“How many died this time?” Klaus tiredly demanded. He was exhausted. Leading state troops to fend off against occasional raiders and rogue adventurers that like to pillage and plunder. Now an entire army has managed to land into one of his major towns. A town that has a harbour. He was going to angrily scratch his hair and beard out of frustration but managed not to. Lord Stanhelm had a duty to follow. He wasn’t going to show weakness to his councillors but show courage and serenity in the face of devastating chaos.

“About eight hundred, my lord.” Admiral Hofstein bit his lower lip and faced downwards. “We were unable to intercept the fleet on time. I take full responsibility.”

“No. There’s nothing that you could’ve done. I made the decision to concentrate our navy into one area, instead of spreading it around. I learnt a horrible lesson today gentlemen,” He looked across the table and stopped to one of them. “And lady… Lady Emma, by the look of your eyes, you also haven’t had enough sleep. Please tell me the overall gist of the petitions…”

His Conciliator rubbed her blackened eyes and straightened her back, “It’s a bit too difficult to summarise it, my lord. Because it was too much, so I’ll split it into different categories. Merchants, peasant farmers and wealthy ‘landowners’.” She disguised a yawn with a cough and split a few parchment documents around her. “All of them want a permanent navy stationed in Nahrstadt. The merchants and the ‘landowners’ want the watchtowers and coastguards to extend along the Scorpion’s coast.”

The Lord Treasurer spluttered at that. Klaus looked at him and nearly laughed. Looks like your wife didn’t tell you. Relieved by the tension decreasing, he asked Hervig, “What’s wrong, Lord Treasurer?”

“M-my lord, the cost would be monumental! It was around twelve thousand golden marks to pay for it running for dozens of miles. To extend across the Scorpion’s coast, we would need to triple the distance. But it won’t be triple the cost because the development further east from here is lacking. So, it will be more than triple the cost.”

Johanne rolled his eyes at that and looked towards the door prompting Klaus to glare at his brother. I would love to join in with Johanne. I hate counting marks as much as him. But to disrespect my councillor like that? He should know by now that disrespecting and belittling them would reflect badly on me. “Hervig, you said that the development around the colony has improved. More farmsteads, hamlets, woodcutting and roadbuilding has happened. All thanks to Dunbar.”

“I have my lord… But there’s no rivers in the east. We can’t extend our canal systems further east. We have to rely on roads instead.” Hervig placed his copy of the census on the table and pointed at it. “According to this here, the number of blacksmiths further west of here is just a dozen because there’s no river for a reliable waterwheel. Compared that to New Altdorf which has smiths in the hundreds. Therefore, there will be lack of tools to plough the ground and generally less development happening there.”

“How much do you think it will cost?” Audric said for him and listened intently. He would need to part with some of his sailors that knows how to transfer flag signals across the watchtower. And station a couple of patrol caravels around them. This discussion affects him, and he knew that they would need his input for any agreement to be formed.

“Well… We’re already a third done along the coast. That leaves two-thirds. A bit more than twenty-four thousand… Roughly thirty thousand, Lord Admiral.”

Audric widened his eyes and swiped a tear of sweat off his nose, relieved that he won’t need to worry about that. “I have utmost confidence in you to procure them. Good luck Hervig.” He nodded at him and gave him a sympathetic glance.

Klaus then turned back to the Lady Conciliator. “Anything else, Emma?”

“The peasants who lost their relatives whilst fighting the ogres demand compensation. Similar to when they were besieged, eight years ago.” She muttered a quick prayer to Morr and glared at her reluctant husband. “It’s only right that they should receive compensation, my lord. Dozens of peasants from Nahrstadt flooded the court of pleas. Some desperately carried the only remains of their relative that have died. The rest devoured by those fat brutes. Some had their houses torn down by the enemy… And friendly cannon fire.” She quickly whispered an apology to the Admiral. “It’s only right that we give them the money to help them back on their feet. Otherwise the levels of homelessness in Nahrstadt would treble.” She snatched Hervig’s census and ignored his looks of protest. “That would make about six hundred people homeless. That’s about ten percent of the population in Nahrstadt.”

