Chapter 195 - Vittoria Vici
The Dare Dragon Group now owns the biggest building in town. Just between the Jarl's Longhouse and the new market area, a four-story building built with the urban techniques brought to this world by a certain otherworlder.
This building was wide and big, it had a lot of offices which were mostly busy all day long. Most of the employees from the management and the financial departments were mostly stationed here in the first, second and third floors. My office has completely taken over the fourth floor.
It is not me being bossy or anything, I just decided that all the archives and the important files should be kept near to the secretary room and also I wanted a meeting and a CEO office in the most modern way possible.
It ended up looking really good and I got praised a lot by Nurina who filled for me the last two weeks.
Now, in this fourth floor, a lot of people gathered up and were mostly glaring at each other.
On the head of the table was the powerhouses of Winterhold which are mostly the senior executives of my company, Jarl Korir was called over. On the right side, there was the Imperial Envoy who is apparently called Viscount Lucius, accompanied by a Nord Legion Officer referred to as Legate Thorvar and the Imperial Businesswoman Vittoria Vici. On the left side, there was the messenger from Windhelm, Captain Mislav Stone-Crusher accompanied by Ralof of Riverwood. At the end of the table was the Firemanes and on top of them there was Uncle Njord, father and mother were not showing their faces and sat behind him.
The overall atmosphere in the room was like a ticking bomb. The Imperial Envoy was glaring at the Stormcloak Messenger, Vittoria Vici was glaring at me, Njord was glaring at Legat Thorvar, Ralof was glaring at Jullanar, Nefertiti was glaring at the food on the table. All in all, everyone was glaring at something for some reason. I tried to find something to glare at but it seems that I had nothing left to glare at me back.
Soon after, someone finally ended the glaring contest.
"I suppose you are Jon Dare, you made us wait for three days! Three days in this Godforsaken wasteland." It was the Imperial Envoy Viscount Lucious who spoke first, what a rude tone.
"Thane Jon Dare, it is an honor to finally meet you in person." The Stormcloak Messenger Captain Mislav took a different approach.
"The honor is mine."
As I replied, Captain Mislav grinned at Viscount Lucius.
"I understand that all the parties in this room insisted on having a meeting as soon as possible. So… what is the urgent matter?"
"The urgent matter is about Winterhold, this place is slacking on taxes, refusing to provide recruits, hiding details from the periodic reports to Solitude, and as soon as I arrive here, we find that the whole hold is under monopoly by a single entity." Viscount Lucius started shouting around.
This man! Is he trying to provoke me?
I could see the Imperial Legat beside him sighing while Vittoria Vici was nodding to his words.
Hmmm! This group is not rhyming well.
"I see! These matters are mostly for the Jarl to take care of, isn't that right Jarl Korir?"
"It certainly is." Korir replied.
"And also if there are any complaints about the Dare Dragon Group, you can file it to the Legal Department of our Company on the second floor, office number 2, Mrs. Roz."
The Imperial Envoy looked at me as if I said something strange.
"Legal Department! What is that for?" Vittoria Vici asked.
"It consists of highly educated employees known as Lawyers, they have studied all the laws of the Empire and the Kingdom of Skyrim and they make sure that all our actions are within the law, they also receive the complains of any official envoy and they hold a lot of authority to even put my actions within the company on hold."
"....."
This is how awesome my small army of lawyers is, you think I would be reincarnated without spreading the holy occupation of lawyers.
Law is mostly practiced by the high members of the community and they are mostly the ones people refer to as nobles. In Cyrodiil they are the regular noble from counts and viscounts through all the ranks, and in Skyrim, it is they Jarls and Thanes as well as the other official titles.
To have a legal department like mine is a bit unthinkable. How can normal people practice law that is mostly monopolized and abused by high ranking members of society? Maybe nobles in this world are actually Nobles and treat the people fairly unlike how it used to appear in the works of fiction I read in my past life but people always find ways to degrade others. And now, as I gave some commoners the power of knowledge about law, I can be seen as someone who cheated and cheated very badly.
They should have realized by now that I can't be cornered when it comes to the validity of my actions. Everything is crystal clear by law.
The Imperial Envoys backed down a bit to think of a comeback while the Stormcloaks decided to play this time.
"By the way, Thane Jon, I noticed a new temple being built in town. Will there be a Shrine for Talos?" Ralof asked.
This was a direct question. Even the Imperials looked at me waiting for an answer.
Sadly…
"No, it pains me but the worship of Talos was outlawed by the Empire."
My answer made the Imperials look at me as if I said something strange, it seemed that they were expecting otherwise. The Stormcloaks, however, seemed to be provoked.
"Outlawed? Are you seriously saying that?"
"I just did, you heard me."
"How could you? And you call yourself a Nord?"
"I do."
