Speech = ``...´´
Thoughts = [... ]

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Time: ?

Date: ?

Location: Classified

Service code: º-….23947102APlus….-º

Code testing…..

Code testing…..

Code verified.

Entry number 249

?…. :As expected, those upstairs were not pleased with this new failure and they made their displeasure known. Once again they have threaten to cut our avenue of resources as-well as severe cuts on the personnel, however they have ventured too far to go back now to truly go through that. The probably that they would regardless of reason is below 30 %.

?…. : However, that does not mean that they are not wanting to replace me, the nerve of those men to whisper as if I was not in the room. Bankers and politicians should not have a say in science. For now I am forbidden to "participate" on the test of the materials, an obstacle, but not one that I was truly bothered.

?… :The rebuilding process of the magnetic volumetrix-A bygroup two-Bis underway, the time gap between its conclusion however its unknown.

?… : The next shell must be more robust than the latter and they still are not aware of what caused the problem apart from it ending as nothing that molten goo, I have heard that those fools are already going insane scratching their heads about this conundrum. It serves them well for making my work harder than it had any reason to be.

?… : A.N. Signing out

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Kingdom of Midgard: Core Regions

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Koldarrd did not know what to think about the current situation of things.

Nothing…. "bad" was going on in his near and close by vicinity. No, not at all, much to the contrary as a matter of fact. Though perhaps that would depend on the eyes of the onlooker.

There were no fires, no great cataclysm and no more assassination attempts on his person and even the world seemed to shine bright while the birds were ready to sing his name.

Servants whispered and greeted him with respect and tried not to worm their way out from his presence like they would do from the Master of the House or Arisha.

Lower nobles and ladies came and went regularly to know the young promise in order to know and chat with him about future endeavors of either commerce, transactions for "supposed" projects, tea times or to simple gain his favor through gifts and accords that were mostly beneficial to him rather than them which suited him just fine as he dug his claws ever deeper into those willing puppets.

Even the Dukes family were growing to accommodate him more and more, with the occasional shared dinner and the brief attempts of Arisha to try to put her nose where it did not belong to which was to be expected.

Everything seemed peaceful. Tranquil even…..perhaps this was what one could call a good development, no?

Wrong.

While those had been some of the many objectives he had set himself with his little stunt and following works on the image he had set himself to prop up, the fact that things around him had turned to a crawl had bothered him.

Beating the knights into submission was an already underway task and to weed out the corrupt, the weak and the unneeded to make them useful and loyal to him would need more time as he slowly broke down apart to be reforged.

His "documents" of how to make the products of the gold and diamond mines they owned more lucrative would need to wait until the Duke was back. True, he was allowed power to make use of the monetary resources the family gained, but he was not given yet the power to touch the source of their income yet...which was something that he was working himself to remedy.

And worst of all, there were no clear or unclear opposition in the board yet. No one was presently or through subterfuge trying to undermine him.

Not the Duke.

Not a different faction of nobles poking their heads to scheme anything...

Not even bandits.

NOT EVEN THEM! WHAT ARE THE ODDS!?

The thought perplexed him, and when that came to be….his mind started to wander of why this was happening.

Was he moving too fast for anyone to catch on? Had he killed too many ruffians that day that he was not able to use them as a pretext to make the knights had a more "variety" in their practices? Was the cult in the capital so gutted out of resources that they were unable to pay him any attention or did everyone considered him not a threat..!?

…

…

…

Fine, perhaps he was over reacting or the paranoia deeply engraved into his brain was whipping him black to white, but the truth was that while things going smooth were nice and all. He was not made to sail through calm weathers and sunny days.

Adversity was the best way to make him fly.

He needed something to tackle onto, someone to give him a target to focus and destroy let the boredom take over him.

It also did not help that the second one he wanted to taunt to introduce himself had grown cold feet and was no longer within the premises of the state. He was in the capital if his soul signature had anything about it.