Klaus nodded grimly and looked at Hervig, “Make it so, Hervig. I’ll repeat what Audric just said. I have faith in you. Now is there anything anyone wants to add?”

Johanne then sprung from his seat and rapidly raised his hand in the air. “Me! I can’t believe I forgot about it!” He waited until all of his fellow councillors were looking at him, “Remember those little carnosaurs that those dark elves and lizardmen rode in battle? And the two skinks and saurus that we captured?” He grinned as he noticed them with their eyes widening in anticipation. “Well… We managed a breakthrough with their language! After eight years! We done it!” He shouted and basked in delight with the attention he was receiving.

The excited murmurings continued until Klaus put an end to it. “What did they say?”

“A number of things. Those Carroburg under-sergeants did a good job of speaking to them! The first thing that they asked was how to get those little carnosaurs, and how to ride them like horses. Suicidal idiots… But I can’t help but be curious as well. So, I allowed them to keep questioning the trio of lizards and luckily one of those skinks used took care of those carnosaurs. She? Let’s stick to a he. He calls them ‘Cold Ones’.”

“Get to the point please Johanne. You’re wearing everyone’s patience down.”

“Fine. Fine. We gave it some of our food to bribe him for information and the dumb big-eyed lizard agreed!” Johanne patted his stomach as he was struggling to breath after laughing too much. “Now, it should be leading a group of hunters to capture a few of those ‘Cold Ones’. Don’t worry, it was wearing a steel collar so it can’t escape.”

The rest of the councillors bristled in discomfort at that and Johanne was quick to realise his mistake. “Don’t worry! They’re not being treated as slaves. Slavery is outlawed in the Empire, after all. We’re just treating them as prisoners and taking every precaution that they don’t escape…”

Klaus then coughed and warded all the attention towards him. Johanne… What have you done? You’re not even trying to deflect! The Imperial code of law states carefully that it bans any type of slavery… Bans slavery of humans and everything else that’s not humans. “What plans do you have after capturing a few of them?” He asked what everyone wanted to say and crossed his fingers then prayed to Ranald that they ignored Johanne’s mistake.

“Um… Breed them of course! That lizard folk said that his class of skinks are specialised in husbandry. With its help, we could even have an entire cavalry force riding on those carnosaurs! It’ll be glorious! We’ll get more support from other Elector Counts back in the Empire! Hell! We could export the docile ones back to the New World and wrack profits. You agree right, Hervig?”

Hervig shifted in his seat and Klaus noticed him awkwardly smiling, “That’s sounds like a wonderful plan, Lord Martial… But have you investigated how much the starting investment to start this all up?”

Klaus silently heaved a huge breath at that and was relieved that they completely ignored his brother’s blatant disregard for the law. Thank Ranald that Hervig is more interested in money!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hervig had a busy day. Procuring funds for the watchtowers, Johanne’s ‘Cold Ones’ project and compensating the folks in Nahrstadt had a huge toll on him. He pulled a lot favours to get what he wanted to today and was satisfied with getting half the money. But he needs the other half soon, otherwise there’ll be a riot in Nahrstadt. I may need to borrow money. From Giovanni hopefully… He still owes me for insuring his warehouse that burnt down… Maybe that can persuade him to lower the interest by a fair bit. He ran towards the training yard and waited for his son. Strange…. He’s usually on time for his sword lessons. What’s he doing?

He kept on pondering and realised something was on his leg. He looked down and was pleasantly surprised, “Anna! Why are you here? Hiding from your governess again?”

“Uh-uh.” She grunted and nodded in conversation.

“That’s very bad of you. You shouldn’t worry her like that.”

“But she’s boring. She’s making me read. Always comparing me to Rein!” Anna pouted with tears starting to leak. “I don’t want to read! I wanna see the horsies and ride on them! I want to explore and find more of these dinosaurs out there!” She flailed her arms towards the jungle.

Kneeling down, Hervig stared at his daughter and wiped the tears from her eyes. “My poor baby. Don’t cry. I’m sure the governess just wants you to succeed just like your brother.”

Anna then spontaneously cried and slapped his father’s hand away from her. “Your just like her! Always compareng me to him! How many times do I have to say this! I don’t want to be like him!” She ran away towards the manor’s garden and disappeared in the bushes.

