Tyranny of Steel

When Linde fled Berengar ’s bed chambers, she covered her flushed appearance with her hands; she was so embarrassed she wished she could die. Berengar was far from gentle the night before; he had taken a stern and dominant position, not allowing her control over the situation for a single moment. It greatly wounded her pride as a dominatrix to be pinned down and bred like a bitch in heat. The fact that she had given her virginity to Berengar because she was careless was another point of contention in her mind. Though she had entertained herself by humiliating men through physical displays of dominance in the past, she had never engaged in any sexual activities before. For all her bluster, she was completely inexperienced, until now.

There was only one way she could forget this humiliation, by taking it out on her current toy. She resolved herself to be especially brutal to Lambert later today. She had no desire to inform anyone, especially her father, about her misfortune. If she did, her reputation as a domineering young lady would be completely ruined; after all, she had her chastity taken by a lowly Baron ’s son; and she could not possibly lose face like that. Instead, she opted to find a way to get vengeance on Berengar herself. Somehow she would find a way to get even. Or so she told herself. The conflicted state of her subconscious thoughts told a different story.

…

Several hours had passed, and Berengar treated the morning like any other; he had to pretend as if nothing happened. The probability of Linde informing anyone of the deed the two had done the night before was slim; as such, the likelihood of her father finding out about it and demanding he takes responsibility was practically non-existent. He understood Linde ’s type; she would not easily inform others of how she had gotten herself drugged and begged a man of Berengar ’s position to mate with her. Despite the slim probability, Berengar decided to take several precautions and advance some of the plans he had already been thinking about for some time.

As such, after exercising and bathing, Berengar drafted blueprints for flintlock muskets and 12-pound cannons. He did not have the time or resources to produce rifled muskets at the moment or percussion locks. Such things required advanced machinery and a chemical stockpile of mercury fulminate, which he was far from achieving at the early stages of his development. He did not even have a single court-alchemist in which he could teach the science of chemistry. As such, there was no one to make such a valuable chemical, and he did not have the time to spend wasting his day away on elementary chemistry.

Once his blueprints were finished, he rushed the designs over to Ludwig and informed him to create a batch of 100 flintlock muskets and three 12 pound cannons as quickly as possible. Ludwig was concerned with the anxious expression on Berengar ’s face and had to ask.

”These designs are centuries ahead of anything I have seen regarding gunpowder… I have to ask, what could we possibly need these for? ”

Berengar was a gentleman, or so he liked to think. As such, he would never tell anyone what he and Linde had done the night before. Thus he came up with some excuse to convince Ludwig to start the production of weaponry.

”I plan to start a militia; if anything, Kufstein ’s defenses are quite lax, and I think it would be wise to invest in such a force. Just keep it on a need-to-know basis; I don ’t want details about these weapons being leaked. ”

To Ludwig, this was a logical request. However, the only problem with it was timing. They were currently in the middle of developing irrigation piping, and as such, it would not be easy to switch over to the production of arms. However, he could tell Berengar was adamant about this, and as such, he acquiesced to the young Lord ’s request.

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