[X] You imported new varieties of crops and agricultural techniques, letting more of your mountains be used for farming
[X] You built mills, roads, and canals.
[X] You instituted an annual Art Festival with an appropriate reward, pushing the skills of your malachite carvers and coppersmiths
Truth be told, yours wasn't a tale of a brilliant steward and administrator inheriting a run-down estate and restoring it to its former glory. Your predecessor seemed a competent man, even if he didn't have your skill with numbers. He brought the harvest in on time and knew the importance of roads. Your own infrastructure upgrades were largely the result of time passing and revenues accumulating.
Your other ideas were more inspired, or so you hope.
First of all, you brought in hardier crop varieties, ones that would strive even in the rocky soil of mountain slopes. You taught your peasants how to properly till the uphill soil and how to dig the drainage ditches. It was hard wor, for you and especially for them. But with the harvest increased, your county finally began to produce all the food it needed. The merchants riding into your county on wagons full of grain were told to bring something new next year. They came back with salt and dyed cloth, children's toys, dried and sugared fruit, and aromatic candles - all products of industries that didn't strive in your county, but ones that elevated life above mere survival.
Your annual Festival was even more interesting. Your county's masters were already competing with each other for prominence. You just made it official. You made it a
spectacle, one that drew people from all over the kingdom. Your artists showed off their skills, won prizes, and sold their art under pretentious pseudonyms. Malachite jewelry boxes by Andersson! Copper mirrors by Erikkson! It always made you chuckle.
[X] She was the most extraordinary woman you ever met.
Extraordinary Woman = Tsundere
...Sure, why not.
It's not as if you never met an outspoken woman before. In the village where you were born women could often be seen carrying a pig under each arm and wielded skillets with all the grace of champion swordsmen. In the army for every five or so men there was a tough as iron woman, and most of the female mages working with your unit couldn't wait to inform everyone of their own superiority.
Anna, though...she was something different. You met at a knighting ceremony - yours, hers, and that of a dozen other deserving candidates. You were rising in rank and needed a title, however empty and devoid of privileges, to give orders to other knights. She was joining a questing order. Her dislike for you was immediate and, you felt, quite unprovoked. You felt she was lovely and strong, if needlessly confrontational. She felt you were the scum of the earth. Normally you would simply withdraw from her, but there was
something about her...you stayed near her for the entire two days.
In years to come you came into proximity on several more occasions - formal balls, military exercises, chance meetings on the road - and each time she made sure to make it clear how much she didn't like you. Being under her verbal assault was like having hot water poured on you - scalding, yet cleansing. And in time you came to understand that she didn't dislike you nearly as much as she claimed to. She was confused by the feeling she got in her chest when you were near, and she took that confusion out of you.
To make a very long story very short, in time the two of you worked though all the misunderstandings and were wed. Anna became more honest about her feelings, and her barbs became more playful than hurtful. Though her old fire did return at times - she certainly showed her annoyance when her bely grew large with your firstborn
[ ] son
[ ] daughter
[X] You think that despite everything Springhide's coup was
good for the kingdom. You sincerely hope the Heir's return will be even better.
Well, "good" is a relative term. It's easy to moralize when it's not
your family getting slaughtered in their beds. And you're not going to pretend that the whole thing was some grand rebellion of the people's champions against tyranny and incompetence. The old king was not particularly evil. Springhide's soldiers found no hidden torture chambers in the palace. Nor was he stupid or foolhardy enough to absolutely need replacing before he plunged the kingdom into a crisis. You have no convenient excuses with which to cover your naked ambition.
Springhide, though? He was something else. He worked ten times harder than any king, because he
wasn't a king. He was desperate to keep his authority, and the only way he could do it was by making people think him being in charge was a good idea. You think that maybe that kind of insecurity is what people
need to truly shine. And that's something the returned Heir provides in spades. You're working harder than you have in years, and you bet every other Springhide appointee is too.
Now, there are two ways things can go from here. The King can either seek vengeance or the good of his people. If he chooses the former, there is little you can do. You'll just end up thrown out alongside everyone else, just like the former Ministers. But should he choose the latter, and sort the wheat from the chaff? You're confident you can be wheat. Let all those who used their ill-gotten positions to beggar their people face any punishment the King desires. You and the other good stewards will be galvanized by this trial, encouraged to
keep working for the good of the land. You'll make it your mission to make the King see that. Not just for your own good, but for
everyone's.
Now that that's settled, where will you turn your attention next?
[ ] The King's companions unnerve you. Study a treatise on magic to try and figure them out.
[ ] Your ignorance about the kingdom's political affairs bothers you. Comb through what reports you have and try to piece the situation together.
[ ] You might as well finish going over your account books. Tidy up the last of your county's affairs.