What just happened? What did I do? He heard someone clicking their tongue and stamping their heels in the ground behind him.

“Hervig? What have you done?”

“I swear I haven’t done anything! I was just trying to comfort her! Please believe me Emma!” He ran and pleaded to her.

“You still made her cry.” She said sternly and looked towards the bush where her daughter disappeared and frowned, causing his husband to flinch back. “Why’s she here? And where’s her governess.” Then she shook her head in disappointment. “I’m sick of replacing the governess. I think it’s gotten to the point that we’ve not been doing our jobs as parents properly. I think we should stop using the governess as a scapegoat and own up to our mistakes.” She stopped and stared at Hervig and pulled his face down to her level. “Let’s face it. When was the last time we checked up on the kids?”

“Everyday! I train Reinhard with the sword! And you read Anna bedtime stories. It can’t be our fault.”

Emma rolled her eyes, “You don’t get the point, you oaf. When was the last time we had a full day off from our duties and spent time with them? You spend time with Reinhard a lot, so you know him but not Anna. You don’t know what ticks her off. You don’t know what she likes, what her hobbies are.”

“She likes horse riding… And you’re being a hypocrite. I’m pretty sure you don’t know Rein as much as me.” He pumped his chest with confidence.

“Oh yeah… Try me!”

“What’s his favourite hobby?”

“Cooking, reading, spending time with his experiments and learning magic from Sig’. Speaking of that, Sig’ is hopeful that Reinhard may start to feel the winds of magic ‘coursing through his veins and manipulate it.’ He’s asking me, not you, for permission to oversee him doing this, because I’m usually present when he’s learning something so dangerous…”

“… W-wha?” He hurriedly picked up two wooden sparring swords and tossed one of them to his wife. “First hit wins. Whoever loses is the worst parent out of the two of us.” He teased her and provoked her to pick up the sword.

“Husband, husband, husband. You’re being far too desperate.” Emma raised her eyebrows and snorted. She couldn’t believe how shameless he was being. Thinking that he’s being far too blatant and playful, she decided to play along. She unclipped her skirt which revealed a beige coloured riding breech underneath and picked up the sword. “I’ll play along. But know this, whatever the result of this spar, I’m the better parent.”

“Well, you know what… Whatever the result, I’ll still be the better father!”

Emma exploded in laughter at that and was about to retort, “Of course you will be! Damn oaf! You’re the only fath-“

A huge swing towards her left shoulder nearly nicked her but managed to dodge by ducking down and was about to strike back. But Hervig did not give her the chance to fight back as he swiftly launched a barrage of thrusts causing Emma to fall back with her balance failing.

The one-sided fight continued for another few minutes and Emma was surprised to survive this long. She ducked and weaved and occasionally parried back which kept Hervig in his toes, but he was a lot better than her and eventually she conceded and dropped her sword. She smirked as she noticed him huffing in irritation. “What’s the matter, Hervig. Thought you can beat me in under a minute? You even did a dirty trick at the beginning.”

“It was worth a try. You needed a good laugh, and I gave you it.” Hervig ran up to her and hugged her. “I know you want to help those people, but you can’t. We don’t have enough resources and money to help them. Please. Don’t blame yourself.” He ran his hands towards her cheeks and pinched it.

“Stop pinching me! But you’re right. I’ve not been myself for the past week. Getting those petitions and pleas for help will drown anyone.” She rested her head at his chest and breathed.

A random distant clapping caught the two by surprise as they turned their heads towards it. After some time, they managed to spot a dark-haired girl hiding behind a bush. “Mamma! Pappa! That was so cool! Can you spin and stabby each other again? Please?”

Hervig then placed his head in her wife’s breast and carried her in the armpits, “Well… We can’t exactly say no to our angel, now can we? She said she wanted to see more ‘stabby’…” He jested and placed a hand in her crotch but was quickly slapped away.

“Oh, stop it you damn oaf!” She blushed and smiled at her daughter. “Later. When we’re in bed. For now, we’ve got an angel to entertain!” Emma gestured her daughter to step closer towards them and picked up her sword. “Your pappa may be a better swordsman compared to me, but I’ll do my best to bloody his nose! He deserves it after making you cry like that.” She kneeled in front of her daughter and rubbed her reddened eyes. “You’re rooting for me, right?”

