Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 143: Regional Manager

While the West Saxons were halted at the Mercian border by Ragnar’s Station Fortresses, the same could not be said for the rest of the Kingdom of Northumbria.

At the moment, the Scots were laying siege to Carlisle, the gateway to the North.

The Ealdorman of the region was missing in action and his eldest son was currently staying within York with his wife and three children, hoping the problem would solve itself.

The defense of the County of Cumbria was left to the second son of the Ealdorman, a man named Osric, who was slightly more intelligent than his brother Eadric but was by no means a genius, let alone a master of military strategy.

As such, the region was in dire straits while it faced the Scottish raiders.

Eadric’s younger brother Osric opted to give his troops the orders to stay within their castles and challenge the Scots to fight them where they had the advantage.

On paper, this might seem like a good idea; however, in reality, this left the towns and villages that provided the food to the Castles completely defenseless, resulting in the looting of Cumbria’s common population by the invasive Highlanders.

Of course, Eadric had no way of knowing what was going on in his family’s territory, nor did he really care.

After Bishop Aethelwold arrived with his Industrialist sermons and secured York, the fearful man opted to stay with his in-laws, allowing the lands that should be under his protection to burn in the fires of war.

This, of course, infuriated Lady Elfrida as she had yet another dispute with her younger sister, Princess Elfwynn.

Since their last correspondence, Elfwynn had been increasingly winning the little battles of logic she had with Elfrida to the point where Elfrida would rather stay in the drafty hall of York than continue to be insulted by telegraph strips.

However, once more, Elfrida decided to provoke a fight with Elfwynn now that she had nowhere else to return to.

At the moment, the two women were standing in the Grand Hall of York fighting over, well frankly, nothing of importance.

"I am just saying, where is Ragnar when we need him the most?" Elfrida snapped, pacing back and forth in her silk gown.

"He supposedly has an army capable of wiping out 25,000 Franks, and yet he hides in City Titan like a coward! If he is as great a man as you claim, he should be leading the charge against the Scots, and yet Cumbria bleeds while he sits back and counts his gold!"

Elfwynn adjusted her spectacles after hearing her eldest sister slander Ragnar once more and quickly countered her remark, her voice calm and clipped.

"Director Ragnar is currently protecting the Southern Line from the West Saxons. According to the daily briefing, he has completely halted their advance at Crewe and is currently maintaining his mobile strike force in the event that King Aethelwulf breaks past the concrete! He is doing far more for the realm and the GDP than your cowardly husband!"

Now that Elfwynn knew her sister’s weakness, she made every remark a stake to the heart, which greatly wounded Elfrida’s pride. In all reality, she was correct.

Rather than deal with his own enemies, Eadric hid in York under the protection of Bishop Aethelwold’s militia while his lands were torched.

Of course, even if he did show up to counter the enemy, there was not much an inbred dullard like Eadric could do about the situation. Still, Elfrida was greatly dissatisfied with her husband’s lack of ambition, and of course, Elfwynn took advantage of that.

Elfrida was scowling at Elfwynn’s remark, yet she quickly offered a retort; after all, much like Elfwynn, she was privy to the gossip of the nobility.

However, Ragnar had taken borderline paranoid lengths to remove spies from his territory; with his vast intelligence network, a part of it was dedicated solely to corporate security, and as such, gaining information on the events in Titan was quite difficult.

"According to the traders, Ragnar is sitting back in his mansion enjoying himself with his ’CFO’ and their brat while his armies defend his borders.

Just how exactly are those the actions of a ’Great Man’ as you proclaim him to be? He treats war like a ledger!"

Elfrida had a point; Ragnar was not currently at the frontlines as he had always been in the past, but the reason for this was simple.

His army was a well-oiled machine, and the garrisons were explicitly trained to defend their Station Fortresses in the most effective means possible.

There would be no purpose other than PR for Ragnar to stay at one of his defending forts.

The men were already in high spirits due to the exceptional conditions they found themselves in—coffee breaks, overtime pay, and heated barracks.

When one could repel an invasion in under an hour and spend the rest of the day playing cards and drinking tea while munching on canned biscuits, there was not a lot of anxiety to be had.

