Day 1
I have arrived at my new Fiefdom. It’s a humble place. Father told me I would be fine here, that I could learned a thing or two from helping build this land. I just wish he cared what the results would be. I know he only sent me here because I disappoint him. Why else would he tell me to come to some back water village and be told to help develop it. I know nothing about advancing a to…
Day 7
I have spent a week here in Cal’sar and still I can’t face the villagers. I tried to great them, but they all just ignored me. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. They don’t need me. The village was doing just fine without me, so why would they care that I was here.
Day 24
I had Bartak investigate the villages sudden crop issues. He told me that this season’s rains had damaged the fields and the river to the village was at risk of being swept up in rockslides from the mountains damning it up. After his report I overheard some of the servants mentioning that the villages blamed me for their misfortune. That the failure of the Talark family had brought his misfortune to the village. I wish Seiran was here. He was the real leader he could have solved all this.
Day 53
The river has run dry. It’s just one more catastrophe after the next with this place. I sent Bartak to kind the problem, to get the villagers to work with him and solve this draught. They refused. That old bear wasn’t happy, and he threatened the villagers for their disloyalty. I wish he hadn’t. the people already hated me, why did he have to make it worse by threatening them. I know he just wanted to help me but all he did was make things worse. I AM NOT A TYRANT!!!
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I flipped close the tome with a huff. I fell back and pinched the bridge of my nose. This was not good. It seems I was reincarnated into the runt of a noble family. Some poor boy who had too much responsibility chained to him before he knew what to do with it. I did my best to control my emotions as I thought on what I read. Two months, that is how long Rook Talark was lord of Cal’sar and in that time, the village went from a humble village with no problems to a dried husk of itself. I had to admit, the few cruel nicknames marring this poor boy didn’t seem too farfetched after reading his journal. The storms that passed with his arrival, the sudden sickness and the river running dry. Rook Talark was looking to be a living bad luck charm. But I knew luck did not exist. Life was full of adversity. This boy just was forced to face more than he could handle in one sitting. Pure chance led him to this and nothing else.
Had Rook not been assassinated, I fear he may have taken his own life in due time. I thought as I stared out the window of the study. There was a garden outside it, a lovely sight if the plants weren’t dying and vines didn’t reach up over the window. Seems the mansion had fallen into disrepair in the time Rook took over. Likely the servants seeing no reason to do their duty when Rook never went outside.
From what I could tell. Rook had no confidence whatsoever and lived in the shadow of his older brother Seiran and his father. I wondered if this assassination was retaliation from the villagers who believed Rook the cause for their misfortune. I doubted it though seeing as from all Rook wrote the village was simple, it wouldn’t have been able to pay assassins to kill him and they would have never been able to get past Bartak and his other guards had the villagers tried to kill him themselves. Still, all these events lining up together so quickly painted a terrible picture. Like everything in the world had turned against Rook. I doubted that was what happened. The fact this all peeked at an assassination of the poor boy made me wonder if the misfortune of the village was all orchestrated by a third party. I heard of such things happening in my past life.
Lord fighting for land by tormenting the fiefs of competing Lords to disenfranchise them from their people. I combed back my hair as I turned to the study entrance. Bartak was likely standing guard on the other side. In the last two hours I spent reading through Rook’s journal I had gained a better picture of the boy.
A meek young man who struggled to distinguish himself from his family. Someone who faced constant comparison to a brother who was a general in the Tirith royal army. Rook stood as little more than a fly marring the perfection that was Seiran Talark. The poor boy never stood a chance against him. At least he didn’t think he did, from how often he compared himself to his brother. I pitied the boy that was for sure. But more than that I found myself disappointed in him. Why did he never try to be more, each page of his journal told of how Rook just gave up and refused to try and be more. I know being faced with perfection is hard and seeking to match it was impossible. But Rook should have tried to do more.
He should have put more effort into his life. I would have. But I guess I was always the defiant type. Refusing to back down from challenges and bullheadly facing off against tribulations that would have broken lesser men. I wanted to reach out to Rook’s soul and draw him back to life and demand he try harder. I wanted to shackle his soul back to his body and make him into a proper Lord.
But I couldn’t. even if I could use my magic, I wouldn’t do that to the boy. While his life was filled with failures, I would dishonor his memory by forcing him to suffer more. I hoped his afterlife could be better than mine was. With a deep breath I stood and moved towards the doors. I needed to speak with Bartak. He likely knew the contents of the journal. Why else would he have hesitated to let me read it. he must have wanted to spare me the knowledge of Rooks failures and doubts. Where I truly was Rook, I may have ended my life right then and there. I had no doubt that the poor boy had been close to ending his life himself already. With how deep his mental scars ran it wouldn’t surprise me if that were the case.
One more failure in the village and the boy would have thrown himself form the mansion walls on his own. Good thing he didn’t, seeing as that would have been an odd way to reincarnate. To wake up in a broken body at the bottom of a cliff. Yeah, a great start to my new life that would not have been.
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