Chapter 23: A New Plot is Hatched

A few days had passed without any major occurrence. Berengar had found himself getting dreadfully bored as his work schedule appeared to have come to a halt. Due to the trustworthy and competent people he had placed in implementing his innovations, he had recently acquired an asinine amount of free time. If Adela were still within the confines of his family's territory, then he would currently be enjoying her company. Unfortunately, she would not return to Kufstein for a few weeks. As such, Berengar recently found himself training in the art of swordsmanship with his personal retainer Eckhard. The two men were currently sparring with a pair of wooden arming swords. In which Eckhard was thoroughly beating the young lord who had never picked up a sword until a few days ago.

Swordsmanship was an art that took many years to master, and unlike the flintlock musket required a great deal of physical strength, stamina, and finesse to become adequate. Despite its age coming to an end, Berengar still felt it a necessity to learn how to properly wield a sword. After all, as an officer leading the army that he was creating it was only proper for him to wield a sword and pistol. Though the more he trained in the sword, the more he realized he would probably break the tradition from his old world and just use a musket.

At the moment Berengar found himself parrying the oncoming wooden sword currently wielded by Eckhard before unleashing a counterattack of his own. However, just when he was about to land his strike, Eckhard dodged in the nick of time and followed up with a thrust of his own pointing the blade directly at Berengar's neck. Seeing that all was lost Berengar fully surrendered to his instructor

"I yield."

With that said The middle-aged man retracted his sword with a smile on his face and placed it back with the others.

"You're a quick learner, and you have the potential to become a competent swordsman. It's just a shame that its era will be coming to an end so soon."

Berengar placed his sword alongside Eckhard's as he sighed heavily in response to the Knight's words.

"The true shame is that I was incapable of training with the sword until now."

The middle-aged knight nodded in agreement to Berengar's statement; he had become aware of the difficulties Berengar faced throughout his years, particularly about his health. It was a miracle that he overcame such an illness and became the man he is today. This transformation of body and mind is just another part of Berengar's character, which inspired Eckhard to do his best every day.

After placing away the swords and stripping out of the training gear they currently equipped, the two men walked together back to the fields, which were being used as a training ground for the militia. The men who comprised the militia's ranks had come a long way in a short amount of time, but their training was still incomplete. It would take close to 90 days in total for the militia to be competent enough to act as a proper force; after all these men were learning how to use firearms for the first time in their lives.

Currently, the unit was split up into four infantry companies with 80 men in each. There was also an Artillery battery trained alongside the infantry, though it was not a full-sized battery. At this point, the battery had three 12 pounder cannons and roughly 40 personnel. It was approximately 1/3 the size of a proper artillery battery. Nevertheless, the numbers of the militia grew with each passing day, and a fourth gun was on the way. What he desired at a bare minimum was a small infantry battalion of 400 soldiers and a full-sized artillery battery. So at the very least, 520 men in his militia and 8 cannons. This was something that was actually quite feasible with his current progress. After all, these were not professional soldiers who would have to give up their day jobs.

The quota Berengar had set himself for a bare-bones battalion would soon be met, the most difficult part was the manufacture of the cannons; those would take time. Still, it was not as if the war would break out overnight. Though the King was in poor health, he was not in critical condition at the moment. Despite the fact that he could potentially croak at any moment, the likelihood of the old man dying before Berengar had reached his militia goals was slim.

After overseeing the training of the militia with Eckhard for the afternoon, Berengar returned to the Castle where unbeknownst to him, he found himself being stalked in the shadows. As he passed through the winding corridor of the castle, his pursuer finally revealed herself from the darkness. It was none other than Linde who had a worried expression on her face as she embraced Berengar from behind.

Not expecting such a thing to occur, Berengar instinctively struggled out of the grasp before realizing who had attacked him. Afterward, he calmed down and accepted her tight embrace. Linde whispered in his ear so low that only they could hear the words.

"Your brother is going to make another attempt on your life soon."

Immediately Berengar's expression sank; it was a good thing he had properly trained this girl; here he was walking around carelessly expecting himself to be safe from Lambert's schemes, and yet the boy had already plotted his death. He was immediately intrigued by the information she provided him.

"How does he plan to do it?"

Linde revealed Lambert's secrets without a second of hesitation; she had long since turned on the boy and her father.

"He has grown tired of my attempts to stall him and has impatiently contacted my father for aid. Apparently, Your father is planning a hunting trip; Lambert and my father have arranged for assassins to lie in wait for you in the mountains. They will appear as brigands, but they will secretly be men at arms under my father's command."

Berengar patted the girl's silky strawberry-blonde hair and comforted her. She was aware that Berengar was not much of a fighter and could not defend himself adequately against such a force. As such, she had a distraught expression across her face that soured her natural beauty, and Berengar hated to see such a thing. The young lord grabbed ahold of her chin and kissed her passionately in the empty corridors of the large stone castle. After releasing her, he whispered in her tender ear.

