"Never forget that the world is large and that there is always someone better than you."
"Because if you do, then when you migrate from your small lake to the wide-open sea."
"Then you won't even see when a shark comes to eat you up and that you are nothing more than meat on another chopping block."
Darius Hartguard, Second Commander of the Pelican Guards and Captain of Sigismond Security Company
….
"Sigismond security service? Never heard of it! What makes you think you can do a better job than us, who have been doing this sort of thing for years?"
Captain Packard shouted, his anger still boiling over at these unknown people who dared to think that they could compete with one of the foremost mercenary companies in the duchy for this job.
Don't be deceived by how House Aurellion has a plethora of expert and master fighters at their disposal. Most professional soldiers are either at the intermediate or adept level, and it is only because each Pelican Guard is a veteran and trained by a unique training manual that it is possible for all of them to be expert fighters.
Usually, expert fighters like Packard were low-ranking officers in the military, similar to how Aldorus and Darius were captains when they were expert fighters at The Battle of Brunag when they were under Lucius Aurellion's command, so Packard did not make this claim with no basis as finding anyone who could match the force that The Red Blades had mustered would be a challenge.
"May I ask the good sir's name?"
Sigismond asked, maintaining his calm and decorum.
"I am Ellis Packard, a captain in the Red Blades. Are you scared yet? Surely you have heard of us."
Captain Packard asked, as usually all it took was one mention of their name, and even low-level officials in the duchy would show them respect, afraid of offending them, but the fear that the arrogant human expected to find in Sigismond's face was absent.
Instead, he looked indifferent, as if the person in front of him was not a well-known captain and mercenary but just another arrogant fellow for him to beat down and show him his place. It was concerning how confident this mysterious person seemed to be.
"Indeed, I have heard of your group's many impressive exploits and how some of your clients mysteriously die and disappear on your watch!"
"Impressive! How impressive! So impressive I have no idea how you can be so shameless as to say you have a good reputation."
Sigismond said sarcastically, moving his hands in a large, expressive manner.
"Young master Ralston, you must watch out and not trust people with such an impressive dubious reputation and indulgence of failure."
Sigismond said, chuckling to himself as he saw Packard's face get redder and redder when he was serving under Lucius in the Chavarian military; he had seen how his lord dealt with arrogant nobles and over years of loyal service, picked up a few things he could not count how many haughty nobles had spat up blood after meeting and having to deal with their eccentric common-born lord.
"You! You!"
"You dare!"
Packard said, still in shock at the man's words, as never had anyone dared to speak to them in such a way as the duke himself favoured this group! Did this man want to die? Did he think that they willingly failed in their missions without reason?
That is obviously not the case, and it was at someone's instigation instead! But who could have so much power and influence in the duchy to arrange for these sorts of things, even to the point that they can influence things in the duchy's capital? Only the duke himself held that kind of power and influence! Did this guy want to make an enemy of the duke? Was he blind and not see that other guy hanging from the city gates who dared to go against the duke's will and protect whomever they wanted?
It was well-known that the duke was in charge of which caravans got guards and which happened to be 'waylaid' on the road.
"What about you? You have no reputation or experience! How can we know whether you can defend them from bandits and won't run at the first sign of trouble? Our leader had already shown his sincerity by providing these veterans to young master Ralston, and now you have the audacity to falsely accuse us!"
"If you are so confident in your skills, why don't we have a duel to test them!?"
Packard shouted, challenging Sigismond to a duel, thinking that he would back down from the challenge.
"Fine! However, it would not be fair for me to fight you as I am not that skilled in combat but have some minor strategic abilities, so I have been elected by my comrades to lead them. How about you fight one of my men instead who is more skilled at arms?"
Sigismond proposed taking on a humble role. Of course, his words were lies mixed in with the truth. It would be unfair if he fought with Packard as he was a master fighter and could wipe the floor with the arrogant captain within a few seconds, as the commanders of the Pelican Guards each have the skill of a vice general or even a general with only the experienced great generals and master strategists being better than them.
Sigismond took his lord's orders at least semi-seriously, not wanting to expose his skill so quickly but wanting to gain a good reputation for the security company that no matter who they are up against, they are not afraid and will do what they have agreed.
He had long learnt from Leon's example in Chavaria that staying low and holding back your skills can be very useful in times of strife, as your enemies will underestimate you, giving you a better chance of victory as the precautions that you take when dealing with master fighters is far different than a small group of mercenaries who at best may have a few experts among them.
Unfortunately, this was not entirely in line with his lord's orders to stay low and out of the way but was in line with his other orders to create a good reputation for their organisation, so the Pelican Guard commander being far more flexible with orders than Leon and Aldorus decided that the order to build a reputation took precedence knowing that they needed to quickly establish themselves or within a few weeks or months they would starve!
If Railius were here, he would have stopped Sigismond, AKA Darius, but he was not and is currently suffering through the training of both Leon and Baron Melwin and, as a result, unavailable to stop Darius from doing something that would bring him much bother in the near future.
"Lucian!"
