Three days had passed, and Alden was working on the final stages of the scorpion design in the late afternoon in his father’s study. It had taken a lot of courage for him to start using it, but it was a private room away from others where he could work in some quiet. The dining room on the ground floor got too much noise from the kitchen for him to concentrate, so he had decided to start using it yesterday. It was a simple room, with a large table and a comfortable chair placed behind it. A few wooden chairs were kept on the other side of the room for any visitors.

  Looking at the parchment spread on the large table, he was confident he could finish the design of the scorpion sometime tomorrow. He had also sketched the general outlines of the lathe, but that would take a week to finish. He put down his quill and looked at what he had drawn, thinking if there needed to be any changes. Not finding anything wrong, he decided to take a short break. He took a big swig of water from a jug kept nearby, and walked to the window, overlooking the courtyard.

  The sailboat hadn’t arrived yet, but most likely there was nothing wrong with it, because without favorable wind, the time to return upstream from Garitus could reach as much as double of the usual times. Hopefully it would be back soon and they could place an order for buying steel.

  Looking downwards into the courtyard, he saw Lira sitting on a chair there with her maid standing nearby, which made him smile. The mild light from the late afternoon sun was reflecting from her pale-orange tresses, somehow making her look even more frail than she was. But by now he was quite confident that it really was anemia which she was dealing with. She had continued eating a balanced diet since their talk that day, and while she still didn’t like it, by now she was able to eat everything even without anyone else present to distract her from the food.

  The improvements were still small, though. She still tired easily, and couldn’t play like other kids her age, but she now felt well enough that instead of lying in her bed all day, she had started to sit in the courtyard looking at everything there, although her maid had to help her walk there. Hopefully, in a few more weeks she will be able to walk without help from the maid. At least there were signs of progress already.

  Caelen had continued to read everything on the shelves of this room, now that there was nobody to stop him. Most days he spent holed up in his own room on the second floor, reading those books. They also spent around an hour every day where Alden taught his brother about all kinds of topics. Unsurprisingly, his brother soaked up everything like a sponge. He really did have a sharp mind.

  The door opened, bringing his thoughts to the present. Vusato walked inside.

  “Milord, Coltan and Garrik are back. They've brought the prototype,” he reported. “They are waiting with the captain in the courtyard.”

  “Perfect,” Alden grinned, hearing about the first successful step towards a safe winter for Sarnok. “Let’s take a look.”

  He walked down to the courtyard, and found Roderic talking with the craftsmen. They immediately gave him nods of respect, before Garrik handed over the crossbow. “We have given it some tries, to check it is safe, and it works fine. You were right, it really is easy to use."

  Alden took it in his hands and looked at it from all sides. It was heavier than he thought, and looked quite sturdy. “Where can we give it a try?"

  Roderic said, “We have some empty space just outside the manor in the southeast which the archers use for practice. We can go there."

  Alden nodded, and the captain called up a few more guards, including an archer, and they exited from the eastern gate of the manor. They walked parallel to the village walls and past a few houses. They passed the southeastern gate of the village before Alden saw the corner of the walls. A few straw mannequins were kept there, as well as some wooden targets.

  “Do you want to do the honors?” Roderic asked. “I’m curious to see if it is really as great as you claimed."

  Alden grinned, and took a simple wooden bolt from the carpenter. He loaded the string with the goat’s foot lever, put the bolt in the slot, before he brought the crossbow sight in front of his eyes, and targeted the center of the wooden target. He exhaled, and slowly squeezed the trigger. The bolt left the crossbow with a twang, and hit around ten centimeters below the center of the circular target, and a few to the right.

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  “Woah!” one of the archers exclaimed. “I didn’t know, milord, that you were such an expert in archery too!"

  Alden looked at the target for a few moments, before he loaded another bolt. He brought the target into his sight again, this time correcting for the error, and pulled the trigger again. This time, the bolt struck just a centimeter above the center of the target.

  It was quiet for a moment, before there was a loud cheer from the guards and the captain. The craftsmen were grinning, while the majordomo’s mouth hadn’t closed yet.

  “This… this is…” Vusato paused. “When did you practice so much, milord? I know you are a good swordsman, but I had no idea you could shoot so well!"

  “I didn’t,” Alden grinned. “Using a crossbow is very easy, and today is the very first time I am using it. You should give it a try too. Roderic, you load it first, and give it to Vusato.”

  The captain used his bulk to load the crossbow with way too much ease, before he put the bolt in its slot and handed it over to the majordomo. Vusato took it with hesitation, and followed Alden’s instructions, before he squeezed the trigger. The bolt hit the edge of the wooden target, but Vusato was speechless.

  “How is this even possible!” Vusato exclaimed. “If you had given me a bow, I wouldn’t have hit within a few feet of that target. Forget hitting the target, I couldn’t even have loaded it with my old bones! But I still hit the target board with this! Amazing!"

  Alden grinned as one of the archers took the crossbow to try it. “That’s the best part of it, like I said. Anyone can learn to shoot it immediately, and if they practice a few times they can shoot quite accurately.” The archer shot the bolt, and it hit nearly at the center of the target in his second try after he also corrected for the error, then he grinned and passed it to the captain.

  Roderic’s shot barely hit the edge of the target, but he laughed. “Never thought I would like shooting things. But it seems like it's fun!"

  Alden chuckled and looked at the craftsmen as the crossbow was passed around for others to give a try. “Did you decide on a price?"

  The bald blacksmith, Coltan, nodded. “We have. We can provide each crossbow at 4 gold per piece. If you give a large order, we can do it for 3 gold and 7 silver coins per piece.” He pointed to the carpenter. “We will divide the shares amongst ourselves, so you don't have to worry about that.”

  Alden thought about it. With their current finances, it was obviously a very high price, but his own estimates of the cost matched up with it, with the cost of iron ingots being a major part of it.

  “How about I promise to give you an ongoing order to make it in bulk until I tell you to stop, which will take months, and in return, you build each crossbow for 3 gold and 5 silver coins?"

  Coltan frowned and looked at Garrik. They both whispered to each other, before the redhead carpenter nodded. “It’s a deal, milord!”

  “Perfect!” Alden smiled. “I’m giving you an initial order of 20 crossbows to be built as soon as possible. But you also cannot sell it to anyone else other than me. Otherwise… there will be consequences for you both."

  "Painful consequences," Roderic growled.

  Garrik flinched back, before he nodded. “I swear on it, milord."

  “So, how long will it take?"

  Garrik answered, “If we both put everything else on hold, and use all our apprentices for this, we can make a new crossbow every two to three days."

  “So 40 days to get just 15–20 crossbows at best,” Alden muttered. It couldn’t be improved unless… He asked, “What about if you outsource some of the work? I mean, what if you give some of the simpler work to the other carpenters and the other blacksmith? Wouldn’t it speed up the work?”

  Coltan nodded. “For sure, but there is a lot of other work in the village too which they have to do. Repairing of weapons and all those mining tools, making new horseshoes, new spear shafts, and all the other general repair work all around the village. The majordomo had asked the other craftsmen to take on that general work from us, so Garrik and I could focus on making your weapons. So I don’t think it is feasible to make them stop doing those things, unless you want to stop iron mining completely.”

  “Fine…” Alden said. “I guess it will have to be enough for now. I will call you both again in a few days so we can discuss the other bigger weapon I talked about. Vusato will pay you for this crossbow by the evening, and then we will pay you for each new one whenever you bring it to the manor."

  “That works for us,” Coltan said.

  "Before you leave," Alden interrupted, "you saw how the bolt hit a little to the right and down from the target. You'll need to make a small correction in the sights for that. Most likely it's only a problem with this individual piece, and not in the design."

  Garrik nodded. "It's easy enough to change that. We only tested whether it worked and not how accurate it was. We'll do it by evening."

  "Great," Alden said. "Then you both can return for now."