Consolidating the Holding Part 2

I was inside my command center making reading some reports on the food stocks. It been a few days since I conquered the village, I send a letter to Lord Vance once I went home, using one of my Shadow to deliver it to him. It seems that thanks to the Wood Elves, some fruits will be ready to be ripe and harvested. And for the village I conquered, it seems some of the people are becoming better after that Vance noble was dethrone. Rick stopped torturing him after she was bored of him and left him in the basement of my Command Center where my dungeons resided, not broken but scarred.

Haven't heard back from him after I send my letter, so I been busy fixing up the conquered village and raking up weapons for my small army. Unfortunately, I have to stopped my plans for further conquests until I ensure my territory is well defended from threats, including bandits and other groups like them. I sighed, before stepping out to the balcony, Sakura leaning against the railing as they watched as the last tent was taken down.

"I'm worried about the Vance lord response if he decides to send her daughters to attack us and kill us since we attacked their holdings." I said, with Sakura looking worried at the thought, as well as some thought of some of the Vance's men raping her. Even though it has been days since she has entered to the world, she hasn't recovered from the near-rape experience she went through.

I noticed it but didn't said anything, knowing what she was thinking. Gozlowe came to the balcony with a bird on his shoulder and a letter in hand, "Hey boss, I got a letter from someone, looks like Count Vance responded back." I turned around in shock before snatching the letter, opening it, and read the contents of it. Sakura looked over my shoulder to see the contents as well, Gozlowe waiting patiently.

Dear Xehanort

Thanks to your letter a few days earlier, it has come to my attention that Lord Vans have been stealing from the Vance country treasury for years, and I had no clue since I never noticed the money being stolen. It was due to the combination of the amount of gold stolen being of small amount, thank you for giving me the list of the amount of money that was stolen from Lord Vans. As well as false report from him that details large amounts of money delivered to me.

Due to this, I am sending my daughter, Claudia to invite you and escort you to my fortress and discuss a few things with you. As well as punish Lord Vans for stealing money from Vance's treasury and insure he'll never see the light of day again due to his horrible leadership and abuse to my citizens. I may cold to everyone but even I am appalled by Lord Vans' cruelty. Hence, I am revoking his title of Lord and cast him to the dungeons to rot until he's dead.

As for you, I need to questions as to why you decided to revealed Vans' crimes to me. As well as a few other minor details, I will discuss once you have arrived at my fortress.

From,

Lord Earl Vance.

Holy shit, I am invited to the Vance castle, the home of Leina Vance as well as the home of the main reason for her quest to become the champion of Queen's Blade, Earl Vance. Seems off I might met with Leina, though I do wonder if she is still there or not.

"Do you think it might be a trap Xehanort?" Sakura questioned me while looking suspicious at the letter.

"Hardly." I responded back to Sakura before putting the letter away in my pocket. "From what I have heard, the Earl Vance is a respectively leader even the Goddess church respects him." I answered her question before I checked my status.

'Status.'

Level 9

HP: 1070 (320 HP regen per 15 minutes)

MP: 1400.84 (250 MP regen per 15 minutes)

: 18.75 (18% increase damage for magic attack)

M. DEF: 22.5 (24% resistance to magic attack)

STR: 25

END: 32

VIT: 17

AGI: 18

DP: 20

INT: 25

WIS: 25

CHR: 17

Currency: 306,780 gold

Jason adds into the conversation. "Hey, I heard about this guy. The gang and I used to talk about how rich his territory is, planning on a raid towards the Vance land, but I heard the last time someone did try to raid his land, a group of knights repelled the land, with a woman knight leading a squad against them." he puts his hand on his chin in thoughts. "I think I also heard the leader of the knight squad is his daughter."

"Well you're not wrong there Jason." I gave my comments to the people around me looking a bit surprised. I continued my explanation. "He has three daughters, two from one wife and the other from a commoner. Don't ask me how I know, it doesn't matter how but back to what I was saying. Their names are Claudette, Leina and Elina."

"Woah." Jason look in surprise at this revelation, others as well, except for Sakura for the most point since she doesn't know them as well as Jason and the others. "The fact that Lord Vance himself is inviting me to his castle to speak is both worrying and exciting for both reasons." I said, gaining their attention again, "On one hand, I could be imprisoned, and we will have to go to war against the Vances, which will be costly in the long run. On the other hand if Count Vance is willing to talk things out, we may gain an alliance with him, or even joined him and usurped the lands from under his mustache nose."

Their eyebrows, except Sakura who roses a single brow, rose exponentially at the thought of it. No one would think of taking the land of the Vance from the Vances themselves.

Then again it's not like we would expect (more importantly me) to meet with one of the noble family. Gotta prepare for the future meeting, wouldn't want to look like an unmannered filthy man.