Sigismond called out in an authoritative voice that was used to having his every word taken seriously as a 6-foot-tall human with chestnut brown hair came forward wearing the same light mail as his other comrades, a gift from the Duke of Plantaria to the Pelican Guards to allow them to act as guards without arousing suspicion for wearing their distinctive armour.
"Captain."
Lucian said, respectfully bowing to his superior, drawing his sword and getting ready to fight The Red Blades captain.
"Captain Packard, surely you won't refuse a duel from a company as humble as ours, or people would think that you and The Red Blades were afraid of us."
Sigismond said, ruthlessly hammering the final nail into Packard's coffin as he had now cornered the Red Blades captain. If Packard fought and lost, he would ruin his mercenary group's reputation as competent fighters that they had spent years building, and if he refused, he would seem afraid of this unknown person, but it would still be better than losing to these strange foreigners.
What put Packard off, though, was the man's accent. While many countries had their own languages, there was a common tongue that everyone used as it helped to facilitate negotiations between the many nations of the world, and this man's accent was one he was not too familiar with.
'What in God's name is a Chavarian doing in our duchy? Who are they aligned with?'
The man wondered but quickly put such thoughts out of his mind and focused on the battle to come.
"Fine, I'll fight your man and make you regret messing with the Red Blades! Let's see how arrogant you are when you're on the ground where you belong, spitting blood and begging for mercy."
Packard said arrogantly, drawing his own sword as the two began to circle each other. The tension in the large city walkway grew to a knife's point as curious passersby stopped to spectate this unusual confrontation that was the most exciting thing to happen that day, wondering who was bold enough to challenge one of the most prestigious mercenary groups in the duchy who had the support of the duke himself.
Packard started with a thrust that was faint and quickly turned it into a horizontal slash, looking for the belly of Lucian, who calmly watched and deflected the attack, staying on the defensive so he could learn more about the mercenary captain's moves.
'How can he be so skilled? What kind of background do these people have to fight so well?'
Packard thought, for as the duel went on and seconds turned into minutes, he found that the disparity between his and Lucian's skill seem to widen to the point that he was nearly overwhelmed as he barely parried Lucian's last blow, his muscles straining as his steel sword bit into the side of his mail armour due to the power of one of Lucian's strikes though it did not get through the steel links.
This man's skill seemed otherworldly. Despite being of the same skill rank, he was treated like a child, as if all of his experience and moves were seen through by the man before him, who seemed to have breathed war all of his life.
This was not an entirely wrong assessment as Lucian had accompanied House Aurellion and its old lord since its earliest days and even before they received their noble title, being under Lucius Aurellion, the Marquis of Nalora and Great General of the Chavarian Empire since he was but a lowly captain slowly climbing through the ranks.
He had seen how the Chavarian minister of war, Amulius Lunaris, had meticulously trained the intelligent man and then how General Drusus did after him and had lived through 2 decades of war and fought together to forge a mighty empire that was destined to become one of the few superpowers of the world.
With all this experience under Lucian's belt, Captain Packard stood no chance against him, let alone with the training he got as a Pelican Guard being personally guided and trained by a grandmaster fighter as there was a reason why even the Chavarian Imperial Guard known throughout the world for their martial prowess struggled when going against these loyal bodyguards of House Aurellion.
If even such renowned and battle-hardened soldiers struggled against the Pelican Guards, then these mercenaries stood no chance at all!
Lucian knew that Darius wanted to establish the reputation of their security company over the corpse of the Red Blades reputation, and so he did his best to humiliate Packard as best he could and dragged out the battle as despair began to appear on both Packard and his men's face.
Ralston looked at the duel surprised, only having seen such skill when he saw two master fighters fight, but it was clear that both men were at the peak of the expert level, so their fight was only slightly less glamorous but much easier to follow, making for better entertainment.
Skillfully twirling his steel blade as gracefully as a ballerina with a flick, Lucian sent Packard's blade clattering to the floor, then sent a kick to the boastful man's chest as an audible cracking sound rang out throughout the street as one of the Red Blades captain's ribs broke, and he was sent flying 6 feet through the air before crashing onto the paved street spluttering for air.
Only a few seconds behind him was Lucian walking deliberately slowly towards the downed man as his men stood rooted to the spot in fear. If even their respected captain got his ass handed to him by this demon, then they did not stand a chance and just looked on with pity as this demon went forward to torment Packard more!
"Lucian, enough! He has learnt where his place is now."
Sigismond said as he came forward, ordering his man to stop now that their opponent was beaten in such a pitiful way. He then calmly knelt next to the fallen mercenary captain as his voice became cold and dripped with a killing intent that until that moment had been hidden and suppressed by Sigismond, who wanted to seem as meek as possible.
"Let me teach you a lesson, captain. Take it as payment for sacrificing your group's reputation for us…."
Sigismond whispered in the man's ear, his voice faint like that of ghosts as he put fear into the fallen man and the captain's eyes grew wide with terror.
"Arrogance is only arrogance…."
"When you don't have the ability to back it up."
"And that when someone comes at you like we have…."
"They have usually done their research and have come prepared! Remember that, and next time, you won't have such an ending where you and your group's reputation lay in tatters beneath my boots."
"Just like you are now."