44 Chapter 44 First Meeting For Northern Protection (1/2)

Joseph started the next day with looking at the unspent points he had acc.u.mulated. There was going to be a lot of math he would have to do, between figuring out the supplies he would need and their costs. He ended up spending 5 of his 15 life points on intuitive math. Just because he could figure the math out before, didn't mean he could now. It was fantastic, combined with perfect memory it was like having a spreadsheet program from his past lives in his brain.

Daniel, Walter, and Peter were the three retired generals that showed up, shortly after breakfast. Within twenty minutes, David and Timothy, the two people from the treasury and taxation departments a.s.signed to him, had also shown up.

He had spent three days at court, to try and get a feel for the politics in the kingdom, but he found it to be incredibly boring. It was like a pointless board meeting. No one seemed to be able to talk to the king without first attempting to outflatter the previous speaker. Then, once they managed to get past the boot licking, they would present their problems in such a way as to never be their own faults. There was a very short period of time for the king to ask questions or get more information from other people, then either a decision was made, or it was put off for later. Several of the people who came forward, Joseph couldn't even figure out what they were trying to do.

Sitting in on court provided an excellent opportunity for him to learn the names and faces of the houses in the empire. There were relations, businesses, territory specialties and other important information that he was able to pick up on from the various conversations. The king had a.s.signed him a man, Charles Devore, to explain things whenever he was in court. The man wasn't very impressed with overseeing a child, but he was determined to do his job well for his king, and that was all Joseph needed. He seemed incredibly surprised with some of the questions asked, but answered them all as best he could.

By the time everyone had arrived Joseph had a large map spread out on the table. They were all very confused and curious about it, as he had them take seats as they arrived. Stella had drinks of hot tea ready, and small cookies, leftovers from his majesties missing platter, though none of them knew it.

”This meeting is to discuss scalability and logistics,” Joseph stated as he stood near the head of the table.

Everyone looked at him surprised. Obviously, no one expected the child to lead a meeting quite like this.

”I have no idea how many slaves my father will be able to bring, so I want to design small compounds that can grow as more slaves arrive. The second thing I wish to determine, is the supply lines of everything. These will need to be foolproof as I don't want my people to go hungry, or lack supplies, as we hold off the barbarians.”

”I'm sorry, Sir Joseph,” objected Timothy, his white blonde hair, bobbing as he looked aghast at him. ”Surely you understand that issues with supplies are always an issue, regardless of wars or not. The fact that we have troops positioned near the mountains will most definitely make supply lines anything but foolproof, no matter how much planning you put into them.”

”So,” Joseph said, folding his hands in front of him, on the edge of the table, ”I a.s.sume you all believe my father pulled a fast one on the king?”

They all looked around uncomfortably, but none said a word.

”All of you have seen the contract, correct? Tell me, when does war ever end?”

This time, there were confused looks rather than uncomfortable ones.

”The contract states that after five years, defense of the north is to be handed over to my father, and I as the case may be, and we are to guard it against the barbarians. It is specific in that we are to protect against barbarians, and not monsters, and whatever is chasing the barbarians. However, when is war ever at an end?”

Looks of understanding started to register in some of their eyes.

”The contract is in effect as long as your king, my father, and the barbarians in the north are alive. How many times in the contract is a breach allowed? If we defend against 9 attacks but the tenth gets through, the contract doesn't allow for mistakes. I can protect this border for 30 years, but as soon as a single barbarian gets through, we will be responsible for the full 30 years' worth of taxes.”

He paused to look at each of them. None seemed to have anything to say. He mildly wondered if they were too shocked that those words came out of his mouth, rather than at the information itself.