Jacques Giroux was sweating. He and his mercenary company needed this contract. They were one of the many companies that had made their way to Stormbreaker. When rumours of work came down to the companies in the Empire, Giroux’s lancers had taken the first boat north across the Enclosed Sea. There were no local wars of conquest in the north of the Empire and so the company needed work.

As it was the company did not even have enough money to take passage back south. They had been among the first to arrive in the city and apparently one of the only groups of mercenaries that had not been hired. Usually having a good reputation and being a quality cavalry troop put them in the group of first hires. Something was different about this Stormbreaker work, whatever it was. Every dishonest company with barley more than a few foot soldiers with spears was being put under retainer.

They were being put under retainer and they were not working. Almost all of the honest companies had shipped back south and all of the mercs put on retainer would not say who they were working for, where their war was and who they were supposed to fight against. That kind of loyalty, from a shady mercenary, cost coin, a lot of coin.

If this contract was not successfully negotiated, then affording food for the horses would be an issue. It had started out looking to be a simple process. A boy no older than sixteen had come to look for a mercenary company to hire. The boy was wearing fine leather armour and had an incredibly beautiful sword. Jacques did not know to which Nevares noble house the kraken emblem decorating the pommel belonged. However, judging by the quality of the armour and the sword the family must have been wealthy.

Usually when a noble family allowed their younger generation to negotiate contracts with mercs the work was light, and the pay was good. Perhaps they needed and escort or something of that nature. With this young noble the first thing he did was to inspect the quality of all of their horses. He had found them passable. That was an absurd understatement as their horses were some of the finest animals in the enclosed sea. They were descendants of eastern plains horses the most renowned horses in the Empire. He had inspected their armour, weapons, and tack. When he was finally done, he agreed to hire them on two conditions. First, they needed to meet a woman called Agace Martel and second, they had to comply to allow Erec to train them further in the art of war.

Jacques had almost refused on the spot. The impudence of this boy thinking that they had something to learn from him. However, they really needed the work, it also sounded like an easy job a month of guard duty followed by and escort for this Lady Agace up to Cardell. He had reluctantly agreed. He and his company had followed Erec to a grand palace. On the way Erec had described lady Agace and her circumstances. Jacques had been confused by the nature of the relationship between the two. Upon inquiry Erec had said, “I suppose you could say that for now, I’ve been employed by her to do a job.”

Jacques thought that that was the end of it and the contract was guaranteed. He just had to meet this Lady Agace and then he could begin deploying his men to guard her. That was where he was right now sweating as Agace scrutinized him. She was beautiful almost, in an otherworldly way. She had been staring at him now for almost five minutes without saying anything. Erec had left on other business with another woman named Arabelle. Before he had left, he gave Jacques a complex but competent guard deployment plan for his company of fifty men.

After another prolonged moment Agace clapped and smiled, “very well captain Giroux I think you will do well. I only have one piece of advice for you before you start your duties. I am sure that Erec requested that he be allowed to train you and your men. I am sure that to you that sounded like an absurd condition, and you were planning to humour him.”

Jacques sweated even more profusely. That had been his exact plan.

Agace continued, “take it seriously. I am not saying this for my sake but for yours. You and your men would be fools to waste this opportunity. I also want you to observe Erec as much as you can and after you realise just how special he is consider whether or not such a man is only worth following for the term of one contract.”

Jacques blinked but looking into Agace’s knowing smile he decided to take her advice seriously. “Yes, my lady.” He said with a bow.

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Erec had managed to subdue Arabelle to assist him rather easily. He had just taught her a little about spy craft and subterfuge. After that she seemed keen to assist him in his conquest of the criminal underbelly of the city. The rest of the blue bloods had also not taken much convincing. Apparently, the local thieves guild had become somewhat of a de facto tyrant. The blue bloods now acted as his local force of spies. He had decided not to overtake the criminal element using his own name but rather build off of the mysterious groundwork he had laid with the smugglers. To that end he always wore his mask when dealing with this business. He also had always used a different accent so that no one knew his voice.

Arabelle and the others were off at the moment finding out who all of the noble bachelors were in the city and any information especially dirt that might turn Agace off the idea of marrying them. It was frustrating that the woman had no idea who she wanted to marry. Apparently, she had been almost a shut in before now.

Erec was crouched on the roof of a tavern that the smugglers on whose boat he had taken south use as a meeting place. The owner rented the second story to them as well as the basement for the storage of some of their sensitive goods. He had found a small hole in the roof and had his ear pressed against it. From the interior he heard a conversation in progress.

“But you don’t know how good this Imperial is. We tried to kill him on the boat, but he fought off all of us at once. He didn’t even have to kill or injury any of us. He said he would kill us if we don’t join him.”

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“Relax, you and your men are not exactly fighters. Besides I hired on a few enforcers from the thieves guild. They are downstairs round the clock for when this guy comes back.”

One of the voices was familiar to Erec from the boat. The other was not but he was most likely the man who ran this group of smugglers. For his new purposes this group of enforcers might make it better. If he made this bloody enough perhaps the rest of the criminals of Stormbreaker would give up without too much trouble.

Erec made his way to the window and after pausing to wait for the most dramatic moment in the conversation, he kicked in the shutters and jumped into the room. The crash generated by the shutters banging against the walls brought all of the room’s occupants to a sudden silence.

