"House Aurellion."
"I had long heard of their exploits while serving under the emperor of Chavaria."
"But since the death of Lucius Aurellion and their fall from power, I, like many others, just thought of them as another failed upstart noble house who fell due to sticking out too much.
"Until that day."
"The day I received a message from the Count Nidor Pagnar."
"Detailing the scheme they pulled off in Detarnor and claiming they both thought of it and led its execution."
"Since then, I have always watched for members of that fallen noble house."
"And for that 10-year-old lord who seemed far more capable than people could ever have expected."
Kodjis Kendari, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Nathia.
….
Nidor, the Count of Brineyard, gazed upon Duke Ridorfin's capital; its tall stone walls loomed ominously overhead as even 60 miles away, they could be seen in the distance. Behind him, a trail of prisoners was dragged along in a long line. Each man was tied to the man in front of them in a coffle-like manner as they were led along to certain death; the end of the rope was in the hands of one of the knights that accompanied the count on his 'hunting trip' though what he actually hunted was debatable.
Because humans were not something that people typically thought of as prey.
Entering through the large city gates, the gate guards dared not to stop the Count, who was one of the most powerful vassals the duke had who alone could raise an army of 8-10 thousand men if he wished, though some of those would be needed to guard the castles that dotted the multiethnic man's domain.
The count also represented the reason why it was essential for a lord to have the support of his vassals, as they could marshal large armies that could be used to bolster their own ranks, allowing lords who were loved by their subjects to raise a large and powerful army.
However, this system does have one huge drawback, for it allows nobles to have their own standing armies. So, if they decide to rebel, these armies could be used against a king or lord, which is why kings try to create large standing armies that can be used as a deterrent against rebellions like this.
Upon entering the city, people gasped, seeing members of the renowned mercenary group The Red Blades amongst the prisoners caught by the count, who had already sent a messenger to loudly proclaim that he was arriving in the capital with a gift for Duke Ridorfin.
Of course, everyone knew of the animosity between the Count of Brineyard and the Duke of Detarnor, and so they were wondering whether this gift would be good or bad, but now it was obvious to everyone.
The gift was bad. No, not just bad; it was the worst gift he could possibly give his liege lord.
Everyone knew of the close relationship between Duke Ridorfin and The Red Blades and suspected that many of the Duke's less than lawful actions were done by these men, but because no one had been able to defeat or capture them, these remained rumours. But it seemed like something had changed.
Someone had finally caught them in the act; worse, it was the duke's biggest internal political headache.
The Count of Brineyard, Nidor Pagnar.
One of the few people with enough power to resist the duke's influence and the worst person possible to catch Ridorfins' men in their dubious acts for the count has no fear, as evidenced in the way he so blatantly brought Captain Packard and the rest of the bandits tied up to the duchy capital and publicly paraded them around for all to see cutting off any chance of Duke Ridorfin from covering up this incident.
Seeing who the Count had captured, it did not take long for the duke's many agents and the city guards to report to the master of Detarnor.
….
Crash!!
In the Duke of Detarnor's opulent audience chamber, a sapphire-encrusted silver chalice was thrown to the floor with such force that one of the opel green stones meticulously incorporated into the chalice popped out and scattered on the red carpeted floor.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY!!!"
"Count Nidor has brought Captain Packard tied up to the capital and paraded him in public?!
"IMPOSSIBLE! COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE!"
"HOW CAN 50 MEN KILL 400?"
Duke Ridorfin roared angrily with a red face as he stood up from his golden throne. His eyes bulged out of his head, surprised at this news as he had put in much effort to ensure the demise of Ralston's merchant caravan to the point of spending an exorbitant amount of money on hiring a master-level fighter to suppress Count Nidor because he expected him to intervene. The meticulous duke even watched all of the count's experts. Hence, he knew that only the count and a few of his household knights were gallivanting around the duchy and were in no way a force capable of dealing with the 400 men he had sent after the caravan with the duke restrained.
Ridorfin had even dispatched many of his skilled agents with the bandits to ensure the operation's success, only for it to fail miserably, and worse, one of the leaders of The Red Blades was captured while committing this act by a powerful noble no less!
If it were a commoner or even a noble with little power, then he could have found ways to discredit what they said or 'persuade' them to change their testimony, but he was not dealing with a noble of little status or power! He was dealing with Count Nidor Pagnar!
Who was Count Nidor Pagnor?
He was a man who not only did not fear the duke's retaliation but also had contacts within the royal court that he could pull to help him out. He was widely recognised as the Duke of Detarnor's largest political opponent.
He had contacts not only in the royal court but within the regular Nathian army, too!
Duke Ridorfin had pulled many strings to get Nidor and his father assigned as reinforcements to Nartook Fortress when it was under siege by Lucius Aurellion and even managed to get him to take part in dangerous missions in the hope that they would die in battle and relieve the duke of this troublesome father and son.
It also happened that both were skilled at military affairs, so even if they wanted to refuse, they could not, but what was the result?
The annoying father died, but his son had gained something invaluable.
The friendship and support of The King's Sword Great General Ranier Lantier, the man with the most powerful army in the kingdom. Even the king's royal guards and capital defence forces would have to fall when faced with this grandmaster strategist and his legions of war veterans, let alone a duke like him.
It was not because the royal guards were weak. In fact, the Nathian royal guards are the strongest force in the kingdom, being a unique unit, with each guard able to stand up to two or even three regular soldiers alone, but it was because the royal guards would not be led by a grandmaster strategist like Ranier's elite army was! This was because the royal guards were almost exclusively commanded in war by the king or a member of the royal family unless their commander was a talented strategist, but as their primary purpose was to be bodyguards for the royal family, protecting them 24/7 from any man or force that wanted to do them harm.
