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After talking with his mother at length about building supersonic mini trebuchets—because she was far too excited by the idea that they might solve the rebellions in Glevitzingen and Spalla—Gustave finally managed to secure a location where he could build the weapons in secrecy the following week.
And because the miniature version was essentially an advanced design that his mother wanted to produce en masse to equip her soldiers as this world's version of musketeers, and because she did not yet wish to make such advanced trebuchets public, Gustave had no choice but to begin with the original trebuchet design.
It was embarrassing, according to his mother, that many great kingdoms already possessed proper siege engines, while the newly founded realms of Lyria and Rivia—despite having scholars capable of mathematically calculating such machines—did not.
And because this would push forward the eradication of Caldwell's son's rebellion, given that the lack of siege engines was one of the main reasons she had been unable to crush it, Gustave, after sleeping through the night, set to work the moment he awoke the next morning, designing the many siege engines already known to this world.
These included Raffard's Vengeance, Foltest's Pride, the Onager, Siege Towers, Battering Rams, and Ballistae, all used by great kingdoms such as Temeria in the Northern Realms.
In addition to the Northern designs, he also designed Nilfgaardian siege engines already depicted in Gwent Cards, such as the Hefty Helge, Rot Tossers, Fire Scorpions, and Mangonels. He excluded only their Game of Thrones–style Wildfire component, replacing it with conventional oil and fire, as he did not possess the knowledge required to produce the Wildfire.
Beyond that, he added Dwarven War Chariots and his own Earth-inspired Siege Engines.
These included the Boeotian Flamethrower, similar to the Fire Scorpion but focused purely on shooting flame, the Claw of Archimedes to defend the Twin Realms' waterways, an Exploding Mill Wheel designed to break enemy formations, and the Archimedes Death Ray, which relied on concentrated refractions of light through concave mirrors.
However, because he knew from playing Blood and Wine, specifically when clearing Rioux-Cannes Outpost, and from Samuel Eide's notes, that creating this kind of mirror would attract Harpies, Gustave made a bold warning note throughout the Archimedes Death Ray designs to alert the Siege Masters of the Twin Realms when deploying it.
Upon finishing the Archimedes Death Ray, he could not help but pause.
He paused because he knew that the person who would eventually create this version of the Archimedes Death Ray in this world was still young, likely around Gascon's age, eleven or twelve at most. Because of that, he decided to write a letter to his mother's Head of Intelligence, instructing them to find this individual and attempt to recruit him into the kingdom.
Although Gustave knew that Samuel Eide's version was not particularly lethal, as it was originally meant to bring sunlight to his lover's town, much like Rjukan in Norway on Earth, which sat in permanent shadow, he also knew that the boy possessed a mind far beyond his years.
And considering that he would need a loyal mechanist going forward, someone to serve as a reliable workhorse for inventions too tedious or inefficient for him to calculate personally, Gustave emphasized in the letter that the boy should be invited to study at the Twin Realms Academy before Samuel Eide was recruited by the Imperial Academy.
Upon further thought, and recalling that Calanthe herself had begun poaching talent from Nilfgaard, such as Vysogota, Gustave did not limit the letter to Samuel Eide alone.
He also listed the current owner of Corvo Bianco, an older middle-aged man named Bolius. Gustave knew that the man's wife had not yet died of illness and that his motivation for invention remained strong.
Because of this, Gustave knew he would have leverage when it came to inviting the owner of Corvo Bianco. If the illness proved to be some form of cancer, then even though it could not be treated magically like a common cold, his modern knowledge still offered methods to combat it.
And considering that this world possessed magic capable of amplifying scientific methods, Gustave estimated he had a fifty to sixty percent chance of curing the cancer, depending on the willpower and physical condition of Bolius's wife.
It would be a terrible waste to see someone who had once impressed Geralt by inventing an alchemical device capable of extracting Special Mutagens into Regular Mutagens, something even Barnabas-Basil Foulty remarked had been remarkably engineered during the man's youth, fall into despair and wait for death simply because a loved one had fallen ill.
So, as he wrote about Bolius and his background as the current owner of Corvo Bianco, Gustave realized that there were many individuals like him.
And because such minds were far better suited to work under his banner than for Nilfgaard, Gustave intended to poach these talents from under Emhyr's nose, knowing it would still be some time before the White Flame Dancing on the Graves of His Foes managed to unify Nilfgaard into a single, efficient whole.
Thus, he listed names and backgrounds one by one, scholars he remembered from the game, including those inscribed at the Orlémurs Cemetery of Toussaint, Martina the Engineer, Casspar the Architect, Pablo the Herbalist, Blaise the Philosopher, and many others, hoping that at least some of them were still alive.
Although he knew those names were originally the names of CDPR developers rather than characters created for the game, now that he lived in this world, they had become real people living in Toussaint, each with their own histories, not merely names written for the sake of naming.
Just as the Isle of Avalon had truly become one of Avallac'h's hidden sanctuaries rather than a mere error from Witcher 2, Gustave treated the names on those graves with the same level of consideration and seriousness.
Finished writing the letter to give to his mother head of intelligence later and rhythmic tapping the charcoal pencil on the bale, Gustave couldn't help but see that amongst those named on the list there is just one missing in a certain field of study.
And considering that his future creations would involve much boredom and monotony when crafting runic magical contraptions, he decided to incorporate the field of magic as well, so that he could employ sorcerers as worker mules alongside his other specialists.
But because this particular person was not in Toussaint, Gustave wrote in the letter that his agents should first travel to Temeria, to the village of Lurtch, to recruit Yontek the fool before searching for other talents.
And considering that the poor boy had effectively been abandoned to live among the streets and cattle due to his low intellect, Gustave knew it would be easy for his mother's intelligence agents to approach him.
Especially given that Yontek was treated like an animal in that village, with one line of dialogue from the villagers even mentioning that he had a dung-like breath, implying that the autistic Source-active individual was forced to live in places filled with manure.
Thus, thinking about talented magic users he could recruit as his worker mules, Gustave turned his attention toward the Magic Academy of the Twin Realms.
Knowing that Shupe the Troll was one such talent, and unwilling to let him be poached by Triss, whose allegiance was still fifty–fifty at best, Gustave wrapped his letters and siege engine designs and handed them to the servants and intelligence agents waiting outside.
Only then did he set off for the academy, intent on teaching the troll how to wield magic properly.
And considering that his ancient grandmother now had her hands free, subtly enhancing the power of all those who carried Elder Blood, Gustave knew that even if he possessed only ten to thirty percent of the firepower of a Witcher Sign, he could still demonstrate magic convincingly.
As he made his way toward the Magic Academy, another thought occurred to him. He should bring a gift for Shupe, the first troll capable of wielding magic, to ensure a good impression.
And because the fez-hat-wearing troll named Shupe was notoriously addicted to trading Gwent cards for glittering rocks, Gustave detoured to a gem store in the Upper City of Rivia to purchase various gems and powdered glittering minerals as gifts, before finally continuing to his destination.
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