“My Lord, I believe it might be time to start training with the sword. We need to get you ready to wear armor.” Drives said over breakfast.

“What? You are not the type to joke around, Captain. I can barely handle a spear. From what I have heard, the sword is harder to use.”

“The fact that you are using a spear at all is a problem. The spear is the weapon of a soldier, not a lord. Even if I agree that knowing how to wield a spear could save your life on the battlefield, it is not the weapon of a noble. Now that you have drawn the eyes of nobles, you must learn how to use the sword. After that, we will work on armor. Remember, you have already discussed learning to use the sword with me."

"That was before Chris started showing me the spear. It is hard enough to use the spear. The sword is supposed to be even harder."

Draves said nothing. He just gave me a penetrating stare.

“Fine,” I sighed, “ but you're going to have a hard time fitting me in armor.”

“My Lord, Have you looked at yourself recently? You no longer look like the young man with too much weight. You are large, but so was your father. Another three months of training like you have been doing and you will look exactly like your father. I wasn’t working for your family when he was your age, but I imagine you would be the spitting image of him.”

The memories left by the previous owner of this body showed his father as a bear of a man. He was fit and strong, with the face of a movie star action hero. I, however, still had fat on my face, and it would be a while before I sported a six-pack. I had to admit, though, that even with my lingering fat, I could still keep up with my daily routine now.

I had probably lost weight at what doctors in the modern age would consider an unhealthy rate. What else was I supposed to do, though? I was trying to eat healthy and pushing myself to do more each day so I could get everything done. In order to do that, I needed to walk everywhere or wait for my horse to be saddled.

When I came back to reality, Draves was waiting for a response. I think he was getting used to my mind wandering sometimes. “Sorry, Captain. I was lost in my thoughts again. We will start tomorrow. Today, I want to go see the weavers, check up on Hyrum, and see what the farmers think of the drawing I sent them. After lunch, we will head to Melnon.”

“Very well, My Lord. Should we ride to the village?”

“Nah, let’s see if I can cut that three months down to two. We can let the horses rest until we get ready to go to Melnon.”

“As you wish.”

We arrived at the weaver's hut a quarter bell later. They were in the process of pulling apart flax. When we walked in, they all stood and bowed. “My Lord, it is a pleasure to see you this morning.” The eldest said I had forgotten her name, “How may we help you?”

“I have good news and bad news,” I said.

They all tensed at my statement.

“No one is in trouble, I assure you. You have all been doing marvelous work. The problem is that new people are here who may want to steal our loom idea. I plan to send this cloth to other countries. It should bring in a fair amount of money, more so when we get the Binary Loom up and running. If others have the process, then they can sell it for cheaper and make all the money. You will be receiving a cut of the money, so I don’t want you to lose a potential source of large amounts of money.”

“How will we stop them?” One of the younger women said in concern.

“We need to move the loom to Barim, where other people won’t be going to visit. But that won’t solve the problem entirely. Our people cannot be seen wearing the fine linen right now, or those who are here will start to ask questions about where the material came from.”

“We have to go back to making the old linen.” The eldest sighed.

“I’m sorry, there is no other way.”

“My Lord, forgive me for asking, but what is the good news?” the third woman asked.

“This,” I said, holding out a picture.

The three women stared in awe at the piece of paper, all with reverence on their faces.

What the heck? They couldn’t possibly have figured out what it was yet. Were they impressed with the drawing itself?

The youngest spoke again, “My Lord, is this—Is this one of your visions from the Endless One?” Her voice rose into a high soprano.

What? Was everyone seriously thinking all my drawings and ideas were like inspiration from their god? This is ridiculous.

I really couldn’t contradict them on this one since I didn’t have a clue how a spinning wheel worked. Well, I could, but then I would have to explain that I came from a different world. I decided to just ignore the question.

“This is supposed to help spin the thread. I just don’t exactly know how. You see, this foot pedal causes this arm to move up and down, causing the wheel to spin. I just don’t know what comes next.”

After a couple of minutes, I was about to give up when the girl in her twenties said, “Um, My Lord, i-is that a spindle there?

“Hmm… you know, I think you are right. Yeah, that makes sense because, in the movie, that is where Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger.”

