บท 68: Prototype, miniature testing and Glenn.

After Hearing John,

Vlad said after hearing John's option of making it a limited item, "Hmm... quite a better solution without any real direct confrontation against the Royal family, they will take it as a sign of you retreating back. Additionally, if the wines are better than expected then it will only increase the value and goodwill of your wines where people will try to contact you privately for getting extra wines at premium prices."

John: "As far as I know, our main focus after making the workshop would be the high-speed manufacturing of ballistas so that we are prepared in time. We don't have to worry about the profits of wines if they are sold or not, this time it is only for domestic and private consumption of men."

John smiled a bit and said to Tornwall, "Vlad as well likes wines from what I heard from Melanie. Though he doesn't drink a lot, he fancies fine wine a lot from what the master said in her earlier lessons. So you shouldn't worry that much."

Tornwall looked at Vlad with an irritated face as John continued, "Meanwhile our other focus will also be diverted on successfully making a prototype which is less powerful."

To this Tornwall replied, "Lord I don't think we would have any problems when it comes to reducing the power of the Ballistas as I can give a personal guarantee. So I think we can focus on other projects."

John: "Hmm... Okay, since you have given your assurance I don't think there will be any problems."

After their break,

John turned to the head of the escorts and gave him new orders,

"Gather all the men and prepare for the testing of Tornwall's miniature ballista this time around."

Lopez immediately prepared for the next round of tests as all the men gathered to their respective posts after he blew his horn and gave the orders.

These men were very disciplined as they followed his orders immediately.

After the previous performance, a lot of people's attitudes towards Tornwall changed. They had eyes of worship when they saw this weapon.

Meanwhile not bothered by them, Tornwall proudly presented his miniature version of the ballista he had made recently to test the comparable firepower of the original ballista.

This test was successful as well.

After the tests, the range and the firepower of the miniature version were quite satisfying to everyone present over here.

After watching this Vlad even he wanted to place an order as he thought, 'It can be quite useful to our men who are doing overseas missions as it has high firepower, accuracy and range, it would also decrease their chances of fatalities. Meanwhile, this weapon would increase the chances of success of our missions, However, I can't ask that fatty directly for that weapon.

Vlad thought, "Maybe I should simply ignore that fatty and ask John for a deal like how I did it earlier. However, the important thing is it would reveal our weapon to our enemies if used in missions so it would be quite hard later on. I guess it would be hard to equip our assassins with these crossbows as this fatty would certainly create an obstacle when I place an order. I hope he doesn't ask too much' Vlad frowned a bit and thought as he saw this weapon.

Even John was quite satisfied with this weapon after watching its firepower and range,

They ended all their tests for the day and returned to the North-frontier town for the day.

before leaving John called Tornwall and reminded him to visit him the next day as he had important matters to discuss with him the next day.

After some while in the evening, Tornwall visited the forge.

Tornwall proudly walked into the forge, most of the men working in the forge immediately recognized him. Red immediately came to greet him, watching this, others got on their own work after they saw both the heads conversing.

Red grinned and said to him, "I can already guess that you had a good day today from how you are walking and acting all cocky. So why don't you already reveal the good news."

Tornwall laughed and said, "Hahaha, I guess I can't hide it even if I ever wanted to hide it. As you guessed already, I had a great day today, Anyways, lets head in so we can discuss some important matters today."

They headed inside Tornwall's office,

Tornwall: "We had a successful test of the currently developed weapon. So lord is currently planning to build a workshop which specializes in making them."

Red heard Tornwall and said to him as he understood John wanted a special workshop, "So it was a successful test..."

Red thought a bit and continued, "what did you make which would require a specialized workshop for confidentiality?"

Tornwall grinned and said with a mysterious smile, "Well, you will only know when you sign the confidentiality contract and As expected you too will be included in the current project as you are one of my trusted men. So what do you say? wanna join in? You can get your slavery reduced by 2 years and increased wages if you join this project. These are one of the benefits which I have the liberty to reveal."

