So Damien had Infront of him three choices to chose from first selling weapons and provisions to the acosta and depriving the bright from his assistance thus tiping the balance of this war in favour of the former the second option see what kind of deal the bright are proposing it must be huge since they are letting baron Timothy preside over it third and probably the choice that will serve his interest best is to back both side of the conflict and stock the fire until they are exhausted then swop in to take a huge chunk of this cake 🎂 but that will need meticulous planning and execution any mistake and those weapons he sold will be used against him hell they may even pause the hostilities between to deal with him so he has to think carefully or the fourth option keep the stats quo .
So in order to arrive at the most optimal choice he decided to call for his chamberlain,the head of his industry team,the head of his personal guard levy and his band of master engineers dwarves to see the capability of his weapon industry and if possible expand it by creating new production lines.
Few minutes later a group of people arrived including butler Crowley after all he is one of the few people who are loyal to him no matter what.
He gestures for them to take a sit 🪑 then said :' I thank you all for taking care of the estate while I was away '.
Butler Crowley took the word and said:' no need to thank us we just did our duty it's our honour to be of service to you and the barrony as a whole '.
Then Damien said:'could please tell them about the letters that we got from our neighbours'.
After that Crowley started narrating in details what was in those letters and who send them and in the end he turned to Damien for more instructions.
Damien nodded at him and said:' I called for this meeting 🤝 to hear your opinion about the best way to extract benefits for our barrony in this situation but first I want our Chamberlain to share with us any knowledge he has about the waring parties which may helps us in our endeavours '.
All eyes turned towards him Jean could feel a high pressure on from those sitting around as what choice they will make will be influenced by what he will say if they choose right champagne 🍾 will be in order but if their choice turned out to be bad 😞 someone has to take the blame but this period he spent as chamberlain caused him to gain confidence in himself so he started speaking 🗣️:' I would like to state first that all what I will be seeing is just from what I heard either of the subordinate of those baron or from traitor Dylan mouth so these information should be taken with a grain of sult I will start talking about the acosta they are known as the snakes for their cunnings, lethality and high affinity with poison magic or aura it's like they are born to wield this kind of element ,they are a family who passed down for more than a thousand years so their heritage must be huge and include a trump card or two and finally they are more diplomatic savvy than their counterparts the bright'.
Taking his braith then he continued:'as for this family since they exist they represent the traditional way of nobles they always follow the path of knight none of their members ever followed another path as for their prowess as long I can remember their leader was always known as invincible under rank three life 🧬 form but unlike the Acosta family they usually resort to violence to solve their problems and this way of doing things it's what gave the Acosta a chance to rally the other vassals of the previous Viscount under them as known want to be ruled by a brutal ruler if he has choice as for the santinis and the wraiths as more like followers of convenience 🏪 the santini are a relatively new family and they come from a merchant background so they lack both in power and prestige so they chose to bend the knee to the bright as for the wraiths not much is know my lord expect that the have a longer leniage than the Acosta's or the bright I hope this information will help you lord to make a decision'.
After hearing this everyone was mauling over it trying to digest this information to give the best a device the first one to speak was levy.
He coughed then he said:' I would like to give my opinion on this my lord from what sir chamberlain said I can conclude that the under the Viscount the acostas were the administrative branch and the bright were the military branch so it's easy to see the reason why the hate eachother as the members of this branch are always rivals and this rivalries sometimes turn deadly so underhanded methods my have been used by each side to secure the favor of the Viscount so my humble suggestion it's either stay neutral or helps the Acostas as they more inclined to give more for our help'.
Next to speak was Mathias :' in my opinion it's better to use thus opportunity economically by selling weapons to both side thus gaining gold and at same time causing both parties to lose a big chunk of their ressources and if thus war drags on wene can leverage our support to keep the loosing partie alive and the winning side in check '.
Last to speak is the leader of the dwarves Heinkel :' this is a great opportunity my lord to increase our production of weapons and give those apprentices some must needed experience also I would like to inform my lord that I contacted our main clan and they agreed to send my branch of the clan to settle here which will probably increase our production by ten times or more depending on the quality of arms we make'.
After hearing this new information Damien he was delighted but more importantly he is more certain to make some gain from this war as what are they only after the brights and the acostas clash can he make decision.
So he stood and went towards the Window and then said:' first thing thank you Heinkel for inviting your clan here as I know that they wouldn't have come if you didn't stake your reputation on it so thank you second I want you and Mathias to increase the production of weapons as much as possible as long it's working it's good I want in two to three months be able to supply at least a fifty thousand soldiers as for manpower in few days we will receive a batchs of refugees and slaves so you can take some of them put them to work for refugees pay them like you others as for the slaves creat a point system as long the have a certain number of points they can buy their freedom thirdly I want levy to recruit enough people to the baron guard to have a battalion is it cleare'.
They understood for the time being the lord will try to gain economically from it and if possible military gains won't be off the table the all accept their orders and immediately left leaving only Crowley and Damien in the room he looked at him and said :' you seem to want to say something so please say it '.
Hearing this Crowley was happy for his lord he seems to be more enlighten that most leaders he could see the shadow of his father in him it seems that it's still some hope after all:' I would like to remind you that tree 🌲 that stand tall in a forest attract the winds young master'.
Hearing it Damien was happy inside day after Crowley prove his loyalty to him and said:' we will attract the wind either we want or not so it's better to have more options the matter of Carl must have been revealed by someone who is targeting me who thinks that those victories are his achievements which is a good thing they will underestimate us after he leaves'.
Crowley:' it's good that you know this lord ' then he bowed and left leaving Damien alone as for what his plan easy he will supply both parties until exhaustion then when they are fixed on eachother he will try to swop in under take one of the lesser barronys either the wraiths or the santinis who are less powerful and also people tend to no fight for others belongings specially when they can't guarantee their own survival while this may cause them to unite against him later on who ever took the title will do that but the only difference the later will have an entire viscounty to back him so it's better to weaken them.
As for the matter of Carl he will try to gain something from it and make sure that his secrets can't be revealed in the forsable future thus leaving with the problem to whom should lead his armies he should think carefully about it and he may have to turn the knight who will stay to vampire to make sure they stay thus he still have to make choices.