Chapter 46 June 404 AD Capital-Journalists (Patreon)

                In the days after the Kush invasion, to the surprise of every mother in the capital, their children slept peacefully. Most of the children in the capital watched as the steam weapons destroyed the Kush army. For the men and women of Paulsland, it was sensible for their children to watch the battle as the boys would likely fight the Kush and Romans in a few years when they joined the military for their mandatory service; as for the girls, they would all deal with medicine, so it was best to allow both boys and girls to see the gruesomeness of death and battle. The reason why they were able to sleep peaceably after the battle was because the steam weapons were able to almost effortlessly wipe out large swaths of enemies. Tens of thousands of children saw the power of the steam weapons, and they associated steam with protecting them, so regardless of what happened in the next few years, these children would be interested in everything steam. This would be the first generation where, as a whole, young people have access to technology that their parents did not.

                As for Jinka’s army, it could not stay long in the capital. The Romans still had armies on the west and east coasts. That said, with Kush soldiers scattered around the capital and Jinka’s internal feud with the seventy families, he could not just leave. Jinka left two hundred thousand men behind in the capital to search for the Kush soldiers. The lucky ones would be killed, the unlucky ones would be captured and used in medical experimentation, and whatever findings were made would be made very public. The Kush army had not been kind when they went through Paulsland, so no mercy would be given to the captured soldiers.

                That said, Jinka was tired of all the bad press he was getting, so he had his soldiers borrow every printing press in the capital so that the army could inform the public about their military campaigns. He called his paper The Military Times. What Jinka did was completely illegal, but his soldiers had the weapons, so they gave their commander what he wanted, besides it would be years before a jury could hear the case. As soon as he had the papers, he began printing propaganda about how the war was going well despite some opposition inside Paulsland. That although Paulsland was suffering economically thanks to the stone-cutting equipment, powered by draft animals, gifted by the Merchant Guild, they were able to produce more stone than ever even though all the young men were at war, and as soon as Kush and Rome were beaten back by Jinka, he would make Paulsland more prosperous than ever. He also encouraged the people to fight against anyone who opposed steam weapons as steam weapons would allow them to easily beat their opponents.

                The seventy families immediately retaliated by writing horrible stories about Jinka. Some were true, like how he stole printing equipment. Others were exaggerations, like how he used dangerous steam weapons. Others were outlandish, like how he was a terrible general. One of the stories they put out would change Paulsland’s fate and add a contender for the fight for political power in Paulsland. It was a story detailing how Jinka abused his authority with king Shimbir. It detailed how king Shimbir did not have tutors, and thus could not read because of Jinka. Furthermore it detailed how Jinka borrowed money from Shimbir by misusing his position as Kingsminister. To some degree, this was a desperate attempt to undermine Janka’s authority by the seventy families because they realized they could not tell a man with a million man army what to do.

                Thanks to Jinka stealing the printing presses in the capital, it took nearly a month for those stories to reach the capital, and by then, Jinka was long gone. Unfortunately, the seventy families were very misinformed about Shimbir, and he was furious when he read about the ‘lies’ that had been told about himself and Jinka, whom Shimbir rather liked because Jinka gave him his monkey. With that in mind, Shimbir tried to sue the papers in court only to find out that since he was a minor, Jinka, who was heavily involved in leading an army, had to do it for him, so instead, he sent a letter out requesting the reporters come to his throne room so he could show them that he was not in fact stupid and also to tell them the truth about Jinka. Or at least tell them the truth as he saw it.

                When the various journalists received the king’s letter, they informed their masters, which turned out to be eight of the seventy families, and were given the green light to go speak with the king. All the journalists thought that this meeting was going to be a joke. In fact, they thought the king would be waiting for them as they entered the throne room, only to be mildly surprised when they entered the throne room and found it empty. One of the servants informed them that the king had other duties to perform and he would get to them when his duties allowed it. This irritated the journalists to no small degree, but they had no choice but to wait on the ten-year-old child. As for Shimbir, he had read in King Paul’s book on leadership that important people do not wait on anyone, so Shimbir had to become used to making others wait on him, so he invited the journalist to his throne room during a time when he practiced horse riding.

                After Shimbir was done with his riding practice, he cleaned himself up, put on his best silk clothes, his sword, and one of the smaller crowns, and made his way to the throne room with Hani and his one-armed guard by his side. Hani came into the throne room wearing normal workers' clothes, and Kono, his guard, wore armor. The contrast of the sharp young King, with the two, in comparison, shably dressed servants, made Shimbir look more dashing than he already looked, especially since Hani was carrying several books. The journalists remained silent as he entered and sat on his seat, and Hani took her place standing beside the right side of the throne and Kono on his left. As soon as he sat down he said, “Your cameramen may take my picture.”

