Chapter 2
During the proceedings in Nevarra City and up until king Markus Pentaghast excepted my pledge which allowed me to return home finally, there was no less then six assassination attempts all of whom died one way or another before they could be questioned.
It unsettled me to no end, and I became resolved in learning how to defend myself once my business in Nevarra City was concluded.
I returned home the fall of 9:26 Dragon age with a strong sigh of relief. Before leaving to return to Antiva, Santiago insisted two of the twelve Antivan Armada warriors would stay with me and spend the winter improving the mediocre skills of my estates small defence forces. I was eternally grateful, and he also recommended I find a rouge who would be willing to teach me their craft. I am too small to ever hope to become a proficient warrior, but the sly and light-footed maneuvering of a rouge would better suite me and my needs.
I was ever grateful to Santiago and Mariana. My estate boasted a small force of forty men and women, all of whom were from the surround farming villages. None were the seasoned and organized military veterans I would need in the likely event that my unseen enemy's (who had tried to assassinate me while I was In Nervarra City) would follow me home.
The two Antivan Warriors were Juan and Carlos Lopez, brothers, and the pair of them stayed over the winter months as they relentlessly beat my estates guards into shape. In the meantime, I procured the services of a young castless dwarven women by the name of Jarvia. She was highly recommended to Arlon whom I sent out to seek me a rouge tutor, by a well known dwarven merchant.
Jarvia was as harsh task master as the Lopez brothers. Training along side my Guards has the added benefit of gaining (some) of their respect though many still looked down on me for my youth and inexperience regardless of my efforts. I think until he'd been fired, Markus had been poisoning the guards against me and mine. It's something I would have to be weary of going forward.
The following summer, the Lopez brothers left to return home, there work complete and my guards were changed for the better. Jarvia herself stayed with me until the summer of my seventh birthday in the summer of 9:28 of the Dragon Age.
It had taken quite some time, but I had comfortably settled into my new role and the local peoples adjusted to having such a young Duchess ruling over them. Unlike my parents, I never spent my time at court but rather dedicated myself to the surprisingly challenging task of managing my lands. Many nobles regarded me a recluse as a result but considering my young age they didn't begrudge me for it. Not yet anyways.
I hadn't seen any more signs of the enemy since I'd returned home but I still kept an eye out. Any investigative efforts Mariana and I arranged to try and seek information in Nevarra's court came up frustratingly empty. Mariana herself still learned a lot of blackmail worthy material which helped her with her social/political maneuvering but nothing that could tell us who wanted me dead or why. All we could do for now was wait until the enemy made their next move. I didn't like it, but I had plenty to keep me occupied in the meantime.
The local peasants' needs had been sorely neglected under my family's rule for a number of generations now so there was a lot of backlogged complaints and concerns the village elders brought to my attention when I did the first official survey of my lands. I spent the first five years as a Duchess updating the ancient and crumbling infrastructure of the local villages. Houses needed to be built for the peasants ever expanding population. Both water mills and sawmills were built and even a new paper Mill with a small printing company attached.
Other New industries was introduced like a small a mining venture where a reasonably sized vein of iron close to the surface had been found in the hilly eastern edge of my lands. With Iron followed smithing so a couple purposefully placed forges were built, and blacksmiths hired. They mostly produced simple things like nails, horse shoes and farming tools among other things but mining our own iron and creating our own metal produce saved me a small fortune instead of having to buy them from the nearby village of Montfort across the Orlisan boarder which is the ancestral home of the Montfort noble family. They were unhappy with the loss of income but there wasn't much they could do about it without causing an international incident.
I also had a small textile factory built close to a successfully run generational sheep's farm. I purchased a couple of expensive steel industrial vertical looms from Val Royeaux for it. It was a bit of a risky venture, but the high-quality, high thread count raw cotton cloth we have been able to sell to the dwarven merchants has been well worth the investment.