Claudette

I marched through the trails of the forest where my former cousins, After what has happened to the Lord Vans, my father was angry and irritated. Furious at the atrocities after what he has done, disgracing the family name, and irritated he dare use his family name to do whatever he wants.

But the Duke Vance does not want to tarnish his name further, if word gets out this fast then we would be a disgrace to the whole community and the church as well. In order to avoid all of this, he decided to send me to whoever has send the former count to us. My orders are to make the relationship with the mysterious not become more bitter than it already is.

As soon as I arrived at the place it looks to be exactly almost the same as it was before when I last visited here. Nothing has changed here so far.

"Commander?" one of the soldiers called to me. I turned around and glance at him. "I still don't understand why we have to come here? Shouldn't he send someone else other than you like Seanson. Its too risky to come here."

"I know, don't misunderstand soldier. The Duke cannot take any measures, we might not know if he's hostile with us or worse if he decides to destroy our reputation we must take precaution."

"I still don't have a good feeling about this commander, what if it's a trap we're walking to? What if he planned something we don't know about." He said, making Claudette nodded at his concerns but pressed on

Unknowing that they are being followed by the Shadows and Bestial Spectral who found them when they were patrolling the areas Xehanort ordered them to search in case Claudette actually comes from any directions. One of them went to Xehanort to report it. The others stayed behind so they could watch over the group before them. They moved slowly behind them while Claudette and her men traverse the forest.

I felt something behind me and turn to see what it was, only seeing nothing. I mentally cursed for thinking there was someone behind me, before moving on. The Shadows and Bestial Spirits came out of hiding and snickered a bit that she didn't noticed them.

15 minutes later

Claudette made it to a ruins of a villages, judging by the design of the buildings, it was a wood elves building. It was surprising since very few elves lived in the Vance County, so seeing the ruins remains of a, judging by the number of somewhat buildings she is seeing, large village of wood elves.

Some of her soldiers were observing the destroyed village, one of them even taking a look on one of the corpses left behind, "Ma'am, there's kobolds here, not sure how considering there weren't any reports on Kobold nests in this region."

Everyone eye-widen at this revelation, with Claudette cursing herself, "How in Heaven's name did these creatures managed to escape their preservation areas, I thought all of them were in there!"

The soldier gulped before explaining, "I don't think these were Kobolds from those areas ma'am, I think they from outside of the Vance County." Claudette grind her teeth at that explanation, if that was true then that means someone at the borders is smuggling Kobolds into the Vance County. Whoever that was, once she has her hands on them, she will torture them until they confess who orders them to do this and why.

"Let us move on men, we need to figure out what is going on here!" Claudette orders, which the soldiers saluted her before heading out from the village to the edge of the forest. Before they left the forest, all the Shadows and Bestial Spectrals popped out and surrounded them, causing them to immediately take defensive formations with Claudia pulling her sword out, electricity flowing through it.

Claudette and her men were prepared to fight against those mysterious creatures she's never seen before. They look utterly filled with darkness and unusual appearance, and the Bestial Spectrals has some kind of ghostly appearance, making them believe they are ghosts of some kind.

"Captain. What are these creatures?"

"I don't know but best keep your guard up." Claudette replied to her soldier.

Just as they were about to head into battle, suddenly they shrunk into the ground like water and disappeared. This made Claudia taken back at the action of the creature.

'Wha-why did they-' Claudette stopped her train of thought as she needs to focus on the mission first, she cannot be distracted by what has happened nor would she pursue them. "Lets go men! No more distractions!"

"But ma'am, what if we encounter more of them?" one of them argued with her with a nervous tone. "We don't know what kind of creatures they are or where they came from, it could be a setup."

Claudette turned around and glanced at the soldier. "I will repeat myself, we will take those chances whether you like it or not, understood? Let's go!"

She once again ordered her men to keep going forward. She knew the risk of coming here but never expected to be this big. New creatures of darkness and the kobold, she will take her chances that the usurper was the culprit. They managed to reach the village, which they saw has walls been constructed before seeing more Shadows and Bestial Spectrals, this time being some kind of wolf, before they disappeared.

They continued their journey through the village, passing the citizens and the kobolds one of them spotted a huge building which happens to be a chiefs house and if her guess is right, then he has to be there then.

Just as they were about to come in they suddenly saw the Shadows and Bestial Spectrals appearing once more at the entrance of the architect. When they were about to form a defense formation suddenly a door opened in front of them and there was Xehanort who was looking casual and formal.

"Ah, hello, you must be Claudette, the Lord of Thundercloud?" Claudette and her men would caught off by his appearance, Claudette most of all since she can feel his large magical presence, it was her, or in this case him. How was this possible, most people that have magic are women, men can have magic but in so little property that they can make it to magic academic. However, they have studied and became professors and teachers in those academics but were often disrespected or sexually assaulted.