                The room remained quiet as the cameramen set up their cameras, put a large piece of reactive silver that acted as the film in the camera, and removed the lenses. Shimbir patiently waited for the cameras to properly take his image, with Hani standing so close to her King, she was also in the shot. Once the cameramen put the caps back over the lenses, Shimbir said, “I believe you have been misinformed.” Then he took a book from Hani and tossed it to one of the journalists and said, “Feel free to ask me any question out of that book.”

                The journalist said, “Its history twelve, for the twelve-year-olds.”

                “I know. I read it several times. Your papers said that I did not know how to read, and that I was ignorant. You did that without ever asking me. Please open up the book and ask me a question about it.”

                The reporter said, “That’s ridiculous.”

                Shimbir stood up, pulled out his sword, and said, “Either ask me a question out of that book or duel me. You have ten seconds to decide.” Shimbir was very upset that he was called stupid by the papers.

                Before the journalist could say anything, Kono said, “Your paper has insulted the King. Today, we will either see how true your paper is by you asking our King questions from that book, or our King will duel you with his sword. Since you do not have a sword I recommend asking a question from that book.” Shimbir bringing a sword, pulling it out, and demanding a duel was Kono’s idea. If any other ten-year-old in the nation tried this with a man, the man would use his years of training to take the sword from the ten-year-old and beat them black and blue. Their parents couldn’t even take this matter to court as a jury would likely have the parent flogged for raising such an arrogant child. The thing was that Shimbir was King, and pulling that sword proved his authority. If anyone tried to fight back, Kono would have full legal authority to cut the man down. In other words, Shimbir pulled his sword to prove he was not like other ten-year-olds, and it was sadly the only way he could prove it.

                The journalist was so flustered he said, “Yes, yes.” Flipped open the book and asked, “Which of King Paul the First’s sons went to Rome?”

                “George. Now let me ask you an easy question. Which of King Paul the First’s sons was in charge of the Great Lake province?”

                The journalist looked confused and said, “I don’t know.”

                Shimbir said, “Moron.” Shimbir was honestly wounded that the papers called him stupid, and it was a wound, and he was lashing out a bit calling this man a moron. In fact, he wanted to prove that he was smart and they were the stupid ones. With that in mind, he turned to the other journalist and asked, “Do any of you know the answer.”

                One of the journalists said, “How can we know that King Paul had dozens of children?” The other journalist shook their heads in agreement.

                Shimbir frowned and said, “It was Alexander the second King of Paulsland. That’s why I said it was an easy question.”

                One of the journalist said, “All of us are over forty years old, its been a long time since we learned that in school.”

                Shimbir said, “That’s no excuse. Your papers are calling me stupid, and you are blaming Jinka for it. Worse, you claim that Jinka stole money from me to build his factory. That is a bald-faced lie. The documents that gave him the loan has my fingerprints on it authorizing the funds. Furthermore, it has the prints of the witness, the head of the Illuminati Busara. I would counter that it would be stupid not to invest in the only matchstick factory in Paulsland. What you did was slander me, and my guardian, Jinka.”

                Kono said, “Furthermore, it’s a time of war. To write about how stupid you think our King is could be considered treasonous. To not only call our King stupid, but to also blame the commander of the military for it could also be considered treasonous. Claiming that the commader of the military stole from the King, and the King is too stupid to see it is also treasonous. As soon as Jinka returns, we will bring your papers to court, with each of you personally as some of the defendants, if you do not issue a retraction immediately. What will the juries of Paulsland think about your treasonous actions?” Kono brought up treason because Shimbir could not. The word treason carries a very different weight when it comes from a guard instead of a King.

                As soon as the journalist heard those words, they began apologizing for their papers. They promised they would fix things. The reality was that they did not fear the king or his guard, but the juries of Paulsland were known to be vicious. Generally, the juries of Paulsland could hold anyone in the courtroom accountable to some degree, whether they were the defendant, prosecutor, or judge, but the one exception was the King of Paulsland. He could practice lawfare directly without repercussion, and he was the only one in Paulsland who could.

                The journalists quickly left the throne room and, returned to their various papers, and told their managers and editors everything that happened, who then told the seventy families what happened. And now the seventy families were aware that their plans with Shimbir were destroyed, and they would have to pivot.


Authors note-One more Shimbir chapter, then getting on to other things.