Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 149: Devil

While Ragnar’s Security Forces were maintaining the situation at the southern border, Ragnar himself was able to thoroughly enjoy the "market stability" brought about by his monopoly.

Though several of the Guildmasters in City Titan were primarily upset by the new safety regulations he had forced upon them due to his careful auditing of their ledgers, they had little power to rebel against him.

Most of them, of course, were wise enough not to take such an action while the West Saxons were liquidating assets in the south.

Ragnar may be a "Director" who stripped them of their autonomy, but he provided a stable and economically efficient market in a time of chaos and depreciation.

As such, the benefits they gained from Ragnar’s infrastructure outweighed the disadvantages of filing quarterly reports.

In fact, with Ragnar’s standardization reforms, creating a centralized workforce under his command, the individual Guilds were spared the expense of training apprentices from scratch.

Though these Contractors who garrisoned the factories were fanatically loyal to the Brand, they had not caused any problems for the Guildmasters, aside from reminding them to follow the Code of Conduct.

The complex corporate bureaucracy which Ragnar had put into effect throughout the Directorate had greatly diminished the amount of time these Guildmasters needed to work on logistics, allowing them to maintain a lifestyle filled with far more leisure than before.

The younger generation of craftsmen greatly appreciated Ragnar’s meritocratic reforms, as they had a clear path to promotion and could enjoy themselves with their wages at the company store.

Peace reigned over the Directorate while most of England was bleeding in constant conflict; because of this, Ragnar’s trade flourished internally and with his trading partners in Scotland and the Caliphate.

At the moment, Ragnar was hosting a business dinner for Vizier Al-Hakam, who brought him some great news from the South.

It had been several months since he last reviewed the P&L statement with his most significant investor.

As far as Ragnar was aware, the man was in the process of convincing the Caliph to outsource a portion of his naval construction to Ragnar’s dry docks. Finally, the Vizier had brought him the contract Ragnar wanted to sign.

"The Caliph has finally agreed to the terms; we expect a third of our fleet to be refitted here in Titan. I assume your facilities can handle such a large order?"

Ragnar chuckled as he drank black coffee from his skull chalice before answering the man’s question.

"Of course! We just expanded the dry dock last week.."

Al-Hakam was happy to hear such a thing as he raised his glass of sherbet to Ragnar and their upcoming venture.

"To our collective fortune! May the dividends be high!"

Ragnar lifted his goblet in the toast before drinking from it once more.

The fact that Ragnar was now drinking from a gold-plated skull and had a silver-geared cane did not go unnoticed by the Andalusian nobleman, who awkwardly brought up the subject.

"So... I can’t help but notice the skull mug and the cane. Is there a new... fashion trend in the North?"

Ragnar quickly put down his fork when he heard those words; his expression became stern as he closely observed the skull of Grandmaster Roland, which had been turned into a very ergonomic mug.

Eventually, a corporate smile spread across his face as he told the man the truth of the matter.

"A competitor sought to disrupt my market share; after they had made numerous attempts on my assets and were served a cease-and-desist order, they returned with a hostile takeover bid. During the audit, that person depreciated my leg.

For that, I liquidated them and seized their skull as a trophy; I decided to turn it into a coffee mug so that I always remember that even the biggest players can go bankrupt if they don’t innovate..."

Ragnar’s chilling words permeated the air and were quickly followed by silence; Gyda was the only person aware of who Ragnar was referring to; Magnus was blissfully unaware that the skull mug his father drank from was that of a French knight. Naturally, the baby was not informed of Roland’s death nor his luddite actions.

As such, he assumed it was just a funny-looking cup.

As for Al-Hakam, he was greatly disturbed that the chalice was an actual human skull dipped in gold and not some artistic representation of mortality.

Such barbarism was unacceptable in the civilized courts of Cordoba, yet the Director of the Iron Empire looked upon the skull mug with a sense of pride; such a thing was genuinely unthinkable for a man of science.

