Moments

The Kingmaker - VI

The first thing Lucas did was to take a ride around the fief. He would walk with Peter and order him to ask a couple of questions to the adults and record their answers well as he spoke to the children. He would tell the chauffeur to park the car far away so that the residents wouldn't get intimidated. When they asked him where his parents were, he would just say, "Mommy is in the car."

Having a car was normal even for a commoner. But having an expensive car would blind their eyes. From his conversations with his people, Lucas was able to deduce a lot of things. Most important of which was that all the everyone loved the emperor, the country and his own father, it didn't mean they were happy.

Once he returned to his manor, he sat with the new steward Gia, Peter, his assistant Killian and the local administrative official.

"I went through the territory in the past week and Peter and I have drawn up a three-year rejuvenation plan for the earldom of Orion," Lucas began. "I need all of your cooperation in this."

There were many murmurs of "Yes, my lord"s.

"We have a five-point agenda. The first is agriculture, something we cannot forget or look down on. The number of people taking up the farming profession are dwindling and agricultural land is being converted into residential land at a rapid rate. The yield is poor and uneven. Few farmers are using techniques like mixed farming or using biogas or organic fertilisers — things which don't harm the soil. All this and more must be taken care of. Peter, why don't you tell them about the second point?"

Peter was startled for a second, but recovered quickly. "Yes, my lord. Our second focus is going to be education — from primary to higher education to adult education. Improving the earldom's literacy is what the lord deems important and that will also be one of the things we'll be working on. Investment in research labs in all disciplines, from the sciences to humanities to incubators for startups — all are high priority moves."

"Thank you, Peter," Lucas nodded. "The third one is..."

Lucas went on to list manufacturing, information technology and infrastructure as the other three pain points in his territory. When the others read through his complete plan. They were flabbergasted. Was this something a six-year-old boy could do? Were children getting smarter by each generation?

Regardless, they had to put aside their ego and the apparent superiority they felt due to their age. They discussed at length about how to bring things under control in his estate, and how he could grasp the ropes himself. Initially, everyone was hesitant to open up but as he asked questions, probed them and asked for advice, they began to speak up.

They drew up a plan and the implementation started that very day. In a matter of four months, Lucas had brought the entire fief firmly under his thumb. Everything was running like clockwork and the plans had been put in motion. He had spent his valuable time training the staff there to both be loyal to him as well as work quickly and efficiently.

Once things were settled there, he headed back home, ordering everyone there to keep him informed about everything that was happening there.

The day he reached home, his parents were still out at work. His little brother was at home, being supervised by a nanny. Lucas was annoyed by the fact that the nanny was more bothered about her phone than with Liam's well-being.

When he entered the room, the nanny hurriedly stood up, bowing to him. "Welcome home, my lord!"

Lucas didn't spare her a glance and walked to his brother's cradle. He picked up one of those rattling toys and shook it in front of the baby's face. A smile appeared on his face unconsciously as Liam began giggling, reaching for his toy. After playing with him for some time and feeding him milk from the refrigerated bottle, Lucas turned to leave. When he went inside his study, he dialed his father's number.

"Luke! Did you reach home safe?" Fabian asked, trying to sound casual but ending up sounding anxious.

"Hi, dad," he greeted him. "Yes, I'm fine."

"I keep hearing your earldom singing your praises repeatedly. What on earth did you do there?" Fabian asked, remembering once again how he had become numb to shock, listening to people regale him with legendary tales of his oldest son.

"Oh, this and that," Lucas muttered. "I needed to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" Fabian turned serious. Lucas rarely had something to say to him unless the situation was something he couldn't handle.

"You need to have better security for Liam. That nanny of his has no awareness of her surroundings. She cannot continue working for us," Lucas explained.

"Is that right?" Fabian said absently. "You're right. How about you choose someone, next? Your mum and I won't interfere."

Lucas' face brightened considerably. "That's a good idea. Thanks, dad, I'll get to it right away."Once he ended the call, Lucas jumped at the new task that had been handed to him. He called the agency and asked them to send him the resumes of the nannies they had in their employ. And that's how Lucas spent the next couple of months. He was a complete bro-con. He fussed over the tiniest inconvenience Liam was supposedly facing and went about setting things right for him.

All day long, he had exactly four things to do – lap up knowledge from books and the internet, train, play with his little brother, and take care of his estate's business occasionally. Lucas doted on his brother so much that sometimes, his parents felt that he was the one raising Liam and not them.

On this day, Lucas was reading out to Liam as usual. It was something the infant would not understand anyway, but the baby stared at his big brother as if enraptured. He felt the room's intercom ring. He stood up and answered it. He saw his mother's face on the screen. "Lucas," his mother said, "Come down, now. I want you to meet someone."

Lucas should have understood that something was wrong immediately because his mother seldom called him by his full name. But that day, his instincts were slightly off, unfortunately.

He always obeyed his parents unless there was a serious ideological difference. It had begun from the time his mother had tried to breastfeed him and he had serious objections to that. Ultimately, she had had to pump milk into a bottle and refrigerate it.

So, he put on some soothing music for his brother and went downstairs. In the main hall sat his mother, another woman and a little boy who seemed to be around his age. Lucas walked to his mother and bowed lightly, "Mother," he greeted her.