The tension in the room was high. The great houses’ nobles were adamant to keep their voting power in the Noble’s Council; meanwhile Anastasia wanted to weaken the nobles’ power.

Duke Rheingold said, “Your Majesty, the reason this council was made was because of the atrocity done by some kings before your father. Are you plann–”

“And this very council was the one that killed my father and made the Royal Family weak!” shouted Anastasia.

“Your Majesty, please reconsider your decision,” Marquis Angard pleaded to Anastasia.

“Marquis, your seat once belonged to a noble who betrayed the Kingdom and manipulated my father. I don’t want to be manipulated by anyone! This Noble’s Council power is no more.”

“Your Majesty, how can you decide that by yourselves? You need our appor–”

“I don’t need any approval from all of you, Duke Aruburn. In fact, I didn’t have to hold this meeting and told all of you here. But, I was considerate to all of you… I will execute those who are against me.” said Anastasia with a menacing voice. The nobles fell silent, they knew the fate of the rebels who were caught and then executed publicly.

Bianca never knew Anastasia could be this menacing and harsh; Anastasia’s usual self was far from Anastasia in this meeting. Bianca wondered what would be Lucas' reaction when she saw Anastasia at this meeting.

“Ahem… I want to make it clear to all of you here that Her Majesty doesn’t mean to completely dissolve the Noble’s Council, rather this council will be an advisory board to the Queen.”

“Huh, Duchess Bianca, how do you know about that?” asked Duke Aruburn.

“Her Majesty had discussed the matter with me before.”

“Then, are you in agreement with her?”

“Yes, in fact, back in my country, the power of the country lies solely on the Emperor with the council of nobles being the advisory for the Crown.”

The Galactic Imperium was an absolute monarchy. The Emperor ruled over the Galactic Imperium together with the nobles, acting as advisors. Revolution for democracy in the Galactic Imperium sometimes happened, however, it was easily taken care of. The most democratic form of government in the Empire was in the Duchy of Lorien, a parliament was made to appease the masses, however, the Duke still held the highest authority in the Duchy.

“Are you saying the absolute power of the King is better?”

“Yes,” Bianca said straightforwardly.

Anastasia then spoke, “There is nothing all of you can do anymore, as Duchess Bianca has said, I have reinstated the absolute power of the crown and weakened the power of the nobles. This council will stay as my advisory board, nothing more.”

The nobles could not argue any further, they feared the consequences if they were opposed to Anastasia’s idea.

“Now, what about the military reform?” asked Marquis Petrova.

“Right, I’ll let Duchess Bianca explain to you.”

Bianca explained to the Council about the military reform. The key points of her reform were the establishment of a standing army, centralisation of the army and organisation of the army leadership. The standing army is a permanent and professional army. Composed of full-time soldiers.

The Kingdom of Romanovia did indeed have a standing professional army, albeit small–Royal Knight. The kingdom’s Royal Knight consisted of only 400 mounted knights and when war came the Kingdom would enlist the peasants and nobles’ forces; This kind of recruitment of the army was archaic and was prone to defeat when the army leader was killed.

Lucas wanted to make a multiple regiment-sized force spread out all over the Kingdom. He envisioned 10 infantry regiments–5 regiments bearing arms of the Royal Family and the rest bearing one of the Great Houses arms–to be raised as a standing army. Each regiment would consist of 1.000 soldiers, divided into 2 battalions of 500 and divided again into 5 companies of 100. 2 mounted cavalry regiments, each consisting of 600 mounted soldiers, complemented the army of the Kingdom.

Those 12 regiments would make the core of the Kingdom’s army; with a total of 11.200 soldiers. The nobles were allowed to have their own forces but were limited to at most 500 soldiers. Which can be called to supplement the Kingdom’s army in the war.

Lucas had told Bianca about his future vision of the army and Bianca was doubtful whether they could achieve that level of technological advance as fast as Lucas’ envisioned.

In detail, the regiments of the Kingdom’s army would be:

1st Horse Regiment

2nd Horse Regiment

1st Royal Regiment

2nd Royal Regiment

3rd Royal Regiment

4th Royal Regiment

5th Royal Regiment

Aruburn Regiment

Novgorod Regiment

Rheingold Regiment

Petrova Regiment

Angard Regiment

Uralia Regiment

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Bianca explained to the nobles that the regiments named after their territory would be stationed in their territory for security and protection of their territory. The Royal Regiments would be stationed near the borders with other countries and in the Royal Capital. Both Horse Regiments would be stationed in the Royal Capital as well.

Bianca then explained further about the organisation of the army and the leadership. The regiment would be led by a Colonel; the battalion by a Major; and the company by a Captain. She also explained the hierarchy of the army to ensure the continuation of the unit in the event their leader is gone. For example, if the Colonel of the regiment was killed, then the Major of the 1st battalion of the regiment would take over the command of the regiment until a replacement was assigned or until he was assigned officially as the regiment commander and his replacement on the battalion was assigned.

The idea presented by Bianca amazed the nobles, they thought this reform was revolutionary.

“Duchess, your idea was great, but why are we, nobles, allowed only to have 500 soldiers? What if something happened in our territory?”

