Location: Armathane, Alec's Study Time: Day 88 After Arrival
I have started keeping notes.
Not because I forget things — I don't. But because details degrade when you store them in only one place. And more importantly, because reflection is not the same as memory.
So here it is.
Eight pages pages. One column for progress. One for exposure.
A ledger, of sorts.
This is not a diary. It's a status report.
To myself.
EDENIA: UPDATE
Thanks to access to new data and information, maps etc. it would seem Edenia is a large kingdom. With the Royal Capital in Astana(a county sized area that the king is directly in charge of making him both count and king).King Theren II rules over five vassal duchies including Midgard. The rest are Selvanis,Velbrunna, Hamstade and Carowen, Since I don't have a good map, I can't figure out the size but if all the duchies are as big as
Midgard(i haven't even see all of Midgard yet) then we are looking at quite a sizable nation. Selvanis in nearer to Midgard than the rest and they seem quite hostile.
MIDGARD: INITIAL SURVEY
Midgard is a duchy defined by its containment. Politically, economically, culturally.
Its people are not slow. They are simply trained not to leap unless pushed.
I've walked the cities. I've studied the records. Midgard is rich in potential — water channels, mineral seams, labor availability — but poor in vision. The average noble here builds only to protect what already exists. Innovation frightens them because it breaks control.
Their infrastructure is outdated but stable. Their logistics are improvable with minimal resistance. Their population is mostly literate, which is rare.
The climate is temperate. Border threats are . And despite the occasional noble skirmish or land grievance, the duchy is ripe for transformation.
But only with the right fulcrum.
Midgard is made up of five vassal counties named Oslo,Sundheim,Delsagade,Varensholt,Bulcrest and Halstrad.From what I have gathered Oslo seems to be a strategically important region and currently been governed by a young widowed countess(she didn't attend my titling, wonder why?).each counties has 4 to 6 baronies under them.
DUCHESS VAELORA
She's more dangerous than any noble I've met.
Not because she lies — but because she doesn't.
Vaelora rules through information, leverage, and silence. She surrounds herself with advisors who speak plainly, then filters them with her own lens of intent. She doesn't speak in threats — she speaks in offerings with embedded consequences.
She's not sentimental. She's not reckless. But she is pragmatic to the edge of cruelty, and that makes her powerful.
I've watched her win a room by saying nothing. I've also watched her end an argument with a single phrase that sounds like a compliment but isn't.
She gave me a title because it's easier to own a rising force than fight it. She's playing long-term politics with the precision of a chess master — the kind who doesn't mind sacrificing a bishop if it cages the king.
I don't trust her. Not yet.
But I understand her.
And in politics, that's often more valuable.
LADY SERINA
She's harder to read.
Serina doesn't move like her mother. She isn't masking ambition with diplomacy — she's genuinely still figuring out who she is.
But that doesn't make her weak.
She's observant. Sharp. Patient in ways most nobles aren't. She's growing in a space where people expect her to smile and remain quiet. Instead, she's asking the right questions — quietly, but with intent.
She doesn't flirt. She probes. She challenges. And I've come to respect her mind more than I expected. She sees systems. She understands people.
I think she wants change — real change — but she's never seen someone capable of enacting it. Not until me.
We are not aligned.
Yet.
But we are moving in the same direction.
And I've already asked that she be assigned to my work team. Admin.
Because if she's going to part of the future, I want her to see the whole plan up close.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE
Grendale: Wall rebuilt. Tidal flow redirected. Marshland reclaimed. Agricultural output increased by 28% in a projected 40-day cycle.
Infrastructure: Drafted the first city expansion schema for Midgard's capital.
Personnel: Created a rotation pool of 113 trained builders, 16 site managers, and 5 provisional engineers.
Council: Secured a formal seat via title. Established direct reporting access to the duchess.
Resources: Secured northern quarry rights. Central access to grain route maps. Partial ledger access to historical surveys.
Public Position: Elevated to Ducal Advisor and Chief Architect of Development. Recognized (though not respected) by over 30% of Midgard's active nobility.
Secondary Effects:
Name entered into trade ledgers and baronial correspondence.
Tracked by Edenia's outer envoys. One confirmed observation at the last council session.
Hostile murmurs from Halven and two unnamed vassals.
Sympathetic responses from a minor merchant house and the foreman's guild.
CURRENT POSITION
I am no longer an unknown.
That changes the rules.
Before, I moved without notice. Now, everything I say will be weighed against where I was born, not what I can do.
Which means the real work starts now.
No more trial runs. No more caution masks.
I've studied the duchy.
I've measured its halls.
I've tested its thresholds.
And I've learned enough about its people to start pulling levers.
Not to topple it.
To reshape it.
And Reshape it I will.
OBJECTIVES: NEXT PHASE
Collect more data on duchy and counties, Surveys, Field trips, Libraries if any.
Start preparing ducal reforms and development plans and projects
Begin creating a new data structure beneath the current records. Parallel intelligence.
Solidify Serina as both ally and observer. Keep her close.
Avoid public ideological declarations. Let actions define trajectory.
Position Midgard as the center of regional reinvention.
PERSONAL NOTES
I am not the same man who stepped into this world months ago.
I'm starting to feel things I don't yet understand. Frustration. Curiosity. Even — possibly — the first threads of attachment.
That's dangerous.
Not because emotion is weakness.
But because I wasn't taught how to integrate it.
And if I don't learn, someone will use it against me.
Serina makes me… consider things.
Vaelora makes me prepare.
The nobles make me refine my edge.
But the future I see?
That makes me hungry.
And now?
Now it begins.
I've played patient.
I've worn the role of the clever outsider.
That's done.
I'm done playing.
Let the world start catching up.