Mid 53 AC
Valerin
As I calmly walked through the corridors of my Keep at night, stealth and silence were my best allies. The past hour had been arduous as I struggled to tame the greatest challenge I had ever faced. For several turns of the moon, I persevered, sleepless nights and bone-deep exhaustion were the norm. And now my task was almost complete.
Little Edward was asleep. I silently entered his nursery and placed him gently in the crib.
My child. My heir.
He had arrived in this world screaming at the top of his lungs, his sand colored hair and wild blue eyes clearly marking his Sevarian heritage. And since the day he was born, he had become the apple of my eye. Never had I ever imagined that I could love any person as much as I loved my son.
Baby Ed was a lively boy, for lack of a better word. His excitement and enthusiasm knew no bounds and we realised quickly that he absolutely loved being carried around the castle in the middle of the bloody night.
The boy refused to sleep at a reasonable hour. And it drove his nursemaids to despair. And yet, since his birth, it was as though he brought new life to my household. The maids and guards adored him. With his chubby cheeks and pudgy little hands, he was doted on by every person in my Keep. He already had his mother wrapped around his little finger.
Viola herself had been over the moon. With little Ed now in our lives, we had truly bonded greatly over our mutual love for him. While it was now clear that there might never be true love between the two of us, there now existed a healthy level of mutual respect and dare I even say, friendship between the two of us.
I gently closed the door to the nursery behind me. It had been repeatedly pointed out to me that I had nursemaids to take care of Ed during the nights and that it was improper for a Lord to perform such lowly tasks, but I could not bring myself to care. During the day, my duties kept me busy enough that I rarely got to spend time with my son.
The occasional nighttime walk with my son that I was able to squeeze in was the highlight of my day and I would not give it up even if the King himself commanded me to do so.
Ed's birth had been much celebrated in my lands. His birth, having occurred barely a month after the Buckler incident, had brought a much-needed cause for celebration and joy to my lands and people. The birth of an heir was always cause for joy, but more so for a House as nascent as mine.
And it could not have come at a better time. The Blanett incident, while devastating for the people at the mine, had been an overall victory for House Valerin. The entire incident had proven that House Valerin had the political and military might to back its economic power. With an heir being born, The House's future was now secure.
Ed's birth had also had other significant effects. For one, Lady Larya had decided that she wished to be present in Valerin to help raise her first grandchild. Her presence had been welcome as she had been a pillar of support to Viola who had been initially struggling with the trials of motherhood.
With her presence in Valerin, she had taken over much of Viola's responsibilities at the Keep so that she could better focus on caring for little Ed. Previously, I had had little interaction with my goodmother, but over the many moons that she had spent with us, I had found myself developing a fond affection for the Severin Lady.
I wandered through my Keep, deep in thought and eventually made my way to the balcony from where I could view the entirety of Valerin. It had become one of my favourite spots in the Keep and many a sleepless night would find me standing here as I looked upon the town.
I could scarcely believe that over five years had passed since I had arrived at Valerin. And somehow in those five years, I had found myself with wealth, power, prestige, a wife and now a son.
The last being the crux of it all.
I now had a son.
And that had changed things more than I could have ever imagined previously.
When I had first arrived in Valerin, I had never sought to become extremely powerful. My whisky and other innovations would bring me wealth enough to see me fairly comfortable and influential enough to ensure my survival. And that had been my goal. But now, now I had a son.
And survival was no longer enough.
When I first held Ed in my hands, I vowed to myself to ensure that he would want for nothing in the world. That he would be safe. But this was Headens. A goddamned cesspool of villainy, disease and war. Treacherous Lords, constant warfare and skirmishes, famine and disease, all things veil infested this continent and my children would never be safe here. Of Jakob's children, almost none actually lived to see old age. Whether it was due to war or disease, if even the Royal Family suffered such tragedy, mine would never be safe in this world. I would have to change it. If I wanted my son and any other future children that I might have to grow up safe, I would need to make this comparatively savage land safer for them.
Earlier I had been satisfied with building up my wealth and improving upon my lands and following my meta knowledge
, but now I have to be more ambitious with my plans. I knew to a fair extent what was going to happen but I made sure to get bi-annual updates from the citadel regarding big events to make sure there's no huge butterfly effect. If there were any changes in the timeline I would have to have some plans to counter any adverse butterflies.
I slightly feared what would happen if King Jakob was less competent than canon. Or even worse, if his competence had been exaggerated in canon.
Mid 53 AC
Valerin
"Let us get started, then good sers and lady," I said as I looked up at my unofficial council.
With the Blanett incident having occurred some moons ago, the birth of little Ed and the harvest season, my council and I had been exceedingly busy these past few turns of the moon. Viola had even decided to join us today as Lady Larya had volunteered to take care of Ed for the day.
Petr was the first to speak, "Well my Lord, there is much to report. Firstly, I am happy to report that the road from Valerin to Duneon's Valley is finally complete."
That was good news. My budding road network was finally shaping up. The road from Southwood to Valerin was completed quite some time ago. But in the grand scheme of things, that road had been the smallest of my endeavours. There was little distance between Southwood and Valerin, and the road in question had primarily served as a test of sorts to ensure the efficacy of concrete and that my men would be able, skilled and experienced enough to handle longer and more complex road projects.
However, with the road to Duneon's Valley now complete, I would finally start seeing dividends on my investment. The Southwood road cut travel time in half and that was across reasonable terrain, Duneon's Valley was the farthest of my towns and in a mountainous region to boot.
"Already, several villages have sprung up along the road where trade will undoubtedly see a substantial boost in the near future," continued the Steward.
Just these two roads had cost far more time and money than I had initially projected. It had been my hope that I would have been able to get the Skytower road-ready as well by this point, but unfortunately, that had not been possible. Climate was a touchy subject in Headens, with several seasons that ran their course through in my previous world in a calendar year capable of spanning several years in this one. My knowledge from the previous world allowed me to know that this summer would be a particularly long one. But already the weather was changing slightly and Arthur was predicting that Autumn would be upon us within a few turns of the moon.
With Autumn, the vicious storms the Harelands were infamous for would also strike and that would not be a conducive time for constructing a new road. My plans were thus placed on hold until next summer which if my memory served would be an extremely short one.
And that would be a nightmare altogether.
Around the span of two years, Spring and summer would come, and in it's wake, the appearance of a plague that was seemingly pulled from the very arse of the devil himself. Taking lives by the thousand all over the continent, I could only compare it to the Black Death in terms of lethality, but I doubt I'd be far off the mark. If my memory serves well, it gripped the bull share of population in Mares Hand, and though the location wasn't the bar for hygiene, even by Headen standards, the fact it took a number of the Kings Cabinet certainly gave birth to it's justified dread.
"That is excellent news, Petr, have the toll collection points been established as well?" I turned my attention back to the topic on hand.
"Indeed my Lord, as per your instructions, we have kept the toll nominal enough that it would be affordable to the average smallfolk. Higher tolls will be charged on larger consignments of goods and even more so on luxury goods," responded Petr.
"And what of our grain stores?" I said as I turned to Viola.
A curious expression crossed her face as Viola responded, "Well my Lord, as per your instructions we have begun stockpiling substantial amounts of grain for the winter, although with the Gods having blessed us with such a long summer, we may not need such a substantial stockpile."
That would have been the case if I were stockpiling for just one winter. But as I knew from canon, we would have only one harvest before winter came on my doors. Stockpiling grain today would allow me to not only comfortably feed my own smallfolk during the next winter but also maintain substantial enough reserves that I would also be able to export grain to the other Lords across Headens.
"Thank you, Viola. Arthur, how goes the testing of the new plough?" I said as I turned my attention to the greying Butler.
"It is performing as per expectations my Lord, and that alone is a miracle. The plough will undoubtedly improve productivity several times over and will allow for more land to be farmed once its use is more common. Already news has spread among the smallfolk about the new miracle plough and there is much demand for it," replied the Butler.
The Dutch Plough, or as I had named it here, the Valerin Plough. The design was something that I had only had a vague idea about when I had realised that it did not exist in Headens. I had hired many craftsmen over the past year to lend their expertise to aid me to design the plough. After nearly a year of experimentation, failures and frustration, we had finally produced a working prototype a few weeks after I returned from Harestead.
