it still remained rather dangerous.
Ever since Melein's two provinces were absorbed into Shabaj, and following the safe return of the second highness to his throne, the four central duchies stationed their troops at Centerlake Island and constructed a wooden citadel there to prevent the second highness's forces from using it for a winter invasion. Their vigilance was only to be expected, given how the battle that shot the second highness to fame occurred during winter.
As for the other route from Madras, the four central duchies didn't mind it much. First, the route circled around Egret Lake and was incredibly hard to traverse. There was also a citadel there that could stop any invading army in its tracks. Nobody could transport their army through the pass given the horrible terrain, so most who bothered to travel on that road were merchants. It was said that Duke Madras had once discussed with Duke Melein about making that route into a highway to improve trade, but the project was delayed to no end due to financial concerns.
So far, Whitelion Legion was deployed in the two southwestern provinces to stand off against the Union at Kanbona. The reorganized royal defense legion, on the other hand, was stationed at Hanstmost against Zitram. Word was that the second highness was forming a new amphibious legion on the opposite shore of Egret Lake right next to Centerlake Island. The rumor terrified the four central duchies.
It was the 26th day of the 11th month on Grindia and there were only 44 days before the new year's arrival, If Lorist wanted to travel to Egret Lake to look for Reidy, he would have to travel by sea to Silowas and head to Jilin harbor before heading there on horseback. It was the fastest way but even so, it would still take around eleven days. This route, however, passed through the central province where the imperial capital was and it was very likely that the second highness would cause him trouble some way or another.
The second route involved traveling to Delamock before going to Vanades and heading to Egret Basin from there. The road was long and winding, it would take him at least two weeks. With Madras' conquest and its occupation by the Northland nobles, who were in the second highness's faction, Shabaj had already cut the route off and prohibited any merchants from traveling to Vanades.
After some thought, he finally decided to use the second route.
"Tarkel, notify our agents in Vanades with the messenger eagles and have them find me a guide and hunter. Prepare what I need to search for Reidy. We'll leave tomorrow afternoon."
"Understood, Your Grace."
Ambush, Pursuit and Assault
Reidy lay flat in the grass, his whole body covered in mud and partially submerged as he paid attention to the barks and footsteps approaching from the distance.
I should have been on the run for a month or so by now, right? I can't even remember the date anymore. The weather's getting colder every day… winter must be approaching.
Reidy didn't expect his pursuers wouldn't give up even after he had escaped into the swamps of Egret Basin. Not only did they recruit a few experienced hunters from the nearby area, they also mobilized the standing army. Reidy's days were now harder than ever. He was even unable to get any good rest. It didn't take more than two hours for the hunting dogs to track him down. He had no choice but to continuously strain his mind and body to their limits to keep himself out of their hands.
He finally began to reflect on the arrogance and thoughtlessness he had displayed. Ever since Lorist acknowledged his swordsmanship, he began to feel proud. It was especially the case ever since he emerged as the champion in the knighthood competition. He no longer took gold-ranked knights seriously and already saw himself as being on the level of rank 1 blademasters.
Even after a bounty had been placed on his head by the Handra and Shabaj duchies, Reidy still remained confident. Certainly, mere rank 1 blademasters couldn't do much to him. He didn't fear facing one head-on since it usually took them at least a hundred strikes to gain the advantage. Had it not been for the other blademaster joining the fray, Reidy wouldn't have minded clashing with the first. Right now, he recalled his teacher's words. He was just like a 'frog in a well' who didn't know how wide the skies truly were. He could only see the well in which he lived. Thinking that he was already on par with rank 1 blademasters, Reidy proudly accepted Blademaster Xanthi's challenge, only to discover that he wasn't able to even take a single strike from her. Had it not been for the river behind him, his head would've been lopped off.
Darned old woman... She's not taking our previous interactions at all into account at all.
Back when Xanthi accompanied Princess Sylvia on her trip around The Northlands, Reidy had been their guide and even made tea for them on numerous occasions. She knew that he was Lorist's eldest disciple, yet she didn't hold back in the slightest and fought with all her strength right from the get-go. It was apparent that Xanthi didn't care about Lorist nor House Norton. Reidy wondered what he had done to have Duke Fisablen desire his death no matter what.