“Movie?” All three of them said.

“Forget it. I will have to write down that story. Anyways, if that is the spindle, then what does that mean?”

“Well, it should be the thing spinning, not the wheel.” The youngest said.

“What if you looped a string around here and here.” the oldest said. Beth, that was her name. Glad I remembered it.

“So, if I understand you correctly, you are saying that you would push the pedal, which would spin this wheel. Then, we attach a belt of some sort. String or a strip of leather here, and look it around here, and that causes the spindle to spin and twist the flax or wool or whatever into thread.” I asked.

“That makes sense!” the girl in her twenties said excitedly.

“Excelent, work ladies. You are all the proud inventors of the spinning wheel.” I said with a smile.

“But, My Lord, didn’t you say that we were the inventors of the loom.” The girl my age said.

“There is no end to the things you can invent. I mean, what if you invented something that didn’t even require you to hold the thread at all? You just push the pedal, and it does everything else.”

“Can you do that, My Lord?” Beth said.

“I have no idea, maybe, but that is really up to you. As you can see, I didn’t know how the spinning wheel worked, and who knows if I would have ever figured it out without you. Now, I want you to take this to Mikel and see if he can get this made. Tell him he can pause his work on the dressers while he gets this done.”

I was about to leave when I remembered something. “Ladies, I completely forgot it at the manor, but I will send down some pictures of buttons on clothing with button holes. I know you don’t know what they are, but I think you will get it once you see them. They are becoming very popular in Vaspar. Get with the other women and show them as well. Have a great day.”

Now that that was done, it was time to go see Hyrum. As I traveled to the small hut where Hyrum was living, I found him outside with Carrie, pulling weeds in a small garden.

“Well, this is a pleasant sight to see. How are you doing?” I said with a smile.

Carrie gave a slight smile. Hyrum's smile was forced, though, and there was still a hollowness in his eyes. I was OK with that. These things take time.

Both Hyrum and Carrie stood up and bowed.

“Things are…” Hyrum looked for the right word, “better. I-I think.”

“I’m not expecting a miracle, Hyrum, and neither should you. Trauma takes time to heal. What I am seeing now gives me hope.”

I saw Carrie slip her hand into his and give a squeeze.”

“As you say, My Lord.”

“Hyrum, may we go inside? I want to show you the next step in visualization and some deep breathing exercises.”

As we talked, I found out he was getting better at quickly graying out the images, and it did seem to reduce the effects a little, so I taught him the next step.

“Alright, now I want you to push the image back away from you. In the distance is a thick fog. As you push the image away from you, it slowly fades into the fog.”

“Next, we’re going to go over deep breathing exercises. These are not something the body is used to doing. It took me a month to really get the hang of this. I want you to practice it three times a day for half an hour. Let’s get started.”

I worked with him for about an hour, practicing his breathing and clearing his mind. I was pretty sure he was going to have to do some self-hypnosis, but this would be our foundation for that, so he needed to get comfortable with quickly entering a relaxed state.

"OK, this is what I want you to focus on for now. Keep practicing, and I will follow up next week. Now get back out there to your beautiful fianće.”

Hyrum looked down, “Carrie and I we-”

“-Are going to take it slow,” I interrupted firmly. “You both love each other, and you deserve her just as much as she deserves you. You two belong together. Now, go back out there and enjoy the day with her. I have other things to do.”

Next, I was off to visit Harold. I found him and his family out in the fields using a bucket brigade to water the crops. I really need to build an irrigation canal or aqueducts to get the water closer to the fields. I also need to build a public bath and run household water. While I was at it, I also needed flush toilets. Pig toilets were disgusting.

“Harold saw me before I could reach him. He exited the line, and the others filled in the gap.

“Any luck on that idea I gave you?”

“I’m sorry, My Lord, we just can’t figure out how to make it work.”

I shook my head, “Harold, call the crew over.”

The crew included him and several other families that worked the nearby fields. When they were all gathered, I said, “Alright, can everyone hear me?" I called out a little louder than I probably needed to.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Everyone nodded.

“Has everyone seen the paper I sent to Harold about cutting the wheat?”

