Location: Midgard Interior & Southern Trade Territories Time: Day 174–178 After Alec's Arrival
The convoy moved at a controlled pace. Twelve carriages. Thirty horses. Forty riders total — a deliberate size. Not an army. Not an entourage. Just enough to send a signal:
Midgard was no longer waiting to catch up to the future. It was riding toward it.
Alec rode at the front, flanked by Captain Harst and Vaelora's lead steward. Behind them came Serina, her journal half-filled by midday, and the core team of sector chosen supervisors: Brask (Metals), Ferin (R&D), Thorn Malven (Construction), and Gral (Energy).
Silla - Head of the Company Security and Paramilitary Sector with few Company guards trailed behind providing extra escort.
Their goal was simple in words, complex in reach:
Survey. Secure. Strategize.
Phase One: Land & River
Their first stop was Ravenpoint Ridge — a shallow valley between Midgard's northern cliffs and the central plains.
Alec stood atop the rise, cloak tugged by wind. He gestured outward with a measuring rod.
"Two river splits. Good flow velocity. Southward gradient for gravity-based mills. Soft earth, but solid limestone base. We can build here."
Vaelora raised a brow. "So soon?"
"We need a central processing site," Alec said. "We don't need to debate where the water flows."
Malven stepped forward. "What about seasonal flooding?"
Alec turned to him.
"We're going to use it."
Later, beside a logging trail, Alec sketched a layout into the dirt with a length of chalked rope.
"Gral," he said. "You'll establish test kilns here — triple chamber. Controlled airflow. I want fuel extraction trials by end of the month."
Gral grunted, not out of disrespect but understanding.
"And mining?" Vaelora asked.
"South rim of Varensholt. Iron seams confirmed by Aksel. Three merchant clans sit near the access routes. We'll need to buy passage."
Her eyes narrowed. "Or own the roads."
Alec smiled slightly. "One thing at a time."
Phase Two: Merchant Diplomacy
By the third day, they arrived in Harvenlight, a bustling trade post straddling the border between Midgard and Selvanis.
A place of crossroads, unofficial coin, and neutral agreements.
The merchant-lords who ruled the caravans there did not bow to duchesses.
But they sat when Alec invited them to the table.
"You're proposing permanent freight contracts," one of them said — a silver-bearded man with multiple signet rings. "And storage hubs?"
"No," Alec said. "I'm proposing inevitability. In five months, we'll have the best-mapped supply chain in the region. If you want access to the future, you sign now."
"And if we don't?"
Alec leaned forward.
"Then in five months, your competitors will be richer, faster, and protected by my convoys."
There was silence.
Then one of the younger traders — a lean woman named Jesri — folded her arms.
"You don't haggle."
"No," Alec said. "I don't ask."
They signed by dusk.
Phase Three: Serina Watches
That night, camped beside a fast-running stream, Serina sat by the fire, watching Alec as he recalibrated a set of maps with three engineers.
He barely blinked. His hands moved with mechanical steadiness. His words were crisp, full of numbers, vector lines, water depths, and terrain correction.
He never once spoke of who owned the land.
He only spoke of what the land could become.
"You make it look easy," she said later, approaching him with a bowl of bread and stew.
"It's not," he replied.
"Then why does it feel like you've already seen how it ends?"
Alec looked up, his eyes reflecting the firelight.
"Because I'm not building to see what happens," he said. "I'm building to make sure nothing else can."
"Why do you do it" she asked."Why do you build" she corrected.
"It all I know how to do. Dismantle. Observe. Structure. Quantify. Solve. Systemize. Couple. Build" he rattled off a list of short words.
"And Repeat" He added and turned to look at the sky.
She stared at him.
He looked back to her." But ever since I have gotten here, I have learnt other things. Action to take. Other than what i have been taught"
"Now i am building because I have a reason to, Not because I am made to" he said finally.
"That a better reason to build then" she replied him.
"Just don't try to do it all on your own, Okay?".
"Even if i don't know how,I will try" he assured her.
He thought about what she had told him that night as he laid on his sleeping roll
Phase Four: The Duchess Moves
The following morning, Vaelora met with three lesser barons whose fief lines overlapped Alec's intended supply corridors.
She made no threats.
Just offered investment contracts, land value assessments, and long-term tax reductions — only if they agreed to Company access.
Two signed.
The third refused.
By nightfall, Vaelora ordered a reassessment of his land rights under her sovereign authority.
"Mother sure doesn't blink," Serina muttered later.
"No," Alec said. "That's why she'll still be standing when the kingdom tilts."
"Then i guess i starting acting like her then" she joked.
"But then i doubt if i can be anything like her"
Alec turned to her."Why do you say so" he asked
She shrugged. "For a woman to hold on to ducal authority for so long even though it is her birthright without a man is nothing short of amazing"
"Not to talk of doing so while grooming a female heir."
"You don't have imitate her to be a functional ruler." he said softly.
"You will grow in your own right,rule your own way".
"And she will be there to support you all the way" he added.
"What about you." "Won't you be there?" she asked.
"For the forseeable future. Yes"