Ten years have passed since I was made a viscount, and they have been extremely eventful and productive years.
I put aside the last of today's paperwork with a weary, and older sounding, sigh of relief. Thanks to my modernization efforts in both magic and technology, my daily workload was immense.
Running my fingers through my now full dwarven beard, I stood up to take a walk through New Tokyo. Despite my best efforts, Miyata's suggestion had stuck and everyone just rolled with there not being an old Tokyo in this world.
"Done for the day, Viscount?" My guard, a male half elf named Cedrick, asked as he came to attention.
"Yes, but instead of retiring to my rooms, I think I'll take a walk through the town today."
"Very good, Sir." Cedrick saluted in the American fashion, clicking his heels together smartly before marching off to alert the relevant guards. I smiled as I watched him leave, happy that my modernization of the province's armed forces was going so well, and ducked out via the fireman's pole that I had hidden behind a bookshelf. One of the benefits of designing your own castle is that you can put escape hatches and secret hallways everywhere.
I exited the castle by a back door, and took a deep breath of soot stained air. "Ah, the march of progress." If dwarves could skip then I would've done so at the realization of my dreams of modern technology. Factories run by magic and coal churned out weapons and modern comforts, day and night, leading to an economic boom across the province.
Speaking of weapons, I haven't gotten around to introducing firearms, but Vulkanian made swords, daggers, and arrowheads are sought after across the world. In addition, steam powered mobile defense platforms and steam powered hot air balloons have effectively shut down the Zaihanian slave raids and Westian cavalry charges. They've now turned their attention to their neighbors, much to the dismay of the neighboring countries, but that's their problem.
"Good evening, your grace!" A stall owner cheerfully greeted me. "Sneaking away from your guards again, mew?"
"Good evening, Katsumi." I strolled over to the stall. "I'll take a chicken skewer please, two if you don't tell anyone."
"Mew, our viscount is such a sweet talker." Katsumi said, her cat ears twitching in amusement. "Here you go, two chicken skewers and a promise of silence."
Thanking her, I moved on with my walk. Katsumi was one of our very few beastkin citizens. There had been a bit of misunderstanding when I first took office. The beastkin of the Eternal Forest thought that I was keeping Gerde as a slave and tried to rescue her. But when they found out I was raising her as my daughter, they began talks with me, albeit very limited talks, and a few brave volunteers decided to live amongst us.
Walking down the street, munching on my chicken skewers, I took note of the diverse races living and thriving together. There were humans, halflings, dwarves, elves, beastkin, even a couple mer-people in self contained tanks. It had taken a lot of work, both on the back end and in the public eye, but they were all working together without too much discrimination towards each other. Of course, for the long lived species such as dwarves and elves, it would take more than a decade to wipe out all the old grudges, but baby steps would be needed for them. Most of our dwarven residents were those who had been cast out by their clans and didn't care about the ancestral grudges.
"Master Kvalinn, what are you doing without your guards?" Ah shit, I didn't think Delimira would be in town today. She had married Tatsuki several years ago, and together they traveled through the empire fighting against powerful monsters. And even though our weapon smithing lessons were about once a year now, she still called me her teacher.
"I decided to take a walk incognito today." I answered, nodding a greeting to Tatsuki who was dressed in the hero's armor. "All those tall guards block my view of the city."
"Did you at least tell Jenise you were going out? Or did you leave her to clean up your mess as usual?"
I shook my head. I forgot to tell Jenise. She had taken over the role of basically being my second in command, doing mountains of paperwork in the background and taking over when I needed to leave to attend Imperial functions. She hadn't married yet, since she wanted to wait until she was considered an adult by elf standards, and her hard work had often saved the day when my attempts at nobility had been bungled.
"I'll buy her a treat later as an apology."
"Be sure to get some for us too, Master Kvalinn. Remember, we're coming over tomorrow night for a victory banquet to celebrate defeating the gryffon flock."
After a few more pleasant words, I ended up accompanying them. They were going to visit some adventurer friends at a tavern that served XXXX dwarven beer, and since I was thirsty after the skewers, I tagged along.
