The Witcher: My Own Path

Immediately after my conversation with Isarim, I saw him off to his home, for a rest and I went myself, to my tower and my new office, to start setting everything up. Two hours later Mirim arrived with carts full of grain, vegetables and meat and some healers and nurses from the Temple of Melitele, people began to gather, curious to see what was happening. Mirim and her subordinates quickly organised large cauldrons and hearths and began preparing stew and porridge. The healers immediately headed to the makeshift hospital to help treat the sick or injured, encouraging others to come, if only to have a routine health check. Despite all the commotion created by my subordinates, and the pleasant smell of cooked food wafting around, no one came up for food, I don't know if it was out of fear or uncertainty, but I knew one thing, observing, the whole situation from the tower window. These people needed encouragement, someone had to make them realise that their misery was over, because I was here. I went downstairs, headed to Mirim, filled a bowl with hot food and went to the crowd. Among the many dozens of gathered and still confused non-humans, I spotted an emaciated woman. She looked at me as everyone else did, hopeful. I smiled gently at her and began to direct my steps towards her. When I was beside her, still smiling gently at her, she looked at me then at the bowl of food. I reached my hand over her skinny hand and picked it up, then placed the bowl of hot stew in it. Looking into her eyes, I said.

"My name is Tyr and I am the new Lord in the Old Wyzima...."

I looked around slowly at the assembled inhumans.

"...It is my duty and privilege to look after you. Do not fear me, please, I mean no harm in my heart. You have suffered long enough, please let me help you".

Slowly, so as not to frighten the woman standing in front of me, I reached out my left hand and put it to her dirty cheek and brushed it with my thumb, smiling gently.

" This has all been prepared for you and we can't let it go to waste can we?"

First a young dwarf came out followed by another and more people began to approach Mirim who served them the food. After a while the atmosphere throughout the slums changed, laughter and crying could be heard. People were eating, talking among themselves, joking. More and more people began to gather by the hospital to be examined. I took out an extra few hundred oren from my dimensional pocket and gave the head of my assassins to buy food in case they ran out. Everyone today was going to be full. I headed off by myself, back to my tower to get on with the work, which would be extremely taxing and probably the hardest for the first few weeks until the whole situation here was stabilised. I was also aware that I would first have to invest quite a lot in this place and people before the expenses would start to pay off, and then I would start to reap the benefits. I didn't worry too much about it though, it's the natural course of things and with so many talented subordinates, I knew it wouldn't be long before the situation stabilised. The eating and treating of the sick and the good atmosphere lasted until late into the night, then everyone slowly began to return to their homes to rest. It had been a successful first day, now the hard work would begin.

(Old Wyzima, twenty days later)

It's been over half a month since that fateful day, thrown into a whirlwind of heavy office work and planning, I've been doing my best to get the place back on its feet. Isarim proved to be an invaluable help. For a man with no education whatsoever, he performed very well in management. So much so that I had no problems dumping some of my own responsibilities on him. This allowed me to concentrate somewhat on my new novels, which, when published, could bring me a bit more fame, but also some much-needed cash. Now, as a person recognised for his own bravery and above average combat skills, I'm about to create some really good quality and unusual looking weapons that I could sell in the richest part of Wyzima, namely the Castle Quarter, which I now have unlimited access to as a nobleman. I have many designs in my head from games, manga or comics of great looking swords, bows or spears, so that the demand for them will be really great, and by the way, it will allow me to build relationships with the highborn and continue to raise my status whether it be social or financial, as the latter at this point and for the coming months will be extremely necessary for me. If I'm lucky, I might get a commission to make a weapon from Foltest himself, which could prove to be a very good advertisement, for my exclusive products for exclusive clients.

But back to the here and now, the inhumans were starting to look a lot better, they were still dirty and in old shabby clothes, but they no longer looked like walking corpses. We hired a fair amount of people to clean the whole place and the sewers underneath. No one had done this for a decade, so the whole place stank like manure. We designated and created, special zones where slum dwellers can dispose of their waste. I've also hired new workers to burn bricks, clear forests and we've even found some talented craftsmen to create our furniture or olive lamps. It may seem that out of a total population of two thousand five hundred people in Old Wyzima we have employed something around a hundred is not much, but this is not true. That hundred would be paid a wage that could feed another three hundred people, without resorting to begging or selling their own bodies. I had someone of Orik's people brought, to the district, opening a day school for children and an evening school for adults, providing meals and extending propaganda about my great deeds about my dreams and aspirations.

My main goal and the assumptions of our Order about this place were being fulfilled perfectly. When I left my office occasionally to check on the progress of the work, or at least to remind the non-humans of my presence, I was greeted by everyone with great enthusiasm, I was their saviour, their hero, their hope for a better future. Nor was it surprising when I introduced Isarim to the existence of the Order, its members and our main purpose, he did not hesitate, but immediately bent his knees before me, swearing his loyalty to me. He was attached to the Sphere of 'Supervision and Management of Business' as Albert's subordinate and, in time, he would take over all my duties as the unofficial administrator of the Old Wyzima, so that I could focus on the general management of the Order. He was very happy and grateful about this. I wasn't the only one who found a few pearls, it could be said that every leader of his Sphere found someone for himself, and many they still had their eye on, testing them to see if they were trustworthy or talented enough to join us. As a result, our Order has already grown by fifty people, bringing our numbers to one hundred and fifty, and another fifty may soon strengthen our ranks.

To summarise everything that has been going on over the last month, that is, keeping track of the whole overall scale of our progress, I am prepared to say that it may take between four and six months to begin the creation of an official 100-man force subordinate to the Knight and Earth Lord. This will be a force living and stationed in the Old Wyzima, only until I have transformed part of the Swamp into a liveable and habitable environment there. According to the laws of Temeria, an Earth Lord of the rank of Knight may maintain a permanent personal force of one hundred armed men. The Order's troops will not be included in this, for the rest most of the Order's armed forces are secret and known only to members. I have not yet thought about where I will build my headquarters. Until I have cleared the Marshes and begun to reap the benefits of the iron mines, I will not have sufficient funds to begin draining and transforming the Marshes into the lands of a true nobleman.