3.41: Preparation – 1
“This constitution of yours is… quite something,” Erickson commented. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You’re really going to limit your powers?”
“Not just mine, but that of every leader after me. A constitution must be prepared to survive the worst of humanity. Only then will Chadom have a chance of becoming an eternal haven for all Cha.”
His eyes stared at something only he could see. He licked his lips, then bowed deeply to me.
“Thank you for caring so deeply about us, Sire.”
I was too far away to stop him.
“None of that, Elder. This is my home as much as yours. Besides, I’ll retain almost absolute power during the Founding Period.”
“How long will this Founding Period last?” Bram asked.
“I… don’t know. It could last a fixed number of years or until certain requirements are met. Ideally I would like the threat of Vozoran to be eliminated before ending it.”
The hall echoed with drawn breaths.
“Eliminated?” the Elder asked, his eyebrows almost touching his hairline.
“I don’t mean their destruction. If I can achieve a lasting peace through diplomacy, that would be the best outcome.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. Maybe show them it would cost them too much to attack us?”
“That is…”
“Far beyond us?”
He nodded silently.
“We’re not going to achieve it alone, Elder. We’ll be the beating heart, but Nahnon will be our hands and feet.”
Faces tightened around the hall.
I raised my hands. “I know you are still worried about them turning our weapons against us, but trust me, Nahnon is not going to remain as it is now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say I plan on turning it into a much better realm, where they don’t go around persecuting random minorities and waging petty wars on each other.”
“Yeah, and pigs will start flying,” Oren said gruffly.
I didn’t waste my breath answering him. Instead, I looked around the room.
“Any other questions?”
“Will these courts have their own soldiers?” Selig asked.
“No.”
“Then how will they enforce laws?”
“Uh… I must have used the wrong word. They will only… I think the word is ‘adjudicate’? The executive branch will enforce their rulings.”
“So all power remains with you.”
“The Council can intervene if the Executive is ignoring lawful rulings.”
“How? Don’t all the men with weapons still answer to you?”
I sighed.
“You can’t give every branch its own armed force. That’s going backwards toward feudalism. There is no foolproof system against human nature, only the least worst one. We can consider a Parliamentary system as our successor instead of the Presidential one, if that’s what you want. It can be better in many ways.”
“What is that?”
And so it went.
On and on and on.
By the end, I wanted to take a vow of silence.
Ultimately, no matter which system we implemented, the best defense of a country’s future was a healthy, well-educated populace, along with a well-equipped and trained military.
The former would take years, if not decades, to achieve. So I focused on the latter.
The next morning, the ships that had gone to Aldersthron arrived.
Neither Rafiel and Jaklen, nor the letter from Laira, had anything new to tell me.
“So your journey was completely uneventful?” I asked.
“Yes,” Rafiel replied. “On our trip back, there were ships around Stormhaven’s coast sailing around. The sailors vowed that some ships tried to crept close, but once our soldiers lined the deck, they kept their distance.”
“Hmmm.”
No point in analyzing something to death which might turn out to be nothing.
At least now we had a navy capable of patrolling our coastline.
Later that day, the People’s Council was already in the meeting hall when I entered, with four men following behind.
The men stepped inside gingerly, as though they were entering a sacred place.
The Councilors got up to greet me.
“Before I leave,” I said to them, “I want to put a few things in place. First will be the Ministry of Industry. Councilor Baldov?”
“Sire?”
“You sacrificed your health at the puddling furnace to produce the steel for our crossbows. I would like you to lead it.”
“I don’t know anything about leading a ministry.”
“With our small numbers, it’ll be just like leading craftsmen underneath you, as you’ve been doing for decades. Just with a few more rules.”
I pointed to the four men.
“These men will work as Masters of specific industries underneath you. Rowan will be Master of Chemistry, Almar Master of Ceramics, Kovar Master of Metallurgy and Aramid Master of Machining.”
A sporadic, confused applause answered me.
I looked at the four men.
“Please take care of Chadom in my absence.”
The men nodded as one.
I also ended up setting up ministries of Agriculture and Public Works, formalizing the positions of those who would oversee the harvest and lead all the construction projects in our small country.
On the way out, I talked with Kovar about his progress.
He was struggling with forging steel barrels for the last few days, but the man was like a bulldog. I knew he wouldn’t relent until he had found a solution.
His months of practice forging iron barrels finally paid off. The next day, he sent me a message that he had built the first prototype.
Still, it had taken him six days.
