Chapter 89: Day 117

"What is the Millers Guild's next move?" Milos asked Matthias at breakfast the next morning.

"More FUD, which stands for 'Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt'. They'll spread more negative rumors, and instead of simply threatening higher prices, they'll use intimidation and actual threats against us and those who operate windmills. We'll need to guard the two new mills and be alert here at Newtown. A typical tactic would be to try to burn the mills.

"When rumors, threats, and intimidation fail to deter us, or, possibly at the same time, they'll go to King Robert and very carefully threaten the flour supply. They'll also likely try to lock in long-term contracts in other cities and towns, and might even try to impose minimum purchase quotas. Those are all standard tactics."

"That happens in your OP?"

"Yes. Those are the typical tactics employed by monopolies, organized crime, and the government. Of course, as it is here, it's not illegal for the government to do it, because no matter what form the government takes, it's great to be the King. The Guild will actually operate more like what we call the 'Mafia', an organized crime syndicate that operates as a business. Some business cartels and monopolies use the same tactics — threats and intimidation, arson, and even murder."

"Do you think they'll actually try to destroy the mills?"

"Sabotage is a common tactic, as I said. Have Michael post a guard at the entrance to the cave to protect our water supply."

Milos nodded approval. "I'll walk the man down after breakfast myself — the Guild won't need to burn our mills if they can reach the spring."

By mid-morning, a Newtown Guard with a heavy crossbow stood at the ready at the cave entrance, visible from the path, and a sign that Newtown was prepared.

"Boring duty," Karla observed, "until it isn't."

"We're going to need at least a dozen men to counter the threats," Milos observed.

"We can afford it, and they cannot. The proceeds from the sale of the Three Diamond Inn will cover the extra costs for several years, and we'll have income from our partial ownership of the inn and from the cloth trade in Southham. Not to mention the profit from building mills and from operating ours. And that means we won't have to touch the reserves we have from the money we confiscated from Kranos, or the County's portion of what we earned from our missions for the King."

"Are you going to speak to the Lord Mayor?" Jorah, who had been listening, asked.

"Not yet. What they have done so far does not cross any lines. When they do cross a line, I'll go see the Lord Mayor and the Bailiff."

"What about the Royal Tournament?" Karla asked. "All of us will be away."

"I trust Captain Michael and his men, along with Milos' Deputies, to protect our property and lands. The Guild is a business cartel and has never faced a threat to their monopoly. They will lash out, but it will be disorganized. By the time they organize against us, they will have lost most of their income in Fulham.

"The faster we expand the building capacity of the Newtown Mill Company, the faster we take away their incomes. Some of their members will see the writing on the wall and place orders for the construction of mills. We'll prioritize building those, and the Guild will collapse like a house of cards."

"I take your meaning," Tyra said, "but 'writing on the wall' and 'house of cards'?"

Matthias smiled. "I'm sorry. Those are idioms from my OP. To see 'the writing on the wall' means to see a clear and certain fate. It comes from a religious text of my OP. A 'house of cards' is one built with playing cards, usually on a gaming table. It is obviously unstable, and when it collapses, it is nothing but a flat pile of playing cards."

"How is it you speak Nystrian as if you were born here?" she asked.

"Technically, I was born here, because I have full memories of my youth here. It's also the case that Nystrian is nearly identical to Late Modern American English, the language of the realm where I lived in the OP. There are many other languages, some similar to Danian or Scotian, or the multiple languages of Pârsâ.

"The language of my OP traces back to a common language far in the distant past. Over time, that language changed gradually in various regions to become the different languages we know today. You can see that in the dialects of Nystrian spoken in the north — they have some fundamental differences from how Nystrian is spoken here in the south. Some people in my OP blame the gods for mixing up the languages to prevent men from being gods, but I don't believe that. I think it is simply the way the universe — the Earth and heavens — works.

"If the gods did not create Nystria, or the Earth, how did the world come into being?" Lilia asked.