Location: West Solar, Ducal Palace – Armathane Time: Day 135 After Alec's Arrival
The room was small by noble standards. No gold. No tapestries. Just a circular table of dark lacquered wood, four chairs, and a single window overlooking the rain-dark stone of Armathane's southern wall.
Duchess Vaelora entered without ceremony. She wore muted colors today—grey and royal blue, her hair pinned high, no jewels. Only the signet of Midgard rested on her finger.
She found Alec already standing by the window, one hand behind his back, the other holding a small silver stylus. He'd etched several columns of notes into a wax tablet resting on the windowsill.
"I assume this is important," she said.
He turned. "It's the beginning of everything."
She raised an eyebrow and sat. "Then sit, and speak. But I'm not in the mood for poetry, Alec."
"Good," he replied, taking the chair opposite her. "What I'm offering isn't a speech. It's a system." he paused.
"And the future. Your future. Our future" He added at last.
—
There was a pause. Alec's voice dropped low and deliberate.
"You want to ensure your House's legacy—beyond noble bloodlines. Beyond politics. You want something that can outlive rebellion, famine, foreign pressure, and your own mortality."
Vaelora didn't reply, but her eyes sharpened. "You assume a lot."
"I measure what you don't say," Alec replied. "And you've never asked me what I really want."
She studied him. "And what do you want?"
"To build a kingdom inside your duchy," he said. "One that's not governed by lords or priests. One that's run by systems—people, data, structure. A place where vision becomes law."
"And where I sit where, exactly?"
"As its matriarch," Alec said, "and its first monarch in all but name."
She leaned back, curious now.
"I am listening."
Alec opened a thin leather folder and laid out a parchment.
"I want to create something this world has never seen before. A private body, backed by your House, owned and operated by your authority—but run by me."
He tapped the top of the parchment.
THE MIDGARD COMPANY
A sovereign enterprise. A new pillar of power.
"A company?" Vaelora said. "Is this a merchant house?"
"No," Alec said. "A merchant house hoards. This will create. Trade routes. Canals. Armaments. Equipments. Education. Water filtration. Refined medicines. Agricultural optimization. Smelting and metallurgy advancements. Urban planning. Shipping and ship-building. Archival documentation and mass-copy printing. Logistics."
He slid another parchment forward.
"This company will bring this world to the edge of modernity—and your House will own it."
Vaelora's mouth twitched. "All of it?"
"You will act as Chairwoman," Alec said. "Not in function, but in form. You provide capital, noble sanction, and legal insulation from your court. I become its director. Its engine. I build it. I scale it. I secure its people. And your duchy becomes the richest territory in Edenia."
Vaelora steepled her fingers.
"And if I say yes?"
"Then you must do something else first," Alec said, now slower, more precise. "You must become more than a Duchess. You must become a ruler in truth."
He slid a final parchment forward. This one handwritten, unadorned.
POLITICAL PRE-REQUISITES FOR SURVIVAL
Dissolve legislative power from the advisory council. Restructure as consult-only.
Conduct a quiet purge of your House's retainers, advisors, and high councilors. Keep only the loyal.
Begin court shadow work: identify and root out noble spies, Church informants, and foreign sympathizers.
Reorganize your Ducal Guard into a personal loyalist force. Separate from the noble-run provincial units.
Lay groundwork for a Midgard Navy. No duchy truly commands the waters yet. You'll be the first.
Convert the current militia structure into a formal standing army, trained, salaried, loyal to you alone,seperated from royal levies.
Begin referring to your role not as a duchess... but as Sovereign of Midgard in all internal documents.
He waited.
Vaelora read it twice.
Then she looked up.
"You want me to declare war on my own court."
"No," Alec said. "I want you to remove the illusion that they've ever truly had power."
"And this is retaliation for the problem they have cost you ever since your appointment?" she asked raising her brow.
Alec smiled faintly. So she was aware of his past troubles.
"Not at all. These would have come up regardless" he answered her.
"And in return, I gain...?"
"Control. Unparalleled prosperity. The ability to dictate the terms of Midgard then Edenia's future."
Vaelora leaned forward.
"Is this what you've been planning since you arrived?"
"No," Alec said. "This is what I've been waiting to offer since I arrived."
Her eyes stayed locked on him. "And you lead it all?"
"Yes," he replied. "I become CEO. Director. Overseer. I don't wear the crown, but I will build the throne it rests on."
A silence followed.
Then Vaelora stood and walked to the window.
"Do you know what the Church will say?"
"Ahh. Yes the Church"
He hadn't given much thought to that.
Not that it matters much. He would sought that out when the time comes.
"They'll call it sacrilege," Alec said. "Eventually. But for now, they'll watch. And wait. And whisper."
"And the nobility?"
"They'll call you mad—until their taxes double and their peasants start fleeing to Midgard."
She turned back.
"And what of Serina?"
"She's already part of it," Alec said. "Whether she knows it or not."
Vaelora watched him carefully.
"What's your endgame, Alec?"
He stood, slowly.
"Nothing as simple as power," he said. "I intend to build this world by changing its very foundations first."
Vaelora said nothing for a long time.
She looked down at the parchments. Then at the flames in the hearth.
Ever since Alec had arrived, She had always wander why? Why her duchy?.
Not that she was that religious. But?
When she finally spoke, her voice was level.
"You'll draft a charter," she said. "You'll begin recruitment. Quietly."
"I already have some names."
"I'll provide funds. I'll start the court reformation in phases. The guard will be handled discreetly."
"So also the Army."
"And the Navy?" He asked.
"I'll speak with the shipwrights of Varensholt. We'll start small. Quiet. Enough for a port and a dream."
Alec gave the slightest nod.
"You understand what this means?" she asked him.
"Yes."
"You understand what you're tying yourself to?"
"I do."
Vaelora stood up, walked past him and stopped at the door.
She looked back only once.
"If you fail," she said, "These'll ruin us."
"They will destroy us both"
"If I succeed," Alec said, "they'll never understand how it happened until it's too late."
"And success is I have ever known." he added not counting the failed experiment that brought him to this world.
Then she was gone.
And Alec stood alone.
Planning an empire.
With ink, systems... and a crown worth building.
Soon he was in his room, At his table. Plotting. Designing. Building.
Laying the very first stones of his future dominion.