World Development System 134 64. Future Plans.

Frank nodded and spoke, "Well that's true, the ships are ready but you first need to stamp and sign these papers. We can then go to the ships. Meanwhile, what did you do the ships? From my experience, we arrived quite earlier compared to the time that we predicted earlier at the time of Journey"

John showed a mysterious smile and spoke, "Well, its a secret."
John smiled and thought. 'I redesigned every ship according to its needs and efficiency. Even if they try to imitate, they won't be getting any results. Well, it's good that the ships are working fine."

Frank sighed and spoke in a grave tone, "I guess this is also one of your creations. Royal Family will be looking at you like a greedy wolf if they find out about the performance of those ships, you know this, right? You should be careful. I am sure these ships can match Fjord's ships whether it is speed or maneuverability. Even the Head Captain agreed to it. It's good that I only bought my trusted men since Duke Fjord is targeting us aggressively these days."

Blake too was quite shocked after hearing Frank and understood that John wasn't Joking earlier when it came to the performance of the redesigned ships.
Blake thought as he heard Frank, 'The seas will be exciting and stormy from now on Duke Fjord. The day would not be far when you pay for colluding to catch me last time around and killing most of my men. I will first pay him back in this war where he arrogantly claimed he would decimate Count John. I guess he doesn't know the true fear of those ballistas. I wonder how he will react after hearing about the superiority of these Galleon Ships and the big losses if starts the war.'

Eric meanwhile was having the same poker face as he was quite used to this scene of Count John shocking everyone.
Eric thought as he saw both of them and had a face which had a disgusted look, 'Plebs, getting shocked at every little thing. Isn't this expected already?'
Blake immediately understood as soon as he saw Eric's disgusted look. However, he controlled himself as he saw that there was an important meeting going on and he couldn't mess up.
Ross too was watching this from the sidelines as he merely smiled,
Frank laughed as he saw all of them, "Hahaha. You have a lot of interesting men, John. You are quite lucky to have men who trust you fully. Anyway, your Ships are at the Dock. They are charged high tariffs. And Yeah I forgot to remind you, 2 weeks later Lord Sapphire will come with Elves from the southern Island as they intend to meet you first before making any deal."
John nodded and asked, "Quite a good piece of news. Thank you, Mr. Frank. I heard you are investing aggressively in the town. I guess you are going against your father as this reveals that you trust us enough that we can protect ourselves."
Frank thought nostalgically and remarked, "I guess, over the years, I had lost my courage and this time I am doing as Joseph reminded me of one of the core principles I learned earlier when I started doing business before he left on his own. Well, this time I am quite sure you guys will be able to protect yourselves after watching those ballistas and with the fact that you guys easily gave it to the Royal family. I guess my instincts are good when it comes to judging some situations minutely. And this time I am investing my private funds so the family funds won't be jeopardized. So no one can blame me." Frank smiled mysteriously as he spoke the last sentence.

John smiled and understood "Well, lets go to the dock then well will talk on it later on."

Frank nodded, "True, I too am getting late. Lets go."

As soon as they arrived at the dock Frank bid them farewell after John signed the papers.
John smiled mysteriously and asked Blake, "So what do you say now? Do you believe in these ships after hearing it directly from Frank? and looking directly at these ships?"

Blake nodded and agreed, "I guess, I will have to. It can't be a coincidence that you were able to invent so many things."

Sarah remarked inside his head, "Hmph... just plagiarizing."

John coughed a bit and spoke of his plans to all of them, "From now on we will increase the volume of trade with Sapphire Duchy and other domains. You will be in charge of defending important consignments with our new naval fleet. You can raid the pirates at will and this includes anyone who dares to rob us. So how do you like this sort of freedom without any sort of restrictions? However, your men will also follow the military laws of our Government."

Blake nodded and agreed, "Hmmm..... Now, this seems like a good proposal. Ok, I will accept this project. We will create a base at the Island first and then at the Northlands. From there Our team will first connect to that new town at the northlands and then from that town with North-frontier city as this will be important for our future and connection to the sea."

John nodded and made other suggestions, "That's a good plan. However, you will have to provide me a full plan from the start to the end so that I can plan accordingly."

Blake thought a bit and said, "Ok, I will do that immediately after I contact my men. Anyway, You don't have to worry about your Tradeships from now on as these ships and ballistas are good enough to create chaos among the other pirate crews or Fjord's own navy fleet. Just watching the current speed of these Ships. I am sure we will dominate the seas for a long time. I am just itching for my encounter with them, this includes Fjord as well as the Royal Navy. I am sure Fjord will protest a lot with the Royal family over my appointment claiming that since I am a pirate. I shouldn't be allowed to join any of the lords. And lord doing so should be punished for my sins. Do you really think it would be Ok with my announcement? I can still become an unofficial Admiral of your navy."

John shook his head, "Well, I have a perfect pretext over it so you don't have to worry. Royal family won't risk ruining their relationship with over a mere appointment and Jeopardize our deal of sharing the Ballista blueprints to them. And even if they do create some problems. They can't do much at sea apart from lip service as they won't risk the lives of their own personnel over a personal feud between me and Fjord."

*****
Duke Fjord was meanwhile trying to rally the lords at one of the parties hosted by Grim frequently. Duke was also attending these parties nowadays as suggested by Grim. Grim was the one who suggested creating a social influence and rally lords while offering them various benefits. They would eventually follow their greed and join the crusade against Count John.

One of the Barons commented after watching Duke at one of the parties, "It seems that Duke is rallying knights and Lords to invade North Frontier city. It looks like even the Royal family is turning a blind eye towards this Development because they understand that Duke can use this as a pretext if Dwarves are able to penetrate their spies or even their fleet when he continues his campaign against Count John.

Another one of counts asked with enticing words, "What do you say? Will you participate in this war? From what I know, this war can make most of the lords rich enough to not worry about 20 years at least if any of us can get our hands on the new technologies developed by men at Count John's domain. And remember this, No risks No gains."

One of the viscounts spoke in a grave manner, "However there is also that weapon called Ballista as well. And you haven't forgotten about that mini ballista as well, right? I don't want to get me or my men killed over some wealth if that count is pissed over some lord leading the vanguard."

Chapter end