“I like this plan,” Varre said after a while, “we can take some power away from Charles’ sons. We can ensure that they’ll be too busy squabbling with each other to threaten us again. And we won’t need to kill anyone in the process. Maybe we’ll even come of as merciful,” he counted the benefits on his fingers.

  “Varre the First, a king strong enough to defeat all of his foes in the field, but just and equitable enough to take mercy on his relatives and return the ancestral lands of their father,” Lester commented, “I like it. I think we can play that story up.”

  “I can look into that your majesty,” Marna sat up, eager at the chance to finally make up for her embarrassing scene earlier, “I can dispatch some heralds with an appropriate message. But, if I may ask,” she said carefully, “what about the duchy? Will you take the title for yourself?”

  Her expression made it clear that she didn’t support that idea, but was still too cowed to voice it.

  “No, I think I have another candidate in mind,” Varre reassured her, “what do you think about promoting Count Jan and giving that responsibility to him?”

  “That is a big promotion,” the steward replied carefully, “but I think it would look good. It would send a message that supporting you brings rewards.”

  “And you could use some more trustworthy vassals,” Lester added.

  “I believe he is the count of Ancaster, right?” Nilo asked, “I think it’s somewhere East-ish. It would make sense to give it to him.”

  “Of course, there are plenty of other people that need to be rewarded. I suppose that the knights were being paid in cash, but some extraordinary feats could deserve a bonus,” the king mused, “but the commanders were mostly fighting for their own reasons. Often without significant pay.”

  “I know Baron Gregory is from Banbury,” the alderman suggested, “maybe we can give him some land on the other side of the river. Maybe the county of Tresannes?”

  “I think that could work,” Varre agreed, “he could fortify Elstercross… maybe we could even turn that village into a proper town!”

  “There are lots of other opportunities, but like I’d said, I’d need a bit more time to identify them,” Nilo said as he peered over the map laid out on the center of the table, “especially in the East. I’m not as familiar with them. And I’d like to make sure that Jan has good people that he could rely on when he takes over the duchy.”

  The king nodded. “Good. Then feel free to do so. There were quite a lot of rebels who died in that last battle. If their villages are now empty, we should probably prioritize putting the freshly knighted men there. They’ll be loyal.”

  “I think I should have a plan ready in a week,” the alderman said, already thinking up ideas in his head, “I also need to sort out the prisoners and decide who should be ransomed and for how much.”

  “Good. We can organize a ceremony to reward everyone in the capital. I’m sure the commanders won’t mind staying till then,,” Varre suggested and looked at Marna. She confirmed that it would be arranged.

  “A wise plan” Hakon complemented the other advisors, “Jan in particular is a reliable man. With him in charge out East, Logres will be stable and on the way towards recovery.”

  “While we’re on the subject of recovery,” Johan cut-in as he fixed his glasses, “I think it’s time to talk about the damages caused by the war. The capital is mostly fine, of course. The city received no damage during the siege and the fortifications build around the walls are already being dismantled. I believe the battlefield has also been cleaned up already. I’d imagine that Charles’ lands have been unaffected, but I’m afraid I have no reports about the situation out West.”

  “It’s pretty bad,” Varre replied, “I tried to limit our damage, but Clement looted many villages when searching for supplies. Especially after they lost their baggage train. Many have been depopulated and are empty.”

  “It’s not great,” Hakon commented, “but it’s not that terrible either. The villages close to major roads were hit worse, but the cities are fine. The peasants will return and the lands will recover in time. It was much worse during the last war with Langogne.”

  “You’re the expert,” the king conceded, “but this will be another task for you Nilo. As the new duke of the Western province, you will be in charge of fixing up the damage.”

  “Yay,” the aristocrat replied.

  Varre chuckled. “If you’ll need some help or extra resources, let me know. I want that project to succeed. The province will be prosperous again.”

  “And that neatly bring us back to the topic of money,” Johan cut in again and pulled out the report he’d prepared together with his monarch.

  The Treasurer went over every position and expense. Though the king had already seen the information, the other councilors had not. They were quickly brought up to date on the total cost of the war and the current level of coin left in the vaults.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “We still have about half of the grain from the harvest still left over,” Head Merchant Lester added once Johan was finished, “assuming that prices will remain stable, we should expect another 150 000 thalars before the end of the year. Altogether, we’ll have 380 000.”

  A truly unimaginable amount of money. During Mikkel’s reign, the Crownlands were bringing in a mere 70 000 thalars of profit a year. And most of that was going towards upkeeping the state, paying salaries and various debts. Now, with most of the lands belonging to the dynasty brought together into a single organization, the results were staggering.

  “Will we be selling all of it right away?” Varre asked, “shouldn’t we leave some extra for the future?”

  “Of course we left enough grain for the next harvest,” Lester explained, “it is stored in individual granaries, mostly in various villages and estates belonging to you. And then, we have left some for personal use and emergencies. But, as the names suggest, we don’t plan on selling that grain anyway. There’s no reason to wait with the goods meant for profit. We peddle it as soon as we can.”

  The king nodded. “Very well. That makes sense to me. Do you think the same system will suffice for the future?”

