As the crowd of different departments conversed between themselves, I had my newly formed officer's corps walk over towards my cousins and me before asking two of the female officers out of the four in total to go a get Sasha, who was probably with Joann still on the third floor of the castle. They performed a quick bow before basically sprinting through the doors of the castles which were still open at the moment, before disappearing inside the corridor and eventually the stairwell at the end of the said corridor in the distance.
After watching them vanish into the darkness of the stairwell, I turned towards the other ten officers that were still present and made small talk with them as I waited for Sasha to make her appearance. I was doing most of the talking though as the officer's mostly answered my questions as if I were still interviewing them for their current jobs. For example, I asked one of the eight male officers if they had some sort of significant other outside the castle walls to which he responded in a monotone voice with the exact number of relatives he had and which departments they would likely choose if given the choice. He also mentioned that he had two younger cousins that were my age, who, and this is a direct quote from the man, "who could and would fight for the cause".
I found his phrasing strange but I thought nothing more of it until I heard it once again, only this time it came from one of the two female officers present, and then once again when I moved on to the next officer in line. At this point, I noticed a weird look on each of the officer's faces which mirrored the one that Zoe gave me last night when I began describing the steps we would take to counter the nobles. You know, that kind of look that no one in the modern world would like to see after someone had just finished a speech, especially when that speech was about a 'new order' that they would be establishing. I guess we were lucky that we weren't in the modern era. I don't know... I just hope this 'faith' they had in me didn't become unmanageable.
However, seeing the group of officers go quiet whilst staring at me still freaked me out even more than the cult-Esque vibes they were giving off before, therefore, I began attempting to make small talk with the officer's once again while constantly looking over my shoulders, hoping that Sasha would appear from within the castle soon.
Fortunately, some of the pressure was taken off of me as my cousins jumped in to ask questions of their own regarding whatever came to their minds. Kai and Zoe both were asking more grounded questions that were easily answered by the officers like which animals were hunted for food or how often did they train with their previous weapons, which was in starch contrast to the twins' Ash and Bell who were basically comparing the looks of each individual officer to the next. And while they did exclude the two female officers from the judgments, they did make sure to get their opinions on the final rankings they announced when they were done deliberating which caused all of us to laugh at their antics.
After hopping in and out of the conversations between the officers and my cousins for around half a minute, my ears picked up on the sound of footsteps on dirt coming from behind me. I turned around to face the noise and saw Sasha walking out of the castle along with Ellie, the two armed citizens who I sent with them earlier, and the two female officers who I sent to fetch this entire group. I took a few steps toward their group while greeting them with a simple wave, to which they responded with a quick bow. I then asked the two armed citizens within the group to guard the castle entrance while mentioning that they were to be on the lookout for the carriage which carried the materials needed for the beehive ovens. They performed another quick bow in response before moving out to their assigned location. The two female officers had already regrouped with the other ten officers meanwhile, so I focused my attention on the last people left in the group which was Sasha and Ellie.
"How is Joann doing? I thought we were gonna leave an armed citizen near her just in case." I asked the duo as they stopped in front of me.
"She has chosen to accompany her husband on his journey through the afterlife, Lord... They have both been buried already alongside Paul in the Axecreek burial grounds on the castle grounds." Sasha stated as if I had ordered her to do the deed. Something I don't recall doing for the life of me, but I would be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind once everything went down. However, I didn't have the gall the outright order the murder of someone who was practically innocent in matters. Luckily, Sasha had experience in these matters already.
"This is unexpected, but I guess this works in our favor... Now that we have time though, show me the results of our little experiment from last night. If everything went well then we can consider most of our problems dealt with." I said before turning back around to face the full group of twelve officers along with my four cousins while gesturing for the two women to stand beside me.
They both complied with my request before Sasha pulled out a palm-sized cloth sack from her pocket and handed it to me. I took the sack from her and opened it with the anticipation of a child on Christmas morning. After struggling with the knot a bit, I got the thing open and saw around thirty or so iron amulets that mimicked the shape of both the image that was present on the front of the book and the original metal amulet that was given to me by grandmother right before she succame to her injuries.
Speaking of the original amulet, I spotted it inside the bag with the rest of the amulets but it looks kinda different from when I last saw it. I could have been remembering it wrong or it could have something to do with the lack of light within the bag but I decided to pluck it out anyways to take a closer look at it. Once out of the bag, I brought the amulet up to eye level for a closer inspection but found nothing out of the ordinary, the only thing of note was the barely visible lines of uniform width across the base of the triangles which connected to the circle in the center of the item...