"Kvalinn!"
"Papa!"
I was greeted by two enthusiastic voices when I stepped into the tavern. Miyata jumped up to wave in excitement, while Gerde dashed over to give me a bone crushing hug.
After graduating from the Imperial Academy, Miyata had started her own party with the Adventurer's Guild. They called themselves the Sherwood Archers, and they went all around Vulkania starting and winning archery tournaments. They were a very handy party to call on when an archery trick show was needed to impress foreign nobility.
Gerde wasn't part of the Sherwood Archer's party. Instead, she had joined another party, a high profile one calling themselves The Hammer's of Vengeance. In gamer terms she had become famous across the empire as their DPS fighter who could take down dragons on her own, and with a party supporting her, she could probably take on a duchy or a small kingdom with fifty fifty odds of winning.
Neither of them had married yet, but I'm pretty sure Gerde had her eye on a baker's son who was acclaimed for making the best cookies in the province. Naturally, as a protective father, I had had my spies thoroughly investigate him.
"Kvalinn, it's good to see you! Do you need the Sherwood Archers to do another show? Maybe a tournament? Ooh! Are you going to award a golden arrow again?"
"Papa! Did you bring me cookies? Did you bring me cookies from Hans?"
"No to all questions." I responded, attempting to tap out from Gerde's hug. It was tough having a teenage daughter that was so much taller than me. "I'm just here to have a drink."
"Does mama know you're here?"
Gulp.
I realized that I hadn't let Bekhi know I'd be returning to our quarters late, and by now the guards had figured out that I had escaped their watch. It'd be fine, probably. A few extra training sessions with her and a new weapon should get me out of the doghouse.
"Uh oh, Papa's in trouble." Gerde teased. "Do you need to issue a quest to get rare materials for mama's new weapon? The Hammer's of Vengeance are on leave, but I'm sure a request from the Viscount will be given top priority."
"Dang it! I should've called dibs." Miyata grumbled. "We call dibs next time Kvalinn issues a quest though."
This prompted a chuckle in everyone at the table. I then sat down with them, and enjoyed a couple hours as a private citizen with several mugs of strong dwarven beer.
The tavern we were at was one of the first that served carbonated beer, and it had been an instant hit with every race. Last I heard, dwarven kings from every mountain had paid mountains of gold to bring the technique to their homes, and it had even spread to the elven island of Issanore.
After several hours, and enough beers to inebriate a small village, I paid the tab for everyone and exited the tavern. Only mildly drunk from the strong ales.
Outside the tavern, there was a contingent of the province's military waiting for me. "Good evening, your grace. Lady Bekhi sent us to retrieve you."
There were a multitude of teasing shouts and catcalls from within the tavern, and my retaliatory glare did absolutely nothing to silence them, so I shrugged my shoulders in resignation and accompanied the soldiers.
I couldn't call them the National Guard since they weren't paid by the Empire, and the Provincial Guard sounded too weak for my taste, so I had improvised and called the soldiers of Vulkania the Gedi Order, with a soft G like Geronimo or Gemini. (I was too scared of interdimensional lawyers to spell it the normal way. Sue me.) Being accepted as a knight of the Gedi Order, or even an apprentice, was seen as a great honor, and many competed for the title. They were the pride of Vulkania, wielding high quality dwarven arms and armor, and being well trained in elven magic. But right now, they were just watch dogs bringing me back home.
"Lady Bekhi is waiting for you inside." The knight stopped in front of the door to our quarters. "May the gods watch over you and ensure your safe return."
"I'm just returning home to the wife, I'm not going into battle." I grumbled. The knights smiled to themselves, and even I didn't believe myself. If Bekhi got seriously mad, I'd need every god in this world's pantheon to make it out alive.
"Honey, I'm home!" I quickly ducked as an ax flew at my head. Having expected that outcome, the knights had helpfully closed the door behind me.
