Sierra, 5 years old is exploring her world in the manor her family lives in. They aren't high enough to own a literal castle.

Once you're a Baron, you can then own one. For Titled Knight families, mansions it is.

Her older brother Zachary is no show as of late.

'Mother, Father, I'm not seeing Zachary lately.' said Sierra as after breakfast, she noted it. 'Is he sick?'

'No dear, Zachary went to live in Viscount Arden's mansion to grow up with his eldest son Frederick. Its tradition for Masters and their Retainers.' said her mother. 'He'll live there for three seasons and then spend winter here at home, until it's time to go to Royal Knight's Academy in Lordaeron City.'

'Heee...'

'Well, lords and retainers have to grow up together to build a bond of trust and loyalty as per his duty as a vassal of Arden Family. The Viscount has five other Knight Families subordinate to them so all eldest sons went.' said her brother Richter. 'That'll be my eventual fate too when I start the academy and I get chosen by a potential employer.' he explained. 'Then when they're 30, old enough to get married, they will part ways to manage their fiefs, have a family and cycle starts again through their eldest sons.'

'That's when I retire alongside your mother of course!' Steven chuckled. 'As your grandparents have done when I married your mother. Until then, we must grow this fief as all our jobs. Because we're a recent nobility, we're poorer than other Knight Families, so it's OK for us to marry commoners as no older Knight Clans will look at you and your brother for marriage for their daughters until we have a rich history of 100 years and so far, your grandfather only has 20 years of those, so Zachary and his line must add to that. Sierra at least can marry up if she does well. Girls have it easier.'

'We can marry anyone we want because we're not restricted by our status as Knights?' Sierra piped up.

'Yes. But if we're promoted to Baron in the future, that'll change...we will have our sons marry girls from other baronies, while daughters if they get lucky, can get married into a Viscount Family. So for now let's enjoy being a Knight!' Richter laughed jovially. 'I hear the other nobles have a lousy deal due to political engagements and all that constant bickering!'

'Oh, you!' Steven gave his younger son a noogie. His wife giggled.

'Ricky isn't exactly wrong dear...' she said in amusement. 'Who wants a life like that? Living freely is the best after work.'

'Right.' Steven coughed awkwardly. 'For now let's check Sierra if she can do magic. Magic is rare if you're from outside bloodlines but in Dalaran as people there marry each other to preserve magic, their children will always have magic. This way we can determine where her future school is, come 12 years old. To my office now.'

'All children in nobility are tested?' Sierra asked her father.

'Yes. Even entering Royal Knight Academy newcomers are tested if applicants aren't nobility.' said Steven as they left the dining room for Footmen to clean up. 'If the applicants are discovered to have magic, to Dalaran they go instead, to Violet Citadel whether students like it or not, and become Dalaran Citizens by default as well. Compulsory. Because evil in this world can't be slain by blade alone. We need the power of magic, too. Every single mage counts.'

'Sooo how many mages in the world now?'

'Dalaran has about a population of over 3000 and counting as of Zachary's birth. It's a City-State. Every mage is in demand hence. It used to be 5572 but the First and Second Wars thinned their numbers out and the Kirin Tor aren't too happy.'

And so, in Steven's Office...

He held out a crystal ball with a bronze platform and what looks like a card slot. But its actually a slot for a small strip of paper her father put in. 'Now, before we begin I'll explain.' said Steven. 'When you touch that Energy Assessment Crystal, things will happen. Stay as is because you have no magical energy. But if it glows, it will start as a small ball of light, about the size of our eyeballs.'

'Due to mana being needed for certain skills a Paladin must learn, the ball of light must at least, be the size of a goblet's rim, the strongest they can be so Paladins' ranks are based on that. But for mages...the whole crystal must glow. The brighter the better, and assessments will be printed on this paper I put in. And a really powerful talent will cause the crystal to glow bright enough to fill a room in rainbow colors.' he said.

'That's rare though. The first person to do such a feat was Guardian Medivh, but what a sham of a Guardian he is, for its he who let Orcs and demons to this world. He's the cause of Azeroth's problems hence.' he clicked his tongue in disdain. So the Council abolished the position entirely in fear of another like him.'

'Now, touch the crystal.'

Sierra put her hands on the crystal.

"I've been absorbing mana for years since my return here." Sierra thought. "I now have the mana of 800 units. How does that translate here?"

Her memory of Excalibur and Excalibur Morgan was scary. Excalibur from his shared dreams with Saber, and Excalibur Morgan from the caverns at her full power as she restrained herself the first time Corrupted Sakura came to being. Saber at full power, was 1500 units. Stronger than Tohsaka and Sakura by 500 more units.

She laid her small hands on the crystal and light appeared. At first it began as a fully-glowing crystal the brightness of a dim bulb, but it rapidly glowed so bright it's a blinding LED, until it filled the whole room as rainbow lights...

Her family was shocked.

Then!

