“Is the ore supplier here as well George,” he asked that as he looked left and right only to spot it 10 meters down before George responded, “never mind I’ve found it.” He ran over to the stall

“Excuse me” Fred Hollard, trying to get the merchants attention,

“Well, well, what do we have here, I don’t think I’ve had such a young customer before. How can I help?”

George had just managed to reach Fred and stood behind him.

“Do you know the tonnage of iron you bring to the city a month,”

“Tonnage? You’ll have to excuse me I haven’t heard that phrase before.”

Fred looked around and then down at the stall. “If you turned the table part of this stall to the floor into a crate it could hold roughly 15 tons of ore, or 20 tons of pure iron.”

“Why the difference?”

“Ton? It’s a measurement of weight, pure Iron is heavier than ore, so it takes up less room per ton”

“that’s quite the useful information, that will help me a lot with my trade ships.”

“Er, happy to be of help.”

“Right, back to your question, we don’t import by boat as there is an iron mine that is 20km inland and this is the closest port, but we transport from there about 60 tables, and export 50 tables per month.”

“Do they have capacity to increase supply?”

“Well, they have the capability to increase by about 10% if they push it but they won’t have much room for workers, why do you ask?”

“I was thinking of investing in the smithing infrastructure and wanted to know the capacity.”

“There is also a metal mountain about 10km northeast of the Runo fort, that’s just up this river here only, its currently a fort, so not many civilians there if any, it’s on the wrong side of the river, and there is a lot of skirmishes across the river at the moment. Plus, with the width of the river only a small, wooded bridge has been built so far and it won’t support enough weight to make it practical.”

“Ok thank you very much,”

Fred and George left, the clay would be delivered in a few days from the warehouse, here they only had samples otherwise it would take up to much room.

On their way home, in the carriage, George asked, “Why ware you interested in Ore yield on such a magnitude?”

Fred took some time to answer, ‘should I mention that I know how to process huge quantities of raw iron, my plan is to open a foundry initially and create a weapons manufactory.’ “George, this land where we are living, will I be inheriting it from mother, or will it be going to someone else,”

“Your mother’s father has given this land to your mother. As far as I know she plans to pass it down to you when you are ready, and of age. Why do you ask?”

“In my status, I have the social rank Bastard, what does that mean, for the kingdom,”

“Well…” George hesitated to speak of this, but new Fred would find out anyway. “The first thing you need to understand is you get the status bastard for being conceived out of wedlock.”

Fred understood this part but didn’t comment to allow George to continue.

“Normally it would mean you wouldn’t have a proper noble status, however as you were conceived between two nobles, this you gain the rank of the lowest, rank amongst your parents. However, this has caused a loophole for you as you are quite the rare case”

“How so?”

“Well according to Franconian law, and, well, this is mirrored throughout all of the states in the mainland, first off as per law because your farther is a first successor to the title of a duke, you as his son, are entitled to a county when you turn of age, however, that county still fall under the duchy, and he has the right to collect taxes and request levy from you.” “Secondly as your mother is unmarried and a daughter, she gets the same treatment, which is this county right now, and as you are her only child you will inherit this land from her.”

Fred was shocked, he didn’t realise he had gamed the system without knowing or doing anything “do you know which lands my father plans to give me.”

“Yes, he plans to give you the one just southwest of here. Meaning your two lands border each other. It has a town, 2 small towns and 5 villages same as this county.”

“Am I getting the short end of the stick or does the county have merit.”

“Socially you’re getting the short end of the stick, while not officially, counties on Albion have a stigma of social exile, but it produces salt, good farmland, cloth and a copper mine”

‘Hellloooo, age of sail’ “so it seems prosperous, and I don’t think the social aspect will change my life much.” “Wait what happens if I am called to levy for both families on opposite sides”

“At that time, you might have to choose, you may be able to keep both county’s if you are strong enough but whichever side you don’t pick will have a casus belli against you to retake their land. However, I doubt it would come to such a situation,”

“Why?”

“Well, the two families have been friends for a long time now, and both support the same prince.”

“First off, if the families are allies why didn’t my parents marry, and second, am I going to be dragged into a succession war.”

“Well, the second question is easier so Ill answer it first. Most definitely.”

