Elise knocked the door, i dressed and opened the door to see her with a sly smile. I woke up my new wife, i had the chance to hear her new favorite song in the morning.
In the dinner hall, Francis was eating, with the old Count who was speaking with mom.
The Old Duke, the other 3 Counts and their families were eating too. We ate breakfast and chatted with Francis, i proposed to every young to go to hunt magical beast. A girl from Count Von Bert family asked if we could hunt for cubs, and if i could teach them taming, a wish shared by the Ladies of each families. I agreed, i followed by telling we would picnic in the forest.
A boy wanted a snake as a pet, i had to explain, we didn’t understand snake taming, each animals has their own needs, we couldn’t help him. The day was spent quickly, Ashley assisted me, our taming lessons pleased the audience, we hunted 36 cubs and birds. We will stop the magical beast hunt for 1 or 2 years, since the enchantment and taming put pressure to the wildlife of the baronet.
We told them, we would sell books about druidic language to allow them to understand the magic beasts below rank 3.
A part of our guest left the baronet, leaving the High nobility and merchants who were interested in our baronet products and activities. Dad told me that he was creating a huge business around Goalball and negotiating to get parts of the Dukes chamber of commerce in exchange for the glass crafting process.
The following months will be intense, we will build the arena, organize the tournament, publish 4 books, organize the magical beast races and Goalball tournament. Also have to prepare the baronet to the influx of a lot of nobles and citizen, new inns and employes will be needed.
This is truly the rise of our baronet, we are on a positive momentum, if i earn a promotion thanks to my service our growth will be more secure, we will rely less on the Duke Landerson shadow.
Dad began to create a prime for citizen who have a lot of children, all family having more than 4 children will get money each month to help them. It was a policy that the kingdom used when he was founded, in order to get a fast growth of population.
Once i was done with the lessons, Jules came to me, and told me that the Hydra mens met a unknown intelligent life form, he said monster but i prefer the former.
I used my eyes, i found the Hydra men on the beach, they were in front of people that looked like snake with a humanoid torso, they had scales all over their bodies, and their face were reptilian. i told Jules to take 100 silvers guards, we rushed to assist the Hydra.
Once on the beach, we saw the scaled people, there were another kind of people in the sea, they had a fish tail and human top. The leader of the hydra men Hykro, told me, they didn’t saw an aggressive behavior, he couldn’t understand them, they spoke another language.
I went in front of a Scaled men, who looked like the leader, he was a lot taller than me, his biceps were bigger than my thighs. I initiate the conversation.
« Hello » i waved my hand « John » make a sign toward me.
It answered « Agra lea poric stock », i had to use soul power to force memories of my language in his mind it definitely looked like a aggression.
I concentred my soul power in my hand it began to glow grey, and i began to sing the spell, the creature began to be tense, and backed. It took only a few second for the spell (Transfert memory) to shot to the creature who wasn’t able to dodge it, his companion drew their weapons.
The leader was stunned for a few second, the beach was silent waiting for his reaction.
Light appeared in his dull eyes « John myer name iers Sharlak, ire’s the leader of the last tribe of Nagas, ier came here with the Mermaierds to create an allierance with the Hydra men » he said with a good pronunciation for a first time, he turned toward his people and spoke to them, them withdrew their weapons. A woman, staying in the water called him, they talked a bit.
« Can you use your magic on her, she iers the Mermaierds Queen. » he pointed the last speaker, i casted the spell, the grey beam entered the tailed Queen.
« Hello, I am Merry, Queen of Mermaids, i am here to look for help and shelter. » said the Queen with the most beautiful voice i ever heard. Merry top body was really sexy, she was wearing a clothe made of algues to hide her breasts, her hair were not wet despite the underwater swin. I observed the other mermaids, their human parts were overly beautifull, its a shame that they had a fish part. I ordered, the hydra to find chair, tables and to prepare a feast for our guest
Once everyone was installed, half of the tables were in the water for the mermaids, i told 50 of the guard who followed me to retrun to their baracks and report to dad discreetly. The Queen of Mermaids and the leader of the Nagas began to tell their stories.
They have been hunted by magical beast for decades, until they found a island in front of our coast, at first magical beast didn’t go there because this part of the ocean is poor in mana.
It recently changed when low ranked magical beast began to flood the region, they began to fight between themselves, while using mermaids and nagas as snacks, the two tribes can’t hunt normal fish without danger anymore, their population grew fewer by the year.
