Dinner. Was. Amazing.

I've never eaten so much meat in my life. It was hard to believe it had been a whole month since I've had one of my mothers meals.

I've never gone this long without one before. It soothed my tired heart.

Why was I even planning to go back to the Bay anyways? It's too nice to be home, do i really have to go back and figure out whats going on at the center of the seasonal lock?

It wasn't causing too much trouble was it? Well, I mean Winter Village is definitely struggling. And people could likely move back to the abandoned village if the fall season that it was locked under ended, Yeah I really do need to get to the bottom of that. Not to mention investigate the intriguing 'Spider Village'.

But mother has just discovered the amazement of cinnamon.

She had heard me brag about it at length, but once she sniffed the bark she understood instantly.

Its flavor was suited for the honey buns. Perfectly.

She grated the bark carefully as I instructed and then placed it into a mortar to break it down even finer, the bark would be bitter unless made into a very fine powder, so she was very careful to fully powderize the bark before returning it into a smaller jar.

She seemed excited to try baking them tomorrow morning.

During the meal both Degin and my mother apologized to me, they explained that 'since keeping everything a secret from me was my dad's final wish they didn't have any right to do otherwise', they asked for the 'forgiveness of the Hawk' it felt far too formal, of course I forgave them. My father had revealed the most important part before he left so why would I be mad at them for keeping small details hidden.

I was somewhat confused as to why i wasn't told of my families history though. But once I thought about it, it may have given me a big head, so I'm somewhat glad i wasn't told.

And when i was younger and had a hot head, any negative talk I heard about the 'Blood Hook Tribe' would have surely irritated me had I known they were talking negatively about my family. Now if I hear it I will probably quickly agree with the men, and then secretly snicker about it later with Degin.

No them keeping me in the dark about these things was for the best.

Susan on the other hand could barely keep quiet.

She told me all about how the items I had designed operated. She explained about the issues she face with with the stone sheet metal rollers chipping, their replacement, and her experimentation with bearing designs. She reluctantly concluded my original design for the bearing was indeed best but i was still happy about her experimentation.

The farmers had apparently saw a secret test operation of the plow and threw a fit. It was only when the guild agreed to provide next seasons seeds as a gift did they reluctantly agree to give the plows a try come planting season.

It worried me, weather the reforms would go over with them being stubborn, but she claimed though they were proud they were anxious for anyway to better provide for their families.

And, while they originally saw the plow as a job stealing machine they soon realized that it would instead increase the amount a single farmer could handle. They quickly requested the Count allow them to begin deforesting another area across the river for additional farm land.

I was happy that the farmers were excited, I'm sure they will be thrilled with the changes.

Susan also presented me with the greatest gift I've ever received. It was a book, it was completely empty, it had at least three hundred pages, she claimed she had gotten it from a friend who worked with the church. I found it somewhat ironic.

She explained that it was actually an illegal item, all the books the church makes are hand written on blank books similar to this one. They were kept strictly within the church, how this one had made its way here i had no idea. But i was very thankful for the theft.

With it I received a few pencil prototypes Susan had made from various materials. One worked very well but erasing was impossible, the other erased perfectly, even leaving soft shavings but the pencil itself was faint, I was conflicted but decided to go with both, I would write with the dull one and fill it in if everything was correct, it would take time but I think it would be worth the effort, and last longer.

This would become my journal. I would enter everything of importance into it, including drawings and anything else I needed. I was sure this would become an invaluable item.

But I quickly ripped a few pages out, much to Susan's dismay, I then drew some various images on the pages. I then explained the process of making paper, and the concept of a moveable type printing press.

She looked at me with a wide grin and accepted the sheets of torn parchment happily, I thought of something of importance and quickly asked for the sheets back, I then wrote a few various words in English on the back of them, along with the equivalent words for them in common language, i actually had some trouble writing the common words but Claire quickly helped me while sticking her tongue out at me. Cheeky girl.

The common alphabet was only slightly different than the English alphabet so it wasn't to difficult to just sound out the words but I often got strange looks and was forced to erase a few letters and start again under the gaze of all ten people seated at the table.

It was embarrassing, its not my fault I wasn't ever actually taught to read and write. Hopefully my impressiveness overshadowed the helplessness.

I completed the simple dictionary after some minor trial and error.

My mother and Claire both goaded me to go to school, it wasn't actually a terrible idea. If I would be becoming an 'honorary noble' like the Count had said, then it would be good to learn a bit about what it means to be a noble.

Oh, it will be nice to flash a noble emblem and get through the gate without waiting.

I can't wait.

I hope the gatekeepers are kind to Horsey.

So despite my desire to stay here forever and keep talking technology and food with my female elders I would be returning to investigate no matter what.

When I told the two women, and Degin, about the depths of the 'Bay of Mountains' they were all amazed that we had gone so far in.

