It took some doing, but Maria was able to find some accountants on short notice thanks to Lady Selena and Dame Lalatina. The former recommended a classmate of hers from the Academy, the 4th granddaughter of a baronet whose shyness had made gaining a suitor difficult, and who'd done some of her family's books as a way to be useful. She'd apparently leapt at the chance for an independent income (since 4th granddaughter of a baronet meant her family had almost been as poor as Maria's parents were, that is, leisurely well off for commoners), and had been willing to swear the necessary oaths of non-disclosure of Maria's private affairs and businesses. She had also accepted Maria's offer to be housed in the estate, meaning a room had to be prepared.
Dame Lalatina had been able to recommend the cousins of someone she knew, a pair of twins who was a relative of her own accountant (since she only had her own affairs to keep track of, not a holding) who were looking for a permanent position. Their history was much less dramatic, being merely from a family of well-off commoners in learned professions. Many of their relatives were sought-after tutors to the children of nobles, and they'd learned numbers, letters and bookkeeping to work at their local bakery and get an employee discount on the sweets there.
Maria had a suspicion some mention had been made of her cookies when Dame Lalatina had been recruiting.
They would also be housed on the estate, which was not that unusual, though usually it would have been in the servants' dormitories. As a former commoner herself, and one with plenty of room, Maria had been trying to make those comfortable. She'd had some of the unused room on the second floor designated as servant's dormitories, and had the one near the kitchen refurbished to be more comfortable, and less crowded. It was mostly the kitchen staff in there now, and even then just the ones who had to get food ready in the morning. The rest had been moved upstairs, where they lived in quarters not unlike her older wards, if slightly more crowded because they had more worldly possession than her wards did and needed furniture to store it.
Maria was aware this wasn't how it was usually done in noble houses, but the part of her that was a commoner had winced at the crowded confines, the hunter in her had winced at the deathtrap in case of fire, the caretaker at the Research Hall in her had winced at the resemblance to the Research Hall, and the girl who'd run away from Cainhurst had thought it was just right, which meant it was probably all wrong.
Besides, she didn't want her mother to see her treating her staff so poorly and be disappointed.
So against convention, most of the servants lived on the second floor. The first floor was reserved for public appearances, with only the school room in what had once been the ballroom the only unsightliness, and since no visitor was likely to go sneaking off to the ballroom, that was fine. The rooms on the second floor nearest the stairs and galleries were guest rooms, Maria, Sophia and Selena's offices. The communal rooms and sleeping chambers of her older wards were furthest from the stairs, in case of visitors, with the servant's rooms in between them. To prevent someone accidentally walking into the Servant's quarters, their doors were hidden by a large tapestries depicting frozen landscapes.
The offices of the new accounts would be next to Maria's with their rooms on the same floor, close to the stairs. Hopefully, they would be able to fit into the household…
Until they actually arrived, however, Maria still had a lot of work to do…
"How is trying to delegate work actually making you do more work?" Rafael asked in fond exasperation as they got ready to tell the children a bedtime story.
"Preparations have to be made," Maria said, not at all defensively as she helped one of her girls comb her hair– that is, she sat on Maria's lap and she combed it– while Sadako and Lasciel helped do the same for two other girls, and Rafael inspected the homework of the children in front of him to make sure that, even if it wasn't all correct, a sincere effort had been made to get it done. "I need to be ready to hand over the relevant work when the time comes, after the adjustment period."
"So, like needing to spend money to make money, you need to do more work to do less work?" Rafael said. "That sounds like a trap…" He looked at the boy whose homework he was inspecting. "Does that sound like a trap, Straid?"
"Definitely a trap," the young boy nodded with world-weary cynicism that somehow managed to look childishly naïve. "Mama already works too hard."
"I do as much as I always did in the student council," Maria said.
"And if that's not the definition of 'too hard', I don't know what is," Rafael said.
As was the case ever since Maria had gone back to reading them stories (she and mother switched the rooms they told stories to every other night), the children took their blankets and pillows and piled them all on the carpet in the center of the room, all of them curling up as close to Maria as possible. There was an order to it. Younger children were allowed first pick of where to lay down, and blankets were shared so they wouldn't get to hot. Some chose to curl up around Rafael, even if though he wasn't reading the story, and a few of the Ashina children even curled up around Sadako, who looked at bit awkward as she sat near Maria.
As Lasciel went around to turn down the furthest lamps, Maria pulled out a book.
"All right," she said, flipping through the pages until she got to the right one. "When we last left our heroic knight, Overman Silver, he was facing the treacherous but beautiful Miss Dran on the Cliffs of Insanity…"
While waiting for her accountants to arrive, Maria prepared for tax season. She arranged the dates when she would be by to account for the tax collection with the mayors of her holdings, and reiterated that, yes, they can pay this year's taxes in grain The value she set was a little under the current market price in the capital, but it would need to be stored and transported after all. She arranged for storage of the grain in her other villages in exchange for counting it as taxes paid in services, which some were quite willing to accept, though she made the addendum that any damage to the grain due to improper storage conditions would be paid for by the owner of the storage facility, which cut the number of people who qualified for the option down a little, and down a little more once their facilities were inspected.
