Louis smiled broadly. "The first blueprint is for a heavy iron plow with a curved steel moldboard. Right now, our farmers use light wooden plows that only scratch the top two inches of the dirt. This new iron plow will cut eight inches deep into the soil. Furthermore, the curved shape of the steel will turn the dirt completely upside down. This buries the useless weeds and brings the nutrient-rich soil directly to the surface."

Hakon grunted. "Deep dirt grows better wheat~"

Louis nodded. "But the second blueprint is the masterpiece. It is an iron seed drill. It is a wooden cart with iron gears attached to the wheels."

Louis pointed at the gears drawn on the paper.

"Currently, farmers walk through the fields and throw seeds onto the dirt using their bare hands,"

"Birds eat 50% of the exposed seeds, and the wind blows the rest away. The iron seed drill solves this. As the horse pulls the cart, the iron gears turn automatically. The machine digs a straight hole exactly two inches deep, drops one seed into the hole, and then uses a flat wooden board on the back to cover the seed with dirt."

Leofric’s eyes widened in amazement. "If the birds do not eat the seeds, and the seeds are planted at the perfect depth, the crop yield will explode. If we currently produce exactly ten thousand bushels of wheat a year, these two tools will increase our production to forty thousand bushels!"

"Yes!" Louis confirmed happily. "I don’t really know if Ragnar was chosen from heaven or dreamed up these inventions, but it doesn’t matter, he really is a genius..."

Leofric picked up his piece of black charcoal and began writing aggressively in his tax ledger.

"I will distribute these blueprints to the blacksmiths tomorrow morning," Leofric declared. "We will distribute them to the farming villages before the spring planting season begins."

Suddenly, they heard the loud sound of wheels rolling on the dirt street outside the building. They heard the heavy clopping of horse hooves.

Hakon gripped his axe with both hands. "Horses. At night?"

"Who could be arriving at this hour?" Leofric asked, standing up from his chair. "The trade caravans are not supposed to arrive until tomorrow afternoon."

The door was suddenly pushed open.

Pierre, the loyal spy, walked into the room first.

Behind him, Queen Ermentrude walked into the bright light of the oil lantern. She was followed by Charles the Younger, Carloman, Rotrude, and Gisela.

Louis the Stammerer froze. He dropped the rolled paper blueprints onto the floor. He rubbed his eyes with his hands, thinking he was hallucinating from working too many hours.

"Mother?" Louis gasped, "Charles? Carloman?"

Queen Ermentrude saw her oldest son. She burst into tears. She ran across the floor and threw her arms around Louis, hugging him tightly.

"Oh~ Louis!" Ermentrude cried. "We missed you so much! You are safe! Look at you, you look so healthy and strong!"

Louis hugged his mother back. He looked over her shoulder at his younger brothers and sisters.

They all looked exhausted, dirty, and very thin, but they were smiling brightly.

"I do not understand..." Louis said, pulling back slightly to look at his mother’s face. "How did you get here? Did Louis the Germanic send you?"

"We received news that King Ragnar destroyed the massive Frankish army at Calais using black powder. The heavy cavalry was completely eradicated." Carloman explained.

"That is correct," Louis nodded, feeling a surge of pride. "The cannons worked perfectly." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Because the Emperor lost his army, I deduced his next political move," Carloman continued, "I knew the Emperor would send his royal guards to our stone house. He planned to take us hostage. He would have put swords to our necks and sent a letter to City Titan, ordering you to stop building weapons for King Ragnar."

"We could not let him use us as a weakness against you. So, we packed our bags, hired a smuggler, and crossed the ocean."

Charles the Younger walked up to Hakon. He looked at the giant bodyguard and the massive axe.

"Are you a Viking warrior?" Charles asked. "Can you teach me how to shoot an iron musket?"

Hakon looked down at the young boy. "Yes. I will teach you. But a musket kicks hard. It will bruise your shoulder."

Leofric stepped forward and bowed deeply to the Queen. "Welcome to City Titan, Your Majesty. I am Chief Minister Leofric. We are deeply honored by your presence. But you must be tired. I will arrange for five comfortable beds and hot roasted pork for your family."

"Thank you~ Minister Leofric," Queen Ermentrude said, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

Louis picked up the dropped blueprints from the floor.

"Mother," Louis said, "You never have to run away again. If they try to cross the water, we will blow their wooden ships into splinters."

Princess Gisela pulled on Louis’s wool tunic. "Louis, are there any honey cakes in this city? We only ate salty fish for sixteen days."

Louis laughed loudly.

"Yes, Gisela," Louis smiled. "We have everything. Hakon, please escort my family to the royal guest house. I will go to the baker and buy the entire tray of honey cakes."

The royal family of Francia, now safe in the heart of the Iron Kingdom, walked out together.

...

Gyda stood next to the window on the second floor. Just ten minutes ago, she had finished reading a secret paper report .

The report was from "Shadow" Sven in Paris. Sven had tricked the Frankish Empire into paying him silver while he stole their deepest military secrets.

She opened the window to let some fresh air into the room.

Suddenly, she saw a man running very fast down the road. It was Louis the Stammerer.

"Louis!" Gyda shouted loudly, "Where are you going at this late hour?"

Louis stopped running. He skidded in the dirt.

"Gyda!" Louis shouted back. "I am going to the bakery! I need to buy all the honey cakes!"

Gyda frowned. "Are you doing a new chemical experiment with baked sugar?"