This year's new year was spent with my family only.

I was once more enrolled by the Temple for the pantheon celebration on the 24th daynight but I was left free for the Darkest Night.

Idle time was a scarce resource. Between the teaching, the construction oversight, tempering with gunpowder, the re-education for my left hand, and planning for the future; I had very little left. Not mentioning the low stamina of this body, meaning I couldn't stay up late and required a lot more sleep than an adult. I knew things would get worse with puberty and how tiresome it was but was getting eager to grow out of childhood.

A day off with my family only was welcomed. Even Gel wasn't there since she was now busy with her own household, it would have been rude of her to leave her mother and brother alone and come to my place for this holiday.

My family was still processing the recent changes in their lives. The Shieldlord had been true to his word and promoted all of them.

My father was now going to join the Shieldom's smithery at the start of the new year. There he would work on smelting gold and silver, as well as learning the state-of-the-art bronze alloys.

Barasti, my blockhead of a brother, had already started his apprenticeship at the Boseog jeweler's shop. They were a branch of a Troll blade's family with crafters working for the nobility and richest. I've advised him countless times to be polite and diligent, this was the opportunity of a lifetime to learn a valuable trade. I needed him to make a good impression so that it will make it easier for me to later use these crafters for my own projects. I was going to need small gears, printing letters, bullets, or just precision tools. Only precision crafters such as them would have the finesse to work on this, not common smiths.

My mother and sister were now working for the princess' tailor's shop. There, they would learn to work on the finest silks, costliest leathers, and just get a chance at earning their life better.

It won't be easy for them. They were newcomers, untrained, and were associated with me; which branded them in an ambivalent fashion. I had access to the Shield's ears, so few would dare face them openly; but there were all sort of rumours running around me. Many people who were looking for revenge about the embezzlement case, but also others who were feeling threatened by my sudden rise were putting out words about me. Mostly using the nitre farm to slander me but Nutusi reported that some were hinting at a relationship with the old lord or the princess. A good way to hit two birds with one stone.

For now, my kins were just happy with the sudden increase in their status and how bright their future was looking. They were far from all political plots and weren't even considering they might have to deal with problems because of me. I was their benefactor, almost worshipped.

Even if my mother was still trying to act protective, she knew I was now in another world than theirs.

I was a free citizen, with a bodyguard, people working under him, and was part of our lord's entourage. Ever since the ceremony, I could feel the gap grow wider between us. I was a strange kid but I was their brother or son initially. Now I was also this lofty free citizen, able to change their life at my whim. They might not do it on purpose but I could feel the shift in their attitude.

There's nothing much I can do about it except act as casually as I can around them. It's not like it's something I can berate them for, just that it made me feel a bit lonely and homesick. The solitude of the top of the mountain as they say.

This year's feast was the best ever. Mom splurged on the newfound riches to buy more and better. The traditional roasted eel was covered in spices from far away, the vegetables were more flavoursome and fine, and we had an array of desserts with cakes, fresh fruits coming from Tupu knows where, and even something that could taste like dark chocolate. It was a white sticky paste, bitter and sugary at the same time but the aftertaste definitively reminded of something between chocolate and coffee.

No one knew what it was exactly made out of, mom just took the most expensive things and ended up with this.

I'll need to investigate this and see how much it costs. I wanted my cappuccino every morning.

* * * * *

This was now my eighth year in this world. Last year was productive and I intended for this one to be even more.

I was at the temple, making my first visit of the year and my report to both Patiyar and Nutusi. With their approval, I offered the gunpowder recipe to the Shinpilo temple. It was a risky move but without the ingredients or the understanding of the process it wasn't that useful in itself.

For now, only Shinpilo cared about it as part of our deal, no one else would pay attention to an alchemy recipe with hard-to-find ingredients. It will change once more people start to see the power of it, but this might take years and without access to niter or sulphur, no one will be able to steal the invention.

Patiyar was more strained and paler than usual. His beard was getting whiter and so did his face. This year took a toll on him for some reason. Even Nutusi was taking it easy on him by not teasing him. I wish there was something I could do for him, but apart from fulfilling my deeds at the temple I couldn't do much. Once the offer to Shinpilo was done, the old priest left us to go get some rest.

Nutusi was fully garbed in the Shinpilo's priest dress, with a blue shawl and a sapphire-like stone hanging in front of her forehead. She took me to one of the chambers to brief me on the recent events.

“Your mother and sister should be fine. Their new workplace is quite favourable to the Shield's family and many are among their allies. No one has ties with people involved in the military embezzlement either.”