She also used this as an opportunity to inspect her nitre farms, which were coming along nicely, despite her people being bewildered she was willing to pay for their… byproducts… if in sufficient volume. It wasn't much, but they were getting paid for it, and so people started to collect the materials in question. Maria had needed to firmly establish proper storage standards, to prevent any poisoning or toxic build up, but all in all, it was turning out nicely. Next year they might not need to buy so much from the Alchemists Guild, and in a few years they might even be supplying to the Alchemists, at least until they establish their own farms. And anything they couldn't use could be passed to her farmers as fertilizer, so it was a worthwhile investment.
Sophia had also been able to declare her commission agents sufficiently trained, and had begun sending them off to collect commissions for nightflowers on their own. She'd fretted in her office, pacing back and forth worriedly until Maria had handed her paperwork to do. Then she'd alternated between doing it and pacing around fretfully, which was at least a reduction.
When they'd returned with nothing of note to report, commissions collected and Sophia had finally calmed down, congratulating them on their first day, then collapsed from emotional exhaustion once they'd gone to compile their report. Maria had a room prepared for her and regretfully sent her family a message that Sophia was staying at the office due to too much worrying about her underling's first day.
She did better on succeeding days.
Sir Cett had also arrived, and as promised Maria showed him the prototype single-shots, both the pistol and rifle configurations.
"It's light," he said, hefting the single shot pistol. "It weighs even less than a light crossbow."
Maria nodded. "Like a normal crossbow, it needs to be reloaded," she said, putting down one of the single-shot cartridges, its indexing peg prominent. "The load has to be prepared beforehand, and care must be taken so it doesn't get wet, or else it won't work. It will also require regular maintenance before and after use, or else it will explode in your hand or not work when you need it to. In short, not very different from a properly maintained crossbow, if with different requirements."
"I suppose it's to be expected," Sir Cett grunted. "No such thing as a maintenance-free weapon. How effective is it?"
"Optimal at short range," Maria said. "With skill and practice, effective at medium range. The shot travels much faster than any crossbow, so you require a smaller lead on the target. Unlike a crossbow, there will be no preventing your opponent from hearing when you take a shot, and it's possible to dodge if by rolling, with practice. I recommend not giving them that chance to practice. It will also pierce armor at short range, depending on the angle. The angles at which it will deflect off the slope of the armor are similar enough to a crossbow. My recommendation is to use it to incapacitate limbs, where armor is lighter. At close distances, it will hit like a greatarrow."
"Then why not use a greatbow?" Sir Cett said.
"Because it's a greatbow," Maria said. "It takes great strength to even use them, much less use them effectively. Though it's range it small, within that range you can cause the damage of a greatarrow, and do so quickly and easily."
"If it's that good, why aren't anyone using these yet?" Sir Cett said.
"We have not yet begun properly marketing it," Maria said. "Though it has undergone extensive testing and refinement. At this stage, your weapon would be bespoke, as we have not yet begun proper mass production. If there are any alterations you wish made, it can be done, if possible."
Sir Cett hefted the pistol in his hands. It had been designed for Maria's hand, and looked slightly undersized in his. "Can we get it a little bigger?" he said.
"That should not be a problem," Maria said. "Do you wish for merely the grip to be adjusted or the entire weapon? I warn you, this will result in an increased, which will require more reinforcement, and make the gun sit heavier in your hand, not to mention cause it to deal greater recoil."
"Sound like I'll have a lot to learn," he said.
"I would offer to teach you, but I fear my fiancé would be very exasperated at me for taking in anymore responsibilities," Maria said. "However, there is someone I can recommend who has been using them for some time, and will be thrilled for the excuse to use them. I will ask them to teach you to familiarize yourself with the safe use of the weapon. With your experience with crossbows, there will be need of some adjustment, but it will not nearly be as drastic as if you've never used such a weapon before. A short period of training will probably be all you require."
"Really?" he said in surprise. "There's another knight who uses these?"
"There are many, though as they have little to no extensive experience with crossbows, they are still learning," Maria said. "No, the individual in question is not a knight, but my partner in the development and manufacture of these weapons. I can inform her of your need, and the two of you can arrange for training with these prototypes until your own weapon is completed."
"That… would be acceptable," Sir Cett said. "But who is this person?"
Sophia Ascart smiled at the older knight who was giving her a skeptical look. "Sir Wacsill Cett?" she said, adjusting her sun hat. "I'm Lady Ascart. I'm here to teach you how to use gehrmans."
She had a sneaking suspicion Maria did this so she'd stop pacing around her office, but at least she'd have an excuse to let loose!