Blood Shaper - Book 4: Chapter 33

What had been a secret complex buried underground with a village built over it was now a growing industrial complex that had eaten the village and now had a new one off to the side. The original plan had been to keep everything involved with the development of firearms and the training programs to get people used to them completely secret. While guns wouldn’t completely change Torotia, thanks to magic existing, the surprise of a brand new weapon being brought into battle would still give them an edge the first few times they used them.

As it turned out, though, that level of secrecy wasn’t really necessary to keep the project under wraps. For one, no one was going to go looking for a secret that they didn’t know existed. Using the early warning they’d received thanks to Kay’s Limited System Access title, they’d grabbed hold of the Class Line Progenitor title for guns before anyone else could, and then they’d locked down the information as tight as possible. It was incredibly likely that the only people outside of Avalon who knew guns were now part of the System also had some level of System Access, and no one had any way of knowing if those hypothetical people cared about it at all.

In addition, it was a lot easier to hide things on Torotia than it would have been on Earth. Trying to hide an industrial production center from satellites would have been a nightmare, but here, there were no satellites, no camera phones to easily take pictures of things with, and no internet to spread information across the world in the blink of an eye. To find the facility, someone would have to physically get to it and then travel back with the information to report it, which was hard enough thanks to how massive the world was and how far from Avalon City they’d placed everything, and it would be even harder thanks to the decoy villages they’d made, false information they’d spread, and the guards constantly roaming the area looking for intruders.

So far, they’d only found one, and it had been a clingy ex who’d followed one of the recruits all the way into the wilderness. The tracking Skills they’d demonstrated to get out there were impressive, and they’d been quietly led away and offered a job with the Sentinels.

After some discussions, mainly with Isla and Quol, they’d moved most of the production above ground and started including the villagers who’d originally just been there to cover up the underground activity, making it less “secret lair hidden underneath a population center” and closer to Los Alamos during World War Two. It was still a secret, but within the bounds of the facility and the village, things were a bit less constrained. Additionally, with more people involved, they’d increased production and started the introduction of a new industry that people could learn, which would be a great draw for the area once it was publicly accessible.

“I’m very sorry,” A dark elf man in formal clothing bowed to Kay, “Miss Cindy is in a meeting. Unless it’s an emergency, may I ask that you wait until she’s finished, my lord?”

“That’s no problem. Although, sorry, who are you? Because of the timing, I couldn’t be involved with the expansion here directly, and I only learned about most of our hires and recruitments through reports.”

“Yes, I’m quite aware, sir. I’m Colen, Miss Cindy’s administrative assistant. I took over writing most of the reports from whichever intelligence agent was handling that once the expansion began and things became a little less secret.”

“Oh.” Kay took a moment to take the taciturn man in. “I’m aware of you, Colen; I was informed about you when Cindy decided to offer you the position over the other candidates. I was only given your name and qualifications, though; they didn’t include a description.”

“A perfectly reasonable reason for not recognizing me. I am pleased to make your acquaintance in person, my lord.”

“Nice to meet you, too. What meeting is Cindy dealing with? If it’s going to be a while, we can take care of some of the other things on my schedule that don’t need her while she’s busy.”

“This shouldn’t take long; she’s dealing with a small property dispute involving one of the locals and a trainee. There are some personal matters mixed in, so they asked that she handle the resolution privately.”

Kay looked closer at the man; something about his attitude made Kay pay more attention. “Isn’t that what you were hired for? Making her job easier by handling the less crucial issues?”

“That is indeed my job,” Colen replied with a small smile, “But Miss Cindy still needs some seasoning before she’s ready for her future promotion. Not everyone she’s going to deal with will accept a ‘flunky’ making the decisions, so it’s best she becomes used to solving disputes now.”

“Her future promotion?”

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“You granting her her noble title once you become king, of course.” His smile became a bit wider, “It isn’t hard to map out future decisions if they’re not too complicated. Once you reveal that she’s a second Class Line Progenitor, you’ll need to have some kind of public reward to function as an official reason that she doesn’t go off and do her own thing. Most rulers and schemers won’t understand the ties of camaraderie and having bonded through both of you being Outworlders, so if you don’t have something publicly displaying the trade power and influence they’ll expect, they’ll be constantly trying to manipulate things to set you against each other. Of course, there are other political considerations to go with that as well, such as demonstrating that you will reward people commensurately for their service, using her as a measuring stick to show why you won’t be handing out titles all willy-nilly, and a few more I’m sure.”

