Swiss Arms

Chapter 31

Dark brown eyes slowly read through the letter sent to him by his distant cousin married to some fop in the Swabian Alps.

From what he was reading, it seemed that his House's attempt to gain connection to the region had worked, somewhat, because the fop they married his cousin to was dead and died losing a war so dramatically and drastically that left little room for intervention.

There could be no intervention in the war if the war was already over, after all.

Albert knew that while he was the King of the Germans, there was only so much he could demand from his vassals before they decide to usurp him.

Kingship was one of balance, and in the lands of the Holy Roman Empire where powerful vassals held sway in all political arenas, he could not make demands or orders because allowing him to set a "royal" precedent was something his vassals would sit by and watch.

Still, the idea of peasants winning against nobles in such a devastating and decisive manner…

Perhaps it's better that he recognized them and made sure they knew what boundaries they had to toe. He was too busy with the Lowlands right now.

"Seneschal, bring me my quill, ink, and a parchment. I have a letter to write."

His elderly Seneschal, a low noble who's served the Habsburgs since his grandfather, moved with surprising speed to accomplish his given task, and no more than a minute later, he had all three items he requested.

He thought about how to start and end this letter. The middle portion, where he would use his authority to cement the current outcomes of the regional dispute, was certain.

However, how did he address each of the participants? The entire war was an affront to his authority as the emperor, but at the same time, decrying the already autonomous lords in a duchy that was in disarray would only encourage them to fight more among themselves until one rises among them. This would put his House's holdings in the duchy in jeopardy.

At the same time, praising the peasants…

That was just not done, especially not after they killed a count by burning him to death, but what else could he expect out of the uneducated, dirty, and violent Alps peasants?

"If I may, Your Majesty."

He looked up to his seneschal, who had been waiting patiently for him.

"Please, if you have an idea, John, I'd appreciate it."

"From what you have told me, the Count of Sargans began the conflict and so deserve much of the blame for the regional instability. The peasants rose up only in response to the attacks they suffered at the hands of the participating nobles. Though I understand that the Swabian Alps are not rich nor important in the wider scheme of things, I believe that absolving the peasants, of this Compact, of any crime they committed during the war against the nobility.

"At the same time, I believe that you, the King of the Germans, should make it clear that any further death of nobles and knights at the hands of the peasants would be dealt with harshly, regardless of who causes a fight."

"... Leniency yet strictness, John?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Albert thought about it before he nodded. "Thank you. I believe I know what I shall write to each of them. On your way out, would you grab another half a dozen parchments for me?"

He really needed to sort out the Duchy of Swabia, soon. Swabia was becoming too chaotic at this point, but with no central authority that the majority of the duchy would accept, the problem was tricky at best and poison at worst.

-VB-

Swiss Arms

Chapter 31

-VB-

I woke up a week after I arrived back home and found myself staring at a screen I did not expect.

[Event: Nine Lord-Compact War

Cause

- Sargans' Claims over the whole of Prince-Bishopric of Chur

Result - Compact's Overwhelming Victory

Effect - 1) Compact of the Seven becomes a recognized state within the Holy Roman Empire, 2) Compact of the Seven gains [Republic] government form, 3) Compact of the Seven gains 15-year truce with all of its neighbors except for the County of Tyrol.

Reward:

*+5 LvLs

*+5 CHA

*New Skill [Rulership]!

*+5 to Rulership

*New Skill [Commander]!

*+5 to Commander]

"Oh," I muttered as I sat up from my bear fur bedding and thick wool blanket.

It took me a while to really understand what I was looking at.

5 LvLs and 5 points for a total of thirty points? That was the biggest jump in stat gains in a single event… since ever.

I didn't need to spend it right now, but I knew that I had "holes" in my stats to fill up, and as such, fifteen of the thirty points (since five points were already dumped to CHA) were added to INT. The rest… My strength was at 44 right now because I still managed to complete my monthly quests during the war.

(Why did this pop up now and not before? You know, right after I got the correspondence from Sargans?)

I put six into strength to round it off, one more to CHA to make it 15, six to END to make it even 60, and 2 to … DEX, why not?

Now, lemme see those new juicy skills~!

[Rulership] LvL.6

Change the rules as how you see fit with your power.

*+0.5% additional law/rule change acceptance with vassals per LvL

*+0.1 opinion per LvL

[Commander] LvL.6

Center, hold steady. Both flanks, curve in. Trap and slaughter them. Victory is soon ours.

*+1% Man-At-Arms/Soldier Effectiveness per LvL

*-0.25% Friendly Casualties in battle per LvL

*+0.1% likelihood of being able to trap, counter, or outmaneuver enemy commander

Rulership sounded a lot like mind control if high levels in it just flat out made everyone like me if they worked under me.

