Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 941: Rushed Recap of Konradi Domain

CH0941 Rushed Recap of Konradi Domain

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About two years ago, Alex technically gained control of an entire county from House Kellerman—their northwestern county, which included the Konradi Barony.

As a result, Alex’s land assets amounted to the size of a County. However, Alex’s peerage remained that of a Baron—Baron of Konradi—as the Kellermans had only agreed to cede the greater Northwestern County to him temporarily for a period of twenty years.

In essence, Alex was technically a temporary Lord-Governor of the County rather than a Count.

Prior to handing over the County to the Fury family, House Kellerman had made some sneaky moves, which included moving civilian populations out of the County, clearing out the remaining food in the granaries, as well as subtly damaging vital infrastructure.

The Kellermans’ plan was to stifle House Fury as much as possible, making it difficult for them to immediately turn a profit from taking over the land.

They couldn’t stop the Furys from exploiting the land—all they could do was delay them as much as possible, which was what they did.

Unfortunately for the Kellermans, however, Alex had anticipated their plans and essentially allowed them to do so. This was because he had no plans to rely on outdated Kellerman infrastructure anyway—if anything, the Kellermans had done him a favour by damaging the infrastructure. Plus, the move granted Alex leverage over the Kellermans.

As for the food, the Fury Lands were some of the most fertile lands within the Virellian Empire for agriculture—both food and cash crops.

Ironically, this wasn’t because the Furys were good at agriculture. Conversely, they were bad at it. Nor was it because the Fury Lands were naturally fertile—in fact, one might argue that they had been fairly average before the Furys received dominion over them.

The reason the land became as fertile as it was actually had to do with the Furys doing what they did best—battle.

It was often said that almost every square inch of the Fury Lands was soaked in blood. While this was an exaggeration, it wasn’t too far from the truth.

It was difficult to find a piece of land in the Fury Lands that hadn’t seen a bloody battle. Over the years, the blood and corpses that had soaked and covered the land had nourished it into the fertile territory it was today.

So, in short, what Alex lacked the least was food. The granary attacks only hurt his pockets a bit, not his rule.

As for the transfer of people, that was even more in Alex’s favour.

During the territorial battle with the Kellermans, Alex and his father’s spymaster, Allen Holder—leader of Earl Drake’s Black Mantle—carried out a propaganda campaign throughout the County, leveraging House Kellerman’s poor reputation among the commoners of their fiefdom.

By the time the territorial battle ended, the commoners of the Northwestern region were essentially Alex’s fans—his people.

The biggest thing House Kellerman achieved by moving them out of the Northwestern County and into other Kellerman regions was to move Alex’s people deeper into their territory.

These people soon became the hosts for the nexus of Black Mantle and Dark Water activities within what remained of the Kellerman fiefdom.

Like his father—like any noble—Alex wasn’t satisfied with merely claiming the Konradi Barony or temporarily leasing the greater Northwestern County from House Kellerman. He intended to claim it and swallow it whole.

Not just the Northwestern County—the entirety of the Kellerman fiefdom was on Alex’s buffet table.

House Kellerman thought Alex and his father would take advantage of the twenty-year lease before reaching for their fiefdom. Little did they know that Alex hadn’t spared them a single day before attacking them.

Even before the ink on the peace agreement had dried—no, even before the peace agreement was ever signed—Alex had been plotting against House Kellerman.

He knew Earl Kellerman, his retainers and vassals would attack the Fury Lands as soon as the opportunity arose, so Alex decided to make a pre-emptive strike.

Contingency #Omega_Parasite—an operation that devoured the Kellerman fiefdom’s largest mana stone mine, the Layman Mana Stone Mine, which provided House Kellerman with 45% of its revenue.

With this cash cow taken away, coupled with the grievous financial losses from the territorial war with House Fury and the lenders they needed to repay, House Kellerman was quickly pushed into a difficult financial situation.

A difficult situation that provided Alex and his allied forces with opportunities within the Kellerman fiefdom—opportunities that would slowly unravel themselves with time.

Time that, however, was not as long as the Kellermans and most observers predicted—even Alex’s fellow Furys.

Perhaps if Alex had had the time to fully focus on the undertaking, it might not have taken long at all to severely cripple House Kellerman. However, Alex had other things to worry about, particularly his Interplanar Expedition.

