It had been a week since I sent that very satisfying letter to Baron Plimgus. For the first time since I had lived in this world, each seat at my table was in use. Each headman and steward of the new villages was in attendance at this meeting. Benjamin sat at a small table, taking minutes for the meeting. We had been going over production numbers and supply distribution for each village.

"Ok, now onto the next matter," I said with a grin. I was really looking forward to this part. "Those of you who have recently become headmen have received a request from me to submit names for replacement headmen of the villages you are over. Captain Draves has expressed to me your concern that the reason headmen are replacing you is due to my displeasure with your service or your lack of qualification for the position. I want to assure you that this is not the case."

Now comes the fun part.

"Each of you received your position because you were trusted men of the captain, and he was sure of your capability to lead me. The fact that you were all soldiers before your appointment makes you overqualified for your position. As such, we are going to align the barony with the standard feudal system of the kingdom. I need knights, gentlemen. People I can trust to be loyal to me and not to some other noble trying to force their people into our barony. Therefore, due to your loyalty and service, I elevate you all to the first knights of Bicman."

The room was silent for a long moment before one of the soldiers stood and bowed. "My lord, I cannot express my gratitude for the trust you have placed in me. I swear I and for all my posterity will serve you to the best of our abilities."

The rest of the new headmen stood and did likewise. Josh, the prior steward of Barium, had been made a headman, so he did not stand. I had explained to him in a private meeting that he was not a military man, so currently, per the kingdom's rules, he could not be elevated to knighthood. Not that it didn't happen. Benjamin explained that the laws of the kingdom had been bent for political favors, but I personally was not sure enough in my position to break the rules. I did, however, tell him that if that was his desired path, I would have his current duties suspended as he was trained for the next few years to qualify for knighthood. He had declined, stating that if I found a worthy man for him to serve under, he would be happy. When everyone had finished pledging their loyalty to me and we spent some time on congratulations and mingling, I continued.

"Now, since we are organizing ourselves in a manner more acceptable with how the kingdom does things, you may wonder how this coincides with the Army of North Cove or North Cove Defense Force. Simply put, all knights are lieutenants in the Army and are responsible for maintaining a force of thirty men. This means the platoons will be smaller. And will be organized as three knights in every company. The current captains of our army have already been notified that they will be elevated to the status of a knight and will receive one of the villages in Bicman. Not only will they be responsible for their platoon, but also two additional platoons under your management. We have a couple of gaps to fill in, but you will see how it all works once we have a swearing-in ceremony."

"May I speak, my lord?" Neil, the soon-to-be knight of New Hope, asked.

"Certainly."

"I just want to make sure I am clear. The companies will now be made of three fiefs. We are each having thirty men-at-arms. I am assuming you have offered Captain Vance, Cofi. And he will be the senior knight for Kal and me."

"A good observation. Did he tell you?" I was about to be upset.

Neil looked over at Kal, and they both smiled. "Yesterday, he was snooping around our villages, asking all sorts of questions," Kal said. "We were discussing his odd behavior on our way here. He is a good man, but not very subtle."

I laughed, "Glad to see he is enthusiastic."

"So this means that we are now allowed to bring some of the new citizens into the military," Kal asked.

"That is your biggest responsibility. You are responsible for training men after they have made it through the basic training provided by Lieutenant Chris. You have all been briefed on the concept of mock battles. We will be having those regularly. Also, congratulations, you get to be the first people to be enrolled in the North Cove School of Etiquette."

*****

I knocked on the door, where I was told I would find the ladies of Bicman.

"You may enter," came Catherine's voice from the other side of the door.

I entered to find Catherine, Emily, and Elizabeth all sitting at a table having a tea party. I had to do that with my niece on occasion, and I thought stuffed animals always made good conversationalists. Perhaps I should suggest that they incorporate it into their training. They all stood and bowed.

"How is the training going?" I said with a smile.

"It is going well, my lord," Catherine said. "Emily is an excellent student."

"Thank you for your assistance in the matter, Lady Catherine."

At that comment Catherine grimiced and Emily looked confused.

"Oh, sorry, I mean Katrina. Forgive me, but you remind me of my cousin Catherine's appearance." I said.

"It is a compliment to be compared to your lordship's cousin." She said without missing a beat.

"It certainly is. She is a very stunningly beautiful young lady."

"I am flattered," Catherine said with a slight hint of pink rising to her cheeks.

"Unfortunately, unlike you, she has always been quite flighty and can be rather verbose," I said with a grin.

Elizabeth snorted and tried to turn it into a cough.

Catherine glared at her but turned to me and said, "Lord Bicman, perhaps you also need to attend the lessons. It is impolite to gossip about a Noblewoman."

I wanted to tell her that it wasn't gossip if it were true, but Emily interrupted our banter. "Amos, when can I go to the paper shop? It's already finished, and all my workers are there." She said in a voice that was very nearly bordering on pleading.

