The duke’s fate was decided after the little talk with Elina. His residence in the capital received three 250 kg bombs, no collateral damage. The king soon found out about the incident and was trying to condemn my actions. My plan of using the ongoing hostilities also worked out pretty well. In the end I managed to achieve the primary goals I set.

Now the duchy is in the state of interregnum. There are pretenders aside from Elina so I will have to use the military actions to convince the pretenders to let my puppet duchess receive the title.

If the duke’s heir was a male, there would be no problem. The problem is that Elina somehow was born without Y chromosome and for that reason the nobles of the kingdom refused to outright accept her inheritance, especially considering the sudden disappearance of the rightful heir, and the fact that she became the only heir with my help, and that the process of inheritance began with my help as well.

To make the nobles accept her rights to inherit I will have to travel to the capital with Elina, and that will mean that all my work on making the harbor and clearing the rubble will go to waste. Of course the choice was obvious.

“If she will not present herself as the duke’s heir, she will be disqualified from the succession!” A petty noble was doing his best to threaten us into coming to the capital.

“You don’t need to worry about it, if they dare to pass the duchy to another person, not her, then it will mean that I will suddenly have a rightful claim for conquest. Whoever tries to become the duke will have to get my approval. And as you can guess, I don’t have plans on approving someone else.”

“This will be a treason!” The noble was using anything he could but…

“To be a treason, there should at least be someone who commits it. I am not the king’s servant, it will not be a treason. And the duchess will not do anything against the kingdom, it will be just my private endeavor…”

“What should I say to the house of nobles?” He yielded.

“Tell them that if they want to begin appointing a new duke, they will have to come close to my new home. I already said what will happen if they decide to ignore duchess’ rights.”

The work was going painfully slow, in a week we only managed to clean the rubble within the walls, we did not even begin to deconstruct the walls and buildings themselves.

This entire castle was built as a proper stone fortification, and even if I managed to claim the entirety of castle and some of its vicinity, I still have no idea what to do with all that. I want everything: a nice two-floor Japanese house, a nice castle like the Forbidden City, an entire mansion, a… don’t know… something else?

And for all of that I will need lots of stones, wood, paper and metal. While it would be easy for a noble to just force the peasants to do whatever job is required, I only have 6 people, 4 of which are required to look after me, brush my hair, cook and play with me. In other words, I have no way to make everything I want while I am so poor.

Oh f*… another great idea what to build… I should…

After many other nonsensical ideas.

The bickering between me and the nobles was just a background for our work. The actual decisions were made with a group of landowners who lived near my castle, considering that I have both strength and influence, petty nobles began to flock towards me and with their support and bribes our material situation began to improve.

A count, whose land is located just a couple of kilometers away proposed an actual alliance to me. While the idea itself should look absurd because I am not interested, there was a nice try to bribe me. He sent us an entire thousand of peasants, all of which began to work on deconstructing the walls and building the harbor. I was so pleased that I even decided to meet the count.

“I express my deepest gratitude that mighty Lady allowed me to talk with her.” The count was doing his best to flatter me.

“I guess those were your people?”

“Of course, my subject will be pleased to work for you glory. I know that you have many matters to attend to, so I will not take much of your time. I offer you my strength and loyalty. Please, become the liege of mine.” I was grateful that instead of beating around the bush he went straight to the point.

[With an entire county at my disposal, as well as its resources, I will become even stronger. What a nice offer!]

“I decline your generous offer, I am not interested in vassals. However, there is one matter where we can make an agreement…”

That night, in my tent, a first step towards completing my actual goal was made. And the next morning, the new era has begun.