Yes, there was a deal with Zenon….and he knew that sooner rather than later he would contact him to try to test him, clearly wanting to make sure where his loyalties lied before giving what he wanted. But until then, nothing.

He closed his eyes.

He had been too thorough in the extermination of most of Fenrirs faction.

The idea of going to see the girls did cross his mind, but….had been quickly pushed aside. Bored as he may be, he was not going to crawl back to that village only because of that, it would be embarrassing and he had some shred of pride still on him. Though above all, he was not going to give the witch any more ammunition to use against him.

The mere mention of the purple haired menace made a cold sweat ran through him. Yes, better not to speak of the devil. The less one did the fewer the chances of making the ghost come by.

No, right now he needed to do his part. There would be time later to see what kind of progress they had done on their own.

And speaking of progress….

If the made-up story of his "life" in this world as the sole survivor of his core family was of misfortune, tragedy and bad luck thanks to the schemes of far more ambitious echelons of the Velgatian higher society that had taken the life of all his "real" family, the one he was now adjusting to-

``My young lord, it's time to wake up..´´

-was an over-correction.

The voice came from the outside of the door, signaling that in a few seconds the maids of the state selected for him would enter to prepare him for his day, not like they would find much trouble in it when he was already awake and about.

It was still something that he had yet to grow use to.

Sighing inwardly he placed the sword he had been holding back into its scabbard, sealing the cold reflection that shone from its length before placing the thing where he had found it just as the women started to waltz inside in silence.

They were young.

Far younger than one would have thought with a first glance, back given their background nature it was something to be expected. They filled the scenery, not the spotlight.

Rigid in their demeanor of professionalism, yet smooth in their movements as they set their eyes to work on the room. Either working in pairs or alone in carrying things, picking clothes, the usual…

And with the way their dresses, though plain as they were someone had saw fit to make.."cuts" on certain parts they would have passed for attractive enough to someone.

Truly, the fashion of this world still baffled him. Like, what was the point of wearing a heavy yet pristine tops with puffy sleeves and ties and corsets while also wearing high heels and mini-skirts that barely covered their hips? And why some of them were so prompt on kneeling in-front of him to catch things off the ground while sticking up their arses?

Weird locals…

Anyway, he had opted to ignore….whatever it was that. There more important things to focus on as he moved towards his own desk, examining the broad and detailed map he had requested.

While knowing already most of it before even settling his gaze on it thanks to the memories of those he had slain, it was always nice to have a different format to see things.

First, Midgard was not as big as he thought it was. Perhaps it was larger than most of its neighbors barring Orianna and the Velgata empire, but the kingdom was nowhere near the Old Empire or any of the civilizations he was aware off from his time. There were some efforts of industry….but neither too complex or ambitious, a crippling slowness born from both the uncertainty of their profit and the politicking of the factions of the kingdom.

Most of the social, political and economic development took place in the capital and then expanding on a series of circles outwards. Like an onion of sorts, the further away you where the smaller and lesser amount of settlements could be found, the amenities the people enjoyed greatly reduced with every ten kilometers away from the central point of the nation. Which meant that most of the country was under-develop and the resources where mostly piled up for those who had the cash to buy them.

The outside roads were made of dirt instead of cold stone or steel. Monsters and hooligans wandered freely on the wilds and with great skepticism, it seemed that there were only two safe ways to travel: by ship or by train.

How people who still fought with crude and simple swords and spears and had yet to fully grasp the idea of fully automatic machine guns or magic beyond pouring it badly into weapons had managed to not only build the tracks, but the entire thing made him question who truly had been behind it.

Two: Slavery was neither condoned nor vilified as a disgraceful practice of abuse onto another living being. It was an ugly afterthought that had become part of the scenery instead of a stain in it. To own a soul…..was merely a common transaction in the most cold of senses.

