Tyranny of Steel

Since the signing of the treaty a few weeks had passed and Berengar had returned to Tyrol, Eckhard and the others were notified of the treaty and halted their advance into Upper Austria; In contrast, Berengar returned home, Eckhard would remain within the region with a small army of 5,000 men to ensure the peaceful withdrawal of the Bavarians. As for the rest of the soldiers, they too returned with Berengar back to their homes.

Though Vienna had been secured, Berengar had no plans to move into the city and oversee Conrad. Thus he had made a decree temporarily shifting the capital of Austria from Vienna to Kufstein; his justification for doing so was that Vienna had been extensively damaged during the war and would need time to repair itself before it could function as the capital of Austria.

For the time being, Conrad stayed in Kufstein, under the constant control of Berengar; with each passing day, the boy Duke became more of a puppet. He had no backers, while Berengar was considered the man who liberated Austria from Bavarian occupation and thus had gained many supporters among the nobility of the Duchy.

Everyone knew that Berengar was the proper authority in the region, yet few dared to oppose him despite that. They had grown to fear his military might and the extent to which his spy network had infiltrated every corner of the Duchy. Nobody was safe from Berengar's reach within the confines of Austria.

Berengar had begun his transition of power from Count to Duke. However, it would still take several years to accomplish this fully; thus, at the moment, he was preoccupied with other concerns, such as entertaining his guests from the Byzantine Empire.

Strategos Arethas Maniakes had opted to visit Kufstein once more now that Austria was safe to travel to and thus was sitting at Berengar's dinner table, where Berengar, Linde, Conrad, and Henrietta were eating alongside the nobleman from the East.

Arethas had important business to discuss with Berengar, especially considering the Emperor had tasked him to inquire about the procurement of firearms. As such, he attempted to broach the subject over a fine meal after Berengar had consumed a few chalices worth of beer.

Berengar was interested in small talk at the start of the conversation and thus casually asked about the Emperor and his current condition.

"So Arethas, my friend, how is the Emperor doing?"

Arethas thoroughly enjoyed the food on his plate, as he thought about the answer, eventually after washing down the pichelsteiner that he had as a side to his pork schnitzel, and spaetzle with a strong lager, the man opened up about some details revolving around the Emperor.

"The Emperor is a little bit stressed currently, but aside from that, he is good."

Hearing that the Emperor was stressed piqued Berengar's natural curiosity, and thus he continued on this line of dialogue.

"Why is the Emperor stressed? Is it anything serious?"

Hearing the concern in Berengar's voice, Arethas quickly dashed any thoughts of turmoil that Berengar might be having about the Emperor's life and promptly revealed the well-known secret.

"Oh, it is nothing substantial; his daughter Princess Honoria is just being a hassle again. Her father had engaged her to the Crown Prince of France, and she has no interest in marrying the man. In her own words, she refers to him as an effeminate homosexual who is completely lacking in ambition. Thus, she feels like Aubry de Valois is among the worst available out of all the matches that could be made. However, she truly has herself to blame, her father has tried setting her up with over a dozen matches before this, and she has refused them all."

Hearing this, Berengar began to chuckle to himself; he made a snarky comment about the French Prince as he did so.

"Why am I not surprised?"

hearing this, Arethas was confused and thus questioned Berengar's comment.

"Why are you not surprised about what?"

Feeling that he had caused a misunderstanding, Berengar decided to clarify himself after drinking from his skull chalice.

"I just find it fitting that the Crown Prince of France is an effeminate homosexual, is all..."

Hearing Berengar's words, Linde immediately broke out into laughter. Even in this era, or should one say especially in this era, the intense grudge bore between Germans and Frenchmen was no laughing matter. Thus Berengar took the opportunity to make fun of Crown Prince when the opportunity was presented to him.

Conrad, on the other hand, was scowling. Not once had the important nobleman from the East bothered to talk to him or even acknowledge him despite being the Duke. The young boy struggled to contain his inner fury as Berengar and Arethas chatted as if they were men of equal standing.

Henrietta was confused, as she was too innocent to know what an effeminate homosexual was, and thus did not understand Berengar's snide remarks. Therefore she merely focused on eating her meal, like the adorable little loli she was.

When Arethas heard Berengar's remarks, he also found it quite funny, as he was well aware of the stereotype that the Germans thought of when it came to the French. Thus he made a joke of his own.

"I doubt you would be saying such a bold thing if you were standing face to face with the youth; I hear he is quite the capable swordsman."

Berengar, on the other hand, laughed at this comment and pointed to his eye as proof of his feats in battle.

