las thought [ the people are living under those conditions and the lords manor is just for defensive purposes but] las looked at the other castle is was a luxurious manor [ this probably belongs to the brother of the previous lord ]

the carriage finally came to a halt ,the knights formed two rows in the gates of the castle two people could be distinguished as the leaders of a group two middle aged men a knights in full plate armour and a minister

las walked towards with arthur and leonard in each side and alfred was behind them ,las spoke to the men " greetings i'm las von helstain the new lord of this territory " both of the men kneeled together with the group they had behind them

and said "greetings to the lord helstain " las looked at the men behind the leaders he even saw a woman knight but all of them had the same thing on their eyes it was distrust las understood the leaders had the same emotions but they were able to hide it

the men spoke first the minister "greetings to the lord i'm the minister of the territory my name is oliver "

then the knights spoke "i greet my lord im the commander of the army we don't have an organised knights force ,my lord but we have some who are recognised by the imperial family my name is william "

las looked at the men " nice to meet you gentlemen ,please rise " the men were pleasantly surprised with the new lord las then looked at oliver and said " can you sent someone to organize the people that i brought with me " oliver looked at his subordinates and they gave him a nod they started to take the people but they did not dare to touch the knights

the knights were like statues they moved like puppets when their lord orders

oliver said "my lord shall we go in" las looked at him and he said "lead the way " after some time they reached a room oliver looked at las and spoke "my lord i know you had a long journey but " he hesitated a little las said "no need to hesitate open the door , i need to know the situation in the territory "

las sat at the head of the table looked at oliver and willialm then at the woman knights who was looking at him with pure hatred las looked at willialm and said "commander handle your subordinates " the commander understood and bowed " i'm sorry my lord ,i will handle her " las "i won't give a second chance"

then he looked at oliver "tell me everything ,the report that i was given had only the terrain nothing else " oliver spoke " my lord the population is around 36.000 the capital has 6.000 , in the east there is a city of 5.000 in the north there is another city of 5.000 in the south and west there are a city of 2.000"

" my lord the cities in north and east are fortresses but we have lost control of the city "

las was confused " are this bandits so strong "

oliver said " you now about them my lord? " las gave him a nod as a response "they are not bandits but the imperial army "

"what ?"

oliver understood his lord " i will explain my lord ,the north is constantly under attack by monsters because there is the black forest "

las asked " black forest isn't there just the great plains ? "

"my lord most of the land in the other side of the mountains is plains but in our side there is a forest with monsters ,so we had asked for support from the imperial house when we couldn't defend it alone , troops from the 1 prince came and they occupied the region after some time, so the cores from the monsters were send to the first prince for free "

cores ,every monster has a core ,they are used to make wands for army wizard and other magic items so even low rank cores are expensive [so the prince has free cores to make an army from wizards]

las said "continue with the explanation "

oliver drank some tea and spoke " but we have lost all control of the land besides the capital to the bandits , we can't trade because of the bandits , we can't bring food from the villages without soldiers and the treasury has 50.000 silver "

las looked at oliver " hmm we have a good amount of coins "

"how much do we tax the people"

"around 70% "

"what why so much ?"

oliver did not spoke then william spoke you could feel hatred in his tone " the brother of the lord is the problem " oliver screamed " stop william we can't prove it "

las said "let him speak oliver " he had no choice

william started to speak "my lord the brother of the lord his name is james , had manipulated the lord forcing him to make bad decisions and he even is helping the bandits "

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

las spoke " so the reason that the lord lost the first battle was because his brother helped the bandits , and the lord did not understood that someone was helping them because of his love for his brother"

william was hesitant but when he saw that the lord didn't like tat he spoke spoke " my lord i have done something behind the back of the lord "

las "what did you did william i hope you did not betrayed your master "

"no my lord i have sent some talented men to the bandits and they were able to gain the trust of the leader"

las looked at him and he started to laughs" hahaha good william you just made my life so much easier well done we can get rid of the bandits and get rid of james without taking much damage"

las asked oliver " how many troops do we have and what is going on with equipment"

"we have 300 soldiers and 20 knights with your knights we have 40 and we don't have much of armour but we have good weapons "

" good are there any troops loyal to james?"

william spoke "my lord there are not, i intentionally choose men who hate him "

las then sat back at the chair with a smile and looked at arthur who was besides him " call me the alchemist we brought with us and bring the woman lisa she is an alchemist right ? i want them in 2 hours"

arthur said "i will handle it with some help " then las looked at oliver "oliver do you know a good and trustworthy blacksmith"

"yes my lord ,do you want to meet him?"

