Chapter 57: Council members
Olivia made the council members pick those from their own teams competent enough to become her loyal servants and help her run the red lands. It's not like these people are clueless about the workings of the cities around the red lands.
Many of them were bought from there others saved from the dead slave islands. "You are not my council members yet and if I find you lacking in anyway I will replace you. Are we clear?" She looked at the people in the room.
"Now.." She turned to the 8 guardians and invited them into the table.
"I have separated the land into these parts you are expected to become lords of these regions and grow an army in your lands. You may recruit from the existing army or get your own people to become your small folks, have a few cultivate lands and grow an army which you may call for at any time. But your responsibility is to become a good high lord to these people."
She saw their hesitation. "I think it is fair to say I don't need guardians and you are wasting your potential by holding said posts. Go and take care of my lands. Send children to these schools after you receive the funds from the crown. If you have any questions you can ask me or the dukes in the North."
She gave them badages with empty crest so they will choose their own sigils. This is how she will reward them for guarding her at that time.
Even though she has only set half the land aside it is still very large piece of her kingdom. It is enough to have several cities, small towns and even more minor lords territories.
"There is an unassigned land here." Enym said pointing at a place on the map after they all choose their preferred locations.
"I plan on offering it to Mance but I doubt he will take it." She hasn't seen him in a long time.
"He left the kingdom a while ago 'to travel and see the world' is what he said." Horry said.
"I see. When he comes back let me know." Olivia is not surprised by this news.
"Just as in the North I will build you your castles and you should send the orphans to these three orphanages. I will not build hospitals in each of your regions but I will build several hospitals nearby and you can share them. The crown will hire the medical staff and pay their salaries." She turned to the council members.
"That is your job. I have picked the hospitals location, soon the construction will be finished. You are to separate yourselves into teams responsible for education, medicaland general welfare, lastly a team responsible for gatherings funds through many businesses to fund the above mentioned. I will give you a product to sell and the money will go towards these public facilities." Olivia instructs her council members.
"I will allocate you a certain amount of funds and specific tasks to accomplish within an allocated time frame. Think of it as a test."
There are four large hospitals and four small public schools she will build near boarders of the high lords territories and the lords will share them. They are not responsible for anything but to send students there.
"These are the new laws to follow." She handed a list of rules and regulations fir the new high lords to use as guidelines when governing the lands.
Olivia had made several forests between the territories to allow for communities to feed themselves. She sent the welfare team to obtain animals that can be eaten from nearby islands. They are the bosses so all they have to do is send people but Olivia will hold them responsible should the task be unfinished.
Everyone has six months including herself. She should have finished making four hospitals and four schools in the boarders of several territories.
The factories have received a large order of making furniture, bedding, curtains floor rugs and shower curtains.
These are for the orphanages, the hospitals and the three boarding schools. The construction team which has a new council master now will install water pipes and the glasses on the buildings window frames.
Because of the weather here, there are many places where Olivia made floor to ceiling windows and several balconies which all require the indestructible glass installed.
The hospital common rooms, cafeterias from schools, orphanages all have such places. The work load is for everyone, for a while the red lands are in a state if serene scheduling where everyone has something to do.
The four schools and hospitals were finished in four months complete with fittings of frames, wooden furniture, cardboards and wardrobes. The rest of the two months was spent putting in the water pipes and filing the water tanks. By now the couches, soft sleeping mattresses and bedding are in place for every room.
Olivia ordered a white color for the hospital sheets. The walls and floors are all painted white with curtains varying in color to not become a depressing place. Olivia explained the need for hospitals to remain absolutely clean and desensitized regularly.
The eight generals are also not free. They allocated the minor lords to several territories under their control. The small folks who wanted to have their own lands and grow their own food separated into many groups moving into these places.
They are placed on a list and as soon as their homes are deady they will be informed. Those willing to farm lands will be given plots of land, a single family three stories house with basice water supply for the house and the crops cultivation.
The castles of each monor lord are being constructed by the man power under the construction team along with the houses for the small folks who will cultivate the land. The eight castle will be built by Olivia as soon as she finished with the public facilities.
Each high lord drew or purchased a marvelous castle blueprint and continued training their chosen soldiers from the military castle that Olivia had built in ancient Han style.
When six months finished she is ready to review the results from the tests of her council members.