The bay was known as a cursed place to most people. I wonder how I'd never heard that, granted it was a strange place, and people didn't often venture down the path heading there, but I never heard it was cursed though. I thought the lack of traffic was just because there was nothing there.

It seems there may actually be much there.

Clearly there are natural and mineral resources in abundance.

Plus the source of silk that the people in Winter Village use.

And most important of all, was it was the source of the greatest river on the continent.

The river that split the continent.

It was only known as the Coil here, and in the bay. After the third waterfall a few hundred miles downriver from Havas, it was renamed the Scar river.

I kind of liked that name more than Coil, but that wasn't up to me.

But first, of course, I would have to attend the royal naming ceremony they were expediting for my sake.

It would happen tomorrow evening, they had to send word about my deed and hear back from the king. It was a traditional part of the ceremony, the 'reading of the commendation from the king'. It was basically a cookie cutter congrats letter from how I understood it.

With Fourteen Counties six Earldoms and three Duchies under his throne it was obvious he wasn't carefully reading each letter before replying.

There must have been a ceremony a week. If I were the king, I'd leave that to my secretary, surely. (Shirley)

But the ceremony wasn't till tomorrow, I could relax until then. and now I wasn't worried about mana either.

Who would have thought the beacon I saw when walking here was actually mostly just my mother.

Her mana levels were, put simply, explosive.

She seemed to be a waterfall of mana. I was amazed that anyone was standing in the room but when I realized it was due to her natural welcoming energy it honestly made me chuckle. Only my mother would have a mana that makes you want to stay.

She must have used it to steal my father.

Heh She'd likely smack me if she heard that, I know that's not that case, but it is an interesting form of mana.

While most of my mana is dark and cloudy her's was bright and pure.

I had never seen mana so beautiful before.

The trees, people, and animals I'd run into thus far had all had the same dark cloudy or sometimes even inky black mana but this was pure light, bright energetic happy light mana.

Professor mage, perhaps you are indeed on to something, your three types of mana, I will have to ask more about it later.

Susan began to ask about a variety of topics again after memorizing the dictionary, first she wanted to know my plans for the steam engine.

I told her that she should just continue building and refining its power. It would be enough for some simple machines right now but it didn't have any real torque. If we wanted to build any sort of vehicle or tractor we would be sorely disappointed at this point, the weight to power ratio is still far to high.

At best we could build a train, but that wasn't my plan, first we needed to start on the construction of the canal. I had briefly brought it up with the Count during the interrogation he said it sounded like a marvelous yet impossible task, I told him it'd be easy and he said 'go for it'. So land wise we had no issues.

Susan had apparently with some spare sheet metal built six twenty foot water gates.

When she described their construction vividly, I was impressed. I had never built anything like that so even if I knew the concepts the construction of the lock doors was something that would of course amaze me, I couldn't wait to see them installed. She had mentioned she used a 'thicker gauge steel for the walls', I praised her for the thought and mentally praised her usage of the language of the builders term. But I believe it was not something in their original dictionary, they must have picked it up from my notes.

Well with this the lock should be able to be installed as soon as the canal team reaches the waterfall. The plan was to use the tallest waterfall as location for the lock, I honestly wasn't sure what the typical routine for this was but I assumed I made the right choice, Susan thought about it carefully and concluded the same result.

The waterfall was within the Counts territory so it shouldn't be a problem, it would also run past five cities between the lock and Havas.

With five ports suddenly making trade, the economy of this County will quickly change, I'm interested to watch what happens.

We will also run the canal up river towards the heart of the 'bay of mountains', but this would happen after the Count's territory. I will hire some of the miners in Godrick to begin the work on their side, it should make things easier for Susan.

We planned to actually bring the water level down a few feet total, this would make any sudden rainfalls easily dealt with, without any risk of flooding. An event that was common on the Coil, and even more prevalent on the raging Scar.

We would need an Earls permission to dig the canal after the lock area, I was entirely banking on the fact that he would allow us to do so. I planned on using the successful maritime economy that was sure to boom in Havas and the other cities as an example of the possibilities for the earls towns. After that I would either get permission as we went further down, or I would get the attention of the king and ask permission. I thought both were likely scenarios. Though I would prefer to just finish it all with the individual nobles, I'm not sure what kind of person the king is, but I shouldn't tempt fate.

One thing i was sure of.

Some day, that the canal would reach the ocean. It would take time, sure, but with the amount of earth spec'd mages in this world it should be possible. No, it's necessary for the world. It will definitely happen.

I'm not sure such a project has ever been taken on before.

