Herald of Steel



"Lord Alxx, welcome, welcome. So sorry, I could not come to meet you at the gates, hahaha," 

As Alxx stood around the gate looking at the bustling scenery, this voice suddenly rang out, his tone loud and energetic.

And Alxx quickly turned to face the origin of the sound, his eyes meeting a black man with a handsome, chiseled face, clean-shaven, with slight wrinkles on his face betraying his age.

His head as white as snow, and clothed in a luxurious tunic he walked with strong, steady steps showing he still had quite some life left in him.

"No, no, Lord Nuraman, it is perfectly alright. I know you are very busy." Alxx respectfully greeted back.

This man was Lady Inayah's youngest uncle and one of the people who had been in charge of building the family's fleet for the last 20 years.

He had a lot of experience under his belt and after Alxx came to that deal with the noble merchant lady, she had spent him over to oversee Zanzan's ship production.

The man had come here around April, accompanied by about fifty of their family's finest as well as a thousand laborers, and all seemed to be hard at work at the moment, helping Alxx's dream ships come to reality.

The small talks and greetings were quickly done, and Lord Nuraman then took on the persona of the guide, inviting in a casual tone, 

"Come, come, let me show you around. We ahve been preaprign for you." 

And then he took Alxx around to show their progress. 

He showed them how the workers were all at work, cutting shaping, and processing the wood, how the ships were being built piece by piece, and what the bottlenecks were.

"The new type of ship you designed is really marvelous kid," 

The older gentleman talked very much as he would to a junior, not caring much that Alxx eclipsed him in rank as he praised him.

"The iron nails you give us are as strong as the arms of the gods themselves. The joints are so strong."

"I'm confident these ships will be able to brave any sea with no problem."

"Haha, I hope so too. Closing all shipping during the winter season, for four to six months is too big a loss."

"I want to be able to trade all twelve months of the year, regardless of the season or weather."

Alxx revealed his ambitions.

And then in a slightly eager tone posed, 

"So how long will it take to build a large enough fleet of them? I'm thinking at least a hundred."

"Ohhh…don't get ahead of yourself too much kid," But the older man was there to rein in Alxx's expectations, saying, 

"Come, let's look over there, There are the timber yards!" 

Lord Nuraman then took the group towards several very large, very tall sheds, inside of which Alxx would see many logs and planks of various sizes and shapes stacked high atop each other."

"These are the woods we use to make the ships."

"Some are being seasoned, some, like the ones over there," Lord Nuraman pointed to a side of the yead, "they are being left to dry in the sun and salty breeze to drive away all the moisture which will give the wood their durability."

"And ones that are ready the workers are working on them for assembly, slowing turning them into the ribs, planks, and masts of the ships."

"All this normally takes at least a few months. So building hundreds of ships will take a while." 

And it was not just the wood that was in short supply, so were skilled enough carpenters.

All of which meant it would take some time for Alxx to get his flotilla.

"...I see," And so Alxx, who did not know almost anything about the ship, decided not to make random comments and let the people with the how know to carry on.

After this, Alxx and Lord Nuraman walked around the yard a bit, watching all the craftsmen with tanned and weathered skin working together, passing tools and materials to one another with well-practiced efficiency. 

Many seemed to even communicate in a language of nods and gestures, words being unnecessary, evidence of their expertise and teamwork.

As Alxx observed these, he also began to talk about things unrelated to shipbuilding, getting to know his counterpart better, as well as trying to tie deeper bonds with his family.

He also requested as such. 

"Lord Nuraman, I have written to Lady Inayah about this before, but I'm here asking again."

"I would like you to buy some of the people in your fief. Beggars, urchins, homeless, whoever they are."

"And bring them here in Zanzan to repopulate. We have lost a lot of men in the last war and could use them." 

Alxx hoped to replenish his stocks with immigration.

But Lord Nuraman did not sound too enthusiastic at the prospect, saying, "I'm afraid the drought has created the same problem for most nobles. Many do not have enough men to work their fields." 

"So they have started eyeing each other's men, even offering the peasants money to leave their lords and come work for their lands."

"So, I'm afraid you will not get a lot of men through that."

It seemed peasants were in high demand throughout the country.

"......I see," And Alxx's pursed lips and flat answer told everyone how he felt about that.

'I should have gotten from Ptolomy when I had the chance. Dammit.' He then cursed in his heart, feeling he had lost a major opportunity there, and then as if an unrelated neuron got connected to this thinking process, suddenly asked, 

'Hmmm…I wonder if I can get some from the Margrave family. Oh! By the way, what happened to them? I have not heard from them in over a year.'

For a brief moment, Alxx was reminded of that heavily pregnant woman, one who called herself Lady Margaret, and wondered if she had managed to save her family or even survived her delivery.

But that thought vanished from his mind as soon as it came, and Alxx quickly pivoted his attention to the man that mattered, Lord Nuraman.

By this point, the older man had brought Alxx to a very large, nice-looking building and promptly invited him inside.

The inside was spacious, with large windows to illuminate the whole structure, and generously decorated with nice furniture and beautiful carpets.

It was nothing extravagant like Alxx's house, but it was decent nevertheless, and he could even see a few servants running about. 

"This house is the administrative center of the whole shipyard," Lord Nuraman introduced and then took him to show around the few large, hall rooms that were all laid out with rows of tables and chairs, each of them occupied by a man hard at work.

All of these were Lord Nuraman's men, bought from his family's territory to help run the shipyard, and they were the nervous system of the whole operation.

They helped maintain the records and paperwork, signed contracts, coordinated the schedules of the workers, made sure everything followed the planned timetable, and lastly ensured everyone got paid on time, thus keeping the gears of the place running.

Without these people, the shipyard would come grinding to a halt within minutes.

At the sight of Alxx, all of these men stood up and quickly started to greet and Alxx responded in kind, smiling and making small talk with each other, and asking things such as how they were doing, if their accommodation was to their liking, how the work was doing, etc.

While the men also tried to butter him, with some of the shrewder ones praising such as, 

"My lord, this paper is a marvelous product. I heard you invented it. What a discovery!"

Following this, Alxx got a look at the books, one which recorded all the expenses, and even though he glossed over them, even a casual look at the numbers made his heartache ache.

Running this place was not cheap.

Especially hiring and keeping these officers each cost him 350 to 400 ropals a month, plus food and free housing.

Yes, Lady Inayah had insisted that Alxx covered all these men's living expenses in exchange for sending them here.

He even had to build an officer's quarters specifically for them, which was located on the west side of the yard.

And then there was the cost of the workers, materials, taxes, and lastly the initial setup cost.

All this added up very nicely to a big, fat cheque.

And going up Lord Nuraman's recent words, Alxx had to accept that this place was going to be in the red for the near-term future.

But Alxx knew this was a necessary expense.

It would be foolish not to build a navy just because it was unprofitable in the short term. 

And perhaps the silver lining was that not everything was borne by Alxx but some were also carried by Lady Inayah and even Ptolomy, courtesy of the Queen Mother, who had sent some men to help,

So Alxx hoped to be able to soon start selling these ships and begin making up the losses.

As such he swallowed the bitter pill and kept pumping money into the project.

And it was with such thought that the shipyard excursion at last came to an. 

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