We don’t take long to reach Turin, the place is much bigger than when I last came here as a two year old. Strangely it feels like yesterday and ages ago at the same time.

It’s a strange feeling to remember memories from when I was so young.

Last time I came the outer walls were more akin to big fences and the roads, houses and other infrastructures were rather basic or incomplete.

Soon I meet Countess Eugene Monz and her family again, but only her eldest daughter is around, the other five were already married to other noble families and moved away.

The countess and her husband already look rather old, seems they will be stepping down from the position soon. Again, it’s a strange feeling to meet these people as an adult.

I don’t stay long since I never got close to their family aside from the younger Hugo and Carol who moved away. My grandma also isn’t here so I don’t have much reason to visit the army base.

Someone I do want to visit is old Logan and his family. He was the owner of a store catered towards magic and related subjects. I kept in contact with him and some of his family, exchanging letters discussing magic, books and magic books.

Kinda used him as a Google when I was searching for something I couldn’t find easily.

Old Logan is rather old and stepped down from his position on the ‘somethingsomething Magic Emporium’, he spends his days reading, taking walks and annoying the younger generations of his family like any old man should.

Noah enjoyed listening to the old man a lot and Logan was joyful at having someone with the patience to listen to him ramble endlessly.

The army prepared the scene for the free healing and Countess organized a small celebration to commemorate the queen’s pregnancy. The population of the place increased quite a lot, so I was busy most of the time, but the food was good at least.

On the next day we set out heading south on the train and repeated the same routine. Arrive, visit people, heal/celebrate, rest, and move on.

The state of the country was much better than last time I travelled like this, couldn’t find any bandits near the main roads, the cities seemed richer and the population seemed happy and healthy.

Of course, I only had time to do a superficial look around, but even this is a rather big improvement. Further away from the railroad the changes should be smaller, but not by too much.

The train is much faster than carriages and ships, only slower than the plane, so we move at an incredible pace. The healing is what takes the most time.

Its impressive how many people choose to just ‘walk it off’ when it comes to health problems instead of paying healers. I don’t have much of a sense for money, but are they that expensive?

When we weren’t busy I would just chat with the girls and Noah or go hunting with Grey.

Because of all the stops it took about two weeks to arrive at the capital. When we got there we went straight to the castle.

“Wow! It looks just like the miniature you sent me!” Noah exclaims while we cross the bridge to the castle. “Was there really no island there before you built it?” I just nod in return.

Seeing the castle again stirs up some feelings in me, like pride and nostalgia, so I just immerse myself in those feelings while remembering the stuff I need to do.

Slaves, agriculture, guns, higher education… I should also see if I can increase the number of sorcerers trusted with forbidden magic… And sorcerers in general for that matter, there’s no way we can keep up this growth speed without relying on truckloads of magic.

Right, by this point, the stuff I made should be showing some problems I missed. I should take reports of problems on the various devices and try to improve on them.

There are other things I want to do, but those can be left for after the war, I have enough on my plate for now.

In the blink of an eye, we meet the art nerd her majesty the queen. She already knows Ellie, Theo and Chiara since I spent a lot of time with them since the tournament, but this is the first time she’s meeting Noah… And Gray too…

“How the hell did you tame a wolf of this size?” The queen asks.

“Food and mind magic, I suppose.” I answer.

“You brainwashed him?” She asks with eyes open wide.

“What? No! I just made it clear that if he tried to bite my throat off again, I’d kill him. One thing lead to another and here we are.” I explain. “Anyways, give me your wrist so I can check your health.”

She grumbles a little but does offer me her wrist. No wounds, normal blood pressure, no nasty virus or harmful bacteria in worrying quantities. Her womb is healthy and pregnant, rather early stages, not sure how long exactly since I didn’t study this area in too much detail.

“All good, but you need to eat fewer sweets.” A little bit too much sugar in her system. She groans in displeasure but nods. “Don’t worry, you can still eat fruits.” Her frown lessens a bit with that.

“Well, if that’s all, I’ll get going. It was nice meeting you, Noah. And gray too.” She says with a smile but I interrupt her before she leaves.

“Actually, I need to discuss some things with you.”

“Is it fun things or boring things?”

“Uh, boring things, I suppose.”

She sighs. “It’s always the boring things. Fine, is it small stuff or big stuff?”

“Pretty big, I think.”

“How come it’s always the big boring business that comes to me?” Uh, because you’re the queen, I suppose? “I’ll need to gather some advisors then, you should get your brother settled down in your guest rooms first, and then come up to the meeting hall.”

I show Noah around the guest quarters and make a map real quick so that he can go exploring. The girls stay with him to make sure he doesn’t get in trouble (He’s well behaved but you never know) and make arrangements for Gray so he doesn’t end up killing the horse of a visiting noble or something (He’s been well behaved lately but you never know).

In the meeting room the queen and a dozen advisors of various fields are already discussing something when I arrive, but it seems to not be important since they are acting somewhat informally.

“Okay everyone, time for work.” The queen interrupts the conversation when I arrive. “So Lance, what is it you want to discuss?”

