Returning to his office, Vig resumed dealing with state documents.
First came the financial expenditures for the first half of the year.
The largest expenses were war and immigration.
From the moment the standing army marched to Ireland, the war had lasted over three months. Most food supplies came from local Irish sources, while the remaining costs were covered by the crown—about £3,400, an amount still within acceptable limits.
The second major expense was immigration.
Last year, turmoil across Scandinavia devastated production in southern and central Denmark, causing widespread famine. Refugees flooded into Britannia.
By August, more than 27,000 immigrants had arrived this year alone. All were resettled in Cambridge and East Anglia.
Including these Viking migrants and the local population of the newly created County of East Anglia, the crown's directly governed territories now held 770,000 people.
Of those, about 210,000 were Viking immigrants.
To house the newcomers, the Cabinet had spent £3,200, mostly on clothing, cheap grain such as barley and oats, and temporary housing.
The next step was to recruit some immigrants for infrastructure construction, which would require another £2,000.
After half an hour working his abacus, Vig found no discrepancies.
He sighed helplessly.
"My money… years of savings gone in the blink of an eye."
A Worn-Out Explorer
That evening, Vig walked toward the dining hall, yawning.
To his surprise, he saw Hosa sitting there.
Compared to the last time they met, the man was darker and thinner—even more exhausted than Frode, who had just returned from three months of war.
"Hey," Vig joked. "Did someone sell you to a mine?"
Hosa forced a pitiful smile and began recounting his recent adventures.
After receiving the king's promise of a title, Hosa spent heavily to purchase a two-masted square-rigged ship, hiring a captain and forty sailors to search for unknown islands west of Iberia.
These islands were rumored to exist deep in the ocean. Some said Arab merchant ships had visited them—but the stories were vague and unreliable. The voyage was far more difficult than the earlier expedition to the Canary Islands near the African coast.
At the beginning of the year, the expedition departed from the Canaries.
They made three attempts to push deeper into the ocean.
Storms struck repeatedly.
Four unlucky sailors were swept overboard, while disease killed ten more. Morale fell to its lowest point.
In June, the ship returned to Sunshine Island in the Canaries. The crew announced they were quitting. Even higher pay couldn't convince them to continue.
Desperate, Hosa promised to personally board the ship and lead one final voyage west.
For days they wandered across empty seas.
Then one day, the lookout spotted dark shapes flying across the horizon—birds.
The ship turned north.
Two days later, they saw it:
A chain of lush islands covered in dense forests.
The sky swarmed with albatrosses and gray pigeons. Sperm whales surfaced offshore, dolphins chased waves, and seals rested along the coast.
They landed on the largest island.
Hosa and twelve sailors, wearing armor, cautiously explored inland.
At first, they mistook drifting mountain fog for cooking smoke and nearly panicked.
After four days of exploration, they found no roads, farms, or settlements.
The islands were completely uninhabited.
Overjoyed, Hosa named the archipelago the Gray Pigeon Islands, in honor of the birds that had guided them.
After completing the survey, he returned to the Canaries and hired several hundred Guanches, transporting them with ships from the sugar company to establish houses and a temporary harbor on the islands.
Once everything was arranged, Hosa sailed back to Londinium carrying sugar and rum.
A New Baron
After hearing the story, Vig asked two key questions:
"What is the climate like? And how large are the islands?"
Hosa scratched his head.
"The climate is similar to the Canaries or Lisbon. There are nine islands in total, most of them small—perhaps one-third the size of the Canary Islands."
(The Gray Pigeon Islands—Azores—cover about 2,344 km², compared with 7,273 km² for the Canary Islands.)
Sensing Hosa's nervousness, Vig honored his promise.
He granted him the title of hereditary baron of the islands.
"Thank you for Your Majesty's generosity!" Hosa exclaimed. "My descendants will serve the House of Tynecastle for generations!"
Baron was exactly what Hosa had hoped for.
As a wealthy merchant with no great military achievements, he knew he wasn't qualified for higher nobility. Becoming a baron was already a tremendous reward.
The future remained long.
Hosa placed his hopes on his sons.
With their blood connection to Crown Prince Frode, promotion from baron to count might one day be possible—especially since the islands' territory already matched the size of a typical county.
And the Gray Pigeon Islands had enormous potential.
In the early years, they could hunt whales and seals, exporting whale oil and leather to Britannia. With those profits they could attract settlers and build plantations, eventually producing profitable crops.
Watching Hosa grin foolishly, Vig suddenly remembered the textile industry's demand for red dye.
He suggested planting madder on the islands.
Hosa eagerly agreed.
His own textile workshop had collapsed under competition from merchants like Harry and Pontiland. He had never forgotten the humiliation.
If he could control the supply of red dye, he swore he would take revenge on certain rivals.
"Your Majesty, I will follow your orders. Madder will be my first priority—grapes and citrus can wait."
Seeing Hosa's sudden excitement, Vig simply lowered his head and continued eating.
The Situation in Francia
The next day, Vig presided over a cabinet meeting.
According to the ministers' reports, Britannia was developing steadily.
Meanwhile, events in West Francia were unfolding favorably.
Taking advantage of the civil war in East Francia, Charles the Bald launched campaigns forcing three breakaway states of Middle Francia to submit.
He then sent diplomats to manipulate the balance of power among Carloman and his brothers, keeping them locked in mutual rivalry.
Through a mixture of intimidation and diplomacy, Charles secured nominal allegiance from both Middle and East Francia.
He now styled himself:
"Roman Emperor and King of All Franks."
His prestige soared.
Vig chuckled.
"Bullying your nephews… that uncle has no shame."
Yet he was not worried.
Despite Charles's impressive title, his actual territory remained limited—mainly the Paris Basin and the Loire Valley.
Across the Channel, the House of Tynecastle held enormous lands in Britannia.
The crown directly controlled twelve counties, including:
The five northern counties in Scotland (about 78,000 km²)
Tyne
York
Nottingham
Tamworth
Cambridge
East Anglia
Londinium
In total, the royal domain accounted for roughly 40% of the kingdom's territory.
By comparison, in the historical timeline William the Conqueror controlled only about 20% of England's land as royal domain after conquering the country.
Measured by royal landholdings, Vig's position was far stronger than most English or French monarchs of comparable eras.
And most importantly—
Time was on his side.
—------------------------------
Pat reon Advance Chapters: patreon.com/YonkoSlayer