POV David
"This isn't what I meant!" Alexious cried out in frustration.
"We'll your highness, you asked me to tutor you and I'll be damned if those upstart moronic nobles think of you as a pushover." I replied with a slight grin as I watched the teen fix his stance again.
"When will I ever need to swing a sword?"
"Hopefully never." I chuckled before lunging for him. He raised his blade to parry but I quickly redirected my blade.
"Stop looking at my eyes, it won't help." I chuckled as I stopped the blade short of piercing his torso. A rancorous laughter came from nearby, a few knights a lesser nobles who trained were busy watching me pummel the Prince.
"Besides…" I muttered darkly. "I need you to know what being a man truly entails."
"What was that Baron Fulton?" Alexious asked between deep breaths.
"I'm not sure the sword is meant for you… I mused. I took it from him and walked over to the weapon rack. Maybe… this." I grabbed the halberd and passed it to the Prince.
"A halberd?" He looked as if I was mocking him.
I nodded as I grabbed another for myself. "A sword in the hands of someone that doesn't know how to use it is worthless, but in the worst case scenario, a halberd is always usable." I started showing him the basics of how to use a halberd. Granted I wasn't very good with it myself but Alexious seemed to be catching on rather quickly. We went through the motions a few times before I judged he had enough of an idea for a spar.
"Look at the Baron, taking pity on our poor Prince."
"He can barely swing a sword, he'll drop the halberd at the first strike."
"I'm sure I could easily best the Baron, on the field and in bed."
I tuned out the mindless chatter of the noble ladies and motioned for Alexious to start when he was ready. He lunged forward in an odd pose, the halberd coming directly at me. I moved to block it but he changed his stance as I leapt back, the blade nearly cutting into my chest. I grinned, this was more like it. This dance became far more interesting as we made our attacks and feints, teaching ourselves as we fought.
"See? You have more talent with pole arms than a sword." I clasped his hand and helped him back to his feet.
"Keep working on it, soon I won't be your match with a halberd." I replied with a smile. One of the nobles just had to chirp in then and ruin my mood.
"Maybe you'll be good in bed, where you belong, Baron." The laughter that followed was particularly biting.
I put the halberds back on the rack and cast a suave look towards the noble ladies. "If I thought any of you could keep me entertained I'd take you up on that."
"Let's go, your highness, you won't learn anything useful from gossip directed at you." I led him away, several fuming nobles at my back.
Of course that only meant a different group started to follow us, a half dozen young boys who'd been hiding now emerged to follow us. "They friends of yours?" I asked without turning around.
"Yes…" Alexious stammered. They started to creep nearer and started gushing about the Prince but a few tried talking with me.
"You're so womanly Baron Fulton," I glanced at the kid as he blushed fiercely.
"I'm nothing like those women. I'm merely a man doing what I wish to do." I replied with pursed lips. I also understood from his downward glance that he was hoping for something more.
"I'm not into guys either." I replied, crushing the poor guy's hopes.
"You aren't?" Several of them gaped at me.
"Isn't it obvious? Unlike a lot of other men I don't bother trying to hide my promiscuity." I replied with a shrug.
"I mean, her majesty, and the two Princesses have harems that are fairly well known. Most of the nobles do as well." I glanced apologetically at Alexious.
"But they're women!" Alexious replied with a sour face.
"So?" I asked.
"You're a man!" One of the boys stared at me. "You… without your chastity… your chances of a good marriage are non-existent."
"Kid. I'm not looking to marry right now." I replied with a chuckle.
"Surely you sister…"
"She has no control over me, the same as I have no control over her."
"Can you teach me Baron Fulton?" Alexious stared at me with hardened eyes.
"I won't teach you. But apply the lessons I'm teaching you. Heh, they'll be falling over you soon enough." I said with a chuckle.
"But now on to the boring class." I said as I gestured for the posse to enter the antechamber of my room.
"My lord," the servants and soldiers greeted me with a slight bow.
"Stop doing that!" I shouted, "haven't we talked about this before?" I sighed. Juliana, could you arrange for a bit more food to be brought for lunch? My class seems to have expanded."