Wait... Was that not one of that telltale signs of great weld?!
I quickly placed the original amulet in my pocket before opening the sack of amulets once again in order to see if this result was consistent or just a fluke somehow and found at least ten others amulets that had practically the same markings on them. This discovery almost caused me to scream in excitement but I kept it in only allowing for a broad grin to take root instead. Something that was just as shocking was the fact that all the shapes that made up the amulet were almost perfectly cut to a form that matched the image which was present on the cover of that book from my village. I was excited at both of these prospects since they would allow me to expedite the reintroduction of various inventions from Earth such as the Bessemer converter or the Watt steam engine, both of which are essential to the plans I have going forward.
After thinking this, I called out to Zoe who was just a few steps ahead of me now that she had stopped participating in the lively conversation between my cousins and the officers that were being fueled by Ash and Bell by this point.
Zoe walked over to our group of three before asking why I called her over to which I responded by simply handing her the bag of amulets. She took the bag with a curious expression that quickly changed to shock once she peeked inside the bag. I could tell she was about to ask something aloud so I shushed her with a wave before telling her to keep the bag safe to which she responded with a simple nod. I then told her that I would explain everything when the time was right while asking her to join our group three since she was already here before turning to Sasha who had watched this whole ordeal with a bit of relief present on her expression. I spoke to her while nodding my head in reassurance.
"This... no, You... You are indispensable. With your... skills and the knowledge I possess, I can say with confidence that the future we spoke about is firmly within our grasp and that is only a matter of time until we implement these changes... Loyalty in exchange for security for now but in the future... well you will see..." I said allowing my words to trail off in an effort to seem calmer than I actually was, and I say this because internally I was doing backflips while screaming victory against all forces who dare stand before me, in this life or the previous for that matter.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Sasha was none the wiser since she seemed more focused on the actual amulets themselves or rather her 'modifications' to the sword as a whole for some reason, and she expressed this once I finished my cool guy speech.
"I have not performed this type of task for many, many years now... I am certain that I could do better back in my earlier days but my age seems to have caught off with me..." Sasha said while sighing, probably reminiscing on those she lost so many years ago. I immediately tried consoling the woman which worked enough in order for me to get a few more words through to the woman in hopes of cheering her up.
"To use the words of my grandmother, a woman who was twenty-odd years older than you but still just as youthful if not more so than even myself at times... Maybe you were chosen by your ancestors to guide the next generation in their use of skills similar to yours and rebuild what was taken from you, just as I was chosen to lead my cousins my east in order to keep our legacy from dying. I will lead those who follow me in a way that will allow you to rebuild that which was taken from you... Because whether you believe me or not, the skills you possess will facilitate the existence of things that will really seem like magic in comparison to what you see now, I can promise you that." I said while patting the woman on her shoulder which probably looked as odd as I felt it did, so I quickly ceased that action, hoping my words would do the job they were intended for instead.
Zoe's ears perked up once I mentioned magic but she didn't ask anything further at the moment, probably because it really wasn't the time nor place to speak about such things. Her actions were mirrored by Ellie, who stood on the other side of Sasha, but she also seemed to have enough sense to not ask any questions right now. I am sure both of them will pester Sasha and me respectively later on but that was a problem for future me since current me had bigger fish to fry.
I overheard a wave of voices coming from the gates leading outside the castle grounds which caused me to turn my head over toward the source of this noise but I was met with a view that was blocked by the people from the various departments. I decided to stand on the tip of my toes for a bit and was able to spot two familiar faces peeking over the crowd of people blocking the entrance to the castle ground. There were also two unfamiliar faces maybe eight or nine paces behind the two I mentioned previously, but unfortunately, I was only able to keep this stance for a few seconds until my calves screamed for me to knock it off, which led to me returning to my blocked view from before, which obviously prevented me from getting a good enough look at the incoming groups.
More people from the departments continued to crowd around the incoming group making my view increasingly more cluttered, so I thought it would be best if I nipped this in the bud before things spiraled out of control. I did this by calling out to the group of officers, who stood just ahead of my group of four, before ordering them to clear a path for the incoming groups of people through the crowd. They acknowledge my order with a quick bow before moving forward to meet the crowd of people in front of us. Once the officers reached the crowd of people from the departments, they moved into a position that resembled a wedge formation that was being led by one of the male officers.