“Gentleman,” said Erec beginning in the same Imperial accent he had used on the boat, “I believe from the men downstairs my offer has been refused. The good news is that I do not have to kill you all to make my point. Just some of you will do. Maybe thirty percent of you will be enough to make seriousness apparent. Not including those men you placed down stairs. I think most of them will have to go.”

After a brief pregnant silence, the man Erec assumed was the boss found his voice, “listen you ominous imperial bastard. It does not work that way; you can’t just walk into Stormbreaker and tell us to join or die.”

Erec changed his accent to one from across the Eastern Sea, “I am afraid that it does work that way when nobody can stop me.My offer has also expired.”

Erec moved quickly to the closest man to him and dropped him with a punch to the gut. Enough to wind him and perhaps crack a rib but not to enough force kill him. Erec only wanted to get the confrontation started. He hadn’t brought his sword with him as it was too noticeable. Besides he wanted to stick to the mysterious stranger routine and that would be better accomplished if he killed these men with their own weapons.

These men where not fighters, just as their boss had said, and it showed when they rushed Erec in an uncoordinated scramble of daggers. One man even tried to throw his at Erec. It had about as much power as it would have if the man had thrown underarm. Erec plucked it out of the air and demonstrated perfect technique when he threw the knife and buried it in its owners’ neck. Blood spurted from the man’s jugular, blinding one of his unfortunate compatriots.

Erec ducked the slash of the first man to reach him. At the same time, he used the motion as an opportunity to slip the spare knife out of the man’s belt. He then plunged the blade into another man’s inner thigh, servery a major artery. Erec followed this with a well-placed kick that broke the ankle of a fat smuggler. As the man fell Erec spun over his back. On the other side of his spin, Erec brought his foot down on the boss’s head.

The room was a confusion of blood and screaming. Most of the smugglers had not manged to follow Erec’s movements and they now stood stunned as they looked at Erec standing with his foot poised to crush their boss’s throat.

Erec used the moment to speak to the assembled company, “let the city know that every criminal in this sad excuse for a capital has the same option you did. I assume that I will have made my point after I take care of those heavies running up the stairs. I will even let you keep this one to run your crew, “Erec said pressing a little harder on the boss’s neck.”

With that Erec lifted his foot off of the boss’s neck and strode to the door leading downstairs. He arrived just as it was thrown open. He met the first thug with a kick to the chest, propelling him back down the stairs and knocking his fellow goons down with him. Erec could kill them all with a single knife strike to the neck, but he needed to make a show. The more violent he was now the less violent he would need to be in the future. After all the idea was to have the criminal class work for him not to kill them all off. Before the enforcers could recover, he slashed each of their eyes out. They tried to resist but they were caught off guard and Erec was just too skilled.

After they were all dead from blood loss Erec walked calmly out of the tavern through the front door. Nobody tried to stop him.

He made it six blocks away before he collapsed to his knees and vomited. What had he done? He had just killed a building full of men and thought nothing of the morality of his actions. Those men had not died because they had committed some unforgivable sin. They had just been in his way. As soon as he had come to the conclusion that getting the criminals under his control was the fastest way to achieve his goals and gather enough power to help Agace, he had moved forward without a second thought. He knew he could do it; he knew that it was the best and fastest way to get what he wanted. He knew they couldn’t stop him. No one could stop him. There was nothing and nobody that could stop him.

The worst part was that he still did not feel guilty. He had to let Agace chose her husband, and this was the best way to accomplish that goal. It was more than that though. The crime in Stormbreaker was improperly managed and he could do a better job. Knowing that was eating away at him and he felt compelled to take charge.

Suddenly Erec remembered or thought he remembered something from his past life. He had been cursed. Cursed with competence. He was starting to realise how unchecked competence could be a curse. This epiphany would not stop him though. Nothing would stop now that he had started to walk down this road.

Over the next two weeks similar scenes of death and blood repeated themselves all over the city. All the while Erec had Arabelle and the blue bloods gather information on potential suitors for Agace and feed her back the information. She had yet to make a choice. Erec also took some time to train Giroux and his men. They would be needed if the rumours of civil war he heard during his espionage and conquest where true.

The citizens of Stormbreaker started referring to those two weeks as the fortnight of blood. Lacking a name for the masked bringer of death that had descended on the city, people started to call his alter ego The Imperial, after the first accent he was heard using. After the fortnight of blood, the only holdouts to his take over were the thieves guild upper management. Most organizations and independents were happy to fall under his protection once they saw how efficiently he started to run things.

With this success he could move on to actually using his newfound position to influence Agace’s marriage all he needed was a target. To that end he approached Agace for the first time in two weeks.

“So have you decided. The blue bloods must have given you more details on the nobility than even the king’s spymaster knows.” Erec said perched on the same window that he had come through two weeks ago when he reached Stormbreaker.

Agace pouted, “no small talk? I have not seen you in two weeks. Why don’t we have tea?”

Erec rolled his eyes and responded, “there is no time. I need to know your answer so that I can move forward.”

Agace smiled with a mischievous twinkle in her eye and answered, “very well. I chose you Erec Foundling. I chose you to be my husband.”

Erec fell from the window in surprise.