"Don't worry, Em; we will be taking off tomorrow."

"My lord, I look forward to seeing your other settlements," Catherine said.

"Forgive me, Lady Katrina, but I have a different job for you. I need you to stay here."

She looked disappointed. "I need you to create a new curriculum for your new school."

She looked dumbstruck for a moment. "My Lord, I do not understand. What school are you speaking of?"

"Before we leave tomorrow, we will have a small ceremony in which each of our villages will receive a knight. That means we will be adding several families to the ranks of nobility in the barony. You will be responsible for instructing them and their families in proper etiquette. We will call it Katrina's School of Knightly Etiquette. I think it has a nice ring to it."

Catherine looked overwhelmed.

"I will have to steal Lady Emily away from you for a while, though. She really does need to check on the progress of her workshop."

Emily beamed at the comment.

"So you want me to create a plan on how to train commoners to be nobles," Catherine said.

"Yes, and you have full access to all the paper you need. In fact, I just had a thought. Once you have completed creating this program, you can write a book. It could be called "Katrina's Book of Manners." I am sure it would sell well. And you would be making money from it."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"I suppose," she said dubiously.

"Trust me, all my ideas are good ideas," I said boastfully.

This caused Emily to giggle, and I gave her a mock glare. That only caused her to purse her lips tightly so she wouldn't laugh.

I reflexively reached over and attempted to ruffle her hair. She immediately threw her hands over her head and dodged out of the way. I was impressed with how fast she moved. Heck, I think the Flash would have been impressed.

Elizabeth gasped, and I turned to see the city girls staring at me in wide-eyed shock. Note to self, ruffling hair is taboo in high society. That's a shame. Ruffling hair is fun and a great stress reliever. Looking at the girls' expressions, though, convinces me that it isn't a trend I should try to set if I want a long and happy life.

I straightened my grin into a more stately expression and said, "Well, ladies, as much as I would like to stay and enjoy your lovely company, there is much to do as a count."

I gave Emily a wink and a smile. I knew I would probably get an earful about it later, but there was no way I was going to stop teasing my friend just because my cousin and Elisabeth were here. I gave a polite nod to them and left.

The expression of horror on all three of the ladies' faces would help me endure the rest of the day. Especially the part where I put my signature on the documents concerning military law.

I sat down with Benjamin and Draves, and for the last week, we went over the kingdom's law concerning discipline in the military. For the most part, I agreed with everything. I was afraid that the go-to discipline would be execution. However, the kingdom seemed to have a more pragmatic approach. Of course, if the individual fled the battlefield and kept running, then they were put to death. I could understand that, as they were responsible for other men's deaths and were untrustworthy. If the person refused to fight or ran and then came back, they had their status reduced to a serf if they had a higher status or were sold as kingdom slaves to Turabe if they already had been serfs and were just conscripts.

The reason I liked this is that it wasn't wasteful. Human resources were a commodity. Why kill someone when you could put them to work? What I disagreed with was selling them as slaves. I am sure that it kept some from fleeing the battle, knowing they might end up in Turabe salt mines, but I felt it was excessive. Instead, some of those who had run were just sixteen-year-old kids. So, I shortened the sentence to ten years on road crews. For those who ran from this first fight, I reduced it to three years because I found out we had neglected to explain military law to everyone. We removed any benefits they had received from joining the military, but there were no consequences for failure to do their duty other than the three years.

So, after some back and forth with my advisors, we had finally come to this conclusion, and I would sign it today. I then had to read the law out to the military. That information would spread to the prisoners. Then, tomorrow, I would speak to the deserters who came back and reduce their sentences from ten to three years to show my generosity. We had caught three deserters and had to execute them.

This whole debacle left a bad taste in my mouth. However, this was just the unpleasant side of being responsible for everybody. I swore I would do my best for these people, and that meant taking responsibility for every aspect of this place.

I was worried that killing and imprisoning people would put a damper on the recruiting effort, but the money we were paying made becoming a soldier a tempting offer for the men. Also, people understood the necessity for it.

We would be building a military base near the Nore soon, which would include housing for soldiers' families. As well as schools and other amenities. It wouldn't be free, but it would be cheap.

It always amazed me how happy these people were with so little. I always considered the other kids in my school to have grown up with a silver spoon in their mouth, but compared to how these people lived, I grew up with a diamond spoon in my mouth. Death was so common that 40 years old was considered ancient among commoners. Malnutrition, disease, and injury took most people. So why not live well while you have the chance?

I wasn't expecting to fix all the problems, but if I could help fix death from malnutrition and maybe help people to avoid the biggest problems with disease.

That night, before it got too dark, I decided to play around a bit more with the generator. When, during dinner, Emily found out my plans for the evening, deciding to join me. I think she just wanted to try to shock me.

*******

"I still don't understand how this works," she said as we once again tried to generate more power.

"Good, because if you did, it would be really embarrassing," I said.

