Chapter 120: Banquet at Silas-san’s Mansion part 2
The meeting I convened the next morning began under a gloomy cloud. Maybe it’s my imagination, but the women’s eyes on me feel… severe. I’d also called Katolle in with the squad leaders to cover guild business.
「Morning. Thanks for coming. First, about the plan to attract the Commercial Guild to Ares. Katolle, report.」
「Yes, Alan-sama. Yesterday Alan-sama negotiated with Silas-san, the Gantz guildmaster, and learned of a method to obtain a communications artifact by transferring one from an existing city, drastically reducing the wait—since the normal process takes years of screening, this approach will allow us to establish the guild in a much shorter time.」
「Oh? That may do, then,」 Lord Leister said.
In this atmosphere, having someone approve of this is a mercy.
「Silas-san recommended his daughter Arista-san for guildmaster, but Alan-sama refused and named my father Tarus instead. I’ll summon him at once. That is all.」
「「Ahem, ahem.」」
Pointed throat-clearing—Serena and Sharon, surely. Katolle and I glanced at each other.
「A-also, Alan-sama agreed to take custody of Arista-san, and used that as the condition to win over her father, Silas-san. That is all.」
A long, heavy sigh rolled around the room. More than one person. Katolle sat down as if fleeing.
「So then, Alan-sama—what position will Lady Arista hold?」 Dalshim asked. He sympathized, maybe, but as Ria’s vassal, he wouldn’t pull this punch.
「My intention is to have her serve in a position similar to Katolle.」
A collective sigh.
「Isn’t it fine, so long as we make it explicit that Ria-sama holds the highest standing here,」 Kenny blurted—and was promptly shushed.
Ursula and the viscounts didn’t know Ria’s true identity; the rebuke was fair. Still, it gave me a hint.
「Lord Corinth, my marriage proposal remains valid. If you require my cooperation, rely on me. A guildmaster’s daughter is a commoner at best—leave her to a noble like me,」 Ursula declared with baffling confidence. No one engaged; her words floated away.
「Alan—what do you intend?」 Ria came straight at me at last.
「I want to apologize for acting on my own regarding Silas-san and the guild. Sorry. But when you’re allies, compromise in the right places matters.」
「I’m not upset about the guild. I’m concerned you’d be bringing someone inside who doesn’t fully grasp the situation.」
True—Katolle knew Ria’s identity. Arista-san does not. Perhaps I’ve been hasty.
「Then I want you to manage Arista-san. My intention was always to have her work for me as a sign of trust with her father, nothing more. Keep her within your purview.」
「So she’ll be under my authority. But why me?」
「Because I trust you. You’re acquainted with her, too. You won’t treat her badly.」
Ria exhaled.
「If you insist, then Arista-san will be a retainer accepted as a hostage from Silas-san.」
A stir ran through the hall.
「Framed as a guarantee of Silas-san’s loyalty—sensible,」 Leister agreed.
Good. With that, the tension ebbed. Serena and Sharon are still glaring in stereo, but Elna seems on board.
「In any case, I will be in charge of Arista-san. Alan, you will not meet her privately without my permission. Everyone else—treat her as under my protection.」
Everyone nodded soberly. Ria’s tone wasn’t full ‘princess mode’, likely because newcomers like Ursula didn’t know the truth. Ursula looks a touch chagrined—she must understand seniority puts Ria a cut above her, even without the reasons named. Still, I need to toss Ursula a bouquet—ah. The migrant escort plan. Few know the details yet.
「All right—let’s move on to plans.」
With the headline issue framed, the room finally settled. Time for the main course.
「We’ll leave Gantz to Magistrate Leister and four Satellite squads. Everyone else withdraws to Ares. Until we can stand up a local garrison, we’ll rotate Satellite squads to cover Gantz.」
I looked around.
「There’s a matter I discussed with Ursula and Viscount Barten to put before you all. Ursula, please.」
「Understood. After discussion with Lord Corinth, my troops will escort his migrants currently in the Cecilio Kingdom. My name is known throughout Cecilio—no trouble will arise.」
A ripple of approval swept the room. Roberto had only brought the vanguard; most migrants devoted to Ria were still in Cecilio and Alois. With the troops of a great noble like Ursula in charge, the move should go smoothly. Her soldiers were elite; perfect as escort.
