A few days ago, we left the Moonblade clan grounds with an aura of innocence and peace. No one suspected us to know anything about what happened with Elsa Moonblade.
The matter became a shock after Elsa was found in her cell between life and death. The whole Moonblade clan started searching for the maidservant that was the last person who saw Elsa but no girl with such description was found. Of course, no one can even know that Nefertiti can turn into a human now. It was only me, Alina and Jull who know that.
Of course, Elsa was taken out of that cursed tower and all sort of mages examined her condition. The wounds that should have come from outside were all from inside. The experts in medicine among the Moonblades were shocked senseless from what they saw. All agreed that no human can inflict such damage, to them, this was the work of something mysterious.
Of course, I was suspected from the very first second but my alibi was solid. Most of the Moonblades saw me all over the fort that day guarding Alina's chambers… or some illusion I created to fool them.
After the inspection was over, two rumors were being spread. The first was that Elsa got claimed by the Evil Daedra that should have taken Alina, this is the one I started spreading. The other rumor was that Elsa got punished by Kyne for assaulting her favored child, and that one was probably spread by Sigurd.
Regarding Elsa's condition, I can estimate that she lost her mind. She was healed but her body was crippled and her mind went coco. She doesn't even react anymore but sometimes she starts screaming and always see nightmares.
Sigurd kept looking at me as if I am some sort of a monster that time but he almost cried when he knew that this was Alina's handy work. He was so shocked that he spent the day all pale.
This man's health is a matter of concern now. I can tell that his heart is becoming weaker since the day he got to know me.
Anyway, we decided to leave the Moonblade clan this morning and rode to Winterhold accompanied by a lot of guards from the Dare Dragon Company and the Moonblade Clan.
Alina was riding with me by the way. As we are officially engaged, we can interact more from now on which was rather nice.
"I wonder why Master didn't come to check on us when we went missing." Alina asked.
"... I was curious too. Still, I gave it some thought and it seemed that she forced herself to stay."
"Forced herself? We are her only apprentices and you are her son. Why would she?"
I thought for a while but I could only think of one reason.
"It probably has something to do with Grandmaster."
Alina paused for a while.
"... I am so envious you got to meet our Grandmaster."
"Hehe! I know."
Once Alina found out that I met our Grandmaster and our Great Grandmaster, she almost fainted and started crying and kicking around. She is that type of person who craves to see the more knowledgeable people and discuss our art with them, missing the chance to meet our Grandmaster was more tragic to her than getting her eyes blessed by Vaermina. She kept nagging me to tell her the identity of our Grandmaster and Great Grandmaster but I am sure she won't handle the shock. I myself wouldn't have handled if Nurina wasn't kidnapped by Alfe back then.
"Just don't make such a heartbroken face. If you ever meet her in the future, just turn to the other direction and run, she isn't the monster I would want to cross myself."
"Humph! Impossible, I would get cursed once again to Oblivion if I don't."
"Yeah yeah, act haughty all you want just because there is a Dragonborn who is foolish enough to go through Oblivion and bring you back."
"... I'll be relying on you then."
This girl! She is becoming more comfortable with me.
A bit of time passed and Alina spoke again.
"You also promised me you would find a way for me to open my eyes again. And Jull's eye too."
About that...
"Yep, I have some ideas on how to do that."
I thought about the matter really deeply. Looks like I will get busy once I head back home.
"What are the chances? For Jull… I mean!"
"Not that bad, I have acquired a book from Grandmaster and a lot of progress will be made in my techniques from now on. The more I think about it, the more possibilities come to my head. Even regrowing limbs is not that much of a problem… in theory of course." I said and Alina seemed to be surprised.
"Being 'in theory' means it is still possible."
"Yes, the problem is the amount of energy we need. Luckily, I am working on a major project that will change the way we use magic and open up many great possibilities."
"I can't wait to be your assistant."
Alina seemed excited and stuck to me. Unlike Jull and Wulf who can't stand studying, Alina can research for days without getting bored. It was very nice to have another weirdo who shared the same hobby as me.
When I arrived at this world, researching magic was like me when I got my first computer when I was young, discovery was my sole drive back then. The new generations especially those damn brats that were born after year 2000 may not have the same feeling we older kids had but I fell in love with computers so much. It all happened again with magic but it was rare to see a nerd like me, yet Alina was that nerd.
