Swiss Arms 43 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 43

-VB-

“You need to be more careful.”

I looked up from where I was doing my own little project with jewel crafting. I spent less time on it than Alvia, but even so, my Gamer made it so that I kept up with her in skill despite spending less than a tenth of the time she did.

She was very jealous of my “ingenuity.”

“Hmm?” I uttered as I looked at Alvia, who continued to work on her own jewelry (a gold chain necklace).

“That woman. Isabella. You have to be more careful with what you tell and show her,” she explained herself. “People say words all of the time, and I don’t know what she told you, but you have to remember that she’s a noble. We, commoners, don’t know what they, nobles, are planning. For all you know, she’s planning to rob all of the good things you have here. I think you need to remember that you are special, Hans.” She set her tools down and looked up to meet my eyes. She’d grown her hair out lately, though she always put it up in a bun whenever she worked.

“... You know, it’s normally your dad who says that,” I replied.

She snorted. “Just because I don’t say it doesn’t mean I don’t think it, Hans,” she snorted. “I just want you to be careful, okay?”

“Sure,” I shrugged.

“I mean it,” she glared at me. She hesitated for a moment before she steeled herself and continued. “You are an idiot genius.”

I sputtered. “No, I’m not! I’m not a genius at all,” I replied. “I just … copied a lot of things.”

“Yes, copied,” she repeated derisively. “Did you know that one of the merchants from the Imperial city of Ulm came to talk to me? Because they thought I had influence over what you did?”

“No…?”

“Well, they did, and for a good reason. I am a woman, young and supple, who lived in the same building as the owner of the Fluelaberg and who handled large quantities of most of the raw gemstones you get your hands on. In the eyes of men unaware of how much training I had to do, of course they will think that I am nothing more than your mistress.”

I blanked out.

Uh.

… Huh.

Wait.

But.

I guess…?

“But your brother is also here?” I asked.

“Oh, you mean my good-for-nothing brother who follows your order like a loyal puppy?” she asked with a disappointed sigh. “A decent man-at-arms, sure. Even a better blacksmith thanks to you, Hans. You really made him your man.”

“My man…?”

“Yes. You have quite the following among the residents of the fort, you know that?”

“I mean, yes, I know that people like me, but that’s because I keep food prices low, water clean, and sell ceramic cheap to the residents?”

She looked at me as if I was an idiot.

“Hans, my dad buys the portion Arnold and I buy from you at double the price, and then he makes a killing profit selling them to merchants in Chur, who then makes a killing when they take it to Zurich, who then makes a decent profit by exporting it to the French.”

“There is such a long chain of trade? I thought most of the trade goes to Bavarians or Italians.”

“Hans, you make more ceramic than they can handle. Do you not realize how much five hundred pieces of ceramic per week is? After you break the ones that don’t meet your ‘quality control’?”

I mean… I just ramped up production because I could. There were only five ceramic dedicated furnaces, too.

“And your sugar. You realize just how much trouble that’s going to cause? I’m not a noble but even I know that nobles from outside these mountains will surely come for you.”

“Wait, you thought that and didn’t bother to tell me?!”

“Stupid Hans. What happened to the last count who thought he could take stuff from us? Need I remind you, Lord Brandschafzer?”

Shoulders hunching forward, I withered in my seat. “It wasn’t supposed to burn like that.”

“Castles generally don’t burn. That’s why they are castles and not peasant huts,” she leveled a deadpan. “... You know, I really am thankful. Even if I am not a mistress.”

“You are?”

“Yes. See, I’m not interested in men.”

“... Oh.”

“Or women.”

“Oh?”

“The very idea of sex is … ambivalent,” she sighed. “Honestly, it makes me a weird freak.” Then she looked up. “And I honestly thought that I would need to visit your room once in a while to keep you happy to let me stay and do what I love.”

“... Oh.” Lots of revelations today, and the latest one was a heavy and personal one. She trusted me, I guess. The least I could do was listen to her and keep her secrets. “Well, you know that I’m not like that.”

“Of course, I do now,” she agreed. “And I have to admit that it wasn’t on my mind much because you let me be a jeweler. You let me create beauty. If you had asked me to join you in bed starting ‘bout six months ago, I probably would have happily joined you.” She smiled and then shrugged. “Close that mouth before a fly goes in it.”

I did.

She gave me a pitying look. “Look, Hans. You’re a great man, and you do so much for other people without even thinking. Is it weird that other people want to return that favor?”

---

“... So did you tell him?”

Alvia stopped and looked up to see her younger brother. “Tell him what?” she asked him.

Arnold clicked his tongue as he sat down next to her with his own bucket of laundry. “So you didn’t tell him.”

“I gave him hints,” she replied as she looked back down at her laundry. She picked up her beater again and beat her wet clothes. “And you know that he’s not interested in me that way.”

“But you are. You could push for it.”

“I could,” she sighed. “But I won’t be of help to him. I’m just a peasant girl from the mountains. That girl, Isabella, is the daughter of a noble. The best I could do is … hope that she’s here with ill intent, because if she is, then I might have a chance.”

He tsked. “You’ve become too passive playing with your gems.”

She smiled. “It’s not just that. You realize that love is not limited like a lot of people think it is,” she replied. “Perhaps we can describe the different types of love with colors? Like red love for passionate love, blue love for protective love, green love for nurturing love, and so on. My love for Hans would be … a yellow love.”

“Yellow?”

She chuckled. “I know, I know. It’s not a good color, but I’d like to think of it as a mix of red and green. I love watching him get better at everything. I love having him teach me how to grow myself in skill. I do want to join him in bed, though it’s not quite a big part of the love,” she explained. “I’m just … lost, that’s all. I know what I want, but what I want is not always what I can have. The more I live here, the more I realize that. I think, even if I don’t like how it makes me feel small, I love how I just get to know more about the world the longer I stay with Hans.”

He sighed. “If that’s what you like, then that’s what you like. I personally can’t fit in everything he says together. It’s just too much. Like … what do the actions of those ‘muslims’ near the holy land have to do with the price of goods?”

“A lot,” she hummed. “Just like everything else in life.” She too didn’t understand too much of it, but she trusted that Hans knew what he was talking about.

-VB-

???

“They are disrupting our trade.”

“What can we do? They have the emperor’s favor.”

“Their lord refuses to meet with us.”

“Are you sure he refused to meet or that he was too busy?”

“I am the Pottery Guildmaster of Munich. What could a country bumpkin lord up in the Alps have to do that precedes meeting me?”

“A lot, from what I understand.”

“Are you suggesting that we just sit on our laurels and let him ruin the delicate balance of trade?”

“No. There are other ways. If he does not want to talk with us, then we can force him to the table. After all, he will have to listen to his betters, wouldn’t he?”

“You have the connections to make that happen?”

“I do. After all, the Duke of Bavaria will not appreciate the fact that he will be receiving less tax if we earn less than what we used to.”

-VB-

A/N: for reference, the current year of the story is 1302. God, we spent nearly 50 chapters, but we’re only two years into the story.