Welters Qunaris (Clan Head)
Welters was giddy. It had been his ancestors’ dream to one day leave this dreary, Qi-lacking valley and head out into the kingdom. Sadly, they had never gotten an opportunity to do so until a few hours ago.
A few hours ago, the Clan Qunaris, under Welters leadership, accepted a deal that would allow them to become landed nobility outside the valley. It was a very good deal, ruining a ten year old upstart’s chances of ruling and getting some land from the real heir.
Lord Ausverl was a kind man after all. Killing the upstart might have been too hard on the clan, she had that bodyguard with her, but ruining her chances of ruling? That was something he could do. It had even been easy. The locals held that set of old trees in far too much importance.
But what pampered ten year old would expect living in such abysmal conditions? The Archduchess would reject the trees and the populace would be offended. A few well placed rumours later, she would be an evil tyrant here to enslave them.
That in itself would do little. With her bodyguard and her own power, she may still rule, but that old idiot of a City Lord wouldn’t let her. Welters was sure that he’d break through to Sapling just to stop this new Archduchess.
The fool would still die, but the killing of the City Lord would further aggravate the populace thus causing them to revolt. And then they would die. Thus ending any hope of the Archduchess ruling or being a threat to his new lord.
Welters felt like giggling as they approached the turn that led to the ‘mansion’, soon, soon the Qunaris clan would be far greater then it had been before. It would finally take its rightful place among the nobles of the kingdom.
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(Altura-MC)
So, a trap from the get go. It would seem that the locals weren’t happy about me being here after all. At least, one of the three Clans wasn’t. As we rounded another turn, I contemplated my next course of action.
Rejecting the mansion was not a good idea. It would turn the people against me and that was a bad way to start ruling. But was politely rejecting an option. Claiming that I did not wish to dishonour the first settlers?
But more importantly, did I want to step into that pile of mud? Wouldn’t accepting be easier? While I was thinking, we had rounded the turn only to be faced with a line of trees. Trees with tree houses on them that connected to each other via rope ladders. It was something you’d expect in a movie.
“Welcome, your grace, to the Roult Mansion! I must tell you how much of a privilege it is to live here. This is the place from which the first settlers ruled the valley and it has long been held that the next rulers would do the same.” Welters said, grinning wildly,
“Sadly, the lack of a single unified government made using the estate an unfavourable choice for us. But as rightful ruler of the valley, you have the right to occupy it.” Ah, what a kind Clan head. Leaving no space for me to manoeuvre out of living in a treehouse. My bed, why do you go away so fast?
But I wasn’t about to let the man succeed. Bed or not, it was mine now. “I am sure I will enjoy it. Now if you will excuse me, I shall get some rest before the City Lord returns.”
After saying that I didn’t even look at Welters, something that I knew would urk him and make him think that I looked down on him. Trying my best to be ‘graceful’, I climbed up the rope ladder. I did have experience climbing them, but I never learned to do them very gracefully.
That was what pants were for. And Altura being the privileged brat she was, never learned to climb rope ladders or live in trees. Being graceful in this was going to be entirely up to me and I was anything but graceful.
Deciding that climbing as fast I could was the best option, I climbed up the tree and right into the house. Aswelth soon joined me, the overpowered old man having jumped up the tree.
“Lord Aswelth, would you be willing to go and gather some information?” I asked, turning to him. Somehow, the formal speaking was getting easier, more natural for me.
“Yes, your grace. Anything in particular that I should pay attention to?” Aswelth asked
“Yes, give special attention to the Qunaris Clan. It is best to treat them as the enemy. “ I answered as I entered the tree house. The house was much as you would expect. A room-like structure with a small wooden porch-like border. It was of course made of wood.
What did puzzle me was how this was constructed. I may not have much experience making tree houses, no experience really, but the branches were not supposed to be around. But what did I know, it may even have just been magic. Wood magic did exist after all.
