Swiss Arms 97 (Patreon)

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Swiss Arms

Chapter 97

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

I stared at the packed snow that hadn’t melted. 

To be fair, it wasn’t at the bottom of the valley and sat at the foot of the mountain slope (probably fell or slid down from mid to high elevation), but the problem of the matter was that it was summer right now, and even snow this high up would have melted by now. It was melting but it wasn’t melting quickly enough.

I wasn’t sure what this meant, and coupled with the glacier I saw before arriving at Chur, this whole ice and snow business set off alarms in my head.

But it was something I couldn’t do anything about right now. 

The village of Tosana*, which belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Chur, was suffering from a minor drought, according to the local elders. The Hinterhein river that ran through the town was shallower and weaker than they ever remembered it being. It was also far colder, too. There wasn’t as much rain as before for the season, and the grass’s slow return was impacting the livestock. 

None of these were things I could change. 

None of these “problems” were yet problems, but people got worried and they asked me to take a look because I was the “wise lord.”

I was a wise-ass hermit-wannabe who couldn’t even become a hermit. 

Ugh.

It was at times like these that I felt not so kind things about my position but one that remained just that: feelings and thoughts. 

My current personal problem, though, did not arise from Tosana’s people asking me to do things. No, my personal problem stemmed from the fact that despite the fact that I have more or less toured the entire southern half of the Compact, I hadn’t found a single location suitable for a getaway vacation home where I could tinker in peace. 

Tosana - and the village of Splugen, which was the village where one of the Swiss-Italy passes went through - was a bit busy for it to be a quiet getaway location. The valley between Chur and Desantis Abbey was also not quiet enough with a number of travelers passing through. Neither location possessed good variety of materials, which meant that even if I did manage to squirrel away, I would be forced to come back out to gather more materials that I couldn’t get.

So I was just a little miffed. One of the main reasons for why I took this tour of the Compact was slowly starting to look unachievable. That I had fooled myself into thinking I could go back to my (brief) hermit days. 

All of the facts and conditions above didn’t even take into account what Isabella wants and what would be best for my future baby.

Because, by God, I was going to be a good father! 

I sighed.

… What made it worse was that the second reason for this tour was also a bust. 

The Swiss Alps was just not a good place for mining. There was a small (miniscule) gold mine next to Chur but all of the areas southwest of Chur was, as far as I was concerned, a mining dead zone. So there was no resource to be found in this area, and what resource there could be couldn’t be assessed because they were in the Lordship of Sax and County of Belmont. 

This only made me appreciate the fact that I pushed the people of the Compact towards becoming manufacturers instead of resource diggers. 

“Honey?”

I looked over my shoulder and saw Isabella waiting for me with some of my retinue.

“Coming, coming,” I yawned as I turned around and made my way toward them. “Just a little bit disappointed by the … disappointing quality of the soil here.”

Which was also another downside. Like most of the local valleys, soil quality was awful for farming. Perfect for grazing, though. They’ll just have to focus more on that, especially goats for their milk. Not that they needed my advice for that. That’s what they were already doing.

It’s just that farming was worse than before. 

“... Maybe I could yelp them develop their fertilizer processes,” I hummed as I reached Isabella.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Ah. Just thinking about what I can do to help the people here,” I replied. “Since they are already utilizing their lands optimally with their focus on grazing, the only thing I can help is by teaching them how to make good fertilizer. Nightsoil is good, but there wouldn’t be enough of it for their farms if they don’t organize how they gather it. So I’m thinking about a communal toilet and …”

-VB-

A/N: not all problems require a fantastical or high tech solution. Communal toilet with a dedicated worker can make some good fertilizer. Or a communal toilet attached to a pigsty also works.

A/N 2: Tosana: old name of Thusis, a town in Switzerland and close to two passes - Splugen Pass and San Bernadino Pass - that led into Northern Italy/Southern Switzerland respectively.