On the other hand, Commander was a skill that was very much welcome, especially considering that in future conflicts the Compact involves itself will put me up as its commander, and reducing our casualties was always a great skill.

…I wondered how this skill will let me "outmaneuver" someone, though. Time always revealed everything.

I wondered what I was going to eat today.

-VB-

[Quest: Industrialization!

You might not have the coal-based steam industry ready to make and start, but you can start something smaller. Your job, if you choose to accept, is to set up a fully-fledged within five years of accepting this quest!

Requirement:

*Establish a profitable industry for the Compact of the Seven Towns

Bonus:

A-Establish 2 profitable industries

B-Establish 3 profitable industries

C-Hire a total of five hundred people

Reward:

*10 stat points

A-+5 stat points

B-+10 stat points

C-+10 stat points

Failure:

*Potential collapse of the Compact]

Okay.

How should I go about this?

"You want to … make the village richer?" Alvia, Arnold's sister and currently the only jeweler in the entire valleys around us, asked me incredulously. "Don't you realize just how rich you are, and you want to get even richer?"

Arnold looked surprised as well.

The three of us sat around my "living" room on the bottom floor of my wooden tower. The hexagonal tower, now two floors taller and with four more "extensions" to each side at the ground floor, was still at the heart of my wooden fort in Fluela.

I shook my head. "I mean, I know I am rich-"

"Obscenely rich," Arnold noted.

"-No, I'm not that rich. I'm probably… poorer than most barons out there."

"You're as rich as a baron!?"

I facepalmed. "The point!" I raised my voice a little to get this conversation back on track. "Is that I want to make everyone rich, but I don't know how I should go about it or if my suggestions are even welcome."

Arnold wiped his newly grown stubble while his wife - yes, his wife - ate silently from his side. Beatrice was a sweet little thing, but she was also very scared of me ever since she saw my fort. And the half a dozen bear furs hanging on the walls.

It's not my fault that I keep running into them.

"Hans," Alvia sighed as she set her fork down. "If you say that you want the village to do something that makes us money, then I don't think anyone will refuse."

"... Really?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes. What did you have in mind?" Arnold asked. "I know what father will agree to, in general, so let's hear it."

"Well, I have this list here," I said as I pulled out the said list. "Want me to read it off for you?"

"Yes, Hans. It's still a little hard for me to read, especially when you write weird things."

I chuckled. Yes, I did confuse a lot of the people trying to learn because I kept on adding future English words when I couldn't find their equivalent in High German and Alemannic, the two dominant languages outside of Latin and French which were used as lingua franca.

"The first one is something we are already working on. We could focus on simply being the 'nail makers' and attract merchants to come by our valley."

"I like that," Arnold replied. "But … that's not exactly an industry, is it?"

"No, not unless I spread the process to other towns in the valley. It would require that some of the people learn how to become a blacksmith or at least learn how to operate something as we have here, which is hard because it takes time and resources to make them as well as a water source to turn the wheels and a source of iron that most villages can't get easy access to."

To be truthful, I can help build the water wheel and the rest of the smithing infrastructure, but the ultimate problem was that we lacked people and a good source of iron. Importing iron could do it, but allowing outsiders to completely control our industry? It wouldn't work nor would it be accepted as an option by the self-sufficient folks living here in the mountains.

Unless I could convince around a hundred people to switch from whatever job they held right now to become miners for an industry that may or may not work out, then the idea would have to be shelved.

I could still import some iron ore to work with and I would certainly mine quite a bit of iron ore on my own, but could I become an industry by myself?

… I have no idea.

"The second one would be paper making."

"... what is paper?"

"Ah, right. Paper is like parchment, except thinner and cheaper to make because I intend to use wood pulp as the main ingredient in making it."

"Wood pulp?" Alvia asked skeptically, frowning at me as if she could discern whether I was pulling her leg or not. "That sounds … ridiculous."

"I'll show you all later, but for now, let's keep going down the list. Now, the third potential industry I want to experiment with is pottery."

"We … do that everywhere?" Beatrice spoke up for the first on the meal table.

I grinned. "Yes, but I want to see what kind of results pottery made with Swabian clay will be like. It'll take a lot of experiments, so I hope I'll have that reusable furnace ready. Now, after that, we have the final thing to try out…"

It was an idea I got from, well, my last life's mangas.

"Gold plating."

"... Like a chestplate made out of gold?" Arnold asked incredulously. "That sounds stupidly expensive and dumb."

"Oh no no, it's nothing like that," I replied. "I'll need … just today, really, to make one, but I think you'll really like what you'll all see."

-VB-

[Character Status]

Name: Hans of Fort Fluela

Age: 18

LvL: 33

HP: 600

MP: 350

ST: 300

STR: 50

END: 60

AGI: 60

DEX: 46

INT: 35

CHA: 15

Current Objective: Set Up Home [10/?]

Current Quest: N/A