A short while later, after the assassination attempt, all the citizens had been gathered, and there was a knock on my carriage door.

  "My lord, we have news,” Neil's voice called out.

  As I exited, I was greeted by the sight of a man in his mid-twenties with a dirty face and brown hair cut short keeling before me. When he saw me, he said, "Forgive me, my lord. This is all my fault. Please have mercy."

  "What is your name?" I asked. Trying not to let his groveling bother me.

  I think my calm demeanor threw him off. He shuddered as he said, "Gregory, my lord."

  "Gregory, what is it that I need to forgive you of?"

  "I did not think that the mission I was given was foreshadowing an attempt on your life."

  "What mission?" I demanded.

  "Before I left for your lands, I was approached by a man who said that they would take care of my wife in his master's estate if I would come here and keep an eye on things. I was to return immediately and inform him if an attempt was made on your life."

  "He wanted to know if something bad happened to me."

  "At first, I thought he might be a friend of yours and just wanted to keep an eye on you. He even gave me some money to help with my travels. It didn't make any sense, but I do not understand the dealings of nobles."

  "And you did not find it suspicious that they were going to hold your wife hostage until you gave them word?" Rick said in a growl.

  "He said his master would take care of her." Then he blushed slightly. "To be honest, I was happy to be rid of the nag. Our marriage was arranged, and since the day we were married, she has been complaining that things were better under her father's roof. What did she expect from the third son of a blacksmith? Once I got here, I decided that I would not return."

  "So this man here was sent to kill me, and you were sent to report back to someone if an attempt was made on my life," I said.

  "Did you know this man?" Rick asked.

  "Not personally, but I had seen him around. He had come with enough coin to buy that swill Old Dirk brought with him. I swear I have never tasted such awful alcohol." Gregory said.

  "Anything you can tell us about him?" Rick asked.

  "A real sullen guy. He just stuck to his work and didn't interact much with anyone."

  "That sounds about right, at least from what Niel has uncovered so far," Rick said.

  "My lord," Gregory said. "I will accept my punishment, but if you allow me to live, I will serve you faithfully. Even if you put me on your work crew or make me a serf, I will be happy. This last week has been the best of my life."

  "So you arrived a week ago, right before they closed down access to the barony. Rick, find out from Niel when the assassin arrived."

  "Yes, my lord," Rick said and sent off one of his guards to get that done.

  "Gregory, coming forward with this information speaks highly in your favor. On a technical level, I cannot see that you have committed a crime. That being said, you are not to leave this village, and you will be under surveillance. For now, return to your home. Rick, have a guard escort him."

  "After he left," Rick asked, "Should we not lock him up? We have a place for the criminals in each village."

  "If he manages to get past your guard. I will be very disappointed. Also, according to the law, he is not a criminal. I want to use him to see if we can uncover who is behind this. If we send him to Vaspar and have him report that an attempt was made on my life, but it failed, then we might be able to uncover who sent him. We just need to tail him. I mean, even if we do discover who it is, I am sure this will not be the last attempt on my life."

  "Any thoughts on who it might be?" Rick asked.

  "If the assassin came from Vaspar, then the most likely suspect would be the count's son, Peter. He has the greatest motive. I wouldn't rule out the count, though. Really, it could be anybody. Especially if the assassin only claimed he was from Vaspar. Add to that the fact that he may not be the only assassin.”

  I put my head down and started to massage my temples. I knew I should have just run away and become a painter. I was only joking, but the thought was nice.

  It was too late to turn back now. My people depend on me, and I have grown to care for them. I need to get stronger. That may be cliché to say. Every single hero in every story says that when they come up against obstacles, but that doesn’t make it untrue.

  My existence is making someone mad. I may be paranoid, but I think things are only going to get worse. I need a larger military, which will, in turn, make people mad. I also need more food and trade goods, which will also make people mad.

  I need allies, and right now, I have very few. Those I do have are people I believe to be part of a council faction. The king and Vaspar may be my allies, but I cannot confirm that. I have my relatives that I hope are friendly to me. The problem is that I am somewhat isolated, especially since I have been told that the duchy specifically wants my county seat to be on the cove. My allies are very far away and could not come to my aid quickly.

  This means that I need more troops, and I need to be able to move them quickly across my entire county, especially within my barony. First, better roads. I really think we could cut travel by a couple days if I had a somewhat paved, straight road from North Cove to Decmoore. Next, build a port near the border of Plimgus and Malcomp. I need to find a fishing village that would work. Then, when I get my ships, I could probably get troops there in a day. Possibly the same day. I need an independent message system. I don't trust my barons. I think I could replace them now that I am a count, but that would earn me a lot of enemies. I have to play by the duke's rules.

  The only reason the nobles of the duchy did not replace me was due to the fact that the King himself gave my family the appointment. If I understood things correctly, the duke appointed the barons, not Vaspar. That means I would be going against the duke, not the previous count. Of course, the duke was found to be insane, so I might be able to use that argument, but then again, he was not the person who really appointed them.

  This was going to be a tough situation to navigate. I wasn't sure if I should be more afraid of my own countrymen than of the raiders.

  "My lord?" Rick said with concern.

  "Sorry, Rick. I was just thinking of what we can do to protect our people from within the country," I said.

  "You were just attacked. Should you not be more worried about your own life?"

  "I will, but mostly, that is your job. I will leave that up to you."

  "Then I believe it would be best to head straight for your manor. You will be safer there," he said firmly.

  I cringed. "See, look at that. As soon as I tell you I am putting you in charge of my safety, I have to deny your request. I agree that I would be safer there and it is a good suggestion. Unfortunately, I cannot. I must appear to be strong in front of these people. If I were to run away now, I could lose respect. I need to show them I do not fear our enemies and that I am concerned with their well-being."

  "I agree with our lord," Benjamin said. "Rick, you will have to find a way to protect him while he is out with his people."

  "Very well, we will create a perimeter and triple your escort. I request you allow me to only permit one individual at a time to approach you if they are part of the new group."

  It felt restrictive, but I nodded. This individual was not a professional assassin. He may have been sent just to scare me.

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  "Thank you, my lord," Rick said.

  It was a little while later when Roger Fuller came riding into the village at a hurried pace. He immediately got off his horse and bowed.

  "Forgive me, my lord. I thought I would have more time before you arrived to get everything in order. I heard you were attacked. Are you okay, my lord?"

  I waved it off. "I'm fine. It looks like they have been running you ragged, Roger. Let's go sit in Neil's house, and you can give me a report."

  "Of course, I have all the records I have been gathering in my home. I will go get them, and we can discuss what I have gathered. And all the information I have on John."

  "John?"

  "The man who attacked you."

  "His last name was not Doe, perchance."

  "I don't believe he was a noble, my lord. He had no last name," he said in confusion.

  "I see. Well, let's meet in a quarter bell then. Will that give you enough time?

  "More than enough," he said while hopping back on the mule.

  It was only a few minutes later when he arrived back at Neil's home with a large stack of papers.

  He set down the paper on Neil's table and began to separate them.

  "My lord, may I first say I am impressed with this paper. I don't know how much it costs, but every message I have received has been written on it. I do not mean to pry, but either it is very cheap to make, or a large amount of money goes towards it, seeing as nobody had questioned me when I asked for more. It is my understanding that you made it here," he said, fishing for information.

  I didn't give him any further information. It was the cheaper paper that we used, so it wasn't like we were going to run out any time soon, but having him know our secrets was frustrating. It was too late now, and besides, he was going to need a lot more for what I had planned.

  He pointed to one stack and said, "This stack is a list of all the men in each village and their occupations. It also shows if they are married and how many children. These stacks are production numbers and how many people work in each area. The last one is supplies and estimates of what is needed."

  We spent some time going over it all, and I was impressed with his organizational skills. "This is all very good. I need a person to administer the census. I know you are a fuller, but how would you feel about being the censor for Bicman."

  Roger's eyes went wide. "You want me to be a magister of censorship?"

  "From my understanding you took on the responsibility on your own. I also understand you have been fulfilling your role as a fuller on top of what you are doing. Your family has taken on the role of dying all the new shirts. I didn’t even know dying clothing was something fullers did until Paul explained some of what you had been doing.

  “Basically I need people with initiative in my court. If you accept this position there will be a lot of work to do. Only nobles can hold a magistrate position. Meaning you will be elevated to the status of gentleman and if you fill your responsibilities well then you will receive land and a true title.”

  I didn’t think the man’s eyes could get any bigger, I was wrong. This was the dream of any commoner. Of course just because I was making him a noble did not mean I wasn’t going to keep him on a tight leash.

  “Forgive me, but I am not dreaming, am I?” he asked.

  “You are the second person to ask that of me in less than a day.”

  Emily was elevated by the king so that holds more weight then what I was doing now as just a count. Also one weird law in this kingdom is that I had the right to elevate males to nobility, but not unmarried women. It seemed very sexist to me but that was the law. Benjamin had no idea why the law existed, but it did. Maybe it was like those laws in the United States that make no sense unless you have a reference point, sort of like that law where you can’t carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket.

  “This does not come without a price, Roger. I will be honest with you. If you had not already been doing this work, there is no way I would be letting you near this information. This is not a statement about your integrity but more a reflection of the importance of this information.

  “If you take this job, you will be under an extreme amount of scrutiny. You will not be allowed to send messages outside of the barony. You will have a guard with you until I deem it unnecessary. If you are suspected of acting against the County of North Cove, you will be removed from your position. If found guilty, you will be executed. Needless to say, you will be on a short leash.

  “However, you will be compensated well, and if you prove yourself faithful, more rewards will follow.”

  “May I know what we are doing? If you put me in a position where I am forced to act against the crown, I need to refuse," Roger said firmly.

  "As you know, we have plenty of paper. Because of that, we are going to create a database, starting with a Resident Identification Number for every citizen in the barony. Then, we will compile all the information we can on each individual. After that, we will move on to the county."

  "I don't really understand."

  "First, I have to ask you if you are familiar with our new number system yet," I asked.

  "Is it the same one they are starting to use everywhere in Vaspar? Because I have been learning that one. It is getting to the point that if you don't use it, you can't do business there. I got started early because I was struggling to get customers as it was and I could see the way the wind was blowing so to speak. If my few customers stopped because I wasn't using the new number system, then I would be out of business. Do you use the same one?"

  "Yes, we do," I said, trying to hold back a smile

  "I will have to convert all of these into the Vaspar number system then. I had no idea it had spread this far already."

  I was not going to say anything, just laugh on the inside about the Vaspar number system, but of course, Rick couldn't stay quiet.

  "The new number system was created by Lord Bicman. It was brought to Vaspar by a Vaspar’s Messanger after his visit here. All of the people of Bicman who can count have been trained in the number system," he said defensively.

  "I am sorry if I have offended you, my lord. I was not aware that you were also a mathematician," Roger said worriedly.

  I waved it off. "I don't make a big deal of it. I am glad you know the system. When I finally make it back to my manor, I will begin to introduce another mathematical concept. You will need to learn it as well. But for now let me explain my plan. My Resident Identification Number or, RIN, will consist of three parts. The first number will Identify the barony, the second the village or town and the third is the individual. For example, I would be zero one dash zero one dash zero zero zero one. Benjamin, please get me a piece of paper so I can write this out."

  After he had gotten the sheet, I began to draw a table.

  "So, this is just a quick example. Barony of Bicman is one, Plimgus is two, and Malcomp is three. Bicman is one, and after that, it is in order of the village's founding. You can figure that out. The individual ID doesn't matter. You can start with the oldest individual or make it random. Any order you give it will eventually get messed up as more people move in or are born. The RIN only works for their village of origin and so we cannot depend on the RIN to identify there current location. There will be more databases giving that information but they will always keep the same ID. You can discuss that with your scribes," I said.

  "My scribes?"

  "You didn't think I was going to make you do this all on your own, did you? This will be a massive project. I will need a room next to each town hall just to store the data. And a building in Kerisi to house all the combined information. This first sheet will only be the start. We will have a more detailed sheet for each individual. Also, we will need one for each job. as I said all other forms will be based around the RIN."

  "I can see now what you mean by this being a large-scale project. I have never heard of such a thing,” Roger said.

  "It may be extravagant at first. While we are small and the headmen can handle things with only three hundred people in each village, proper documentation is not as critical. But this is one of those things that you don't realize you need until you have it, and then you don't know how you got by without it. We will also be fingerprinting. I know that is something lenders and investors do in the cities, but we will have fingerprints for everyone who is an adult over the age of thirteen."

  I could see the confusion on his face.

  "This RIN system is very useful but also subject to what we call identity theft. Fingerprints are unique and will prevent someone who has gotten a hold of another person's information to use it. We will issue lacquered identification cards with their information and a fingerprint on them so an individual can prove who they are by simply showing their fingerprint. Remember, this is a work in progress. It may have to be modified many times my you and your scribes. One thing I always tell my people is that when I give directions, they are subject to change if the person in charge can find a better way to do it. In fact, I am disappointed in those subjects who do not at least try to improve upon my ideas. I pay well to those who can."

  I could see the excitement in Roger's eyes. "My lord, this may take a very long time, but I am excited to take on this challenge. Like your number system, this could change everything. I don't know that I am smart enough for this position, but if you find me worthy, I will accept the responsibility."

  "Most people are not smart enough to handle the position they have, but if they have the initiative, they can surround themselves with smart people. We can discuss more on this later. Now we need to dig into figuring out who is trying to kill me. We need everything we can find on this John guy."