23 February, 1251 CE,
"At last! I get to go around the town without sneaking around!" Thomas shouted with glee. He managed to get permission to go to the town and buy something he fancies. He was given a generous sum of 50 pence to buy whatever he wanted by his mother.
His mother, Emma, had only given birth to him after 5 years of her marriage, which made her feel pressured by her husband and his family. So after he was born, she practically spoiled him by spending a lot of money on him, like buying him the newest clothes, giving him a small workshop of his own when he asked for it, and many more.
'Hmm, from what I know, this barony is pretty low in the hierarchy due to all the iron being found in the surrounding baronies. But, oddly, only this barony lacks iron, oh well, if I manage to find iron, I should extract it quickly and without anyone noticing it,' Thomas thought.
"Alright, for my first inventions, it should be a blast furnace... at least a watered-down version of it," Thomas thought.
"Lord Thomas, are you ready to go to the town?" Ranald, his butler, asked.
"Yes, I want to buy a few things there, just make sure that we have enough silver to buy them," Thomas replied.
"Of course, my lord, I have brought 50 pence for your expenditure," Ranald replied.
"Good, that should be more than enough, we shall get moving. A few things on my list would be paper, blacksmithing tools, iron ore, leather, stone, clay, sand, coal, wood, and Lime. It's for a new project I am creating, and I will also need help from young artisans who are loyal to my father," Thomas replied.
"What do you need so many of those for?" Ranald shouted with surprise. He had expected to just spend around 3 or 4 pence on sweets and such, not the entire budget of 50 pence.
"I plan on building something revolutionary! Not just tinker around with a few gears and such anymore," Thomas shouted.
"It's to make something revolutionary! But I want to keep it a secret so nobody can steal my ideas," Thomas leaned and whispered.
"But it's too expensive, my lord! I didn't expect you to spend so much on your first trip around the town!" Ranald replied with panic.
"Oh, don't worry, I will make it up soon enough," Thomas replied with a smirk.
He planned to make a water wheel to boost his land's agricultural production. He was aware of several upcoming events, having received his elementary and middle school education in the UK, where his parents worked as professors for a few years.
"Hmm, let's first go to the blacksmith shop," Thomas ordered.
"Alright, my lord," Ranald relented...
It took about 30 minutes to travel to the town. The town could barely be called one; it has some wooden walls, and it's quite small compared to the neighbouring towns.
"We have reached the blacksmith, milord!" The shout of a young man was heard. He was the carriage driver, Lambard.
Thomas jolted awake. He had been drowsy throughout the trip because there wasn't much to see in the town. The trip was simply dull.
The blacksmith and his apprentices had come out of their shop to greet Thomas.
"Good morning, lord Thomas," the blacksmith, Johanas, greeted with a nervous smile. He was a bit nervous since it was the first time Thomas had come to his shop.
"Good morning, blacksmith. I have a few orders for you to complete," Thomas said, giving a huge list of orders he wanted.
"Tell me, how long will it take and how much will it cost?" Thomas asked after a minute.
"It will cost about 20 pence, my lord," Johanas replied with a bit of nervousness.
"Can you lower the price a bit? I am ordering a quite large sum! The maximum I can do is 15 pence," Thomas said.
"My lord, I need to pay my apprentices and have enough food for my family, the utmost I can do is 18 pence," Johanas said with a bit of lament.
"Fine, I will pay 6 pence now and the rest when I get my full order. I will also be hiring your apprentices for a few days. I will send word for when I need them," Thomas replied. Ranald gave the blacksmith 6 pence as Thomas said, and they left for the carpenter shop.
March 1st, 1251 CE,
12 people were standing in front of Thomas. 3 were blacksmith apprentices, 4 carpenter apprentices, and 5 peasants. Thomas had promised to give them each 1 penny a day for their work and a loaf of bread as lunch. Thomas knew he had to entice his workers well enough that they would come back to him after this job was over.
He had received all the materials and tools for his project, the water wheel.
The water wheel is not a new invention. The water wheel is at its peak in popularity, and Thomas wants in on it so he can boost his land's produce.
He needed the money to create an invention, gunpowder. Canons would revolutionize the world. When cannons were first used, it was during the siege of Constantinople, and it went quite badly for the besieged.
"Alright! Everyone, get your tools ready, we will be building a water wheel! Enric and Lambard, you both will be digging a canal to carry the water moved by the water wheel around the fields!" Thomas ordered.
"Bruno, Carnopicus, you both will be building the flour mill, the rest should start with building the water wheel itself, we have about a month to do this before it's time to plant the crops!" Thomas yelled.
March 21st, 1251 CE,
"Hmm, I believe the water wheel is a bit lacking," Thomas said with seriousness.
"My lord, what if we dig near the river and divert the water there. We can make it deep enough that the speed of water can increase, and the speed of the water hitting the wheel will also increase, overall increasing the speed of the waterwheel," Carnopicus said with a bit of nervousness.
"Hmm, good idea, though it will take a while to dig such a deep pond-like structure," Thomas replied, imagining a pond being made for the water wheel.
"It will be worth it, since if there is anything such as water scarcity, we can use the water for the fields later on," Thomas continued.
"Alright, I will get some of the peasants who are just loitering around for help," Carnopicus replied with a smile.
"Good," Thomas replied, going to his mansion to ask for more funds. He had already spent 60 pence on this project, and his father was not pleased with the high expense his son was creating. After all, Robert is just a lower baron.
May 23rd,
The water wheel was built successfully and works as intended. The water wheel had increased the output of the barony to quite an extent. Robert didn't think the amount he would save by building it would amount to much, but he was proven wrong within just a day. Getting a week's worth of work done within a day.
Now, for the next project, a very improvised version of a blast furnace. It would boost the iron production by at least 4 to 5 times, making his land very wealthy, but it would also attract a lot of attention to the Shropshire barony, which is not ideal.
"Now, I need to make a lot of money without bringing too much attention to me or the barony…" Thomas mumbled to himself. He knew a lot of ways to make money, but not attract any of the attention.
'Oh, I know of a way! I could try making better alcohol! Alcohol is more like a necessity at this period since it is much safer to drink than water,' Thomas thought with his figurative light bulb above his head turning on.
'Sure, it might bring some attention, but not anything which will make the surrounding baronies wary of us,' Thomas thought.
He started to calculate how much money he had to spend on his new venture.
A/N:
I will introduce most of the characters around chapter 4…