After I realized my role in this world I quickly started making a list of problems that I and the Ford Family would soon face in the future.
The first problem was the Ford family itself. To understand this we must understand the administrative structure of the Croga Kingdom. The Croga Kingdom had 1 royal family which had 4 dukes under them and these dukes had several nobles under them.
The laws were uniform throughout the entire kingdom, none of the dukedoms could make their own laws, but they were however free to collect taxes from their people as they saw fit.
The dukedoms were the Northern Command, Southern Command, Eastern Directive and the Western Directive.
Each dukedom had their own military families and noble families which they had cultivated for generations.
The dukedoms also had 'duties' which were imposed on them by the royal family.
They had the duty to protect the throne by committing resources, military or otherwise to the throne's protection.
They had to pay the royal family a certain amount of money every year as a tribute.
They had to uphold the reputation of the throne and the royal family at all costs.
The potential heirs of the dukedoms must go to the 'National Academy of Croga' which was the national educational institute of Croga.
The Royal Family could impose these duties only because each king was extremely powerful and extremely cunning. The Croga Kingdom's royal family were the direct descendants of the Greatest Magician and the Strongest Knight.
The Royal Guard were the elite of the elite and had their own families which were cultivated since the foundation of the kingdom. The Royal Family also had enough manpower to easily face 2 dukedoms at the same time.
This accompanied by the cunningness of the king who never allowed the dukedoms to work in unison allowed them to easily control the kingdom for a thousand years.
Harry Ford, Leon's father was a noble in the Western Directive. Their family were businessmen by trade and had become nobles a little while after the foundation of the empire. Over generations they had businesses in almost all sectors. When Harry was the head he invented the 'Ford Assembly Line' which destroyed the competition. It allowed them to decrease production costs and time and increase productivity.
As they started selling at a lower price and were a trusted company they dominated the supply they gained considerable influence in many sectors and also absolute monopolies on some sectors, such as heavy machinery, automobile etc.
In a few years time the Ford family was earning as much as one of the dukes and had more influence than the dukes themselves as they had businesses in the entire kingdom. Seeing the meteoric rise of the Ford family the duke of the Western Directive felt threatened and the nobles below him were extremely envious.
Seeing this the King made the decision to promote the Ford family to the status of Duke. This was a move by the King to keep the Ford family in check.
The Fords now had to pay the yearly tribute to the king. They also had to spend money and time to hire knights and magicians to build their own force. This was even more difficult as the land they governed remained the same which meant their yearly produce remained the same as the costs kept increasing. This decreased the family's income considerably.
Now as there were 5 dukes the balance seemed to be uneven. The dukes hated the Fords as they felt they bought their way to the seat of the duke and did not earn it as they had done by protecting the kingdom. The other nobles under the dukes were even more envious of the Fords as they were now their superiors.
In a single move the King stole the Ford's fortune, decreased their influence, destroyed their reputation and restored the balance just by promoting their status.