Sanders

"Dear, why would you ask me to come to this place? Look at it. The houses are little better than hovels, and everything is so plain." Francine said to me in a weary voice.

"Because I couldn't live without you, my darling," I said with a gentle smile. We had just arrived in Kerisi, and I was prepared to receive this reaction. Going from the center of society to this barony would be a hardship for her.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, dear. You have taken me away from my friends and grandchildren. The winter ball is coming up, and instead of being with my friends, I have to live in a hut in the middle of nowhere while you tinker with a noble's crazy ideas."

"We have discussed this. It is for you as much as me. Lord Amos is willing to pay me a salary for three years. It was becoming harder and harder to get work in Vaspar, and I was having to spend more time away from home. The prices there were also rising. We had already had to reduce the size of our home once. Doing it again would set us back socially, and you could forget about being invited over to any receptions."

She sighed, "Three years, Sanders, without civilization."

"The baron is providing us with a house and a salary. If I save that money, we can live comfortably in the city when we return. I have picked out a lovely location here for us to live. The town of Cofi has a beautiful lake, and I secured a place there that any of your friends in the city would be envious of."

Just then, Headman Paul approached us. "Gentleman Sanders and Gentlewoman Francine, A meal has been prepared for you. Let us go to my home so that I might host you, and then we shall continue to Cofi. As I understand, your home has been nearly completed and is ready for you to move in."

"Delightful. Thank you for the invitation."

We were treated to a meal that I had grown to love here: a flatbread sandwich with river-chilled mar milk. Afterward, we had one of the most amazing desserts I have ever had. She called it apple pie. The tartness of the apple was balanced by a sweet flavor that I couldn't identify. My wife became fast friends with the headman's wife, and she accompanied us down to Cofi. I think the friendship was due to because Paul's wife, Suzy, was such a good listener.

On the way down, Suzy shared another treat with us. She called it hard candy, and it had a sweet huckleberry flavor. Well, at least that is what Suzy said. It was quite a bit sweeter. Before we knew it, the small bag was empty.

Apparently, the same ingredient was used in apple pie. And this mystery ingredient was what made both taste so good. It was exclusive to Bicman. Also, it was very difficult to make, and they only produced it in small quantities. That small amount shared with us was the last available currently. I had a feeling that the baron would become very wealthy if it were exported throughout the kingdom. I can see now why the baron had me sign a contract to keep silent. There were some who would kill for such a product.

When we arrived in the village of Cofi, we were greeted by the new headman, Barak. He was joined by his wife, Mary, and soon, we were all headed to our new residence. The whole way there, Mary kept talking about how jealous she was of our new home.

When we arrived, it was exactly as the Lord and I had discussed. It was a three-bedroom home with an additional sitting room and kitchen. The construction was something I had never seen before. It must have been one of those things the lord had not been willing to share with me. The floor was a solid slab of rock, something Barak said was called concrete. The walls were built of large bricks made of the same material. They were being plastered, and then they planned on painting them. When we went inside, the women immediately went to the bedroom and started discussing the armoire.

"I cannot wait until these become available for the rest of us to purchase," Suzy said with envy in her voice. "Paul has promised me that I would get one."

They went on to discuss the dresser with a polished brass mirror on it. There were cosmetics and one of Lord Amos's new inventions, the hairbrush.

The two headmen's wives did an excellent job making my wife feel as if she were a royal guest here in the village. What I was excited about was the porch that looked out on the lake. On it was a rocking chair. It was an invention of Lord Bicman's that I had not seen yet, though I had heard it mentioned a few different times by various people. Apparently, they were very relaxing to sit in.

I got all of a fraction of a bell to sit in it before the women came out and insisted that Francine be allowed to sit in it.

"I believe we will have to get a second one of these, or I may never get a chance to sit in it," I chuckled.

The last thing we were told was that a maid had been provided for us to assist Francine with anything she needed. Lord Bicman would pay for her services. I don't believe any of this would make Francine desire to stay here for more than three years, but I was pleased that Lord Amos had gone out of his way to make our time here enjoyable.

