7 Chapter 7: Trial finished and plans for future

Hearing the voices of birds and something warm is on my face, I wake up and inspect the surrounding. 😨? Why am I in the middle of the forest? Look beside me, I see 4 cups of wolves licking my face using their tongue. I start to regain memory of what happened yesterday. Gently move the cubs out of my face, I stand up and see the corpses of wolves and the taotie. So I fainted last night, I must have used all of my luck that no predator traced the smell of blood and attacked me when I was asleep. Or maybe there is but it is frightened by the smell of the taotie. I will stop thinking about that matter for now, since I have more important stuff to do.

Take some dry meat from my bag, and give some to the wolves. They use their newborn teeth chewing the meat and consume them. While eating, I carefully observe them. One of them has completely black fur; meanwhile, two of them have white fur and one has mixed fur with black and white. They are all cute, from my perspective. I can't resist patting them a little bit.

After breakfast, I move toward the taotie's body, take out my sword, using all my strength to cut its' head and fangs off. The head will be the proof of killing it, my father will be very proud of me since a taotie is much stronger than a bear. With its' fang, I can ask sir George to forge a new sword for me, I believe its' fang is sharper and tougher than steel. It takes me about 30 minutes to do all this stuff, its' skin is thicker than I imagine.

Finishing with the taotie, I begin to move my attention to the couple of wolves I met yesterday. I've died without their help so I can't let their bodies laying in the forest like this, they can be eaten by some corpse-eating animals. Find an area when the dirt is soft by the river, I dig a small hole and put their bodies in. It is best that they can rest in peace in the same place with each other. After refilling the tomb, I put stones around and on it so that no wild animal can dig up this grave. Stand still for about 1 minute to mourn over their deads, I prepare to come back I Neverwinter.

I notice that the four pubs follow me every I go, maybe they recognize me as their parents. I take them up from the ground and hug them in my arms:

- Your parents have died so if I leave you here in this harsh winter, you'll die for sure. Would you like to come with me to my home?

The black one response by licking my face, haha. I follow the old road to the bush that I hide the chariot and the horses. Let the wolves get on first, I use ropes to tight the taotie's head to the chariot. I get on and control the horses; they pull the chariot and it starts moving. Moving to the south, not long after I see the border of the forest.

When Charles's group meets me, they are very surprised that a dangerous animal like the taotie would appear in this part of the forest. I see respect in their eyes when I tell them about how I kill the taotie. Normally, it would take 4-5 knights to kill one without casualties so an 8-year-old child like me to kill one is a miracle. House Fortuna is a house of warriors, in the past, many members of our house killed some dangerous animals in their trial too, which is the reason while our house is the most famous house in the kingdom aside from the royal family.

Discussing the taotie, I and my men ride back to Neverwinter. Surprisingly, I see an army moving out of the city's gate, my father and the Marshal, Sir Visgure take the lead of the army. Notice us, my father, and his bodyguards ride toward us, seeing the body of the taotie, he laughs out loud. After giving me some compliments, he talks to me:

- I'm heading to the gathering point with the king's army. In my absence, you will be in charge of governing Iceland. You 've finished the trial, so you are recognized as my rightful heir now. I believe that you can develop the city with your wisdom.

I and he chat with each other for a little more and I tell him what I've experienced. About 15 minutes pass, he says goodbye to me and moves back to his men.

*************

Sitting on the chair my father sits in his working room, I order the maids to prepare food and water for the wolf cubs along with food and wine for the steward, Sir Davos ; the Chancellor, Sir Braden, and the Spymaster, Sir Manual. I've sent Charles to ask them to visit me. They are my father's trusted men and have served our house for years so I don't have to hide my intelligence from them. Take out a paper, I start to write out my plans to develop Neverwinter and Iceland.

In terms of administration, I'll create new laws that cover the holes which I believe the current laws are lacking. In addition, I'll found a court which members consist of commoners who are voted by citizens. Some nobles in this age use their position to commit crimes so if I found this court, I'll give it the power to judge nobles and punish them according to the laws.

Building schools is a must, knowledge is power. Children of whom serve our house as soldiers can study there for free. Scholars will be hired as teachers.

In terms of our economy, I believe with the knowledge achieving from my new book, I can start to raise animals in my territory. This will be another boost in my house's income. Paper crafting technique in this age is still poor and can only create low-quality paper, so I'll recruit new artisans to craft high-quality papers according to the method obtained from the book Inventions that change mankind's feudal life forever. The demand for paper in the market is always high, so my house's financial power will grow dramatically.

Finally are military matters, the Marshal has gone to war with my father so I'll have Charles do these tasks: I'll recruit about 2000-5000 more troops. Only 300 men stay in Neverwinter for garrison do not make me feel safe. A taotie had near our city, the Beastmen might attack; moreover, Sir Manual has told me that: Duke Pyrell is planning something. If some unexpected events appear, I must have the power to face them.

My new men will be trained in new ways with new equipment. Similar to the Macedonian army, I'll divide them into groups of 100-160 people each. I'll include modern exercises like puss-up in their training plan. And moving while maintaining formation and at the same pace is very important. Using drums as commands messenger similar to the Roman army will be very effective, but it'll take time to train new men into disciplined soldiers.

About equipment, creating more Japanese longbows will be the highest priority, I think about crafting crossbows at first; however, although crossbows have more piercing damage, they take more time to reload. Other weapons like katana, partisan or no-dachi which methods of crafting are written in the book Art of Craft will be made too.

With general ideas of what I want to do. I wait for other people to come so that I can execute my plans while patting the wolves happily enjoying their food beside me.

- The future will be very interesting, I suppose.