“You are going to make him sick!” An annoyed voice snapped at me from the bed.

“Oh, come on, Em, he likes it,” I said as I continued to spin Aaron in a circle. He was, in fact, smiling, and every time I stopped, he let out a happy laugh. I stopped spinning him and tossed him into the air. Not very high due to trying not to hit his head on the rafters, but again, he squealed in delight.

“If I weren’t stuck with this dumb sling on my arm, I would throw something at you.” She growled in annoyance. She was more annoyed that I wouldn’t let her show me the new paper until I finished playing with Aaron than anything else.

“You have two arms.”

“It hurts to move, fat head.”

“You may be Aaron’s Knight Protector, but that doesn’t mean you can disrespect the Regent of the Barony,” I said mockingly. Yeah, we had been backsliding to a less formal way of speaking since I came into the room. It's so hard to be formal with your best friends.

“I am not a knight protector, and I am grumpy because my arm hurts, and you are teasing me.” She pouted.

I turned to her and said in a serious tone, “Of course, you are a knight protector. You saved his life. Emily Papermaker Knight Protector.”

“Knight Protector isn’t even a real thing. You made that up.”

“It’s in the dictionary,” I said in my best know-it-all tone.

“What’s a dictionary?”

“It’s a book that lists every word in a language and tells you what it means. I am at least 50% sure that it is in there.” I’m pretty sure Em hadn’t learned percentages yet, so I probably still sounded smart.

Aaron started to squirm, so I looked back down at my nephew. He began to get impatient, so I held him up and looked him straight in the eyes. “Now listen here, young man, just because I stopped playing does not mean you can start fussing. I-”

Aaron let out a belch and then proceeded to spit up all over his outfit.

“Aww, come on, man. Hold it together.

“I told you!” Emily scolded

“Eh, what’s a little puke between friends,” I said with a grin. “Hey Em, you want to clean this up.”

“No.” She said flatly.

“Fine,” I said with an exaggerated sigh. “I’ll go find a maid.”

“My Lord, there are rags right over there,” Emily said with a hint of irritation.

“But…”

“By the Endless One’s bald head, Amos, just wipe him off before you leave to get someone.”

“Oh, yeah, OK.”

I got Aaron mostly cleaned up and then headed out of the room. Before I shut the door, I turned to Emily and said, “Hey Em, I know I said it before when I first came in and got all teary-eyed and stuff, but umm… Thanks for saving Aaron. You’re the best.”

Emily’s look of annoyance softened into a blush, “You’re welcome, Lord Amos. I love him too.”

Just before we left, Emily shouted, “Hey, what about the paper!”

I did not answer. Instead, I just shut the door. Emily yelled something else, but I wasn’t paying attention.

As we walked down the hall, I looked down at Aaron and said, “Man, that was fun. I haven’t gotten to annoy Em in like a month. Thanks for the assist.” I held my hand out for a fist bump but only got a burble.

“Don’t worry, buddy, you’ll get there. Fist bumps are an essential part of noble life.”

With that, we made our way to the great hall, where I hoped to find one of his minders. There were a few girls and one boy getting things ready for supper. I spotted Hanah and called out. The girls curtsied, and the boy bowed. Hanah approached, and I held out Aaron, “Would you mind changing him? He spit up, and I have things I have to get done.”

“Of course, My Lord,” She said with a smile. Aaron reached out for her, and Hanah grabbed him from me.

“Thank you. Have a pleasant evening,” I said as I turned abruptly and left the manor.

I still had daylight left, and although I dreaded the attention I would get in Bicman village, I needed to go see Mikel and Jorb. I found Captain Draves in the courtyard, speaking with Chris. They were watching a group of young men practicing thrusts with spears. It looked like Captain Draves was giving some pointers to Chris, but I was happy to interrupt them. “Well, Lieutenant, how are our men?”

Chris glared at me. “You know, My Lord, I don’t think Lieutenants train troops.”

“I have no idea what rank does what. Pick a rank that fits the job and take it. Or divide the groups up and put people over them with the right rank. Whatever it is, you are in charge of these greenies.”

“Greenies?”

“It means they are new at something. You know, like plants that have just sprouted. They are green.”

“I like it, My Lord,” the Captain said with a thoughtful expression.

“Great, glad you approve. Now we need to go down to the village, Captain. Have fun training the recruits, Lieutenant.”

