"I, Maara Asure, Queen of Tristan do hereby dub thee Knight of the Grand City of Tristan. On account of your meritorious deeds, I appoint you as protector of Arkadia lands and grant you the title and rank of Lord Commander of Tristan Armies. Arise now and take up your place!"
Barda had knelt before her as she made these declarations, and as he arose, cheering could be heard all over the palace grounds. Many who had attended this special occasion may not have seen what was happening, but they all knew what was going on.
By now, the name Barda had become synonymous with extraordinary, genius and alliance. What made the story even juicier was that he had done all this for love. There was not a soul in Tristan and its environs, if not the entire continent, had come to know of him by now.
As was customary, Barda took the time to relax and enjoy time with friends. It was for these moments that one made sense of all the other shitty ones. Phoenix wouldn't stop railing on him all night, especially now that it was official. He was the Queen's suitor.
After all the shit they had been through, they deserved a few moments of respite.
"I thought you said I keep my lips to myself," Barda asked as he rolled over in the bed.
"Lord Barda, are you gloating in the presence of your Queen?
"No Your Majesty, I wouldn't dream of it!"
***
Much to her disappointment, the Queen woke up to an empty bed. Barda was already in the workshop, caught in the horns of a dilemma.
First things first, Barda knew that he may have won this battle, but the war was far from over. He also knew the obvious target to go for, now that they had the initiative. The obvious choice was to go and assault the city of Reuze.
However, to do that, Barda needed a lot of preparations. The reason why the attack on Tristan had gone so smoothly was that the city was on their side. Attacking an entire antagonistic city would not go so smoothly.
Barda also knew the best way to attack was to press the advantage. Sooner or later, Reuze and their Gumina counterparts were going to come up with a solution to his flying ships, so he had to use the advantage while he still had it.
Don't forget that he had only made enough guns to arm 10,000. Now, he had command of the entire Tristan city guard. With the wartime recruitments, the city had 1,500,000 active soldiers and 2,800,000 reserves.
Just thinking of the number of guns that he needed to make to arm all these people gave him a headache, not to mention, the armor as well. Then the means of transport. The airships needed to be replenished and further rebuilding needed to be done.
Barda understood that he could not do this alone. Given the magnitude of the work that he needed to get done, he had to expand the circle to a very large extent. This meant that he had to disclose his designs to several people, running the risk of the enemy gaining the designs and blueprints.
On the plus side, Barda was happy that he had the entire city's resources, including human resources, to tap into. Earlier that day, Barda had Batoo see to announcing to the entire city that he would be meeting with all interested craftspeople, certified or not, the following day.
What he didn't know was that this announcement had caused a commotion in the entire city. This was Barda, the hero of the city and the Lord Commander of the Armies of Tristan. He was asking for help. The patriotic were stirred into action.
Moreover, This was Tristan, home of a large number of craftspeople. They were the kind to snob at anyone less educated than them. The new money who got there through their crafts. These people recognized the genius in Barda and knew they wouldn't hold a candle.
Many others desired to learn at the feet of such a master. Every invention seemed so simple yet so genius. There was no magic involved, neither was there need. Many had claimed his guns were magic, but when some Gumina craftspeople had been able to make a firestick, that was quickly disproved.
Many theories were running around Barda, especially due to his mysterious, or rather unknown, past. Many were curious about who he was and where he came from. However, no answers came. This led many to wonder if he was a friend or foe.
The man spent the rest of the coming up with easy designs and breaking the work he needed to be done. He also needed to determine the quantities of materials he needed and where to source them. By the end of the evening, Barda had scribbled more than a 1,000 blueprints.
***
"Ah, you still alive?" Batoo exclaimed when Karla came to see the team. She was one of the blacksmiths that Barda had recruited alongside Kia as part of the Dark Flames logistics team. During the invasion, she had been in Tristan at the time, so she remained.
"Boy am I glad to see you all!" She answered as she joined them for breakfast, the tradition holding.
"How was it while we were gone?" Kia asked. Unlike most at the table, he had roots in the city. Family, friends. This was home.
"It was one of those when-will-it-ever-end things. Curfews, lockdowns, social distancing," Karla lamented.
"Well, At least you were not dodging trebuchet boulders," Batoo encouraged.
"When did you?" Kia.
***
The following day, the hall he had called the craftspeople was jammed to capacity. Barda was pleasantly surprised to see that Tristan city housed so many craftspeople, and these are just the ones that showed up that day.
The problem was, some were certified and others were not. They had varying levels of skill and he would have to train them up. Barda found himself wishing for an Information Grid since he would have just looked it up. However, he didn't fret much since all that will be done in no time.
After much thought, Barda had created a way of sorting the jobs he had according to the level of skill and secrecy. He ordered them from G - being the lowest and the least paying - to A which was the highest. There was a reserve S which was for the inner circle.
It took Barda the rest of the day sorting out people and delegating to the leaders of each squad. Then he distributed his designs, embracing the Assembly line concept. With this many bodies, getting many of his projects up and running would a peach.
Using the Assembly line, Barda was able to mass-produce assault rifles, handguns, sniper rifles, grenades, and all kinds of ammo. He also commissioned many ships. Since only he knew how to make the capsule at the moment, all they could do was make the body and the sails.
Meanwhile, Barda had taken 100 certified craftspeople, 200 uncertified, and 1,000 unskilled laborers for a few special projects.
***
Quick FYI for Tristan boroughs:
The innermost was known as the Inner Sanctum. It housed the King's palace and many of the founding families, but due to its size limitation, No further expansion happens there. It is preserved for its aesthetics.
Outside the first wall from the inside lay Velocerere. A magnificent borough that housed the wealthy. Hardly any business happened here, and mostly Velocerere served as residential for the old money in Tristan.
Next came Coins borough. As the name suggested, this was the hub of merchants. If your business was here, you were a made man. As you recall, even Gazan school, the place where Barda did the information heist, is located here. If Velocerere could be called the residential for the old money, then Coins would be their workplace
Further out came Kabu. One thing about Kabu was that it acted as the dividing line between the old money and new money. That is not to say that Kabu was inferior in any way to Coins. It could be said to be the most versatile and everchanging part of the city.
Outwards came Icutum and then Tannin. Both were recognized as the home of the middle class. They were the largest boroughs in Tristan, Icutum being the larger. The atmosphere here was more relaxed, less formal and regal. Many businesses and trading firms had branches in these boroughs. They were the workforce of Tristan, those that could live a relatively comfortable life. The well-to-do families.
There is a place like Black Pine in every city. It housed the red-light district, the shady motels, the organized crimes. The bulk of the people here were low-income earners who had to commute to the 2 boroughs for employment. There were also a few ghettos there.
Finally came Rayleigh. Previously, Tristan did not have a wall around this borough since it mostly held the farmlands, but after a siege scare more than 500 years ago, Tristan found the need to be self-sufficient. Other than farmlands, Rayleigh was home to many barracks, acting as the first line of defense.
The Deck was a unifying place where all Tristanites could go and explore, but there were certain areas they were limited from accessing.