And about us sharing notes of research is not a simple decision. Each mage's notes are more sacred than their family member sometimes and sometimes even couples don't share these notes together. Alina and I were very willing though.
And that reminded me of the last piece of sketch I was working on.
"About your problem." I mentioned to Alina her eyes problem.
"What about it?"
"I have something in mind but I will need all hands on deck… that includes Nurina."
"... I am really not that distressed, Jon. I can already use my Aura to see ten meters in all directions. It will make everyo…"
"Tsk tsk tsk. This thing I have in mind is not just for you but also for me, my soul needs it, you know?"
"... Is it something weird from your sketchbook?"
"Oh! You know about that?"
"Yeah, Jull told me that you showed a sketch to Wulfur and he held it as if he saw the third volume of 'The Lusty Argonian Maid'."
"... Pffft!"
Wulfur would feel so embarrassed if he heard this one.
'The Lusty Argonian Maid' is a famous novel in this world but the third volume is very rare. Only collectors like myself have it. I saved it long ago when it was about to be auctioned in Riften in some dark auction. One of the reasons why 'Catatoskr' name is so famous.
And speaking of Wulfur, he was riding at the back while talking with Brenda, my cousin.
"Hey, Big Wulf!"
I called for him and he rode beside me and Alina.
"Lord and Lady lovebirds! How can I be of service?"
And he is in a good mood too.
"When we reach Winterhold, you are going to cook me something." I said.
"Cook? You know I am not that much of a… wait! What are the ingredients?"
"Hehe! Moonstone, Malachite and Quicksilver."
Wulfur paused for a while with his eyes opened wide.
"... F- For that?" He realized what I wanted.
"Yes, this is the best combination for enchantments, right?"
"But… that is too hard! Even for my skill… this is beyond me!"
"Come on! I will gather the best materials and personnel for you. I am even bringing some rarities from my vault."
Wulfur understood what I meant but he felt conflicted and excited at the same time, it all appeared on his face.
He thought that it would be a waste of materials if he worked on it or something along those lines.
"Maybe you should invite Eorlund Grey-Mane. This is really beyond me." Wulfur was backing down for the first time.
Sigh!
"You will do it like it or not. I am not really in a pinch and we can use different material if this didn't work."
Wulfur nodded and said he will think about it.
"He seems very troubled? What is that you are making?" Alina asked.
"A special alloy for my special ladies." I said while looking at her and Jull.
"And I suppose it is a surprise."
"Yep."
"I'll be waiting then."
Alina turned around and kept the cool attitude but I could feel her cheeks curving into a smile.
Two days after that, we arrived at Winterhold and found a lot of expected and unexpected visitors waiting for us.
The Firemanes and on top of them were Mother and Father, also the Master Alchemist Nurelion and his apprentice Quintus Navale, a Stormcloak messenger and an Imperial envoy, and there was also some messages from Svidi and Jon Battle-Born delivered by an unexpected face, Lisette.
Sigh!
I guess I should ask Lord Divayth Fyr about making me some clones. This is so busy.
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The Dare Dragon Group now owns the biggest building in town. Just between the Jarl's Longhouse and the new market area, a four-story building built with the urban techniques brought to this world by a certain otherworlder.
This building was wide and big, it had a lot of offices which were mostly busy all day long. Most of the employees from the management and the financial departments were mostly stationed here in the first, second and third floors. My office has completely taken over the fourth floor.
It is not me being bossy or anything, I just decided that all the archives and the important files should be kept near to the secretary room and also I wanted a meeting and a CEO office in the most modern way possible.
It ended up looking really good and I got praised a lot by Nurina who filled for me the last two weeks.
Now, in this fourth floor, a lot of people gathered up and were mostly glaring at each other.
On the head of the table was the powerhouses of Winterhold which are mostly the senior executives of my company, Jarl Korir was called over. On the right side, there was the Imperial Envoy who is apparently called Viscount Lucius, accompanied by a Nord Legion Officer referred to as Legate Thorvar and the Imperial Businesswoman Vittoria Vici. On the left side, there was the messenger from Windhelm, Captain Mislav Stone-Crusher accompanied by Ralof of Riverwood. At the end of the table was the Firemanes and on top of them there was Uncle Njord, father and mother were not showing their faces and sat behind him.
