Swiss Arms

A brief peace before the next crisis…

Swiss Arms

Chapter 16

-VB-

My little corner of the Swiss-to-be valley finally gained peace, if only briefly.

I told myself that this reprieve would be brief because the chaos outside my valley continued on.

"It's going to get worse," dad told me directly in the first-ever "fort-wide" meeting. I would have called it a town hall meeting, but town halls were generally the local village's church or monastery, so calling it a town hall meeting wasn't right. Church meeting? Village meeting (except their village wasn't my village)?

Whatever it would come to be called by the villagers, they put me in charge of it because my wooden fort was where the meeting was taking place, and apparently giving me some kind of leadership role was their way of thanking me.

You know, after they forced themselves on me and my consciousness. They weren't being ungrateful, just a little dense and ignorant of what I personally wanted. My desire for peaceful and explorative days of just me and my power seemed to grow further and further away with each passing day. Worse, what little bits I have accomplished seemed to be hazardous to the people. The biggest of these hazards was the mine shaft.

People couldn't breathe or survive a mine shaft as I could, and the few idiots who thought working the mines for the protections I've given them was a good way to pay me back. Sufficed to say, I closed the mine shaft until I could kick them out once things were safe.

But safe was not what was happening outside my walls.

I glared at dad. "Tell me something else, dad," I grunted before looking back at the people. "First off, I think we need to go and harvest as much of the fields that your village has," I told them. "We got some more food by 'raiding,' for a given definition of it, but it's not something I want to have to continue."

Dad - given a seat in the meeting simply because he was my dad and also because he was the leader of a mercenary group numbering in dozens - nodded. "That is a good idea, especially since the late Count of Sax-Misox didn't move too deep into Landwasser valley."

"He didn't?" Kraft asked.

"No. He wanted to crush the Count of Waldenberg as quickly as possible. Speaking of whom," dad said as he turned to me. "Thanks for killing my paymaster."

I shrugged. "Maybe he shouldn't have overextended," I replied unapologetically. "Or send his men up against a fort instead of sieging it down. What was that about anyways?"

Dad spoke up. "Maybe he was in a hurry. Everyone knows that outside of the lands of the Prince-Bishop of Chur, everything else is either allied to or owned by the Habsburgs. Burning towns so close to their lands was not going to make them happy."

I looked at him. "You know a lot."

"Of course," he puffed up. "The people of Uri is known for knowing great many things."

I rolled my eyes at his regional pride. "If you say so, dad. Can you tell me more about the Habsburgs then?" I knew about them at the height of their power in the 1600's and 1700's, but not about who they were right now.

Dad looked contemplative as the rest of the meeting look at him, waiting for his response. "Well, they are the current King of the Germans and Romans." The current era was a shitty era. No emperor was currently acknowledged by the pope, and as a result, there have been unrest throughout the empire. The closest position to the emperor was the old King of the Germans, which the Habsburg controlled the title of, but they were also in the process of fighting among each other. "Unfortunately for us, they are currently fighting the King of Bohemia."

I raised an eyebrow. "Something tells me that they are unlikely to help us then."

"No, he wouldn't, considering that Travaos and the Landwasser valley are not close to any important trade routes. It is also outside his control of the County of Tyrol."

I frowned. "So the neighboring lords will continue to wage war."

"Yes," he sighed. "We actually had two offers for Uri. One came from the Count of Toggenburg and the other had been from the Count of Sax-Misox. Toggenburg should still be fighting the Prince-Bishop of Chur."

Toggenburg was the title and lord of the lands northwest of Chur and east of Zurich. They were right next to the Habsburg, who controlled the County of Kyburg (which was the Habsburg's main seat of power as of the moment). I knew this much.

I blinked. "Wait, are the Habsburg currently at war with the Bohemians over the Duchy of Austria?"

Dad looked at me in surprise. "Uh, yes. How did you know the name of the duchy?"

I waved him off. "Nothing important." I had just realized that the current era I lived in was during the rise of the Habsburgs as the most powerful house in the Holy Roman Empire and then in Europe. Once they won this war, they would have the Duchy of Austria, Duchy of Styria, Duchy of Carniola, and the County of Tyrol, giving them their historical borders.

What was troublesome about this was that the Habsburgs should be attacking the Swiss Confederation in two decades, which would mark the start of the growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy.

So where was I going with this? What was the situation surrounding my little valley? Quite simply, I was surrounded on all sides by either belligerent lords seeking short term gains even if it meant earning the ire of the current King of the Germans by messing around in his neighborhood and powerful lords who would eventually dominate the entire region. They were very likely to try to conquer me if I make something great out of my valley.

I hated the thought.

I shook my head. I had to get my head out of thinking in the long term. The villagers of Travaos needed help here and now.

I turned to dad. "Dad, I want to hire you and your neighbors."

He raised an eyebrow. "You don't have the m-"

I stood up, cutting him off, and then walked up the tower (we were holding the meeting at the ground floor of my tower). Once I was out of their sight, I grabbed some gold nuggets and rough gemstone from one of the locked boxes, gathered them into a small pouch, and walked back down.