Kay stared at the man with a blank expression. “Is that so?”

“Don’t worry, my lord; as the future assistant to one of your most important nobles, I’ve been heavily looked into before I was allowed to reach this level of trust. Both Amanda and Isla have thoroughly ensured my loyalty to Avalon and to Miss Cindy. I won’t be sharing any secrets out of turn to anyone, and I won’t be informing Miss Cindy about her future title before it’s the correct time. I’ve become well aware of her personality, and letting her know too early will be quite detrimental to her current productivity. I’ll continue making sure she’s ready for everything I can prepare her for without causing any issues.”

“Uh-huh.” Kay’s blank look was now one of being overwhelmed rather than distrustful. “… How much of my life is being managed without anyone telling me?”

“Undoubtedly more than you’re aware of, but less than you’re worrying about. Day-to-day issues and worries are removed as much as possible to allow one’s principle to function as much as possible without getting in the way of actually important things. As much as we like to aggrandize the powerful and point to them as our amazing leaders, governments cannot afford to be monolithic. I am sure that no one is going behind your back with anything important, though; Amanda was quite firm about the proper level of behavior she expected both from me and from herself.”

“This… this is not anything like I expected this day to go.” Kay mentally tucked the worry away, already trusting that what Colen was saying was true since he trusted Amanda not to be trying to use him as a puppet ruler. He did want to dig a little deeper into the things Colen had just said with her when he got a chance, but that would be for later.

“Surprise is one of the spices of life, my lord.” The dark elf glanced over his shoulder at the door. He nodded and turned back with a smile, “I believe the meeting should adjourn shortly. While we wait these last few moments, may I make a suggestion to you, my lord?”

“Sure?”

“I know that Amanda has brought it up to you several times, but from the perspective of someone on the other end of the subject, I do wish to add what weight my recommendation might have to the idea of you yourself getting a personal assistant of some kind. I myself am a tier-four Butler, evolved from my starting Class, and along with my other Classes and Skills, I am able to make my principal’s life much easier. Acquiring an assistant for yourself will not only be quite beneficial to yourself but also lighten Amanda’s workload considerably since she’ll be able to pass on several tasks.”

Kay didn’t have time to decide if he wanted to reply or not as he stared at the man because Cindy’s door opened, and two identical-looking young dwarven men strode out the door, studiously not looking at each other as they marched for the exit.

“Behave, you two!” Cindy called after them, “If I get another report of you brawling with each other, I really will bring your mother into it!” When the dwarves were out of sight, she turned to Kay.”I see you’ve met the bane of my existence.”

“You wound me, miss.”

“Do I? I don’t think I could if I tried.” She gave Kay an exasperated look. “Since I stupidly agreed to be the first gun person and lead your little project, I somehow got stuck with a butler of all things. And he’s so British about the whole thing, even without the accent. Perfectly posh all the time, knows more about me than I’m comfortable with, and is somehow always right there even when I’m sure I’ve lost him. It’s uncanny. And yet, I somehow have no problems with any of it.”

Kay slowly nodded a few times, then pointed at both of them. “This whole thing,” He waved his fingers across the area, “Is weirding me out. Let’s go talk to the cannon guy and figure out how to ramp up production to the fastest sustainable level. I’d like to have cannon emplacements ready on Avalon City’s walls long before I have to worry about firing them at invading armies. We can talk about butlers and personal assistants when there isn’t an invading army heading this way.”

“Having an assistant would make preparations for the future invasion easier, my lord.”

“See?” Cindy pointed at Colen with both hands, “He says it in the most neutral tone while refuting your point and telling you you’re wrong, but it’s so butlery that you can’t even get mad!”

Kay sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Why am I considering agreeing with my subordinate’s subordinate just to make sure he doesn’t bother me about it later?”

“Butler powers!” Cindy forcefully stage whispered. “Next thing you know, the butler conspiracy is going to make you have one of them too! I’m running a secret facility making guns; why do I have a butler? I still have no idea!”

“Cannons!” Kay exclaimed, “We’re going to go do work that involves cannons now.” He stared at Cindy until we straightened up. “Where are we going to do that?”

“The firing range. However, Isla or whoever it was found old Johnny, did a fantastic job. He’s been working like a mad person, and as soon as we told him everything we knew about cannons, he started racing off to improve everything we could for artillery use and shipboard. If there’s anywhere he’s going to be at this time of day, it’s at the range stress testing the most recent batch of test pieces we have.”