Arthur and I had spent the last few turns of the moon extensively testing the prototypes in different fields and soils and the initial results had been extremely promising. The biggest issue, however, had been cost. The Dutch Plough was more complex and required better craftsmanship.
"How goes production?" I asked.
"We currently have nearly two hundred ploughs in storage and our craftsmen are working full time to produce more. Due to the need for secrecy, we have only employed four trusted craftsmen and their apprentices."
I hummed, "And the cost?"
"Driven down substantially my Lord once we implemented the assembly line method that is employed at Valerin Soap. But even so, it may still not be affordable to poorer farmers."
And that was the crux of the matter. In Headens, lands to farm were abundant. The problem was that farming and tending to even a few hectares was beyond the capacity of a single-family.
My first reform, four-field crop rotation, had improved the productivity of lands currently being farmed by a single farmer, enabling them to increase their yield from their existing lands. Nearly four years had passed since I had first introduced the concept in Valerin and it was now the prevailing method across my lands.
My second reform, the Valerin Plough, would allow farmers to plough their fields much more efficiently and with greater speed which would, in turn, allow them to farm more land due to the time saved.
But even then, the Plough was costly to make and not exactly affordable to the poorer farmers who would benefit the most from the device.
"Announce a subsidy for the plough. House Valerin shall subsidise fifty per cent of the cost for each plough purchased in the next six moons. That should incentivise the smallfolk to purchase and employ the new plough quickly. While the initial loss will be substantial, if the use becomes widespread soon enough, we should see significant results in the next harvest." I replied after some thought.
I turned to Seth, "And how goes the reconstruction of the mining village?"
"It is almost done, my Lord. Most of the settlement was razed to the ground and we have built back much of it. I also took the opportunity to improve the mining infrastructure which had initially been developed in a rather haphazard manner, but should now be more efficient," replied my goodbrother.
I nodded along, "And security?"
"Ser Goren has been coordinating with myself for that. The Guard that you ordered has now been outfitted and trained and are capably maintaining law and order in the village and managing the patrols on the border."
While a small settlement would generally not merit a full guard, the lessons from the incident with the Blanetts were still fresh in my mind. The mine was a strategic resource and thus required better security. I had also neglected earlier to patrol my border with Copperbay which had backfired quite spectacularly last year.
"And is everything up to the mark Ser?" I asked the grizzled Master of Arms.
"Not all that bad my Lord considering that the men have only a few moons of training. I have appointed some of the veterans of the Valerin Town Guard as officers and they are doing well enough to whip the lads into shape," replied the Knight.
"And what news of the new constructions in Valerin?" I said as I turned back to Serwyn.
"It has been difficult. The masons are struggling to use concrete for constructing buildings. Getting it to work with the roads was difficult enough, but this seems to be an even tougher task. Although we have made some breakthroughs recently, it is unlikely that we will be able to complete the ordered construction projects before winter arrives."
That was unfortunate.
With the plans for the Skytower road shelved until next summer, I had found myself with a great deal of supply of concrete, but no demand for it outside of the maintenance of the existing roads. So I had given the order for concrete to be used to construct better housing and infrastructure within Valerin.
"Very well, continue working on it. However, I expect to see results soonest."
"The ale business is performing rather well though." piped up the man from Rosecourt..
Frankly speaking, the ale was not something I was overly concerned about these days. With ale production having reached a point wherein I was able to comfortably supply my own people as well as Rosecourt a few moons ago, I had turned my attention away from it, much like I had with Valerin Soap. In the case of Valerin Soap, however, it was primarily because Viola had taken an interest in its running and was managing it rather well. It tied in well with her charitable endeavours within Valerin as it was now becoming an integral hygiene tool in my land in addition to generating substantial employment.
Like soap, ale was also a high volume business, but with extremely small margins. Despite producing thousands of barrels every month, the profits were minuscule in comparison to Valerin Whisky.
I had entered the space primarily in response to the Blanett's taxation policy. While the tax still stood, with my own production ramped up, it no longer affected me. Since then, with my own needs met, there was little in the business that needed my personal attention. The business was still fairly profitable and generated employment in Valerin so I had let it continue and assigned Seth the responsibility of overseeing it. With my interest piqued, I gestured for him to continue speaking.
"Well, as all of you may be aware, we recently reached a production level where we are now able to meet the needs of Valerin and Rosecourt. Well, recently I reached out to my friend Ser Godfrey Pennon of Rampage Hoard and he has stated that his family may be amenable to purchasing ale from Valerin instead of Copperbay."
That made me pause.
"How do you know Godfrey Pennon?" Was the only response that I could muster. Godfrey Pennon was the son and heir to Lord Pennon. His elder brother had died of the pox a few moons ago and the second son had become heir. Ser Godfrey had attended my wedding and I had found him to be a fairly pleasant fellow although I had not spent much time with him much to my chagrin when he had gone and become heir a short while later.
"Godfrey and I were fostered together for some time at Myst House with Lord Fird. I fostered there for just over a year before I was forced to return to Rosecourt for… reasons." undoubtedly because Lord Fird must have deemed him hopeless in the yard and sent him packing.
"But Godfrey and I always remained close. When I wrote to him of the incident with the Blanetts, he wasn't very happy in the first place with them for their actions last year. Furthermore, purchasing ale from House Blanett has proven to be rather costly for Rampage Hoard due to the distances and terrain involved. I sent a few barrels of ale over to him last moon as a name day gift and it turns out that he and his father found the quality of our ale to be better than that of Copperbay," said my goodbrother in a nonchalant manner that belied the cunning sheen in his eyes.
This was a game-changer. For the past few turns of the moon, I was struggling to think of a way to punish Alban Blanett for his words and actions. And yet, I had found that there was little I could do. Already trade between our Houses had practically ceased. Undoubtedly that had hurt them financially, who unlike me had been unable to create alternate trade channels yet.
While I had initially toyed with the idea of dominating the ale industry in the Harelands thereby breaking the Blanetts monopoly, it had not been feasible in practice as even Edward had refused to broach the topic with his father citing that although House Valerin had enmity with Blanett, House Ortegha did not. Since then, I had more or less abandoned the idea.
But now, if I could get Rampage Hoard onboard, that alone would be a substantial loss to House Blanett. There was little doubt in my mind that such Seth had placed some amount of pressure on his friend to convince him to back me in this as opposed to the Blanetts. And undoubtedly Seth would profit from it himself as he received some part of the profit from the ale business.
And Rampage Hoard would undoubtedly prefer buying ale from me over the Blanetts. While the distance between Valerin and Rampage Hoard was a little lesser than that of Copperbay, the lay of the land was much better from Valerin. The route from Copperbay to Rampage Hoard was a rocky, mountainous area that was far more difficult to traverse than the relatively flat coastal plains that made up the route from my lands to Rampage Hoard.
"And how would we go about this? I'm assuming that we will have to scale up production rather quickly," I added as my mind raced to consider all the factors involved.
"Which would not be a problem at all. The initial plans for Valerin Ale had envisaged large scale distribution, so much of the apparatus is already in place. A few more men would need to be hired and more grain would have to be set aside for production, but aside from this, everything necessary is already in place," replied Seth.
"And what kind of production timeline are we looking at?"
"We should be able to meet the demand from Rampage Hoard within five to six moons at the very latest. Godfrey just requests that we give him two moons notice so that he can terminate purchases from Copperbay."
"And are there any other requests that Ser Godfrey may have with regards to our agreement?" I said as I levelled a stern look at Seth. The effect was immediate as my good brother fidgeted nervously in his seat.
"Well, there is just one thing you see, my Lord. Ser Godfrey requests that we provide a small discount on our exports of charcoal to Rampage Hoard for the duration of the upcoming winter."
That made sense. Ceasing purchases from Copperbay would undoubtedly anger the Blanetts, even if it was more profitable for the Pennons in the long run. But even then, Ser Godfrey would undoubtedly want a little more to compensate him for the troubles that Lord Blanett would undoubtedly cause him. And a discount on charcoal for the upcoming winter would no doubt be adequate compensation.
