Chapter 28: Kingdom management

- Estrilda, you stand accused of having poisoned Lady Fortuna 11 years ago exchanged for 50 gold coins and land in Meath given by House Pyrell, do you have anything to say in defense?

I'm sitting in the Blue Order's mansion, which is built near my castle inside the inner wall of Neverwinter. This building's security level is only lower than my castle since it is a place for prisoners waiting for their judgment. If I'm not mistaken, 200 men guard this mansion and I can say their fighting abilities are higher than average soldiers.

Blue Order has become a quite strong organization now, although they are still working under my command. Mostly I transfer the command to the 12 judges elected by the people. Nearly 2000 men are working as Order soldiers; they'll be a decent fighting force if combined but as far as I can see, the criminals are everywhere so they spread all over my kingdom to maintain order. There has been no open rebel after I become king mostly thanks to them.

The person being judged today is a woman who used to work as a maid for my house in the past. As the documents Kruger gave me, she poisoned my mother commanded by the former queen of the Alleinstein Kingdom. Two days after the documents arrived, she along with her family are taken to me and I give the Blue Order authority to open a court against her. I have conducted laws that no matter who you are, you must be judged by the Blue Order so I can't go against my words and revenge myself.

I'm sitting in a dark corner with just a few guards. Aside from the judges and some Blue Order captains, my existence here in this court is unknown to everyone. Estrilda, who is being judged, is crying begging for mercy. She did refuse her crimes at first but when the documents Kruger gave me are shown, she confessed her crime. The main judge gives me a gaze, I nod my head. He then stands up and declares the punishment for her:

- You had committed an unforgivable crime, betraying the House that you've sworn to serve. You're sentenced to death under the name of King Ivar, King of the Kingdom of Fortuna, Duke of Iceland, and Baron of Neverwinter. Your family, relatives will be exiled from the Kingdom forever and their descendants will not be allowed to come back without a pardon from the king himself. My judgment will be effective from now. Men of the Order, escort her to the Town Square, where she'll be hang.

- PLEASE, SIR, MERCY, MERCY...

She desperately asks for mercy but the blue cloaks violently drag her out of the mansion. I feel unpleasant to see people executed like this but she attempted to poison my mother, which led to the death of her after giving birth to me so I'll show no mercy. She should feel lucky that I don't crucify her along with her family, I did intend to do so but Charles advised me not to since her family didn't know about her crimes, so I just exile them, give them another chance to live.

Stand up, I don't want to observe the execution scene so I guess I'll come back to my tasks in the castle. There is a part of the documents that have information about the Beastmen in the Abandon Forest. I do not know much about deep inside the Abandon Forest so they'll be precious to me to plan any movements against the Beastmen in the future.

-------

Overall, according to the documents, the Abandon Forest is five times the size of the Alleistein Kingdom, which I find very impressive. In its southern path is where the Beastmen tribes live and they often fight each other to become the most powerful and dominant tribe among the Beastmen. House Pyrell in the past has saved a chieftain of a Beastmen tribe, so they have a friendly relationship, and sometimes house Pyrell secretly asks them to attack the old Alleinstein Kingdom. Unfortunately for them, my house always succeeds to defeat the Beastmen.

Kursk is a High chieftain, who has united several tribes under his command, that's why he was able to gather nearly 20000 Beastmen to attack Neverwinter 2 years ago. But that's not the maximum force of the Beastmen in the Abandon forest. If all of the Beastmen tribes were united, there would be 200000 warriors strong, ready to demolish anything that gets in their way. I'll have to prepare my kingdom for this, if 200000 Beastmen invade us, I'm sure that we can't win.

The Northern part of the forest is under the rule of the elves, which I just find words about their existence. There is nothing about their exact location, war, and economic potential. That is very troublesome since nothing is as dangerous as an anonymous enemy.

I decide to make some plans to increase my kingdom's strength, both economy, and military. I'll try to maintain a friendly relationship with the Heathen Kingdom, if possible, I want to form a military alliance with them and establish trade between the two kingdoms. Moreover, now house Rosewood is under my rule now so I have access to the sea. Supporting and updating the Rose Harbor will help my kingdom to trade with more kingdoms. I'll conduct new reforms in agricultural infrastructure in new regions as I did in Iceland. The assassin unit, Shadow Ranger is being trained and I hope that they'll be ready for missions in a year.

Now, if I call all of my vassals, my army will be around 30000 troops. However, half of them would be levies so I don't think they'll be very useful in war. I'll need to train more men, many of my soldiers have gained much experience in the previous war so they'll be suitable captains and trainers for newly recruit. The iron mines in Meath, their fertile plains, and the resources in Summervalley and Oceanhall will be utilized to their best. Golds is involved in everything, especially in paying troops and crafting weapons.

Never mind, next year I could get a book of how the Roman armies were trained after the Marian reform, which'll be very useful. Pikemen should be trained too since now my territory has grown out of the hills of Iceland. I will try to increase my army's strength along with its number, I must be ready for everything that could come in the future.