Tyranny of Steel

While Berengar was enjoying a peaceful life in Tyrol, the Bavarian invasion had spread to the other corners of Austria. Luckily for Berengar, his position was secure for the moment; as such, he spent his time overseeing the usual activities. After finishing his breakfast with Linde and Henrietta, which had taken an unusual turn, Berengar had moved onto the main highlight of his day, which was presenting the architectural designs of his newest project to his favorite architect. With the German Reformation in full effect, Berengar wanted a symbol of his movement. As such He decided to make a Grand Cathedral in Kufstein to represent the new era of Christianity.

While Berengar was far from an artist, he still could draw some rudimentary architectural blueprints. The style he had in mind was that of the German Renaissance. Berengar had already begun implementing such designs across Kufstein for all of his major architectural projects, for example, his grand palace, which was primarily based upon the designs of the Schloss Johannisburg from his previous life. As such, he was currently in a meeting with his favorite Architect who had been overseeing a lot of his projects within Kufstein, the man's name was Burkhard, and he was a refugee who had fled to Kufstein during the early days of the war in Germany, where Berengar immediately noticed his talents and put him to work. At the moment the two men discussing the details of the Grand Cathedral with each other as they went over the designs. Burkhard being the first to voice his opinion.

"As usual, your excellency, you know how to build a basic blueprint, but are completely lacking in creativity. I am afraid to say you are without any form of artistic talent."

Burkhard was a man in his early fifties. He was an unusually blunt man; even to someone of Berengar's position, he was not afraid of voicing his true thoughts, which Berengar honestly enjoyed. Berengar was constantly surrounded by too many sycophants who told him exactly what he wanted to hear and not the reality he needed to hear. As such, Berengar merely laughed at the older man's comment and expressed his concerns.

"Yeah yeah... I know I am not meant to be an artist; the question is, can you make something magnificent with the designs I have presented you?"

The older man with long overflowing grey hair and steel blue eyes began to contemplate for a few moments while rubbing his bare chin before sighing.

"It will take a lot of work to fix your mistakes, but I promise you, by the time I am done with this Grand Cathedral of yours, it will put anything the Vatican has to shame!"

Berengar chuckled upon hearing the man's confidence and patted him on the back as he brought the topic to interior design.

"For the interior, I was thinking stained glass windows; I have a soft spot for such things."

Burkhard snorted when he heard those words before interjecting his opinion on the matter.

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"Of course you want stained glass windows; everyone wants stained glass windows in their Cathedrals! Far be it from me to question your excellency's brilliant mind!"

Burkhard was bitter about the topic, though Berengar did not know why, and frankly, he did not care so long as his vision was brought to life. Thus Berengar switched the topic to the time frame it would take to complete it.

"How long will it take to be finished?"

Burkhard immediately scoffed at Berengar's remarks; the young count was always rushing him on his projects; despite the vast wealth and resources at his disposal, it was not like the man could pull a miracle and complete such a large project overnight, despite his inner monologue Burkhard gave his best estimate.

"Considering you have me running around the clock building your Palace, and now I have this damn Cathedral on top of it, it will take at least two years! You are lucky you pay me so well and allow me the freedom to express my creativity with these designs, or else I would have quit long ago!"

Berengar was not the slightest bit upset by the level of informality in which the Architect spoke to him; in fact, it was pretty refreshing listening to someone who did not bow and express meaningless flattery in every comment they made. As such Berengar let the man's seemingly foul attitude slide. In reality, Burkhard was very passionate about his work and was glad to have the near-unlimited resources at his disposal which Berengar provided him to design and construct so many grand projects. Not to mention the freedom in which he was allowed to tinker with the rudimentary designs Berengar had provided him thus giving him the opportunity to turn them into true masterpieces.

Burkhard was right about one thing, though it might take two years at the earliest to complete, it would be far grander than anything the Vatican had at the moment, and as such, the man was immensely proud to stick it to those old fools who had denied him his dreams when he was a young man. The Vatican once hired Burkhard to construct a project for them. However, the Cardinals in charge of the project micromanaged every step of his creative process, and in his opinion, ruined the final result. As such, he was glad to see those old bastards get a taste of their own medicine. Berengar, on the other hand, was a much more convenient employer; as long as the result was fantastic, the young Count could care less if it stuck faithfully to his original design.

This was how Berengar outsourced all of his creative ideas, especially in the textile industry. Those with more artistic talent than himself were allowed to be creative with the basic concept he presented, resulting in styles based upon the clothing of the renaissance from his previous life. However, maybe not 100% historically correct, nevertheless, they still ended up looking fantastic and selling well, and those two things were all that mattered in the end.

After hearing that it would take at least two years to finish construction, Berengar was pleased; it usually would take years, maybe even decades, to construct such an extensive project. However, Berengar had introduced essential materials that significantly reduced construction speed and increased structural integrity over the traditional form of masonry. That was of course structural steel and concrete. With these two materials, his construction crews could create grand projects such as this Cathedral in a far shorter time frame, with greatly enhanced sturdiness, especially when compared to the traditional methods. If one knew what they were doing, they could make a steel-reinforced concrete building look as attractive as any other building. As such, Berengar made use of these advanced construction materials to build his city rapidly as well as his defenses.

Despite being pleased with the estimated time frame, Berengar liked to mess with the older man; considering Burkhard's naturally crotchety attitude, Berengar put on an authoritative facade and said in a stern voice.

"That is too long; it needs to be constructed in half that time!"

Upon hearing such an impossible task, Burkhard nearly had an aneurysm as a large vein protruded from his forehead while he was seething with anger. However, before long, Berengar broke out into laughter after seeing the older man's twisted expression, and Burkhard instantly realized that Berengar was screwing with his head. As such, he forced himself to calm down and responded to Berengar's jest.

"You know you are not half as funny as you think you are, right?"

Berengar, however, had a great smile across his lips; the look on Burkhard's face just now was priceless. After all, Burkhard was one of the few people he knew who he could joke around with like this. With others, Berengar had to maintain his prestigious appearance, yet Burkhard was different, he did not care in the slightest for the face of the nobility, and as such, Berengar could be himself around the older man.

Of course, Burkhard also found Berengar to be one of the more tolerable members of the Nobility he had met. While the man was a member of the lower nobility, he was always looked down on for his lowly status, and as such, never cared for the noblemen and women who commissioned his work. However, he respected Berengar to a degree, Berengar was born to a lower noble house, a mere Baron's son, and yet in under a year, he made himself a Count. This was not an easy feat in this medieval world. After playing his prank on Burkhard, Berengar noticed what time it was and realized he had to be at a strategy meeting in a few moments, and as such, he let Burkhard get back to work.

"Well, Burkhard, as always, it has been a pleasure, but I am afraid I am needed elsewhere; I will let you get back to your work!"

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Burkhard snorted when he heard this and responded in a cold manner

"Just make sure I am paid properly!"

Berengar chuckled when he heard this response and walked away, leaving a rhetorical question in his wake.

"Have I ever failed in that regard?"

With that, Burkhard was left with a basic outline for Berengar's Grand Cathedral, and he had a lot of work to do on revising the design into a proper blueprint before he could begin construction. Of course, this Cathedral was not the only project he had to work on, after all the Palace was still under construction, thus the man had his work cut out for him. However, he was pretty happy with his place in Kufstein and had no plans to leave; as such, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work on the new project presented to him. In the distant future, Kufstein would be considered not only the seat of Imperial Power of Germany but also the religious center of the German Reformation, mainly in part to the efforts of Burkhard.