Charcoal was an expensive product. And I was the only one manufacturing it in great quantities in the Harelands, making it a very valuable export. Even more so during winters when demand for charcoal skyrocketed. Even a small discount would substantially impact my coffers if the winter extended for a long time as was generally the case with winters that followed a long summer. But therein lay my advantage. Due to canon, I knew for a fact that the upcoming winter would be a short one. And when it ended, so would the discount.
I internally crunched the numbers as I mulled the proposal over in my head. Eventually, I nodded. The long term benefits of getting the Pennon House to buy ale from me would most definitely outweigh the short term loss I would face from the discount on the charcoal exported to Rampage Hoard. Moreover, there was the added benefit of delivering Alban Blanett another metaphorical kick in the nuts.
"Alright, you have my approval. Write to Ser Godfrey, inform him that we agree to his terms. The discount shall be provided, but it shall only last for the duration of the upcoming winter and no further," I said as Seth nodded near frantically as he noted down my instructions.
"Petr, how goes the construction of Keep in Drakeskin's Abode?" I asked my steward. Pursuant to my agreement with Ser Briar, I had given the order for a small stone Keep to be constructed in Drakeskin's Abode, which was one of the larger villages in the southern region of my lands, for his son Ser Conert Blanett.
The costs for the construction of the Keep would be deducted from the additional taxes that the young Knight had agreed to pay over the course of the next few years when he had visited Valerin to finalise our agreement a few turns of the moon back.
Conert seemed like a decent Knight. He was in his late twenties and had served as a Knight in Ambrose Wysten's mounted unit for several years. All according to Ser Goren, who had served alongside him at Harestead before he was assigned to me, he was good with a sword and a decent man.
On meeting him myself, I had been able to better gauge his character and found Ser Goren's judgement to be more or less on point. The lands he was to be assigned were fairly productive and having a Knight to protect and administer the lands would only be beneficial in the long run.
"Ahead of schedule my lord, I believe it should be ready before the end of this year as per your orders," replied the Steward proudly. And the man had much to be proud of. His younger son Benedict was an Acolyte in the Special School of Servitude and had forged his first link just a few sennights ago while his elder son, Baldwin, had ridden with me during the Blanett incident and had acquitted himself well. Ser Alaric had knighted him soon thereafter.
"Is there anything else?" I stated as I looked around the table.
"Well, there is one more thing. My cousin Eric has been engaged to marry Lady Dane Ortegha of Destrier Hall, news that I was very surprised to receive especially considering, last I remember, there were talks ongoing to have him marry Lord Fird's daughter," she said as she looked at me while smiling.
I just smiled enigmatically. Truthfully, this had in fact been one of my plans that had come to fruition recently. One that I had been working on ever since the Blanett incident. Eric was Lord Brandon Rosecourt's second son and had been knighted and granted a Keep on the eastern coast of Rosecourt several years ago. With the surge of trade from Rosecourt over the past couple of years due to our alliance, he had suddenly found himself a most eligible bachelor, even though he was not a lord.
Edward and I were friends, and through our friendship, I enjoyed excellent relations with House Ortegha, but those bonds were fragile, whereas bonds of blood were not. Edward's youngest sister was of the same age as me and unmarried. Eric was now an eligible enough bachelor to merit a marriage to a daughter of House Ortegha.
Such a marriage would tie all three of our houses together and solidify our budding alliance creating a power bloc to challenge the existing dynamic. Prior to my ennoblement, the Blanett-Velts-Kert Alliance had dominated the politics of the Harelands. Nightdepths, the seat of House Kert, was west of the Blanett lands, along the Crowbares border. I had little in terms of dealings with them as the distances were great and any trade would have to go through Blanett lands. Furthermore, with Alban Blanett married to Lord Kert's sister, relations between our Houses had never been great.
Even with House Velts, despite them being my immediate neighbours, and even though I had made multiple overtures to improve relations with them, their close ties to House Blanett had worked against me. With the current Lord Velts being married to Alban Blanett's daughter, the three Houses were closely tied together and had dominated the politics of the northern Harelands for several years.
