I am the 16 year old Max Voxar, son of Jackalo Voxar, heir to the Grand Duchy of Munder, Master librarian to the royal library and a heavy alcoholic.
I was the first born of three sons and the most talented of the three but not all was good. From the age of five I was taught reading, writing and mathematics. At age seven swordsmanship, horse riding and biology was added. I worked hard for my dad until I was twelve when my second brother and he was a bastard child who was legitimized due to his talent as a warrior. When you are twelve you are tested if you have talent and I had it aplenty but I was very sickly due to being inside reading too many for too long as a child and I was poisoned when I was six ruining my perfect vitality.
I recovered but my second brother had become the favorite and I slowly lost interest it all things apart from books and booze. I started when I was fourteen as I had tried a new wine from my mothers vineyard as she was the daughter of a count that owned large vineyards all through out the dukedom.
One day in a drunken state I fell down the stairs smashing my head and only woke up 3 months later. After my recovery I retreated from the capital city and back to the royal territories and presided over the royal library for an additional three month.
My mother rushed into my room smiling at me and showed me an old and worn book depicting a new form of cultivation called magic. In this book was a mind training technique, where by using it I can cultivate my mind and soul. Here on the southern continents mages are rare as most people prefer to train as a warrior and achieve aura as it improves your body and is easy to train.
I read through the book, took notes of what I needed and told my father what I needed if I wanted to be a mage as was heard of in the empires on the continent.
Some of the ingredients needed hundreds of soldiers to charge and kill magic beasts and that's what he did but I had to lead the soldiers as a condition. The other was a limit of 4 000 men and but them to use. From the ages 14-16 I led my men into battle against magic beasts and sold the parts of the beasts I didn't need so I could hire mercenaries to die instead of my men.
During this time I had a total of 4 000 men-at-arms and 14 000 mercenaries. The composition of my men-at-arms was 2 000 heavy cavalry and 2 000 long bowmen while the merc's was 6 000 spear-men, 2 000 archers, 2 000 heavy infantry and 4 000 halberd wielders. I led these men to war against small dukedoms like mine, the neighboring Kalis and Vorag kingdoms with 32 000 strong armies under their princes for a total of 64 000 men and the Kasis Empire and master of the kalis kingdom. The Kasis Empire deployed 55 000 strong imperial guard under crown prince Zackovis. I had faced each opponent with ambush tactics and divided their larger armies and had beaten them in the wild forests and tall mountains all over the center of the continent.
These wars happened over resources such as spirit stones and magic equipment. By the end of my 2 year Blitz Krieg of my neighbors netted me 436 000 gold coins in profit even after paying for the merc's and hiring more, as well as 1 space ring with a 12m cubed space, 45 spirit stones and a basic magic book.
The merc's and men-at-arms had transformed from a motley crew of 6 000 into a fully fledged army of 18 000 when I returned home from campaign. I was on a horse leading the army into the royal castle that I hadn't seen in 2 years, I left a sickly boy and came back a battle hardened general with over 24 victories, 7 draws and 3 defeats having killed 300 men personally, 120 000 enemies killed with my soldiers, 24 000 captured and routed an additional 30 000 men. I lost 40 000 men killed to the enemy, 13 000 were captured and 5 000 men routed by the end of the short but brutal campaign.
I shook my head trying to forget the statistics and the bodies.
...
Later that night someone entered my room and tried to assassinate me but I survived.
I woke the very next day with a splitting headache light in my eyes and a person above me. My first reaction was to grab the persons throat as I wasn't used to sunlight.
Huh? What do I mean Not used to it I'm a soldier, no I am an engineer.
No, soldier.
No, engineer.
No, soldier.
No, engineer.
No, soldier.
No, engineer.
My vision clears and I see it's my slave-maid and I quickly let go so she could breathe.
I look her up and down, then my eyes stop on her neck and the hand print showing the amount of force I used. Even though I'm not a warrior I'm still very strong from wielding a long sword in battle.
"Elis"I said"I apologize for strangling you but please leave me to my self as I'm not feeling so good due to last nights incident."
"Yes my lord" she replies as she stands up again with tears in her eyes from the pain.
'What is wrong with me and where am I?' I thought to my self as I started looks around at the strange medieval style room.
But I then continued to think 'But why is it strange? I've lived here for most my life. No I haven't. Yes i have.'
"I think it's going to be a long morning." I said as I felt a headache coming on.