The poor Reidy began to recall all that had happened during his pursuit. Usually, local nobles wouldn't care much when a crime boss or two were killed in their territory. Even if the bosses were chosen by the nobles themselves to rule the underworld on their behalf, the nobles wouldn't bat an eye to their death. They'd simply choose someone else to take their place. Even if they were to place a bounty on someone, it would only be for show. After all, it wasn't uncommon for a crime boss to be killed because of some grudge. Even if the crime bosses were the nobles' relative, the latter usually didn't want to risk the lives of their knights to avenge a mere crime boss.
Since it probably wasn't due to the crime bosses he had killed, Reidy reasoned that it had to be the envoy. The more he thought about it, the more familiar the envoy seemed. After a long time, he finally noticed that he might've seen that fellow beside Duke Fisablen during the knighthood tournament. Lorist had introduced the man as the son of the duke's younger brother. He was a three-star silver rank, the most likely to be the one to step into the gold rank after Princess Sylvia. It was too bad he had lost in the jousting match with Loze.
Reidy finally realized why Xanthi was there, and the magnitude of trouble he was in. He could no longer continue his travels and would have to return to The Northlands right away, should he manage to escape. He would only be safe by his teacher's side. However, he still had to deal with the three sword wounds that Xanthi had dealt him. He would have to stop the bleeding so he wouldn't leave any tracks.
Fortunately, he had trained in the ancient combat technique of the eastern combat monks, the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique. The method of training was completely unlike battleforce. Not only did it allow his swordsmanship to grow explosively, he could even suppress gold-ranked knights with his internal energy. The most important feature was that he could use internal energy to temporarily seal off the circulation where he was injured so he wouldn't bleed and leave a trail.
After he jumped into the river, everyone thought he would emerge on the other side. However, Reidy chose to remain where he was and slip back onto the shore where he jumped right under their noses. After sewing his wounds shut with the sewing kit he carried with him, he applied some medicine, bandaged them, and turned tail to head to Egret Lake. By the time his pursuers realized he had turned back, Reidy had managed to buy himself a few days' time and even allowed his wounds to recover somewhat.
However, there were far too many people on his tail. Even if he were able to reach towns or villages, he wouldn't be able to gain aid there. Only a few days after he entered the swamp, the pursuers brought hunters and hunting dogs to seek him out almost immediately. Currently, Reidy was a rabbit fortunate enough to escape the trap it was caught in. Many of the vital routes to the highlands from the swamp were sealed off, further making it more difficult for Reidy to escape.
Three oily furred hunting dogs half as tall as a man lowered their noses and began sniffing the grass. Beside the dogs were a dozen soldiers and two hunters clad in brown leather. The frontmost three soldiers held up half-body shields. Four pikemen stood behind them. At the tail end of the party were two crossbowmen and three longbowmen. Each one wore alert expressions and were ready to unleash their attacks at any moment.
The three hunting dogs gradually approached a spot roughly three meters away. When the two hunters approached, they relaxed before they turned to the soldiers.
"There's no need to be so tense. We can rest for a bit. The one you're looking for is done for," reported one.
"How so?" asked the solders' leader.
"Our hunting dogs only track a human scent as far as this spot. He might've entered the grasslands here already," replied the man, pointing at the grass.
"Our orders were to find him. Even if he's entered the grasslands, we still have to continue our search," said the leader.
"We can't enter," the hunter said while his partner joined him for a laugh, "Didn't you hear me say he was done for? Don't be mistaken by how tall the grass is. The grass floats on the surface of a very deep pool. No matter who it is, once someone steps in, he will sink and die beneath the grass. The animals and people who died in the pool nourished the grass above it, causing it to grow this tall. Those around here call this the Demongrass Swamp."
"You're saying that the one we're chasing might've drowned after entering this patch of grass?" asked the leader as he relaxed.
No one could alert for so long. The moment the soldiers heard the hunters, they lowered their shields, crossbows, and bows before surrounding the patch of tall grass in discussion. A few walked up to the edge of the grass, unbuttoned their pants, and released a stream of urine.
A rush of pungent urine landed not far away from where Reidy was hiding. A little even sprinkled on his face, but he didn't move. Ideally, he would convince his pursuers he had died in the swamp. If he was already going to return to The Northlands, he could definitely do without the company of those blademasters. However, as with most dreams crushed by reality, the scenario Reidy imagined didn't come to pass.
"Which one of you will make a trip back to report what we've discovered?" he heard the leader ask.
"Leader, what should we report? Should we say our target died after escaping into Demongrass Swamp?" asked one of the soldiers.