If Ragnar was going to enjoy luxuries while his soldiers were defending the borders, then he sure as hell was going to make sure his troops maintained some degree of luxury as well.

Thus coffee, biscuits, tea, and other luxury items were shipped to his troops at the border to enjoy themselves with while they weren’t in battle.

There was no army in the world aside from the Directorate’s who could so thoroughly enjoy a siege in such a manner.

Of course, due to the constant telegraphs Ragnar had sent to Elfwynn, she was thoroughly informed of such matters, and as such, she was well prepared for such an attack by Elfrida.

"Hmmph, you really are lacking in data analysis. Ragnar may be in Titan, but his armies are well supplied and even have luxuries such as properly constructed bunkers, coffee, biscuits, and standardized wool socks.

The only reason the Director himself is not present on the front lines is that it would be an inefficient use of executive time. His armies are fully capable of defending his assets without him micromanaging!"

Being thoroughly defeated in the current war for words, Elfrida was once more showing an ugly expression; she could not confirm nor deny whether or not Elfwynn was telling the truth, and as such, she was quite perturbed by this. Just how exactly did Elfwynn know so much more about the logistics in Titan than she did?

Elfrida honestly did not believe that Ragnar cared so much for Elfwynn that he would constantly write to her informing her of his progress.

I mean, after all, the man had a partner to enjoy his time with while Elfwynn was stuck in York; just how much could he care for the girl?

Nevertheless, Elfrida recovered from her poor attitude and once more began to sling mud in Ragnar’s direction.

"If he has such an easy time defending his borders, then why does he not send his Ironclad to liberate Cumbria and end the people’s suffering?"

Elfrida had a smug smile on her face as she asked this question, believing she had caught Elfwynn in a corner. Nevertheless, she did not expect Elfwynn to respond in the manner in which she did. The young woman smiled with a look of pity on her face for Elfrida.

Clearly, the woman had nothing but tapestry wool for brains; the answer to this question was so obvious Elfwynn felt embarrassed to point it out to her older sister.

Nevertheless, Elfwynn masterfully executed her retort by looking at Elfrida as if she were a simpleton before stating the reason.

"Because Cumbria is not Ragnar’s asset; it is your husband’s liability."

The moment Elfrida heard those words, she felt as if her mind had imploded.

Despite just a few moments ago believing she had cornered her little sister in this little argument they were having, Elfwynn had so masterfully evaded her vicious strike and dealt a deathly verbal blow of her own.

Realizing that she had been defeated, Elfrida had a hard time controlling her emotions; with every fiber of her being, she wanted to claw Elfwynn’s smug, bespectacled face off.

Yet, she resisted the temptation to do so and instead snorted before walking away from her little sister. Elfrida absolutely refused to engage in this little debate any further.

Elfwynn, on the other hand, was entirely satisfied with the result of this entirely meaningless debate.

She had once more beaten her eldest sister in a war for words, and though this may seem pointless to logical and rational individuals such as Ragnar, to a young woman such as herself, this was a great moral victory.

Just then, the heavy oak doors of the Hall burst open. A messenger, panting and covered in mud, rushed in. He wore the armband of the York Telegraph Station.

"Princess Elfwynn!" the messenger gasped, ignoring Elfrida entirely. "A wire from the Director!"

Elfwynn took the strip of paper, her eyes scanning the dots and dashes.

A slow smile spread across her face.

"What is it?" Elfrida demanded, unable to contain her curiosity. "Is he finally coming to save us?"

Elfwynn looked up, her eyes gleaming behind her lenses.

"Better," Elfwynn said. "He’s not coming to save us. He’s coming to acquire us."

"What?"

"The Ironclad has launched," Elfwynn explained, tucking the paper into her pocket. "And it’s heading for Edinburgh. But first... it’s making a stop in York."

Elfwynn turned to her sister, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.

"Pack your bags, Elfrida. The hostile takeover of the North has begun. And Eadric? He’s about to be... restructured."

Elfrida paled. "Restructured?"

"Let’s just say," Elfwynn smiled, "Ragnar has a new opening for a ’Regional Manager’ in the sanitation department."

As Elfwynn walked away, leaving her sister stunned in the hallway, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride.