25 - Weapons demonstration

The discussion with the king took longer than a simple cup of tea, so much so that it dragged out until evening, Merlin was quite stratified about having come to an agreement with the king which consisted of a few main points, firstly Merlin and his two companions would essentially become a part of the Engir army, though the would-be entirely self-governing and only take orders from the king, secondly, they would have to assist if and when the kingdom ever got invaded, thirdly they would receive payment in form of magic beast cores, both monthly and per deployment as well as a rather large signing bonus of 500 grade 1 magic beast cores, 250 grade 2 magic beast cores and a single grade 5 magic beast core

'This is going well… Almost too well…'

Merlin laid in a very large bed, he had taken a real bath for the first time in what felt like forever and ate the finest food the kingdom had to offer, still, he could not fall asleep, after a bit he got up from the large bed and got dressed, then he took a blanket and laid it out on the carpet that was clean enough to roll around on without getting dirty, then he curled up on his side and began to regulate his breathing, soon he fell asleep…

That night Merlin dreamt he was back home, he dreamt about talking with his family and friends, though he quickly realized that it was a dream, and as he did he woke up

'...This is my reality now'

Merlin rolled over on his back and looked up into the ceiling as he quickly judged from the sunlight streaming into the room that it was around dawn, he set himself up before he stretched and stood up and looked around, then he decided to leave his room out of boredom, but as he opened the door he got a fright as a maid stood ready right across from his room, she bowed deeply as before she spoke

"Good morning Lord Merlin"

Merlin nodded, he was just about to ask permission to walk around the castle, but he swallowed his words as he remembered his grandfather's words

'Act accordingly to your position… Well I am technically the youngest general in the history of the Engir kingdom, so I guess a little arrogance is a must'

Merlin gazed at the maid for a few seconds before he spoke

"I'll stretch my legs a bit, accompany me"

The maid bowed before she spoke

"Yes, Lord Merlin"

Merlin nodded before he began walking through the hallways, every servant he met on his way bowed to him in silence, he simply nodded at them out of common courtesy as he walked past them, after walking around the castle for a good half hour he had conveniently returned to his room and walked back into his room and sat down in a sofa that was way too soft, then he closed his eyes and checked over the tanks remotely, he had recently discovered that he was able to tell when the parts required maintenance and therefore he replaced them before they broke, this had lead to far fewer stops when they had been traveling with the convoy

'Right… It seems that the road wheels on Bertra the Tiger 1 need a replacement already as they have been filled with mud though they can wait a bit longer… Damn the German over complex engineering… There are a few problems with Vier's transmission... that need a fix at once. I wouldn't want to blow the engine during the weapons demonstration later today…'

Merlin had agreed to show off what the tanks were capable of later today in front of an audience consisting of the king, nobles, and most importantly foreign ambassadors, the ambassadors were especially important as a successful demonstration would bring over new allies and dissuade any potentially hostile forces

"Merlin?"

Merlin opened his eyes and saw Jane standing in the doorway, she smiled when their eyes met, then she walked into the room and sat down next to him

"I thought that you were asleep for a moment"

Merlin shook his head

"I was doing the final checks on the tanks before the demonstration"

"Got it…"

The two of them fell silent for a bit, just as Jane was about to say something there was a knock on the door, Jane quickly closed her mouth again as Merlin answered

"Yes?"

Then the door was opened by a butler that gave a bow before he spoke

"Lord Merlin, Lady Jane, the king requests your presence"

Merlin nodded and stood up, Jane sighed and gave up saying what she wanted to say and stood up too, Merlin took a deep breath before he reached up and folded the collar back on his jacket as he switched gears and spoke

"Lead the way"

The nobles from the capital were gathered outside of the east wall, there was a large training field that usually was used by the soldiers and guards stationed in the capital, though today it laid empty except for a few scattered targets which consisted of old soldiers armor and helmets on wooden posts, they were sitting on wooden stands that were lined up on the south of the training field, most of them had heard rumors about the metal carriages that had shown up at the west gate and the king had personally invited the wanderer Merlin Walker to the castle, but most of them dismissed this, after all, there had not been a wanderer in the past 100 years, correction, there had not been a real wanderer in the past 100 years, there had been plenty of frauds and pretenders, next to the group of nobles were the ambassadors, the ones that had bothered showing up anyway, they were even more dismissive of the presence of a real wanderer and generally they were dismissive about the whole Engir kingdom as it had the theocratic empire of Helga that had voiced desires to annex the Engir kingdom and even now were preparing for war, they didn't bother hiding it either, that's how little they thought of the smaller Engir kingdom, though perhaps the recent easy wars had dulled their senses, only time would tell.

Soon the king and 3rd prince arrived and took their seats in the stands at the designated royalty seats, both the king and prince were silent and simply gazed north, soon a silence descended over the nobles too, that's when the onlookers of the weapons demonstration noticed, a low rumble in the distance, soon the first tank came into view from behind the walls, then came another and another, they were diving in columns made up of the same tanks, and they weren't in march tempo either, the slowest of them, the 3 Tigers (two King tigers) were driving at least 30 kilometers an hour and the BT-5 was going about 45 kilometers an hour, they quickly approached the training field, the first tank to arrive, the BT-5 began driving around in circles kicking up grass and mud with its tracks like an angry magic beast marking its territory, then it stopped it turned its turret to towards a grouping of targets, then came a thunderclap as the cannon roared and sent shell flying hitting the grouping of targets as the shell exploded and destroyed the targets, then it turned its turret and began firing the DT machine gun at another group of targets, at this point there was no chatter in the stands, everybody was dead silent, then the crowds turned their attention to the two Centurian Mk 3's as they each let off a shell while driving, the shells wizzled through the air before they impacted about 30 meters from the stands at a grouping of targets instantly annihilating them in a explosion, as the mud and broken armor parts rained down the expressions on the nobles were starting to look excited while the expressions on the ambassadors hardened slightly, the weapon's demonstration briefly stopped as suddenly the engines of all the tanks turned off, then the hatch of one of the King tiger's opened up and Merlin crawled up and stood tall on the turret before he held his hand out to the side and muttered

"Purchase a T-54A"

[Ding! Purchasing a T-54A, 155 points deducted]

The new tank appeared next to the King tiger, it was significantly smaller than the King tiger standing only 2.4 meters tall and it had a width of 3 meters and 37 centimeters and was 9 meters long with the 100mm D-10 gun in forwards position, the T-54A had a rounded turret and was painted in a green coat of paint, known as the Kalashnikov of tanks with an estimated 86.000 - 100.000 of these tanks built this was the workhouse of the USSR during the cold war, the A model improved on the already good design of the tank the original T-54 with implementing a main gun vertical stabilizer, IR headlights for the driver's TVN-1 drivers periscope a new radio, multi-stage air filters and radiator controls for improved engine performance, when the tank appeared the nobles, as well as the ambassadors, stood up at once, by summoning the tank Merlin had proved that he was a real wanderer and one of the rare summon type of wanderers too that were able to bring pieces of their world into this one, the king's smile widened slightly as Merlin made a salute towards him before climbing back down into the King tiger as the weapons demonstration continued