Amos

I stood at the entrance to Bicman Manor as my personal carriage pulled up to the roundabout. Edward stepped up to the door and opened it for my guests. Sanders and his wife stepped out with the assistance of Edward as I walked forward to meet them.

Francine was a plump woman with a cheerful smile on her face. Both she and her husband had graying hair and looked like the textbook grandparents. If I were to paint her and her husband, I would like to do it as a generational picture with a family barbecue setting I still needed to invent a meat grinder for making the hamburgers I guess we could mince and pound it by hand, but that would be a pain.

Focus Amos.

"Gentleman Sanders, Thank you for coming. Gentlewoman Francine, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. I know it is quite a distance from Cofi to Bicman. I hope your ride was pleasurable?"

"My Lord, Your carriage is quite comfortable. Usually, my bones ache by the end of any long journey, but the springs on your carriage truly have changed my opinion of carriages. Also, not only are you an inventor, but these books, as you call them, are very entertaining. It made the time traveling on the road enjoyable. You are quite the man of many talents."

"Thank you for your gracious compliments. Let us adjourn to the great hall so that we can enjoy some refreshments." With that, I turned, and we all headed to the great hall. I would have preferred the sitting room I had set up for the Tine family, but Lady Tine was still occupying it, and I didn't want to intrude. I really needed a dining room.

As we entered the great hall, Francine's eyes were immediately drawn to the pictures along the walls, but she quickly tore them away. I could tell she wanted to discuss where the art had come from but refrained.

We went to the table, where wine and a few refreshments were set out. They had already eaten in Kerisi, so we spent the time chatting a bit. The first topic was the half-timber architecture of my home and the concrete roundabout, but then we got on to the subject of art. I could tell it was what Gentlewoman Francine was most interested in.

"My Lord, I have heard that you are an artist. Are these works on the wall yours?" Francine said.

"Yes, they are. In fact, I was about to take Gentleman Sanders around to view some projects we are working on. I was wondering if I could introduce you to Lady Tine, my late brother's Mother-in-law. The family is here visiting, and I feel she would make excellent company for you today. She is also a lover of the arts and literature. She could take you around and show you the various paintings."

"That would be splendid. I would love to meet the Baroness," she said enthusiastically.

"I warn you, though, her daughter will talk your ear off if she gets a hold of you," I said with a smile.

After introducing her to Lady Tine, Sanders and I headed towards the barn, where we were keeping the plows and new reaper.

Sanders spoke as they rode down the hill. "My lord, I am impressed with the design for the sawmill. I don't know if you could get enough power to run the thing you call a rotary blade, but the regular blade has a simple design and will be an amazing machine once it is completed. I really could not find fault in the design that you came up with. Of course, nothing is perfect. We won't really know anything until we try it."

"Kind of like the reaper," I said.

"What do you mean?

"My design was all wrong. The huge rotary blades only cut a few of the stocks, and the others just bent. Then, most of the seeds were lost in the mess. It was an utter failure." I said with a self-deprecating smile.

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"Hmmm. You don't seem too bothered by it."

"Like I told the farmers. There is a way to make it work. We just need to think about it. I thought about laying a blade horizontally and then making it spin as it moves, but again, it would just make a mess."

"Lay it horizontally," Sanders said quietly to himself. After a pause, his eyes lit up, and a grin formed on his face. "My Lord, we just got done talking about a water-powered saw that cut wood. Couldn't you turn it horizontally? With a smaller gear, it would move more quickly, and we also wouldn't need it to move the same distance."

I started visualizing it in my mind and also began to grin. I thought the reaper would be like a lawn mower, but instead, it was actually a saw to cut the stock. Then, another thought struck me: If I had shown the sawmill design to my farmers, would they have come to the same conclusion? They weren't stupid, just ignorant. Maybe I should be showing the various inventions in the barony to each group of citizens who worked on other projects to make sure we all knew how everything worked.

There was the worry of people stealing ideas. But for right now, I knew all the people working on these projects and felt I had a good team that wouldn't betray me. We had been having the militia keep alert to all the gossip, and I had the women gossiping with each other. A few of them reported things to the head man who sent the info to me.