「A few will remain as my guard, but most already departed with Lord Corinth’s leave; the rest will return home after they tour Ares. I am, on paper, a hostage; I will remain in Lord Corinth’s care. Using that as pretext, we will bring our people’s property into Ares under the guise of a ransom for a beautiful royal princess taken captive—namely, me.」
Buoyed by the room’s expectations, Ursula started to run long, so I cut in.
「Ursula, I’m counting on you for the migrants. I’ll also guarantee protection for your people. We’ll prepare comfortable housing and fields for everyone, and cover food and wages at first.」
「You have my thanks, Lord Corinth.」
「Next—Viscount Barten, if you would explain last night’s discussion.」
「As you command. Last night, I consulted with the Lord Protector regarding soldiers’ equipment. As we expand, outfitting is essential. How shall we proceed?」
A headache, that. Up until now, the recruiting we did targeted professional soldiers, meaning the soldiers already owned their own gear, and we just had to pay wages. With open recruitment, many would lack arms. We’d have to issue it—and aim for some standardization.
「Budget doesn’t allow for everyone to be cavalry. If we raise infantry, bowmen or spearmen—which? And how to equip them? I admit we’ve not thought deeply about that so far.」
The room burst into opinions. Specialists have strong preferences. Hm. At this rate, we’ll never reach a conclusion. My field is space infantry; I can’t pretend to know bows and spears. The Satellite members are elite, but many are former royal guards, not line soldiers. We’ll likely have to take a page from the late Margrave Ludvic’s Army or Belta’s royal army.
「In any case, we don’t need to decide today. It depends on the soldiers we can recruit and their numbers. Draft your own proposals in the meantime.」
I shelved the problem for now.
「We can’t mount every man and hand out magic swords. But we can avoid shortages in ordinary bows and spears. I’ll focus budgets on broadly improving arms. We’ll assign training and organization by aptitude once we see who we have.」
With a finite budget, wishing for an all-cavalry, all-magic-sword force is a fantasy. Even ordinary weapons in mass would be costly.
「Agreed. But can Gantz and Ares produce all the weapons we need?」
「As we are now, no.」
「I have many fine smiths in my lands,」 Ursula said.
「I’ve received reports there are experienced weapons craftsmen inside Ares as well,」 Ria added, unwilling to yield.
「Craftsmen help, but starting from scratch will take time. So we need to rethink how we make things. Our bigger problem is materials. We need stable supplies of good iron and coal first.」
「Given our target headcount, indeed,」 Dalshim nodded.
「Say we arm 5,000 soldiers with new swords in a year—that’s fourteen finished blades every day. Every day. Even if we hired fifteen smiths, one completed sword per craftsman per day is harsh.」
「True enough.」
「Hiring hordes won’t solve it—we’ll need to buy some.」
「Mass production has its own method: divide the process, simplify each task, specialize by step. It’s much faster than mastery end-to-end. Quality also rises when a worker perfects a single step. Easier to rotate people, and scaling teams scales output. We’ll build a factory that turns numbers into throughput—just like an army.」
「Remarkable. Such a method exists?」
「And we don’t need only swords. Spears and armor, too. Buying everything at once isn’t realistic. I have a picture of how to make them—but it starts with ore. The Great Demon Forest should be rich in resources; we’ll source domestically in time. For now, we buy nearby. Once production is on rails, we’ll make so many weapons we can sell the surplus.」
「Exporting arms as well—splendid, Alan-sama,」 Katolle said, already counting revenue streams.
「Is that truly feasible?」 Viscount Prell asked.
「It has to be. Otherwise the Margrave’s Army is a daydream. I have a plan for it. We already built a blast furnace in Ares for smelting.」
We lack only feedstock. The steelworks itself is in place—big structures are exactly what general-purpose bots excel at, and a million-person city needs them. The main members have probably seen the outside, but unless they watched the furnace running, they wouldn’t know what it did.
「Securing ore and buying a guild artifact—both take negotiation. While everyone redeploys to Ares, I’ll tour candidate towns with Gloria.」
「Will you take an escort?」
「This time I’ll take Serena and Sharon—if they’re willing.」
「No problem.」
「Of course I’m coming, Alan.」
Good.
「If talks go well, I’ll hand implementation to Serena and Sharon.」
I looked around the room.
「I’ll be leaving the march back to Ares in your hands. Gantz and Ares are ours; get used to moving between them. I’m counting on you.」
With raw materials next on the docket, we set departure for tomorrow and adjourned.
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