“First up is slavery.” I say while sitting down “I expect a considerable influx of slaves from this war and it’s best for the country if we are prepared for them. Thank you.” I say to the maid who serves me some tea before she bows and leaves the room.

“I’d say we have more than enough men to suppress any slave uprising, what else would we prepare?”

“Uprisings are only short term problems, I’m talking long term.” Well, unless they happen repeatedly and endlessly. “Stop me if you disagree, but our country would be at its most powerful and prosperous if most of the population is well trained in their professions, perhaps including training in magic.”

“Well, yes, that is the same logic behind the education program, is it not? But, you are not saying we should teach slaves to shoot fireballs and calculate the sizes of geometric shapes, are you?”

“No, of course not…” Then again… “Well, not exactly.”

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“Here we go again.” I hear her mumble while brushing her hair with her hand. “Spare me the preamble, Lance. Make your point first and try to convince me of why you are the lord of reason and foresight after.” She says sarcastically.

Rude, but fair enough. “We need to take measures to prevent the country from relying on cheap slave labor too much at the cost of the prosperity of the lower class citizens and, on the long term, the prosperity of the country overall.” I think that’s to the point enough.

I won’t mention human rights and ethics too much, this is still a country where the reaction to death by starvation or infant death is just ‘too bad, but it can’t be helped.’

The queen discusses with her advisors briefly. The overall conclusion is that they agree that it can be a problem (they aren’t idiots after all), but don’t see how it could happen in the near future nor do they think the problem would be too grave.

Good thing I have thousands of years of earth history and the power of hindsight backing me up. “Let me set up a fictional scenario to help you understand the gravity of this matter: let’s take one of the commoners we are training as we speak to fight for us.

“Suppose this hypothetical commoner… Let’s call him… Flavius, let’s say Flavius is found to have outstanding talents in both magic and martial arts, and studies as well, as such he receives the best training we can give so that he can perform his best in the coming war. During the war itself he shows himself capable and rises through the ranks, almost becoming a knight.”

I use simple illusions to accompany the fictional story, showing a young, stern-faced man growing up into a sturdy looking veteran.

“After the war, he goes home as a shining example of what a soldier should be, and tries to use the money and connections he gained in the military to improve the lives of his family and himself.

“But here he finds a problem: most would-be job opportunities he looks for is occupied by slaves owned by nobles and well-off merchants, he has to scramble to get his children and nephews in apprenticeships of profitable professions, because many others are in similar situations and compete with him every step of the way.”

When I reach this point, many advisors nod in agreement, but their expressions show they still don’t see it as too grave problem.

Here goes the kicker. “So Flavius does what he does best: War. He tries to prepare the youngsters of his family to join the military and goes back to the army himself.

“He once again displays his talent and in time even manages to land a knight title, but at the same time his family grows and he forms bonds with more of his brothers-in-arms.

“Inevitably, many of these brothers and family members die in battle, and ironically their selfless sacrifice increases the influx of slaves, forcing more and more citizens to feel forced to join the military, forming a vicious cycle of death and bitterness.

“In time, the military becomes flooded with men like Flavius, men who survived on their talent for war and who lived a life of bitterness denied of peace. All the while, outside the military, the country is flooded with oppressed slaves, who are forced to work for rich men they hold no loyalty towards…”

At this point the room is solemn. These people aren’t idiots after all; they know the scenario I’m speaking of would be festering with unrest and potential for internal conflict.

The history of the Sylvian peninsula is filled with infighting; it’s why the inquisition was created in the first place, so any noble knows the severity of what I’m talking about.

What I’m speaking of here is a problem that happened in the good old Roman Empire, legionnaires went back home to retire as a farmer, as was tradition, only to find that land owners and slaves made it impossible.

This was an ominous crack in the metaphorical foundation of Rome. The same Rome that venerates Mars, the god of war, and preaches that every ‘proper’ citizen and leader should serve in the military couldn’t actually support the proper retirement of its soldiers.

This crack was exploited multiple times. I don’t remember the details properly, but someone (I think one of the big names like Caesar) promised he would give his soldiers their due and convinced them to march on Rome itself, an act that would be inconceivable in the past.

I continue. “Of course, this is only one hypothetical scenario, and we could take measures to prevent this specific situation. However, my point still stands: Necessity is the mother of invention and to sit atop a tower of slaves will only cause our legs to rot.” I conclude and look in the eyes of the men and women in the room.

None of them achieved the status needed to enter this room by being idiots, when a pitfall is pointed out so directly their minds instantly look around to see if they missed any others.

Even if they don’t have concepts like gross domestic product (GDP) and human development index (HDI), their subconscious’ were trained through years of administrative experience and can tell that slaves are only capable of limited contribution towards the development of the country.

The queen rests her back against her throne and closes her eyes to think for a minute while I sip on the weird, imported, spiced tea that I had to reheat with magic. The taste reminds me a lot of cinnamon, but who knows what fantasy nonsense is actually in it?

