Location: Across Midgard
Time: Day 192–195 After Alec's Arrival
It began with ink.
Not swords. Not oaths. Just ink — flowing across parchment like a quiet weapon, one number at a time.
Alec stood at the edge of the administrative hall, watching six of his most trusted scribes transcribe data by candlelight. Population rolls. Crop tallies. Livestock counts. Birth records. Land size estimates.
But this was more than bookkeeping.
This was a map of power.
And no one in Midgard — not barons, not counts, not even the duchess before him — had ever dared to build one.
🧾 The Decree
The scroll went out under Midgard's new black-gold wax seal:
"By sovereign order, a full census of Midgard's populace, assets, and territories shall commence immediately.All baronies and counties are to open their registries, land contracts, and economic ledgers to Company agents.Failure to comply will result in reassessment of chartered rights and the withholding of Company-backed protection or infrastructure."
The nobles blinked.
Then panicked.
🏰 Council Hall – Barons' Objections
A meeting was convened two days later.
Alec attended, flanked by two Company marshals,Silla and Serina, who held the enforcement packet in one hand and her quill in the other.
Baron Eldwin of Varensholt stood first — red-faced, sweating. "This violates the Rights of Noble Landholding—"
"It clarifies them," Alec interrupted. "You don't lose land. You disclose what's on it."
"And if we don't?"
Serina answered, not looking up from her page. "Then we assume you've misrepresented your holdings and reserve the right to resurvey your titles."
Gasps.
Baroness Kira of Autherna narrowed her eyes. "You mean to audit us?"
Alec met her gaze. "No. I mean to document you. So that when the duchy moves forward, it does so based on truth, not aristocratic guessing."
"You treat us like merchants."
"Better than that," Alec said coldly. "I treat you like parts of a system. Interchangeable. Replaceable."
"We will petition the duchess, she can't allow this"
"Oh, she is very aware" Alec answered them
"I have her full, written and signed support" he finished.
They signed.
Grudgingly. Bitterly. But they signed.
🗺 Fieldwork Begins
Surveyors rode out within days — accompanied by scribes, armed guards, and Company-trained recorders.
Each team carried:
Population ledgers
Soil and crop log sheets
Income/debt ratios
Structural condition reports
Public well and granary checklists
At first, the locals stared. Then they began talking. In some towns, it was the first time anyone had asked how many children had died last winter — or how many cattle survived the last frost.
In others, nobles shut their gates, but Alec had prepared for that.
A single Midgard Company badge was enough to open most doors.
A Midgard Company-backed escort opened the rest.
📜 Alec's Private Log – Day 195
We now know what no ruler before Vaelora ever knew:
– Total duchy population: ~431,000
– Literate population: 14%
– Average baronial surplus: falsified in 63% of reports
– Regional famine risk: high in two counties
– Birth-to-death ratio: declining
These are not problems.They are the framework of solutions.
🔒 Serina's First Real Friction
Later that night, Serina stood at Alec's desk, watching him sketch territory flow diagrams by lamplight.
"You're not just counting people," she said.
"No," he replied. "I'm defining them."
She frowned. "You think they'll accept that? Being… measured like wheat?"
Alec looked at her.
"They don't have to accept it. They just have to benefit from it before they understand it happened."
She didn't argue.
But something in her shifted.
For the first time, she wasn't sure if she was watching an empire rise…
…or a new kind of dominion.
🎯 Internal Company Effect
Within a week of launching the census, Alec established:
The Midgard Statistical Office
A proto-postal system for inter-county reporting
Weekly record collection runs with time-punch incentives
Field-based promotions for scribes who reported cleaner data
Three senior scribes received citations and were reassigned.
Two refused to leave their counties.
They were stripped of Company association by dusk.
The message spread fast:
The pen, in Midgard, now held consequence.
⚖ Noble Fallout – Private Scene: Vaelora & Alec
In her solar, Vaelora poured herself wine while Alec laid a scroll flat before her.
"Halven wants to protest the granary audits," she said.
"Let him," Alec replied. "He benefits more than he bleeds. He just doesn't know it yet."
"You're antagonizing them."
"I'm disciplining them."
"They'll band together."
"No," Alec said, "they'll calculate. And each will realize too late that the only safe path forward… is obedience."
She studied him.
Then asked softly: "And is this where I ask whether I'm still ruling?"
"No," Alec said, without pause. "You're reigning. Which is better."
She smiled without warmth.
Then drank.