Prologue - The Journey

William grew up in a rich, noble family. He was pampered in his childhood, only getting the best. This was because he was his parents’ only heir, his sister wasn’t cared for as much but he loved her a lot.

From a young age on he was trained by the best. Masters of their craft tutored him in various practices.

He was a good learned, well, the theoretical stuff that was. To his parents' dismay, he was abysmal in fighting, having no talent in it at all.

His parents gave up on William, some time gaining honor and power in the arena or being praised as a hero on the battlefield.

Though they certainly were intrigued by his talent for politicking, strategy, administration, and management.

Realizing his golden tooth, they used up a large amount of their saving and bought him a scholarship at the royal academy.

He always was a happy kid and loved his books. Because of this, he didn’t have a lot of social connections. This though, turned him into the victim of bullying once he reached the academy.

He wasn’t even able to stop it, seeing as the baron’s son was the culprit.

This made it unable for him to find any friends. The higher positioned ones didn’t want to speak with a low noble as him anyways.

And those at the same standing as him were either scared of the baron’s heir or supported his way. Only trying to get on the shithead's good side.

The, then teenager, fled into his books and spend endless nights within them. Reading about the great tacticians of bygone eras, or kings creating empires from nothing but rubble and ashes.

But not all the books he read would admire the rulers of the past. He read up on the economic situation, analyzed the known world’s map, and went over the market statistics.

A professor of the academy noticed his motivation and talent and decided to mentor the mature boy. He spent hours with him together, going over strategies of war or discussing civil motivation and stability.

He learned and the professor taught. They had lectures about the ins and out of becoming and continuing to be a king, a merchant, a strategist, or just a mayor.

To the young man's misfortune, the young baron got jealous of the professor's attention towards him. The bully complained to his dad, which then pulled some strings.

In the end, William ended up alone again, only the knowledge remaining.

His mentor was reassigned to a far away academy, teaching some pompous asses who wouldn’t listen anyway.

His streak of misfortune continued. The young man, William, always got the best grades at the more theoretical tests.

That the low live had superior grades to himself, the baron’s son, made him very angry. His father was complaining, how even though he studied since he was young, he had worse grades than some random noble.

The bully crafted a plan, seeking revenge for someone having better grades than him. On the day he formed his core he collected some of his thugs.

He sends them to William’s parents' establishments to cause havoc and scare away the customers.

The baron’s son, Richard, used the distraction and his newfound power to beat up William.

During the raid on his parent’s shops, an influential and rich customer got hurt. The noble then accused William's parents of trying to assassinate him, and with some bribes, was able to put banish them to the borders of the kingdom.

William himself remained at the royal academy, his scholarship having been paid for in advance.

For the next years, he continued his studies, staying away from Richard. He would write the worst grades, handing in empty papers just to stay under the bully’s radar.

Now twenty-five he was in his last year when the kingdom got attacked.

The western border, where his parents lived, was the first to be destroyed. He tried to be deployed into war, his core having finally awakened, but wasn’t allowed to because of his noble forthcoming.

Royals don’t fight in the war of peasants, they rule over them, he got told by the academy’s principal.

The empire advanced further into William’s home country, destroying villages and towns left and right.

The war got even more hectic when another kingdom used his weakened one as a stepping stone and joined the fight.

The situation was looking grim and the enemies forces were sieging the capital's walls.

They wouldn’t hold out much longer, the commoner district was overfilled and the food stocks were running out.

The peasants, dying of hunger in the streets, rioted and opened the gates to let the enemy in. Hoping that they would provide them with food and clean water.

Soldiers marched into the capital, easing the commoners' hunger. By slicing off their heads and raping the women.

They captured the royal academy and took prisoners. Some of us could be useful as warriors or later on maybe even officers in the army.

William himself was taken in as a slave, the attackers assumed his low position to result in bad education. His grades didn’t help to convince the slaver of something else.

During his capture, he cursed the baron’s son for his misfortune.

He was shipped into the nearest slave market and sold as a cheap, but hard-working, scholar. His job was to write down anything his owner, a pompous mayor of the empire, wanted.

Though he was indeed very good at his job, he may have been a bit too motivated.

The mayor was getting annoyed by his scribe's continuous suggestions. He wanted to lower the taxes, investigate the growing bandit numbers, set higher tolls for the slavers, or refresh the militia's training.

It was straining the mayor’s nerves, and one day it was too much for him. He sold the poor man to the next best slaver telling him that he could write.

The slaver sold him further, to a caravan exporting the living goods to faraway places. On his journey, he was sold and bought like a cheap whore.

Abused at some places by horny and old widows, or used as a tactician for a group of bandits.

As the guinea pig for a mad researcher, or as a simple scribe for the local library, working as the dark-mages hideout.

Throughout his journey, he lost his sense of embarrassment and got used to any kind of situation.

He still greedily absorbed any information he got his hands on.

He masterfully satisfied his female partners, guided bandits through impossible terrain, or learned unmoral methods of cultivation from mad cultivators.

Furthermore, he learned about the day-to-day life of a small village and read up on the cursed tomes of blood mages and necromancers.

His hunger was insatiable and his knowledge wanted to be used.

At the end of his journey, he ended up in his first lucky situation in a decade.

After the death of his master, he was confused by the local nobles to be his son. After his new father's debts were paid all that remained was a small village.

It was located at the border of the kingdom and position neatly within a valley. Large mountains surrounded the place providing a bubble of beautiful weather.

A large forest bordered the village's west side, being used for firewood and as a building material.

Once upon a time the smithy has used the mines iron and provided the place with new tools, but the mine was now haunted.

All in all, it was your average small village, located far away from the hustle and bustle of civilization.

The only other thing his “father” gave him on his way, was a distraught trading caravan together with the shabby-looking traders.

He took the caravan to his village, using the travel to transport some goods to villages lying on the way.

Earning some small coin during the journey, which he wanted to invest back into the caravan.

The travel didn’t take long, only about one to two months, and he arrived at his village with a repaired caravan.

It held within the necessary tools and materials to jumpstart the homestead into the next capital.

At least that is what he hoped it would help him with.

Arriving at the village and unloading the stuff he was ready to get started.

He finally was where he was fated to be, the ruler of a village.