Victory, once achieved, had a way of disguising where the real work began.
To the outside world, King Peter I had become the face of a reborn Balkan order.
He toured capitals, received ambassadors, posed for carefully arranged photographs, and spoke in measured tones about stability, cooperation, and peace.
His name appeared in newspapers from London to St. Petersburg, invariably accompanied by maps shading in Montenegrin newest borders and breathless speculation about the future.
Peter played his role flawlessly.
He knew he was only a figurehead, but even still getting to play the role of a king without the worry of the military or generals wanting to overthrow the monarachy and proclaim themselves a king...
It was a massive weight off his conscience allowing him to focus on having fun, while also meticulously dealing with the administrative work that was sent to him by the high command administrators.
The way Elias had the nation currently setup was like a secret military dictatorship.
On the surface the nation was a monarchy with an established Senate to allow local representation for the populace, but when it came to the actual administration of the nation, that was handled behind the scenes.
Thanks to Elias's system he could summon forth units and not just soldiers, but personel, like engineers, and medics, but most importantly were base commanders, administrators and strategists.
Even more so thanks to his monthly gacha, or rather lottery draws he could even unlock and summon generals, who were typically high ranking members of not only the military but also society as a whole.
He had been in the world now for more than two decades and drawn from the lottery more than twenty times and yet not a single general had been drawn in that time, however while not a general a command unit had been drawn instead.
Lt. Zofia a character from the Second RA game, and one listed to be a Intelligence Officer of the as of yet not born Soviet Union.
But her talents as an intelligence officer put her on the same rank as a prime minister.
As soon as she got involved in the nation, the brand new senate was almost entirely overhauled, and after only a month the entire building which was barely able to do more than just squabble was actually doing work for the nation, and because of that Peter was capable of leaving the nation behind for a month to deal with the peace negotiations and without causing a nation that previously had relied entirely upon the royal family for the nations top level administration.
Systems were put in place ones without a heavy beurocracy behind it, to allow for quick and efficient management of the various types of industry, and even industries they had to incorporate from the regions previously under Ottoman control.
And that was where Elias worked.
Officially, his name—Julius, as he now allowed it to be used—appeared only once in the new administrative hierarchy of the kingdom.
Governor of the Drina Marches, a sparsely populated, economically unremarkable stretch of uplands and river valleys along what had once been a forgotten internal border of the Ottoman world.
No great ports.
No ancient capitals.
No political factions worth noting.
A backwater through and through.
Precisely as intended.
Peter had signed the appointment without hesitation.
To the court, it appeared a minor reward granted to a loyal functionary— Elias, now know as Julius was assumed to be the son of Elias himself, a man who had previously worked under the administration of the former Prince, and with the aquisition of so many new lands, many administrators were required and as such many families who were not even nobles quickly found themselves being knighted or bestoewed the title of baron before being assigned a province or city in which to manage.
The action quickly allowed for the dispersal of the entire royal court, and in doing so opened the avenue for selected 'pruning' of the old nobility to ensure the nation remained pure, and aligned with the path ahead.
The greatest place to hide, Elias believed, was in plain sight.
From his modest governor's residence—a repurposed Ottoman administrative compound overlooking a muddy tributary—Elias began the real consolidation of power.
His military took on the formal role as the nations military, but those who did not serve formally in the military took up positions locally as police ensuring stable public order and quashing crime.
Nothing flashy.
The soldiers meanwhile would in their downtime work to assist with local farming, or even mining works as a method of ensuring they maintain proper fitness all while instilling belief and loyalty in the military itself.
The take over from the Ottomans would normally be a disaster, requiring decades of overhaul and plotting to fix.
But for Elias the issue was simple, the conquered lands were given a clean slate.
Taxes owed to the state? Abolished.
Tithes, Bribes, and Extortion owed to the ruling lords? Abolished.
Any debt to the state was forgiven as an act of benevolent mercy by King Peter, an act that quickly earned him the support and favor of the millions of new citizens under his rule.
Of course this did not mean there were no taxes at all.
Only that rather than try to pickup where the chaotic Ottoman system had left things, they chose instead to start anew.
Taxes were simplified, mirroring the methods from the distant future, taxes were collected based off ones own earnings, and nobody from king to commoner was exempt.
A welfare state was also established to take care of veterans, or those incapable of working any longer due to injury or age.
Though acceptance into one of these programs required a screening process to weed out those who simply just didnt want to work, and wanted a free ride through life.
And certain measure put into place to catch repeat offenders sentencing them to indentured servitude to the state should they attempt to defraud the state itself.
While being an old fashioned nation, the new King was trying some rather rapid reforms which the other nations of Europe mocked openly for spreading his power to the commoners to much, even America a nation expounding Freedom couldnt help but sneer at the Kingdoms greater freedom granted to its peoples than their very own.
From a financial standpoint the nation was currently running in a deficeit, however thanks to not needing to pay the military at all, or the police for that matter the overall cost of running the nation was considerably cheaper compared to a real nations upkeep.
As such even when taking loans, Elias knew they would be repaid before to long, as the trickle of monthly taxes began to make its way into the treasury, eventually turning into a flood when proper trade negotiations were initiated and tarrifs, plus sales tax, import, and export tax got involved.
But for his little backwater region, they would remain as an almost afterthought, a region where honest labour and a hard days work were the most valued things, only getting the amenities and luxuries they could dream of after the rest of the nation already had them.