“Yeah, yeah,” He grumbled.

As we walked down the hill, Draves suddenly spoke up. “You are being casual again.”

I sighed, “I need it, Captain. You know that. This job is stressing me out, and this helps.”

Draves nodded, “Be careful. We have many new people around. Some will not stay, and those that don’t will spread rumors.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I will speak with the men about this, and I ask you to try and remember.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Upon arriving at the village, several women stood from their gardens and bowed. One wore a new flaxen skirt and blouse. Before I left, I had told the weavers that I wanted the people in the village to be clothed better. Any family that provided their own thread was to be supplied with fabric from the loom so that they could make themselves new clothes. I would pay or trade for the time it took to weave. I needed to visit the weavers.

As I approached Mikel’s shop, I knocked on the open door frame. He looked up from his bench and smiled. “My Lord, It is truly a pleasure to see you. How may I assist you?”

“You outdid yourself with those looms, Mikel,” I said with admiration in my voice.

“Bah, It was easy with the detailed drawings you gave me.”

“Ah, well, in that case, next time, I will build it.”

That got a laugh from him. “Your point is well taken. Thank you for the praise. I hear you brought us some tools.”

“I did indeed. I hope they will help with the next tasks I have for you and Jorb.”

“And what might those be?”

“First things first. I need you to carve this into a one-centimeter piece of wood and press it into a slab of clay so Jorb can cast it in gold.” I explained while giving him a drawing.

“What is it?”

It is an honorary token given to the families of those who died in the service of the barony. “I want one to go to Amy’s Husband and one to go to the parents of the young militia man.”

“My Lord, that is very generous.”

“I want to hold a memorial service as soon as it is finished. How long will it take?”

"This won’t take too long for me to make, and if you provide the gold to Jorb, I am sure he can cast in before tomorrow evening.” Mikel said thoughtfully.

“Good. We will hold the memorial service in two days then. Captain, make sure all the villages are aware and the families of the fallen are in attendance.”

“It shall be done.”

“Good, now Mikel, these are designs I came up with in Vaspar.” I walked over to his table and started laying out papers. "The first one is called a dresser, this is an armoire, and this is called a desk with drawers. This last design is called a hanger. It is to hang outfits in the armoire. I know these pictures are very pretty, but don’t focus on that. Focus on the functional parts.”

“My Lord, only nobility would have enough clothes to fill this dresser and armoire.”

“It's a good thing you will be making them for a nobleman,” I said with a smile. Then, we went over each design in detail.

“My Lord, If I were in the capitol and had a dozen workers, we would make gold by the fist full. It is a shame that transporting these to sell is out of the question.”

“C’est la vie,” I sighed.

“What does-”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, waving away the obvious question. Actually, I wasn't exactly sure about the translation. My sister used to use it all the time. "This isn’t a top priority. I’m going to go give Jorb the gold, so everything will be all set.”

As we left the shop, farmers were returning from their fields. They all waved in our direction, and one familiar face came walking hurriedly over.

“Harold, how are you? Word on the street is you are going to have a bumper crop this year.”

He looked confused and said, “If that means we will have a lot of grain, then yes. I can't keep up with the younger generation's words; they are always changing.”

Before he could get any more carried away, I decided to change the subject. “Well, I have bought more plow animals, so we should be able to plow more fields,” I said excitedly.

There was a long pause in which Harold fidgeted uncomfortably. Finally, he said, “My Lord, I do appreciate all that you have done, but um... If we plant more fields and they all produce as well as they should this year, we may have a problem harvesting it all in enough time. Also, we may have trouble storing it.”

“Dang, I hadn’t thought about that. I mean, we do have more people, but next year, we start a three-field rotation, and if that helps like it is supposed to, we may get a few more bushels on top of what we are already getting.”

“Yes, My Lord.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“If we had everyone work together, even those who don’t normally farm, we might be able to do it. Or just get a huge lawn mower,” I laughed.

“A what?”

I shook my head, “Never mind, it wouldn’t work anyway. We don’t have a combustion engine.”

Both the men looked at me with confused looks on their faces.

Breaking the awkward silence, Harold said, “Don’t worry, My Lord, you will come up with something.”

Harold’s words exuded faith. It frightened me. I didn’t want to be placed on a pedestal.

“Don’t hang all your hopes on me, Harold. You are a farmer. You can think of a way to solve this problem as well.”