"Why?"

"Because I don't understand it all."

"I don't understand how you can invent something if you don't know how it works."

"It's not that I don't know anything. It's just that I forgot most of that portion of my physics class. We watched a video with two magnets and a wire loop."

"Videos are those moving pictures you talked about before. Like those picture books you flip." She clarified. She and I had talked a lot about my past life, including school and learning all sorts of things.

"Exactly. So the video showed something that looked like this with these two rings attached to this shaft."

"Why two rings?"

"I have no idea, maybe for stability and because it has to flow back around. The reason we got it to work last time is that I ensured the beginning wire and end wire did not have the same lead wire or whatever it is called. It should have been obvious, but maybe that was explained in my textbooks."

"Why not just attach it to the same ring?"

"Again, maybe it was in my textbooks, but I am a visual learner, I think. I remember a lot of the videos but not much of what I read. I am just trying to dig through old memories."

"So what are we going to do next?"

"Well, I want to try coiling the wire that is between the magnets."

"Why?" She asked.

"Well, coiling it will put more wire between the magnets, and maybe that will increase the electricity."

"If more wire would help, would it be a good idea to make the wire thicker or maybe add more magnets?"

"That's why I like you, Em. You are really good at asking the right questions." I said with a smile.

This caused her cheeks to turn a slight shade of pink. It isn't like I hadn't thought of those ideas, but it never hurts to compliment someone. Besides, I wanted to encourage her to continue asking questions. Eventually, I would turn this project over to someone else, probably not Emily. She already had enough on her plate, but the duties of a count would eventually start consuming more of my time as well.

It would be helpful for whoever I turned this over to to have someone they could consult with, though. She is a great person to bounce ideas off of. I sighed inwardly. I don't know if these little experiments would earn me the title of Father of Electricity. It required significantly more power before this was useful. Actually, what I really needed was steam power first, but that would have to be done in Pine Grove, and there were too many other things we had to do to prepare for Rabiss.

After the experiment was over, I was ready to retire. Unfortunately, when I exited the study, Benjamin was waiting for me. "My lord, I know you dislike me interrupting you when you are experimenting, so I waited to give this to you until afterward."

He handed me a letter, and as I looked at the seal, a chill ran down my back. Kimton.

I really hate letters.

Marcus

I relaxed into a soft chair as I waited for my patron's servant to appear. The room was small but richly furnished. Wine had been provided upon my arrival while I waited. I tapped my finger nervously on the smooth wood of the arm of my chair while I waited. If this meeting went well, I would soon have everything I desired.

It was about an hour before a large, stately man entered the room. I stood, and we both nodded. "Welcome, young man. I hope your travels were safe."

"Not at all, but hopefully, you will be pleased with the results of my task," I said confidently.

"Please report."

"I entered the barony without any problems and immediately went to an old hideout I had used before. I watched and waited until they started bringing people North. When the people arrived in Kerisi, I began looking around. I figured I could disguise myself as a potential logger. But when I approached the camp, it had changed. There was a water wheel attached to a building. I thought initially they had built a grain mill, but it turned out to be something much more fascinating." I paused and took a sip of my wine.

"Young man, I do not have time for drama. Stop stalling and tell me what you found. The master is waiting." He said in an agitated tone.

"It was using the water to move a saw. It cut through the wood quickly. You could do the work of ten men with only a couple. I snuck around at night, and I am pretty sure I can help you replicate it."

"The master will be pleased, but we sent you there because you said you could find their method of making the paper they are selling."

"And I did. It took a while, but I found the building they were using to make the paper. Unfortunately, I could not view it during the day. But after about a tenday, I was able to sneak in. I saw the machines they were using." I said proudly.

"And what material were they using? You had claimed before they were using rags, but we have tried that. We can't get any results."

This is where things were going to get a little sticky, and I may lose my head.

"I was interrupted as I was in the building. A boy came in, and I had to flee. When I fled, he dropped his oil lamp in surprise and burnt the whole place to the ground."

"So you failed," he said flatly.

"I didn't fail. I found a way to get everything we needed. I found out that the girl who invented the paper-making process still worked there. We were best friends growing up and would have married had it not been for her status. I entered the building at that time because I found that she hadn't left yet. I tried to persuade her to leave with me. She was too afraid of Lord Bicman, though. She was afraid that if she left, he would hunt her down and kill her. If we can get rid of Lord Bicman, I am sure she will tell us everything," I said excitedly.

"Are you suggesting we kill a lord?" he said, stone-faced.

"Well, if we could get her away from the count without him coming after her, I am sure that would work. The girl is the key, though. And she will help me if she doesn't fear the count."

"You have done well. I am sure the master will be pleased. You may report back to Fin now, and we will contact you when the master makes his decision. Make sure to write down everything you can about the saw wheel ."

I smiled and stood to leave. Everything would work out. They would kill the monster, and Emily would be free.

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