"How many people regret treating DO as a normal video game while going through the dynasty history system without knowing better."
"Few were like me and went above and beyond the system's expectations, treating it like a second world instead of a game."
"But even I didn't know the agreement I made on my second dynasty history event with Duke Ancel Gallomour…."
"Would affect the world so much and inspire me to set up a steady foundation for my rise to power even before the servers officially opened."
Reginald Coulan, creator and head of House Aurellion in dynasties online.
….
After agreeing on the main details of their alliance, Railius and Ancel spent the next 2 hours going through all the minor, less important details. Once both sides were happy, they drank to their agreement. However, this agreement would not be put on paper due to its secretive nature, which ironically allowed either side to renegade on it, with the only repercussions being a loss of trust with their new ally.
But surprisingly, neither had that thought, for as the old saying goes.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
They also devised a way for House Aurellion to escape without affecting the duke poorly in any political way whatsoever. As both men were intelligent, it was easy for them to do, and they quickly came up with a plan.
The agreement was not that complex.
First, Duke Ancel had to help in the escape of Railius from Chavaria and help his loyal soldiers and their families enter Nadron once House Aurellion had set up a haven there.
Both sides also agreed to a secret alliance where they would help each other and share information as long as it did not harm them too much. For example, if Railius wanted Ancel's help in a war, it would have to be in an informal manner rather than open help; otherwise, there would be no need for secrecy. After all, the Nadron-born duke was risking charges of treason if the imperial family found out their accord in any way.
In return, Railius would provide two vice commanders or higher officers in his Pelican Guard to train up men according to its training for 5 years alongside 500 regular Pelican Guards who would accompany them and help the duke in any altercation he may get into in the 5 years that they were their to train soldiers.
For the next 3 years after that, during Railius' minority, the duke can also hire them as mercenaries, but once he comes of age, they will be sent back to Railius, who will need them to resurrect his noble house.
Obviously, any removable identifying marks linked to House Aurellion, like surcoats, would also have to be removed. Even their custom armour would have to be hidden away due to the Pelican Engraving on them in the centre of the chest plate, which people could correctly assume showed their loyalty to the now fallen noble house. Thinking about it now, Railius slightly regretted making these guards easily distinguishable from regular soldiers, wanting not only a competent guard but also one that looked imposing.
After getting the information that he needed from the duke about the local political situation and the disposition of the different Beastmen tribes, Railius bid farewell and quickly left the tavern with his guards in toe and rode on Leon's horse through the gates towards their camp. A signal was given to House Aurellion's hidden forces, which ordered the hidden Pelican Guards throughout the city to stand down as their young lord managed to leave unharmed, and they also quickly left the city inconspicuously.
As the duke watched him leave, Alfgier asked Ancel a question, who was waving goodbye to his fallen distinguished guest.
"Your grace, why did you agree to his terms? This child was insufferably arrogant and confident!"
The skilled warrior asked, anger laced with his words, annoyed at the child's impudent actions towards the duke. Even if he were not an exiled fallen noble and the son of a marquis, he would still have to give Ancel the respect that his station deserves.
"Because despite his disrespect and carefree mannerisms…."
The duke said, pausing as he watched the crimson cloaks of Railius' guards disappear down the main street of his capital.
"He is a boy worth the investment, and anyway, getting their military knowledge through having his men train my troops is far better than getting given a useless court position and land by that cunning bastard of an emperor."
"After all, in the future, I feel he will become one of the biggest foes our empire has to face."
The duke sneered, his disdain for the imperial family and the empire obvious it was. Then, a servant employed by the tavern came up to him, giving the duke a sealed letter that made him smile after he read its contents as it represented yet another threat to the fledgling empire.
'Seems Otuia attacked, and they are sending Archtorius to deal with it. That will be a fun thing to watch.'
"Err, your grace, sorry to be that guy…."
"But someone still needs to pick up the tabs for you both."
A server at the bar asked, at which point the duke realised that Railius had not paid for his drinks and put on a tab and shook his head slightly.
'Wait, both.'
The duke thought to himself as he was handed the check because the other party had conversely left in a hurry, making them unable to pay their part.
'How much did that little shit spend!'
'That shitty brat needs to learn to take responsibility in the future stingy little shit!'
The duke thought angrily while paying the man for all their drinks with a sigh, promising to return the favour to Railius one day.