I went inside the house, expecting and getting a meagerly furnished room. There was a small stove in a corner, presumably where the settlers cooked the food. The stove though looked too new to be from the first settlers' time.
Either the townsfolk had been preserving the history or Welters had left me a gift. A stove would irritate Altura who was used to her food being cooked for her. Then there was the cot. Yes, a cot, those things that were made of cloth and were uncomfortable to sleep in.
It didn’t look the most inviting but it was better than the chair to the side. It would seem that someone had gone out of their way to make the treehouse uncomfortable. Too bad for him, I could rough it. I might not have grown up poor, but I wasn’t privileged either.
I sighed as I laid down on the cot. A little rest would do me good. I wasn’t too sleepy yet, but it had been more than twelve hours since I had awoken in this world. I was tired. Sadly, the world did not agree, as soon as my body relaxed, I found myself facing notifications.
Royalty SubSystem activated!
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Please wait as the system loads a statistical analysis of your territory.
A SubSystem? What was that? The original protagonist did not have it. Was this something the author planned but never wrote, or some other option I was not seeing?
Holdings:
Ducal- 1, Unnamed
Administered by Archduchess Altura Selrin
Ducal Holding Number
#35679
Towns-1
Referred to as Town, Population of 15653
Farming Villages-3
Maurian- 17
Reliss-67
Rantirl- 89
Other holdings-1
Lerins- 1
Income
Town- 153 gold coins
Murian- 163 gold coins
Reliss- 278 gold coins
Rantirl- 376 gold coins
Lerins- 159 gold coins
System, perhaps a bit of labelling would be in order? Or perhaps a tutorial? Or just something that let me know what I was looking at? Ugh! Even the memories didn’t trigger this time, so Altura was also unaware of this. Time to call the secret resource, Duke Reiner.
I fished out the orb that I had stored in one of the dresses' few pockets. The rest of the things had been carried by Aswelth in a little box that I called ‘inventory’. Because that was exactly what it was. Magical inventory.
I sent Qi into the orb, presumably connecting it to its pair in the Selrin Ducal estate. In a few minutes Duke Reiner’s visage was projected by the orb.
“Yes Altura, what is it this time?” Duke Reiner asked
“I have arrived at the Duchy and claimed it. This has caused the System to start up a SubSystem it calls the Royalty SubSystem and show me a most peculiar sheet. Is there any chance that you could help me understand it?” I asked
“Hmm… that is a worry, yes. Wait a minute, I shall connect to the King,” Duke Reiner said as the screen suddenly went black. Wait what? Connect to the King? No, no, I wanted you to answer the question not connect to the King, that is probably a murderhobo that will kill me if I talk back or something.
Before I could panic any more the orb once again started projecting. This time it was a youngish looking man with a crown on his head that appeared.
“So, you gained access to the SubSystem? I have neither the time nor the interest to go too deep into it, you shall find it out yourself anyway. I shall summarise the entire thing for you so we can get it over with…” the King began
Over the next couple of hours the King gave me a long lecture on how to read what was essentially a badly presented set of data and make it better. For someone that did not have any time he sure talked a lot.
But it did bring one thing to the forefront. In the book, the King had tried very hard to protect Altura and was one of the main reasons she was able to live for so long. Could I perhaps have an ally in the King?
Name
Altura Selrin
Title
Archduchess (In name) (landed)
Element
Dragon Fire, Snowflake ice
Age
10 years
Seeds
Military (ungerminated), Royalty (Seedling), Energy (ungerminated)
Stats
Strength[The amount of brute force one can use]
9
Endurance[The amount of time one can work continuously]
13
Flexibility[The range of movement of the body]
11
Precision[The accuracy of one’s movements]
13
Perception[The ability to notice nuances and advanced concepts]
9
Intelligence[The ability to comprehend the advanced concepts]
12
Wisdom[The ability to effectively use the concepts]
13
Aura Force[The ability to force your will on your surroundings]
14
Combat[The speed of one’s reactions, ability to process situations and other general combat abilities]
13