A Blacksmith and a Caprenter

(Author's note: I've given this a lot of thought, and I think that for a while, I will stop switching between Ethan's perspective and Mia's perspective. I will just be giving Ethan's perspective for a while. This is because what Mia will be doing for the next couple of months will be training with the Sun Knights every single day, and it may get kind of repetitive if I keep having every other chapter be 'and then Mia trained with the Sun Knights more'. Once the war with the Western Empire starts, I will of course resume switching between Mia and Ethan's perspective, and if in the meantime anything of note happens that Mia's perspective will give the readers good insight on, I will then be switching back to Mia's perspective for a chapter or two, but if I keep just talking about Ethan for a while, it's fair to assume that Mia is just busy training the Sun Knights for the upcoming war.)

After leaving the Shipbuilders' Guild Hall, Ethan went in the direction of the Blacksmiths' Guild Hall with the intention of recruiting a large number of blacksmiths for his barony. The Blacksmiths' Guild was much less centralized than the Shipbuilders' Guild, with the Blacksmiths' Guild Hall acting as an informal meeting place of blacksmiths and a place to get together to collaborate on larger projects, or to organize blacksmiths on projects that were ordered by the kingdom itself, with many blacksmiths who lived in the capital having their shops closeby the Guild Hall. The Guild Hall itself looked like an inn, and indeed had a pub and meeting area on the first floor and inn rooms on the upper floors. Ethan was looking to hire several blacksmiths, so he thought that visiting the Blacksmiths' Guild Hall. He went inside the pub like area, sat at the bar and ordered a beer for himself as well as one beer each for the two knights who were with him.

"What's your name, young man, and what brings you to our guild hall?" Said one of the bar patrons who was dressed like he was a blacksmith to Ethan.

"My name is Ethan Von Kastell. I'm here because I'm interested in hiring some blacksmiths to come to my barony and work for me. What's your name, and might you be interested in moving to Kastell and working for me?" Said Ethan.

"My name is Cnut Jarnsmior. As you can probably tell, I'm a blacksmith. As for moving to Kastell, and working for you, for the right price I might." Said the blacksmith.

"And what is the right price?" Asked Ethan.

"Five gold coins up front plus eight gold coins per year." Said Cnut.

Ethan thought about this for a moment. [It sounds like a lot of money to the average person here, but it's not a bad deal per se. For a good blacksmith, I would be willing to pay even more than that, plus if he is a member of this guild he probably knows other blacksmiths whom I can also hire. Still, I'd like to not throw my money around on someone whom I don't know much about. If he can prove to me that he is a skilled blacksmith, then I would gladly pay what he is asking for.] thought Ethan.

"For a good blacksmith, I may pay that salary. The problem is that I don't know anything about your skills. If you can prove to me that you're a skilled blacksmith, then I will hire you on the spot for that price." Said Ethan.

Cnut's jaw dropped, not expecting Ethan to really be willing to pay that large amount that he half jokingly stated. Not staying shocked for long, he almost immediately responded to Ethan.

"Are you serious sir? And if so, what would you want me to do to prove my skills?" Said Cnut.

[I should create a challenge for him that if he completes it in the timeframe, he's hired, and if he doesn't complete it in the timeframe, he's not] thought Ethan.

Ethan then pulled out a piece of parchment with an accurate diagram of a British Land Pattern Musket on it.

"I am serious. As for how you can prove your skill, how about a challenge. I will pay you five standard silver coins up front to make this device today. If you can do it in under a day, you're hired at that price that you quoted me. If you can't, you can still keep the five standard silver coins, but you're not hired." Said Ethan.

Cnut took the drawing and examined it.

"Hm, that certainly does sound like a fair challenge. If I do it in time, you know that I'm skilled; this is a peculiar device though, and I don't think that I've seen it before. The parts look fairly simple, and I think that I can make most of it in my shop in under a day, but it looks like it has some wooden parts on it as well. Would it be okay if I brought on a carpenter friend of mine to make the wooden parts, and I'll make the rest?" Said the Cnut.

"That's fine. And I'd like to meet that carpenter friend of yours, as I'm planning on hiring carpenters as well as blacksmiths. I'll pay your carpenter friend five standard silver coins as well for his part in this challenge, and hire him for my barony if he can do his part of the challenge in under a day as well." Said Ethan.

Cnut then led Ethan and the two knights out of the Guild Hall, and over to a carpenter shop, and Cnut was greeted by the carpenter inside.

"Cnut, how's it going, and who are your friends?" Said the carpenter when the four of them walked inside.

"It's going pretty well, Magnus. This here is Baron Ethan Von Kastell, and he is looking to hire blacksmiths and carpenters for his barony. He offered me five gold coins up front plus eight gold coins per year, but he wants me to prove my skills before he hires me though. For that reason he wants me to build this in a single day to prove my skills, and because it has some wooden parts, I asked him if I could bring a carpenter on, and he agreed, so here we are. He's paying five standard silver coins just to try to build it." Said Cnut while handing the carpenter the diagram.

"An interesting proposal. It is nice to meet you, Baron Von Kastell, my name is Magnus Setstokkar, and I am a carpenter. Am I to understand that you would also pay me five gold coins up front plus eight gold coins per year if I were to work for you permanently?" Said the carpenter.

"Yes, that is correct." Said Ethan.

All parties agreed to the proposal, and agreed to meet back up at Magnus' shop when the challenge was over. Ethan then paid Magnus and Cnut five standard silver coins each, and Magnus and Cnut then worked on their respective parts in their respective shops, and Ethan went to look for some carts and mules to buy to help transport all of the people that he was hiring and all of their belongings to Kastel for when they would go the next day. He arranged to purchase the carts and mules for the next day from various people, signed the bills of sale, and arranged to complete the transactions the next day, with the transfer of money and change in ownership of the carts and mules to take place then.

He then returned to Magnus' shop after a couple of hours, figuring that he was going there very early, with a lot of time left in the challenge, but he didn't have anything else to do. Ethan was surprised as he entered the door to see Magnus and Cnut attaching the now completed metal and wooden parts together with a lot of time to spare.

"Excellent work!" Said Ethan.

"Thank you sir." Said Cnut.

"Thank you." Said Magnus.

"Would you mind if I try it out?" Said Ethan.

"Its function is actually what we were wondering about." Said Magnus.

"We've spent hours making it, and we're not sure what its supposed to do. Clearly a lot of deliberate thought has gone into it with the small mechanical parts that fit together, and it must be some kind of weapon with this spear attachment on the end, but how it works, I'm not sure." Said Cnut.

"If you know of an open area of land where we won't disturb anyone with loud noises, I can show you what it does." Said Ethan, while taking out a small bag of gunpowder.