The fact that he has such massive magic storage means he must has either the Goddess blessing or some other pantheons give him the powers. Yes she believes there are other gods and goddess, despite what the church said. However, she doesn't put her faith in these gods and goddesses, but if this man has powers, maybe she can recruit him to the military. But only after he is done speaking to father.

"Indeed, I am here to escort you to my lord's home. If you are ready, then come with me, you may bring 3 people with you as protection."

Xehanort nodded, "Sakura, Jason, come with me." He walk to them while two people came out, a beautiful orange hair woman with an orange jumpsuit, and a man wearing some iron armor on his chest and arms and wearing plain pants with some armor padding on the knees. Claudette raised a brow at them but mentally shrugged, not caring since they were going to her father.

1 Hour Later

"It is finally a pleasure to meet with you in person sir." Count Vance greeted Xehanort with grace and respectively mood.

"I wish I could say the same for you as well, but though I would call that a lie because due to certain actions of your cousin, I find myself...difficult so you could say." Xehanort gave his weary statement towards the Count Vance, though likely to be a charade. Xehanort knew who this man is but needs to keep up his guard.

He cannot say for certain whether he did caused something like a butterfly effect, whether it is he needs to keep his actions in guard.

Count Vance flinched a little from his rude statement before maintaining his position before nodding his head. "That would be fair enough, please forgive my cousin." he apologized to Xehanort as he bowed his head. "I had not predicted that my own family would abuse his power for his greedy needs, I was a blind fool to not see it. Had I've known then I would've taken matters to my hand."

"No need to make a fool of yourself Count Vance. It is unsettling to see you act like a disgraceful fool." Xehanort waved his hand in dismissal. "Personal I find it to be strange that your cousin managed to fool you long enough to steal a large amount of money from you without you noticing it?"

"That would be my own fault." Count Vance instantly answered his question, he looks down on his desk with a regret expression. "You see, the Vance territory are contributors to the Goddess church followers you could say. Our family has gained a lot of taxes throughout the lands while we donate some of those money to the church. We are faithful followers to the Goddess herself."

"And my guess is that your cousin managed to use that charity as his advantage for his own gain?"

"In a matter of speaking yes. You are not wrong." He sighed, rubbing his forehead at that statement. "I would like to thank you for revealing this to me, but I would like to know why, exactly, you brought armed forces to my cousin's former village?" I gulped, "Would you believe me if I said I found out about from my spies?" I nervously smiled, which Count Vance gave me a deadpan, not believing that bs for one sec.

I sighed, "Fine, I was going to conquer that village to form my own kingdom in this land but finding out about you causes much of my plans to fall apart."

Count Vance hummed for a moment. There was a moment of silent before he spoke more calmly. "Tell me, my daughter told of the creatures you have in your disposal, midnight black creature with a heart symbol that have snitches like x on the center and spirits of the dead that have the appearance of animals. Is that true?"

Ah shit, Xehanort thought, he wanted to keep the Heartless a secret for much longer, but it seems that the heartless have independent thoughts of their own. The spirits can be explain much easier since he had a book about the undead. How can he explained the heartless without being seen insane by him.

"Honestly I was hoping I didn't explained them until I have a much better position of power, but it seems I am trapped in checkmate. The black creatures are called Heartless, similar to demons but more dangerous than them since they are literally endless, if you were to go to war to them, you would lose because as long as the hearts, spiritually, has evil and darkness in them, they can reproduce at a speed where they can have millions in their disposal. The only thing keeping them back is that they have the intelligence of an animal."

Count Vance could have a pale face as he digest this revelation. Not even the armies of heaven could match that number even on a good day. He realized that if this Xehanort can control them, this means that he has the power to outsmart heaven itself. Maybe even help him avenge his wife thanks to the Queen's Blades. So he ask him a question. "Can you make...more of these heartless? Is there a limit to how many heartless there can be?"

"Why do you ask that question Count Vance? Are you weary that I might use them for evi-"

"Please answer my question." Count Vance interrupted his sentence before he would even finish it. Xehanort raised his eyebrows in confusion, he is confused why he had a serious expression and was determined. Xehanort debates whether should he reveal his abilities or keep it a secret.

He thinks for a while before he makes his answer. But before he would Xehanort asks the system. 'System, is there a limit to creating more heartless and how many I can have?'

At long as you can increase the DP you have and have the Dark Army minion you have in your disposal decrease the amount of DP space needed to control them. Limitless.

Xehanort finally decided to give his answer to the Count Vance. "If given time, I could say about...as huge as an army of the capital city." Xehanort partially answered his question, because if he is still weary of the man in front of him and he cannot fully trust him.