They were falling in despair until they saw the Hydra men kill magic beast, they wanted to find a way to help each others.
I told them that Hydra men were my slaves, they earned their strength in exchange of their work. They could get the same strength, they had to accept a contract. The two qualities needed for a better life are obedience and loyalty.
I gave them time to chat between themselves while i tried to see through the underwater wildlife, to see if the ground of the ocean could have metals deposits. I saw only scattered small deposits, of different metals that i didn’t know.
I believe i will use them in the future to escort my future float. The continent where i live is called Ucrecia, it’s separated in two by a chain of mountains, the side of the kingdom of Helias is smaller than the other side by a large margin.
They are also tribes and races that we don’t have in our side. Their is a large deposit in the plain behind the east mountain of the baronet, i plan to mine it, and i plan to access it by boat.
This is the territory of a nomad race, that has the lower body of an horse, the torso of a man, the face of an orc and the ear of an elf. We will have to negotiate with them, if we can pass the tons of magical beast that are present in the water.
Those sea races are welcomed to be a part of my sea army. The merkin Queen and the Nagas chief accepted the offer, and told that only their warriors would be under contract. I agreed, i set up contract with all the people present, the 200 Nagas and 150 mermaids was all that was left of their warriors.
I told the Hydra men to teach them knight training, i will ask mother to come to teach the mermaids, their mana pool is not obstructed however it is mixed with water element.
I arrived home, I dinned with everyone the guest were leaving tomorrow the old generation indulged themselves in wine, I had to answer to all the questions possible about taming beasts, I patiently answered all of them and advised my students to read the new book that will be published.
That night i reunite with all the members of the family excepted Eva who was too young to be trusted with secrets and Elise who was taking care of her. I explained we didn’t need to buy hydras anymore, we had Two tribes under our command in the sea.
Mom said she was interested to work on the boat project but the following months were full booked. In fact Nagas and mermaids needed training before being able to be useful. Ashley was designed as the mermaids teacher, mom will work with Buro and me to put build the arena.
Dad told us the content of his negotiations. We will give the process of manufacturing glass in exchange for 10% of all sells of it within the kingdom and we earn 5% of all benefit made by the dukes chamber of commerce, in exchange for the monopole of the sells of beers and cheeses, we negotiate the price of the products yearly.
For the Goalball, we will create 4 tournament, next year. The silver tournament will be hold in the baronet, the bronze copper and iron will be hold in the 3 counts territories while the Duke and Count Guldan will be the main providers of products and derived product like cloths with teams logos etc...
This is a really good deal not in view of the economic perspective, but for the ties it create with these 5 families. Dad, gifted a lot of our products to our last guests, before their departure. Once again alone, we all took half a day of rest. In the afternoon we did a debrief, Ashley and I were scolded because we didn’t use of our marriage to make friends with other nobles.
It wasn’t our fault, they stayed in group, and didn’t look like they would deign converse with us. I believe, those young people took their parents titles for themselves, or they simply didn’t put our baronet in their eyes.
After the debrief, we did a planning of the work to be done, i had to map the dangerous point, and different potential targets in the forest that is in front of our territory. Dad, mom, Ashley and Elise would prepare the tournaments, grandpa would be in charge of the training of the guards, and Eva would be trained by Buro.
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The forest was vast in the south, it went to the ocean and in the north some part of it went near the border, it went across a lot of nobles lands.
I mapped it all with every resource pointed out. I found 3 bandits lairs, the biggest certainly was the one which attacked us. The strongest magical beast was a rank 7 bear, it was deep in the forest.
If we combine dad strength and our guards we can at most kill a rank 4 at the condition its alone. I showed the map to dad and grandpa, we decided to hunt all magical beast below rank 4 who resided beside the road and obviously exterminate all the bandits groups.
The robbers camps were near Viscount Harlots territory, we chose to take care of the magical beast first, all the guards were mobilized grandpa and me as leaders.
We cleaned the road and 400 meters around it in one month, we had to stop to heal the heavy injured men. While we stopped Buro and i used magic to create inns with a day of travel between each for our future tourists, it will also serve the merchants. We put our loot in the enchanted bags mom made.
It had 20 pockets dimensions where the same objet could be stacked. It came from Kalimdor, mom took 2 years to create one of those bags, The ten bags are used in this expedition, we have put all the fur and meat of magical beast in the bag, time is stopped within those pockets dimensions the meat will stay sane.
We found a lot of cubs and egg, during our hunt, i decided to let the scouts raise them, i kept one fox cub for mom, two eggs, for Eva and Elise.