Despite his inner protests, Al-Hakam knew that his business relationship with the Directorate was worth more than his internal disgust; as such, he quietly calmed himself before responding to Ragnar’s tale.

"I see... a powerful lesson in risk management."

With that said, Ragnar shifted the conversation to that of business and began to inquire about the order’s details.

"Tell me, what specifications will I be meeting for your fleet?"

Seeing that the topic was shifted from its previous grim nature, Al-Hakam quickly addressed Ragnar’s question.

"I believe you referred to it as ’Iron Plating’. As long as you can manufacture the rivets and plates, we can handle the installation in our own shipyards."

This was a simple enough request, and Ragnar would be happy to fulfill it; installation took longer anyway and was hardly worth the efforts of his skilled labor; as such, he was pleased with such news.

Thus Ragnar quickly addressed his next concern.

"Will you need us to manufacture the steam engines as well?"

Al-Hakam shook his head before answering.

"Unfortunately, the Caliph is still... hesitant about the ’fire-machines’. He worries they will anger the Djinn of the sea. As such, we only require the armor plating."

Ragnar nodded in approval; it was much simpler to divert a production line to rolling steel sheets, and as such, he was more than happy to manufacture it.

After all, it was a high-margin product, and doing so in massive numbers would allow him substantial profit. As such, he replied to Al-Hakam’s request in the affirmative.

"Fine by me. The price is negotiable, but such high-tensile steel will require a significant amount of coal to produce; as such, my initial offer is 20 Dinars per sheet."

The Dinar was a gold coin in use by the Caliphate, renowned for its purity.

It was by no means a small sum, but then again, Ragnar’s steel would be of substantially better quality than the iron products the Franks currently used.

Al-Hakam’s face twitched as he heard such a large number.

Luckily Ragnar prefaced his statement with the phrase "the price is negotiable," as such, he began to haggle with the young Director sitting before him as he dined on his roasted mutton.

"Fifteen Dinars!"

Ragnar shook his head as he counter-offered.

"Eighteen."

The two men haggled over minute details until finally, a price of 17 Dinars per sheet was agreed upon.

Ragnar was satisfied with the result, but Al-Hakam was clenching his teeth; this would cost the Caliphate a significant amount, but it would be well worth the price to see the Frankish arrows bounce off their hulls.

After the two men concluded their negotiations over the cost of the equipment, they shared a meal and continued to enjoy the peace that was afforded to the Directorate.

Now that Al-Hakam acted as the importer to Ragnar’s steel within the Caliphate, he gained some degree of commission.

The two men from very different regions of the world were now intertwined in the industrial trade, which acted as a huge source of income for both parties.

With the business negotiations concluded, the two parties enjoyed the remainder of the meal, engaging in casual conversation about what the two had been up to over the past few months since they last met.

Obviously, Ragnar made sure to stay away from the topic of his upcoming Hostile Takeover of London, as his ambition in that event seemed to cause great concern to the Vizier, who preferred stability.

Then again, Ragnar was a Viking, a descendant of the raiders who sacked monasteries and destroyed kingdoms.

The idea that a scholar from the South and an intensely capitalist Viking who took pride in his ROI could form such an amicable relationship was entertaining to Ragnar.

Despite this, Ragnar was aware that such a relationship was vital to his plans.

Thus he tried his best not to mention that he was planning to build a navy that would eventually rival even the Caliphate’s.

"One more thing, Director," Al-Hakam said, wiping his mouth with a linen napkin. "There is a rumor in the South. The Pope is planning a Council of Innovation."

Ragnar raised an eyebrow. "Innovation? The Church?"

"They are trying to copy your steam engines," Al-Hakam whispered. "They call it ’Divine Mechanics’."

Ragnar threw his head back and laughed.

"Let them try!" Ragnar roared, slapping the table. "Without the spirit of Industry... it’s just a kettle with a whistle."

Ragnar raised his skull mug high.

"To the competition! May they always be three fiscal quarters behind!"

"To the competition,"

Al-Hakam agreed weakly, wondering if he had just made a deal with the devil... or the future.