Just like that, in such a childish way, an agreement that would upend Dynasties Online in the far future was struck, but neither character who struck it would live to see its end results.
…..
Outside of the city, Railius was lost in thought as he digested the information provided to him by Duke Ancel about the political situation around him, and his body bobbed up and down rhythmically.
'The Free Brothers and Vice Count Tyre Vask, huh.'
Railius thought when his thoughts were interrupted by the friend system's familiar notifications.
[Congratulations to player rising Pelican of Loyalty for completing the player-made quest 'Persuade the duke rewards will be given if your dynasty survives through this dynasty history event.]
[A small time skip will be implemented. Please stand by while you are temporarily ejected from the game.]
A system notification said, and in a flash, Reginald had returned to his lobby, though it was only there for 10 minutes before he got a message from the Friend System telling him he could return to the game.
When Reginald returned to the game world again, five days had passed. He was sitting on Aldorus' horse, making their way towards the border between the Duchy of Plantaria and The Free Brothers, and it only took 20 minutes for them to approach, but it was then that the first sign of trouble could be found.
The plan that Railius and Ancel had come up with was to have them fight a small skirmish where Alfgier would take the lead and duel Leon while 1,000 of the Duke's elite troops attacked 500 of Railius' Pelican Guards, allowing them to win the battle due to their incredible skill at arms. Because it was a fight between grandmasters for his young lord's safety, Leon reluctantly allowed Aldorus to ride with Railius and keep him safe from danger, as a battle between grandmasters could be far more dangerous than fighting multiple masters where even once lapse in concentration or mistake could lead to the death of his lord.
However, one variable was not under any of their control, which was what bothered Railius so much, for he almost felt like the system had forced it on him.
It was Vice Count Tyre Vask, a new vice count who the emperor had just appointed as the Duke's vassal to replace one of the duke's foolish vassals who stupidly got themselves killed in the great purge conducted by the emperor trying to sow discord by pitting the two princes against each other and potentially cause a civil war and was one of Flavius' old supporters before the executioner took his head. Unfortunately, the arrogant Nadron-born noble massively overestimated his abilities and underestimated Amulius Lunaris', leading to him being one of the first to face the chopping block when the emperor began calling for heads to roll.
Even if he was innocent, the emperor had plenty of reasons, as he did with many other nobles, to get rid of him, and as he happened to be in the imperial capital, it was a doddle to arrest and have his head allowing this new vice count to take up the position so conveniently left open by this now dead noble and putting a noble loyal to the imperial family into the Duke of Plantarias lands which for so long had weathered any attempts made by the emperor to put his men in the dukes land.
This purge and forceful assigning of vassals was also one of the things that, in the duke's opinion, made Railius' prediction that the emperor would use a reward to control him all the more real, ironically helping to seal the deal between the two. However, Railius had impressed Ancel enough not to need this extra motivation to side with House Aurellion, if only secretly. Still, it did influence him to make closer ties with the young Lord Aurellion.
But what bugged Railius the most was that this seemed way too suspicious, for while the reasoning was sound, it seemed very forced, making the young player very happy that he got Ancel on his side; otherwise, he would be in a much better position.
'It lines up perfectly for this vice count to be a player, which makes this whole situation a lot more difficult.'
'And based on past experience, an event like this is likely to have a player involved in it, like how a player was Wurgoth in the last one.
This is because not even the duke knew how many troops this vice count could muster, for he had not had time to put together a proper census of his lands since the new vassals were forced on him.
Players were also very unpredictable, for, unlike the NPCs, they would do anything to complete a quest, especially the dynasty history ones that like to eradicate your dynasty If failed.
The low rank was the big giveaway, as viscount was the perfect rank for a landed noble player to have in an empire as vast as Chavaria, but thinking about it more, the higher-ranked nobles under the duke like counts and even marquises would likely be loyal to the duke or intelligent enough to make no big mistakes or they would have been caught like that unfortunate vice count who died on a stage in the imperial capital.
'At least the duke won't come after me full tilt. That is at least something.'
Railius thought it was unfortunate that because of the emperor and his power and the great purge of the nobles, even his secret ally had to stand in his way somewhat, not daring to make even the slightest mistake or give the emperor the slightest justification to deal with him.
The number of troops the duke sent against him had already been lowered thanks to him committing a grandmaster, but it was still considerable as at least 50 If not 100, Pelican guards would die in a direct confrontation between them and likely more because this unknown vice count was in the mix.