“Fuck”

George chuckled at Fred’s outburst. “And secondly the law.”

“The Law?”

“Yes, to maintain balance and internal stability the king had made law that no two ducal houses could marry, in return the royal family must have a 1 royal marriage with each duchy.”

“Oo, so what happens with me”

“Well, to be honest it was kind of a happy surprise for both families. It technically got around the law. But to appease the king of this incident your mother was sent here, and your father doesn’t visit, to publicly claim there is no marriage between the two houses. Although not everyone in the two houses is happy about the situation, there is a lot of noble supremacists in all ducal households. As well we might become a target of opposing houses, some of which have counties on Albion”

Fred was shaken to find out he had potential enemies everywhere, although it wasn’t surprising for a 3–4-year-old to be kept out of the loop.

George was starting to get scared of Fred by now, they have had such a long adult conversation that has gone on for the whole day, and Fred was able to understand it with clarity, George had even forgot many times throughout the day that Fred was still considered a toddler.

“Right, we are home at last.”

The two exited the carriage and spotted Isabella opening to the door, Fred ran over, calling “mother” with his arms wide open for a hug, it was these weird sudden acts of childishness that left question marks in George’s head.

“And where have you two been.” Isabella asked in a joyful tone while hugging Fred,

‘We went to the herb market pick up some ingredients, and then went to the guild to put a quest in for the missing ones, then we got some herblore sets from the alchemist shop and had a look at the smithy before going to the, the, the” Fred didn’t know what the term was in this world so guessed a descriptive name, “wholesale… commerce district”

Isabella let out a chuckle at Fred’s stutter for the moment, “and what did you get at the commerce district”

“About half a table of normal clay, and about 10 tables of red fire clay,”

Isabella was left speechless and then turned to George with a questioning look.

George Shrugged and sighed as he responded, “he wants to make a blast furnace or something to melt iron.”

“Can’t you just ask the smithy for what you want,” Isabella asked Fred while looking at George with even more confusion

“they’re crap, their furnaces can’t melt the Iron and end up using subpar techniques to compensate.”

“There furnaces are one of the top ends on the continent, we are lucky to have such furnaces if it wasn’t for such high adventures and a need for soldiers to protect the border, plus these smiths have quite high levels in black smithing so there techniques should be quite good.”

“Hmm… I’m not convinced”

George just stood there rubbing his temples, while looking down, as if to say ‘I’ve had this conversation im not joining it again’

“Well, do as you wish then” Isabella decided to drop the matter presuming it was just a fad, or something to keep him busy.

---

It was night-time at the castle and most of the residents had gone to sleep, save a few guards on night duty. When no one was looking a shadowy figure left and went into the night.

---

In a back alley

“You’ve got what I’ve asked for.”

“Of course, I have, who do you think I am, got it from the holy empire myself.”

“Tsk, holy empire”

“Now now, who cares what they call themselves as long as they sell the good crap”

“Let me see it”

The hooded figure threw the bag over,

The other opened to release a shining light and a crystal inside. He could feel the mana of heaven flow through the crystal himself.

“This is good stuff, thanks’ old friend,” he chucked a bag in return, but this one jingled as if to suggest it contained loose pieces of metal,

“Good to see you again, George”

And the second guy left as well.

___

The next few months Isabella had focused on building a brewery, Fred was impressed with the building speed of the workers, most of them had construction skills, with a few auxiliary members like smiths and carpenters. From wine making, Fred had unlocked and levelled up his chemistry skill that he was after, but also unlocked the Brewery skill and increased his herblore skill. Not only that but the Chemistry skill gave bonuses to Brewery and herblore. Fred, with the help was able to bake all of the fire bricks he needed; this gave him the Crafting general skill as well as pottery skill. he was happily suprised to still gain exp when people were helping him with it. 'was this treated like a party' he had read about such phenomina in other fictions but that was always about fighting, but come to think of it, it was plausible for it to work in this scenario. He didn’t notice at first, maybe because of his experience in the previous world, but as the levelling of skills got higher, he was noticing an increase in his proficiency, whether it was being quicker at maths, or his speech becoming more fluid. His skill levels were starting to overtake his previous life’s skills.

