Swiss Arms 65 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 65

-VB-

Count John von Toggenburg

As the caravan made its way to his home, John felt ... odd.

This would be the first time he would be going back home in years, and he couldn’t help but feel complicated.

He would be returning home, after all, with the man who burned his father to death. He still fondly remembered his father, and if it hadn’t been for the Unruly Year, then he might even be practicing his swordsmanship with his father today.

But things changed, and this was going to be the big one.

… personally, he feared what kind of reaction he would get from his mother and his siblings, but he knew more than they did that this was the way forward for the county and his family.

The trade potential alone would propel them to new heights. He knew his county and house were already benefitting from their close proximity to the Compact. The town of Walenstadt grew recently in size and wealth as a result of merchants seeking easy and faster travel via boats rather than zigzagging around the lake and the mountains to its north and south. He also knew that most of those merchants would eventually head to Zurich, and his county sat right in between Zurich and the Compact.

He didn’t just decide to join the Compact due to his admittedly cozy relationship with his “older brother.” He saw wealth and potential that he could gain… if he simply laid down his pride as an independent lord.

And that … that would be the thing that might get the rest of his family to rebel against him years down the line. For a lord to lay down their independence was one of the worst things they can do, especially if they did so without an overwhelming disadvantage. However, John did not want to stand in the way of the Compact.

The things he’d heard and seen were not limited to Hans alone. He saw the political shift coming to the Alps. Isabella was at the center of that. She saw how the power mongers were growing underneath Hans’s notice. Saw that while Hans may be a good man, there were those underneath him that were no different from his father and the other nobles of the realm.

Peasants, they may be, but Hans gave them a taste of wealth and prosperity. They became wealthy. They became skilled. They became powerful.

They would kill to keep it that way.

And if he didn’t join the Compact?

Well, his land was right between the richer heartlands of Swabia! Hans might not want to fight him, but others might decide that they could take him on without Hans. With the wealth they might accumulate, this just might work.

-VB-

Isabella von Gorizia

She stared coolly at the soldiers wearing odd cloaks covered in twigs and leaves as they, she, Hans, and Count John traveled with their entourage toward his homeland.

They were not men-at-arms or knights. They are what Hans called “rangers.” She saw them early in their training and thought them to be nothing more than her beloved’s fancy with military innovation before he moved back to more of his beneficial economic reforms.

After hearing about what they did to men-at-arms and knights, she wasn’t so sure anymore.

It was just another innovation that would upset the societal balance, but unlike other changes, these rangers actually upset her. It was one thing for a commoner to become an administrator. It was another for a commoner to become a specialized men-at-arms-killing soldier.

They … were perfect for Hans. Hans would have been awkward with regular knights and men-at-arms, so he went and created his own order of trained soldiers that would make knights have nightmares about forests and mountains.

Because right now, she saw a dozen rangers but heard from Hans that there were three dozen rangers traveling with them.

There were two dozen rangers she couldn’t see.

‘And you can’t fight what you can’t see,’ she thought.

It was also a draw that made the local peasantry seek Hans out more because of the benefits of being a ranger. Hans granted all rangers and their direct families a flat tax reduction.

She thought it was ridiculous, but Hans wouldn’t budge.

‘I take care of those who fight for me.’

He may not have meant for those words to reach his men but they did, and they were fiercely loyal to him for those words and actions.

It was ridiculous how easily Hans swayed people to him, her included. Wasn’t that exactly how she fell in love with him? He put himself before a cart to save her life, and showed off a body of delicious muscles.

She cleared her throat, which drew Hans’s attention.

“Dry throat?” he asked her, and she nodded. He reached to his back inside his cloak and pulled out a metal “bottle.” She took it and drank from it. It didn’t taste like much, but that was a benefit to whatever magic he’d done to the metals before they were fashioned into these metal vessels. These metal vessels were another item that he was letting the merchants buy and sell at his markets.

Of course, he even had “luxury” versions of the bottles that were expensive but something a dullard without a sense of fashion might still buy.

Regardless of how expensive or not expensive something was, their advantage was how durable they were compared to, say, a gourd, glass bottles, or a leather pouch. It just hadn’t been done before because of how expensive metals were in general.

She thought it was a stupid idea at first until he showed her his ledger about just how much metals were coming in and out of his furnaces. While those bottles would still be sold for the equivalent of a commoner’s monthly wage, commoners still bought them because the water inside these metal bottles would never rot as it might in a leather pouch or a gourd.

Something about copper alloy?

Because she was so focused on thinking, she didn’t hear the hiss coming for her nor how quickly Hans deflected it.

“Eh?”

She looked to her left, where that sudden burst of motion had caught her attention now.

Her eyes widened as she saw men charging out of the forests surrounding the dirt road.

‘Ambush!’

And then she heard another hiss, and this time, knowing what it was, she couldn’t help but flinch.

-VB-

A/N: is this Stupid #5 or #8?