“I’m just a farmer, My Lord; I’m not sure what I could do.”

“Remember, you guys improved the plow. Emily was a big help in creating the paper. I couldn't have created concrete without experimenting for a long time, but it only took the people of Melnon a week. I read something by a man named Lewis. He said, “There are no ordinary people.” I think he was referring to the fact that we are all extraordinary people, but most of us live our lives in ordinary ways. It is up to us to make our lives extraordinary. I think I have an idea that may get us started, but I will need you to make it extraordinary. Just think about it. And ask the other farmers, too.”

“Yes, My Lord. We will do our best.”

I slapped my hand on his shoulder and said, “You're a good man. Thanks for all your help. Have a good evening."

We walked the rest of the way to Jorbs place and knocked on the door. “My Lord,” The gruff man said with a smile. “I hear we will need more plows for the next planting with all the mules you brought.”

I laughed. "Actually, I have a few projects that will require the mules. I am creating a road crew and building water wheels, and I may have an idea for a harvester, but that will require a group effort because I am not quite sure how to get it to work.”

“A harvester,” Jorb said, surprised. “Is that something to cut the grain?”

“Yes, well, hopefully.”

“Have you seen the grain fields? Those plows really did work. I can’t imagine what it will be like when all the fields are planted like that. Oh, and those looms are quite something. Janice has a dress as nice as any you would find in the towns.”

I’m guessing he was exaggerating, but I was glad to see him happy.

“Excellent, Jorb. I can’t wait to see it. I will have some other things for you to work on, but the first will be a token of gratitude for the family of the young man who died protecting Aaron, as well as Amy’s family.”

“A token?”

“It is a small gold pin for the family members of those who have died in the service of the barony to show my appreciation. Mikel is making the template so you can press it into clay. Then you can pour gold into it.”

“Gold!”

“Yes, I want you to melt down a gold coin and make a few of these tokens. It isn’t much, but I want to give them something to let them know I appreciate their sacrifice.”

Jorb just shook his head and muttered something I couldn’t hear. Before I could say more, a young boy hobbled into the room.

“Mathew! How are you?”

“Lord Amos,” He said while trying to bow.

“Mathew, didn’t I say you don’t have to bow to me,” I said with a frown.

“Yes, My Lord,” He said without any hint of remorse.

“You’re still going to do it, aren’t you.”

This time, he smiled. “Yes, My Lord.”

I chuckled and decided to let it go.

“How are your studies going?”

He frowned. “I have learned everything that Jackie knows. Now, she is teaching other people. I can read the books you left, and I can count to really high numbers, but I don’t know what comes after one thousand. I learned how to add numbers up to ten. Um... I memorized that table thing that you wanted us to, but I don’t get how it works, and neither did anybody else.”

“Wait, didn’t I explain what the multiplication table was to Jacklyn?”

He looked a little uncomfortable. “She said it was the last thing you gave her, but she didn’t understand your explanation, so she just told everyone to memorize it.”

I slapped my forehead. If I hadn’t been in such a rush to leave, I could have explained it better.

“Well, if you have it memorized, I can try and explain it to you.”

I spent the next quarter bell trying to explain multiplication to him. It wasn’t until I described it in practical terms that he understood the concept. Then he got excited and started using a bucket of nails to separate into groups and visually multiply them.

“That’s great, Mathew. Jorb, do you mind if I bring a small box of nails to help explain this tonight? Lessons should be starting soon.”

“That should be fine. Jacklyn can bring them back down when she comes home.”

“Excellent. Mathew, I will be back down in a day or so to check on the shapes you are drawing and give you something else to work on.” I turned to leave but then remembered one of the reasons I came to speak with Jorb and Mikel. “Oh, Jorb, I almost forgot. I promised that you and Mikle would become wealthy from all the inventions you have helped build.”

“But, My Lord, you-”

“Unfortunately, I don't think that we will be able to get a Writ of Exclusively like I was hoping. We are just too far away from a city. So here are five gold crowns. It isn't as much as I was hoping all the inventions would bring in, but it is what I could squeeze out of the count.”

As I dropped the five crowns onto the table, both Jorb and Mathew stared at the glittering coins. “And here are two for Mathew. For his pens.” I grinned as I dropped two more gold onto the table. “Sorry, Mathew, but your pen idea was stolen as well. I was really hoping that would become a permanent revenue stream for you. Looks like Jaclyn and Emily’s paper is the only thing he didn't manage to steal.”

