"Why have you brought me all the way here? Couldn't you have shown me what you wanted me to see from up there? Do you have any idea how exhausted I am?" Lady Maara was full of complaining as she was dragged down the basement of the palace.
"What I want to show you cannot be carried up there. Now quit complaining, I promise this will be worth your while," Barda said.
"What else can I do but complain at the injustice of all this, me being denied my sleep!" Lady Maara went on pouting.
"How about you riddle me this? We will be having such a large crowd gathered. How do you plan on addressing them?" Barda asked in an attempt to change the subject.
"I have a loud voice!" She intoned, defending herself. "Besides, the acoustics in the palace is top-notch, carrying the sound to everyone gathered."
"But I have to wonder, how Queenly is that, shouting at people?"
"Are you mocking me, scoundrel?"
"Oh no, you misunderstand, your dazzlingness, I am simply offering a solution?"
"What solution?"
Barda did not speak any further since they were already in the warehouse under the palace. What he did do was hand her a conical shaped object and asked her to hold it up for him.
By the time Barda had gone to call her, he'd already set everything up, so all he had to do was flip a switch and then asked her to speak at the object. She found it funny at first, but she decided to humor him.
The next moment, her voice filled up the entire warehouse. What's more, it seemed to come from every direction of the building, all at once. The princess was shocked to hear her voice coming from some other place, which almost caused her not to go on.
Speaking into a microphone is always disconcerting. So as not to make it seem magical, Barda had turned to some old sound system tech that had become obsolete with time.
In the future, everyone had configurable earpieces. When there were large gatherings, they would be instructed on the frequency to tune to, and then they would hear the person speaking as though they were next to them. This next-level tech seemed to advanced and magical, so Barda chose to stick to the classics.
The basics were there, a microphone, a mixer, and a sound amplifier, and several speakers littered around the compound, in this case, warehouse.
After making 3 ice golems and 2 fire golems, construction had been relatively easier. It was like he had gotten 5 new slaves that knew exactly what to do and when to do it.
Before the invention of the Golems, he would not have dreamed of creating a sound system, much less one for each settlement, village, and city where the events would be happening.
However, even with these new helpers, Barda chose to focus on creating sensitive devices such as the motherboard and switchboard for the mixers and the sound transmitter for the mics.
The box frames for the speakers and the metallic containers, he could leave to Kia's team. They were getting surprisingly good at smithing, delivering everything he asked.
So far, they had only made enough to supply Tristan, but it was okay for the demonstration.
As the Queen was fumbling with the mic, a group of people gathered around her. She realized these were the smiths and workers who were, no doubt, responsible for this creation.
From the side, Barda watched as Lady Maara transformed from the goofy complaining playmate to a Queen as she addressed her people. He could tell, she loved who she was.
***
"Po-what-now?" Zolani asked as she pieced back the handgun she had been washing.
Her squad was gathered in their leader's chambers in the barracks. They consisted of mostly Faruians, members from Faru city-state.
As one of the cities that decided to stick out the war until things got too intense, their city was not so high profile in the merger. Moreover, they were one of the minor cities, barely recognized in the table. Just one of the 16 minor city-states.
Despite that, they still held their colors proud as a city. Being members of a Kingdom was still taking some time to get used. That being said, they relished in the victory they enjoyed in the war against Gumina.
"Police force, they are kind of like city guards, but different,"
"Different how?" Someone else asked.
"For starters, we get to clean up those annoying bandits from Kumasi, right?" Zolani asked, getting excited.
"Among other things," The squad leader did not know how to explain this properly but he did the best he could. It took quite some doing, but little by little, his squad got to understand what he had just signed them up to.
In this unit of 50 soldiers, there were 37 Faruians, and of those, only 3 women. One being Zolani. After she put away the gun oil, she stood up and asked: "When do we start?"
"Hold your horses there little lady, we still have a lot to learn. There is also a bunch of new equipment that we need to safeguard all the way home. Too heavy to carry by airship, so we will be guarding the caravans.
At the same time, several warriors were getting the news. Barda's Commanders were getting the work done quite efficiently. Every warrior, well, most squad leaders were getting to choose where they would want to end up.
Many squads would remain intact, but many were going to disintegrate once people got to know what these roles were for. Matter of fact, the Police and Defense forces would not be that different in the beginning in terms of responsibilities.
A whole 2 months of preparations passed in a flash. The entire kingdom was caught up in the frenzy. In such a manner, the Spirit of Tristan was being born. No longer was it limited to the city of Tristan, but now recognized and identified as members of a larger Kingdom, something that extended beyond the borders of the city.
Many more people were registering and becoming citizens of Tristan. After the war with Gumina, the city, under Barda's advisement, had set up the Registration offices to be opened in perpetuity, with permanent employees.
If there was anyone who had not heard of this event, and not just in this continent, then they probably lived in a hole.
Never had a kingdom made such a bold entry into the world. They had not only beaten Gumina, one of the renowned Kingdoms but also made such a splash that they shook the entire world.
This was an event that would be attended by multiple delegations from across the entire known world.
Many guests were coming in, even those from other continents. Tristan's docks were busy with people coming in. People wanted to see the fantastic new inventions and flying ships, not to mention the infamous new kind of weapons.
3 days towards the big day, 5 majestic ships made their way to Tristan's docks. The main ship was so dazzling that many a passerby would stop to stare at the magnificent ship.
Spanning 300 meters across from the bow to the stern, the gigantic ship's most eye-catching feature was the mainmast. On it, there was a sigil inscribed. The sigil had 3 lions, a very symbolic and world-renown icon.
When the ships docked, the main ship got a warm reception by Tristan guards. From it, a majestic man came out looking exceptionally dazzling. His clothes, his entire demeanor, even his gait, they looked kingly.
He looked middle-aged but many knew him to be a powerful mage. As many had guessed, this was none other than the King of Alpine, His Majesty Lord Berinon.
His fame was known across the world. The Kingdom of Alpine had been in conflict with the Kingdom of Gumina since the rise of the latter. They had suffered the most from the rise of this troublesome neighbor, and their rivalry was at an all-time high.
Gumina did not really consider the eastern continent as a threat. They had dispatched a portion of the army to conquer them as a way of the Prince to gain recognition. Never in his wildest dreams could the King of Gumina have dreamed of his son perishing from this fiasco.
What was bad news for Gumina was excellent news for Alpine. They had been in continuous conflict with Gumina, always losing the initiative to their archrivals. To hear that their most hated rivals had been defeated, would they not come personally to investigate?
Truthfully, none of the fragmented city-states had entered the sights of various kingdoms in the other continent, which was considered the mainland. All they saw was some underdeveloped and barbaric organizations.
It was not entirely uncommon for Kingdoms and empires to invade such places as a way of gaining more resources, territories, and cannon fodder to be used in wars. This was just that, a routine conquest, as much as any conquest can be routine.
It wasn't just the victory that had spread, but the scale and the win raised Tristan's profile to a whole new degree.
In Alpine's mind, perhaps in a bid to gain an upper hand over them, Gumina had ended up disturbing a crouching tiger, a hidden dragon!