End Of The Beginning (2)

"What's wrong?" <Yuri >

Yuri tilted her head, looking at me with an innocent face.

Lately, she's been showing me all kinds of expressions, I guess she was serious when she said she was done being the princess, gone are the days of having the stoic face plastered on.

"You're staring at me so hard, I think you're going to break your eyeballs." <Yuri >

"No, I'm just wondering about something." <Julius >

When I think of what makes Raihein different from Brinhild, one thing comes to mind, the presence of Yuri but 97 commanding power alone should not have this effect.

Yuri's commanding power has increased along with her high attractiveness, and I think it is the result of her attractiveness that brings about this kind of public sentiment effect.

If I were to put a numerical value on Yuri's attractiveness, it would probably be close to 100.

So the mere fact that she was around me raised the public sentiment by 15.

It had a tremendous added effect.

So, what if I took Yuri to Raihein and gave another speech?

It was well worth the challenge.

These thoughts were dashed later on when I found that the populace was excited more in Brinhild as rumours had begun spreading from the Praetorian's accompanying us about her being my Wife, which drew the people focus more towards us as a pair than individuals.

My wife huh?

***

- - Givens POV - -

"Oh, wow! So this is Berthaquin's royal castle!" <Givens >

Givens cheered at the sight of Berthaquin castle.

"This place is ours now? Well, I've risen to the occasion! After all, it's important to know who to connect with. If I hadn't met His Excellency back then and had stayed with another unit, I might have already died in the battle with Visigoth." <Givens >

Givens muttered to himself as he stroked his head.

Of course, the biggest reason for Givens' rise was his abilities.

There was a great possibility that Julius would not have been able to coordinate properly in the battle at Linon Castle without Givens and Yusen.

Anyway, the important thing is to go to the Praetorian's headquarters right now and bring Leman Berta.

His Excellency wants to see him.

Yes, I understand.

The Praetorians, due to the nature of their territory surrounded by mountains, were largely on the defensive.

If they were active, it would be much harder for any troops to come over the mountains.

So Julius was going to expand their area of activity to include all the mountain ranges of the new territory while taking in new recruits to bolster their numbers and form a mountaineering brigade for home defense.

"What are you going to do, captain... er Lord?" <Soldier >

"I need to concentrate on developing the agricultural land in the area, and I've been ordered to encourage the fishermen to develop the harbour into a working port. We also need to increase the number of small fishing boats as well." <Givens >

As a result of Yusen's efforts the population of Berthaquin was 350,000 and the public sentiment remained at 90.

The first priority was to truly kickstart the new countries economy.

Starting with getting us to be self sufficient as far as food is concerned, the new population would mean the existing fields wont be enough.

Thanks to the iron present we can use it to create plows, and heavy plow, horse collars and the like to massively expand our farming land, mixed with crop rotation to better suit the land and allow for multiple harvest per year, expanding the port and fishing operations would add ample additional protein that could be collected year round as well.

***

- - Julius POV - -

"Miri." <Julius >

"Yes, my lord!"

Miri and Zeff's house is one of the largest mansions in Brinhild located near the castle.

"Why did you bring him here? Zeff, I called Miri here... you don't trust me? You can't follow her around without doing your job!" <Julius >

"Yes, I know. I told him to stay home..." <Miri >

Miri replied as she held Zeff's hand.

"I'm not following you. I just had some business to attend to at the palace." <Zeff >

"I didn't invite you." <Julius >

"What? You didn't invite me?" <Zeff >

What kind of nonsense is this guy spouting?

"See? You weren't called! I told you I was the only one who got called! Get away from me!" <Miri >

At any rate, please let go of your tightly clasped hands before you start arguing.

No, wait a minute, this is a deliberate attempt to show how lovey-dovey you are, right?

Well, it can't be helped.

I understand the importance of these peaceful moments, especially since I'm often out of the house with Zeff.

In fact, it was times like this that I wanted to encourage him to stay with Miri.

That's why I didn't give Zeff another job.

No, in the first place, Zeff would never be entrusted with anything other than fighting.

"It's okay. You can stay. Since you're already here." <Julius >

The reason I called Miri was to try and get her to do a job.

She had always had an excellent brain, but as a result of her diligent study, her intellect had increased considerably.

Since I've taken the trouble to have her study and increase her intelligence, of course I should entrust her with work.

Brinhild's current agriculture value was 46, which was quite far behind.

It was probably due to the fact that the king of Bridget was almost completely indifferent to the people.

First of all, the agricultural values of Brinhild, Raihein, and Berthaquin needed to be increased.

It would be a great loss if they could only produce 46 crops in an area that should be producing 100.

______________________________________

[Brinhild]

[People's Spirit: 91]

[Agriculture: 46]

[Fishing: 52]

[Forestry: 45]

______________________________________

The figures were not good for any of these despite the fact that it is a fairly large area.

By the end of the tax exemption policy in a year's time, these numbers should reach a maximum value that will allow me to finance the country efficiently.