"Officer, why can't we just head back together? There's no need to make a trip back, is there? Isn't this matter done with already?" asked the older hunter.
The squad leader sighed.
"Do you think I don't want to go back? The higher-ups said they want to see the corpse if the target is dead. If we report he died inside Demongrass Swamp, they will order us to scour the swamp until we find his corpse. All we can report is that we've lost all trace of him around here and have the higher ups send people over to do the search themselves. No matter what, we don't dare to tell them our target fell to his death in the swamp," answered he.
The younger hunter scratched his face.
"Isn't that ridiculous? How could you find the corpse if it's already sunk all the way down there?"
"Well, they might bring a torch to set the grass alight before they have us poke around inside with long sticks. Even if the swamp is deep, there's no way he could go very far in. He should still be laying dead somewhere in the shallower parts."
Reidy took a deep breath. He launched himself from the mud and dove into the group. His sword flashed quickly a few times. One figure after another fell as blood gushed out of their bodies. In a few short seconds, the eight soldiers were dead already.
Loud barking could be heard as the three hunting dogs leaped over. With a sudden turn, Reidy split one's head before he maneuvered his sword to pierce through the head of the second from below. Releasing his sword and doing a roll, Reidy managed to dodge the third. Using his right hand to take a throwing axe one of the dead soldiers carried by his waist, Reidy hacked the final dog's back. With a puff, the dog crashed against the ground, blood leaking out of its mouth as it flailed in an attempt to stand.
All that remained were four soldiers and two hunters. The leader had already got his three subordinates to hold up their shields and pikes. When they met Reidy's eyes, the four couldn't help but feel despair and panic. As for the two hunters, they had already escaped the moment they instructed their hunting dogs to attack. They were already ten meters away.
Reidy laughed lightly before he flicked his leg. A bow and a quiver on the ground by his feet shot up and landed in his arms. The squad leader's gaze tensed up.
"Careful, everyone!" yelled he as he tried his best to shrink behind the shields.
The woosh of arrows could be heard three times in quick succession. Two cries of pain rang out from behind the group. The leader turned to look and saw the two hunters collapsed on the ground. One had an arrow through his back, the other two. He flushed with embarrassment. He didn't think that being looked down upon by an enemy would be so infuriating. However, the cries calmed him, even though he had wanted to clash with Reidy just moments before. It was obvious that the muddy-looking man intended to have his whole squad stay behind.
Behind the shields, the squad leader took out a small bamboo cone and handed it to the person behind him before he whispered.
"Whoever's at the back, ignite the smoke signal. The rest of you stand your ground together. We'll try our best to stall until reinforcements arrive. We'll be safe once they do."
At that moment, Reidy was removing the sword stuck through one of the hunting dogs. He had used a little too much force to draw the bow quickly moments ago, the wounds on his chest had reopened. It didn't stop him from killing the four soldiers in front of him, though.
He collected his spoils. He had already not eaten for a few days, his last meal was a poisonous yellowish-purple snake. He was so hungry he accidentally popped the snake's gallbladder. The contents spilt on the meat causing it to taste incredibly bitter. He had been so hungry he ate it anyway.
Currently, even normal rations tasted like delicacies to Reidy. Apart from his longsword, he didn't carry anything with him. Even his clothes were horribly torn. He was caked in mud from head to toe. As the swamps were filled with swarms of huge mosquitos who's stings resulted in massive swelling, he had no choice but to muddy himself to make sure his blood wasn't sucked dry.
The four soldiers that remained huddled together. The one at the front held up a shield and the other two raised their pikes. The last soldier was busy with something, but he couldn't see what it was. He was was sure he wasn't holding a crossbow, though, as the ones armed with them had been his first targets. The two crossbows on the floor were in plain sight. For all Reidy knew, the man might be unarmed, since it wasn't surprising for one to forget one's weapon when ambushed.
But when a loud hiss rang out, the look on Reidy's face changed. A small bamboo tube let out thick smoke into the air visible from kilometers away. The smoke signal was something Frontier Legion used to signal units far away on the great expanses of the grasslands. Reidy didn't think his pursuers would be given them as well.
"Die!" roared Reidy as he rushed forward.
He knocked the two pikes that shot at him like poisonous pythons away. Stepping hard on the shield and leaping over it, he swung his sword and cleft the throats of the two pike-wielding soldiers, before slashing behind him after he landed behind the shield bearer. The man dropped his shield and grabbed his wound before kneeling gradually. Reidy withdrew his sword. Only the pale-faced soldier holding the smoke signal was left.
