As there always seemed to be, an intricate bance dictated the ideal firearm. What she held now was a “Zwanzig”: an arquebus with a bore that would fit shot made by splitting a pound of lead into twenty. It had bee on to refer to ons by the weight of their shot and she saw no reason not to tihat with these firearms.

  This Zwanzig fired rather small shot pared to muskets, which went as rge as eight-bores. Of course, with how the weight of balls ged with respect to its diameter, the bore of those muskets weren’t two-and-a-half times rger, instead bigger by about a third.

  That small difference was signifit.

  It had bee incredibly clear to her that a lighter firearm was better. To begin with, a person had to carry it and, in battle, reload it and raise it. Thus, a lighter firearm meant less fatigue. However, this had its limit as it also o kill, which became the crux of the matter. A pistol could certainly kill and weighed so little as to barely invenience; just that, to kill, it had to be fairly close.

  Therein a tension arose as it had no true answer. One ideally had the rgest bore possible that the enemy may be killed while too far to suitably return fire. Indeed, she and her father had already discovered that aspect, hehe colle of ons. Even then, gunpowder lost most of its accuracy after as little as twenty paces.

  Pulled in another dire, it also became a case of asking who exactly o die. A on soldier of thin armour could easily fih from an arquebus at a hundred paces. The rger muskets, then, served t down knights with their grand armour—or their horses.

  As she pced down the Zwanzig, her gaze drifted to the “Acht”, one such musket. It was a heavier firearm, so much so that it was apanied by a long stick with a forked top that could be stu the ground to help support the barrel.

  Of course, the weight did not truly e from having a slightly rger bore. The rger shot needed munpowder and so it gave a rger kick when fired whieeded to be withstood. If too thin, it could well explode in pce.

  A smile tugged at the er of her mouth.

  These thoughts, while iing, were also just that: thoughts. Perhaps incorrect, perhaps misleading. The Zwanzig was so named, yet the shot had to be even smaller to easily fit ohe barrel was fouled by gunpowder and wadding. How the gunpowder burhen, also factored into he the shot should be. Perhaps as important, how easily the barrel could be ed.

  A firearm did in isotion, but in tension, both with things within one’s trol and without.

  Her focus these years had been to expand the precious genius her father had discovered. In Arab works, he found such powerful alchemy, yet it still served her as little more than a y. It was a slow process, the e of which could not be easily moved without i. At the least, for defending the city, it was incredibly potent.

  However, progress had been made.

  As for why she, at this time, had two such firearms before her, that was because Master Haartsen had been busy. Although it had taken a month for her retaio move to the city ale in, it seemed to Julia that said master had spent every moment siheir meeting ihought.

  Julia did not wish to waste that effort, thus she made arras.

  “This is to be the pn for the als?”

  With a polite smile, she loosely gestured at her guest. “Mr Mayor, I hear doubt,” she said, more amused than upset or annoyed.

  He replied with a chuckle. “Of My Lady, I hold no doubts. It is precisely because it is not her signature in the er that I eain a doubt and wish to firm.”

  For a moment, she regarded him, then disregarded him. “You have spent too much time around ftterers. There is o ftter me, that I know well in what esteem you hold me. Be curious and speak pinly.”

  At that, he ughed, even going so far as to take off his fabric cap. “Indeed, I should remember in what esteem you hold me too.” He paused there for a long breath. “I suppose what I want to know, no, what I wish to say is that this is remarkably ambitious.”

  “As it well should be,” she answered.

  That quiswer stilled him for a moment before more chuckles escaped him. “Yes, it suits My Lady very well.”

  She spared him a smile, then lowered her gaze to the map between them, a broad map that covered much more than simply the city’s limits. He had not spoken wrong. The master had been provided the most detailed map Julia had of her fiefdom and, iurn, the master had mapped out an eborate system of als.

  Of course, it was nothing unreasonable. Julia had supplied ample guidance for it, after all, so this was something she felt entirely within possibility.