Only 1 commander of the Nathian royal guards had ever managed to become a grandmaster strategist, as their primary selection criteria were not based on their brains and skill at war but as fighters, as most of the time, their job was to prevent assassinations, not go to war though if used correctly they had the best war potential in the kingdom.
As such, unless the royal family has managed to produce a grandmaster strategist, they are rarely led to their full potential.
To understand this, you must first understand the difference between a grandmaster strategist and a master strategist, which was as wide as it was between a grandmaster fighter and a master fighter, if not worse, as a grandmaster strategist could play a master strategist like a puppet making them fall into trap after trap until their force is all but destroyed.
But it was not just this that frightened the duke but what this great general was capable of.
Ranier Lantier was loyal to the royal family and rarely interfered with the politics of the capital, but each time he did, something huge happened, so huge that it could change the political situation in the kingdom in one move.
When Ranier went after a noble house, they lost their territory and their lives, and more recently, when Ranier supported Prince Kodjis, he managed to make him the crown prince of Nathia, meaning that if the mediocre king ever died, this genius would take the throne as its legitimate successor and anyone who tried to do anything else would be seen as nothing but traitors by the people and nobles loyal to the king but more importantly to Ranier Lantier himself and the 70,000+ troops that he could muster.
As a result, something spectacular happened for the first time in over 200 years! The nobles who would generally try to kill a king or lower his power so that they could get their preferred candidate on the throne in an attempt to gain profit suddenly tried their best to make the old king last for as long as he could and even supported him more so that Kodjis would not take the throne or any significant power and begin to deal with them one by one.
This was how afraid many of the corrupted nobility and courtiers in the royal court were of Kodjis, who had already exposed multiple people and had somehow predicted each and every one of their moves.
Despite appearances, this was not the first time the duke had gotten this news. He just thought that lies were almost impossible, thinking that Winston used it as an excuse to take his money while doing nothing to help.
Winston was not one of the duke's loyal experts. Instead, he was a renowned mercenary master fighter who worked for the highest bidder and was contracted by Duke Ridorfin because he just so happened to be in the duchy and would have no obvious links to the duke, so even if the operation went wrong or he was captured the duke would be safe.
But the report he got from him seemed impossible because it said that Count Nidor did not move at all! Instead, the bandits, which included his skilled agents, were cleanly and ruthlessly defeated entirely by that security company that Ralston paid to guard the merchant caravan. He described how the caravan guards cut down the bandits like a scythe harvesting wheat and how even Captain Packard and his men struggled against these gods of death despite being experts, as Sigismond's men worked together seamlessly to take them down and even 1 on 1, they seemed to be outmatched.
But how could 50 men take on 400 and win?
Only the Nathian royal knights were capable of that!
Or Count Pagnar was allowed to intervene freely and slaughter the bandits with ease as he alone would be enough to kill all 400 men that took part in this operation, albeit with a few wounds and being exhausted afterwards, but with no other hostile forces around that was irrelevant.
Was Winston bribed by Count Pagnar, or maybe that genius crown prince?
The count was definitely rich enough to do it if he cared to, but he would not do so for a merchant, so that possibility was off the table.
No, the crown prince must be the one behind this! No one else has the capability, audacity or resources to pull off something like this because if Nidor could pull off something like this, he would have already!
There didn't even appear to be any master fighters among Sigismond and his men, and no sane mercenary company would assign more guards than a client had paid for like Sigismond did because who in their right mind would supply 150 men when they were only paid to give 50?
It made no sense as no mercenary company had ever done that before as it was not profitable! Yet now this new mercenary company had, and worse, these 150 men, taking only 10 or so casualties, actually managed to defeat 400 men, and of those 400 ¼, of them were at the expert level and, worse, almost annihilate the whole force while taking prisoners.
Since when were royal knight-class soldiers so easy to come by?
Not even when Vice Count Valentine reported that the soldiers were likely ex-soldiers and veterans under Lucius Aurellion's command did his confidence waver as the duke was not a warrior nor a military man and so had little knowledge of just how fearful people were of this upstart general as all he knew was that he helped to create Chavaria alongside Drusus and then failed to attack Nartook Fortress because he was too far away to affect the Ridorfin too much so he did not care too much for the man.
Any man even remotely military-inclined would pale when told that veterans of Lucius Aurellion were around, but while the duke was excellent at politics and scheming, he was not strong in military affairs, entrusting most of them to the marshal and generals under his command and so this report did not seem to be relevant as he ignored it.
And this was the grim result.
His agents were dead, his allies implicated in crimes that warranted the death penalty, and there was nothing he could do about it. Even the refugee camp said they no longer had anything to do with the mercenaries and wanted to settle down. Some had even gotten jobs and contributed to taxes and the local economy, giving him no justification to deal with such well-behaved and helpful refugees.
Many lords and nations would be jealous to have such people in their lands as refugees usually needed to be fed by them for months before becoming useful for anything, but these ones just came, spent money, paid taxes, and lived. But all the duke wanted to do was vent his anger at something, and so the unfortunate cup became the sacrifice to help calm the duke down while trying to figure out what the hell had happened and how, in God's name, he had failed!
Ridolfin's mind raced as he tried to devise countermeasures when a guard ran in and kneeled before the duke.
"Your grace, Count Nidor Pagnar, the Count of Brineyard, requests an audience."
The guard said respectfully as the duke let out a resigned sigh, composing himself while the court looked on with fear at who would be the next to be on the end of the duke's angry outburst.
"Let him in."