The forests and lakes are filled with fishes and animals for the people to hunt. A simple fence is built around the forests to protect people from wild animals. The welfare team has worked hard even inside the city making sure the people have jobs to earn coins, they have helped others move to the several territories for a better life.
There is already a list of potential candidates for hospital staff, the supplies have been bought and children to be sent to schools are also on a list.
The ones responsible for the wealth of the kingdom have out done themselves. It turns out the market here is not fully explored. As a result, Olivia doesn't have to provide too much money for the public places from her own pocket.
Olivia didn't show any reaction on her face but gave them one last task after handing over all the information about each department and related recipes.
"Once you take these you are onligated to guard it with your lives. The only way you can see and read this information is if you own one of these." She gave them each a wooden bracelet with red gemstones and several runes.
"These bracelets are cursed if you betray me or this kingdom, you will die screaming." To her surprise non of them hesitated and took the bracelets putting them on and then taking over the council members seats.
"Three Castles one for the royal wealth generation team. One for the health and general welfare one for education. Make designs and choose their location with in the kingdom. You have passed. Remember that your job is to take care of these aspects on all fronts in the kingdom. You will send inspections on the high lords lands and if I find one thing out of place, I will come for you." She threatened. There is almost half the kingdom's land not allocated to anything so the three castles will probably be somewhere there.
Now it is time to build the eight castles of the generals. The idea is to have a castle with large land for crops cultivation. A city of appropriate size with clear shopping centers, hotels and restaurants then a separate housing district with flats for the city folks.
Then several minor lords with their own smaller but majestic castles. Land for their own use and crops cultivation. After these are taken care of, many small folfs will be allocated plots of land for crops planting that will then be taxed by the minor lords and then the high lord will get a share.
These small folks are not like the city people who live in the apartment buildings and must work in the city to earn coins and pay for their living expenses. They have land they must take care of they also get a single family housing building no more than three stories, five stories and more land for important people highly valued by the lord on the land.
These places have small towns to interact and exchange if they wish. Olivia made sure to make enough water for each region with clear system for waste and drinking water in order to avoid diseases.
The water supply stations are under the control of the crown falling under the duties of the welfare department. This way everyone is focusing on their assigned tasks and soon the housing for all the small towns folks were finished and they move in to start working on the fields.
Olivia had loosened the soil because this used to be a dry desolate place making the earth very hard to work with. She did it so they can work faster with the farming tools.
A few months later, Olivia is inserting the last gate in the castle wall of the last high lord. She must confess the designs for these eight castles were very bold and daring. Beautiful structures came out in the end.
One of them has an entire floor fitted with frost glass. While another one has a massive garden with water fall and a cool swimming pool as big as two normal houses. The floor of this pool is obsidian concrete with a striking blue color, it belongs to Enym. He probably wants to host parties where everyone wears swimsuits.
Another interesting one has an underground bunker which feels like a small city. Complete with several warehouses one made entirely of frost indestructible glass. Olivia had to hold back from asking her what disaster is she preparing for?
There is one with a lot of glasses and black walls making it look very morden. The others are normal but she made all of them with the most care.
The last bit on business is the roads construction no doubt will be a major project requiring a lot of man power which has just been assigned to ploughing the land and building the eight small cities under each high lord.
Unlike the time when she was making the wooden fences for the sides of kings road, she doesn't have to hide her use of magic.
She had decided to clear the roadway with the fence which will curve along with the road on all roads in the eight future cities and small towns.
Olivia flew to nearby islands to collect wood, and since she will condense it into heavy wood she needs a lot.
She cleared and leveled the path on the road to make it easier to travel. She will not put concrete but she can make the road stoney to make it less slippery and dusty but for the hoarses she didn't make it too stoney.
The council will put concrete soon enough she has done the heavy lifting now there is easy access to the schools, hospitals and the cities. This makes transporting building materials easier.
Olivia is having the time of her life improving her kingdom little by little while several cities away, her aunt Deanerys with her council which now include Tyrion Lannister who hates his family after Cersei made Jaime tell him what he had done when they were younger.
Cersei had gone to visit Tyrion in the cells to tell him no one in this world loves him but Tyrion had laughed at her. "You and Father were never on my side but Jaime loves me he has always been the only one I can call family." Tyrion had said and watched in satisfaction as Cersei's expression morphed into a hideous snarl.