The group of officers easily sliced the group of people from the departments but unfortunately, they didn't have the number required to keep the crowd separate. Therefore they decided it would be better to just stick together in the wedge formation until they reached the group before escorting them through the crowd, slicing through the crowd once again as they made their way toward me.
"Make way for the carriage!!" "Step back folks and let us through." "The Lord awaits us!!"
I heard the voices of various officers as they parted the crowd once more giving me my first clear view of the incoming group, which turned out to be the group that was sent to sell weapons and armor. The group that followed them had to be the ones who went to gather the materials necessary for building the beehive ovens given that had a carriage as well, not to mention the confused looks they wore on their faces once they met eyes with mine. I also saw Authur hanging off the side of the second carriage causing me to take a double take at the man simply because I didn't expect the man to appear alongside this group.
I looked toward Sasha for an explanation but only get a smirk in return, which was kinda worrying but I figured that she knew of secret exits within the castle similar to the one that was present in the room I slept in last night. I wasn't worried about this fact since I had a common goal with the woman plus I doubt she was the type of person to turn on those who aligned with her politically. Well, I hope that was the case at least, but I digress.
After shaking my head at Sasha, I returned my attention back to the two carriages that had slowed to a stop in front of us. The two familiar faces that I saw for the split second earlier were of course Max and Eva, but I didn't recognize the people who rode atop the carriage that held the materials for the ovens which was a given since Leon was the one assigned with fulfilling this task before his... unfortunate demise.
Eva and Max both climbed off their carriage with haste before performing a quick bow but the group who rode atop the second carriage just sat while staring at me as if I had something on my face. This caused a few shouts to come from the group of officers who stood around the carriages in an effort to keep the crowd from swarming them. This, in turn, caused the three people atop the second carriage to wake up from their stupor leading to them coming down from the carriage to perform a bow as well.
I watched all of this play out before speaking to three individuals who had placed their faces in the dirt in an effort to appease what that thought was anger coming from me.
"No, no.. I'm not Leon. You don't have to throw yourself down before me or anything like that... A simple bow like this *performs a quick bow* is more than enough if you wish to do stuff like that.. Now get up and dust yourselves off. You might wanna look like something when you meet your relatives later on." I said while helping the closest person up and performing a few formal wipes on his shirt before walking over towards Eva and Max who watched this scene with that weird look on their faces.
Once I reached those two, I immediately patted them both on their shoulders before thanking them for their effort which earned me a deeper bow than usual. They then handed me a decent-sized cloth bag that clearly held coins of some type given the circular bulges that were visible near the bottom of the bag, however, I still took a peak inside of the bag just to sate my curiosity. As I peered inside the bag I was met with the sight of dozen upon dozens of gold coins all shining with a radiance that screamed 'wealth'.
I closed the bag and shook my head to get rid of the images of swimming in the coins like Scrooge McDuck before focusing on Eva and Max once again to ask a few more questions.
"How did everything go?" I said while climbing up the front of the carriage that carried the materials for the ovens.
"Everything went well, Lord. We had a tough time finding buyers at first until we were approached by a group of several guards who wore the colors of those nobles from the Talmour family. I did not want to sell the wares to those vultures but Eva convinced me otherwise." Max answered first before looking toward Eva which caused me to do the same.
"I simply used the Lord's word from earlier. 'Give up our weapons and armor for a more efficient style of combat'. To me this means that the lord has something better than a sword, so why not rid ourselves of this inefficient waste of material." Eva stated as if it was a matter of fact and not the opinion of some freak of nature that wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place.
I took all of this in before speaking to the duo once more.
"Hmm.. Well, y'all made the right decision in the end so I thank you nonetheless. And Eva is right. I do have something better than a sword, but nothing can beat loyalty... So stay loyal and you will no doubt experience things far greater than a simple sword, mark my words." I said while accepting the bow they gave me before finishing my climb to the top of the carriage.
Once I made it to the top of the carriage, I scanned the faces of everyone present in an effort to memorize all of their likenesses which was obviously impossible but it was all I could do in the final moment of calm before the world-changing storm that was brewing in the walls of this relatively small courtyard.
I laughed as I began addressing the crowd of people, boldly walking towards this point of no return with a brazen smile on my childish face.