  To begin with, most of the newly marked als were fation, thus loosely free as she could have those peasants on her nds work on the als in quiet times—and ence those peers under her to do the same. While the reins of serfdom had loosened, obligations lingered.

  Then there were adjustments to existing rivers and streams. The core of her nd, both city and farmnd, found itself between the rger Led smaller Wertach. A shame as her was suited for transport. While the Wertach was too small, the Lech had rocky patches and pces where the water raced. However, this meant these two and the streams which fed into them could be dammed ed or diverted with little fuss.

  Of course, that was not to be dohout reason. Several areas had been marked out where small ges to nature’s flow could aodate stretches of mills—water-driven hammers, mills frinding, sawing.

  Lines on the part did not capture the ey of the iy behind them, though. For intensive works, a stretch of hill had been mapped out where steps could be cut into the firm ground there to support several overshot water-mills in a row, along with a suitable pce at the top that could be dammed to guarantee a steady flow.

  Beyond industry and agriculture, there were adjustments to be made to the city itself. More peeded water as the city grew and, although only a mark on the map at this time, there would eventually be a need for a moat in front of the pnned walls.

  It was the work of a master.

  She did not know if this master had worked so hard out of obligation, desperate to repay the kindness she had shown, or to iivise her to tinue her patronage. For how simple Eva appeared, Julia knew better. At least, she knew better than to think others beh herself, especially those she sought out.

  Her mother had written that the only skill a ruler o succeed was the ability to judge motivations. Every day, Julia felt the weight of this w. As she refined her own abilities, she keenly felt the gaps grow where she knew she was g, this ability no different.

  She picked up her cup and took a sip of tea, the down. “One should read this as not even a goal. Rather, it limits the range of possibilities. We are here to first discuss the expansion of firearm produ, beginning with the barrel-makers. I would have you know that, if I could, we would produce ten thousand firearms over the ing four years.

  “Of course, such a thing is not feasible at this time, so let us sider produg a thousand. We are speaking of only the barrels first and it is from my reports that a master and apprentice may make a barrel in a day in a rush, but I would not rush in these matters. Two or three in a week seems a more reasonable pace. Spread over two-hundred weeks, we would require five barrel per week, which would be met by two workshops devoted to barrel-making, with a third to cover the shortfall of building and staffing the pces and any other deys.

  “Then, of course, we sider the other parts required, the assembling of these parts, as well as the produ of gunpowder. We ot simply have a stockpile of powder sit around and grow stale. So, in our pnning, we must at for how the stamp mills will have less time—and aodate a spag in case of is.”

  Her monologue followed a reasonable pace, steady. To finish it, she loosely gestured at a particur p the map, her fiips careful not to touch the part.

  “My advisor on this matter fouo be most suitable.”

  He pressed his fiips together, mouth thin. “The reason for your ret empathy for the prostitutes’ plight has bee rather clear.”

  His gaze lingered on the map a moment longer before rising to meet hers, only to find her gaze one he was now unwilling to meet.

  “Mr Mayor knows more than anyone how devoted I am to my people. Regardless of what others think, prostitutes and beggars and even criminals are no less people—and they are my people. Their existence is not a blight upon this world, it is a blight upon us. It is our failing that there are women with no other choice, that there are any who go hungry and cold, and it is our failing that we must waste precious effort on tools of warfare so that others less kind than us do not seek to exploit us.”

  Her pace was reasoeady, her cold nor hot, nor did she raise her voice. However, he still could not meet her gaze.

  Then, after a moment of silence, she tinued. “I am strained. My purpose is to help others, yet I require power to do so, power in the form of money, advisers, and authority. Every choice I make is weighed upon by the desire to help those I may immediately or to grow my power that I may help more ter. So, when I may help others and grow my power, I do so.”

  Silence followed, for what could he say to that? Had she given him reason to think ill of her before? Between them, it was true they had meetings which covered tricks of politics, but those tricks could hardly be called evil.