It was this power bloc that I sought to challenge and eventually overcome. After the incident with the Blanetts, I had spoken to Edward, and while they were initially reluctant to so overtly challenge the BVK (Blanett-Velts-Kert) Bloc, the benefits of being allied directly with Rosecourt and in turn with me clearly outweighed the cons. With Viola's help, I had traded a few letters with Lord Brandon, and eventually, he had sent a proposal to the same effect to Lord August Ortegha.
Now my devious political plan was finally near fruition
* * *
Gallard, Risecourt
Late 53 AC
As I sat at my table in Gallard, watching the newlywed couple dance together, I could not help but think, 'I do love it when a plan comes together.'
It was the wedding of Ser Eric Rosecourt to Lady Dane Ortegha, a union between two noble houses of the Harelands and one which I had played no small part in creating. With the engagement being confirmed a few turns of the moon ago, the wedding had occurred soon after the final negotiations were concluded. I had arrived with Viola and Seth a few days ago, leaving baby Ed in the capable hands of his grandmother who cared little for attending the wedding of her nephew by marriage.
The past few months had rushed past in a whirlwind of events. Little Edward was growing at an alarming rate and had recently learned how to crawl. The energetic little hellion would drive his nursemaids and mother spare as he frantically crawled away into every nook and cranny the minute he was placed on the floor. It was adorable. I missed him already.
But coming to Rosecourt had been worth it. Not only did it make Viola happy to return to her family home, but it also gave me the opportunity to meet with several of my Noble friends and allies to discuss trade and politics.
Already Lord Brandon and I had had many a productive discussion regarding the operations of the Valerin Rosecourt Trading Company. With trade booming in the Crowbares and the Jule, we had decided that it would be prudent to make greater overtures in the Crust Plains where demand was steadily increasing.
While I possessed no influence or contacts in the region despite being from the Crust Plains originally, Lord Rosecourt was well acquainted with Lord Bovoon of Bitterstroke. House Rosecourt apparently had historically held excellent trade ties with the Bovoons of Bitterstroke. It was decided by the two of us that if Lord Bovoon was amenable, we would offer him the same deal as the one we had the Fraytons, albeit with better margins for us as there was already existing demand in the region and Lord Bovoon would only be facilitating sales and transport.
We had also discussed the necessity of expanding the Valerin-Rosecourt Trading Company's fleet as trade had now reached a point wherein our existing fleet would soon be struggling to meet the demand. I had agreed to fund the construction of an additional five galleys and carracks which would be owned by House Valerin and leased to the Company much like House Rosecourt's ships were. In turn, Lord Brandon would also fund the construction of an additional fifteen ships along the same lines. After all, logistics and transport were his responsibility, not mine.
With the additional ships, the Company's fleet would possess a strength of nearly fifty trading galleys, carracks and cogs. While still minuscule in comparison to the eight fucking hundred trading ships possessed by House Crimsine, it was still nothing to scoff at.
My ruminations were interrupted by sounds of clapping as the newlywed couple finished their dance. Remembering my manners, I turned to Viola, "Would you honour me with a dance my Lady."
She smiled lightly as she took my hand, "If I remember correctly, someone was a terrible dancer at our wedding night."
I blushed lightly, recalling with some shame and embarrassment my conduct during our wedding, "Some things never change my Lady," I said as I swept her onto the dance floor, with noticeably more skill and grace that I was supposed to possess, "But you'll find that some things do."
As we swayed lightly to the music on the floor, I could see the surprise and curiosity on her face as we danced.
"Your mother's been teaching me," I answered her unasked question. And that was the embarrassing truth. Larya, as she insisted I called her, was a perceptive woman. She knew that as a young man who had not been raised in a Noble household, I had not received the same education that all lordlings received. Sure, Arthur had covered etiquette in our lessons, but there were things that were not taught by the Butler, but instead by the Lady of House. Things such as dance and courtship. Needless to say, it had been beyond embarrassing.
In other words, the Severin Lady had clearly sensed the rift between myself and Viola, and conveniently blamed it on my lack of a noble upbringing and taken steps to rectify the same. It was a reasonable conclusion, as hardly anyone could possibly think that the actual reason for my behaviour was due to the fact that I was a man with modern sensibilities reincarnated into a young lad, whose mental age was actually closer to forty. But even then, the Lady had a point. Through her lessons in courtship and etiquette, she had already shown me certain fundamental errors that I had made with regards to my relationship with Viola. Errors that I was now working on fixing.