“Then use the regiment stationed in your territory. As I have said before, the regiment will be stationed there to ensure the safety of the kingdom,” answered Bianca. What she said was true, but it wasn’t the whole truth. The regiments stationed in the noble’s territory would be a deterrent if the noble decided to rebel. When the kingdom knew about the noble’s plot, the kingdom could easily send the regiment stationed in their territory to fight them, while the reinforcement was coming or forced the noble to give up the rebellion.

It was truly a cunning idea from Lucas–or rather a Lorien. Bianca easily caught the real reason why he wanted to put the regiment in the noble’s territory but the nobles believed what Bianca said and did not think much of it

The nobles did not argue much about the military reform, since they were afraid of the Queen's wrath. All the nobles then said they understood the reform and would immediately reduce their army.

However, Bianca told the nobles that they should reassign their soldiers to the Kingdom army. The nobles agreed to her idea. Bianca continued that if they were at war, the nobles may conscript the citizens to support the Kingdom's army.

"Are there any more questions?" asked Bianca.

"No, Duchess."

"I don't have any."

"No."

"Alright, I'm done, Your Majesty." Bianca gave the floor to Anastasia.

"Thank you, Bianca. Since I don't need this Noble's Council anymore. I may not convent the council when I make decisions. This meeting is adjourned, thank you for coming."

Anastasia stood up and then all the nobles stood up as well, then she left the room followed by Bianca behind her. Both of them then went into Anastasia's office.

Anastasia sighed with a huge relief. Bianca could see her trembling and she turned sour. "Your Majesty, are you okay?" said Bianca, concerned.

"Bi-biancaaa… hug me." Anastasia looked at Bianca with a miserable face. Bianca then hugged Anastasia dearly.

"There, there… Are you okay, Your Majesty?"

"Call me Anna!"

"Anna, are you okay?"

"No," said Anastasia, sternly.

Bianca sighed. Anastasia was acting like a child. "Ok, tell me what happened?"

"I was nervous at the meeting. I had a hard time keeping myself from breaking down… and… when they were angry when I told them I revoked their privilege. I was so scared."

"You don't look scared though."

"I was hiding it!"

"Well, you did a great job there."

Anastasia pouted. "Bianca, you are used to dealing with nobles right? I mean, you easily explained to them and didn't look scared."

“Well, kinda.”

“I knew it! I’m glad I trusted you to speak back there!” Anastasia was relieved. Before the meeting, Bianca asked Anastasia to lay out the plan to the nobles with Bianca helping her by filling in the missing information she might have missed. However, Anastasia declined it because she was too nervous to speak in front of the nobles. The reason Bianca wanted Anastasia to speak was to let the highlight of the plan be credited to Anastasia, therefore making her image in the nobles’ view better.

If Anastasia was to tell them that Bianca was the one who came up with the idea, Bianca could easily deflect that and say she was partially involved and the person who came up with the concept was Anastasia. Bianca wanted Anastasia to have strong support behind her in case Lucas went too far with his plan and ended up throwing Anastasia off his board.

The great house nobles needed confidence and assurance from Anastasia especially if their power were to be weakened and the crown’s authority strengthened. Doubt and fear might come to them and overcome their loyalty to the crown and rebel to overthrow Anastasia. Bianca thought that there was still more time in the future to prove Anastasia’s worthiness.

“Ah right, can you inform Lucas that I lift his banishment?” asked Anastasia.

“I will.”

“Actually… I might send an apology lett– no, I will apologise directly if we were to meet.” pondered Anastasia.

“Both are fine, I don’t think Lucas would mind either way.”

“I’ll speak. Well, how long do you think he will stay in Petersburg?”

“I don’t know honestly. I asked him to take care of my domain. If you need him, I can send for him.”

“No need, I’ll just wait.”

Lucas rode a horse in the middle of the convoy and Max was riding next to him. Max wondered why Lucas needed him to go with him instead of Ariana, his aide. Max was not that great at paperwork, and he guessed Lucas needed someone with that kind of skill to manage the domain.

“So, what’s the plan?” asked Max.

“Guns.”

“What, guns?”

“Yes, we need something we can use to fight this magic.”

Max fell into his thoughts. “Hmm… now that you say it, our rifle could easily penetrate the magic defence from the magicians.”

“Yes, I don’t like this new power that I can’t understand, but if there is something to fight it, we should use it.”

“I see, we need something that can shoot, at least, accurately. At the lowest probably a rifled musket.”

“How about a muzzleloading gun?”

“Uhmm… I can think of a few models… but…”

“Yes I know, we need a method to mass produce guns if we want to use it at large scale. Right, we need Steam and industrialization.”

“Yes, we need to create the steam engine and make a factory to mass produce the ammunition and guns. We also need to see if the resources are available.”

“About that, we have found materials to create gunpowder, I have sent Lyra to take care of it.”

“Oh great. What about coal?”

“Still searching, but we might find them soon.”

“Hmmm… I recommend we use muskets first while we figure out how to industrialise this world. Granted it won’t be as accurate as the rifles you have in vision, but It’ll do what you want.”

“You are right, I am thinking too far ahead.” Lucas sighed.

“Hey, if you need to talk, just talk to me, we are in this together.”

“Thank you, Max.”

Max smiled. “Well, I’ll get to the drawing and I want you to take care of the recruitment for the workforce.”

“I’ll do it.” Lucas nodded.

Soon, Petersburg came into view, a beautiful coastal city on the eastern side of the kingdom.