Certainly not here, but perhaps not even on earth. I know the longest canal on earth was in china, it was over one thousand miles long. I wasn't sure of the exact combined length of the coil and scar rivers, but they were extremely long. And they were currently impossible to traverse by boat. If this wasn't the case, imagine how travel and business could increase. For the first time there could be port cities trading with inland cities without the need of costly ground transport.

As for replacing ground transport, I actually didn't currently plan on using trains. For a variety of reasons, one being the current political state of the world, it isn't right for running tracks across tracts of land. It would be a bureaucratic nightmare, even more of one than the already difficult canal.

No I actually wanted to employ the 'village of winter's' specialists to handle transporting goods across the land. I was talking of course about the forgotten technology of the future, the blimp made from the fine fabrics of the winter village.

I know this wasn't practical, but for some strange reason the vehicles just seemed like the most ideal transport to me.

I realize it was slower than the other air transports that I could build.

But with current technology it's the most realistic air based transportation system. And the payload can actually be significantly higher than that of a plane.

Especially a plane we could create with the current level of engine mechanics Susan was experimenting with.

No, blimping was surely the right path.

No one will convince me otherwise.

No one.

Hindenburg; what?

Don't be silly where would I even find hydrogen? Oh the water, well yeah that is smart.

But no, I would build hot air blimps, their lift was slightly lower but until I could find a source of helium I was out of luck.

When I was explaining the concept of breaking water into its pieces Susan seemed to understand better than I expected, she explained that it was a concept she had learned from an alchemist.

"No way! Alchemy works here? Can we make lead into gold, that would be really handy!"

"It can be done but it's very illegal." She explained with a flick of her finger.

"Why illegal?"

"The church see's it as heresy, they say they will excommunicate any king who allows their citizens to commit the act."

That seems a little too convenient to the royal bank keepers.

They must have had a hand in the church's proclamation. Though it was probably for the best. If they want gold to maintain any sort of true value as the primary coinage they would have to prevent the creation of the precious metals themselves.

It seemed it was the case for all three of the 'money metals' both copper and silver were also illegal to create, other than that it seemed alchemist, while rare, could do just about anything within limits.

Well, then, that's where I'll get helium. I have no doubt they can make it but how will they conceptually understand what it is?. Perhaps they could begin by creating the by separate pieces of water, hydrogen and oxygen.

The oxygen is useless. but the hydrogen, through fission could be turned to helium. It's probably something a alchemist could do. If not, then maybe a wind spec could possibly extract it directly from the air.

Oh, before i get entirely off the topic of precious metals. I wanted too discuss what I assume to be the variable worth's of each metal.

Its fairly complicated actually, According to the government one copper was worth 1/100th of a silver, However this wasn't true.

One silver could not buy one hundred coppers worth of grain, it was more currently around twenty. This was because the worth of one copper was entirely dependent on the the value of a bag of grain.

Basically, instead of gold backing their coins. Currently wheat backed the copper coin, which veritably controlled the value's of all the other denominations. Gold, while supposed to be worth ten silver, was actually more around fifteen, value wise. It was all somewhat backwards, while intelligent in some aspects the bankers didn't seem to have a full grasp on the situation.

I mentioned something I wanted from Susan.

"Stockpile copper from now on."

"Uhm… are you aware that's illegal?"

Hm, I wasn't, it seems if you posses more than 100 copper and do not redeem it for a silver you could be imprisoned. Wow. That's idiotic.

"Do you mind?"

"Is it important?"

"I think it will be the most important technology I bring to this world."

The entire table, though drunk, went silent. I wasn't sure how to explain the concept to them. One thing I knew they would have trouble swallowing was the fact that I didn't plan to use the collected copper as money, but instead as a raw material.

It was honestly easier than finding a copper mine, and since its value is so low I should be able to acquire it in massive quantities. It will obviously disrupt the currency system but ill leave that for the money managers in the royal capital to figure out.

I wanted to create braided copper wire.

I wanted to create incredibly long lengths of braided coaxial wire.

It will be something I run along the the Coil Canal, this would soon become the spine of the communications system that will soon spread throughout this world.

I know my technologies aren't entirely all on the same level but I'm approaching them in the order I think most interesting. This world won't even recognize the fact that I'm skipping steps, and best case scenario the people using the technologies will backwards engineer them into other technologies, like how replaceable parts have been incorporated into road building.

Plus its not like any of them have been particularly hard to build so far, with magic nearly all machined parts can be created, so that removes about a few thousand years out of their advancement time automatically.

Who knows maybe the telegraph won't be successful here, but one thing i was sure by watching the growth of the united states, a well established communication grid planned well early will lead to a much simpler future.

I wonder if I can design computer before I die, Id love to bring the internet to this world. I suppose if I fail my children will be able to continue the spread of technology.

Oh, I suppose I just automatically assumed I would pass along my mind to my child just as my ancestor had done for so many generations, but shouldn't I?