Again, I got nods. “Good, now there seems to be a mistaken conception among my people that just because I draw something out, it is a good idea. Some of my ideas are good, some of my ideas can be changed and made to work, and some are just stupid. This one either needs to be changed or tossed. I want you to take a look at this and say, “What if we did this instead?” if, after thinking about it and studying it, you still decide it is a bad idea, then throw it out. However, I expect you to find a way to cut wheat faster. I don’t know how, but it can be done.” I said with confidence.

I noticed a young man about fourteen in the back, fidgeting and looking at the dirt. My gut told me he had something to say: “Hey boy, what is your idea?”

Everyone turned to look at the boy I was pointing at. At first, he didn’t look up. He must have noticed no one was talking, though. “Me, My Lord,” He said while the color drained from his face.

I smiled, “You have an idea, don’t you?”

He shifted uncomfortably, looking to the side at the man standing next to him. Then suddenly, words spilled out of him in a rush. “Well, I asked my pa yesterday if we could just put it on the side of the wagon so the horses wouldn’t trample the wheat, but he said that if we made it large enough, then it would be too heavy, but you just said that it didn’t have to look like yours so I was thinking ‘what if we made it lighter and raised it up higher. We could attach a rod to a wheel and, um, well, I’m not sure…”

He immediately ducked his head after he lost his courage and trailed off.

“What is your name, boy?”

“Seth, M-My Lord,” He said, while his face turned red from the attention.

“Alright, people, I think this is a great starting point. I want you to think about what Seth said and come up with ideas. See if you can make a lightweight cutting machine that sits to the side of the draft animal. We could call it Seth’s Side Scythe. Hmm, it’s an alliteration, but it’s more of a tongue twister.”

Just as I was about to start throwing out names, a man I didn’t recognize ran up to me. Falling to his knees, he said, “My Lord, forgive me, but there had been an explosion in Melnon. One died in the explosion, and the other seriously burned.”

My mind stalled as I tried to process what had just been said.

An explosion? How? Why? No, I needed to focus.

“Draves, we are leaving.” I looked around. "Seth, you look fast. Run to the manor and tell them to prepare my horse. Harold, send someone to Maggie's place and have them ask her to prepare anything she uses for burns. We will pick it up on our way out of town.”

Draves interjected, “The man with the burns, is his life in any danger right now.?”

“He has got a lot of bad burns. He is in a bad way, but they said he should live as long as he doesn’t get any serious infections.”

“Thank you." Draves said, "We will pick you up on our way out of town. Wait by Maggie's house for the lord's carriage.”

“As you say.”

“Remember, we need the carriage, not just the horses. Now go.”

As Draves and I hurried back to the manor. I said in an annoyed voice. “Why did you contradict me? Horses would be faster.”

“Because you are panicking, My Lord. You are ready to push Blaze hard to arrive there, but in the end, you might just break his leg or your neck. The man is not going to die, and us being there a quarter bell earlier is not going to do him any good. You need to calm down. Your people know how to treat burns. Even if they think you can raise the dead, I don’t think it is needed right now.”

I wanted to argue, but I would have just sounded like a petulant brat. He was right, but I needed to hurry. How was there an explosion? Could it happen again? What was up in Melnon that was combustible to the point of explosion? Had Kylie found a way to create gunpowder and gone to Melnon to show it off?

“Calm down, My Lord. I can see you are upset, but we won’t know anything until we speak with the people who were there.”

Deep breaths, Amos, just breathe.

When we arrived at the manor, they were still hooking up the carriage, so I asked Seth to go request some honey from the kitchen and also to inform Edward, Harry, and Sanders that I would be leaving early and they could follow after lunch with the guards that I had just ditched. By the time he was back, we were ready to go. Draves, Seth, and I all hopped into the carriage and took off towards Maggie's place. I was glad I didn’t have the habit of biting my nails, or they would have been nubs by now.

When we arrived at Maggie’s place, Seth got out, and the man from Melnon and Maggie got in.

“So, I guess you’re coming too, Maggie?”

“Course I am," she said in her usual blunt manner. “Not gonna leave a severely burnt patient to Tammy. She’s a sweet girl but young.”