"Of course, Viscountess Jackowitz is in the living room, she wanted to speak with you about something important."
I nodded and led the boys into the living room, it was where I normally taught Alexious anyway. Sure enough, the viscountess was there as Juliana had said. This was probably a good opportunity to teach these kids about how political negotiations worked.
"Ah, Viscountess Jackowitz! To what do I owe the pleasure?" I clasped her hand in greeting then gestured for the kids to take a seat wherever they wanted.
"I wanted to discuss with you some of the finer details we left out of our last agreement." She replied with a small smile.
"I'm all ears." I replied. "Should I send for wine or tea? All I have at the moment is coffee."
"Coffee is fine." She replied with a small smile. I nodded to my servant to fetch us some refreshments as we took seats.
"Baron, may we speak casually for this conversation? I don't wish to seem distant with you." Rena asked.
I chuckled. "Sure Rena. So, what's on your mind?" I clasped my hands and leaned forward.
"Mostly what regiment will be responsible for the defense of the land, as well as these infrastructure improvements that we agreed upon. How large in scale are they?" She asked as the servant returned and handed us our coffee.
"Of course, I'm more than happy to have my 17th regiment continue to guard the area. I've heard that your 86th regiment is rather small even by the standards of a barony."
"That won't be needed." I chuckled. "My brother and I are taking a battalion to assist the Earless of Feln-Krohn put down some undead, they'll garrison the area until local troops can be raised for its defense."
"A battalion? What is that?" Rena asked. I forgot for a moment that these people had no idea what a battalion was.
"It's about a thousand fighting men and women with their support elements." I replied after a moment.
"I'd heard the 86th was barely six hundred strong." Rena said quietly.
"There's been a lot of migrants into my barony recently." I smiled mischievously. "Even with all of my projects there's barely enough jobs for all of them."
I wasn't going to tell them that the royal census was pretty fucking bad at figuring out just how many people lived within its borders. By its claim I had about twenty six thousand subjects when I took over the barony, my own census just last month that Isz carried out already showed the population around thirty seven thousand. Only around five thousand were migrants from other territories too. There were a lot of small hamlets in the forests and mountains that only the locals could easily find. They'd accounted for a lot of the rest. I was also lying a bit, I had far more jobs than people. But back to these talks and possible negotiations.
"Ah, Earless Barford." Rena said distastefully.
"You don't get along?" I asked slowly.
"It's an understatement. It's a blood feud." She grumbled.
"Over what?" I asked, hoping this was something I could rectify. Because if this was some stupid shit… I swear to god.
"It's an old feud… the last griffon egg was entrusted to house Jackowitz after the fall of house Aneria. The heir of house Barford destroyed the egg in a drunken fit."
So at least it had good historical context. Granted I doubt there was much I could do to fix this. It takes a lot of maneuvering, quite a few favors… no. I'd need to get in close with the matriarch of both families, of which I knew neither of them personally. Probably better to let this one simmer for now.
"We'll then, as for the infrastructure improvements I mentioned? Mostly it'll be improving the roads, improving the canals and laying the foundation for a railroad once that project starts to show some more promise." I shrugged.
"Isn't that going to be dreadfully expensive?" Rena asked. "I don't understand why you'd make that expense when there is no trade passing through that area."
"Investing early is the best way to receive the largest return on the investment." I replied with a grin. Didn't you invest in my sister's clothes factory?"
"I did, yes." Rena replied.
"You own what? A point two percent share?" I asked.
"I invested the day after she told me, I hold a ten percent share. Now, I think I made a far better decision there. Her company is worth almost thirty thousand silver right now."
"What do you mean by that?" She asked as she crossed her arms.
"I plan far ahead. And all my plans move towards accomplishing a singular goal. So far no one has tried to stop them, after all my plans aren't trying to overthrow anyone. But it would be better if you'd make you stance clearer for the future." I replied with a small smile.
I stood and gestured for her to leave. "I'll be leaving tomorrow to join my brother. If you'll excuse me, I have a class to teach."