Swiss Arms 48 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 48

-VB-

Fall was here again, and everyone out in the valley was busy with harvest.

However, this actually led to a new problem.

(It’s just problem after problem these days.)

See, people often worked as farmhands during fall because farmers tended to pay well for farmhands during the harvest time whenever there was a shortage of workers.

This fall, they had very few farmhands, because would-be farmhands were all in my mine. Even taking in the daily fees, cost of living in Fluelaberg, and potential gain of nothing, what few ores they managed to pull out and sell were enough to make the miners not want to do the back-breaking farm labor.

This led the farmers to bring their complaints to me.

This was, as I had thought, a part of the reason why I hadn’t shown off (much) when I was living with my parents and why I had tried to live by myself in this once quaint and quiet valley.

Except I had shot (or stabbed) myself in the foot by taking that mercenary job, punting a bishop’s army, killing a count, killing another count, defeating a knight-led army, killing my third count, and causing a political upheaval by “violently” establishing republic within the Holy Roman Empire.

Now that I actually thought about it, I exaggerated my current problems. Farmers having some issues with a lack of manpower pool to draw their farmhands from (outside of their friends and family) was a good thing. I’m not sure whether this could prove to be an impetus for innovation to start in these valleys as I am unsure about the conditions necessary beyond supply, demand, wealth, education, and excess artisan population, two of which were still missing in my Fluelaberg.

(Even if I had them, I highly doubted that there would be a sudden industrial revolution on my hand.)

“And why are you coming to me…?” I asked Kraft. As the chief of Davos, he came personally to talk to me about the current dilemma.

“I’m hoping that you would close down the mine for a month at least,” he bluntly replied.

“A month?” I asked with a frown. I did a quick mental math and then shook my head. “It’s not impossible, but I am not sure it is a good thing.”

“Why would it not be a good thing?” he asked me with a frown. “More farmhands are always a good thing during harvest season and you already put a limit on how often someone could mine.”

“I know,” I grumbled. “And it isn’t about how much ore they bring me.”

“Then?”

“It’s about whether or not I should.”

He blinked. “‘Should’? Why is that even a question? It is your mine on your land. You are the lord.”

“Am I?”

Now, Kraft looked exasperated. “You are making a deal out of something that is not even a problem.”

He was probably right. “Is taking someone’s chance at making food not a big deal?” I asked him. “As much as I dislike child labor, orphans work in my mines, Kraft. If I close up the mines for all so that the adults who work it can work the fields, then it wouldn’t be fair for the kids to work there as well, right? It’s not fair to make the men walk two wegstunde* to earn wages lesser than what they would make at the mine. Besides, it is as you said, Kraft. I do not allow people to work everyday in the mines.”

“But our crops in the field will rot otherwise!” Kraft grunted.

“I know,” I said. “So I have an alternative solution. Instead of shutting down the mine, we’ll cooperate on paying people more. You and Davos will provide transportation with wagons and oxen to and from for dawn and dusk while I will supply the coins they will want for compensation.”

Kraft grumbled but nodded, which made me smile.

One problem solved!

-VB-

The second problem of fall were the natural disasters. Rain fell a lot starting in the fall, and this made travel hard and dangerous.

It was just my luck that Fluela Valley was struck by landslides and floods.

“Get those rocks up here!” I shouted even as I grabbed and hurled rocks at the swollen river bank. The stream that ran through Fluelaberg had swollen to nearly quadruple its original size. The fast currents now threatened to break several of the houses that had been built closer to stream bank.

And forget my fish traps and farms! Those were long gone!

Men and women all lifted rocks from the mines that had been stacking on the town-side of the stream and threw them down at the upstream end of the stream that intersected the town. The idea was to build a wall that would prevent fast currents to hit the river bank. By doing this, it would be easier for us all to work to fix the river bank, or shore it up with more rocks.

It was also the first time that I showed my obvious unnatural strength by dragging over a whole log by myself and driving them into the rocky soil of the river banks to act as pillars for the artificial half-dam.

But the people disregarded quickly in favor of working to put the dam up.

It took us the whole day to finish it while working under rain and threatened by the fast river current, but we managed it.

Also as a bonus, no one gave a shit about my unnatural strength.

-VB-

Problems don’t end, and I was staring at the latest poster child (soon to be replaced for newer, younger models) of it all.

I set the letter down and pinched the bridge of my nose.

How the fuck was I getting constant attention?

“What is it?” Isabella asked from where she was reading my treatise of half-remembered chemical knowledge on a sofa at the extended second floor of my tower-fort, where I built a new office for easier access.

“I just got a letter from the chancellor of Upper Bavaria.”

She put the book down and looked at me in surprise. “What is it about?”

I let out an aggrieved sigh. “The chancellor is claiming that since the Prince-Bishop of Chur is no longer ruling over Chur and its region as the sole ruler and because the neighboring lords have failed to rein in the region, it is his duty as a duke of the empire to pacify the region.”

“But you were given a letter from the emperor himself that you are politically independent.”

“... Yeah, the letter doesn’t say that at all.”

I pulled out the letter from where I kept it and handed it over to her to read. As she read it, a frown grew on her face until she was frowning at the letter. She then read my other letter, the new one, and outright glared at it.

“You must send a messenger to the duke of Upper Bavaria right now. If he or any of his nobles moves against us, then he will be breaking the emperor’s truce. Should he do that, then you will be subject to even more attention from the rest of the empire, and you are not yet ready for it. You are the weak and rich.”

Against a fucking duke? Of course, I was weak and ric-. “Wait, rich?”

“Hans, you have gold, silver, gems, artisans, and sugar, somehow. You also lack a core of trained knights and commanders to lead an army when you are not there. The only other person remotely capable of commanding in the entirety of the Compact of Eight is the Bishop of Chur, who doesn’t have a good track record.”

“Then what should I do? Just write to him to stop? You know that’s not going to work even with emperor’s truce held to his face.”

She frowned and paced in circles in front of my work desk.

Then she paused. “The Duke of Upper Bavaria doesn’t rule by himself. He has a co-ruler, Ludwig the Fourth. They are in constant opposition against each other, which is why the Duchy of Upper Bavaria, despite being a rich land with many people, have done very little since they took over seven years ago.”

“So if I write to Duke Ludwig with a copy of the emperor’s letter…”

“Then he might step in if only to reduce his brother’s political power!”

She grinned. “I think we found our solution to your latest problem.”

Problems everywhere but it was nice to have someone with me to solve them instead of by myself.

-VB-

A/N: Wegstunde - German ½ meile or 2.31 miles.
Source: some german guy named G. Buchner from 1853 who self-published this shit in those days.

So this chapter was a bit of internal, diplomacy, management, crisis(?), interpersonal development/cooperation, and problem solving. Did you like this kind of chapter or prefer one chapter-one thing kind of chapter?