We cleaned the roads of magical beasts, we directly entered the forest to raid the bandits camps. Grandpa told me, to take command of the raid, he said i need to learn leading troops. Before launching the assault, i needed to look for information.
The camp, was made of wooden houses, this was the smallest band, it had 89 thugs. With our numbers we didn’t really need a plan, i had 500 guards under my order.
I told them to encircle the camp and to stay hidden, i could give order to everyone thanks to the soul link. There was a large rock behind the camp, i told Buro to make steps with magic for the scouts to climb the rock. On top of it they had a good postition to rain our enemies with arrows.
Buro put fire to the scouts arrows, i gave the signal to start the raid. Once the first wave of arrows set fire to the houses, thugs began to panick, they ran trying to put out the fire.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The second wave of arrow fell on them killing a lot of them but they still didn't react. A third followed, the bandits began to take cover, however their only choice was burning house or burning carriages.
Some of them escaped to the forest, i ordered the guards to kill on sight. Actually i really wished to enslave them, we need more habitants in my Baronet, but my guards need to kill to grow as soldier, grandpa agreed to my choice. Moreover some merchants may be remember the face of the men that raided their carvanes.
For the majority of my guards the first battle was on the wall a week ago, they need to be comfortable to the view of blood and flesh. There was scream of pain, dying cry, people shooting « surrender » hands in the air while running, none were spared, this expedition need to be merciless and bloody. I asked Luna and Turo to keep two bandits alive and to deliver them to me. Few minutes later, i had two men int front of me crying and trembling wearing clothes full of holes, asking for forgiveness and mercy.
« I give you one chance to live. you will both taken in separate place and asked a question, if you have the same answer you both keep your life, if your answers are different we will kill both of you. » since bandits steal, we will not let their haul rot here.
I ordered Luna and Turo to take them apart and to ask them where their band spoil was. Both said the biggest house had a cave under it. I looked and saw hole under the house, someone was hiding in it. I told Sako to seize the haul hidden in the cave, and interrogate the occupant.
The hidden man was the leader of the band, i executed him. I didn’t need to question him, in the cave was kept ale, food and 170 silver coins , a few books could be seen. The two bandits... grandpa, killed them, its not like i ever felt like keeping my words.
The second camp, was in a cavern, there was only one entry, few holes for aeration. They were a group of men hiding in a dark cavern, just saying it show how shady it looked.
We killed the two men who looked like sentinels, we smoked them out to kill them with our archers and spells, a few of them died by asphyxia. We waited for the smoke to disolve before looking for their haul.
This bandit band was made of 41 thugs, but they were richer, they had more food, ale, iron weapons of low and mid quality and to finish 12 golds. It was a complete different standing, the other group was a band of beggar compared to them. It let us have a lot expectation for the last and biggest bandits group.
Th last band, was deeper in the forest, they were more organized, they had sentry posts around their headquarter.
It was a village, there were less than 700 thieves , it had a large rectangular fence and 4 wooden towers. I decided to give separated instructions, Luna would lead her scouts to crush the sentry posts.
Grandpa and Sako would be the main offensive forces, they will encircle the enemy. Turo heavy infantry would position itself in front of the main door to block their way out of the encirclement.
Bernard is leading the human troops, they will be polyvalent, attacking by one side and helping the scouts who will transform into archer once the sentry down. Buro will cast fire spell to increase the pressure and the panic of the enemy.
We are better in the soldier quality but less in quantity, we have to strike hard before they reorganize themselves. The sentry were easily killed, my foxes assisted Luna it made a good synergy, its give hope for our new cubs.
The foxes will stay in the wild to scout for potential danger coming from the forest.
Buro launched the attack by a (flame strike), my (pyrotechnic) landed a second behind his spell. The two front wooden towers were consumed by fire. The scouts burning arrows fell on the houses and the wall.
Buro went to the left side to join Bernand to take down the left tower, grandpa and his men followed me to the right side, I casted a (flame strike), an (explosion wave) and a (pyrotechnic), creating a burning hole in the wall, grandpa started his raid, I heard the same explosion to the left side, Sako and Bernard were attacking the left side too.
We didn’t meet an organized defense, we cut through the thugs, they didn’t wear their equipment, few of them had their weapon in hand. I ordered Turo to rush in and Luna to encircle the camp with her men by dispatching small groups around the camp.