___

It was May time and Fred had turned 4 in February, he was just 60 exp from capping out, he hadn’t got an ascension request when he reached level 10, but George assured him, he’d get it once he capped out his level 10 exp bar.

Furthermore, he had already got ingredients for his trials, however, one of the ingredients was quite rare, he only managed to get 4 copies. 2 of them were used up in failed tests, however he was expecting that as he was more concerned about finding out how to compensate the mana in plants, he also managed to procure 6 neurotic leaches, these were nasty buggers as they were parasites that burrowed into peoples skull and attached to the brain stem, however, for the super soldier program, they were needed for chemical and hormone balance, the first phrase would be genetic takeover, this is first done through blood transfusion, first Fred would have to insert his blood into the leach, then he would use a high voltage and controlled gamma rays to splice the genes together, he was able to compensate the gamma ray with mana, this also gave him greater control than the gamma rays. This tricks his body into thinking the leach is an organ of his and wont reject it. Then he would have to use a special treatment solution to make it grow bigger to house the chemical factories. These factories are transplanted from about 30% of the herbs he had gathered, second to last step he would have to perform neurosurgery on the leach, removing the outer layers of its brain, and reprogramming the remaining brain layers to adhere to commands from an outside brain, and then filling the inner and outer layer of the pincers exposing the nerves, this left only the sides and tips of the enamel.

Unfortunately, he is going to need a doctors help for the next part,

The chemical factories, allows for more efficient digestion, as well as releasing specialised proteins, calcium, and hormones, these have a wide range of effects, from increasing bone density and growth, increased muscle mass and density, and redesign the organs to be less prone to failure, as well as increased brain function and sensory input.

The rest of the herbs are for an awfully tasting chemical soup, that, with the help of a strong electrical voltage running through his body, would make his body extremely malleable to the sudden changes that the leach will put on his body, especially for the first 20 days, and then until the age of 16 he would need to drink similar chemical cocktails every month.

But the best or creepiest bit is yet to come, there is another concoction he can take, and it would allow the leach to reproduce 4-5 larvae after about 2 weeks, which he can transplant into other people, only as the larvae would have his DNA splicing, the new hosts will grow a ‘brotherly bond’ towards him’, but this isn’t perfect and won’t guarantee that he will face no traitors, it’s something.

‘Well, it’s not a gene seed, but behold my first legionnaire, I will name you rattacus’ Fred said looking at the rat he experimented on this was his 3rd attempt and managed to get it perfect.

“Well ill just need to convince Johan to help me with this experiment.”

Through these experiments he unlocked the bio-chemistry skill and the bio-engineering skill. And now he needed to find one more plant for himself, and he should be ready to get this thing started.

___

“You can see it as much as I can Isabella, there is something not right with Fred,”

“But he’s my son, what if I push him away George.”

“You can’t live in denial and act like there is nothing wrong, its unhealthy for you, and him.”

“What if he is too scared to tell us, what if he runs away if we push him.”

“This can’t go on, sooner or later all secrets are revealed Isabella, you should know this more than anyone. Better he reveals this to us first than to someone who can use it to harm him”

“But… I’m scared, what if it’s something bad.”

“Relax Isabella Ill be here to help you, and so will your maid, and doctor Johan”

The two mentioned nodded their heads in agreement.

“Wouldn’t that put too much pressure on him,”

“Unfortunately, sometimes you have to be tough to those you love Isabel,”

“Isabella, he has known you all his life, you need to show him that there is someone in this world he can trust and confide in, otherwise he will struggle in this world.”

“Ok Kelly, we will ask him”

They had finished their conversation for a good five minutes and were sitting in silence contemplating what is going to happen when Fred walked in, confusion written on his face,

“what’s the matter Fred.”

“O its, well, I’ve got the ascension quests,”

“That’s good,”

“congratulations”

“Well, the issue is I didn’t receive the basic one, I’ve only got two and the easiest one is to complete is my experiment, but I need the Frost cry berry to complete it.

“Well, that’s quite fascinating” the doctor chimed in “what was your experiment anyway”

“it’s a bit complicated to explain”

“We will listen” George responded in a very strict manner,

Fred was taken aback and looked over to them, Isabella seemed resigned as to what was about to happen, Fred suddenly got a bad premonition.