Knock knock
"Your grace, are you in here" I looked out the window and the sun was already rising again, i lost track of time trying to make sense of this hot mess that was handed to me.
"Come in stefan" he walked in with a girl that looked to be in her early twenties, she had hair like his and I could tell she would be extra capable especially with her glasses that looked identical to stefan's.
"Greetings your grace, this is my daughter grace Milton" stefan came from a counts family, he was the second son of count Milton and for generations it's been tradition that a child from the county would work as an aide for the head of the ducal family.
"Greetings your grace, its an honor to be serving you"
"Its good to have you on board grace..... Stefan how is the punishment for viscount Fillion going?"
"Yes your grace, i handed that over to grace as a test for her skills and I'm hoping she would bring results before the end of the week"
"I will not let you down your grace"
"Take as many knights as you need, you are dismissed" she walked out all fired up.
"Your grace, count Adelaide's successor is here to see you" count Adelaide, he was one of the vassals I met during the meeting last time, he was the old man with a cane, so his family was in charge of the dealings with the mages.
"Bring him in"
"Greetings your grace, i am roland Adelaide, I'm sorry my father was unable to make it due to his failing health, I pray you will forgive his rudeness"
"Its fine, I'm not here to exercise authority over you. I would like your family to take over the contract between ruhan and the magic towers."
"Your grace, its been years since our family was taken off that task. I don't know if my skills will be adequate enough to take over such heavy responsibility, please reconsider"
"Lord Roland, it wasn't a request it was an order. Going forward house Adelaide will take back their responsibility as the intermediary between ruhan and the magic towers, I confer upon you the position head of department magic crystal division, I hope you will serve ruhan well going forward" he fell on one knee accepting my command.
To rebuild this duchy, i'll need all the help I can get and the best help I can get are the heirs that were born and raised to take over these roles, It's their duty as vassal houses of the state.
"Greetings your grace, knight commander Callahan rubis of the order of dillion present myself to the acting head of house" knight commander, to me his presence may not mean much, but I doubt there are many others out there who commands this much aura.
"Sir Rubis, our knights are pitiful." There is no point in beating around the bush, the knights of the order of dillion that serve the duchy and are supposed to be in charge of monster subjugation with the head of house. But the knights i observed yesterday were so pathetic its laughable that they want to go on subjugations. The skill difference between the knight commander and the other knights is so wide you can barely call the others knights.
"I know it's not your fault as knights whose swords were kept in their sheath for years would definitely go rusty. Take these, going forward we will be revising their training regimen. It may look difficult now but in 2 years I want my knights to be able to go on subjugation on their own without coming back with mass casualties " I had created a new training method for them using specialized military training i memorized in my past life in hopes that if i reincarnated as a knight. Now that I think back to it, I may have been a hard core chunibyuu in my past life.
"I will deliver your training to them to.the best of my abilities your grace" I know he probably has doubts about the training as it's not something that exist in this world but I know it will work.
"I will try my best to be available 2 hours a day for your training I hope to see results soon"
"Your grace.... it's time to take a break, you have been buried in paper work all morning and you also skipped breakfast."
"You can take some minutes off stefan, have some lunch and rest for a bit. I still have to meet with the mage who is head of the west tower, I have to stamp the contract for the head maid and the others. I also need to organize a meeting with the farmers and blacksmiths"
"I'll accompany you to the meeting your grace"
"No it's fine stefan, take a break. I also need to inspect the farmlands, i'll be going into town so prepare a horse" I'm glad my obsession with reincarnation made me learn allot on different subjects.
"Yes your grace"
I always wondered how riding a horse would feel like, it's just a slightly more complicated way of riding a bike. I don't know if its the dragon blood or my past experience but it was quite easy for me.
I rode into town and it was way worse than the reports made it. The people were on the streets, the food were rotten. We just passed winter so the time was ticking before the next winter comes in 6 months.
The people watched me ride by in fear, i could see the difference between the commoners and the nobles, it will take allot of efforts to revitalize this duchy.
I got to the outskirts of town where the farmlands were. The snow was just thawing and the ground was still wet. An old man approached me from the small group of people gathered.
"Hello young one, this is property of the duchy, if you need to borrow some farm land come back next week that's when the representative from the duke will come "
"Are you the one in charge of the farmers" i crouched down grabbing some soil into my hands, it seems to be of good quality. It may not be suitable for all crops but i believe that it will grow crops just fine.
"Yes, we all came to check the process of thawing, what about you? Did you miss your way?"
"I came here on behalf of the duke, he wants to meet with you all in his castle tomorrow "
He fell to his knees and the others ran over kneeling with him. They must really be scared of the nobles if they fall to their knees before knowing what's going on
"I'm sorry, I didn't know you worked for the duke my lady" he stammered trembling
"Its fine, i just came here to give you the message from the duke. He wants to discuss the future of the duchy with you, so please join us tomorrow at lunch time"
"If you will have this humble servant, I will be happy to be of service to his grace"
*******
"Welcome back your grace"
"Stefan, I have a meeting with the farmers tomorrow at noon add that to our schedule."
"Yes your grace, also the vassals have all confirmed their attendance to the meeting in 4 days"
"And the duke?"
"He is still locked in his office refusing food and water, he has also been denying me entrance."
He must already be preparing to let go of his life, i want to feel pity for him but I guess any form of emotion is a luxury for me.
"That's good, what else do we have planned for today?"
"The west tower master is here to see you"
"Good work stefan, bring him to my office."
"Its an honor to meet the heir of ruhan, i am Amelia hart a 5th circle mage" who would have thought the master of the west tower was a truly stunning beauty with red hair.
"Greetings miss Amelia, please have a seat we have much to discuss....."
"Your grace these are magic circles for spatial magic" she looks like she was in shock.
"Thats right, i would like to make ruhan the head of magical engineering, when people think of magic items ruhan will be their first thought"
I'm doing this entirely for the duchy and not because it's uncomfortable living in a world without basic amenities, that's right it's for the people.
"But.... your grace... this magic circle... is" she was stammering as if in disbelief
"Yes it's for long range teleportation or also known as a warp gate. I would like you to introduce it to the magic towers of all 4 empires in the continent. You would need to negotiate a good deal with them, I wish you good luck"
This empire we belong to is the Arlianor empire in the continent of arium, which has 4 empires, the weldonara empire to the west, the Elaris empire to the east, the solendar empire to the south and then our empire which is located northwest. Ruhan is located in the north which is why it experiencing the longest and harshest winters. It's also the only place in the continent that has a wall bordering monster wood, a mysterious forest filled with monsters, trees with magical properties, also herbs and plants with amazing medicinal and poisonous properties.
"Your grace.... I can't.... I lack the skills necessaryfor such a huge task."
"Its fine, you will have help as Roland Adelaide will be going with you. You both will work as department heads to bring honor to runan"
"Department head?"
"Yes going forward, miss Amelia hart will be conferred the position head of the department of magical engineering." She went on one knee
"Amelia hart receives your grace's appointment with gratitude and vow to serve ruhan with honor and integrity"
"Good, i'll also give these to you. I trust you to do good." I handed her papers with short range teleportation circle and circles for teleportation scrolls.
Spatial magic is something humans cannot do, so presenting them with such advanced magic that belongs to dragons will be enough to pique their interests.