"You don't need to worry so much; I'm stronger than I look."

Linde's cheeks immediately flushed after Berengar had so brazenly kissed her in the middle of the hallway. Sure there was nobody around, but what if somebody nearby had chanced upon them during their little affair. It was a reckless move on his part, but she could not help but feel excited. The thrill of potentially being discovered was something that made her heart race. However, she realized now was not the moment to engage in her desires with her master. Instead, she bowed respectfully to Berengar, who had noticed the complicated expression on the girl's face.

His brain instantly connected the dots as he realized the girl might be developing a new fetish. A wicked smile appeared across the young lord's face as he pushed the exquisite young lady against the wall and began to partake of her flesh. Luckily for him, nobody came nearby as the couple engaged in scandalous behavior openly in the middle of the Castle's corridors. By the time they were finished, the sun had already begun to set, and they realized their absence would soon be noticed; as such, they parted ways until they were capable of meeting up again at dinner.

This time the atmosphere at the dinner table was quite tense, as Lambert eyed Berengar like a hungry wolf, and Berengar sneered inwardly at the boy like an all-seeing owl. Lambert had no way of knowing that his scheme had already been revealed to his most hated brother, who was already concocting a plan to deal with the plot against him. It was not until their father had spoken up that the silence was broken.

"Berengar, my son, now that you are healthy, and fit I think it is about time I take you on a hunting trip; what do you say?"

Berengar had an innocent smile on his face, like a kid at the candy store as he expressed his interest in joining up with his father as they explored the mountains which bordered their family's territory and hunted some wild game.

"Of course, father, that sounds splendid! Now that I eat meat, I can't wait to feel what it is like to dine on the flesh of my own kill."

Despite his innocent facade Berengar was inwardly snickering at his brother Lambert who had bought into the display and expected his plan to function flawlessly. On the other hand, Sieghard had no way of knowing the battle of intrigue that was transpiring at this very moment between his two sons; instead, he felt happy knowing that Berengar was so welcome to the idea. After all, until recently, Berengar was a vegetarian who had a soft spot for animals. To see the boy so excited about hunting truly brought joy to the Baron's heart. He may be getting older, and his son may be an adult now, but the two still had the potential to grow closer.

Lambert was pleased; his brother was falling right into the trap he had prepared. After all, he could no longer sit idly by and allow Linde constantly to fail at seducing his brother. Berengar was either impotent, gay, or a lolicon. That was the conclusion Lambert had come to; if he had known that his gorgeous fiancee he was so proud of had been ravaged openly in the hallway by his brother just an hour earlier, the boy would probably attempt to claim Berengar's life on the spot.

The young lord had no way of knowing that Berengar had planned to bring a rifle to a sword fight. That's right, a rifle; in his spare time over the past few days, he had drawn designs for a barrel boring bench and presented them to Ludwig. This invention would be instrumental to the effectiveness of his army.

Currently, Ludwig was in the process of making a long rifle-style gun that was used effectively by American militias during the revolutionary war in Berengar's previous life. For now, Berengar's militia would be equipped with smoothbores; after all, he really could not reveal the effectiveness of the rifled musket without garnering suspicion about such a design. However, if he were alone and separated from his father in the mountains, he could easily kill the assassins from a distance of 200-300 yards with a long rifle. He may be useless in the sword, but in his past life as Julian, he had earned his expert marksman badge during his tenure in the army.

By the time the hunting trip began, Berengar would be well equipped to deal with the assassins, as long as he spotted them first, that is. If they got close to him for whatever reason, he had specifically designed this rifle to be capable of using a bayonet, something with which he also had ample experience training in. For now, he just had to act like he had no idea what Lambert was scheming behind his back and go along with the ploy. The two brothers had a pleasant conversation with their father about the finer details of hunting and all Berengar should know about it.

It was only after dinner that Berengar returned to his quarters to get some work done. Currently, he was drafting designs or keeping track of ledgers, the usual administrative operations he had been engaging in at night ever since his father gave him jurisdiction over the fledgling industrial sector. When he was not signing documents related to the industry, he oversaw reports of military spending and training. Everything was currently within his budget, and the troops seemed to be progressing well. So there were no immediate concerns he had to deal with there.

It was not until midnight that he heard the knock on his door that he had grown so accustomed to over the last couple of weeks; this girl was voracious; even after having fun in the middle of the day, she still came for more at night. Well, he supposed he should take a break from reports and relieve a little stress. As such, he spent part of the night training his slave before the couple fell asleep in each other's arms. It would not be until the crack of dawn where they awoke from their slumber.