From his predecessor memories he could agree to that hiding most of his darkness power from other people like Eraqus then the less worried and weary the person he's interacting would be.

Count Vance's eyes widen at that statement, his brain already making plans to get Xehanort to help him to avenge his wife. He hates to do this to him but for his plan to work, he needs to get the man in front of him his support, no matter the cause

"Xehanort, forgive me for asking this but are you willing to support me? I know this is sudden and you will need time to think about it but are you willing to support me in destroying the Queen's Blade?"

I eye-widen at that, 'oh shit, he's right, it is sudden. Ok, let me think. Pros: I get the support of the Vance county, allowing to grow my forces and eventually take over the county. Cons: I have to watch my back and make sure that Count Vance doesn't know my intention in the future.' "I admit that this is both sudden and out of character of you, Count Vance."

He nodded, his face set in a frown, "I know that but every attempt in removing it legally has failed thanks to Heaven, but I cannot rest while Queen's Blade is in motion. My wife died because of that accursed tournament, so I am pushed to the corner, and I feared that I must invaded Gainos if I must put an end to Queen's Blade."

"Hmph, you would be either both the bravest or the most stupid person there is Count Vance." Xehanort leaned forward close to the count in front of him. "What you are asking is almost impossible. The tournament is practically impossible to be dismantled, you would need to convince the goddess herself to stop the tournament. It was established for a reason, to choose a new queen to rule the land."

Count Vance nodded, "True in most cases, however the current Queen have been able to win every Queen's Blade. Normally some Queens managed to win at most twice in a row but this Queen has able to win more than 5 times. Something not even the most powerful of Queens have been able to do without some help. Which leads me to believe that she may be in possession of a holy item at best, a demonic item at worst, or in the worst-case scenarios, is being possess by a demon. Which is why I want to dismantle it."

"Heh, a demon?" Not bad Vance, you managed to theorize that Queen Aldra is being possessed by a demon. "If the current queen was possessed by a demon, then she would've been in the swamp witches control." Xehanort mocked him, knowing already how the current queen managed to win the tournament 5 times in a row. "And most of all, if she was caught cheating, then Heaven would've struck her down an instant. But there isn't Count Vance, what prove do you have that is enough?"

"Well that is true that made be the case, I learned several rumors about her making a deal with a demon, each one remarking that she was looking for something but not what."

I raised a brow at that, seems Aldra having a minor problem of keeping her secrets. "Really? Never heard of these rumors, though I was isolated from the world for a few weeks when I made my little kingdom, so forgive me on that."

"You don't need to worry about that, it was quite a while ago. I may not have enough solid proof for you to point enough evidence."

"Yet your trying to make a point with me, about this illegal act your doing against the church, against the traditions, even against the Goddess herself." Xehanort let out a grin. "Are you willingly to commit a grave mistakes just to avenge your wife, who knew the chances of death if she fought in the Queen's Blade?"

"…...Yes, I would. No matter what the cost or the consequences are."

"Hehehehehehe." Xehanort laughed at his serious expression with full of amusement and intrigue. Seems off he underestimated the determination of Leina's father. Its quite interesting to see how far they are willing to do their objective. Maybe it would be quite interesting to see if he cooperates. "Tell you what Count Vance, I'll make a deal with you."

Count Vance looked at me with desperation, needing hope, "Tell me, I'll give you everything if it means avenging my wife."

"I will supplied you with my Heartless, as well as other creatures in my disposal, and I will trained some of your soldiers in summoning them. In exchange, you will give the Vance County to me and legalize it though the marriage of me and your daughters. Once I have managed gather a massive army, I will assist you in dismantling Queen's Blade. Do we have a deal?"

I grinned like the Cheshire Cat and lent out my hand, tempting Count Vance like the devil. He looked at my hand with some consideration, even borderline weary and guilt of thinking. He knows that he will be given a beatdown by his own children once they learn this deal, but they lost their mother, and he lost his wife. So reluctantly, he took his hand and shook it.

"Will I ever regret making this choice?" the Count ask in a quiet voice.

"We'll just see if it does." Xehanort answered his question with a smile and a glint similar to his predecessor does.

The Count Vance did not talk for a bit, debating on his choices before he looked at Xehanort straight at the face. "Will my daughters be safe? Can I promise that you would honor it?"

"Yes I will, if there is one thing I am, it is that I honored deals. Unless someone break their side of the deal with me then all bets are off. Plus, I did took a liking to your daughters so I will take good care of them for you."

He nodded in relief and stood, "I will have one of my servants take you to a guest room while I speak with my daughters about this, I will convince them to ….tolerate you in marriage."

I nodded, "Please take as many times needed to convince them, while I starts making teaching materials for your soldiers, ones I will select for training." He nodded, before calling a servant to take me to my guest room. This is going to be a long day.

END