So let's start with agriculture.

The fishing and forestry industries needed the right people who knew the field.

"There are many books on agriculture. You have experience in farming, don't you, Miri? You must know more about agriculture than the noblemen or the military. Can you meet with the peasants, listen to their opinions, and use the books on agriculture in the palace as a reference to formulate a plan for improving agriculture, beyond what we'd already been doing back in Aquitania?" <Julius >

"Me? I can do such an important job...?" <Miri >

Miri's eyes widened in surprise and she looked at Zeff and then at me.

"Yuri, how about you help Miri with that job for now, you have a knack for the people, and having you there to protect Miri in case will put Zeff heart at east?" <Julius >

With her, there will be some positive effects, after all, Yuri's attractiveness is like a scam that will have a positive effect on internal affairs, alongside the misunderstanding that she is my wife, to have the queen be so involved with the commoners will greatly boost their efforts.

Of course, I don't have overly high hopes for her.

However, it was not without expectations that Miri's intelligence would be able to create some kind of policy or creation of new farming techniques.

It was no wonder that she was the most intelligent of my retainers after Count Fihatri.

"Fine. I'm always in favour of helping the people." <Yuri >

Yuri nodded quickly.

"With the princess?" <Miri >

Then Miri jumped up, even more surprised.

Yuri stared at her suspiciously, and Miri freaked out.

"That...why...someone like me?" <Miri >

"Not a princess any longer, so not a problem...?" <Yuri >

"Miri, be confident. And that's an order." <Julius >

It was something I should definitely try to make her do in order to give her confidence.

***

The people's spirit, agriculture, and development are all underway.

But the most important thing was the army.

Without an army, I can't do anything.

[Aquitania Domain Army]

Since I didn't proclaim the founding of the country, the Lunan army I brought with me and the existing army I raised in Aquitania were unified in the system under the name Aquitania domain Army.

There were a total of 72,000 of them.

The existing Aquitania Territorial Army was 32,000 strong, and naturally, morale was sky-high.

Their training level was also quite high.

To be honest, I had no problem just maintaining the status quo.

The morale of the Lunan army led by Count Fihatri was a whopping 98.

In fact, they were almost evenly matched with the Aquitania Territorial Army, which had tasted victory.

"Fihatri, this unit you had with you. You have no experience in major battles, so why do I sense that morale is so high?" <Julius >

The training level was 72, but morale was 98.

I couldn't figure out why.

"These are the soldiers who have been following you since Roserun." <Fihatri >

That's true, but is that the only reason morale has been so high for so long?

"They are very happy to be His Excellency's soldiers again. They are less likely to die fighting alongside His Excellency than fighting for the pretender King of Lunan. I'd say that's the opinion of most of them." <Fihatri >

That's true, but harsh words against your former lord.

"Of course, the biggest reason is something else: the strength of the troops that have crossed the mountains in your service. The fact that you kept your promise to them made them realize that you are not like the other lords. Some of the soldiers cried all night because they were so happy to send the money to their parents and families." <Fihatri >

In fact, it was deliberate, but it worked out the way it was supposed to, thanks to Fihatri's good communication.

"Julius, are you there?" <Elheat >

As I began to think seriously about raising an army and my plans for it, Elheat came from behind Fihatri.

"Sir, what's wrong?" <Julius >

It's about time we sorted out the designations.

How many of us are lords here?

The founding proclamation will have to wait.

Rather than declaring, "I'm going to be king!" it gives me more legitimacy to have people around me proclaim it themselves.

Of course, the title of Aquitanian descendant does give me a legitimate claim to the throne.

For now, let's wait and see what happens.

"I have a suggestion. Are you willing to train spear cavalry? If you're willing, I'm ready to devote my life to their training and management!" <Elheat >

"Lancers?" <Julius >

"That's right. I've suggested it many times in Lunan, but it was always rejected because we didn't have enough iron and no budget could be given." <Elheat >

The King of Lunan would never allow it.

The existence of such a troop was rare, and expensive.

There are many reasons for this.

First and foremost, it's hard to train them.

However, it was a fact that if I succeeded in training a large number of them, they would become a formidable force.

Come to think of it, Elheat is a master of the spear.

As the name "Demon Spear" suggests, this is a person who has accumulated his current power level through spear techniques.

On the battlefield, distance is absolute, the longer the weapon, the more overwhelming the advantage.

If an ordinary soldier swung a spear on his horse like a warlord on the battlefield, ordinary infantrymen could not even approach him and would fall.

If there was a suitable person who could teach and train that spear technique, and if there was enough iron to make the weapon, then of course I should nurture them.

"Sir, I'll take care of that. I will do my best to help. By all means, please!" <Elheat >

"Yes! I can't give you all my cavalry for such a role but we can begin with a single legion of 5,000 so half the existing number will be converted to Lancers while the rest will become multiclass fighters, training to shoot bows from horseback and sword for up close." <Julius >

Elheat couldn't hide his excitement and was delighted like a child at my words.