The overall atmosphere in the room was like a ticking bomb. The Imperial Envoy was glaring at the Stormcloak Messenger, Vittoria Vici was glaring at me, Njord was glaring at Legat Thorvar, Ralof was glaring at Jullanar, Nefertiti was glaring at the food on the table. All in all, everyone was glaring at something for some reason. I tried to find something to glare at but it seems that I had nothing left to glare at me back.
Soon after, someone finally ended the glaring contest.
"I suppose you are Jon Dare, you made us wait for three days! Three days in this Godforsaken wasteland." It was the Imperial Envoy Viscount Lucious who spoke first, what a rude tone.
"Thane Jon Dare, it is an honor to finally meet you in person." The Stormcloak Messenger Captain Mislav took a different approach.
"The honor is mine."
As I replied, Captain Mislav grinned at Viscount Lucius.
"I understand that all the parties in this room insisted on having a meeting as soon as possible. So… what is the urgent matter?"
"The urgent matter is about Winterhold, this place is slacking on taxes, refusing to provide recruits, hiding details from the periodic reports to Solitude, and as soon as I arrive here, we find that the whole hold is under monopoly by a single entity." Viscount Lucius started shouting around.
This man! Is he trying to provoke me?
I could see the Imperial Legat beside him sighing while Vittoria Vici was nodding to his words.
Hmmm! This group is not rhyming well.
"I see! These matters are mostly for the Jarl to take care of, isn't that right Jarl Korir?"
"It certainly is." Korir replied.
"And also if there are any complaints about the Dare Dragon Group, you can file it to the Legal Department of our Company on the second floor, office number 2, Mrs. Roz."
The Imperial Envoy looked at me as if I said something strange.
"Legal Department! What is that for?" Vittoria Vici asked.
"It consists of highly educated employees known as Lawyers, they have studied all the laws of the Empire and the Kingdom of Skyrim and they make sure that all our actions are within the law, they also receive the complains of any official envoy and they hold a lot of authority to even put my actions within the company on hold."
"....."
This is how awesome my small army of lawyers is, you think I would be reincarnated without spreading the holy occupation of lawyers.
Law is mostly practiced by the high members of the community and they are mostly the ones people refer to as nobles. In Cyrodiil they are the regular noble from counts and viscounts through all the ranks, and in Skyrim, it is they Jarls and Thanes as well as the other official titles.
To have a legal department like mine is a bit unthinkable. How can normal people practice law that is mostly monopolized and abused by high ranking members of society? Maybe nobles in this world are actually Nobles and treat the people fairly unlike how it used to appear in the works of fiction I read in my past life but people always find ways to degrade others. And now, as I gave some commoners the power of knowledge about law, I can be seen as someone who cheated and cheated very badly.
They should have realized by now that I can't be cornered when it comes to the validity of my actions. Everything is crystal clear by law.
The Imperial Envoys backed down a bit to think of a comeback while the Stormcloaks decided to play this time.
"By the way, Thane Jon, I noticed a new temple being built in town. Will there be a Shrine for Talos?" Ralof asked.
This was a direct question. Even the Imperials looked at me waiting for an answer.
Sadly…
"No, it pains me but the worship of Talos was outlawed by the Empire."
My answer made the Imperials look at me as if I said something strange, it seemed that they were expecting otherwise. The Stormcloaks, however, seemed to be provoked.
"Outlawed? Are you seriously saying that?"
"I just did, you heard me."
"How could you? And you call yourself a Nord?"
"I do."
All the sides on the table felt conflicted, I could see Njord looking at me and asking what the hell did I just say.
"Then, Thane Jon, which divine is that temple dedicated to?" Vittoria Vici asked.
I looked at her with a smile.
"For Kyne!"
"""Kyne?"""
Everyone in the room was taken aback.
Of course they should! In this day and age no one worships Kyne openly anymore.
Kyne is part of the Old Nordic Divines and later was replaced by Kynareth in Alessian Doctrine that was set by the Empire. As the Empire, this kind of worship was long since gone.
Even the Stormcloaks were looking at me strangely.
