A mansion in Torun.

I am swinging my sword with Gertrude giving lessons on fighting. 

"Your majesty. You have letters!" 

I am a little surprised. The one who usually brings the letter to me was Amber but since she has been with me throughout the Castall subjugation campaign, Redcliffe castle had to send somebody else to be the runner. There are two young men on horses. Furthermore, this is the first correspondence I receive since I came here.

They kneel down. One of them presents envelopes to me. I take them.

"Hmm. Three letters."

One with Vandimion seal. One with Guerrin seal. One with Hyuutia seal.

I open the Hyuutia although the Hyuutia father and daughter are not with at the moment.

"Mm..." 

I hand over to Gertrude as I am not well versed with the writing in this world yet.

There are two pieces of paper. A simple one with little words and another one with lengthy words.

She reads it and furrows her eyebrows.

"What?"

She inhale breath and speaks,

"As you predicted, Madam Kyla Hyuutia received a warning letter from King of Dioral."

She then proceeds to read the lengthy letter. 

"This has seal of the King...It says...There are many redundant words.....The King of Dioral demands an explanation on why Hyuutia built the walls and why Hyuutia had taken over lands deep into the central region. Madam Kyla had consulted Margrave Odbart Adalgiso to gather signatures from all noble families in the northern Dioral including falsified letters from Decebal Kronid and House of Seraph." 

Finally, it arrives and straight from the King.

"This one from Marchioness Ivanna Reskina...."

Oh...I miss that girl.

"As planned, half of the farming yields of Redcliffe and northern Dioral had been delivered to Vandimion in Venetian... then, we had discovered two new sources of iron stone which also have coals in area between Hinterland and Hyuutia. Thus, we now possess one old iron mine, a gold mine discovered last year and these two yet to be developed iron mines. This fact is only known to Duchess Isolde Guerrin and me, Ivanna Reskina. We wait for approval from the Prime Minister, Jascha Alatt who is in Castall."

Gertrude hints with her eyes that there are more from Ivanna. 

"The 15,000 refugees who were incorporated into Red Army had received green light from the Redcliffe knights. These new recruits are fit to join battle... Finally, Lady Ivanna, Lady Desire and Lady Isolde wish you good health."

Desire..that demon? I nearly forgot about her. 

Gertrude opens the final letter which is from Vandimion.

"Lord Federico Vandimion  expressed his gratitude for the various farming yields from Hezri Kingdom, which were given for "free" by His Majesty." 

It is not exactly free. Farnese's father, Federico Vandimion had given us 60,000 gold coins just to install her daughter as the Duchess. His wife, Charlotte de Vandimion is now my secret sex partner and had given me  20,000 gold coins behind her husband's knowledge. As the Republic of Venetian had secretly become my vassal state, it is my obligation to support them especially since the Vandimion is now my family. Like Florence city state, Venetian lacks agricultural lands and is forced to survive. Now, Venetian receives raw foods periodically from my country. Rather than a trade relationship, my relationship with Vandimion-Venetian is like a close family. 

"Ehemm."

Oh. Gertrude indicates she wants to continue reciting the letter.

"The great empire, Olga Federation had officially dissolved after being ravaged by Negara 2 years ago. The largest country in Thedas continent had broken into 12 independent states."

That's shocking news. I have a soft spot for Olga as it was the first place I met when I was transmigrated into this world.

"3 of the new states share a border with the Nicaea theocratic state, the base for trinity church. The church had assembled 50,000 templars to invade the three states. The templars plan to cross into those neighboring lands next month." 

So, the church officially intends to acquire more lands. Luckily, they go northward.

"Tevinter state had been subjugated by allied forces. Orlais Alliance, Dioral Kingdom and Florence city state obtained eastern part of former Tevinter land. They share the port city and surrounding area are divided among the three nations. Saint Albion was given to Orlais. 

Principality of Fanoss obtained the entire southern part of former Tevinter land, including the former capital city. 

Holfort Dukedom obtained the entire northern part of the former Tevinter land."

That's another development. 

Principality of Fanoss, Holfort Dukedom and Florence city state; I have overlooked those countries.

Out of all the news, the only development that requires immediate action is with regard to Dioral. We have planned to dilly-dally with Dioral Kingdom by sending fake responses from the nobles in the north. Other parts of Dioral are still in the dark with regard to northern nobles' defection to my kingdom after all. 

Hopefully, we could subjugate the difficult Castall by the time Dioral loses patience.