Targeting mostly non human species like the Theariantropes or the Elves, taking them from their homes, forcing them into cages and them pushing them into..."places" where they would be conditioned to their new lives under the whims of another.

Why them exclusively? Simple, they were more exotic, more wild and desirable though mostly for the fact that they grew faster instead of those of human descent.

And while there were laws that prohibited the selling of the living as commodities for others in certain areas, there were none that said anything against owning said slaves. Even worse…..it was a thrilling market that had yet to find any sort of actual push back.

Hard to when everyone had a finger or the entire arm on it….

Truly a bunch of corrupt little fuck ups who could not see the idiocy and cruelty of the flesh market….., but honestly, what was the difference in this country between serf, villager and slave to the powerful?

He doubted anyone would be able to answer him that any time soon.

Finally but not least, there was no love between the races. Yeah, shocking….who would have thought? Even in the confines of his mind he could sense the sarcasm dripping from those unspoken words.

The Theriantropes were considered crude and brutish beast who roamed the wilds with no regard for culture at best, idiotic and one trick dogs at worse. Not like they did themselves any favors with the majority of their kin been ever stuck in a cycle of infighting or invasion between anyone unfortunate to be around.

Yes, it was no wonder that the first thought people came across when asked about their more animalistic neighbors was about crazy berserkers.

The elves where considered stuck up and rude, people who seemed to dislike everyone by norm that was not part of their communities...or just not an elf, something that had been corroborated by Alpha. Though what a ten year old would know at a grand scale of the mindset of the entire race was...dubious at best.

Which meant that he would need to take a good look at things by himself, to get at the core of things and get a good grasp of the picture that was yet incomplete. However, he was not in a hurry.

With a sigh, he opened his eyes, tilting his head to the side at the sound of footsteps approaching him. Having to squint his eyelids a little bit when the thick, velvety curtains that were sealing the windows were opened with a smooth, directed pull. Allowing sunlight to flood into my spacious room that until then had been shrouded in darkness.

``Thanks Sasha….´´

He muttered, remembering the name of the young red haired girl. He had made himself to remember each and every name so that he could address them properly if only to better the relation between servant and master.

To call them "girl" or "you" would have been a jarring thing to do.

Though instead of a reply what he received was a quick hushed bow and the girl left, something apparently startling her apparently with the way their eyes met for a few seconds too long, a red sting flaring on her ears that her hair could not fully hide.

That was new...

He was not that scary, right?

Slowly tilting his head to the opposite side he glared at a mature woman who was even now standing quietly to his side. Her arms gently crossed, resting over the long white apron of her uniform. Her smooth black hair neatly tied up in a short braid that fell over her right shoulder, her face bearing a calm mask of gentleness that had yet to be ravaged by time though she did seem to wear a pair of glasses to see better.

One did not need much to know she was the oldest of the lot, the leader of the servants meant to "look" after him since his arrival. And as such, she waited patiently for any question or command he may so wished while other people continued wandering about his room; opening draws and cabinets, laying out fresh clothes, changing flowers from vases, putting fresh wood in the fireplace, refilling a pitcher of water on his nightstand.

Speaking of which, unlike the madam, most of these girls were not human.

Some of them had tiger ears and tail, another bear ears but no tail, a third had patches of scaly skin along her arms like a lizard, and so on. A rather….exotic menagerie of people if nothing else.

However, the most notable feature however was neither the scant lower side of their clothing nor their clearly inhuman heritages they bore in the open, but rather those glinting saw golden collars that hung tightly around their necks.

Slaves….

The thought of been under the same roof, let alone the very same room with one of them and not breaking those shackles on the spot made him scowl. A repugnant taste poking at the back of his throat.

``Is this necessary…?´´ He mused out loud.

Quickly, but not without grace the head-maid bowed to him. ``Young lord, forgive the intrusion. But you requested to be awakened a quarter past dawn.´´

He blinked once, then twice before he rubbed his forehead with one hand. Sighing to himself for a moment before finally gesturing her to raise her head and stand up with him.