The four-year-old girl nodded enthusiastically at her mother and cheered, “Yes mamma! Pappa was so mean to me! He deserves it!”

Emma turned to Hervig and gave him a silent nod which he responded. She wants to win. He looked at his daughter and couldn’t resist smiling. Oh whatever. I’ll ‘lose’ for her sake. I don’t even know what I did to upset her.

An orchestrated sword bout took place that was more likely a dance, as the married couple took jabs at each other and swung their swords in overly dramatic fashion, all to entertain their daughter. Anna cheered as she saw her mother overpowering her father to the ground and pointed a sword to his throat.

“I’ve won!” Emma then stared at her daughter. “Justice has been done!”

“Whoooh! Mamma, you’ve won!” She jumped at the ground and blew a raspberry towards her father but was sharply but gently rebuked by her mother. “I’m sorry… I got too excited.”

A pat in her head stopped her from her habitual pouting and she looked up and noticed her father. He monstrously laughed and picked her up causing her to yell. “Mamma hasn’t beaten me yet! I’m still alive!” He pumped his chest as he carried Anna in his other arm. “You shouldn’t have done that!” Hervig tickled her and stopped when she apologised.

“Pappa! Stop! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have stuck my tngue out!”

Hervig buried his face towards her daughter and directed her to look at him, “Look closely at my mouth. T-O-N-G-U-E. Notice how my tongue is touching the top of my mouth behind my upper teeth? Now you do it.”

“Tngue. T-o-ngue.” She eventually said it correctly which was rewarded by Hervig tossing her to the sky and caused her to shout in excitement. “Now… Where’s your brother? Where’s Rein?”

Anna pinched her nose at that question and crunched her face in disgust, “He’s at that yucky place! Full of smoke and smelly things! Where people hammer a lot with those giant wheels.” He’s at the forging district? Why on earth would he be there? Why is Erick not telling me about this?

This time he looked at his wife and noticed that she too was ‘confused’. “You don’t know anything?” He sceptically asked her.

“No… Let’s visit the forging district and meet him there. I’m sure there’ll be less hammering and smoke when we get there. So, you have nothing to worry about little one.” Emma turned to Anna, in a way that didn’t tolerate any complaints, and looked back towards her husband. “I’m not sure you know this but it’s probably one of his experiments again. That’s… I don’t know how I should say this…”

Hervig impatiently tapped his foot on the ground and beckoned Hubert to pick them up with the carriage. “What?” He had a rough idea what the problem was but kept quiet.

“Well… Most of his experiments are quite… Expensive.” Emma chuckled at his expression of dismay. “You haven’t read the manor’s expenses, lately have you?”

“No… Mel’ should be in charge of that. You trust her with the finance and therefore I trust her.”

“Oh, dear Hervig. This is not like you… It sounds like your trying to come up with an excuse. In the end you’re the head of the family and so the head of the manor… Don’t shirk your responsibilities now.” She took a fan and flapped it exaggeratingly which annoyed him.

“H-how much is it?” He asked but Emma declined to answer and hopped in the carriage. Hervig sat his daughter in front of him and asked again.

“Nothing too much. But I did realise that Reinhard gave about five hundred golden marks to Herr Schmidt.”

His heart palpitated at that and he started to hyperventilate. “How much!”

“It’s clear that you’ve listened and heard correctly. So, I won’t bother repeating myself.”

“How in a mighty maelstrom has this happened!? What the fuck happened? Why that much? Why is he giving it to Erick? How? How d-did he get that much access to our finances!” Realising his temper was getting the better of him, he quickly stared at Anna and did a goofy face to not frighten her.

“Oh my… You didn’t know?”

“Not now, Emma.” He impatiently demanded.

“Our son has been given access to our finances by Melinda. Under my consent.”

Anger and frustration rapidly switched to confusion. “Why? You consented on giving Erick that much money? How dumb can you be? Don’t you know that every money needs to be saved up? We. Need. Every. Mark. We. Can. Get! From copper to gold! Klaus’ mandate is going to run out in seven years! By then, hopefully we can then be recognised by the Emperor as a province under the Empire. Do you know what that means?” He condescendingly asked.

