An Angel Called Eternity

To Bet on Losing Dogs - Lykourgos XII: Mightier Than the Sword

Lykourgos XII: Mightier Than the Sword

The Second Day of the Tenth Moon, 873 AD.
Stagspring, Central Owkrestos, Klironomea.

Hells, but this was a lot of paperwork. Some interesting, some boring, some major, some minor, but all needed to be read most diligently, lest an important detail be missed.

"Well, lets see," he said aloud to the empty room, "Teleytaios has two and a half thousand Men-at-Arms and the same again for Longbowmen-at-Arms, as well as one-thousand Armsmen manning field artillery. From Triarios I have under my direct command another thousand Longbowmen-at-Arms and a thousand manning field artillery. As for Owkrestos there are another two-thousand there, almost all Men-at-Arms. That places me at a standing army strength of four and a half thousand Men-at-Arms with billhooks, three and a half thousand Longbowmen, and two-thousand men manning siege equipment and field artillery. According to what can be reasonably afforded and trained in the time period before we go back to war I can finance another two and a half thousand men with billhooks and five-hundred more with longbows. That should be a grand army by itself."

His mutterings were barely audible even to himself, for he was doing little more than whispering and mumbling whilst he flicked through documents and scribbled down notes on the foolscap next to him. As of right now he was trying to get everything in order when it came to the preparations for next year's campaigns, but most of what he'd been doing so far these last few weeks was nothing more than the first steps towards the consolidation of his new territories for the winter months since more than a little food and clothing would need to be distributed amongst the poor both in his core territories and his new holdings; winter didn't care who you were or which side of a war you'd fought on after all, and winter brought with it cold and hunger and death. The sooner his preparations were made the better, but he'd made sufficient headway on those issues and desperately needed a break from it all.

Now most people, Rhema and Elikoidi came to mind, wouldn't have counted 'moving to the next stack of paperwork' as a break, but Lykourgos couldn't afford to do anything else at the moment. If he wished to be coronated as the king of not only Teleytaios but also of Triarios and Owkrestos then he needed to prove himself as being diligent. Nasos was worrying about him becoming too stressed, but in all honesty this wasn't stressful. These were just numbers, and numbers were easy enough for him to understand. What was stressful was dealing with the endless number of petty matters that ruling in peacetime brought with it, and he had little care for that sort of thing. This paperwork was rather dull, yes, but not stressful. Numbers were simple, but people were stressful; better a hundred stacks of paperwork than a dozen delegate meetings. He didn't need to worry about running out of time with the numbers, since there wasn't exactly a hard limit on the time he had at the moment. Now that would have made it stressful.

Turning his thoughts back to the sheets of paper detailing the military strength of his new lands he mentally added those men that his new vassal was maintaining control over, speaking aloud once more to try and keep his mind on track and focused on the matter at hand.

"Of course Lord Sigiros has maintained control over his two-thousand Triarian Legionaries, who perform much the same function as the Men-at-Arms being heavy infantry, but of an even higher quality. He wants to expand his Armsmen as well, since half of the ones he once had were sworn to his vassals and as such now belong to me. He will likely fund an expansion of either a thousand Longbowmen-at-Arms or a thousand men trained in the use of siege weaponry, since both of those can be called upon to give support at range. Knowing the tactical advantages Longbowmen have over artillery pieces I'd be surprised if he didn't go for them."