Chapter 1 – The introductory meeting

Upon his arrival in the Village, William made his way to the current elders of the village.

It was true that his “Father” was the homestead’s mayor, but that didn’t mean that he was always there and would manage the village.

Most nobles were too pompous to look after a small village and delegated the job to others.

So nearly every mayor didn’t own the land they managed, this also meant that the anger of a lot of peasants was unreasonable.

Most saw the mayor administrating their lands and immediately thought that he was the cause of the high taxes or unfair living conditions.

This wasn’t but the fault of the lands’ true owner, a distant noble living of the suffering of his followers.

Having had a look around the village and standing before the town hall, William entered the shabby-looking building.

This, at least, let him see the elders in a better light. Because they didn’t rob their followers just to live a better life.

He entered through the front door and was greeted by a beautiful young village girl. She introduced herself a Maria and told him that he was already expected.

She then guided the young man through the, quite large hall, into a meeting room.

Upon entering the room, he was greeted by the assembled elder council. He had to take back his previous assumption, of the elders not taking advantage of their people.

Well, at least for only some of the present ones.

The council consisted of 5 individuals, they all were in their later years and brought a lot of experience with them.

Two of the council's members wore golden rings and exquisite clothing. This made their preposition towards their followers clear and they were now comparable to pompous nobles.

Letting their greed control their lives and thinking about nothing else but themselves.

He ignored the two assholes, always having hated people like them. They reminded him of the baron who bullied him in his childhood. And all those fuckers who had made his life, the worst possible, ever since.

The other three looked quite different. Two of them were your typical village elders, being in their more advanced age.

They looked to be in their 50 and were in the average state for their age. The other though looked to be knocking on death’s door.

He seemed to be about 70 years old, an extreme age for someone not cultivating and living the simple life of a village.

It was completely normal for noble humans to reach this age, due to cultivation, luxury, and advanced medicine.

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But this wasn’t normal for an old man in a backland village.

Having completed his analysis of the council, he quickly introduced himself. He held it short because the elders were already informed of his person.

He sat down at the table's head, his rightful place, and let the elders introduce themselves.

The fat and pampered asshole, on his righthand side, started.

He introduced himself as Banelias: “My greeting esteemed William Therod from Alabaster, I welcome you in our small and humble village”

Continuing he explained the areas he was responsible for and concluded them at the end: “To finish off my introduction, I manage the field of economics, trade, and finance and hope my liege, the esteemed Sir Therod is satisfied with my work”

The introduction then went on further around. The next in line was a lean, but tall, man. He looked similar in stature to a scribe but wore exquisite clothing. Behind him stood an obvious escort, which he occasionally fumbled around with.

He introduced himself as Quilm, the one responsible for taxes, the church, and the poor. It was obvious to see that he had some shady business going on behind his back and had a deal with the local pastor.

The next three men introduced themselves in a simple but polite manner and quickly came to the point. I quite liked them, though the 70-year-old man gave me shivers.

While the two others, Tom and Sam, were responsible for land allocation, citizen happiness, and health the old man was quite impressive.

He started his introduction with a tale about his life. Born in a faraway kingdom, he made his way here out of coincidence. On his journey, he was a mercenary and adventurer who actually was 90 instead of 70 years old.

This lead William to believe that he may have once been a powerful adventurer, but now lived his last years in the calm and peaceful village of Tron.

His name was Sir Albert, the Sir before his name informed William of his higher standing.

The standing system was quite intricate in the kingdom he found himself in. The simpler a person’s name the worse their family’s standing when they were born.

Then during their lives, they could earn the title of sir, reserved for nobles, knights, or guardians.

Though nobles and rich people could go further and get a last-name. The only class able to get the adding “from …”, were the noble landowners.

This made William's name the second-highest, with only kings getting Sir switched out for highness.

Sir Albert went on to talk about the positions he was responsible for, they could be merged into the military.

William went over the council's jobs again and ordered them in his mind.

Banelias was responsible for finance and trade.

Quilm handled the church, the poor and collected taxes

The duo Tom and Sam were working on land allocation, city-building, and citizen health and happiness.

At last, the old adventurer fought with the military and protected the small village against monster raids or bandits.

Finally having a better view of the village's situation and having introduced himself, William began the discussion.

They talked about the different ongoing in the village and its current situation.

William exited the meeting room being quite the wiser and more informed than before.

He knew about the homestead's bad financial situation due to missing trade. The problem of their children taking off into the surrounding cities.

Or the state of disrepair of the different buildings and bad state of the military, which lured in surrounding bandits and monsters.

He told the elders that he would take a look around the surroundings tomorrow and take a glimpse over everyone's shoulders. The two pompous elders flinched when he looked at them.

Having finished the meeting, and the day being close to ending he welcomed the maid guiding him.

She was the same one that welcomed him at first. She leads him into the later parts of the town hall, in which a manor was located.

It was the building in the best state and was cared for diligently.

The maid guided him through the different rooms and introduced him to the cook and head maid.

Maria, the maid then helped him out of his clothes and washed him, readying him for tomorrow's ongoings.

He went to bed, exhausted from the long travel and taxing discussion.

Already planning out his future moves and going through what was going to happen.

Tomorrow was going to be a splendid and productive day!!!