Which she promptly did….albeit more slowly than he expected, a confuse though still resolute look in those brown eyes of hers.

It felt weird….all this bowing madness. Though perhaps it was because it came from a half clothed maid whose only real clothing down her waist were the tight black pantyhose and those high heels.

Or was it the way the others were stealing glances at them, thinking that he was not aware?

``I remember, thank you Mara.´´

``Of course young Lord. I shall have a fresh set of clothes laid out for you and have the girls freshen up the room. Breakfast is being served in the main dining room; the madam and the young lady are also present at the moment..´´

Again he nodded, merely granting a weak nod which Mara took as her exit. Lowering her head one final time as she did.

[So those two were waiting for him down below, huh?]

Even though he had stated before that he wanted something to happen….this was not what I had in mind. At least...it was not too ground breaking?

Anyway, it would at least give him that little push from this self imposed boredom. With that reassuring thought he finally departed from his spot, returning back to the map only to fold it and put it away. The parchment seemingly appearing to be stored inside a shelf, while in truth it vanished completely from any eyes but his own.

There was no need for people wandering and asking strange questions.

Just as he did, Mara came by with other two girls, Marleen and Juniper, a therianthrope and an elf respectively. A pile of clothes neatly placed one over the other resting in their hands. And by the glint in their eyes they were not going to allow him to get away without been sorely assaulted by what they called "aid of the dressing code"….even though he had made his wish known that he could dress himself up on his own.

He would never understand why there were people who liked to waste so much time making others do what they should be capable of themselves.

Alas...that was what he would be forced to go through if only for appearances sake for a whiiiiiiiiiiiiile longer.

..

..

In another note….. why where they touching his chest and abs like that? Ladies..?

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º...-Theriantrope lands-...º

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It was cold outside in the empty fields, the winds howling down the mountains with its known shriek bringing forth the cold of those icy peaks where the clouds hovered and the sun never reached.

Making the ground damp and humid, yet the rocks underneath the grassy plateaus hard and bitter to crack.

But the cold never bothered her.

It brushed and pushed against her, but it could never truly shake her away from what she had set herself to do in this desolate place. Dirty hands slamming again and again onto the ground, nails scratching and carving it as she pulled out chunk after chunk of rock and soil.

The strain building in her arms did not even register in her little mind as a burning fire had already spread all over Sarahs body, dulling it as the little girl continued on headless of the world around her, focused on just a simple task.

To create three crude and simplistic ditches on the ground.

It was only in those momentary moments where the howling of wolves were heard on the distance and she responded in kind that there was a pause to her commitment. Making her stare at the endless dark greyish horizon above her head.

Mama was kind, always calling Sarah precious and that she was smart even when others said otherwise.

Mama gave Sarah pats on her head day and night, slim fingers softly and carefully stroking her little head while calling her a good girl and how special she was

Mama would walk with her and hunt with her, always playing hide and seek whether it was day or night even though she was aware Sarah was the best at hide and seek.

She really was good at playing hide and seek...desu.

When Mama was happy Sarah was happy, and when she was Mama was happy.

When she was cold, Mama gave her warmth.

When Sarah was hungry, Mama gave her food.

When Sarah was sad, Mama was there for her.

When her brothers nagged and bothered Sarah, Mama would tell them to act like a family.

When they stole her prey and refused to give it back Mama would tell her to not be too angry at her brothers.

When Father hit Mama she only smiled at her to not worry.

When her brothers and the tribe made them pariahs Mama reminded her to be patient and not seek vengeance.

Mama was a good mum.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Now Mama was cold.

Mama was not speaking anymore, her body limp and still where it had remained. Her eyes for some reasons feeling heavy and hot as something streamed down her cheeks, dripping down her own chin into the cold ground below, her sight growing blurry and her stomach churning with pain.

Mama was gone.

And nobody cared.

But she will make them