K-Krrrrk...

Cracks appeared on the surface until...

CHINGK!

The crystal broke to pieces!

'...dad...looks like she's a shoo-in.' Richter uttered, dumbfounded. Sierra was that very rare result!

'My god Sierra...those smarmy mages will fight over you in Dalaran come age 12...' Steven was deeply shaken. 'I have to handle troublesome politics soon and prepare my heart for this starting when you turn ten before I open the topic to my former master and ask his advice on politics...'

'Well...why don't we put this to good use by developing the land faster?' Sierra suggested. 'It's not easy clearing land by manual labor, even taking almost a year just to clean out half an acre and another year to flatten that land for either settlement or farmland when we could have done so much within the same amount of time.' she said.

'That's a good idea dear...also, our citizens are aging people...they can't do manual clearing forever.' said Elenora, agreeing with her daughter. 'Instead of having more children or bringing in new people, our people devotes itself to the task of pulling a dragon's teeth.' she fretted out. 'Father-in-law did superb during the wars that his majesty gazed upon him favorably with joy, setting off anger from jealous non-merit nobles, that politics made him give our family a difficult domain to develop and set us up for failure.'

'If our progress is slow, the title of Knight and this Knightdom father gained will be taken back for sure through dirty politics and humiliate you and our son that as a wife and mother, seeing her family become amusement for the nobles will be too cruel for me! The Light must have sent Sierra to us to curb this injustice borne of petty evil somehow...as a daughter of a merchant whose family dealt with tricky peers for generations in a battle of outsmarting and outscamming, that's how I see our situation.'

'Elenora...' Steven croaked out, stunned with his wife. 'Perhaps father and I are naive...we were commoners recently gotten a title...' he shook, shaken by his wife's words. 'We don't know how nobles think.'

'Leave the bad minds to me dear. In mindset, nobles are no different from the merchants they look down upon.' Elenora tut-tutted. 'I'll advise you as we go. For now don't tell Viscount Arden a thing. Sierra is our trump.' said Elenora seriously. 'You and our children must develop and show those smarmy nobles that it is right of his majesty to look upon our family favorably. That they can never do a bad thing to us all.' she said softly. 'Before Sierra does development work, we should clean our village off of spies first. I'm sure we have some. Your enemies must not find out.'

'Leave that to me! I can read minds with magic and who'd suspect me?' Sierra piped up.

'Oi oi! At least test it out first!' Richter's eyes popped. 'Practice, you goof! Practice for a month before head-hunting!'


Steven twitched. His daughter, while walking around with his son, identified twenty people, and left breadcrumb trails to make it look like his retainers found this out and did the job. His wife planned this out with the family.

'Boss, we got them all!' said his Yeoman Jefferson. 'What do we do with them all?' he asked, possessing documents, proof they ARE spies.

'Execute them all.' said Steven coldly to the horror of the tied up men before them and his retainers killed them all. 'To my office. Cleaning that up can wait.'

Upon arrival...

'Ever since grandfather became a Knight, politics set my family up for failure out of jealousy of father who acquired so much merits in the Second War that we were made to settle in this impossible domain with a large expectation on our heads as you all know from our past talks.' Steven told his retainers. Jefferson the Yeoman, Tourney Master Albert, Carlos the Castellan, Henry the Master-at-Arms and the Militia Instructor Maverick. All of whom his friends since school and chose him as their master.

'But as if sensing this cruel scheme not even his majesty can shield father from as he has to balance out politics in court, Sierra was born a mage, to help us progress faster and derail their aging scheme.' said Steven. 'We will clear up land and flatten it with her magic, then we will do the rest of the jobs to even the scales. This way we can encourage more people to move in here. And for our current people to focus on family-rearing instead of digging out tree stumps all the time.'

Thus, it began.

The Frankland Knightdom has only a population of 50 houses all of which, having large families, and two acres of functional farmland. It's a small village for now. To be a town, there should at least, be 500 houses with other buildings and facilities people needs to have some jobs and satisfaction. And a town must be walled with Guard Towers!

One acre for grain, and one acre for vegetables. Just barely enough for them and their livestock because some of their crops must be taxes to their lord Viscount Arden. But that cannot be for forever. They are clearing a third acre and almost done with it. This'll require land planning.

Sierra effortlessly made the job easier after looking at what a farmland should look like, and copied it. She secretly went the extra mile by ensuring it's loam soil, not the mud it'll be if water is poured on it during irrigation. She acts based on her father's decisions in land clearing. To consider one's domain 'developed', the local lord must at least, have a functional town and a large amount of farmland.

She cleared a massive amount of land with the family mansion at the center. Then townplanning is mapped out.

The Town of Frankland, will have at least, 2000 homes and places for supplies and goods production as their beginning. But in reality the space is so large, for future populations. The children and grandchildren of the citizens.