We danced for a few more minutes as more couples joined the dance floor, in the distance I noted Lord August Ortegha, who as the father of the bride, looked flush with pride and happiness. Pride was evident when he had purchased twenty whole barrels of Silver Label whisky to be served at the wedding. Obviously, I had been more than willing to accommodate him. Hopefully, serving Valerin Silver Label at weddings would become a tradition for all at the Harelands soon enough.
Viola and I had met with Lord August and Edward the night before when we had dined together. Edwell had been beyond honoured that we had named my firstborn after him. We had spent much of the time discussing interesting topics relating to politics and governance, topics regarding which the elder Lord was a fountain of information. Eventually, we had cut the small talk and dove into the meat of the matter. Namely, our political alliance and the road from Valerin to Destrier Hall.
With regards to our alliance, it was clear that Lord August did not wish to rock the boat too much initially, although I was sure that he would be very much in favour of it in a few years time. As Edward informed me later, that was primarily due to the fact that Lord August's aunt was married to Lord Alban Blanett uncle. The marriage had been ultimately childless, but Lord Ortegha was reluctant to make any overt moves against the Blanetts when such a familial link existed, tenuous as it was.
Fortunately, it seemed that the lady in question was over seventy years old and her health was rapidly failing. As long as she did not some sort of sorcery and live to see a hundred years, I was not too worried about her. With autumn due to arrive any day now and winter not that far away either, I was not too keen on making any overt moves myself.
The four of us still managed to agree on easing restrictions on trade and facilitating an agreement to coordinate the export of crops outside of our lands. Essentially we would coordinate our agricultural efforts to ensure that we grew our crops in conjunction so as to ensure that there was no overlap between our exports. It would not do for both of us to focus on growing the same crop and then find less demand for our excessive supply.
By carefully forecasting the demand, and coordinating our agricultural produce every season, we would be able to carefully control the supply in a manner that more efficiently met the demand, thereby maximising our profits. My model was very similar to the one employed by OPEC in the modern world. Although they did their export with Petroleum instead of crops, the economic principles were the same, and moreover, easily adaptable to Headens.
I was under no illusion that our model was perfect. It would take many years of experimentation before we would be able to achieve our objective. But even so, it was a step in the right direction. Between Destrier Hall and Valerin, even prior to my agricultural reforms, we accounted for nearly thirty per cent of the Harelands agricultural output.
With the advent of crop rotation, which was now slowly gaining popularity in Ortegha lands as well, we now accounted for nearly thirty-five per cent of the total output. With the Valerin Plough now finally being deployed in the field, and the our Crop Rotation method becoming more common practice in Ortegha lands, I was hopeful that in a few years, we would account for almost half of the Harelands' agricultural output.
However, the main focus for the evening had been on the road from Valerin to Destrier Hall. With the sheer amount of trade between our Houses, a road would be a definite boon. Eventually, after much negotiation, we had finally reached an agreement. The road from Valerin to Destrier Hall would be built by my builders and workers, while being aided by Ortegha men, using concrete and the costs for the same, along with the maintenance would be shared by both Houses in the ratio of the length of the road in each of our lands.
A surveyor would be appointed to assess the best route and accordingly determine the length of the road and the share of each House towards the same. Frankly, the deal could have gone better. While the financials were solid, I had hoped that the Orteghas would contribute more men to the project. With the amount of manpower that I would need to pour into this project, which was due to begin once winter ended, my road to Skytower would again be delayed.
The wedding party soon came to an end. The bedding ceremony was called for and the bride and groom were carried to their quarters. Neither Viola nor I participated, I being held back by my modern sensibilities and Viola by having no desire to strip her cousin.
As we returned to our quarters I turned to Viola. She seemed happy. Not only was she at her family home but she was also attending the wedding of her cousin. She turned to me, a hint of nervousness in her expression, but joy overshadowed it somehow, "Aerys, I've been meaning to tell you for while."
Was something amiss, after such a joy engulfing ceremony?
"I'm pregnant."
I really need to invent condoms.