Thankfully, Emma dismissed it, “Of course I do. Once we become a province, we can buy up as much land as possible. Hopefully, large enough for a large fief. Large enough to be a considered a noble. Being a noble. Our ultimate ambition.” She said with no hints of sarcasm.

“Exactly! Why then did you- “

“Because what our son and Erick are doing are going to do much more than mere money.”

“Then please say it! Don’t leave me hanging.”

She shifted and closed the windows. “There. Not even Hubert can hear us.” She looked at Hervig and placed a finger over her mouth. “Nothing I say gets out of this carriage.” She said whilst whispering over to his husband’s ear and was glad to notice that Anna was snoring already. “What if there was a way to make the handguns more accurate. Accurate as in that they can reliably shoot at the very least, four times the distance. Two-hundred and forty yards! And they can shoot more than six times a minute!”

“That’s impossible. I’ve fired them before. They’re very inaccurate and I can only shoot at least twice a minute.”

“Well, imagine that you can shoot that far and that much in a minute. If we invest this early on, New Altdorf could dwarf Nuln as the city of engineering pretty soon. And who get’s all the fame? The Hanoschafts. A family of eccentric merchants turned engineers!” She raised her hand towards the roof and zealously smiled.

“Erick should be given some fame, as well. I’ve noticed Rein spending more time with him lately.”

“Ah. You’ve noticed that much at least. Well done.”

Hervig was about to say something when the carriage suddenly halted. “My lord, my ladies, we’ve arrived at the Smith’s guild.” Hubert, the carriage driver, informed them and both jumped out as Hervig carried his daughter.

A spartan building awaited them devoid of carvings and other decorative ornaments. Flat, yellow stone walls scaled a dozen stories high, with huge chimney stacks that stretched towards the sky and a large canal flowed through inside the building. As they entered the edifice, Hervig noticed that the indoor canal was lined with dozens of waterwheels with gears shifting with a mighty roar. Gears that powered the bellows in the forges and the enormous hammers.

Loud yelling echoed through the walls and Hervig was barely able to hear it, so they came closer and carefully avoided the soot-stained ground.

“You promised me breech-loaders, grandpa!” A high pitch yell made Hervig frown. Is he arguing with Erick? Wow. He’s brave.

“Listen ye brat! Yer diagrams were pissed and nothin’ to show for! It was nonsense. The imperial measurements were all wrong and what the fuck is a millimet-er, cent-i-met-er and meter!? And the diagram was too complicated and not practical!”

“It’s millimetre, centimetre and meter! This decimal system is much more superior than your ‘imperial system’. It allows measurements to be counted at the multiplication of a thousand! Much better than the dozens, tenths, fifths that your system uses.”

They heard a huge huff then a laugh, “Pretty words fer a brat that haven’t had his balls dropped yet. Well, whatever. Yer not the leader of this guild, I am. So, what I say is the law around here. Got that…” Erick growled at the end.

“Y-yes… I’m sorry for losing my temper. I just had high hopes that’s all… What was wrong with the diagram. We can worry about standard units later on.”

“This ‘bolt-action’ is too optimistic. I’d be surprised if it can fire fer at least five shots before it breaks and kills the person usin’ it. The black powder that handguns use, would usually foul the muzzle. And this ‘bolt-action’ would be deformed by the powder getting’ ignited and explodin’. It’s childish fancy that I don’t want to take part of.”

They kept on arguing and Emma and Hervig signalled to each other to announce their presence when it got too heated.

“B-but the five-hundred gold I gave you! Please don’t tell me you spent it so you can grow that.” Hervig saw him pointing at Erick’s belly and loudly snorted with laughter causing the two to turn to them.

“Erick, Reinhard…” Hervig then pointed to his out of control son and feigned anger. “Especially you Reinhard… I’ve taught you to live frugally and not waste money. Now, what is this I hear of five-hundred gold?”

Reinhard then started to sweat and adjusted his cravat awkwardly and pleadingly glanced towards his mother. “Mamma…” But she ignored him causing him to gulp loudly. “Apparently that gold went to grandpa’s belly…” He squirmed a bit.