"Going out drinking on a weeknight, Kvalinn? And without your guards? Don't you know how hard I worked at training them to make sure they could protect you?" A hammer was flung this time, which I blocked with my shield. I was beginning to wish that Bekhi would throw something less deadly, even a frying pan would be better.
Ah, married life. It sure is fun.
Bekhi had married me a few years into my term as Viscount, even though it was nearly a decade too early based on dwarven customs. She had gotten really, REALLY tired of the other nobles in the empire, and the nobles in other kingdoms, trying to pawn off their daughters on me since I was technically single. A girlfriend didn't count towards much in noble culture. So she had married me in a traditional dwarven ceremony and her dad had come from his village to give her away.
Nowadays, she doesn't have much time to go out adventuring. She spends most of her time training the Gedi Order. Honing their skills to a fine point to where I'd bet one of my men against any ten of the Empire's. The rest of her day was spent elsewhere though.
"Papa!"
"Papa!"
Our two twins, a boy and a girl, toddled out of their room and gave me childish hugs. It was nice having dwarven children that didn't grow up in the blink of an eye and have more strength than a steam engine.
"Is papa in trouble?" Silgi, my hyper little girl asked.
"Papa's in trouble." Grelak, the way too smart for his age boy confirmed. "Papa went drinking without telling mama."
"I didn't just go drinking!" I protested. "I went out drinking to see your big sister Gerde. Not to mention you Aunt Del and her friends."
"Yay! Big sis Gerde! Did she give you cookies for us?"
"Not tonight. Besides, she's coming over to visit tomorrow night, remember?"
""Awww""
"No aws" I firmly said. "It's time for bed anyway. It's past your bedtime. Goodnight, Silgi. Goodnight, Grelak."
After the two children said their goodnights, and went back to bed. Bekhi and I sat down on the modern looking leather couch that I had ordered custom for us. She gave me a loving kiss, after a long lecture of course, and we settled down for a relaxing evening.
"By the way, Kvalinn. Jenise sent a report here after you left your office for the day." Bekhi took out an opened letter and handed it to me. "She says that the prototype school in the country village is set to open this winter. What are you up to now, Kvalinn?"
"Just a long term plan for me to retire." I then explained my two century long plan to get the province up and running as a republic, and the first thing that any republic needs is an educated populace. Newspapers and propaganda are useless if no one can read them.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Kvalinn?" Bekh asked in concern. "Technically what you're doing could be labeled as treason to the emperor."
"It'll be fine." I reassured her. "The new emperor is slowly caving to the humanist factions at court thanks to Vulkania's economic and industrial success. If his descendants follow his example, then we could end up with the Empire kicking us out, rather than us rebelling."
"As long as you stay safe, Kvalinn." Bekhi gave me another kiss before getting up and striding towards our bedroom. "Don't stay up too late going over that report."
I began carefully going over the report after promising to go to bed soon. This operation was important after all. The emperor who had appointed me had passed on, and his son had refused to let my technological innovations outside my province. He had cited all sorts of concerns over its long term safety and the moral effects on humans, but the real fact of the matter was that the Human Supremacist faction at court didn't want advancements made by a dwarf to infiltrate their provinces.
My success in raising the quality of life for the average commoner in my province had also caused the serfs and freemen of the other nobles to flock here in droves to fuel the factories with their labor. But that meant that the other nobles were now short on manpower to harvest their crops, and that led them to cracking down on their people to prevent their escaping to Vulkania, and that made the people more anxious to escape to Vulkania, rinse and repeat.
If Earth history was anything to go by, the nobility would soon attempt to convince the emperor that Vulkania was a threat to their way of life, and would attempt to suppress the modernization. But if I could raise a generation of founding fathers in schools all across the province, then maybe the province could become independent, pull in the rest of the empire into the modern world, and then the rest of the world would follow.
It might take a few decades, but I would do my best to bring this world into the 21st century for my children.
"Kvalinn! How long are you going to stay up?" Bekhi called from the bedroom.
"Coming." I tossed aside the papers and turned off the light.
Ah, married life. It sure is fun.