Neither of them could speak as they looked at the gold.

“Well, Captain, it looks like my job here is done. I have befuddled my subjects. Now we have to go back to Mikel’s place and give him the gold I brought for him and the hit up Samuel. I can’t believe I didn't give Mikel his gold. We were even talking about gold,” I ranted. I turned to see Draves looking at the pile of gold. His eyes tightened a bit as he looked back at me.

I slapped my forehead. “Jorb, here is the gold coin for the token I am having you make. Let's go, Captain.” I dropped another coin on the table.

“My Lord, did you bring a purse full of gold with you.”

“Yes, how else was I going to give it all out?”

“Give it all out?”

“Yes, I promised wealth to those who helped with these inventions. I was planning on it being an income stream, but this will have to do. It is why I pressed so hard for the thirty gold from Count Vaspar. Five gold to each of the men and two to the kids that leaves us with nine gold left to distribute for other contributions.”

“You will run out of that gold quickly at this rate.”

I nodded, “Yeah, I know. That is why I am not going to be making any more promises of wealth like I did before. Matthew’s visit and the trip to Vaspar taught me a lot. Now let’s go drop off this money so I can go see how Jacklyn’s class is going.”

Talking with Samuel took a lot longer than I expected. He wanted to hear all about Vaspar, and I didn't have the heart to refuse his interrogation.

After returning to the manor, we went straight to the hall. We had almost missed dinner. Not that they would have refused me, but I hated to give them more work.

On our way back from Vaspar, I had been especially quiet for the first couple of days as I thought over what I had learned. Draves had tried asking me what was wrong, and I had sagely said, “I had eyes but could not see Mount Tai.” that just confused him, so I said, “I have been a frog in a well.”

When he asked me what that meant, I told him he needed to read more Chinese web novels. That just made him sigh and say that he was glad I was feeling better.

As we sat at my table eating, the Captain once again tried to pry my future plans out of me.

“Sorry, Captain, I already told you. I will reveal my plan to you tomorrow. Today is my time to visit with people and center myself.”

“Of course, My Lord.” Draves assented

“Don't tell Cookie, but I miss the food in Vaspar. I hope she is able to put the spices and herbs I brought back to good use.”

“You didn’t bring much back with you except seeds.”

“Hey, the spices were expensive. I figured she could use the small amount to experiment with and then grow her own. Of course, that depends on if the seeds I got would grow in this environment. They said I need sandy soil for black pepper, and I don’t know if we have that here. Also, their salt is expensive. I wonder if we could evaporate it out of the seawater.” I mussed.

When I was ten, I really wanted a kangaroo. Seriously though, what kid doesn’t dream of having one? Anyways, I was just learning how to use internet searches to get what I really wanted, and so I looked up Australia, export, kangaroo, or something like that on the search engine. Along with telling me I couldn’t have a kangaroo —Australia sucks— it also said Australia was the leading exporter of salt and had pictures of large salt flats. Then, I went down a rabbit hole of how to make my own salt, which was stupid because I wasn’t anywhere near an ocean. I don't remember much, but I am pretty sure I could make some salt.

‘Maybe I could trade with the Bay Village. No, better to do it myself. I didn’t mind helping them, but I have my own plans, and this might become part of them.

“My Lord?” Draves interrupted.

“Sorry, I was lost in thought.”

“What do you mean by evaporating the salt?”

“I misspoke. You don’t evaporate the salt. You evaporate the water.”

“Hmm… I have heard of salt beds before. Do you think this is what they are doing?”

“Probably. I am sure this is being done elsewhere, so we probably won’t be exporting it. But it would be nice to have.”

“Is this part of your plan?”

I scowled at Draves, “I am on vacation today. We will talk about it tomorrow.”

Just then, I noticed that the servants were starting to clean up, so I hurried up with my meal. I wanted to observe Jacklyn’s lesson.

“Could you go grab the box of nails I brought back from Jorb’s place? I am excited to see what everyone has learned.”

“As you wish, My Lord.”

After a decent meal, the tables were cleared in preparation for the lessons. It was at that point that I finally got to speak with Jacklyn. I really wish I could invite my people to sit with me at the table. We could have been talking about how everything had been going at the same time we ate.

