Chapter 408: Root It Out Entirely

I usually hate leaving Rosenheim, but this time there was no way around it. A serious problem had broken out in a village under my rule, and if the lord doesn’t take an interest, who else is going to solve it?

After sending Ferke and Captain Schlieffen’s company off to seize Moltheim, I headed for Vintenheim under the escort of a unit led by Anton. There, I joined up with Markus and his party.

The architect Markus had brought along as his "connection" dropped to his knees the moment he laid eyes on me. Hold on, why are you kneeling? He then heaped on praise so embarrassingly florid it might as well have been a serenade, leaving everyone around us dumbfounded.

On top of that, he spoke southern German with remarkable fluency.

"Oh, great and wise lord! I fear your radiant light will blind me! If ever the Lord granted me a holy revelation, then surely this meeting, here and now, shall be recorded in the annals of history...!"

"...You wouldn’t happen to be Italian, would you?"

"You know of me? What joy! What an honor!"

Because that is not how a German reacts.

Markus seemed used to it, but Anton looked like he was suffering culture shock.

This fellow from Florence goes by the name Leonardo di Federico Gabriele da Empoli. Broken down, it means Leonardo, son of Federico Gabriele, from Empoli.

Markus spoke with a wry smile.

"He’s a capable man, but this behavior of his kept him from getting commissions, and he couldn’t take part in the reconstruction of Breisach either. He was about to go back to Italy when I brought him here."

"If he designs the city flawlessly, I suppose I’ll get used to that overwhelming manner of his."

But this damned Florentine had a look in his eyes that was anything but normal.

"Lord! Oh, Lord! For my lord I would gladly lick your very feet! Ohh!"

"Please stop, my friend! Do you want to go home penniless?"

"Markus! My dear friend! How glad I am to call you a friend!"

I already had oddballs enough in Aachen and Lily, and now I’ve gained one more. He was so talkative and so given to bluster that if not for Markus’s introduction and his own honest (good) disposition, I’d have taken him for a con man.

The estate manager and administrator of Vintenheim trembled before me.

Yes, the same estate manager I had met during the Lydia affair.

"Th-the Administrative Minister was trying to contain the situation somehow, and that’s why the report was delayed."

"I can well understand that the Administrative Department took this seriously and tried to resolve it on its own, but isn’t it a problem that no report reached me, the very man who rules Vintenheim?"

"W-we’re sorry! We never meant to slight you, my lord!"

"I bear some responsibility too. I was busy settling internal matters and let Vintenheim go neglected. Until I dispatch a new manager, the two of you will assist Markus and Leonardo here."

The estate manager and administrator, who had been shaking like leaves, could only blink. They must have expected me to fly into a rage and take their heads. I’m not the kind of tyrant who lops off heads on a whim, you fools.

"The Administrative Minister instructed us to restore order in Vintenheim, so we will follow your orders, my lord."

"I’ll smooth things over with the Administrative Minister myself. Now, first, tell me Vintenheim’s biggest problem."

"The biggest problem is public order. Our guard force is stretched past its limit just policing the crimes of the outsiders. At first the residents welcomed them kindly enough, but these savage brutes started harassing the young women, and things have turned very ugly."

The problem was that the sudden influx of outsiders had badly degraded public order. The shortage of warehouses and dock space can be solved one way or another, but I can’t let a breakdown in security make my people suffer.

"Anton, dispatch squads immediately, starting with the worst districts, and crack down."

"We’ll round up every last one of the troublemakers!"

"If they resist violently, take their heads."

"What? A-are we allowed?"

A rapid collapse of public order creates a situation as dangerous as wartime. If the outsiders organize to fight back, it could spread beyond control, so I mean to root it out entirely with a forceful initial response.

I also sent letters to Viktor, who was conducting training across Rosenheim, and to Ivan, who was scouting the southwest, ordering them to send part of their forces to Vintenheim.

It was obvious that bandits would be eyeing the goods moving along the roads and bridges toward Breisburg. And it’s winter now, the season when idle peasants and penniless nobles are quickest to stir.

Protecting the merchants would take more troops. I sent orders to Beort as well, recalling him to Vintenheim. Breisach’s public order was a concern too, but Vintenheim was more urgent.

"It’s the Gale Knights! Arrest them!"

"Wh-what the—? Aaargh!"

"Cut down everyone who resists!"

"Damn it, it’s the lord’s army! Gyaaah!"

In an instant, blades flashed in every corner of the town.

There was no way common street thugs could withstand the swords of my men, tempered on the battlefield. The scum who had turned Vintenheim into a den of crime and run wild as if they owned the place paid in blood, every last one of them.

"The lord has come to protect us!"

"Ohh! At last! The lord sent his army to protect us!"

"Praise them! Praise the Gale Knights!"

The long-suffering people of Vintenheim rejoiced.

An estate manager dispatched by the royal family is, quite literally, just a caretaker. And the grand duke had little interest in developing the territory. Maintaining the status quo was everything, so no one had the power to solve Vintenheim’s problems.

A lord, given the will, can mobilize real force. Above all, I am a lord who cares about developing his lands and keeping them safe, so naturally I could come down hard enough to root out the crime.

"Oh, the conditions are perfect for expansion. The harbor’s position is exquisite!"

"Roughly what kind of budget would it take to design the city around the harbor?"

"At this scale, 500 gold coins at the very least. Of course, material supply issues could drive the budget higher, so I can only pray that my wise lord’s purse is a sturdy one."

I have around 2,000 gold coins, so the budget is no problem. If Vintenheim grows into a port city surpassing Strasbourg, it could monopolize all the trade flowing to Breisburg and the upper Main River.

"Spend whatever it takes. Make Vintenheim the finest port city in Beren."

"Oh, my Christos! I shall offer up the greatest of cities for my lord!"

Leonardo rejoiced more than anyone at the promise of an unlimited budget. Hmm, I had a feeling he might do something outrageous, so I stressed again and again that he was to draw up a sensible budget.

Leonardo went sprinting off to the manor in delight, and I have no idea whether a word of it got through to him, but Markus defended him desperately, insisting that for all Leonardo’s flighty words and manner, he is an extremely sensible man.

"Now that I’ve carried out your orders, my lord, may I return to my real work?"

"There’s something that takes priority even over building the saltpeter farm."

"What? Wh-what would that be?"

What is he going to make me do now? Markus eyed me nervously. I’d been thinking that building nothing but a saltpeter farm south of Vintenheim, where the Main River waterway and the land routes all converge, would be a waste.

Wouldn’t it be better to build a gunpowder factory and an armory alongside the saltpeter farm and develop the whole area into a powder-weapons industrial district? With labor drawn from nearby Breisburg, there’d be no problem at all.

Bring in black powder manufacturers to handle powder production, hire blacksmiths in droves, and produce guns and cannons here, and the place could be reborn as the greatest weapons production center in the Duchy of Beren.

What’s more, the Main River waterway and the land routes meet right here, which makes it a natural transport hub. Add my formidable passive skills (production and quality) and a few choice items on top, and the whole thing comes together perfectly.

When I explained this plan, Markus’s face went pale. The scale of the venture was so enormous that 2,000 gold coins wouldn’t come close. But it was worth every bit of that investment.

"A-are you serious? It will consume immense funds and time."

"To prepare for the war that’s coming, it must be done."

Facing Burgundy alone, without help from neighboring states, is madness. However exceptional I may be, no one can fight a war single-handed. So the only way to stand against them is with powder weapons.