We heard a bell ringing, it was the enemy rallying signal. Grandpa chose to put his men in the middle of the Main Street to kill the people answering the gathering call. In the back of the village there was a big house made of stones the bell ringing came from the top of it, we could see men rushing in the house.
CRASH! Turo broke the door, we made a formation in the middle of the village cutting it in two, i told my guards to form group of four and to clean our village part.
From where I was standing i heard clash of metal, pained screams. Twenty minutes later all the guards were back, however the enemy was in formation ready to meet us.
The silver knights could be counted in a hand, less than a dozen bronze knights and less than forty copper knights. But their total number were above 500.
« Team leader give me causality report » I asked
« No injured in my team »
« None of my men were injured » said Luna
« A few light injuries, i sent them in the back lines » said grandpa
« 3 deaths and 2 heavy injured in my team » said Bernard
« Let the injured in a proper shelter, we will end this battle and take care of them after it. They have more troops than us but their quality can’t be compared. » I told them the number of silver, bronze and copper knights, I sent through the soul link their faces and told everyone that they are primary targets. I sent an image to Luna squads to give them their position.
« Bernard, your team stay at the back and watch for sneak attack on us. Turo in the middle, James and Sako on the flank. Silver knights in first line. Once Luna is in place we launch the charge, we follow the heavy infantry pace during the charge. Buro and I will stay in the back to cast spell ». Once I gave instructions they took their posts, both armies were facing each other, there was no need for words. I saw Luna was ready.
« They attacked us during my wedding, they killed 7 guards, it’s time to settle our blood debt. » i screamed for everyone to hear. I took a inspiration.
« Charge » I lunged it as warrior like as I could.
I was in the back of the running guards, Turo was was running in front of everyone the tall Tauren had long legs the heavy armor was light weighted for him, I had a brief feeling of compassion for his first opponent.
The impact gave a loud crushing noise, the man flew throwing all his companions to the ground. My guards walked over the body of the fallen squashing them to death.
The heavy armor units charge finished when Turo was in the middle of the enemy troops. Luna unit began to let loose arrows damaging the enemy flanks.
Buro and I casted spells, he continued to use fire spell like (fireball), (fire arrow), (fire spear) while I used lighting spells without restrain (lightning bolt) and (lightning chain) this spell was kind of fun, i could see the lighting jumping from man to man, the best series of kill i did was 5. Magic was deadly and fun, not that i enjoyed killing but doing it with magic tend to make it fun.
Scream of pain, cry of despair, smell of charred flesh, a slippy bloody floor, parts of corps being stomped, arms flying, legs falling under sword slashs, this scene i could see it, it was like my eyes ability turned off for once to show me the horror of war.
While it more or less disgusted me, it didn’t stop me or made me doubt, they have to die.
Turo unit took most of the enemy attention Sako and grandpa teams did their work. The enemy weakened quickly their number fell quickly as their moral.
We weren’t at the same level, it took about 30 minutes for our sliver knights to encircle and kill the enemy valued soldiers and commanders.
« I want a report of the guards causalities » I said via soul link
« Luna you go in the main building with your troops and loot everything » I ordered
We won this battle it was more an extermination than a battle, the guards have a lot of small injuries and 19 heavy injured soldiers. Buro and I began to heal the injured, i ordered the guards to clean the bandit camp, we would camp here tonight.
This raid haul was a lot higher than before, 406 gold, boxes full of cloths, enough food to last one year for 1000 people, all the weapons used by the defeated enemy although this time we had letters and papers to read. Luna looted the office of the bandit boss.
It seem he was a knight under a lord, he worked here under his orders. His main goal was to harass viscount Harolts and to kill any merchants that was trading with our baronet.
It means, it was that man was the reason behind our poor trading rate all those years. I believe dad will be happy to know we resolved a problem.
That raid symbolized the end of our security trip. We will heal the injured and will go back to the main road, to build a new inn for travelers and go back to the baronet.
Two days later, Buro and me were, lying in the ground, our mana pool empty.
It was a training for us to use earth fusion, while the guards training was to search, bring and put the stone in the wall. As i lied on the ground, i tough of the letters that belong to the bandit chief.
I will go to Viscount Harolts and let him read them, we are two days of trip from his home and 1 day from his territory. I told it to grandpa, it said letting him read the original letter was better than giving him an explanation by mail.
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We marched toward the Viscount territory, we were stopped at the first village, the Harlots guards were surprised by seeing about 490 soldiers wearing bloody armors.