It wasn't the best spy network, but gossiping women were an excellent source of information.

All I needed now were taverns so I could have my spies hang out there and listen for gossip, I thought with a laugh.

"Well, Let's go take a look at how we can improve it," I said.

As we entered the barn, I first decided to explain the plow. He had seen the horse collar before when I rode in the carriage, but he didn't realize its significance.

"You mean to tell me you doubled your crop yield and cut down on the plowing time? If-if you get the reaper to work, do you realize what that will do?" He said in awe.

"Economic prosperity and a decrease in the need to expand as much. More people can be trained in other jobs," I said with a satisfied smile.

He shook his head. "That is true, but it also frees up people to serve in the military. Dukes and kings can increase the size of their armies and expand even further if they can conscript more men. They would use the extra food in order to feed their military, not fatten their peasants."

I was dumbstruck. I tried to wrap my head around such a stupid concept. Would the nobility really do that? Of course, they would if they thought it would increase their power. The current King is in the middle of a war. If he could throw more men at the problem and hurry up the conquest, why wouldn't he? The rebels need more troops to take over the kingdom.

Giving these people more food was not going to change how they thought. My first thought was to try and hide everything away, But then I just shook my head.

I cannot stop people from using these inventions to further their gain. I didn't know where the Renaissance started in my world, but I would try to prove to the people of this world that more can be gained by working together with people than expanding their territory. They may initially keep expanding, but if I focus on what I believe to be right, the ideas may spread. I would write down my ideas and spread them. Even if it takes centuries, I believe my ideas will change things for the better. I had to believe that, or I would go mad.

"That may be what others do with this knowledge, but I will improve the lives of my people. I will show the world they have more to gain by elevating their citizens than by conquering more land."

Was I being idealistic? Yes, Would I try anyway? Also, yes.

"Ok, enough of this," I said. "Let's look at the reaper."

We decided we needed two wheels and several gears, but in the end, it would be extremely light compared to the last machine. It still left the problem of the grain stalks falling in all directions Unless…

"Hey Sanders, you know how I told you that the blades just flattened most of the wheat? What if we used that idea to bend the wheat in the direction we want it to lay, Like a smaller wheel made of woo? What used to be blades would just be wooden beams to knock down the stocks before we cut them." I said questioningly.

He thought for a moment, "It sounds like it would work. Let's talk it over with the farmers and see what they think."

We grabbed the paper and pen I always carried with me, and I started drawing it out as Sanders kept making corrections. After about six sheets of paper, we had what we wanted. Now, it was off to gather a few farmers.

When we found Harold, we explained the drawings to him and told him we would be back later after he had discussed things with the others when the day was over.

"My lord, congratulations on finishing this road," Sanders said as we traveled to Melnon. "I am impressed with the speed of completion."

"Well, If we didn't, it would become a bottleneck in the future. I expected a lot of material to be transported between Melnon and Bicman, and straightening the road so that it isn't just curving around the hills is going to make the transportation of goods much easier. Besides, I was told that the hills past the forest would make excellent grazing areas as we expand. We may even build a settlement between the two villages."

"It would be a good idea. Your barony is set up strangely. You have wide gaps between each village." Sanders said.

"That much is obvious. When the kingdom first conquered the land, they wanted to isolate the subjugated Karr and build a new settlement. But because they didn't just use Kerisi as the main village, they also needed to create a mining camp, which became Melnon. We have never really had the people or the quality of land to expand. Had it not been for the conquest of the Karr, any expansion north of the Nore River would have started at the river not over a day away."

"True, but you have your men doing the same thing to the road south as you are doing for this road, and that should speed things up a bit. In fact, this road is smoother than the one just south of the Nore. Will you be putting that concrete on all your roads?"

"Not right away, But eventually, I would like to. First, I want to build a road between Melnon and Kerisi as well as one between Bicman and Alfer. But even that will not come until we can get 1,000 more people and another couple of settlements."