She had come back two days later with a sorrowful Jaime who proceeded to tell him how he had lied about his first wife being a whore. This broke Tyrion's heart and made him very vengeful. When Varys took him to meet Deanerys he had pledged his loyalty as long as he can have revenge on his siblings especially Cersei who couldn't even leave him one person to lean on.
Currently Varys is presenting Deanerys with a series of reports, but he is only doing so because a red priestess has cone to tell Deanerys she is not the prince who was promised.
"It's over?" She asked the red priestess in front of her.
"Yes. We were all surprised but there is more shocking news about her. She is the legitimate daughter of Rheagar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. She is the prince who was promised."
"What did you say?" Her expression solemn as she asked the priestess.
"I'm afraid its true. My birds sing the same song, documents of this marriage has been verified in the Citadel." Varys heard about this a long time ago and kept it from her because he wanted to know if he should switch allegiance.
But to his surprise the witch of the north didn't try to take over the iron throne but focused on her lands instead and now she is in the red lands doing the same thing if reports are to be believed.
"When?" Deanerys is not stupid she knows Varys can not be trusted. The way he always lower himself when he has information on his back and call is suspicious.
She is not arrogant enough to think he does it because he has a lot of respect for her. He must do it to lower her guard so she will always see him but not take him too serious.
"Three years ago." The priest answered. Silence.
"You may all leave." She said without any expression on her face. They all left one by one. But the priestess stopped before reaching the exit and turned to her "That rumour about her having two massive dragons is true, one black as night one white as snow." The priestess left her council probably never to appear in front of her again.
Something in Deanerys told her this is not real so when she found out that Olivia in currently in the red waste she rode her dragon and went over there.
On the air the sight of the several castles, roads and fields with several people ploughing the land is a stark contrast to what Deanerys was expecting.
She knows more than anyone how dry and desolate this place used to be but now it even has several fresh water lakes that she can see from up here. "What in the world?"
Another thing is the terrain. It seems too perfect as if someone has molded the ground to be in a specific way. She can clearly see the mountains in the different forests and the trees, grass and rivers are neatly arranged as if someone was drawing a perfect picture.
She can see lush grass on the rest of the previous waste lands which is shocking because this place did not have a single healthy tree before. Deanerys felt a peng of jealousy seeing this. How big is this place? How big is Westeros?
How many kingdoms will come out from this place in the end? Can she even compare? Instead of worrying about all of it a sense of relief washed over her. Olivia will not care about the seven kingdoms now that she has such a beautiful place to rule.
On the ground Olivia saw her along with the dragon she is riding but ignored her since she is staying in the air. Currently Olivia is leading people who are filling the places where she inserted the heavy wooden fence with concrete to make it sturdy.
The roads are finished all that remains is the task of turning the stonework into concrete ground for roads. There will need to put cold stone to make sure the concrete doesn't melt in the scorching sun. The same cold stone applied on all the structures built so far.
Surprising enough she was still able to get labor for the road construction project even though a few people were sent from the north. Olivia will leave to construct roads in the north after finishing up here. She doesn't have time to deal with tempermantal dragon princesses.
Deanerys made a decision to go home. She has stayed in this foreign land long enough. It is time she goes home. But this is when she is convinced to visit the fighting pits and watch.
She is attacked by the men calling themselves the sons of the harpy and escapes on her dragon's back ending up in the hands of a group of Dothraki leaders. She of course burns them and subdue an entire army of Dothraki screamers.
During this event she is followed by tens of thousands Dothraki riders but many old women and weak children are left behind. Olivia goes there to recruit them for her own kingdom.
The horse lords were strong and protected them in a way but they were harsh men who valued strength above all else. When Olivia showed them kindness and told them they can work to feed themselves in her kingdom, they jumped at the opportunity.
Even though many are too young or have been abused, they are still spirited women who are happy at the opportunity to learn in school to empower themselves.
A month after Olivia took the remaining people from the Dothraki sea, armies from slavers bay came to enslave whatever remained but only found empty huts. This news was sent to the new residents of the red lands and they became more grateful to their savior.
Thousands of women, children and some old men were saved this way and Olivia has a less unbalanced gender scale in her kingdom.
Deanerys swiftly takes care of the rebellion in her city. She then decided to leave once she saw an article on the newspaper about a man calling himself Aegon Targaryen said to be headed to Westeros. Given the history of Westeros they will crown this impostor just because he is male and leave her out in the cold.
....