I had asked her to help me look after my family. Nutusi was a Shinpiloite, a spy-priestess. I can't say I trusted her at one hundred percent, but something in my guts was telling me she couldn't willingly try to harm me. Lest Shinpilo himself disowned me.

“Your father is going to have quite the hard life in the coming months,” she went on, “He is among the weaker smelters and is looked down upon. Usually, Shieldom's smelters are free citizens.” She didn't need to explain more about the class struggles at work here. I trusted Dad would survive a little hostility. He would just have to show his skills.

“Your brother will have it even rougher,” she stated with almost a hint of mockery. it was hard to tell her expression when she hid under her face,/ I had gotten used to her milky eyes, she could take off the hood when it was just us. “He is too old to start an apprenticeship as a jeweller and the place is packed with people belonging to the Duarch and other families slighted by the embezzlement case. If they learn about your implication, he'll have a hard time,” she concluded.

I shrugged. Barasti was a bully rather than a bullied. Anyone trying to mess with him will regret it and if push comes to shoves, I'll just ask the young Khinra Duarch to help us out a bit.

Nutusi stood up and came to tower in front of me. “But you're the one in the most troubles,” she said. “There's been rumours about a kid killing two assassins reaching as far as the capital. We just hope no one has yet made the link with you. Since you are Chi-less, no one will suspect you for a while but we need to stay careful.”

She reminded me a bit of my grandmother on Earth, always insisting to put one more scarf around my neck to “not catch your death.” Sometimes, there were no protections enough when going outside. The more I stuck my head out by bringing new technologies, the more likely I would attract attention.

I had time to accept the risk and just had to surround myself with powerful people as a countermeasure. The Shield's family was part of that answer, but so were my secretary, Akili, or my friends. They were going to become strong and trusty.

I did not renounce to protect myself. My Chi training was going nowhere but I would soon have a trump card. I was planning for an easier to carry around gun, suitable to my height and strength. No one would expect a Chi-deprived kid to pack a punch like that and whoever wanted to come close to the sun would burn a few feathers.

Not that I wanted to kill more, I wasn't a bloodthirsty one, but self-defence was fine. This wasn't Earth. Monsters and even humans were ready to kill.

I had already unleashed a weapon of death on this world with gunpowder. I might later finish like Nobel, but right now I was only thinking of protecting myself by protecting the whole Shieldom. A strong Shieldom was the tallest walls for me and my family.

“Are you listening?” She slapped me on the head. “Hey,” I protested, “I was listening, you could have waited for my answer before getting heavy-handed.” She had Chi and even as an older woman she was stronger than one might think.

“If I was an assassin, you would be dead. Always stay vigilant, there are many eyes on you.” She had warned me countless times since the last incident and as more and more knew about my blessing, heretics would target me.

The temple had guards and spies around me but their vigilance could always fail. Same goes for the Palace guards, the princess' kidnapping was the best proof that even the most secured place could be breached. I couldn't drop my guard, not until I had found ways to defend myself.

Gupta, the maimed priest of Dard, was out with the military. Winter was always the time when monsters were the most aggressive. The young Orzhov was following him to take his confirmation path as a Husnd priest. I hoped both would come back safely. Next year's expeditions should be safer once I can provide rifles and grenades for the expeditions.

The only remaining person I wanted to see at the temple was Sansho. She was almost hibernating right now. Despite the mild temperature in the kitchen, she was blue. Literally. Her scales were as blue as Shinpilo's eye and took a slightly green hue when she finally reacted to my presence. “Little one issss back,” she slowly exclaimed with a sharp grin. “Haven't ssssseen you for monthssss. Sansssssho ssssthought the great motka ate you.” She was even slower than Peterell when talking.

I went to make some tea to help her wake up a bit from her sluggishness. “You eat well at least?” She asked after gauging me. What, does she think she's my grandmother too?

I wanted to ensure her that I was eating and even more than I should. I wasn't exercising every day with the others and was losing the fit body I had built until now. It was time for some new year's resolutions. But before I could reassure her, she saw my left hand holding the kettle's lid. The skin was still a bit rosier than it should, not as bad as a few weeks ago but maybe like a bad sunburn.

“What'ssss thisssss?” Her scales took an orange hue. “The palasssse bulliessss you?” she hissed. She came at the table and gulped down the whole steamy kettle without letting the tea infuse, a waste of good leaves. The effect of hot water was instant, her scales were now a bright orange, with a reddish core and I could see the veins on her neck pulsating quickly as her heartbeat was speeding up. “Sssshow them to me. Or no, even better, bring them here sssso that Sanssssho doesssn't go outsssside in the cold.” She was rummaging in the drawer where her cooking knives were.

“Calm down, it was an accident, I did this to myself.” This was only partly a lie, I did indeed hurt myself with that grenade.