Left with no choice, Alex appointed his twin sisters, Sophia and Seraphina, to govern in his stead.

To Alex, this was simply a convenient decision that kept control over his maiden fiefdom in the hands of people he trusted—and, frankly, could control should they betray him.

But for Sophia and Seraphina, this appointment granted them the freedom, independence and autonomy they needed to make something of themselves without their father’s pedigree overshadowing them.

Alex had been an orphan in his previous life. He saw his life as Alex Fury as an opportunity to have a family—a united one. As a result, he sought to become the big tree that sheltered his siblings from the elements or the pillar that held up the sky if it ever fell.

With his name and contacts, he hoped to create a board on which Sophia, Seraphina and his other siblings could make something of themselves.

For Sophia and Seraphina, this came in the form of appointments as Vice-Lords of the Konradi Barony and administrators of the greater leased Northwestern County—with Sophia running the day-to-day administration while Seraphina handled security and defence.

Though he trusted his sisters to hold their own—well, the calm Sophia more than the hot-headed Seraphina—Alex didn’t completely leave them to figure things out on their own.

Doing the minimum expected of a competent lord, Alex left behind plans and contingencies for both sisters to implement as needed.

With Alex’s plans and his sisters’ management over the last two years, the leased Northwestern County—and the Konradi Barony in particular—had seen significant growth.

At least when compared to the rest of the Kellerman lands, even though it was the one most devastated by the Wildkins’ invasion more than two years ago, the county controlled by the Furys had seen the most development during that time.

This wasn’t by accident.

Unlike the Kellermans, who were strapped for cash, Alex had left his sisters a sizeable development chest in the domain’s coffers.

And his sisters hadn’t disappointed him in converting that wealth into development for the territory—at least, on paper.

The population of Cowle City, the Konradi Barony’s main city, was now 50,000.

The city’s biggest earner was now agriculture, with the city producing key cash crops, particularly military-grade wood, which was being used in conjunction with metals mined from the mines in the greater Northwestern County to make weapons and other resources for the Fury army.

In addition, after a year at the helm, Sophia commissioned the establishment of a trade town on the new border with the Kellerman fiefdom.

The trade town was now a centre for food trade in the region, to the point that despite the bad blood between House Fury and House Kellerman, merchants from the latter still visited the trade town to purchase food.

In fact, Sophia had recently signed a massive trade agreement with a large merchant company domiciled in the Reichart Duchy to procure massive amounts of food on behalf of the Reichart Duchy.

Though Sophia—or rather, the Konradi Barony—only acted as an intermediary for the trades, the fact that the transactions were conducted within the trade town meant the Konradi Barony earned significant indirect income from the deal.

While everyone, including Sophia, was aware that Otto Reichart likely had a hand in Alex’s disappearance, it didn’t make the gold coins brought over by the Reichart merchants any less valuable.

Then again, another secret reason Sophia facilitated the trade was because she had been advised—or rather, informed—to do so by her Dark Water contact.

Alex had left instructions for Sophia to meet or support Dark Water’s demands as much as possible as the governing Vice-Lord in his absence, which was why she went along with the plan.

As for why Dark Water had advised her to do so, well, it was obvious. The merchant company in question was actually a subsidiary of the Golden Palace.

By securing the deal, the merchant company gained standing within the Duchy.

A standing that would later become one of the nails in the Reicharts’ coffin.

On the security side of things, Seraphina had created a law enforcement unit of about 1,000 field officers charged with maintaining order within the domain—the entire Northwestern County.

She had also trained a 5,000-strong militia that was ready to defend the fiefdom whenever a threat arose.

However, this militia was only on temporary duty, as the actual defence of the fiefdom remained in the hands of what was left of Alex’s Exercitus Alexii unit.

Two years had gone quietly, with Sophia and Seraphina managing the domain without much fanfare—everything operating with the utmost boring efficiency.

But in those two years, the people of the domain had never forgotten who their true domain lord was—Alex Fury.

They had waited for him for two years, and he had finally returned.

Stronger, and more brazen than ever before.

Roar!

As if announcing the prestige of its passenger, a pseudo-dragon’s cry rippled through the skies of Cowle City as a Wyvern Carriage—a rare sight in the city—landed at the city’s port station.

And from the carriage, the prodigal lord of the domain finally arrived.

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