For completing the Join Your Family For Dinner and Defeat Klaus In A Duel quests Victor garnered a good haul of rewards.
There was a combined total of 7000 Store Points which was a plentiful amount of points that could prove to buy some useful items if they were available in the store. Victor hoped there were some
Next, there was a low-level skill book of Victor's choosing which was a bit underwhelming. Nevertheless, it was still better than nothing. In the end, Victor ended up choosing a low-level socialite skill book. For his plans in bolstering his reputation mingling with heirs of other dukedoms and kingdoms was a definite requirement so being adept at socialising was required.
Finally, there was the 100-Man Infantry Unit summon. Victor was intent on getting more Polish Line Infantry after seeing how well they had performed during the defence of the military outpost.
'Once I take over the Luxenberg Dukedom our neighbours like the Cruyff Dukedome or the Grand Duchy of Maximillian might try to expand and think of conquering us.' Victor thought while using the 100-Man Infantry Unit summon.
After dealing with the low-level skill book and his infantry summon, Victor's attention turned to the store in hopes of there being any good items to buy. To his surprise all the options for that day were rubbish. Multiple low-level skill books wasted half the store slots. The remaining 2 out of the 5 slots were filled with Legendary-Level Commander summons but they both cost 100,000 store points a piece. The last 3 items were unit summons. There were 2 100-Man Infantry Unit summons and there was 1 10-Gun artillery unit, however, that cost 10,000 Store Points.
"Realistically my outpost does not have the room for any more soldiers. It would be more beneficial to me to save my points for something more suitable to my needs." Victor admitted to himself. His current needs were to create a faction inside the Dukedom to combat the people who supported the twins and the best way to do that was to spread the news of his victory.
Ordering his servants to spread the word of his victory against the Klaus they immediately went to work. Victor's summoned maid Florence was well-liked by many of the maids in the castle so spreading the information through her social circles was quite easy. Sebastian, Victor's summoned butler had formed small bonds with the palace's kitchen staff and spread the word through them. To Victor's advantage, the soldiers stationed at the training grounds began to tell their comrades about what had happened.
Within 3 days everyone in the palace knew of Klaus's defeat. The topic was hot gossip for the week to come. Klaus had been confined in his room forced to study by his mother or was at the training ground striving to get better and have a chance at defeating Victor again. During those 3 days, Victor met his new group of 100 Polish Line Infantrymen and sent them to the military outpost.
It had been 2 weeks since Victor's duel with Klaus and much had been accomplished. Support for Klaus had begun to waiver. Some advisors and commanders from Klaus's faction had defected to Victor. The scales were beginning to even out a bit, Klaus's faction still was the more dominant of the two though.
In general opinions about Victor had been swayed, the once judgemental maids who often gossiped about him were now courteous towards him. Some of the soldiers who saw Victor gave slight nods of respect as he walked by. Considered weak and pathetic and a failure, Victor had managed to change many people's views of him.
With a growing faction and public opinion swayed the next step was to branch out and mingle with high society. Coincidentally there was a perfect event that Victor could attend to debut the new him.
His maternal grandparents, the Duke and Duchess Cassell were holding a party to celebrate their wedding anniversary. They both married at the age of 21 and were now together for 50 years. There was no better place to debut the new Victor than at that party. A lot of prominent people will most likely be attending, so there were a lot of potential connections to be formed while there.
The Cassell Dukedom's capital city of Leblanc was a two-week march, however, if you were to ride there it could shave off a few days. The event was set to take place in 3 weeks so Victor had plenty of time to organise his journey.
During the week leading up to his departure, Victor used the money he had saved from completing questing and looting his enemies to buy the latest fashionable attire available as well as a present for his grandparents. He also went to a stylist who managed to give him a stylish medium-length haircut.
Having finished that he summoned Sebastian and Florence. Although he had gotten a low-grade socialite skill book, the intricacies of these types of social gatherings were quite foreign to Victor.
In his last few days before leaving Sebastian taught Victor basic etiquette when dealing with his peers or people with higher authority. This included how to be a gentleman in case he was faced with dealing with noble ladies. Florence was assigned to teach Victor how to dance. At first, he was terribly clumsy, the socialite skill book didn't seem to cover dancing, but after practising for multiple days he managed to get to an average level where he wouldn't embarrass himself.
A day before his departure he sent Sebastian to the military outpost with a missive for General Rapp. It was orders to send 10 of his Royal Scots Grey cavalrymen to accompany him to the city of Leblanc. As per his lord's will the cavalrymen were dispatched immediately with gear and supplies.
By the morning the party was assembled, consisting of Victor and his two servants Sebastian and Florence, they were accompanied by 10 Royal Scots Grey cavalrymen. Fully prepared, the party began their journey to Leblanc.