He stared at me in surprise when I placed the pouch down on the table and gestured for him to look. Curiosity got the better of him and he did. He fingered the opening and loosened it. He peered in and -.

He snapped it shut by pulling at the twain in a hurry, and looked at me in shock. "Are you mad?! Where did you even get these?!"

I scoffed. "Some of the things I was doing before these guys decided to saddle themselves on me," I thumbed at the village representatives.

Dad glared at me for a bit before he nodded. "At least we're getting paid, so I guess I'll do what you ask, but if you're asking for something stupid like your brother does…"

"I just want you to protect the villagers why they go out and harvest their crops. It should still be fine, right?"

The villagers looked in surprise and then looked at each other.

"Aye," Kraft replied firmly.

"Then take some carts with you, harvest as much as you can, and bring them back here. We'll probably need most of the people not assigned to guard duty to do it."

Ping!

[You have gained a new skill!]

[Delegate] LvL 1

Divide and conquer… that work.

*Improves work efficiency of workers, employees, soldiers, and subordinates by 0.05% per lvl.

*Output = (Work.Efficiency)*(Work.Proficiency)

-Work Proficiency is determined by a skill user's level and supplemental skills.

It was a great skill for a leader, but it wouldn't directly impact the leader himself.

"Let's get this done within a month."

---

The meeting came to an end shortly afterward as I didn't care about how the villagers assigned roles among themselves.

Dad talked to me again once the villagers left my tower, but he mostly grilled me about what exactly I was doing in the middle of a valley out of the way from everywhere. I just grinned and shrugged, leaving him to huff and puff as he left.

After dad left, Arnold and Alvia approached me.

"Yes…?" I asked them.

Alvia was the first to speak up with excitement. "Can you teach me more about gem faceting?!"

Arnold wasn't the one to lose. "Please teach me to become a warrior!"

I blinked in surprise.

… This was going to cut into my personal time, wasn't it?

I sighed.

"Okay, but I'm giving you only advice and help for one hour a day each, alright?"

I sucked at saying no.

Actually, could [Delegate] be used to improve someone's skills?

…Sorry, Alvia and Arnold. You two are about to become my guinea pigs.

"Actually…" I drawled with a grin.

-VB-

Arnold regretted asking Hans for help.

The man had gone from dismissively telling them that he would help only one hour a day to deciding that he would help them for six hours a day.

Alvia went to sleep complaining about how her fingers ached.

As for him?

Everything ached.

He spent three hours each day running. Hans ran with him, but the monster never fucking sweated! Once he finished running, Hans forced him to shoot arrows for an hour and a half before making him swing swords for another hour and a half!

The only "good" thing that he was getting out of this training was that Hans was force feeding him all sorts of meat, fish, and vegetables at every meal.

And it had been a month since they started.

… Arnold couldn't help but notice that he was now very big. He wasn't rotund at the midsection like some of the other villager; his muscles stood out, he lacked fat, and he felt stronger!

But he hadn't actually learned to be a warrior yet. He swung swords, yes, but it was always the same three swings: vertical strike, horizontal strike, and jabbing. Hans called those three the basic strikes, and wouldn't teach him anymore until he got them down right.

At dawn, Arnold walked out of his barrack, which was where unmarried single youth and men slept in, and stretched. When he finished stretching, Hans was there, and Arnold wordlessly joined him in the run.

By the time they came back, the rest of the villagers still holed up in Hans' fort woke up and were working. With grain coming in from the fields, most of them were working to grind the grain or chop up the vegetables for soup.

Their morning meal was simple: cooked bear meat (from Hans' personal preserved meat), a quarter of a loaf of bread, and a vegetable soup. After the meal, Hans let him spend fifteen minutes of free time, which Arnold spent just lounging about.

And then he headed over to Hans' training yard and found himself surprised.

Hans stood waiting for him not with a quiver of arrows and a bow but with a wooden sword and a bag.

"It's time to start your real training."

Hans tossed the sword at him, and Arnold caught it in surprise.

"We will work on…"

Arnold grasped the sword with both of his hands and gulped in anticipation.

"Your footing!"

"...Huh?"

Hans reached down to the bag, opened it, and … pulled out stones.

"You have two choices: dodge or parry," he said as he tossed a river stone up to the air and then caught it as it came down. "During this exercise, your sword must remain firmly vertical. You must not take hits. Any questions?"

"U-Uh, how fast are you going to be throwing them?"

Hans smiled.

Arnold didn't like that smile.

"I'll be sure to not hit you in the head with any particularly fast throw. Besides, if you can dodge my rocks, then you aren't going to get hit by arrows, which is good!"

And then he threw a rock as an example to the wooden wall of the training yard.

Something whistled like an arrow and then there was a crack.

Arnold looked to the left and saw a rock embedded in the wooden wall, the same wall that was made using entire trunks of trees.

Arnold cursed the man as he began to try to dodge the rocks.

He did not succeed.