All the sides on the table felt conflicted, I could see Njord looking at me and asking what the hell did I just say.
"Then, Thane Jon, which divine is that temple dedicated to?" Vittoria Vici asked.
I looked at her with a smile.
"For Kyne!"
"""Kyne?"""
Everyone in the room was taken aback.
Of course they should! In this day and age no one worships Kyne openly anymore.
Kyne is part of the Old Nordic Divines and later was replaced by Kynareth in Alessian Doctrine that was set by the Empire. As the Empire, this kind of worship was long since gone.
Even the Stormcloaks were looking at me strangely.
Talos didn't exist in the Old Gods but there was another aspect of him and that was Ysmir.
Gods are a bit tricky, they can be the same entity but they have different aspects and each aspect has its own personality. For example, Kyne is an aspect of the warrior goddess of the storm, she was worshipped back in the days when most of the Nord women were warriors fighting alongside men in every battle, on the other hand, Kynareth is another aspect that is associated with the Sky and mostly Healing, she replaced Kyne when the Nordic women started to tend to their homes and left battles for the men. Another example is Arkay, in the Alessian Doctrine, he is the God of Death in the ceremonial meaning and is associated with the circle of Life and Death, in the old Nordic religion, Arkay is Orkey, the God of Death in the sense of a grim reaper, Orkey was the sole reason why Humans live shorter than Elves as he cursed them once to live shorter, if not for the efforts of Ysmir and Shor who managed to defeat him, the human lifespan would have fallen to six years old.
Anyway, Reverting to the old Gods such as Kyne, Ysmir and Shor is not a crime but no one do that practice anymore. The Empire won't really care about it and the Stormcloak may also welcome it as a comeback for the glorious gods of the past. The only ones who will see this as a provocation are the Thalmor and they will try to do something about it for sure. These Nordic Gods are the adversaries of the Elven Gods and part of the reason why the worship Talos, who is very connected to the Old Nordic Gods, is being outlawed.
In the eyes of everyone, I actually did nothing wrong. Actually, the hidden clans are mostly Daedra worshippers or Old Nordic Gods worshippers, the main reason why they are hidden and think of themselves as peaceful cults.
In both religion and law, I am in the green zone for these parties.
"Also, in Winterhold we respect both Law and Freedom, even if there is a member of the worshipper of Talos or even a worshipper of a Daedra, we wouldn't act like the Vigilants or the Law Officers. However, if we can resolve these matters peacefully, why even start discriminating each other? Everyone is free to worship and free to love as long as they don't bring harm to the others or break the law."
Closing these matters like that will force the two parties to go back to their factions first and come up with another plan later.
"Very well, this will pose no problem then." Viscount Lucius backed off reluctantly.
Captain Mislav nodded and seemed to be rather disappointed that he couldn't draw me to Ulfric's side.
"I want to talk about something rather important." This time, it was Vittoria Vici. She didn't look at me and directed the talk to Jarl Korir.
"My Jarl, when we asked around Winterhold lately, it seemed that all the resources and the economical spots were rented to the Dare Dragon Group, mind telling me how did that happen?"
Her question was not direct, she just asked about how Korir gave me the power to act in the place as if is my own backyard.
"It was through Thane Jon's effort that Winterhold managed to take the road once again towards a better future. I was very pleased and decided to give Thane Jon all the important matters only a remarkable man like him can attend to, and here we are, haha!" Jarl Korir replied with a wide smile.
Vittoria Vici made an innocent face and directed another question.
"But wouldn't it be more beneficial for Winterhold to create a competitive atmosphere, I am sure Thane Jon wouldn't mind have my small company to start some business around these parts. I will make sure that Jarl Korir will see these benefits first hand too."
This bitch!
Alina and Jull, who were me, were about to release their killing intent. This girl tried to lure Korir with benefits and wanted to make a foothold in Winterhold.
With no shame or honor, trying to press Korir with her identity and she thought that I don't know who is she.
As a matter of fact, I received a report that she paid a visit to Korir and introduced herself to him with her real identity, not the so-called small company owner she is playing now.
Still, how can I not know one of the most important NPCs in the game?
I guess I should make things clear at this point.
"How can miss Vittoria's business can be called small?" I said with a smile. "You are exactly the last person I want in Winterhold. Haha!"
The Imperials glared at me but they managed to hold themselves back in the end.
"Thane Jon, please don't overestimate me! If not for my connection with Lord Lucius here, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to be in this meeting."
"I see! So, the Chief Executive of Skyrim's Branch of the East Empire Company and the Cousin of Emperor Titus Mede II needs a connection to meet with a mere citizen like me?"
To my words, both the Imperials and the Stormcloaks jumped on their feet and placed their hands on their hilts.
If I am not careful during the next few minutes, the Civil War may start four years too early.