Alexander Smith
"It's a good delaying tactic. I might have an idea on how we can drag things out even further." Alex likes what he heard. They just need to polish up the idea even further. "We can keep James and Jane suicidal charge after the next pirate incursion. For the next pirate attack, we should do it in plain sights like you say. However, let's resort to trapping arrays and bombs instead of engaging in direct combat. I know exactly what we need to get the job done. The first thing we need to purchase and shipped from Eldorin are smart naval mines but instead of exploding on impact, we need to customized those mines to immobilize the ship and entrap its crew temporarily. As long as we limit the effect to just a minute or two, those customized mines shouldn't be too expensive. We can use a level three entrapment scroll to buy us more time to deliver a runic bomb once the ship is trapped. Last I heard, the latest runic bomb about the size of a mini refrigerator exploding at point blank has enough power to take out a third major realm cultivator. As long as a pirate ship is trapped with a level three entrapment scroll, one bomb per ship should takes out every single pirate on board. Too bad those bombs are too bulky for conventional battle. The royal family and the two dukes would no longer be a problem if those bombs can actually hit a fast moving target."
Joshua interjects in excitement, "Nice idea bro. A few big booms might just scare the slimeball into shitting his pants! As long as the slimeball haven't figured out how we pull off that stun, he can send as many pirates fleet as he wants and we will just wipe out every single one of them. If we are lucky, it will take the slimeball at least another two to four months before figuring out how to circumvent our smart naval mines tactic. Even if the slimeball has everything figured out, I am hopeful it will take him a while and a hefty bribe to convince another pirate fleet to raid us. The mysterious disappearance of one fleet and the miserable end of another fleet should keep the other pirates wary of us."
"If that buy us another six months, I think we should be able to drag it out until I breakthrough to become a Mage. According to master, the sect is laying down the foundation so that some of the more novel inventions on Eldorin can be publicly exposed to the rest of the worlds in the lower realm." Alex declares. "We should finalize the entire scheme after discussing it with the rest of the family. With six more brains on top of this matter, we should be able to come up with a foolproof plan."
*****
It is another three hours before Alex managed to sneak all the captives back to the mage tower without being discovered and having every family members in the same meeting room. Alex quickly explains the initial plan that Joshua and he had come up with before asking everyone to voice their opinion.
Anne is the first to make a suggestion. "I think we should get as many smart naval mines as we can get away with without blowing our cover. The more mines we spread in the water, the more time Charles and his retainers will need to figure out a solution. It is much more complicated to quickly disarm a hundred smart naval mines in comparison to just twenty of them. Mom says our family's business is doing exceptionally well and we can easily afford the extra expenses."
"Too bad Charles' retainers are competent. If they are equally incompetent, I am pretty confident it will take him at least a year to come up with even a slightly viable solution to counter our smart naval mines. We won't even have to waste anymore time to come up with more delaying tactics." Edward voice out loud after Anne's suggestion.
"Never underestimate your enemy's competency." Henry steps into the conversation. "I think we can probably muddle things along after Charles declare war on us too. Given his personality, he would definitely want the satisfaction of conquering our barony. We just need to figure out a way to make him seriously ill or temporarily incapacitated to lead his army to invade us just a few days before he is ready to do so. The only problem is how can we pull it off? We can't try anything too heavy handed in case we miscalculated his tenacity leading to his death. However, subjecting him to a normal injury or regular poison wouldn't work either. Magic potions will have him fix in no time."
Jane puts forward her idea to address Henry's problem, "How about curses? It is unorthodox but as long as we don't resort to the more malevolent curses, it should be fine right? A sleeping curse perhaps? It will show our restrain adhering to the code of private war."
"Wonderful suggestion Jane! A sleeping curse sounds about right." Alex praises Jane before voicing his thought, "We will need to limit it to a peak level two curse. As long as we exercise restraint, there is no reason for the royal family or the duke to intervene in our petty little squabble. Curses even a mild one can be dangerous if Count Winsloff tries to break it with brute force. I suppose we get to delay things by another month or two."
"Maybe there is a way we can influence Charles to spend more time making preparation before the invasion. After the pirate incursion where we are supposed to pretend to be seriously injured, we can go to our duke to offer him another bribe. We will pay an additional twenty percent of salt in tribute for every month he can protect our fief from private war with other nobles. We just need his protection for two years and after which we will utterly grateful and make another generous "donation" to the dutchy. I am sure Charles will hear about our request and guess that Alex and Edward need at least a year to recover from their grievous injuries. It is worth a try since we won't miss that extra salt produced. Let's just see how far we can drag things along. Just don't hold our breath that the duke will protect us for two whole years. That self-serving weasel will betray us the instant someone offered him the right price." Henry offered a second idea. "In any case, we will be in the clear as long as we can drag things along by more than one and a half year. According to master, the sect is preparing to trade with the Dwarven Federation and the first trade will happen in one Earth month time latest. That's ten months here. Once the groundwork has been laid, we can officially claim that all the novel magic artifacts we have come from the Dwarven Federation and we just happen to know someone who can get those artifacts. The royal family and the duke will definitely protect us this time round as long as we remain their only source to obtain those artifacts. Whetting their appetite will definitely cost us though. I am sure that once their interest is pique, they will expect us to gift them with such artifacts as tribute every year."
"Can't anything ever gets done in the middle age without greasing the wheel?!" Joshua grumbles in annoyance, "Bribe is pretty much expected everywhere. I can't wait for the day we are finally in charge. We will show any nobles that managed to survive the revolution how things can be done better and more efficiently."
"At least there is something we won't have to wait until our family is in power." Henry tries to placate his brother, "Once trading with the Dwarven Federation begins, we can start introducing modern farming equipment to the kingdom. We just need to limit it to equipment that can be towed by spirit beasts. The peasants throughout the kingdom might not immediately benefits from the increased grain production but it will help lay the groundwork for our future actions. When all eight of us here reached the third major realm, not even the royal family can have a say in how we treat the peasants in our domain. Aside from the farming equipment, let's discuss what other magic artifacts we are willing to reveal to the rest of the kingdom."