  No. Rather than that, he uood his misstep was to imply insiy. All he truly knew about her was that he could never know anything. While he felt rather sure of his ability to read people, he had seen first-hand how well she could present herself as readable to others.

  The tess erfeot infallible, but the perfect stewardess of both city and ty. That was the truth. There couldn’t be a suggestion otherwise. Indeed, all her as aligned with it. Any a that went against it, well, that was done by someone else without her knowledge—such as frustrating a certain judge.

  Only in this moment did he finally uand his insignifice, and his significe. One of the few permitted to look behind the curtains and see her mysterious smile, a fio her lips, and amusement in her eyes.

  What had he thought upon first meeting her? Another noble, one who naturally looked down on him, her better by birth and him worse by profession. Sihat time when she had so easily swayed him with an unspoken promise of respect, she had tio grow.

  There was a certain irony that she had always looked him in the eye as if equals, yet now it was him whnised his pce beh her.

  “My Lady wishes this done, so I shall endeavour to ehe guilds to it.”

  She gave a gentle shake of her head. “Although you mean well, there is to be no pce fuilds in this. The produ of ons and arming of soldiers is to rest withiy’s powers.”

  He drew in a deep breath, his heart pounding in his chest. “They won’t like that.”

  “ower do they hold?” she asked, tilting her head. “I have healthy industries in Gr to pull from. These guilds do not uand their experience is all the leverage they have against me and I have spent every moment since my return to undermihat.

  “Even Schulz, in his wisdom, has taken me lightly and, in exge, I have forced into his guild those who would show him little loyalty, as well as formalised the split between notaries, wyers, and judges. The momeruly opposes me, I would isote his little circle of judges and bring the rest uhe city, not particurly difficult to find among those wyers ones who desire promotion.”

  His gaze, settled on her , narrowed. “My Lady thinks there would not be… u over these pns?”

  A cold draft rustled the map, part silently rising and falling, and the oil mp stirred—even with the gss proteg the fme.

  “The guilds live by my charters. It is not unreasoo require them to keep a proper ating, that I may properly tax them. It is not unreasoo ask them, in light of growing demand, to take on more apprentices. It is not unreasoo ask them to send masters to vilges in need of their services. Indeed, we only ask reasohings of them so that, when they refuse, they bee the unreasonable ones.”

  This method she suggested did not sound unfamiliar to him. And, in a way, it sounded entirely fn. The Nelli family keenly khe importance of establishing good retions with guildmasters. A gift, a few s. Whatever bribe they paid was more than made up for by the better deal.

  No, she did not seek “deals”. He did not truly know what she sought. The ges she had pushed through at the textiles guild gave him a glimpse, yet, even then, he had bee totiations with the Nelli family, to her own “greater share” being taken.

  However, his thoughts returning to how she po drive a wedge between the leaders and the guilds they led… he could not help but see she had already dohe same with him. The Nelli family had nominated him, but she had chosen him. She had even said that he may have to choose between herself and the Nelli family one day—and she had certainly, in her own way, given him reasons to choose her.

  In light of that, her expnation became all the more ving. After all, she knew what motivated him far better than money, and always had.

  “Ideally, I would push through with the city bank,” she said, her voice softer. “For which guildmaster does not enjoy a greater share? Yet, with their money in our hands, how unreasonable could they be?”

  She paused there and brought up her cup for a sip, the back down.

  “Let us return to the topic at hand. For the militia, I will be bringing in someoo oversee them on my behalf. Or rather, you will appoint him at my request sihe militia is nominally under your trol when I am not leading it.

  “It shall take some time before that happens. Until then, I io have a hundred Zwanzigs made for training purposes. After that, we shall produce muskets, at least until we know otherwise. The Captain General will ultimately be the oo set the requirements as and when he sees fit, at which time I would ask you to approve the proposals.”

  Pausing there, she lowered her head a touch to catch the mayor’s eye, then added, “After all, this is to be withiy’s powers.”

  Within his powers.

  Indeed, she knew well all-too-well how to appeal to him.

  “Of course,” he said, bowing his head. A whisper, a promise.