Red didn't think long and immediately answered him as he was already interested in this from the time when Tornwall mentioned about it in the morning, "It's still better than nothing, the wages are better and I can remove my status as a slave early on, I guess I will join you up."

Tornwall already expected Red to join him as he replied to him, "As expected since you have decided to join us, your first job will be to gather all my trusted men and reveal this news to them. If they are interested then they can meet me personally too for more information. However, there is better news."

Tornwall proudly said this news at last to him, "For my splendid performance, Lord has promised me to personally create alcohol as a reward. As you know most of the signature dishes of Hope have been created by Lord so we can expect a lot from the wines, beers and other types of alcohol he creates."

Red laughed as he answered because he expected to see John's beers as well, because if it was just at the same standard of Hope then he could improve his Brewing of alcohol.

He laughed and answered Tornwall, "Hahaha, as expected from you, you made us all proud if you can make Lord create wines and beers because of your performance. I am certain all those guys would be quite happy after hearing this news. Maybe I too can learn some techniques which I can improvise further later on."

****

A few days later,

At the imperial university,

Professor Glenn Blackrose was working in the Imperial city's University. He joined just recently and was only working for 3 years now. Glenn's father was fallen noble however due to their status as nobles and high education of Glenn, Glenn was able to get a good paying Job at Imperial University.

Inside his office, he was with his assistant Prague,

Glenn cursed in irritation as he got a letter of rejection again this year from the high committee of the Imperial University, "Damn those old farts are still not approving my book for mass production after such excellent results over the years."

During these years Glenn had a very good reputation among his students and his theories were well received by them however he never got the rewards of his results as his family had offended a big family years ago and that was also one of the reasons they fell from nobility.

His assistant Prague then replied to him in a sad tone as he understood his frustration, "Glenn as you know already, those resources are hoarded by all those old-timers and it would at least take you 2 years for them to consider your work and 3 more, later on, for them to consider to publish your work if you can make a reputation however even I am not sure about it."

"Because as you know, not a lot of people are literate and as books are handwritten it is always a time-consuming matter. Plus you would need a lot of money just to publish one book and most of those resources are either hoarded by rich, powerful or those old-timers at the university. Plus those guys would want to fawn over those aristocrats over us since we don't have any influence nor do we have any power."

Glenn understood this but he still said in frustration,

"Then why did that good of nothing guy from the Jewel family got the recommendation so early without any credentials nor without any achievements? I fucking hate their hypocrisy. All he does is use the work of other guys to mooch off. Don't you remember how he stole my previous work and showed it as his own work? I couldn't do one thing against him nor the Imperial university helped me when I reported about this matter in any way, whether monetarily or emotionally. I could have at least used that money to fund my own works." Gleen said with a lot of frustration.

Prague said, "Well as you know, that guy has connections in the court unlike us who are fallen nobles, so it's always a dirty game which we can't win unless we have a good backer or we take risks."

Prague then gave his suggestion, "Well, we can still pool some of our money from the 3 years we gathered and try to make it work out. What you think?"

Glenn sighed as said to Prague, "The problem would be that it would be time-consuming if we can't get enough men to finish our works without any mistakes . and do you think we can gather enough men and resources for this Job? All those papermakers are hoarded by Big nobles."

Prague sighed as he thought and reminded him of a certain matter, "Then why don't we take a look at that letter we just got recently, I don't think anyone could make those papers nor can anyone imitate same characters in 10 continuous pages no matter how proficient they are, there will always be some differences, why don't we..."

Glenn nodded and said, "I understand you, but from what I know that place is far away in the northern border and that place is a big hotbed right now. Do we still continue?"

Prague seriously said to Glenn, "However can we still achieve your dreams if we continue like this?"

Glenn nodded with a smile and said, "True, we will need to take our chances, it's better than dying as a no one. and us leaving would anyway create doubts and questions among some students at least. And from what I understood from our history, The places which were hotbeds either got ruined or boomed because of some events and some people. I guess there would be interesting people over there since they can make this paper."