"The last Capable swordsman I dueled with took my right eye. However, I managed to take his life. I do not fear a petty French Prince. I would gladly tell him to his face what I think of him. If he has a problem with it, he can taste the might of my flintlock pistol!"

Hearing Berengar mentions his firearms brought a sense of delight to Arethas' face; the conversation had naturally steered in this direction, thus allowing him to inquire about purchasing such weapons. As such, he took advantage of this opportunity and asked the question on his mind.

"Speaking of which, the Emperor had personally requested that I inquire about the possibility of buying such weapons from you. I know it is a longshot, but is there any way you can sell me a few of these so-called flintlocks?"

Berengar immediately shook his head in denial, which instantly brought down Arethas' spirits; however, the words that came next shocked the man, as he was not expecting them.

"I cannot sell you flintlocks; that is simply unacceptable. However, I do have a prototype design that I can build for you. I call it the Arkebuse; it may not be as exceptional as my weapons, but I promise you that it is better than anything else you will find in the world!"

For some time now, Berengar had considered selling the primitive matchlock arquebus to his friends in the East in an attempt to curry their favor further. The reasons for this were twofold; first and foremost, such a weapon did not pose a significant threat to his forces. It was heavy, albeit portable, and had minimal range; it was also significantly less potent than a musket and could not pierce through his soldier's armor with a single shot.

The other reason was more important than this. With his rapid expansion of power, one could certainly say his advanced weaponry was primarily responsible for this. Thus it would not be long before an interest in firearms became the norm, and other countries attempted to replicate his success. One could say Berengar had sped up the interest and development of firearms from its natural course.

Other countries might have been already experimenting with improvements over the hand cannon because of the might that Berengar's armies displayed. Thus he wanted to take advantage of this to introduce the Arquebus as the standard arm for his potential allies, allowing him to accumulate great wealth with its trade and expanding Byzantine power so that he would not have to worry about some form of Islamic incursion into Europe as the Ottomans had done following the fall of Constantinople in his old life's timeline.

Hearing that Berengar was willing to sell the Empire some form of advanced firearm, even if it was not as advanced as his own army's weapons, immediately piqued Arethas's interest, and thus he was more than happy to negotiate its purchase as he had been given the authority to do so by the Emperor. However, when he was about to inquire about procuring such weapons, Conrad quickly interrupted by throwing a tantrum.

"Absolutely not! I will never allow you to sell such dangerous weapons to other regions! What if the Byzantines turned on us with our weapons."

Hearing the young boy finally speak, Berengar and Linde alike glared at him with murderous intent, which immediately shut the kid up, this greatly enraged Conrad. However, Berengar's following words further added insult to injury.

"Don't worry about the kid; he has no authority on the matter, I would gladly sell you the Arkebuse, and we can further negotiate the price at a later time. I would prefer to manufacture a few of the weapons and demonstrate to you their capabilities before we agree."

Arethas smiled and nodded; this was a reasonable request, mainly because he could negotiate a fairer price when he was more informed about their capabilities. Berengar was genuinely generous to allow such a display before negotiations commenced.

As for Conrad, he began to throw a tantrum and immediately questioned Berengar's claims.

"No authority? I am the Duke of Austria! How dare you claim I have no authority!"

Berengar, however, clicked his tongue before chastising Conrad about the issue.

"Your Grace, with all due respect, I said that you have no authority on this matter, which you do not. These weapons are property of the County of Tyrol, not the Duchy of Austria. As the inventor of the weapons and the Count of Tyrol, I have the final say as to whether or not I intend to sell such weapons."

Hearing this, Conrad was stupefied; he honestly did not have a response to such words. Once more, he was outwitted by Berengar, to a point where he could no longer refute the man's logic. Thus he merely began to pout like a spoiled brat, no longer causing any trouble.

After Conrad's little tantrum, Berengar returned to the topic at hand.

"I apologize for the interruption; as I was saying, you are more than welcome to stay in Kufstein for the time being until I can manufacture a few test samples so that I can demonstrate to you what a unit armed with such weapons are capable of. From there, we can negotiate a good price for the weapons and how many you wish to purchase."

Arethas quickly agreed to these terms and nodded his head before responding

"It is no problem; I would be glad to stay in Kufstein for the time being; I am sure when I return to the Empire with your weapons, the Emperor will be pleased by the results."

With negotiations for the trade of the Arkebus halted, the group of noblemen and women returned to their meal and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Tomorrow Berengar would place for an order of thirty Arkebus. He would then have a few of his soldiers test them on the mirror pattern armor commonly issued to the Byzantines and their enemies.