“How long do you think it will take you and your people to manufacture a complete rifled muzzleloader from scratch?” I asked him as our group walked into the shade of the testing range.
He scratched his chin.
“Maybe… four days? Definitely within five.”
I kept my expression neutral.
Not fast enough.
There would be only two reliable rifles in Chadom when I left it.
Don’t miss the present for the future, I reminded myself.
Theo unslung a long package from his shoulders and unwrapped it. The recently blackened steel barrel shone dully, bolted onto a used stock.
He and the other men watched me intently as I took out a paper cartridge from my sling bag and tore open its powder-end with my teeth. I poured a small amount of gunpowder in the priming pan, closed it, then turned the gun upright and shoved the rest of the cartridge down its gullet. I pushed it down gently with the cleaning rod, then offered the gun to him.
He took the long weapon and fixed it in the testing stand, then set up a cord around the trigger.
Behind cover, Kovar took the cord Theo had given him and offered it to me.
“Sire.”
“No,” I said, raising my hand. “This is your achievement. It should be you.”
He smiled, nodded and pulled the cord.
The gun cracked, and held.
Smoke curled from the muzzle as the bullet slammed into the sand berm.
We fired it again. Four times.
Then we doubled the charge, after cleaning the barrel properly.
It survived that as well.
We fired it four more times.
Afterwards, Kovar took the rifle outside and inspected it under the sun. He turned it around this way and that in the light.
“Seems fine,” he said, handing it to me.
I took a look inside with my enhanced eyesight.
No cracks. No bowing.
“How about a triple charge?” I proposed.
His tired eyes crinkled as he smiled.
We got behind the cover of sandbags and fired the gun again.
The air exploded.
The deafening bang was mixed with fainter, unpleasant noises.
Everyone froze for a few seconds.
Once our heartbeats had calmed down, we stepped out from the cover.
The gun had jumped out of its stand. We approached it. The barrel was intact. The stand and the gun’s receiver, not so much.
“Mustn’t have screwed it down properly in my excitement,” Theo said sheepishly.
“Or the wood just couldn’t handle the recoil,” I said. “A lesson for you. Be careful with the charge. Flesh isn’t as tough as wood.”
He nodded, staring at the broken gun with respect.
Finally, we had working cannons, guns and ammunition, even if only a few of them.
The seeds of a weapons industry.
The rest was up to Kovar, Lothar and the others. I knew they would do their best to create a military far better than any other.
──────── ⋆✩⋆ ────────
As the day of Jack’s departure drew closer, Aprilia found her heart beating faster.
Even when she was busy with her lessons with Harald, surviving the constant bickering within the new Council, checking up on the schoolchildren or visiting the immigrants, she still found herself thinking of him.
She didn’t feel jealous at the thought of his affections for Reshma or the Queen anymore. But she couldn’t help but seek him out at every opportunity and… make sure she would become pregnant with his child before he left. A voice in her head asked her to wait until they were married. She didn’t want to.
Not anymore. He was finally doing his best to make sure Chadom’s industry as well as government could run without him.
But Aprilia didn’t want to be without him. She also didn’t want to visit Nahnon. Not now. Her wounds, like those of most Cha, were still fresh. There was only one compromise.
She would not let Jack leave her alone a second time.
It was a cloudy day when she found him sitting in front of a workshop, grinding a black powder in a large mortar and humming a tune she had never heard.
She slowly crept closer to listen.
“Ja Ja Jack’s his name, amor of the three Queens.
He was a dawg, if ever was one,
Ja Ja Jack’s his name, Chadom’s greatest libertine,
Everyone gasped yet he wouldn’t stop.”
“Are you singing your own praises now?” she asked, unable to keep a smile from splitting across her lips.
He turned around.
“Just making a song, baby.”
“About yourself?”
He had the decency to grimace a little. Blushing was too much to ask from the lecher.
“Are there two other queens you are hiding from me?” she asked.
“It’s about you, Reshma and Laira.”
“Only—”
She hesitated. It felt strange saying the Queen’s name like that, as if the monarch of a kingdom were just another woman.
“Only Laira Nahnon is a Queen.”
His brows came together in offense. “That’s not true.” Beautiful blue eyes bore into hers. “You all are queens of my heart,” he said in a low, smooth voice.
Her heart throbbed. And something else, a lot lower.
She latched onto him before her knees could wobble.
“Are you fine?” he asked in concern as his arm slipped around her waist.
“No. Inside. Now,” she ordered.
Whatever witty remark he was going to make died on his lips as she pulled him inside the workshop.
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