Tyranny of Steel

Throughout the day, Berengar entertained his guests with his fiancee well nearby to make him look good. She was cordial and graceful in every regard, a proper partner to Berengar ’s natural charm. The two built quite the lasting impression on the nobles who visited the von Kufstein family ’s estate. He had begun to make progress in forming alliances with the capable youth of the younger generation. He had no use for an ally who could not pull his own weight as such; Berengar would not waste his time with the indolent and frivolous young lords and ladies who could not even count to ten. Sadly it appeared like they were the majority of the noble offspring throughout the realm. He, too, had once been like them, spoiled rotten and never using his brain.

Most of the people Berengar entertained were either the offspring of Barons or Viscounts from throughout the Counties of Steiermark and Tyrol. They were roughly in the same position as he himself and could provide sufficient support to his plans if he were to build an alliance with them. Sadly there were not too many exceptional members of the lower nobility in this generation, and they mostly clung to the corner forming a small social clique among themselves. Most Barons who were not their direct liege would not give them the time of day due to their low status, let alone Viscounts or Counts and their families.

Currently, Berengar did not have time to oversee his projects personally; as such, he left them in the capable commands of administrators he placed in charge of them. Ludwig, as per usual, was in charge of his burgeoning industrial sector, Gunther was tasked with implementing his many agricultural innovations, and Eckhard took personal command of the matters that pertained to the militia. As for the militia, their activities were suspended during the duration of the visitor ’s stay. Berengar could not very well have information leaked about the effectiveness of his weapons. Such a thing could prove disastrous to his plans. As such, the militia was given a slight reprieve from the arduous task of basic training.

Though they had been victorious in a single battle, it was against mostly poorly equipped levies, who foolishly rushed a well-entrenched position, the troops in Berengar ’s battalion still had to complete basic and specialized training if they were to become an army fully capable of annihilating their enemies in the fields. Though they were far more accepting of their training and its methods after personally witnessing the results they had yielded during that fateful day when they slaughtered Ulrich ’s forces and rescued their Commander. It was a story many of them would be telling their grandkids someday in the distant future.

The next few days, he would be busy socializing with the nobility visiting for the massive party he was celebrating for Adela. He had a large surprise in mind for the young girl. He decided it was about time to introduce some renaissance era culture, particularly ballroom culture, which would not come about naturally for at least another century. Of course, Berengar only knew one dance from his previous life, the waltz, so it might be fairer to say he would be implementing an aspect of early modern culture.

Berengar did not have time or permission to extend the castle to contain a ballroom; as such, he built a public platform in the town square for the occasion. Eventually, he would like to construct a more modern palace that would obviously contain such a necessity and do away with the Castles altogether. After all, once his weapons spread across Europe ’s great powers, the mighty stone walls of the medieval era would become obsolete.