She went back to a milder yellow. “You clumsssy this much? Bad. Teleriossss ssshould be more careful.” She was under the effect of overheating and rapidly snaked her way to me while waving a meat cleaver around. Her voice was getting faster and shriller. “Ssstupid. You supposed to be ssssmart.”

And you're supposed to not waves knives this close to people.

Her skin was slowly going back to a light green, like leaves in summer. “You have very weak Chi. Chi of the white onessss. You know it and ssshould take more care. Little one issss blessssed by Shinpilo, not Dard.”

Wait, what? “How do you know about my blessing?” Did she overhear Patiyar or Nutusi talk about me?

She had a strange “laugh”. Clapping her forked tongue in the back of her throat to sound like metal bended till it broke. “Sansssho knowssss. Sansho good at temperature, trained to ssssensse Chi. You have no heat, but cold mark of the blue eye I feel.” She was now so close to my face that her forked tongue was about to lick the place around my right eye where Shinpilo had left his mark.

She slapped me lightly with her scaly hand. “Weak one needs to learn to be careful. Blessssing is dangerousss. I'll tell Gupta. You behave or no more meals,” she threatened with her scale taking a darker hue.

I opened my mouth to protest but she silenced me with a glare. “No dissscusionsss, weak oness don't get to dissscuss. Sansho knowssss bessst.” She darted her tongue at the air before deciding. “Now young Patiyar needssss me. He sssick and cold, luck is fleeing him. You sssstay put and stay away form fire. Clumssssy kidsss aren't allowed to fan the flammessss.” She stormed out on this last warning.

Sansho had always been weird but never would I have thought that she was this good at Chi sensing. How did she end up in our temple's kitchen? Did Patiyar knew about her abilities and hid them from me? I didn't know if it was the heat or the tea but it was the first time she had opened this much. I'll need to try that again and ask her more about my Chi or these “white ones”. Had she met others like me? Could she help me better understand my Chi?

It will have to be for another time. Akili and my ride had arrived to bring me back to the palace where I had a meeting with the Shield before he had to leave once more for the Capital.

* * * *

This meeting was so that he could decide on most matters before his trip. His stay in the Capital could last many months until the Emperor finally arbitrated about the assassination attempt.

The entire council sat around a large white desk.

The Shield was there with the old lord at his right and the prince at his left. Next to the old lord was high-blade Duarch as his prime minister, then general Suji as the military representative. A few other people were there. The finance minister was a stern middle-aged woman with piles of ledgers in front of her. I was proud to see that most were covered with the new numbers we designed with Balout.

The egg-headed cardinal Fortmo was here too and nodded at me. Finally, there was a minister of the state, covering for a bit of everything, ranging from agriculture to trade and justice. This was a closed council and not all ministers were present.

I was standing behind the prince, far from the desk.

After they discussed most trade matters, planned the next sowing and the coming expeditions; came my turn to talk. Mostly to help the prince or the general to get some schedule about what I could provide them with.

As soon as winter would recess, the faeces collection would start for the nitre plant. By the end of spring, the gunpowder production should start on a large scale. Until then I was to produce cement for the Prince's plan for keeps and watchtowers.

I gave Kirli plans for a new kiln. It wasn't as good as a modern self-filling kiln but was already an improvement on the charcoal kilns. We'll need it to upscale the cement output while saving on fuel.

The third line was the confection of rifles and cannons. I would use either bronze or brass for now.

Steel was fourth on my list but not on theirs. There was still work to convince them to invest in it and for now gunpowder was the priority.

My last intent was the printing press. What I wanted was a schooling system. Somewhere to teach children from age four till eight to read, count, and basic knowledge. It would also allow the screening of all a generation for Chi and magic.

For that I would need books, lots of them. Printing schoolbooks would be cheaper than hiring copyists and scribes for the job. Just the amount of paper would be a hole in the budget. I'll make this the perfect demonstration of the power of printing and alphabetisation. It was time to nurture a generation of citizens who will change this world.

Once they are convinced by the printing press, I'll petition for papermaking. It would be a useful step-stone to make money, get some crafters to learn about processing, and get a source of cellulose for later. The monopoly on paper was a huge scam, only a few were striving on it while we lacked a precious resource.

First of all, I was going to need to focus on cement before spring. The small council made the reinforcement of the inner-land a priority. More nighthavens, more watchtowers. This would help secure arable lands and control monster populations as well as building safer trade routes. The Shield was planning to move troops to our northern border in case the relations with Mujrim Shieldom worsened.

My main issue was that the river had been depleted of a lot of its shells and other barbs sources. I was going to have to find an outside supplier.