Tanya's Third Life as a Barbarian Queen, Chapter XLII

I will have the chapter as links to download at the bottom of the post. As well as a link to the Google Document page.

Kontia, River Docks.

Livia, Orc Fishmonger and Salter. 

A great slab of concrete, parts still setting, dominated the wide bank of the river. Up a hill it led to the base of a great brick building, its foundation dug but only a few bricks were in place. The building would be perhaps a hundred feet long when it was finished, as well as several dozen feet wide. 

I watched from some distance away, in a few small huts I owned where fish and salt were processed and stored for sale in the market. I watched as the Queen of the Monsters from the Steppe inspected the construction, a gaggle of Humans and more of the rabbits following in her wake as they discussed what could only be a structure for building riverboats. Huge riverboats. 

It was mundane, painfully mundane. Normally, there was no great secrecy, no dark magic or horde of slaves toiling away under the merciless whips of an occupying army. No, the slaves came to work as normal, stopping for breaks and going home early. Other people came to discuss the project and left again. Even the Queen had little to add except to show pictures and making minor adjustments that were scheduled in and incorporated. 

It was mad, total madness, madness that I myself had to live through. An entire Legion surrendering, an entire city submitting with nothing anyone could do except carry on like normal. There were changes, certainly. The rabbits dominated eateries, brothels, and popinae. Some strange new laws were passed and quickly enforced. But life continued, the dead were buried, work was found, and my son never came home. 

When the Ninth Legion surrendered, I and many people of Kontia had watched from a distance as they were marched to their new camp by the Lepus. I had watched as Human after Human marched, head bowed in shame, into captivity. None bore green skin. Not one.

They had exhausted the auxiliaries before they surrendered. 

I did not weep, I did not scream or gnash my teeth as so many thousands of mothers of Kontia did. I just went to work, as mad as all the rest. Until I had a body, I would not mourn; he might come back, today or tomorrow.

So long as I did not have a body...

"Fishmonger." I turned away from the window with a start as a gaily-clothed rabbit made her way into my hut at the edge of the old wooden dock.

"Oh, uh, welcome," I blurted out, quickly moving over to the counter as the Lepus looked past me through the window before glancing at me and shrugging.

"I am here to secure provisions for my company," she began, looking at a piece of paper and nodding. "What is the pricing to receive a bulk delivery of one hundred pounds of fish a week?" 

"One hundred pounds? That would be a large order, uh, miss." I quickly ran the numbers in my head. "If you paid every week, it would be hundreds of silver Dennarii."

"Hundreds?!" The woman snapped, blinking at me and looking at the paper again. "For fish?"

"Well, if you paid monthly for one hundred pounds of fish a week, I could round the price down to one gold Solidus," I offered as the woman frowned and made a humming sound.

"So much... Perhaps we should ease off on the wine... and the men. It won't leave me with much." She seemed to inspect the paper more before sighing. "Will you agree to this delivery once a week?" She glared at me as I nodded.

"Of course, I would need to know where you would like the fish delivered," I prompted.

"And you have not offered any of my peers similar deals?" She probed.

"No, you are the first person to come and make an order... I mean, the first Lepus," I corrected myself.

"Who else has made orders?"

"One of the slave schoolers at the school, uh, the one who teaches your children now. They ordered half the weekly catch, five tons every week for one hundred gold," I explained. Having so much of the fish ordered ahead of time had made the day to day much less stressful, but it also meant that there was hardly a need to go to the market since almost the entire catch every week was already accounted for.

"Five tons... that is much less than one gold per hundred pounds of fish!" The Lepus snapped, looming over me as I held up my hands.

"It's a much bigger bulk order." I quickly held up my hands as the barbarian glared at me before crossing her arms.

"So if I wanted to order one ton of fish a week for eighteen Solidus, that won't be a problem for you, will it?" She grinned.

"A ton, that is... that is too much of a discount." I protested, only for the woman to slam her paper onto my counter.

"You expect me to believe one hundred pounds of fish is worth a gold piece!? Do I look like a fool to you? We treat you well, so kindly, and you turn around and insult us like this!"