I caught her eye and waved her over. “So why don’t you give me a report on how things are going?”

She beamed, “We have so many people coming now that they have divided into groups. A lot of people have already learned everything you left for us and are now helping me. Some of the earliest ones have stopped coming, waiting for new material before they come back.”

“Well, fortunately for you, I wrote up some notes on new books I will be creating. Also, Mathew pointed out that I hadn't explained what the multiplication table was all about so we can work on that today. I want to teach you how to add and subtract large numbers, so after today's lesson, I will be teaching you.”

I could see she was excited, “New books would be great. How large of numbers?”

“Once you learn this next step, any number you can think of.”

“How?”

“We’ll start learning it after class today. Then, in a few days, you can start teaching it.” I grinned. It was cool to see her so excited. When I was fourteen, I tried to avoid learning anything.

The room began to fill, and Emily walked up to the front with one of her helpers trailing behind her. He was carrying a stack of papers. When he set them down in front of me, I gaped. These sheets were almost white and looked smooth. I snatched a piece of paper and held it up. Emily grumbled quietly about me being rude, but I ignored her. I dipped a pen in some ink and began to write. The quality was far superior to when I had left. There was no bleed-through, and it was tougher when I tugged on it.

“Wow, this is amazing. How did you do it?”

The comment made Emily glow with pride. “It took a lot of work to get it this good. We tried a lot of different stuff, but we found something that helped the fibers break down and stretch so that they came together better. One of the things we added also changed the color if we let it soak for a day. And one of the things that really helped was Cookie’s starch."

“Starch?” I said in surprise.

“Yep. We added a bit, and it helped everything hold together and stop some of the ink from running through.”

“Amazing! Well done. It looks like both of you ladies did exactly what was needed while I was gone. Let’s hand out those papers and get to work.”

As Jacklyn had said, the many people who entered the room were divided up into groups and began either reading, learning to write, or doing math. There was no shifting around, and when I asked about it, I found out that they rotated every day. Some of the students who had learned enough words were writing down sentences. I read some of them, including Jacklyns’s, and found that the syntax wasn’t great, but they were learning. I wasn’t surprised because I hadn’t had a lot of time to teach Jacklyn that before I left. I told Jacklyn that I wanted her to write a story, and I would edit it. That way, we could review the syntax. I thought it would be a good idea to have the students write down their folklore and compile it into a book.

I stood up towards the end of the lesson and said, “My people, I want you to know how proud I am of you. Some of you may not see the importance of such lessons. You have come for the novelty of learning. I want you to know that I plan to make the people of Bicman the most well-educated people in the kingdom. Those outside of our barony look down on us for our place in this backwater, but we will make this a center of learning.

By the time we are done, you may very well be more educated than some nobility. Whether you are a servant, a craftsman, a serf, or a freeman, I expect great things from you. Thank you for your effort and commitment.”

There was no applause, but there wasn’t a single person who wasn’t beaming with pride.

I excused myself and went to my study. I had designs to make.

Old man Miller down the street from my house had been fanatical about his lawn. Cutting through his lawn was a great way to save a couple of minutes off your time if you were late for the bus and had to run to school. Few of us did, though. Miller was always at his window, just waiting for a trespasser. When he caught you, he would immediately call your parent.

The one time I was caught, he demanded that my parents send me to his house once a week for the next month to mow his lawn. To this day, I don’t think he cared. He really just wanted someone to mow the yard. So, the first week that I showed up at his house with my lawnmower, he started shouting at me about how unhealthy it was to breathe in the fumes that lawnmowers produced and that they were also bad for the lawn. So I had to use his lawnmower. It was one of those old-time lawnmowers that was a cylinder made of blades attached to two wheels. It was a lot harder to push for an eleven-year-old, and sometimes, it took two passes to make sure it caught everything.

Afterward, he would make me clean and sharpen the blades. I never made that mistake again. I hated that man, but now he may hold the key to my success.

I drew a lawnmower and some notes. I then wrote a note on how I thought this might be changed to make something that could cut wheat. I had no idea how since pushing it in front of a couple of horses seemed difficult and caused the grain to be trampled, and the same was true for behind. I wondered if trampling it afterward would ruin the wheat. Well, it really wasn’t my problem. If the farmers wanted it, they would have to figure out how to make it work. I was working by oil light by the time I was done and crashed into bed as soon as I finished.