Dario will have a lot of jobs to repair our stuff. They told us to camp here, i gave some money to Bernard to pay the villagers for their help, i couldn’t give the lead to a slave, a human had to do it.
I went to meet Viscount Harlots with Jules, Martis, Oliver and grandpa we were escorted by the local guards.
The Viscount house was a big but lacked the vulgarity of some extravagant noble. The main door was big, it need two servants to open it, we were welcomed directly by the Viscount. Hugo Harlots was an athletics young man, he was younger than dad by a few year. He smiled toward me.
« Hello, John welcome to my home, what bring a bloody man here. » he said joyfully.
« Hello, sir Harlots, i’m here to show you some documents, we carried mission of cleaning of the forest with my guards. This blood came from magic beast and bandits, i couldn’t clean my armor in the forest, sorry for this display ». I know i stink like a pig. I still had to look sorry.
« Don’t worry, my servant will show you a room to clean yourself and change. My servants will clean your armor and your guards will have the same treatment. We can discuss of the documents later ». He said and began to order the servants.
« Thank you for you hospitality. » First time of my life, i couldn’t bath for a month, i couldn’t express my thank in words, if this man come to our baronet he had to be treated better than the King!
I followed the servant, one hour later, i was finally clean after more than one month of stinking sweat, dirt, plant and blood. I’m quite pleased, i feel like a had a rebirth in the bath, i had to change the water twice, a servant guided me to the Viscount office, he opened the room and a saw the viscount conversing with an old man.
« Ah! John you look better now, this is my father, Mike Harlots. » The old Viscount looked exactly like and older version of his son. Both had dark hair, both had black eyed pupils, both had a large forehead.
« Nice to meet you sir Harlots » i said while smiling, i gave my hand for a hand shake.
« Nice to meet you young man, i heard you cleaned the forest between our territories. » he took my hand and answered friendly.
« I killed all the magic beast below rank 4, 400 meters around the road, and killed the 3 bandits bands that infested your border. It took us more than one month. » I was quite proud of our achievement, it could be heard.
« Your troops should be of high qualities to be able to have this kind of achievement. » said Hugo in a serious tone.
« Yes, i have a been training them for years, without having a day off. All this time invested has paid today » i said with a smile.
« hehe, you are right, well done young man. So which document do you want to show us » continued Mike
« The last bandit group was the one which attacked during my wedding. When we looted their lair, we found letters, and i tough i should travel two days more to let you read them. » i took a solemn tone and gave them the letters
They put a serious face and i gave them the letters. It was Mike who read the letter first and the young Viscount read them later. Mike face didn’t change, while his son face was distorted by anger.
« Do you have an idea of who could have organized and sponsored this thief group? » asked hurriedly Mike not let his son speak.
« Yes, but it would lie to said i’m not biased, moreover i have no proof, and my opinion is not my dad opinion. » i said cautiously
« There is no need to guess, this is certainly Viscount Macron deed » said Hugo Harlots with a low growl
« Its what i think too but nothing can be proved. Only by playing the same game could we avenge ourselves. But its a story of a future time. I came to let you read these letters, i will have to show them to my father. » i had to take these letters with me, dad maybe could think of something.
« Yes thank you for the attention, you are sure you killed all the bandits? Having a witness could be useful. » asked Hugo
« I’m sorry, i didn’t want to take prisoners, i let my anger out, and didn’t think to leave the leader alive. The thought didn’t cross my mind ». Yeah, why didn’t it cross my mind? I’m that dumb? Why grandpa didn’t tell me?
« Oh don’t burden yourself, it would have leaded to nothing to have the leader. He could have been assassinated or framed, his story would have not done a real impact, in front of a judge or the king himself. »
« Thank for your help, John, our two territories will be able to develop more trade thank to the security of the road. We would organize a feast tonight, to celebrate your successful hunt. » The diner was made mostly of product from my baronet.
Grandpa couldn’t participate because of his status of slave, the rest of the guards were there, as some of the lead figure of the Harlots viscounty, i get to know new people.
I only stayed for the night, the next day i went back to the guards, when i left Mike gave me a letter for father. We rushed home, every one wanted to be clean and fresh. While riding my horse, i thought of the special horses of the royal family they were a kind of specie that had the strength of a rank 1 magic beast while being a normal beast.
Could i increase the rank of my horse, with the training of a magic beast? Were all the magic beast born magic? Didn’t they evolve from being normal? This thought didn’t leave my mind, until i was back in the mansion, with our rapid pace we went back to the baronet in 10 days instead of 14.