Additionally, old roadways were repaired, maintained and new ones created as needed. Bridges were built or fixed. Much need water wells and qanats (water ducts) were either repaired or introduced to areas that had gone without and I had the dwarven architect I'd hired for all this work include basic piping and waste management systems in any new buildings like fucking toilets and kitchen sinks. Chamber pots are still the widely used go to method of collecting and disposing of biological waste. (a.k.a poop and piss) Only to have it thrown out the window when full. The general lack of basic sanitation and toilets was one of the hardiest things I had to adjust to when being reborn into Thadus.
After speaking with my Dwarven architect Boedrin, it came up in conversation, and as it turns out Dwarves have already invented sewage systems and water treatment methods. Which makes sense since dwarves evolved in small, close quarters and elaborate underground stone cities. They didn't have porous earth surround them as far as the eyes can see where they can dump their gross leftovers and forget about them. Also, dwarves are amazingly industrious and inventive.
The only reason this has not been adopted by other races across Thadus yet is due to rampant racism, ignorance and the human ruling classes inflated self importance. I almost cried. It was expensive but both at the estate and in the all the villages, (and any new buildings built) had Boedrin excavate and construct high quality sewage systems and water treatment methods.
At the edge of the subterranean labyrinth of sewage pipes; sewage waste was filtered, boiled, and cooled though elaborate underground dwarven machinery and tanks before it was emptied into a river NOT used as a drinking source. (It was clean, but this was just in case of disease) The leftover filth after filtration was dropped into an automatic incinerator fuelled and operated by complex magic runes work. A tall stone roofed chimney that let the excess heat and smoke escape from the incinerator was the only above ground proof of the subterranean complex's existence. It was really Thadus's dwarven version of a water treatment plant. It was all built to last eons (and cost just as much… ugh. But worth it.) and the only maintenance needed was the removal of the leftover burned sediment once or a twice a year which the farmers had begin to mix in with there fertilizer.
I could not have toilets and bathrooms added to every single pre-existing building, but I did have out houses built around the villages and attached to the new sewage systems. I also had roman inspired public bath houses built to encourage hygienic practices among the peasants. These bath houses were strategically placed closed to Inns and more elaborately decorated to increase tourism revenue into the area. All the excavation need for this was disruptive, and people complained loudly at first but its nearly five years since its started and the nay-sayers have shut up and seen the light so to speak.
Back on earth there was a saying city folk had. "There are no four seasons, there is only winter and the construction season." That was pretty much the reality of my Fiefdom for the last five years, but final stretch of sewage infrastructure had been built and buried by my architect last year and most of the buildings and infrastructure I had planned on would be finished by next summer at the latest.
I didn't even need to dip into my outrageous monetary inheritance from my mother which I still kept safely tucked away in the Antivan Medici banks like Mariana recommended. There had been a fair bit of money stored away in the estates basement safe due to my mother's previous estate management and the small economic groundwork she laid before her death. Anything else was funded by the by annual tax collection (which I'd lowered some to try and win the hearts of my subjects through there purse strings) and from the very successful consecutive harvests we'd been blessed with every year so far. Without the fancy expensive farming technology and outrageous seed prices like back on earth, farming what surprisingly prosperous. Cities payed a surprising amount of money for food in Thadus.
Other work I had done was a survey of any fresh water source checked for contamination or pollution and it was either fixed or cleaned (cleaned with magic that is. I really am liking the usefulness of mages. So cool!) Once cleaned, protective walls and barriers were constructed to keeps the water sources safe from contamination in the future.
In the most populated village named Hendrickson (named after it's founder, I sure as heel didn't give it that name), I had defensive stone walls built around the perimeter of the town proper and a stone chantry built over an underground bunker. Until then the local chantry sisters worked out of a refurbished barn. I know, I was shocked too. A few local schools' houses were built where villagers were encouraged to send their children so they could get a basic education consisting of reading, writing, penmanship and mathematics. I couldn't force people to do this, but it was greatly encouraged, and it had a fair turnout considering how alien the concept of a basic education for all was in Thadus. It could only improve over time. I could force my staff on the estate though, so the smaller ballroom in the norther wing was turned into a school room where the warriors, cooks and servants went to learn (regardless of there age or complaints) the same curriculum ad the new schools. They went in shifts, some in the morning and others in the afternoon or after the evening meal, depending on when there schedules allowed it.