“So, what are you suggesting?” The queen pulls my attention away from the aromatic tea. “That we don’t take any slaves at all? That would put a heavy burden on-” I wave my hand to interrupt her.

“I can’t claim to have the experience your side of the table has on these matters, so I can’t confidently suggest such drastic, direct measures.” I begin. “I was thinking more on the lines of putting a deadline on all forms of servitude, like we already do with criminal slaves. After their time is done, the slaves would be given a choice between becoming a citizen or leaving our lands to try their luck elsewhere.

“We should also force slave owners to give minimum support to their slaves, as in keeping them fed, clothed and sheltered. This would force slave owners to consider how many slaves they can support instead of just using them as consumables, with the side benefit of increasing the amount of slaves that will attempt to turn into citizens.

“If we also prohibit rape and the more extreme forms of punishment, I can bet most slaves would choose to rely on us rather than risk starting again somewhere else, increasing the human resources available to our country, and essentially turning unreliable Heiron citizens into semi-reliable Sylvian citizens.

“If you look at these measures altogether you can see it would give the crown an image of kindness and justice, so we could take further steps in this direction, like giving citizenship to the children of slaves, starting programs to help ex-slaves out of poverty and prohibiting exportation of slaves overall.

“This would improve overall morale and national pride of the citizens, and give us a moral high ground when compared with our neighbors, both present and future” When I say that I think of Kurt and his country of Endel to the north. “Where’s his highness Kurt, by the way?”

“He’s keeping company with some visitors from the north.” The queen answers while massaging her temples. “You can consider your suggestions about slavery to have been received. Was that all you wanted to discuss?”

“No, the next topic is related to education. The schools we made for basic teaching resulted in some capable scholars losing their main source of income. This is the perfect opportunity to make a university.”

“Do elaborate.” The queen speaks almost lazily while leaning on the arm of her chair. Did the previous topic tire her that much?

“In short, a university is an advanced school. While the schools we set up around the country teach a basic level of knowledge, a university would be better equipped and staffed to be able to raise professionals and scholars with the highest level of education possible within the country’s means. I suggest reforming the old royal castle into a grand university that puts the rest of the world to shame.”

“That sounds extremely expensive.” Says one of the advisors. I’ve seen him before, but didn’t try hard to remember him aside from his appearance. “The construction, the staff, the books and supplies among other things should put too heavy a strain on the royal treasury when combined with the costs for the nearing war and the more mundane expenses.”

“Yes, even with my help it should still be rather expensive.” By my help I mean negotiating with the scholars, making paper, printing books and assisting in variety of manners with the construction. “That’s why I plan to go out of my way to make money by making things for nobles and rich merchants from here and Endel.”

“Making things? What kind of things do you mean?” Another advisor asks.

“Swords, artwork, clothing… Even construction work isn’t off the table. I suppose only things like cannons and the more advanced vehicles are off the table, really. I should be able to charge rather high prices, right?” I look around the room and see people nodding. “You think that would be enough to offset the costs of the university, sir?” I ask the old man that raised the issue.

“Perhaps. We’ll have to see how it goes in practice, but it should at least make the costs bearable.” He agrees.

“Another thing we need scholars for: research in agriculture.” I skip towards the next topic. “We simply don’t know enough of the specifics of agriculture at the moment, there is a high risk we are unknowingly doing something wrong that will result in slowly worsening the land and reducing crop yield.

“We need scholars who understand of flora, fauna and farming in general to begin researching as soon as possible to learn how we can improve food production and improve the growth and health of livestock as well as search the wilds to find plants and beasts with potential to be domesticated.

“Monsters, for example, are well known to grow quickly. However the only monster we breed is the war horse.” I finish.

“…The costs for this project shouldn’t be anything too absurd, depending on the scale.” Says the old man from earlier, who complained about costs, while scratching his chin. Is he a treasurer or something like that?

The queen then voices her thoughts. “Yes, this project is rather easy to approve. We only need to discuss the details, really.” She looks around to see if anyone disagrees.

One advisor raises his finger and speaks. “Rather than disagreeing, I’m only somewhat curious. What does Sir Lance mean by domesticating plants? Don’t we just need to grow them?”

“Oh that, the crops we currently grow have gone through centuries of breeding to be big, pretty, healthy and tasty. If you look at their wild siblings, you can barely recognize them.” I explain.

Let’s see, what else. “The next few topics are actually just statements I suppose, first up: we need more sorcerers. We need more mages and sorcerers in general, but more specifically, we need more of them doing civilian work and work with forbidden magic.

“Second: I need reports of problems on the various things I made to see if I can improve on them. Suggestions and complaints are also welcome.

“Third: I’m going to make firearms. Think cannons but downsized to be more like crossbows… And I think that’s about it… Oh, the second one was more of a request, wasn’t it? Oh well.” I shrug.

“Please tell me that’s all, you’ve given me more than enough work already.” Says the queen, and when I nod she continues. “Then you can go, you know where to get materials for these ‘firearms’. For the rest of us, we need to actually turn those ideas into reality.”

I just smile, stand up, do a short bow and then leave.