For jobs, it's the farms, blacksmiths, tailors, tanneries, bakeries, shoemaking, cooperage, brewery, lumbermill, the foundry, handicrafts, masonry, textiles, dyes, brickworks, glassmaking, apothecary, paper mill, tar kilns, rubber factory, coke production and no-it's a fuel, not the drink, oil refinery for cooking and lamp oils, and food processing factories.

All of that, will provide jobs other than farming, lumberjacking, mining and masonry.

As for military buildings, it's the Barracks that can train Footmen, Riflemen and Archers, and Guard Towers.

As for cultural places, it's gotta be a school, better marketplace, taverns, inns for visitors, a hospital, church for the local religion, and a large area in the center of the city for festivals and coming-of-age ceremonies and the like. Not only that, the down shouldn't be dull without nature...trees and decorative shrubs can be planted!

The issue now, are hiring trainers to train employees. It would be ideal to hire soon-to-retire people as teachers!

With all these plans made, everyone worked together, excited now that they got an easy way out...Sierra. Steven said he hired a mage to help clear land with the rest being up to their own efforts. But did not say the identity of the mage for his daughter's safety.

With Elenora's family's connections, they invited young people to live in Frankland, and coaxed retirees to teach and train. And purchased more seeds for more varieties of food.

A lot of building had to be done. Money flowed in and out as money must circulate anyway!

Frankland became a land of opportunity hence. And the farmlands? 20 acres for grain, 3 acres for a type of fruit each, and vegetables. By the hills, small mining villages were built solely for mining.

During clearing, Sierra discovered herbs with magical properties that her father recognized.

'Oh! I see this often back when I was at Lordaeron...these are valuable potions ingredients!'

'Then, can we farm them? I know how~' Sierra suggested.

'Eh? It's possible? Why not, it can be our specialty export but we cannot make potions as none of us here are alchemists.' Steven pouted.

'But dad, we can make tea out of Peacebloom and inhale Silverleaf extract to induce calm, clarity and revitalization so nobody's fatigued for too long.' Sierra reasoned. 'If we can't use it as potions, we can use it this way for the sake of workers.' it's like Stresstabs!

'Mm. Open up acres for these herbs.' Steven instructed. 'With this, we're now well-developed!' he shook, overwhelmed with all projects. 'You're indeed Light-sent. You saved our family from the schemes of nobles.' he patted her head fondly. 'After we get all land we need, leave the rest to us and focus on your studies with mother, alright?'

'Yes dad! I'll find more herbs for the Apothecary alright?'

'Of course, squirt. We'll export the herbs to Dalaran for coin as well.'

Thus while all of Frankland worked to the bone to bring their visions to life, Sierra can now focus on study...while still absorbing mana to get stronger.

She also interfered with the mindset of training and way of fighting within the Barracks in town.


Winter came but its not snowing yet...

Zachary was stunned as he was on his way home in a carriage alongside his retainers who were the eldest sons of his dad's retainers. And he saw wonders before his eyes.

Last he checked, the land isn't that clear yet! Forests all around and a tiny village!

'What the heck happened while we're gone?!' the boys all howled out of shock.

The Coach, the employee of Frankland sent to bring him home said, 'Oh, milord hired a mage to clear a massive amount of land to make all this possible! So many job openings and so much stuff to do that we're a large town now. Milady invited people looking for a place to live and jobs from Lordaeron so here we are!'

'Wow...I've seen the Arden Domain...we've got it way better over here!' Zachary gushed out. And all this is his one day at thirty years old! His family's gotten dang busy!

'Yes! We're here now, young master...we're now in Frankland Town!' and it's got high walls with Guard Towers! Seriously!

Upon arrival at the mansion...the gardens looked a lot better now too! Complete with a fountain even!

Their mansion is also renovated.

Last he recalled, family money isn't enough to renovate a mansion that money is better off used for salaries and buying goods...

'Welcome back, Zachary.' his family greeted him.

'You've seen what happened so far, correct?' said Steven. 'All this is not possible, without your sister who's our lucky star while she is still home.'

'Sierra?'

'She turned out to be a prodigious mage. Powerful enough to break our Magic Crystal when we measured her potential.' Steven told him to his son's disbelief. 'Your winter here is just as busy as your time with Viscount Arden. You must learn about our newest developments.'

'Yes, father! I really got to know what the heck happened!' Zachary gasped out. 'We were so tiny before but now we've gotten so big!'

'Mm. Its the duty of a noble family to develop their domain...for now it's up to me with a bit of your sister's help in clearing land off while the rest of us builds over it.' said Steven. 'The Knightdom of Frankland now has a town that can have a total of 4000 houses within, with high-level industries enabling us to make some money.' he said. 'We are all poor before with an annual income of 10000 gold only but now? Once we get rolling, we can potentially earn 600.000 gold annually, the same annual earnings as a freshly-minted Duke. Not bad for a Knightdom eh? We've been busy to make that vision work.'

Zachary's knees turned to jelly from shock.