World Development System 109 40. Prince Lukav's Past Part II.

Eanred spoke as he tried to understand the thought process of Duke Norman, "I guess Duke Norman is betting on Prince Hector and the fact that North-frontier Town is land-locked on all the sides and has no access to the outside world without that port for trade improves his position for war. Well, personally I too prefer Hector becoming the king or that guy Charlie as I know for one that he is quite a sinister guy. Felix becoming king would create a lot of chaos unless Lukav is dead. If Felix is successfully able to kill Lukav then I guess there won't be any questions."

Lionheart said as he heard them, "As far as I know they would at most only get the weapons. Not the blueprints and they would have to research them for sometime before they can even imitate the lowest quality of the ballista. So We don't need to worry about them getting their hands on Ballista."

Eanred spoke, "From the way that Count dealt with this situation, it seems that he knew that he would be eyed like prey and hence he made a deal with us at such a crucial moment. However, I would have still hidden that weapon like the Lorr Family until it was really necessary to show it to others, The thing about Lorr was that they weren't able to hide it from me and hence our predictions. However, that Count sometimes might seem naive but he is quite cunning like the situation this time where he bought archers so early when he wasn't even something big and hid those ballistae for so long. I guess he prepared for a lot of time before taking his actions. However, he sometimes seems a lot naive when he tries to openly show his disrespect to the radiant church or the previous encounter where he chose to save a slave over keeping relations with Evan and Duke Fjord. Well, value only lies to the beholder I guess he has planned something."

Luke asked confusingly, "Master, why do you think that he had something in his mind?"

Eanred spoke as he thought, "I guess it is because of my instincts and years of experience. Because if he was a fool he wouldn't have been able to make so many connections in such a short amount of time."

****
Duke and John were at Tornwall's Workshop.
Duke then asked John, "What do you think would happen at Riverside town. As you don't seem distressed I guess you are either pretty good at hiding your emotions or you have something planned already."

John thought and replied, "Well, I think either Hector's men will be able to successfully kill Evan and the blame will fall on us or Jake will kill Evan and the blame will still fall on us so I don't care either way. I would rather start to prepare our naval fleet against the onslaught of Duke Fjord. As we earned a lot of money recently, I bought quite a few old ships from Marquis Ray. Some ships will be remodeled according to my preferences. However, we still need to secure our passage to sea as we are already being targetted by Prince Hector via that pussy baron. As for my emotions, well even I don't know if I am good at controlling them or not. However, I am someone who likes to think of solutions rather than worry about my problems. Killing Evan won't affect us much as when it comes to naval warfare, we will have a complete edge on them with our ballistas at least for some time. I have already found a naval admiral for our sea fleet, I guess you will be able to meet him later on and if you are curious the only thing I can say is that he was previously a sea pirate who used to raid big merchant ships. So rather than worrying about the outcome of the event at Riverside town, I would instead start to prepare our naval prowess against the onslaught of Duke Fjord as it would be the worst situation based on the events taking place."

Duke smiled and curiously asked John, "By revealing so much information to me, aren't you worried about me betraying you now or in the future?"

John spoke in a carefree manner, "Well, I won't worry if it is future and as for the present, my instincts tell me that you can be trusted. and there is this thing called mutual interests that wouldn't make sense for you betray me. Well, mostly it's the instincts. Lets head to the testing site, you will be able to see that weapon first hand in our testing fields."

Tornwall arrived and greeted Duke, "Welcome to Duke, we have already made the preparations for the testing."

Duke was confused as he asked Tornwall directly, "I heard that Forgemaster Tornwall is a slave, where is your mark? Are you really Tornwall or someone imitating him?"

Tornwall rubbed his nose as he said, "Actually, Lord freed me from my slavery just a few days ago because of my previous performance and I guess he trusted me a lot and of course I won't betray the trust that Lord has shown me."

Duke was quite surprised after hearing this and looked at John as he nodded which confirmed it.
John explained in a serious manner, "Well, Tornwall is one of the important members of my administration and a lot of officials were feeling pretty low since Tornwall was a slave however at the same time he had a lot of authority so they proposed to free Tornwall and I too felt that my most important men shouldn't be slave as this would reflect badly on me so I released him from slavery. Well, I am only looking for an opportunity to free Taylor as well."

Tornwall then commented, "That's true, this has also solved the awkward problem of other conservative guys who felt conflicted as I was a slave but at the same time, I had a lot of achievements so they wanted to respect me for my achievements. However, I think a lot of officials have changed their behavior towards slaves after watching Jake previously fight Marcus and realizing their own positions on what would have happened if they as commoners were against him where Lord decided to support their men."

Duke then looked at John and Tornwall as he said, "You guys should be careful as the dwarven kingdom is the east aswell is sending their spies to this town from now on as they heard about the ballista and wanted to confirm its existence. This can also be confirmed by the fact that they have increased their forces and patrolling in the eastern sea of Aelius Kingdom. I guess they might have already smuggled some ships full of spies towards Aelius."

Tornwall's face changed as he heard about the Dwarven kingdom because he knew that a lot had changed after that conspiracy all those years ago.
He thought, 'I guess I still can't escape them, however, I am glad that I choose to follow Lord John as he would surely protect his men.'

Duke whispered to Tornwall, "Your Lord might not know your entire background and past but I know it. Aren't you worried about involving him in this mess."

Tornwall spoke gravely, "Well, I trust him and he trusts me and if it comes down to the matter of existence for Lord's domain then I won't hesitate to use my life. However, I am confident that we will only prosper here at North-frontier town. I know he will become a great King known by everyone in all the realms. The very fact that he treats everyone equally is his biggest trait and that will be his biggest asset in his kingdom."

Chapter end