Steel Empire
Building a cathedral

While Berengar enjoyed a peaceful life in Tyrol, the Bavarian invasion had spread to other corners of Austria. Luckily for Berengar, his position was safe for now; therefore, he spent his time overseeing the usual activities. After finishing his breakfast with Linde and Henrietta, who had taken an unusual turn, Berengar has moved into the main highlights of his day, presenting his latest project architectural design to his favorite architect. With the German Reformation, Berengar wanted a symbol of his movement. He therefore decided to create a Grand Cathedral in Kufstein to represent a new era of Christianity. 

While Berengar was far from an artist, he could still draw some rudimentary architectural blueprints. The style he had in mind was the German Renaissance style. Berengar had already begun to apply such a design in Kufstein to all his major architectural projects, for example, his magnificent palace, which was primarily based on the Schloss Johannisburg design of his previous life. Because of this, he is currently in a meeting with his favorite Architect who has overseen many of his projects in Kufstein, the man's name is Burkhard, and he was a refugee who had fled to Kufstein during the early days of the war in Germany, where Berengar soon realized his talent and hired him. Currently the two men were discussing the details of the Grand Cathedral with each other as they discussed the design.

"As always, Your Majesty, you know how to create a basic blueprint, but have absolutely no creativity. I'm afraid to say that you don't have any artistic talent."

Burkhard is a man in his early fifties. He was an unusually outspoken man; even for someone with the Berengar position, he was not afraid to voice his true thoughts, which Berengar honestly enjoyed. Berengar was constantly surrounded by too many sycophants telling him what he wanted to hear and not the reality he needed to hear. Because of this, Berengar simply laughed at the older man's comments and expressed his concern.

"Yes yes..I know I'm not meant to be an artist; the question is, can you make something amazing with the design I gave you?"

The older man with long gray hair and steel blue eyes started to ponder for a while while rubbing his bare chin before sighing.

"It takes a lot of effort to right your wrongs, but I promise, by the time I'm done with this great Cathedral of yours, it will embarrass the Vatican!"

Berengar chuckled after hearing the man's confidence and patted his back as he brought the topic to interior design.

"For the interior, I think of stained glass windows; I have a soft spot for such things."

Burkhard snorted as he heard those words before interrupting his opinion on the matter.

"Of course you want stained glass windows; everyone wants stained glass windows in their Cathedral! Far from me to question His Majesty's brilliant mind!"

Burkhard felt bitter about the topic, though Berengar did not know why, and to be honest, he did not care as long as his vision was turned on. So Berengar shifted the topic to the time frame needed to complete it.

"How long does it take to complete it?"

Burkhard immediately scoffed at Berengar's remarks; the young Count was always in a hurry to work on his project; regardless of the great wealth and resources he possessed, the young Count was always in a hurry, it was not like the man could work miracles and complete such a big project overnight, although his inner monologue Burkhard gave his best estimate.

"Given you telling me to run all the time to build your Palace, and now that I have this damn Cathedral on it, it will take at least two years! You're lucky you paid me very well and gave me the freedom to express my creativity.with this design, or I'll quit a long time ago!" 

Berengar was not the least bit annoyed by the level of informality at which the Architect spoke to him; in fact, it was quite refreshing to listen to someone who did not bend over and express meaningless flattery in every comment they made. Berengar therefore let the seemingly dirty man's demeanor slide. In fact, Burkhard was very passionate about his work and loved to have the almost unlimited resources Berengar provided to design and build so many big projects. Not to mention the freedom in which he was allowed to tinker with the basic design that Berengar had given him so as to give him the opportunity to turn it into a true masterpiece. 

That's how Berengar outsourced all of his creative ideas, especially in the textile industry. Those who have more artistic talent than themselves are allowed to create with the basic concepts presented, producing styles based on renaissance clothing from previous lives. However, it may not be 100% historically true, however, they still look fantastic and sell well, and in the end only those two things matter. 

After hearing that it took at least two years to complete construction, Berengar was happy; it would usually take years, perhaps even decades, to build such a vast project. However, Berengar has introduced important materials that significantly reduce the speed of construction and improve structural integrity over the traditional form of masonry. It was of course structural steel and concrete. With these two materials, the construction crew was able to create a large project like this Cathedral in a much shorter period of time, with greatly increased robustness, especially when compared to traditional methods. If someone knows what they are doing, they can make steel-reinforced concrete buildings look as attractive as other buildings. Thus, the, 

Although pleased with the approximate time frame, Berengar liked to mess with older men; considering Burkhard's strange natural demeanor, Berengar put on an authoritative face and said in a stern voice.

"It was too long; it needed to be built half of that time!"

After hearing such an impossible task, Burkhard almost had an aneurysm because a large vein protruded from his forehead while he was angry. However, before long, Berengar laughed out loud after seeing the older man's twisted expression, and Burkhard instantly realized that Berengar was screwing his head. Therefore, he forced himself to calm down and respond to Berengar's joke.

"You know you're not half as funny as you think, right?"

Berengar, however, had a wide smile on his lips; the look on Burkhard's face just now was precious. After all, Burkhard was one of the few people he knew who could be joked around like this. With everyone else, Berengar had to maintain his prestigious appearance, yet Burkhard was different, he did not care the slightest bit on the countenance of nobles, and thus, Burkhard was different, Berengar can be himself around older men.

Of course, Burkhard also found Berengar to be one of the more tolerable members of the Nobles he met. While the man was a member of the lower nobility, he had always been looked down upon because of his low status, and as such, never cared about the nobles and women who commissioned his work. However, he respected Berengar to a certain degree, Berengar was born to a lower noble family, only the son of the Baron, but in less than a year, he made himself a Count. This was not an easy feat in this medieval world. After playing his prank on Burkhard, Berengar notices what time it is now and realizes that he must be at a strategy meeting in a while, and therefore, he lets Burkhard get back to work.

"Well, Burkhard, as always, it's fun, but unfortunately I'm needed somewhere else; I'll let you get back to work.

Burkhard snorted when he heard this and responded coldly

"Make sure I get paid right!"

Berengar chuckled when he heard this answer and left, leaving a rhetorical question behind him.

"Have I ever failed at it?"

With that, Burkhard was left with a basic outline for Berengar Grand Cathedral, and he had a lot of work to do to revise the design into a proper blueprint before he could begin construction. Of course, this Cathedral was not the only project he had to work on, after all the Palace was still in the construction stage, so the man had finished his work for him. However, he was quite happy with his place in Kufstein and had no plans to leave; therefore, he rolled up his sleeves and began working on a new project presented to him. In the distant future, Kufstein would be considered not only the seat of the German Empire but also the religious center of the German Reformation, especially in part for Burkhard's efforts.