"I have no doubt you can do it. Now, let's discuss the trip hammer and rock crusher you were talking about. I can't wait to see the design."

After we made it to the site of the water wheel, I pulled out the designs for the trip hammer, the bellow, and the rock crusher.

Sanders spent almost an hour reviewing my multiple designs. The designs were created through the combined efforts of the miners, the blacksmiths, and me.

"I think the bellow and the hammer will work, but I am not sure about the rock crusher. In fact, putting a larger head on your trip hammer idea may be just as good."

"That's too bad. I was hoping to crush a lot of ore at once." I said Disappointment was evident in my voice.

"And we still may be able to do it, But this design lacks stability. If we do get it to work, though, your lime production will also increase drastically. Wait, What is that!" He said, pointing at a man heading towards the kiln with a load of lime.

"Oh, we call it a wheelbarrow. It is like a cart but much more maneuverable and works better on rough ground."

I got the idea when I was trying to come up with games for the festival. I remembered wheelbarrow races and then realized that we didn't have any. This was only one of two that we had, but we would be churning out more for all our upcoming projects. My people loved them, and it was another invention that once people had them, they couldn't do without.

Soon after that, we were on to the last part of our journey before heading back to Bicman. We hiked up the road to the mine. About halfway up, we came across another invention. My men were laying down gravel and wooden beams evenly spaced.

"What is this?" Sanders asked.

"This is our new wooden rail system for mine carts," I said proudly.

"I do not understand."'

"You will when we get to the mine."

I had been raised on TV shows and movies where characters raced through mines on out-of-control mine carts. We also can't forget a particular video game that was very popular. So, of course, when I first got to the copper mine, I thought about building one. Oh, what I wouldn't give for some Redstone.

Of course, I was not going to attempt to build iron rails just yet, but when I showed the design to the miners, explaining that we would have to wait until we had enough iron, they asked if we could try using wood for the rail. The mine didn't go very deep, but it was a pain to haul out the ore due to the rough ground. With the rails, we had a smooth track that made it easier for the mules to pull the ore out. The path back to Melnon was also very rocky, so it put a lot of wear on the normal carts, and it was difficult to get them up and down. Once we put the rails in, though, we should be able to move more ore in half the time.

I had Robert explain all of this to Sanders as we walked around the mine inspecting it.

"This is incredible. Is there nothing you haven't thought of? You can now move the ore faster, and soon you will be able to crush it faster, and with the bellow and hammer, you will be turning it into usable parts faster."

I almost felt guilty for stealing other's ideas and claiming them as my own, but at the same time, I wanted to smirk. He hadn't even seen the paper production and the weavers building. Once we got a ship and built a better road from Melnon to the cove, we were going to be able to ship large quantities of things from here to Vaspar in as little as six days, Two years. Two years, and our exports would be through the roof.

It was late in the afternoon when we made our way back down to Bicman. We ate with the Tine family, and then I went to see Aaron.

He was walking well now, and his favorite game was run away baby. He would wait until you were looking away and then try to walk off. He was not at the point where he could run, so he never made it out the door, but it was a really fun game to play, especially when I got to tickle him afterward. After wearing him out, I sat with him in the rocking chair until he fell asleep. I wished I could forgo all my responsibilities and just spend time with him. But the work I had never ended.

When I got to my study, I found another couple of books transcribed by Jacklyn and her best students. Jacklyn had now become the third most well paid person among my staff. My two stewards were first. She was not only the school teacher but also the secretary to Benjamin, and she oversaw the transcription of my books so that we could have multiple copies.

I didn't count my guards as part of the staff. If I had, then the Captain would have been above her in pay. I had started paying people in coins and using our stockpile of grain as our backing since it was the main trade good among peasants. One kilogram of wheat was worth one copper. I was the guarantor on everything, which made me a little nervous, but we were only using it in Bicman for now, and I should be able to acquire a lot more gold when I got Vaspar. I would be selling cloth and paper to the Count and paintings to the nobles. Once we had more trade going between Vaspar and here, we could move to a gold standard currency.

There is so much to do, and I hope I have time to do it all.