"Botvid's bilge, why do I have to dress up like this?" I grumbled as Delimira and Bekhi fastened buttons and trinkets to my silk clothes. "Can't I just put my normal clothes through the wash a couple times?"
"No." Delimira said as she cast a cleaning spell over me. "You're meeting with your future barons, and you only get a chance for first impressions once. The ones who aren't about to get arrested for treason are going to be working with you for a very long time. You need to make sure that they know that you aren't taking your new job lightly."
"Besides," Bekhi added, "you look pretty cute like this."
"Maybe you should dress in noble garb with me? Misery loves company."
"I'll pass. Both now and in the future." Bekhi replied with a mischievous grin. "I back you up with my axe though. Me and my adventurer's will be ready on your signal to arrest the treasonous nobles."
I nodded thankfully to Bekhi. In our trip to Galcrana, we had been attacked multiple times by mercenaries who had been contracted by local barons to kill me before taking office. We had managed to fend them off without any of us getting injured, but I was still angry that the barons had gone after me and my family. So those barons that we had hard proof of treason would be thrown into the dungeon today, and would be handed over to the Imperial Guard later.
"All right. Showtime." I tugged on my fancy shirt uncomfortably, and entered the meeting room followed closely by Delimira, who was wearing equally fancy clothes. This was to demonstrate to the nobles that elven magic, which was greedily sought after in this part of the empire, was going to be coming to the province soon.
There was a chorus of scraping chairs as all of the barons stood up to greet me, some of them had sour looks on their faces and stood up more slowly than the rest, but they still stood up and gave me the imperial salute. Incidentally, most of them were nobles that had sicced mercenaries on me.
"Good morning, barons of Vulkania." I said as I motioned for the nobles to sit down. "I'm glad to see that all of you answered my call. First order of business. Bekhi, now!"
A rush of heavily armored adventurers burst into the room and apprehended the guilty nobles.
"Damn you, dwarf! What gives you the right to do this?"
"Are you out of your mind, demihuman scum?"
"Get your hands off me, commoner filth!"
"Silence!" I struck the table with my hammer producing sparks and a loud bang that quieted the nobility. I had arranged beforehand to reinforce the table so that it wouldn't split from the impact. "Barons Dagobert, Berthold, Oliver, and Korbinian, you need to invest in more tight lipped mercenaries. They sang like elven priestesses. Barons Reimar, Ludwig, Harold, and Wolfgang, your ties to the brigands have been exposed and the emperor demands justice. For those of you who were smart enough to not send men after me on the journey here, be sure to settle your affairs quickly, because your misdeeds will be exposed."
The nobles named were hustled out of the meeting room to their waiting cells, and the remaining nobles nervously sat up straight in their chairs. I hoped that they took my warning seriously, and would soon turn over any brigands and thieves that were infiltrating their baronies.
"Now. The second point of today's meeting." I glared at the remaining nobles, imitating Elder Thrikrondromm's firm stare to emphasize the point. Although it probably fell a little flat since I was decades younger than them, and centuries younger than the Elder. "I will tolerate no racist, bigoted, or intolerant remarks, either now or at any time in the future. If I find out that any of you engaged in any form discrimination against those you call 'demihumans' I will send your entire baronies back to the age of the demon lord with dwarven runes. If any of you don't like it, you can leave now. Only a little bit of elven magic will follow you out the door."
A few of the nobles shifted uncomfortably and glanced longingly at the door, but ultimately no one got up to leave. Nodding in satisfaction, I moved on to the crux of the meeting, assigning the roles of the individual barons. This was the main reason that I had asked the emperor to send out the letters to summon the barons. If I was to modernize this region of the empire, I'd need to work with the local citizen leaders to work with their people.
For a baron whose barony bordered the Eternal Forest, I assigned him the task of creating wood pulp paper and printing presses.
The barons with mines in their lands were tasked with upgrading their mines with steam engines and rail lines, along with basic plans of industrial level steel factories that were fueled by a mix of magic and conventional charcoal. Other baronies were set towards making weapons en masse for the border regions.
Those baronies on the border were told to set up a faux maginot line made of concrete that were primarily made of anti-calvary measures. This would hopefully lower, if not eliminate the raids by Zaihanians and Westians.
Finally, the baronies towards the south were assigned the much easier task of updating their farming methods to the Norfolk four crop system. And as a favor towards Miyata, which would hopefully get her to return home to the Emperor, I asked them to look into growing rice. From my limited knowledge of Japanese people who got isakaid, they all crave rice after getting sent to a new world.
The meeting lasted late into the night, and once the last baron had received their marching orders, I leaned back with a sigh of relief. "Nobles of Vulkania, if you follow the plan that I have outlined today, then great wealth awaits all of us. It may be difficult, it may even seem impossible to you, but these efforts will bear fruits for your children and grandchildren in the coming centuries. Together, we will make this province the shining star of the empire. Glory to the Empire!"
Standing together, the nobles returned the salute and call to action. "Glory to the Empire!"
They then wearily exited the meeting room to their rooms, while Delimira and I both collapsed into our chairs.
"Well done, Viscount." Bekhi entered the room with a tray of dwarven beers. "Now wasn't a good meeting worth a little discomfort?"
"Thanks, Bekhi." I took a grateful quaff of the beer, and smacked my lips in satisfaction. "Hopefully it'll be a while before I have to dress up like this again."
"Aww, spoilsport." Bekhi teased, taking her own drink of beer. "Alright, I need to get Gerde to bed. I'll see you two in the morning for dawn training."
Delimira and I both groaned in assent. We had been up nearly all night planning everything the previous day, and we had been working hard all day today, but we both knew that there was no escape from Bekhi's training sessions. It appeared that settled down life was going to be a lot harder than I anticipated.