Talos didn't exist in the Old Gods but there was another aspect of him and that was Ysmir.
Gods are a bit tricky, they can be the same entity but they have different aspects and each aspect has its own personality. For example, Kyne is an aspect of the warrior goddess of the storm, she was worshipped back in the days when most of the Nord women were warriors fighting alongside men in every battle, on the other hand, Kynareth is another aspect that is associated with the Sky and mostly Healing, she replaced Kyne when the Nordic women started to tend to their homes and left battles for the men. Another example is Arkay, in the Alessian Doctrine, he is the God of Death in the ceremonial meaning and is associated with the circle of Life and Death, in the old Nordic religion, Arkay is Orkey, the God of Death in the sense of a grim reaper, Orkey was the sole reason why Humans live shorter than Elves as he cursed them once to live shorter, if not for the efforts of Ysmir and Shor who managed to defeat him, the human lifespan would have fallen to six years old.
Anyway, Reverting to the old Gods such as Kyne, Ysmir and Shor is not a crime but no one do that practice anymore. The Empire won't really care about it and the Stormcloak may also welcome it as a comeback for the glorious gods of the past. The only ones who will see this as a provocation are the Thalmor and they will try to do something about it for sure. These Nordic Gods are the adversaries of the Elven Gods and part of the reason why the worship Talos, who is very connected to the Old Nordic Gods, is being outlawed.
In the eyes of everyone, I actually did nothing wrong. Actually, the hidden clans are mostly Daedra worshippers or Old Nordic Gods worshippers, the main reason why they are hidden and think of themselves as peaceful cults.
In both religion and law, I am in the green zone for these parties.
"Also, in Winterhold we respect both Law and Freedom, even if there is a member of the worshipper of Talos or even a worshipper of a Daedra, we wouldn't act like the Vigilants or the Law Officers. However, if we can resolve these matters peacefully, why even start discriminating each other? Everyone is free to worship and free to love as long as they don't bring harm to the others or break the law."
Closing these matters like that will force the two parties to go back to their factions first and come up with another plan later.
"Very well, this will pose no problem then." Viscount Lucius backed off reluctantly.
Captain Mislav nodded and seemed to be rather disappointed that he couldn't draw me to Ulfric's side.
"I want to talk about something rather important." This time, it was Vittoria Vici. She didn't look at me and directed the talk to Jarl Korir.
"My Jarl, when we asked around Winterhold lately, it seemed that all the resources and the economical spots were rented to the Dare Dragon Group, mind telling me how did that happen?"
Her question was not direct, she just asked about how Korir gave me the power to act in the place as if is my own backyard.
"It was through Thane Jon's effort that Winterhold managed to take the road once again towards a better future. I was very pleased and decided to give Thane Jon all the important matters only a remarkable man like him can attend to, and here we are, haha!" Jarl Korir replied with a wide smile.
Vittoria Vici made an innocent face and directed another question.
"But wouldn't it be more beneficial for Winterhold to create a competitive atmosphere, I am sure Thane Jon wouldn't mind have my small company to start some business around these parts. I will make sure that Jarl Korir will see these benefits first hand too."
This bitch!
Alina and Jull, who were me, were about to release their killing intent. This girl tried to lure Korir with benefits and wanted to make a foothold in Winterhold.
With no shame or honor, trying to press Korir with her identity and she thought that I don't know who is she.
As a matter of fact, I received a report that she paid a visit to Korir and introduced herself to him with her real identity, not the so-called small company owner she is playing now.
Still, how can I not know one of the most important NPCs in the game?
I guess I should make things clear at this point.
"How can miss Vittoria's business can be called small?" I said with a smile. "You are exactly the last person I want in Winterhold. Haha!"
The Imperials glared at me but they managed to hold themselves back in the end.
"Thane Jon, please don't overestimate me! If not for my connection with Lord Lucius here, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to be in this meeting."
"I see! So, the Chief Executive of Skyrim's Branch of the East Empire Company and the Cousin of Emperor Titus Mede II needs a connection to meet with a mere citizen like me?"
To my words, both the Imperials and the Stormcloaks jumped on their feet and placed their hands on their hilts.
If I am not careful during the next few minutes, the Civil War may start four years too early.
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