Talent

When the sun had finally set, leaving the sky for the moon to take center stage and have its moment of glory; William had finished writing his conclusions about the status of the bandit group plaguing the northern trade route that ran along the Fabious river.

After that, he made his way to his father's study room to make his report.

As he was walking, he kept thinking about how much he should reveal of his plan? How should he express his thoughts?

William knew many tactics from history that had been invented by some of the brightest minds, Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal, Napoleon, Sun Tzu and so many more had already done the work for him.

The problem was that there was no way in hell he could ever explain how he got the ideas; giving some vague suggestions that could help, THAT …. He could probably get away with.

Laying down a bare bone plan for them to flush out…. Maybe, but to give a detailed tutorial on how to take care of the bandits…. There are not enough leprechauns in the god damn multiverse that can get him out of that situation without some serious explanation, and No "I fell on my head and all of a sudden I am a military genius is not going to cut it" when people fall on their heads they get brain damage, not genius-level strategies.

Once he arrived, William found marquess Ulric about to leave the room as he had just finished his work.

"Son!! What had brought you here? Have you perhaps read the information I sent your way and found us a solution?" the marquess questioned half-serious and half-joking.

"Maybe." William responded.

Lord Ulric's expression changed to that of extreme surprise; frankly, he could solve this whole bandit thing by either sending Oswin or going himself. But the point was to train the next generation, to see what they were capable of.

He was extremely disappointed in Marek sure, but that was because he had given him ample time to deal with the trouble, two whole weeks to be more precise. William though??? He had just sent him the relevant information this afternoon, how fast can he digest them and come out with a plan.

"Alright, come in and let me see what you have for me." The marquess invited his son inside and closed the doors behind him.

"First of all here is a report about what I have been able to conclude from the information at hand, I doubt it's completely accurate given the time constraints but I believe that the overall conclusions are more or less correct."

William handed his "report" to his father who sat at his desk and started to give a read.

"From the multiple attacks that we have records of and taking into consideration the topography of the area, I have drawn three circles, the first contains all the sites of the attacks within it, the second which is bigger, the likely range in which the bandits can reach within a day's travel on horseback; the last and the largest circle marks the farthest possible range the bandits could travel to from the points of the attacks while realistically still being able to take back with them the loot that they may have plundered."

William began summarizing the main point in the report.

"After some considerations, I have also concluded that it is very likely that they have someone on the inside, such as an official that is sufficiently high rank enough to be privy to the shipments that go through the river, given that they mostly targeted high-value cargo."

Lord Ulric was completely speechless, he had the impression that he was talking to a highly ranked strategist analyzing the movements of rival armies in preparations for a decapitation strike that will completely and utterly devastate the enemy.

What his son had said to him so far was just a summary of what he had recorded; there were geographical considerations taken into account, consideration to the type of cargo stolen as well not shying from the thought that there was a possible mole on the inside.

There were few things missing here and there sure, but for a start, this was simply brilliant.

"Outstanding deductive work son, but you missed something. To bribe such high officials to get the information required for such targeted attacks, would require substantial bribes to keep them in their pockets, and the value stolen so far would not be enough for such a large organization." Lord Ulric questioned his son; he already knew what the answer probably was but if his son can at least guess it too that would be perfect.

William simply responded, "Do you have enemies father? I mean real enemies, not rivals."

"Why do you ask such a question?" the marquess asked with almost shining eyes, he knew the answer he wanted was coming now, He knew that maybe he could have another candidate for succession.

"It's just that in the history books in our library that I tend to read, clashing nobles tend to go to any lengths to sabotage their opponents, funding a bandit group or two to harm trade is the thing they tend to do, crippling the male heirs or kidnapping important members of the family are also viable options."

Lord Ulric's shining eyes dimmed a little, "So you got your ideas from historical books?"

"Well yeah, I mean staying in the castle all day leaves you with but a few activities to partake in, the library was one such activity; I have always found the deeds of our ancestors to be most enlightening, they teach us what to do from their success and what not to from their failure. Especially the civil wars, those are simply a gold mine of lessons."

"Indeed!! excellent work son, you have exceeded my expectation of you." The marquess complimented William.

"Now that I think about it, how can he be able to do all this without prior experience, no pure talent can account for it, but learning from the ways of our predecessor makes a bit more sense; It is certainly a wonderful thing that calls for praise." The lord thought to himself.

The library excuse was one that William had decided to use beforehand; he knew that what he had done would still get him some attention from the marquess, positive attention hopefully.

Being seen as talented was good, being seen as a monstrous genius can be more trouble than it's worth it, history can attest to that.

"So what is your plan to solve this whole situation for us, especially considering that the bandits probably have someone on the inside?" The Lord asked.

"I am not very good at military conflicts; so I thought since we can't catch them why not let them come to us?"

"What do you mean exactly?"

"You buy something very expensive from the north to be shipped back to Landow, because of the bandit problem you tell Marek to take the guards he has with them there and escort it back. Except the real cargo is going to take a different route, Marek's being just a decoy. It's a classic, tried and tested many times."

"That is a good idea for a start, but it needs to be developed into a plan that can be implemented" The Lord responded.

"As I told you father I am not very good at planning a scheme nor implementing it; I have no experience, after all, I have no doubt that you can make a much more intricate plan than I could never match." William responded with a smile.

"Good, very good son, considering the time you had, your age as well as your lack of experience, all I can say is that I am proud of you, what you had managed could only be described as exceptional. You may leave now, it's going to be late soon and you still have your training tomorrow morning. Go get your dinner; I still have some work to do so do it without me."

William wished his father a good night and left the room; as he was returning to his room he thought.

I think I made it without going too far. Damn it!!! I could do much more with time and no restraints but too much attention is bad attention William." He reminded himself.

"I think he also bought the book part, I did read lots of books dad, it's just that practically none of them are from the castle library, nor this world either." He smirked as he entered his room.

After he did so he asked Laura to bring him his dinner, ate it and went to sleep.

He had a whole stack of papers to look at tomorrow and he looked forward to it.

Before he drifted away he reminded himself, "Slow and steady William, progressively reveal what you are capable of, don't dump it all at once, it's less shocking that way."