02. Starting from the bottom.

Glarentza March 1429

"That was delicious, my dear," I said after eating a plate full of grilled lamb chops.

"I am glad to hear that my despot," said Theodora.

"You barely touched yours," I said curiously.

"I just haven't felt much like eating the last few days," said Theodora.

"Do you think you're pregnant?" I asked, remembering how my elder sister had been when she was pregnant in my previous uptime life.

"I believe I am my Despot," Theodora replied.

A child... wait, is that truly mine? I thought somewhat cynical. I mean, I am a Self-insert conscious to this body, so technically that's not my child, is it? Never the less the news of having a child was a pleasant surprise.

Aside from the family duties, I spent all the winter sketching blueprints for various projects and ideas. My movable type printer sketch and prototype looks quite promising so far. Surprisingly so does my musket's designs. That Venetian culverin/proto Arquebus, although nothing special, was a godsend gift. It helped me consolidate my thoughts and be more precise in my designs. I even remembered things like the paper cartridges refill method from the island in the sea of time book, or that bronze is far more stable material for my cannons not to explode. I sure hope George will bring some decent metalworkers and blacksmiths from Constantinople to help me visualize all this.

Ofc as an alternate history reader, it was more than natural for me to work on steam-based ideas, but I soon realized that it would take years to accomplish it, if ever...

A funny moment was when I introduced a double-entry Bookkeeping to one of my tax collectors, who got stunned by this simple logistics concept. That funny incident made me realize that, aside from the tech innovations, my 21st-century logic/thinking and way of organizing, from Government to training armies to production and supply lines, is going to do wonders in this era. I just need to buy myself some time. That thought gave me confidence that I can manage to pull it off against the grim future that awaits me as the last? Of the Roman emperors.

During the same time, I organized and supervised some necessary works in my "triple" base while I was waiting for George's return from Constantinople. Andravida will serve as my agricultural logistic support center. All the crops from the massive fields of Elis will be collected and distributed from here. Clermont castle will be my military center and the home of my new arsenal. Finally, Clarentza will be my trade and commercial hub. Here is where my workshops and proto assembly lines factories will be. Here is also where I plan to make a new shipyard and a new port. A hospital, a theater, and a distillery were some of my other ideas. But that's all for later on. At the moment, my workers improve the road network between my three districts and build a new big warehouse-like building next to my castle to serve as my new arsenal.

Another critical issue was the local workforce available. With fewer than seven thousand people in the area, it was clear that I would need to attract more people. Settlers were encouraged to immigrate from other Greek lands with the lure of land grants, chiefly from Peloponnese and from different parts of Central Greece, especially those that had suffered under Ottomans. Fifty Tsakonian families, some Serbians from Palaiologo's mother hometown, and even some wealthyThessalonians families answered this call within months. As a result of these policies, the population rose rapidly. By March, the population was almost double.

Doubling the population affected my troop's numbers. Nevertheless, my army is still somewhat tiny and obsolete. I have forty horsemen, twenty crossbowmen, fifty archers, and approximately two hundred and fifty infantry troops. In case of a need, I can levy another nine hundred light infantry from the local population. I can always count on my brothers Thomas's support, who have similar numbers in the nearby castle town of Kalavryta. I am afraid I can't say the same about my brother Theodore in Mystras. Theodore's only concern was to dithering about his monastic vocation. In the end, I guess that's good and bad at the same time for my plans. Since he is so fond of the church, maybe I can "convince" him to join a monastery when the opportunity arises. Mystras and the rest of the Morea must be mine sooner than later. The Venetian holdings in the Pelloponisse peninsula is a different issue, although. I cant I afford to have bad relations with them if I want to have a chance against the Ottomans.

Andravida crop fields, April 1429

The sun stood almost at the zenith and, my shadow was just a small black spot under my feet.

"Dear God, why don't they get it?" I murmured in my head. "Sigh, the first hundred years are always the hardest." I was patiently trying to explain why my version of a heavy plow was better when I heard the news. My right hand George Shprantzis is finally back from Constantinople. I spontaneously grabbed my horse and rushed immediately to Clarentza to greet him. I was so curious to listen to his reports and see what he accomplished from our goals. Information and communications are so painfully slow in comparison with the 21st century.

It turns out that the gold George managed to collect was two-thirds of what I was expecting. Thank god, there were still sufficient enough to fund my plans to an extent. As for the craftsmen recruits, well, things went better than expected. To put it merely, Constantinople is a ghost of its previous self. The Ottomans' threat, the lack of opportunities, and the limited amount of work requiring specialized workers pushed more and more people to leave Constantinople. Mystras and the Italian city-states were so far the leading destinations for most of them.

More than sixty skilled artisans and a couple of scholars, some along with their families, answered the call/payment and followed George in his trip back to Clarentza.

Furthermore, the rumors of jobs and land grants in Elis had a pleasant side effect. An additional five hundred people from Constantinople followed George by their means. Most of them, low nobility families that lost their lands to Ottomans the previous years. This news was music to my ears since most of them were well-educated people that could be more than useful as part of my new bureaucracy machine.

"Great job as always, my friend," I said to George hearing his brief report.

"If you wait just another moment, I think you'll have more cause to thank me, my despot," he replied.

"What does that mean?" Before the words were out of my mouth, a man rose to answer it.

"Greetings, my Despot, I am Theophilus Dragaš(1). I am here under the commands of your beloved mother. Her holiness wanted me to give you this letter personally."

Theophilus Dragaš was a trusty Serbian monk under my mother's command and distant relative of us. To my surprise, Theophilus was a former student of the famous scholar-monk John Chortasmenos, and a capable mathematician and librarian. As a principal librarian to the royal library, he was ordered by my mother to supply the books I requested. Unfortunately, the library these days was a hollow shell of its self. Despite these facts, Theodore brought with him a couple of dozen books. There were no books from Archimedes, but a copy of pneumatics of Heron of Alexandria was now in my hands! Trains! Steamboats! One can only hope and dream!

(1)Theophilus Dragaš or Theophilus the Serbian (1403 – 1471 AD) was a Roman monk and polymath associated with the Palaiologian renaissance and the rise of the printing press. He has been called a "true renaissance man" and one of "the brilliant man in the Roman empire in the 15th century". He was the first dieuthintis of the Morea publishing company and later became the head of the University of Thessaloniki, where he taught theology and business economics.