Everybody is young compared to you, Maggie.

I turned to the man across from me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

“John, My Lord.”

“What can you tell me about what happened.”

“It was last night, My Lord. We were taking down the Ash capturer, and the thing exploded.”

I hadn’t gotten to see the device they had come up with, but I didn’t think pipes could explode unless they were under pressure. I thought it was just pipes with a cloth sack on the end. The pipe came apart, and they would clean out the sack and pipes that trapped the ash.”

I voiced my thoughts, “Why would taking apart the pipes cause an explosion?”

“I don’t know, My Lord, it was dark, so we were using oil lamps. All I saw was the ball of flame.”

I put my head in my hands. “I’m an idiot,” I muttered. Of course, the gas it produced would be flammable. Wasn’t that why they put canaries in coal mines? It’s coal gas, for crying out loud. I should have thought about this.”

“What is it, My Lord.”

“I should have thought about this. We are working with coal. Heating it up would, of course, release gasses that could explode. This is my fault. If I hadn’t been-”

“Stop being stupid, boy. Others may think you are some all-knowing gift from the Endless One, but all I see is a kid barely off his mamma’s tits trying to run a barony all by himself. You may know a lot, but nobody can keep track of everything.” Maggie sounded really annoyed.

“I could have-”

“You could’a what? You gonna fix everybody’s mistakes? You gonna make sure nobody dies? The men in Melnon are going to fix their own mistakes. They ain’t idiots. They know not to bring a flame near whatever contraption you all are talking about.”

“I knew about it.”

“Apparently, you didn’t. Now you do. So does everyone else. All ya do now is go up there and see what you can do to help.”

I stayed quiet. I wasn’t going to win this argument. I didn’t think Maggie was right, but she also wasn’t entirely wrong either. I couldn’t fix what had already happened, but I could help prevent it from happening again.

I sat quietly for the rest of the trip. It was a long time to brood, and it was probably not all that helpful to try to figure out all the ways I could have prevented this accident. When the trip was over, we exited next to Richard's house.

He came out to greet us and bowed low. “Forgive me, My Lord. We were careless and caused the death of one of your fine people.”

To say I was shocked would be an understatement, “You have nothing to be forgiven of. I should have thought to warn you that the gas produced by burning coal could produce something flammable.”

“You are mistaken, My Lord. We have run into bad air in the mines before. Coal isn’t always safe to mine. Everyone smelled the pungent odor of the air that the oven produced. Jobo he just… He just wasn’t thinking.”

“I told you they weren’t stupid, boy.”

This made me mad. “Maggie, I do not mind if you speak frankly to me in a private setting, but this is a public setting, and you will show respect. I never said they were stupid. I just thought they didn’t know about the fumes.”

This caused Maggie to arch her eyebrows. She gave me an appraising look and then nodded with satisfaction. She bowed her head and said, “Forgive me, My Lord. I will strive to be more respectful of you in the future.”

“See that you do,” I said firmly.

Maybe I needed to show a little more firmness with her.

“My Lord, forgive me, but the ash catcher was destroyed.”

“I am not concerned about that. It will need to be redesigned so that the exhaust pipe is not near where the ash is captured. Best if it was a vertical shaft that couldn’t be easily reached by a flame.”

“Don’t worry, My Lord, we will not let this happen again. We have been all working to find a better way to make this work.”

“I am glad you are already working on a solution. I am proud to have such competent people working in Melnon.”

“My Lord, I will admit. It really is due to you.”

“Me, it looks like you are already working on the problem. I have nothing to do with it. I just came up to see if I could help.”

“And that is why, My Lord. Forgive me if it sounds as if I am speaking ill of the dead, especially of our late lord, but under your father, we were not supposed to change anything without first letting the steward know. If your father found that we had made changes, we would be severely punished. If he found out a mistake was made, he would have us beaten. You, however, have rewarded us for making changes and fixing problems without you. You have said you would pay more for the improved work. Why would we not fix our mistakes and make things better if we were rewarded for it? We now discuss with each other how to make things better.

"I knew that when I sent a runner to explain that we had an accident, you would come to help, not beat us. We know you will do everything you can to help Felix get back on his feet. You value us, and it makes us feel… I’m not sure I have the words for it, more equal, I think.”