"Go to hell," yelled Reidy as he ended the man with one strike.
Despite being cleft in twain, the bamboo tube still continued to let out smoke. Not long after, loud barking could be heard in the distance.
"Sol!" cursed Reidy before he picked up the two crossbows and bows on the ground, the two quivers, and the spear.
He hurriedly searched the dead soldiers' rucksacks and picked what he needed quickly. He packed everything into a sack which he tied to his waist. After looking around and seeing movement in the distance, Reidy smiled before he jumped onto the muddy slope and disappeared into the Demongrass Swamp.
Demongrass Swamp
Hey Guys!
Yes, it's the start of another week and the start of another flurry of chapters. We'd like to just take a few moments to remind you guys about or map competition. There are 100USD in prizes and the eternal gratitude of the TRL readers at stake! Don't forget to take a read and make a map if you want.
The two of us can't wait to see what amazing maps all you budding cartographers have in store for us.
Now... enjoy the chapter!
Demongrass Swamp, as the locals called it, was actually just a mud lake that covered a huge area. The most eye-catching part of the 'lake' was the grass that grew on its surface. They looked like dense growths of eupatorium plants[1] floating above the water, with their long stems reaching down deep below the water's surface. From afar, it looked just like a normal piece of land with tall grass. While the grass near the sides of the lake was rather tough and could bear human weight, the ones closer to the center couldn't. With but a misstep, one would fall straight in and sink to the bottom.
It wasn't that mud had no buoyancy; the problem was with the grass that grew from the very bottom of the lake itself. Even crocodiles, the 'kings of the swamps', don't dare to enter the lake for fear of being tangled up in the roots and drowning. Apart from insects, smaller fish, snakes, and frogs, there weren't any other animal within the lake. Most larger birds wouldn't even bother to hunt there.
Reidy wasn't unfamiliar with this kind of grass. Near Northsea, completed just two years earlier, the opposite shore of Azure River was Blackmud Marsh. The household had developed that part of the marsh into rich farmland, but ironspine crocodiles still lurked on the opposite shore of the river.
Without battleforce of at least the silver rank, one couldn't damage them at all. One couldn't even put a single scratch on their backs without a blade glow. This was precisely why the house's Oceanic Legion used armor made from ironspine crocodile leather. Not only was it strong, it also floated better and had great heat-insulating properties.
When the household developed that part of Blackmud Marsh, they fashioned two extremely huge steel ballistae solely for use against the crocodiles. Lorist also had the largest one they killed embalmed and displayed on Northsea's plaza. As a result, the plaza was known as Crocodile Plaza. Some kids even used the embalmed crocodile as their playground. One could often find little figures climbing in and out of its huge mouth.
When the house built the long wall from Tortoise Hill to Azure River, some construction sites were attacked by the crocodiles. Thanks to the frequent waves of ballistae bolts, the crocodiles learned to behave and no longer swam to their deaths of their own accord.
'Since the crocodiles won't come over, we'll go to them,' was the conclusion the Oceanic Legion came to. They had two boats equipped with the steel ballistae, which allowed them to hunt the crocodiles as they sailed down the river. In time, not a single crocodile was visible anywhere near the wall. The hunters had to go into the deeper parts of Blackmud Marsh itself.
Blackmud Marsh was so wide that even after several years, the Nortons had only explored a third of it. During some of their expeditions, they discovered a few mud lakes just like Demongrass Swamp. At first, the hunters thought the crocodiles would surely hide in such a dense growth of grass and decided to set them on fire to flush the beasts out. They only discovered the true nature of the lake, within which was the network of roots. Simply by tossing a hook and pulling it up, they found bundles of fine stems as well as some rotten ironspine crocodile carcasses.
When Reidy was training at Firmrock Castle, he would occasionally go out for changes of pace. One time, he was asked to tag along for a trip to the marsh with Paulobins and fell in love with the sport of ironspine crocodile hunting, more specifically, fighting one on one with middle-sized crocodiles armed with nothing but a sword, using them as his sparring partners. Having spent quite some time in the marsh, he was familiar with the muddy lakes, so, when he saw one in Egret Basin, he thought of using it to escape from his pursuers and teach them a lesson.