"I don't mean to insult you, miss. Honestly, I don't, it was just the size of the order," I tried to explain as the looming steppe warrior simply held a finger to her lips.

"Just the size of the order? Well, I am feeling generous. I will overlook how you would abuse our kindness... two tons of fish per week, forty five gold. Oh, and I want half of that salted." I blinked at the sheer volume she demanded.

"Can you afford that, miss?" I asked, heart thundering. "I mean, when a Centurion is ordering for his Century, he only has so much he can spe-" My heart leapt into my throat as she planted a hand on my shoulder and squeezed painfully.

"Don't you worry about that. Have the fish ready, and you will get paid, then I will take the fish away. Is that understood?" I quickly nodded as she grinned, leant down, and produced a small black block in a wooden tray. She poured some water onto it and then used a thin brush to write something onto the paper. "Very good," she said after an uncomfortably long time.

"T-thank you miss," I offered.

"That would be Lieutenant Nalia of the Yutoi." She corrected me with a smirk. "I will send my girls down on Monday. Make sure there are no problems, Orc." She practically spat before striding out of the hut onto the busy docks.

Suddenly my profit margins were looking a lot slimmer...

What was I going to do if more of the Lepus wanted fish? And at that, what was that... Lieutenant going to do with that much fish?

----------------------------------------

Kontia, Riverside.

Motoko, Cadet of the Tanaoi.

"THIS IS A TREASON!" Rei squirmed and wiggled as my co-conspirators and I giggled at her plight. Asuka and Lilly had Rei's arms while Viktoria and I had her legs. She tried her best to kick at us. "I am your commander!" 

"One!" We all shouted out at the end of the wooden pier as we swung her towards the edge.

"STOP! I'm in my clothes, you idiots!" The bossyest boss of the entire Cadet Force tried to boss us around. Again.

"Two!" We called as the rest of our Squad cheered.

"Just let me undress first. I won't be mad at you," Rei tried at last, pleading with us for mercy.

"THREE!" Came the cry. Rei screamed as she was thrown over the pier into the clear, sparkling water below. Her scream was joined by Asuka's as Rei grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the cool water with her. We all cheered at the pair's misfortune.

The two of them made a big splash and quickly began flailing around to right themselves as they quickly remembered the swimming training lessons about breathing and how to stay up in water even in clothes.

"YOU ARE SUCH A BUNCH OF STUPID!" Rei screamed at us as Asuka blinked away the river water from her eyes.

"Serves you right!" I declared, pointing down at Rei who glared up at me. "Bossiness leads to treason," I said with a firm nod.

"Extra sweets rations to whoever throws Motoko into the water," Rei deadpanned. 

"What?!" I called out as my wrists were already grabbed. "Why am I betrayed!?" I shouted out as I was thrown into the river without even a single moment of hesitation from my squad!

"Serves you right!" Rei snapped as she swam towards the pier and began to climb up the frame in her super wet clothes. All the while, the rest of the squad still on the pier quickly threw off their clothes before jumping into the river to cool off from the day.

After a moment of treading water with Asuka, we both joined Rei in climbing out onto the pier and stripping down to dry our clothes.

"So stupid," Rei muttered.

"It's just a prank, sis," I pointed out as Rei glared at me.

"I am the officer, I could get really mad at all of you for this," she reminded me as we sat at the edge of the pier.

"You are also our sister," I mumbled. "It's not fun if you are mad at us all the time, and we are not even marching anymore, and the Legion all surrendered," I pointed out as Rei moped. 

"Yeah, Sadera should agree to a peace deal now that we won the battle," Asuka agreed.

"Why would they surrender?" Rei snapped. "There are loads more Legions, they will just send another one!" I did not know what to say after that, so the three of us watched our squad play in the river for a while.

"...Well, it will take a long time anyway." Asuka broke the silence. "So it's stupid to worry about it." With that, she got to her feet and jumped into the river with an excited shout as Rei grumbled something.

After a while, I wrapped my arms around Rei as she got all gloomy.

"Motoko-" she complained.