His face suddenly paled as he realized he had just told a nobleman he felt his equal. He fell to his knees and bowed his head, “Forgive, My Lord, That was not what I meant to say. I, ah, I-”

“Well, dang, that’s too bad. I wish it were what you were trying to say. Equality was kind of what I was going for.”

He looked up, shocked, “My Lord, you can’t possibly want us to be equal?”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Why not? I have seen the amazing things you have done, and you said it was because you felt more equal. It seems obvious that if I want the barony to improve, I should try to make all my people feel equal and give them opportunities to do their best.

“That is not saying we are equal. That would bring disorder, but I do want us all to work together. You know things I do not know, but why would you put in effort if you do not have equal opportunity to grow?"

"Thank you, My Lord. I and the rest of Melnon will serve you to the end of our days. And fear not, my Lord, the people of Melnon will take good care of the widow and her family. We will assist with Felix's family until he is back on his feet. It is the way we have always done things.

"Is there a lot of deaths in Melnon?"

"More injury than death. But it is not so bad."

Hmm, I wonder if I could set up an insurance program once we switch to a coin-based economy. I could pay into it as well as those I pay. I don't know enough about risk management and that stuff to do it, though.

"I admire the care you all provide for each other, but I will still help. Now, it looks like Maggie has gone off to treat the patient, so if you could please escort me to the family of the man who passed away, I would like to give my condolences."

I loved the people of Melnon. They were really down-to-earth people and easy to talk to. The funniest conversation I had was with the woman. I don't know how we got on the topic, but I brought up the spinning wheel. Then I went to my carriage and pulled out the paper and ink I was always bringing with me. I started drawing it out. I separated some of the components so it was easier to see. I also explained that the weavers in Bicman had helped me figure out how it should work. That caused an immediate uproar with the few women who were there.

"My Lord, We can make a better one."

"Yes, and make it faster!"

"We are much better at making thread than those women!"

The raised voices caused others to come, and soon, the paper was being passed around. I was forgotten about as all the women started talking about the spinning wheel. I would have to tell the women of Bicman and hopefully turn it into a friendly competition.

I had just finished having a late meal after speaking with some of the miners when the engineers and Edward arrived. As soon as the men got off their horses, they were swarmed by the children of the village in their filthy clothing. The children immediately started asking for coin clothing or food. They shouted over each other, shocking the newcomers. Harry looked disgusted, and Sanders looked appalled. Edward was frozen stiff at the sudden attack of the children.

“Children,” Richard barked, “these are guests of the lord, away with you."

The children scattered in all directions.

"Forgive me, My Lord and Gentleman, it seems that our children have forgotten their manners. Let us move away from the village so that we are not disturbed."

"Yes, let's do that," I confirmed. "But I must return to Bicman shortly. Could you find someone to escort these gentlemen and guards along the river? They know their business better than I do—at least, I hope so."

"A splendid idea, My Lord," Richard said as we walked through the village. Richard called out to a young man of about fourteen. "Paul, you will take these men along the river. They will be building us a dam."

Paul stood up from the gardening plot where he was kneeling and bowed. "It would be an honor."

I turned to the engineer. "Gentleman, I will leave you in Paul's capable hands. I must steal away Edward so that he might get to know the headman. Please take your time and find a few locations that you feel would be suitable for a dam and wheel."

"As you wish, My Lord," Sanders said with a bow.

Harry bowed but said nothing. He seemed unhappy to be here, which was too bad for him. His desire not to be here made me very happy. It meant that he would be out of there as soon as he could get the job done. As long as it didn't affect his work, I didn't care what he thought of Bicman.

After they left, my face broke out into a grin. "Whose idea was it to sick the kids on them?"

"My dear wife came up with that idea, My Lord."

"That was perfect. Did you see Harry's face? Hopefully, they will develop an aversion to the villages.

"Wait, that was intentional?" Edward said.

"Of course, we don't want them to see what's going on around here," I said.

"And what is going on around here?"

"I've mentioned a few things to you before, but let's take a walk, and I will show you what's really going on in Melnon."