One day, when Reidy had just arrived, he was elated to find such a dense grassland in which he could hide from his pursuers. But after taking two steps forward, he noticed something was amiss. Quickly drawing his sword and poking downwards, his blood cooled.
Isn't it all mud below? If I had taken a few more steps forward, I really would've been done for...
That night, Reidy cut a few bushes and trees near the lake for wood and used what remained of his torn-up leather armor and some vines to make a rope. He tied the wood together and laid it in the lake. While the mud did have buoyancy and wouldn't cause a living being to sink right away, it was the grass's stems and roots that mainly entangled any living thing that panicked and struggled within. The more one struggled, the faster one would be entangled and drown.
Even though Reidy had carefully laid the little wooden raft in the lake, he was nevertheless very cautious when he got aboard. Keeping one's calm was the key when entering the mud lakes. Should one ever make any extreme movements, one's limbs would end up caught between some of the grass stems.
First, Reidy gently laid himself on the raft and pulled at the grass in the lake carefully to propel him toward the lake's bank. While doing so was Reidy's only hope of escape, it would've been far safer if he had someone watching over him from the shore.
Right now, however, he was alone. He spent the whole night getting ready before he hid amidst the grass not too far away from shore and he waited for his pursuers to arrive. No matter what, he had to steal some rations. Otherwise, it would be incredibly difficult to survive the cooling weather.
...
The first ones to arrive were the silver-ranked guards of House Fisablen, led by Blademaster Xanthi herself. She had seen Reidy disappear into the curtain of grass as well as the dozen corpses on the ground.
"Find him right now!"
"Yes!" replied one of the guards.
He took ten or so others with him and into the 'grassland'.
Xanthi didn't think the silver ranks could deal with Reidy in the first place. All she wanted was for them to hold him back and buy her time to make her approach. As long as that quiet attendant of Lorist wasn't allowed to escape, Xanthi was confident she could take care of him. She recalled that Lorist had once personally introduced Reidy as his eldest disciple. She could remember how laughable it had all seemed when she heard that a youngster like Lorist had taken disciples to mimic true masters despite his youth.
A few years had already passed since that encounter when House Norton just managed to defeat the second prince's army and stormed The Northlands while they were at it. At that time, Xanthi and Sylvia were both trapped in the duke's mansion at Gildusk. They had even captured Baron Shazin Hennard and his gold-ranked knight as hostages to negotiate their release. Unexpectedly, however, Lorist himself barged into the mansion and defeated Sylvia before moving on to beat the blademaster, forcing her to release their hostages. Despite that, the matter ended without incident after Lorist personally escorted them out of The Northlands.
She had always thought of Lorist's victory as a fluke, justifying her loss by believing that she had to hold back and not go too far given she was in enemy territory. It didn't help that she still had some energy left even after she was defeated while Lorist fainted right away. To this day, Blademaster Xanthi didn't think Lorist was truly her match.
As they traveled back to Eastwild, she learned that Sylvia got along with the new leader rather well. Xanthi took the opportunity to find out about the origins of Lorist's sword style through Sylvia. The count trained in the ancient combat arts of the now-extinct eastern martial monks of legend. It was no wonder his style was so drastically different.
It didn't mean Xanthi considered Lorist's skills seriously by any means. Even though Lorist's critique of her sword style let her gain some valuable insight to bypass her bottleneck, she didn't consider it a favor either. Xanthi believed she would've been able to fix the problems with her swordsmanship herself if she spent a few months pondering the matter. She also thought Lorist gained quite a bit of insight from their duel himself, so, strictly speaking, he gained more from it than she did.
Xanthi never took kindly to Lorist's relative lack of ambition. But even so, her beloved adoptive daughter actually began to have feelings for him, something she definitely couldn't allow. Xanthi hoped Sylvia would wed a world-changing hero instead of an average-looking count that trained in the unreliable and unproven arts of the eastern martial monks. While Lorist's household had a few centuries' worth of history and background, all it did was stay put in its dominion. It paled severely in comparison to House Fisablen's performance when it helped the second prince establish the Iblia kingdom.
What Xanthi couldn't help was how things developed so swiftly that nobody was able to react quickly enough. In but a year, she heard that House Norton mobilized their troops to conquer Windbury and capture Second Prince Iblia as payback for the latter's sending of Blademaster Zarinan to assassinate Lorist. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Nortons also defeated the two cavalry divisions commanded by Viscount Kristoph and captured all 15 thousand of his troops.