Rein! Why are you insulting a living legend!? He may be ageing but he can still eat you alive. He quickly trained his eye at his mentor and noticed him rolling his eyes at that comment and kept on intensely looking at the other parchments.

“Who told you to transfer the money without my consent?”

“I did it by myself without anyone’s consent… But I asked permission from Mel’.” He stared again at Emma.

“Did she say yes?”

“I-I don’t know…”

“What do you mean ‘I don’t know’?” Hervig gave Anna to his wife and stepped towards his errant son and placed his hands on his shoulders causing him to wince.

“I-I sent it before she could say anything… It was her fault for taking so long to respond…” Reinhard lowered his head contritely.

He sighed at that. “Rein… Don’t try making excuses. You’re the one at fault here and therefore you must be held responsible.” He turned back to see his wife covering her amusement with a fan and sniggered. I’m trying to be a good father here! Yes, I know I’m being a hypocrite but…”

“I’m sorry, pappa. I should’ve asked and waited for a response. But I’ll try my hardest to pay you back! Grandpa Erick should’ve done something with the money and…” He stopped whatever he was going to say next which caught Hervig’s suspicion.

“And…”

“I may or may not have used about twelve-hundred golden marks to invest – “

“Excuse me, what? How much?”

Reinhard ignored him and kept talking. “- on promising ventures such as new traders selling new and exotic crops found deep in Lustria. I was interested on this ‘bitterbean’ that might be popular. Either as a sweetener or a stimulant that you can drink and it makes you more awake and focused…”

“How much?” Hervig asked as if his soul was being grabbed by Morr.

“I also sent some of that money to hamlets growing those plants and to do my holy duty to Sigmar.” He said being quite pleased with himself.

“How much?!” He yelled which suddenly woke Anna up and making his son shrink at the same time.

“A-about twelve hundred… Pappa.” With his puppy eyes pointing at him which made him soften his anger. By a bit. A little bit.

“We’ll talk more about this when we get home… Seventeen hundred… That’s more than half our fortune…”

“But pappa… Keeping that much money won’t make us richer… So, I took initiative.”

He wanted to lash out and scream at his son. He wanted to spill his plans right then and there for all to hear but he fortunately clamped it down. One calming breath after another, he eventually controlled his furious tremors and slightly growled at his son. “Rein… I may have said that to make more money, you have to spend it… But you have to do it wisely and rationally… You didn’t do it rationally. You were clouded with your bias about your love for new crops and sweets, cakes and pies. You didn’t do it to make more money.” He firmly put his hand over his son’s mouth to shut him up. “I know you too well Rein. You were going to say something quick and witty and prove me wrong, right? Well… To be honest with you, I want to be proven wrong. I want whatever you’re doing here to succeed and your investments to pay dividends…

“Now, what type of deal have you sent those peasants. You’re smart, you must’ve had a parchment copy.”

Grinning and smirking he temporarily stopped wincing and answered, “It should be by the drawers in Mel’ office. I promise pappa, that I’ve done everything that’s possible to ensure that we benefit and profit from this.”

“I don’t punish that Rein. What I’m going to punish is your rashness and impatience when we get home.” Reinhard then grabbed his backside and fidgeted.

“Like father like son.” Emma remarked which made Anna giggle. “About that deal. I’ve ordered Melinda to give it to me. So, I placed it in your desk, Hervig. It should’ve been sitting there for weeks and looks like you haven’t noticed…

“Now… Erick! I heard from my sources that you still haven’t figured out how to make that gun fire at a faster rate. But… I’ve heard that you showed some success on making it more accurate…”

Erick then stopped staring at the diagrams and looked squarely at her, “Ye would be right Emma and I hope those ‘sources’ weren’t doin’ anythin’ harmful. But… Little Rein here, as much as I think he’s a pompous twat, is a genius. This ‘rifling’ is revolutionary! It may turn the eyes of the Imperial Gunnery school over to here! Maybe we could even surpass them! I just need permission from you two about expanding the forging district to include several factories where we bore these muzzles!”

“Good… The agreement?”

“T-those factories would be owned by the Hanoschafts… But I get a say in the decision making!”

Emma grinned and softened it to a smile when she noticed Anna was staring at her. “It’s a deal.”