That logically seemed like the right thing to do, even if it does limit my own life span it's worth it, for the human race.

Whenever my first son turns sixteen it will be my turn to die. I obviously wasn't expecting to have any children just yet but I would have to keep it in mind.

Right; On the subject, my mother, congratulated me on my engagement.

It seems, the witch Joye had neglected to mention that I was traditionally to marry the Daughter of the witch upon returning from the flight.

Claire and I both seemed uncomfortable with the aspect so it was put onto a side burner.

I pray my mother doesn't bring it up again.

Don't get me wrong Claire is a wonderful girl, and I do think I could see myself falling in love with her, but it would have to be on my own terms, perhaps its my American brain thinking arranged marriages are 'lame'.

Or perhaps I'd just prefer to ask her myself. Well since the tradition of giving a ring doesn't exist in this world I can't exactly get down on one knee like they do on Earth.

Ah, I could bring Earth traditions here if I wanted to. But 'that' mind isn't much of a romantic so the idea didn't really hold much water.

Degin, and the recent arrival Joseph, were both completely drunk.

Claire and I exchanged glances and then reenacting a month prior, carried our two subordinates up to some rooms my mother had prepared. Tossing the two who were at least conscious this time into the rooms. I turned towards my room, the familiar door was like a maze of wood grain that I could walk even in my dreams.

Claire softly coughed behind me this time.

I turned my face to see her, who's cheeks were flushed from the glasses of wine my mother had given us.

"I don't 'particularly' care about tradition but… "

The rushed ceremony was extravagant, it didn't look like the same room from earlier.

There were heavy fabrics in multi colors hanging from the ceiling of the wide hall. The streamers flowed from the wind in the drafty castle and actually looked fairly beautiful.

But it was somewhat hard to concentrate on that, I was still hungover this late into the day. I really wish there were more future technologies in this world. Tylenol being just one amongst them.

Well, actually, maybe I should work on penicillin before that. Yeah that's probably the main pharmaceutical priority I should work on.

I'm also well aware of the innovation I wanted, but needed to stay away from. Earth-me was particularly weak against the intoxication of poppy based medications, so I would have to steer clear.

I had actually seen the plant before, they were used by the herbalists guild to make simple medicines.

But onto the real reason I'm here. The large Count and his portly Countess sat in fine chairs, behind them stood a extremely skinny boy who looked to be a handful of years younger than me.

This must be the son.

I'm glad he isn't; more.

He seemed physically fit, it seems he has good role models, or perhaps whatever you consider the opposite of role models.

He has good examples, of what could be.

Good for you, stay strong, and away from sweets.

The Count had assembled a large audience, I recognized Joseph, Degin, Claire and my mother amongst the crowd. Well I say that, but Claire and Joseph were standing with other knights while my mother and Degin were with the random noble 'extras' that the Count had assembled.

The count held the scepter lazily in his sausage fingers, He began with his part of the ceremony once the crowd had quieted down.

"By deed of extinguishing the bandit threat in the… " He began to drone on with a false regal tone he often used in these situations.

" …And, with those words in mind, and with me of clear heart… "

" …really where would we be without said forefathers, I know I… "

"…And that's when I knew he would grow up to be such a strong young man… "

He had gone a little off topic at some point, the child turned bright red and bonked the man on the head softly.

"…And now with that out of the way onto the topic of today's gathering."

Wait seriously?

"Drew, of 'no last name', you are here today because of a great feat. When no one else could, you, defeated evil and brought peace into far-away unprotected villages. For this deed, as their Count, all I can do is give you my utmost thanks, and the title of honorary noble, henceforth you will be called by the last name of your choosing."

I had heard this would be the case, it was uncommon for a non noble to have a last name, thinking about it I may actually have a last name that I'm not aware of, I wonder if this will conflict, do I take it as my maiden name now or something?

"And now for the reading of the 'Kings commendation'."

He coughed slightly and retrieved a letter from a small man holding a silver tray.

The letter bore a red wax seal on the back, I couldn't make out the emblem but I assumed it was the kings.

"With this letter, I King Loren hearby… " The count began before pausing and continuing silently to himself. He gasped at the letters contents.

"Huu…" He stammered awkwardly as he finished inspecting the letter, he shifted his weight uncomfortably and began to shake his head before turning his attention back to the letter, and then to me.

"With this letter, I King Loren hearby bestow upon you the title of Duke. You will be henceforth be known as the 'Duke of Blood', and will be granted rights over the land known as the 'Bay of Mountains'. You will proceed to the capitol in two months for your 'Installation Ceremony'."

""""What!?"""" Nearly everyone, me including, said in unison.

Duke of Blood?

Did I just instantly get a promotion? And was the king aware of who I was by name? The count had swore he wouldn't tell him who I was, only my deed.

This was a problem.