Given the situation, Duke Fisablen had no choice but to take a step back and send Sylvia to discuss a trade agreement, using livestock to exchange for large numbers of military equipment and negotiate for the release of the 15 thousand troops, all the while causing House Norton to let their guard down while House Fisablen began their campaign against the grassland barbarians.
Nowadays, House Fisablen finally managed to consolidate lots of military might. It caused Xanthi's impression of Lorist to dip even further, as it was the greed of the Nortons for gold that allowed for the formation of the strong military of House Fisablen. The duke managed to form an undefeatable light cavalry force, many parts thanks to the incessant supply of military equipment from the Nortons and conquered the greater and lesser golden creeks, an achievement that patched up one of the house's last shortcomings.
The Nortons could never imagine how much a set of cavalry equipment cost on the grasslands. Some of the barbarian tribes were prepared to beg the duke for a few sets of armor. Sometimes, Xanthi fantasized about what would happen should House Fisablen grasp the secrets of making the equipment. At any rate, they definitely wouldn't sell them for the sake of a few coins and livestock like the Nortons. It was arming one's enemy.
Of all the men in the world, her beloved Sylvia had actually fallen for Lorist, much as it vexed her. But given her understanding of her adoptive daughter's personality, she knew that nothing good would come from being too forceful. Xanthi had made a few subtle hints to dissuade Sylvia and take back her heart filled with love and fantasy, to no avail. In the end, she had no choice but to force Sylvia to enter secluded training for a few years until she broke through to the two-star gold rank.
Perhaps the passage of time will let her understand the lovestruck state she was in is but an illusion, Xanthi had thought at the time.
The last thing she expected was that four years of seclusion actually intensified her yearning for Lorist, to the point that she went all the way to The Northlands herself just to invite Lorist to participate in the knighthood tournament. Xanthi's plan had backfired completely. Fortunately for Xanthi, the duke almost flipped out completely against Lorist during the tournament and didn't agree to House Norton's request for the princess's hand in marriage. But back then, Sylvia actually didn't participate in the tournament because of the death of her short-lived, noble-blooded younger brother. Instead, she traveled to The Northlands once more to take her mind off the matters, with Xanthi by her side, of course, so as to not give Lorist any opportunities to take advantage of the princess.
After hearing about the murder of the duke's nephew by Reidy of House Norton, Xanthi knew her time had come to forever sever the ties between Sylvia and Lorist. She joined the hunt for Reidy with fervor. Should Reidy actually die fighting her, Lorist would definitely turn against House Fisablen for good. That way, there was no way Sylvia could marry him. On the other hand, Duke Fisablen, with his renewed and empowered forces, could unite what remained of the kingdom and consolidate his power without fear for the threat of the Nortons.
Splash! Splosh! Splush!
What followed was a stream of shrieks and cries for help that caused Xanthi to turn over, only to witness half of the silver-ranked guards gradually sinking into the 'grassland'. Their bodies descended ever so slowly, covered with fine fibers of grey, black, green, and white that were laden with different kinds of leaves. The fine fibers got more tangled the more the men struggled. They sunk faster the more they struggled. Before Xanthi leaped to save them, she saw a few guards that hadn't fallen into the grass patch stretch their hands out towards their comrades, only to end up falling into the water and getting tangled up by the fibers as well.
In a few short moments, only three silver-ranked guards remained afloat. The three were slightly more intelligent than the rest. They had not moved an inch despite also calling out for help. They realized that moving and struggling would only accelerate their demise. Terrified, Xanthi didn't dare to approach the mud lake at all.
Instead, she turned to the soldiers coming from the distance and ordered, "Quick! Go pull those three out!"
After some hesitation, the three silver-ranked guards were rescued. Xanthi heard the explanations of a few local hunters and realized her mistake. Even though she saw Reidy make his way through the dense grass, it never occurred to her that it was some sort of natural trap. Still, being unable to enter the lake, what would she do?
"Burn everything. I'll see how long that bastard can stay in there. Without the grass' cover, we'll be able to know how he got in there. We'll capture him easily then!" barked Xanthi as she grit her teeth in anger.
"But... Madam Blademaster, Demongrass Swamp is far too big. We'll have to bring lots of fuel! Otherwise, the moist grass won't catch fire," said one squad leader.
"Get the fuel then! Go, now! As for the others, set up a perimeter around the swamp. Don't let that bastard escape!"
[1]Eupatorium plants: link to picture.