"yes call him here "

oliver was confushed " my lord you will meet a blacksmith why "

"you will learn , just obey for know i want paper and i want an office "

oliver did as he was told " please follow me "

after some time the two alchemist were with las

"you two i have a job for you ,but if you accept you will be under surveillance this should be a secret if you speak about it to anyone you will be executed together with your family "

"we will obey the lord " las was surprised by lisas loyalty , he gave them a paper and told them to produce it in large quantities, four knights were guarding them all the time then he sent a knight and 10 soldiers to bring the blacksmith and gave them orders to be kind las made something on the paper ,and he put it in his pocket then he walked to the back of the castle with another paper in hand

there were 300 soldiers and 35 knights were waiting he smiled and spoke to the soldiers "greeting men i'm your lord from now on , i called you today to train you with a new method and from now on your pay is doubled"

las introduced a modern army training and structure las order each knight to have under him 15 men and after basic training they would give them ranks

las gave the knights the papers with the training methods and the organisation ,the knights who came from everden just did as they were ordered

the order was given " start running around the manor with your weapons and armour " las walked to a tree with a table and started to do the paperwork arthur and 10 soldiers were around him william and leonard were talking about the new training method

william is the army commander and leonard the knight commander las had sent a knight to find the blacksmith

a knight in full plate armour with a horse and some soldiers were marching to a forge the people were scared when they saw the knight in his armour when they reached the forge the soldier who lead them said to the knight "my lord i will go inside to call him please wait" the knight gave a nod and he got down from the horse

the soldiers was herd he was screaming "old noz old noz " he saw a man drinking and he asked " do you know where old noz is " he pointed at an office and said " there he is looking for a way to save the forge "

noz was the most talented blacksmith but his forge wasn't doing so well the soldier knockd the door "come in " the soldier explained the situation noz got scared "the lord wants to see me ?????" his daughter said to him "father no he is going to force you to do work for free or kill you don't go" "i don't have a choice " then the soldier spoke about the knight , noz run to the knight his daughter with him

he kneeled and said "my lord i'm sorry for the wait please forgive me "his daughter did not speak the knight looked at him and said "get up ,i'm no lord " noz was surprised but he got up "may i ask what the lord wants me " the knight said "i don't know i just obey orders prepare " noz was around 45-46 his daughter was 20 she was beautiful with blue eyes and blonde hair thats why noz did not want to bring her , to the lord he could do what he wanted with her but he couldn't stop her from following him

noz followed the knight to the backward of the mansion he saw soldier doing weird thing like running with armour then he looked at the right and saw a boy around 15 with white hair and purple eyes his body was weak but the boy was beautiful he was sitting in a chair under a tree handling paperwork

before he ever realized it , the knight in one kneel he said with respect "my lord your order was carried out" the boy said like it was something natural "good go join the others " he saluted and left noz just stared at the back of the boy , the boy did not even looked back

the boy was doing his work then noz realized [wait lord????????] he run in a panic and he fell down

noz thought [ im going to die i will be executed ] he started to tremble without looking at the boy he said "please spare my family i don't care about me " his daughter tried to protect him with her body with the eyes closed ready to die for her father but something was heard both opened their eyes and saw the boy and his butler laughing

the boy calmed down and spoke "please get up and sit i won't kill you " noz talked with las for some time and he understood that the lord was kind and he said "may i ask why did you call me my lord"

las became serious and said "i want you to make something for me ,but if you accept you will be under surveillance and you will be protected by us if you accept you will be the only one to produce it and you will come under me and i will protect you "

noz was in a very bad situation if he did not pay his debt he will become a slave but if takes the hand of the lord he is saved but he was still scared for his daughter las saw trough him and spoke "you will not have to worry about your family no one will touch them, you will come to live here for protection and i won't touch them either if you make a normal mistake you won't be punished " noz made a decision and said " i will follow the lord " las said " of course if you betray me or leak information it won't end well for you" noz just smiled

las gave him a paper "can you make this thing" noz did not know what is was , but he was sure "i can make it but what is that ?" las said "how many can you make in a month with your entire forge" noz said "around 25 but how is it called" las smiled " this is a cannon "