For they had to make the battle seem real as such, only the grandmasters would put on a show, for only those of that level could tell that they were not fighting in earnest. It was unlikely that a third grandmaster would be in play while everyone else fought for real, and even if they didn't finish off the wounded and try to prevent deaths, swords have no eyes and cut indiscriminately.
But it also meant that unlike in his first dynasty history event, Railius could not use Leon's prowess in combat to turn the tide or initiate retreats as he did against the orcs to lower casualties to his loyal men.
He also did not have to worry about Leon, as the duel between him and Alfgier would only be fighting for show. Despite how keen both grandmasters were to have a proper fight, they were loyal enough to follow the commands of their lords and knew there would be plenty of time to fight each other in the future when the stakes were not so high.
Getting closer to the border, the patrol scheduled to intercept them appeared as 500 men followed Leon to intercept them while the other 500 were commanded by Aldorus and made towards the border to cross into the lands of The Free Brothers. The Free Brothers were a collection of independent Beastmen from all kinds of subraces, from lions to rhinos who stand on two feet like any other humanoid to snake-men whose venomous bites provide a problem for even the most proficient of healers. All kinds of different sentient beings gathered there, yearning for freedom as it was the place with the least rules like the Wild West of old, where laws were loose and, as always in these sorts of chaotic places, strength was the most significant determining factor of authority making them an anomaly in the world that even the king of the Beastman United States found them and their leader troublesome to deal with.
Because of this yearning for freedom, they hated the empire, which was built on an established order and the power of the aristocracy and a few times, even his father Lucius had to come and suppress their incursions into the empire, despite their disunity, they were still one of the strongest Beastmen tribes in the United Beastmen States as most were exiles from their original tribes coming together to find a place to call home and to survive as an exile for even a few days required a certain amount of combat abilities.
Just as everything was going to plan and Railius was about to cross the border, he saw a formation of men in front of him in a spear-locked shield wall, their armour glistening in the sun as they blocked his path on the outside of this formation rode cavalry no more than 500 on each side but the plate armour they wore donated them as powerful knights most likely the elite of the vice counts units. Their manner was also stoic, but Railius knew that they were no match to his Pelican Guards, and even when fighting two on one, these knights would barely be able to keep up with them.
Despite their mail armour, the men in the middle held their spears shakily. Their eyes looked on their majestic foe with fear. This small detail was not missed by Railius, who began to look at the opposing forces with a critical eye, trying to find any weakness he could exploit to break through and escape.
However, Railius' own Pelican Guards were stoic, looking on calmly at their opponent long being used to fighting against numbers far larger than their own when they served with Railius' father, Lucius, on various battlefronts of the empire.
In front of the formation was a man in half-plate armour similar to what Lucius had worn at The Battle of Brunag but had smooth round steel pauldrons instead of Pelican heads. A flowing surcoat covered his armour in a grassy green colour, and in the centre was a red apple. He could see many of the knights and soldiers in the formation also bore that colour scheme on the shields they held, showing their loyalty to the man's family behind him rode 20 knights acting as his personal guard. It is evident that the man wanted to parley with the young boy or their representative.
"So that's him, is it?"
"Vice Count Tyre Vask."
Railius said out loud, talking to himself. Even though Aldorus knew about this feature of his eccentric lord, he still replied to his words.
"Yes, milord, that's looks like him."
"Do you want to meet him?"
Railius then saw a man ride off away from the enemy army. His eyebrows locked in suspicion as he asked something that Aldorus did not expect, as it was customary for Lucius to humour such parleys even if they would not amount to anything. The old Marquis of Nalora seemed to take great joy in attending them to help him gauge his opponent somewhat, and his son appeared to be no different.
"Something is not right here…."
"There seems to be a too few of them, don't you think?"
BOOM!
Railius said while the clashing of steel could be heard in the distant battlefield where Leon was fighting when a resounding boom surprised everyone present as the two grandmasters finally began their fight, making everyone look in that direction, including the vice count.
'They really have it in for each other, huh?'
Railius thought as he recalled the palpable tension between them during his meeting with Duke Ancel.
"Didn't we tell them to hold back?"
"Why do they always have to take everything seriously and never have fun?"
Railius grumbled, talking to himself as usual, scolding Leon, but at least now, even a grandmaster would have trouble finding out their fight was staged due to the hate and killing intent the two men radiated that even 5 miles away could be felt.