All these pricy investments not only increased the quality of living among my subjects, but it also increased trade and economic growth and attracted a fair number of new settlers. Regretfully, where money grows, so does crime, but I had anticipated that eventuality. Bandits started to become an issue and so half of the original 40 guards that had been trained by the Lopez brothers were tasked with recruitment and training to increase their numbers. Multiple guard houses were built along the main roads and in the larger villages. Stables, barracks, training grounds and a small jail house was included among the bigger of the Guard houses. The smaller guard houses were really only a small house with one open room serving as a barracks with cots, the front room serving as an office/front lobby for any warrior posted there and a utilitarian kitchen and washroom in the back.
Added to this were strategically placed Stone guard towers. Only four were built but placed just so as to be able to survey most if not all of large fiefdom I ruled over and to keep an eye out for any unexpected exterior threats. (we also kept hidden basement weapons caches under each tower which only a select trusted few were aware of.)
As you can Imagine all these improvements were enthusiastically embraced by the peasants and I become much beloved. What wasn't so popular were the by-laws I had written and had enforced by my guards. Well, they're more like a small military force at this point having grown to over 200 strong. They preformed regular patrols to keep the peace across the whole of my domain. The true laws of the land though was still dictated by the king of Nevarra, but as long as taxes were paid, and nothing contradicted the kings own decree's, landed lords and ladies had a fair bit of freedom to enforce whatever regulations they wished to on there subjects.
I didn't go to crazy, because change takes time and all the disruptive construction didn't help matters. I had to pace myself or I'd have a revolt on my hands, but I did include anti-racial by-laws and fair labor practices for all races and genders. Also, after much deliberation, I calculated a minimum wage an employer is required to pay their employees. Regardless of the importance of there job weather they are a lowly farm hand, servants, or a bar maid, it's the same minimum wage they must be paid. Five bronze coins minimum for one day's work and twenty-five bronze coins for five day. A single day of work could be no longer then ten hours (approximately from full sunrise to an hour before dusk for those without clocks) and anything past that is paid extra, a bronze coin an hour for any over-time. Honestly, its not a lot, but by my calculations, its enough for a small family of labourers to get by in this economic climate. Anyone paying there employees more then that could not lower their staff's income to match the by law.
Before now, no one in Thadus had ever heard of terminology like overtime or minimum wages. It was hard to implement and police, but I lead by example which had proven to be effective. The mills, Inns, factories, businesses, bath houses and residential houses I had built over the last half decade were all owned by me, so I financially supported a large portion of the population that were not farmers. I paid every single one of them twice the recommended minimum wage, which was fifty bronze coins for a week's work, not including any addition over time pay they received. Other positions like the managers of the businesses were paid even more. I also had introduced the concept of employment contacts. It took time, but now everyone employed as my staff either on the estate or at any of the multiple businesses I own had a basic employment contract which I kept a copy of in my office. It really helped me keep track of who worked for me and got paid what as well.
Seriel, my nurse maid elf had also been promoted to my trusted executive assistant with a small army of her own assistants which helped me manage both my hectic schedule and multiple business ventures. She could already read, write, and count since I taught her back when I had been learning myself at the age of two.
Alron, my elven Stewart was getting on in years and would be ready to retire soon. He was currently training a middle age human male (which surprised me) of his choice name Fredric to eventually take over his role as Stewart when Alron finally retired. I was also keeping in close contact Mariana who delighted to learn about whatever crazy new scheme I came up with next. She was planning on coming for an extended visit to spend some quality time with me as we haven't seen each other in person since I was a toddler and see for herself the end result of all the estates plumbing and remodeling. What neither of us realized is when we made those plans is that the long-awaited doom, we had been anticipating from the enemy would be upon us before Mariana would ever set foot outside of Antiva City.