Tyranny of Steel

At the moment, Berengar was within the confines of his study; for the past few days, he had entertained his mother and father. While carefully navigating through the confines of his social obligations. All while balancing his industrialization process. At the moment, things were going so smoothly that there was not much work required on his part. 

However, after nearly a week of dealing with intense family drama, the King finally had enough. So much so that he had begun to chart a course for the New World with a single purpose in mind, and that was to escape his chaotic family temporarily. With each passing day, Henrietta had begun to pressure him for more intimacy, and he could only come up with so many excuses to deny her. 

Thus he had taken drastic measures. Initially, he had planned to begin exploration and colonization of the new world after defeating the Catholic Church and its stranglehold over Europe. However, with his current predicament, he felt now was a good time to begin exploration, while saving the colonization for years down the line. 

Thus he and Honoria avoided the rest of the family while plotting their course and going over the supplies and manpower needed to sail to the new world. Looking upon the map Berengar had made of the so-called new world, his wife began to scoff at him before commenting on the insane voyage.

"You're crazy; you know that? Do you actually believe that Vinland exists? You do know that it is an old legend from Scandinavia, right?"

Despite this, Berengar had an eager smile as he gazed at the map and the trade winds he had established based upon his memory of history from his past life. He expressed his views on the matter to his loving Pirate Queen as he did so. 

"Oh, it exists, alright! However, if we are going to travel to Vinland, we are going to need more than an old sloop of war!"

Honoria immediately frowned upon hearing these words and crossed her arms as she scolded her husband.

"Is my ship not good enough for you?"

Upon hearing this, Berengar smiled before sprawling a document across the table; as he did so, he nodded in agreement with Honoria's words.

"Not in the slightest!"

Honoria was about to smack her man across the head for his insults, that is until she laid eyes on the blueprint he had stretched out. It was a plan to completely retrofit her ship "Honoria's Revenge" into an Iron-Clad Steam-Powered sloop of war. Her mint green irises sparkled as they gazed upon the improvements that Berengar planned to make to her ship.

"You've got to be kidding me?"

Berengar chuckled when he heard his wife's words. After doing so, he began to point and list out the improvements one by one.

"I started by redesigning the interior of the ship, the main guns, the boiler, and the engine will be housed in a teak citadel which will be constructed by 5-inch thick steel plates bolted to 18 inches of teak planks! It will then be mounted on the 1-inch thick plating of the hull itself, behind which lies the timber frame and lining. The bow and stern will be connected to this citadel and be made out of 1-inch thick steel plates!

As for the engine, it will be a single vertical triple expansion engine, with a coal fire maritime boiler for the support! It will also utilize a single screw propeller as the primary source of propulsion for the vessel. With such an advanced engine this baby should be able to exceed 20 knots easily!"

Honoria gazed at this upgrade in shock; her husband was essentially stripping her precious vessel to the bare bones and rebuilding it from the ground up. Could it even be considered the same ship at that point? Despite this, Berengar then placed his finger on the next significant improvement.

"I will be replacing your obsolete muzzle loading guns and outfit the vessel with a specialized Naval variant of the 7.5cm FK 22 guns currently in use by the armed forces. These will fire HE shells on our journey, but for your future privateering operations they can be operated with inert or shrapnel shells instead." 

Honoria gazed at the redesigned vessel with a wide smirk on her face as she expressed her interest in the project.

"When will my ship undergo this massive upgrade?"

In response to his wife's question, Berengar had a smug smile on his face as he proudly declared his actions.

"It is already being retrofitted as we speak!"

Honoria could hardly believe her ears as she heard this. Did this bastard seriously make changes to her ship without her permission? She was going to have to pay him back for this favor later. However, what was done was done; thus, she calmed her nerves before asking the following question on her mind.

"So obviously, we can't bring my girls on this voyage; they can't be trusted with such a high level of security clearance... Who do you have in mind for the journey?"

Berengar smiled as he pulled out a pile of envelopes; inside of these folders were the identities of the Naval Personnel he had chosen to accompany them on the voyage. It included not only his best sailors but also the most trustworthy marines; an entire company of the Austrian Marines would be present for the journey. 

Honoria quickly read through the files with a smile on her face; she trusted her husband's judgment and thus nodded her head in agreement with his decision. After reading up about the details of all the sailors and soldiers accompanying them, she handed the folders back to Berengar while crossing her arms. She had just one final question on her mind.

"If we're going on a journey to the mythical Vinland, then tell me, who will look after our son?"

Berengar was stunned when he heard this; he had not thought about such a subject, after all to him the answer was obvious, thus with a wide grin he answered his wife with an appropriate response.

"What do you mean? Obviously, our son will be taken care of by Linde while we are away. After all, we are one giant family, and Linde already has three kids, and years of experience as a mother!

Honoria snarled in disgust as she heard this before commenting on Linde and her children.

"You want my infant son to suck on that woman's cow udders while I'm away? I've seen what has become of Hans, one day, he will be as perverted as his old man, and it's entirely because that red-headed bimbo breastfed him for too long!"

Berengar chuckled when he heard this harsh response before reminding Honoria of an embarrassing piece of her history.

"Really? You don't approve of Linde? Because according to her, you are quite fond of her so-called cow udders as well..."

Upon hearing this remark, Honoria's face immediately flushed red with embarrassment, she wanted nothing more at this moment than to hide her head in disgust. She had no idea that Linde had revealed their intimate secrets to Berengar behind her back. Ultimately she controlled her embarrassment and clicked her tongue in disgust.

"Tsk... that bitch! I'll make sure to get her back for this!"

Berengar chuckled once more; though Honoria used harsh words to describe her rival, he could tell that they actually had a good relationship, much better than that between Adela and the others. As such, he wrapped his arms around his wife's waist from behind before whispering in her ear.

"Oh really, why don't you tell me something embarrassing about her that I don't already know?"

In response to this, a wicked grin appeared on Honoria's face as she revealed one of Linde's embarrassing secrets in retaliation. 

"Linde has an exhibition fetish; now and then, she goes out into public without any panties! Luckily nobody has found out... yet!"

Berengar had an awkward expression on his face as he heard this; after all, he could guess that this was probably a result of the training he put Linde through. On more than one occasion, he had done things to her in a public setting.  Thus he immediately switched the topic as he gazed over at the information that had been compiled.

"We need about a month for the ship to be retrofitted and the supplies to be gathered. However, after that is finished, we can set off for Vinland; I can't wait to see the legendary land with my very own eyes!"

Honoria responded to this enthusiasm with a simple joke.

"If we manage to find a lost Kingdom, you better not bring back its princess as another one of your brides!"

The moment she said this, Berengar had an awkward smile on his face. Ultimately he decided to let this snide remark pass. After all, there was still much more work to be done before he could step foot on the soil of the new world. For the time being, he would have to find a suitable candidate to court his sister, and he already had somebody in mind. 

---

If you want to support me so that I can commission art of the characters in my novel, as well as maps, coat of arms, and other vital illustrations, please visit my Patreon page at 

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=7947078

All of the art will be released within my discord server for free.

https://discord.gg/nMWVhMaukT