  The head merchant shrugged. “I think so. I’m still looking for customers to buy the remaining half of our produce, but it is going well. Obviously, the traders who used to buy it from your relatives are now coming to me, but as this is my first time selling things at such scale, I can’t be sure of the final results. I might have some more suggestions during the winter, once everything is finished.”

  “What about the casualties sustained during the wars?” Varre asked, changing the subject, “how many people died? On all sides?”

  Marna reached for her notes, having freshly received them from the servant. “Approximately two hundred knights in total, though we are still uncertain about the rebels. Many got away and are hiding back home. Then, around four thousand commoners. Though here, it’s even harder to find accurate information.”

  “What about the civilians?”

  The steward grimaced. “I’m sorry, your majesty, but we have no reports about that yet. But with how short the campaign was, and how limited the looting was, I don’t think it was more than another several thousand.”

  “Are you sure?” the king argued, “the West was depopulated, the villages empty. I’m sure many perished as they tried to flee. Perhaps we can count how many managed to return, though that’s not exactly reliable.”

  “Yes… we could try that,” Marna conceded, though she seemed uncertain.

  “How many people do we have in our country anyway?”

  “Your majesty?” she asked, confused by the question.

  “You know? How many people live in the various provinces around Logres?” Varre explained, “and before you start, no, I don’t mean just the nobility. I mean everyone, especially the peasants, since they make up the majority of the population.”

  The steward gulped. “I’m… afraid I don’t know. A million maybe? Two?”

  Johan rushed in to save her. “Your majesty, unfortunately, none of your predecessors have ever counted the serfs within the kingdom. It will be a very difficult question to even estimate.”

  “Really?” the king couldn’t believe that, “no one was even curious?”

  “Out of our neighbors, only the Miroti republic had conducted such a census before,” Anastasia added, “it’s not very common, your majesty.”

  Varre frowned. “That’s disappointing. I think I’d like you to look into that. Could you check how much it would cost? And how long it would take? I know it can be a lengthy process, but I think it’s worth doing.”

  “Certainly, your majesty,” Marna had cheered up a bit at another opportunity to redeem herself, “I will investigate it as soon as I can. But I must warn you that it might be expensive.”

  “Good. Let me know once you know more. I think it will be very beneficial to Logres in the long term. And I have one more expensive proposal for you to consider. What would you say about keeping our standing army after the war?” Varre asked and carefully observed everyone’s reactions.

  “What?” Hakon was confused, “are you planning to invade someone else? I know you’re angry about Langogne, but I think we need more time to prepare.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant. I think we could use some kind of standing army,” the king explained, “the knights are powerful, but they are… unreliable. Even if they swore oaths to support me, I needed to convince them to pick up arms and follow me. And many sided with the rebels anyway. I’d rather have a force I can trust.”

  “An… intriguing idea, your majesty. And how many men should this force consist of?” Johan asked in a tone that implied he wasn’t exactly a fan.

  “I’m not sure yet. Depends on the cost. But a couple thousand perhaps?” Varre offered.

  “A couple thousand?” the treasurer stood up in shock, but quickly realized that his outburst was a little impolite. He cleared his throat. “Forgive me. I just think that a couple thousand heavy cavalry would be an exorbitantly expensive endeavor. All of Logres has a couple thousand knights, and our entire economy is geared around providing this number. I’m not sure what else we could to do to double it.”

  “Not knights,” the king replied, amused at this reaction, “but something else. During the battles, I’ve noticed that the enemy horsemen were plowing through our lines as they wished. Our infantry tried to dig in, but it took a lot of effort just to stop a small amount of rebels. The only real defense against enemy cavalry was cavalry of our own. And that just won’t do. I would like to prepare a special force of elite infantry. Armored and trained to better fight against enemy knights.”

  “Something akin to the Miroti hedgehog?” Hakon asked, slowly realizing the intention.

  “Perhaps, though we don’t necessarily need to copy their tactics exactly,” Varre said.

  “Still an expensive idea, but a more reasonable one,” Johan commented. The added explanation had calmed him down a bit and returned him to a more productive mindset. “Let me think. The soldiers in your army were being paid five thalars a month if they brought their own equipment and three if we provided it ourselves. Since we’d be arming them, we’d go for the lower rate, but even that seems a little high.”

  “I believe someone said that mercenaries get around five, correct?” the king asked.

  “Indeed,” the Treasurer answered, “but they are working in dangerous conditions and their pay is uncertain. They may go months without employment and they may need to travel far to find it. Since you want to pay them constantly, they should accept less.”

  “A normal city guard gets around two and a half,” Hakon offered.

  “Then maybe we can pay them a similar rate,” Varre replied, “maybe bump it up to three, to make it a little more competitive.”

  “Two thousand men. Six thousand thalars a month. Seventy two thousand a year,” Johan tallied it up quickly under his breath, “that’s more than it costs to run the rest of the kingdom, your majesty!” he finally protested, “we only spend fifty, sixty thousand on everything else!”

  “We have three hundred,” the king winked, “we have to spend it somehow.”

  Nilo will be looking into dividing up the former rebels' lands between the loyalists.