"No complaints!" I ordered. "It's going to be fine, so come into the water with us, Rei," I demanded. She glared at me for a while before she sighed and gave me a thin smile.

"Fine."

----------------------------------------

Kontia, Cannon Range.

Tanya, Queen of the Tanaoi.

Cadets hammered a section of Wyvernscale to a wooden target with an iron plate underneath. When they were satisfied with how the incredibly tough scale armour was secured, they made their way back from the range towards the half-a-dozen prepared cannons. They had a fair walk, being one thousand feet out. 

"We already know the scales of the Wyverns resist roundshot and grapeshot even from the new Mark V Yannit Four Pounder cannons," Lieutenant Tara said as she looked at what I had concocted on the table in front of her. "Without your spell, or someone to cast something like it, we can't take them out of the sky." 

"Well, that's not entirely true," I reminded her, "roundshot will shatter wings and break membranes just fine." So long as the wings were actually hit.

"Of course, your Majesty. If we manage to hit the Wyvern," Tara offered with a respectful nod.

"This will improve the accuracy of our guns." I patted the wooden cylinder. "The alternative is rifling, but we can barely make smoothbores effectively," I complained as Tara gave me an odd look. "Besides, Wyvern scale might resist roundshot, but they won't resist this," I assured her.

"Loading!" Yannit called out, taking one of the new cannons that had been proven already and loading the wooden cylinder. It had two distinct parts: first a preloaded volume of powder was loaded in a paper bag, next the wax-sealed wooden canister was loaded. "Cannon ready!"

People started putting on ear muffs across the range. There was a delay as one last check was made before the spark formula on the cannon was activated and with a boom disgorged death downrange. There were a thud and an odd whistling sound in the air, and the wooden frame surrounding the ammunition bounced across the ground after it was fired out of the end of the cannon. Everyone was quiet for a moment before I started to make my way down the range.

"Well, come along then," I said, leading Tara, Cato, Yannit, and a host of other Artillery Officers down range. We quickly arrived at the target where a neat hole had been bored into the Wyvern's armoured scales and through the iron plate behind, too. I felt a giddy smile form on my face.

Armour thickness had been vital to the conflict that fascinated me the most in my first life. The second world war was very much a war of tanks, of great metal fighting machines, their guns and their capacity to duel each other with increasingly deadly armaments. The decades following that war had likewise led to a constant race between the protection armour offered and the capacity of guns to penetrate the very same. 

Rifled tank cannons had once been the most devastating weapons a tank could face. They were offering unparalleled accuracy for the monstrous machines of war. But that was until an innovation was made: Why use the barrel to spin the projectile when you could design a projectile which would stabilise itself?

I stepped forwards and plucked the bent steel rod, still hot to the touch, from the ground behind the target and turned about to my small audience. "With this, any cannon can destroy the Wyvern Knights of Sadera!" Hundreds of years of cannon design had led from smoothbore artillery pieces to great and deadly rifled guns, only to then come back to the smoothbore design. I was skipping hundreds of years of innovation to bring this ammunition to my smoothbore armaments. 

"I present to you, the Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot Dart. The two pound sub-calibre fin-stabilised steel dart is held inside the wooden sabot, allowing the four pounder cannon to fire it. It offers a greater degree of lethality to all Wyverns or armoured targets Sadera will array against us," I said with a smile as I watched Cato touching the scale hide of the dead Wyvern, shock clear as day on his face. "No magic required." Well, besides the spark formula to set the cannon off. "How many can you make, Yannit?" I inquired as the Goblin's eyes shone with equal amounts of shock and gleeful excitement.

"Can't believe it actually worked, your Majesty, and I made the blasted thing." He laughed. "I can have a dozen sorted by the end of the week, hundreds in a few weeks."

I found myself matching his grin.

"That should be enough."

----------------------------------------

Tanya being unreasonably happy to play around with APSD ammo on her Napoleonic era cannons gives me strength.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w8oc792dgi5HI2NmTEE9XrG2NDrW4FSbCzvy8ATeAPs/edit?tab=t.0