The smile never left Michael’s lips from start to finish. Was he really that happy about being given pepper? Word is he shamelessly showed the pouch off to his subordinates, bragging the whole time.
The pepper Count Heinlein had spent a fortune on, intending to scatter it as bribes among the eastern princes, had been reduced to gift material because I made off with the whole lot. Come to think of it, did I ever mention that to anyone?
Either way, who cares.
I handed Anton the order Michael had drafted along with the request I had written, and sent him rushing off to Breisburg. Then Beort volunteered to go with him.
That kind of initiative is good to see.
Drek eyed me hopefully, wanting to tag along as well, but I figured Beort was enough, so I assigned three Gale Knight squads to the two of them. Anton tucked the letters carefully against his chest and spoke firmly.
"I will rescue Bodo without fail."
"If things look dangerous, don’t you dare push yourself. Lean on Viscount Loewenbert. Understood?"
"I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll see you in Breisburg!"
Some unforeseen butterfly effect might be lying in wait for me, but the arrow had already left the bow. The whole point was to shatter the board the enemy had laid out, so all I could do was hope for good results.
Before I knew it, the night had grown late.
Tomorrow I would leave Schafen in Michael’s hands and return to Radensdorf. The Lord of Schafen was in custody, the garrison had collapsed, and even the harbor had been burned to ash and stripped of all function.
The city desperately needed troops to protect it from bandits and outside forces alike, so Michael would take charge of security in the region for the time being. He can be a little flippant, but he’s remarkably good at his job.
There are always men who try to plunder in the middle of chaos. Wandering bandits or farmers, it made no difference: anyone who ran wild during this window would meet Michael’s merciless iron hammer.
"The documents have been sorted by category."
"Hm, good work. This is a gift for you and your colleagues for all your trouble."
"Oh my, such precious wine! Thank you!"
The lord’s castle official, desperate to get on my good side, had done everything I asked without question. He’d earned it, so when I gave him Boden wine as a reward, he grinned from ear to ear.
What value might the administrator’s neatly sorted documents hold? Honestly, if not for the quest, I would have passed the man over without a second thought.
What exactly was the failed Child of the Magnolia quest? Was it just baseless speculation to think it might be connected to the kidnapped Bodo? The quest’s true nature remained a complete mystery.
Under the brightly burning candle, I skimmed through the documents. Nothing caught my attention until one thing finally did: the business section. I read that part closely.
"This fellow had remarkable foresight. He was trying to put into action exactly what I’d been thinking."
Now that the Duchy of Beren has seen what cannons can do, its gunpowder consumption is going to skyrocket. And the most essential ingredient in black powder, the stuff they call the devil’s dust, is saltpeter.
Among the documents was a record proposing that a businessman from Brandenburg be invited in to establish a saltpeter farm around Boden, with its warm climate and low rainfall.
It was a business proposal.
But nothing in it had been finalized.
The plan seems to have failed to catch the Lord of Schafen’s interest. And no wonder. Being asked to plow under the beautiful vineyard hills of Boden to build a reeking saltpeter farm wasn’t something he could easily agree to.
I would have plowed them under on the spot and built a massive saltpeter operation, but every man chases something different, so the venture apparently stalled at the planning stage. That is exactly why it caught my interest.
Hmm, Markus Britz of Brandenburg, is it?
Brandenburg is the region around modern-day Berlin. It was the heartland of Prussia, and the Potsdam of the Potsdam Conference sits right there. Brandenburg also holds one of the electoral votes that choose the emperor.
It’s ruled by the House of Hohenzollern, a family the empire’s nobles think poorly of, dismissing them as shameless opportunists. Even so, they’re a power strong enough to threaten Saxony and the Palatinate Wittelsbachs.
They swore fealty to Sigismund, the last emperor of the House of Luxembourg, earned great merit in war, and inherited Brandenburg, once imperial demesne, which is how they rose to their current electoral seat.
Incidentally, the House of Hohenzollern also traces its origins to Württemberg, the duchy neighboring our own. That’s why some territories and castles in the Württemberg region still belong to the family.
Apparently that’s the source of their frequent clashes with the Palatinate Wittelsbachs, though I don’t know how matters stand now. In any case, tomorrow morning I should send word for this Markus fellow to come see me.
I can only hope he’s still staying in Schafen.
Hm, what’s this? It seems the real answer was here all along.
Through this private correspondence, I learned that the family of Viscount Neunil and the administrator had been in frequent contact of late. Most important of all, the letters mentioned the child of the magnolia.
[We have found the child of the magnolia]
[In the most absurd of places, under the most absurd of men]
[We will act when the opportunity arises. You are to wait there]
[Reinfeldt is on our side, but we are not on Reinfeldt’s]
[Remember this, banished nephew. Everyone is after that child]
The problem was that nowhere did the letters specify who this child of the magnolia was. Circumstantially, I had a strong feeling it could be Bodo. But I couldn’t find a single point of similarity between them beyond the fact that both were children.
Hmm, I should have examined these letters before sending Beort and Anton off. It was far too late to call them back now. And I couldn’t be certain the Neunil family was truly connected to Bodo.
"In the most absurd of places, under the most absurd of men" certainly seemed to point to me. But it was nothing more than circumstantial guesswork, and without hard evidence or testimony, it was too early to jump to conclusions.
This is what comes of leaving your post even briefly: the opposing factions get the time they need to hatch their schemes. The shadowy plots of conspirators are shockingly bold, beyond imagination, and they strike from angles you’d never expect.
Even with a scouter, plots outside your field of vision are extremely hard to counter. That leaves me only one option: to fight back the way I do best. And that poses a serious threat to any schemer.
Shatter the board so completely that nothing can be predicted.
Sending Beort and Anton was my opening move to that end.
For now, all I can do is trust them.
After organizing the administrator’s documents, I unrolled the letter from Hilda that I had been waiting so long for. The grave set of my expression seemed to melt away. It was a long letter, but not a single line of it bored me.
With every sentence Hilda had so carefully written, the corners of my mouth crept higher. To think the mere sight of her handwriting could lift my spirits this much! She was always worrying about me, off working so far from her.
I was always thinking of Hilda too.
And so the two of us are forever worrying about each other.
Perhaps that’s the true measure of love and devotion.
Among the news from Feuzen, one item in particular caught my eye. Priscilla is pregnant. So Hans is finally going to be a father. That truly deserves congratulations.
But here’s the strange part: there are apparently no fewer than fifteen pregnant women. It was highly unusual, and the villagers rejoiced, certain that the Lord had bestowed His blessing upon Feuzen.
And not just Priscilla. August’s wife is pregnant too, Viktor is going to have a grandchild, and the Arzt couple is expecting as well. On top of that, most of the wives of childbearing age are apparently pregnant.
Does that make any rational sense?
Isn’t it far too convenient?
Then I remembered purchasing the Population Growth 10% passive. It increases the total population by 10%. I’d assumed it worked through the Boeven immigrants, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
This was clearly the passive’s doing.
Otherwise, fifteen pregnant women in one small village makes no sense. The villagers were making a great fuss, saying that children blessed by the Lord would soon be born.
And at the center of it all was my child. The heir to the great Gale Knight and his noble lady is apparently being called the child of destiny. Hmm, with heir growth items, that’s entirely within the realm of possibility.
I just hope this hasn’t provoked the Church more than necessary. The Church is sensitive about such things. Fortunately, Father Andreas is a clergyman friendly to us.