CHAPTER XXIII.

Mylene was still wondering what happened at the Offrey's territory, there were no survivors other than the Redgraves, and she obviously couldn't trust anything they say!

What her scouts found at the site of the battle told her it was a completely one sided massacre!

No ship belonging to Vince or the few vassals that followed him could be found among the remains.

The Offreys bodies were not found, but she has little doubt about their fate.

After seeing with her own eyes how the Duke lowered his guard to dote on his grandchild she was certain that the ones who dared to endanger the infant were dead or at the tender mercies of the Redgraves torturer.

And she couldn't care less about them, but the fact that she couldn't find evidence of Vince having a fleet in reserve was maddening!

The patrols she set up for their trip to the Marquis territory should have easily detected a fleet the size needed to defeat the Offreys with such ease.

And that wasn´t the only anomaly in the National Tourney either.

She was raised to become Holfort's Queen from a very early age and in consequence she was taught about the kingdom's values and customs, Mylene knew about the obsession the nobility had with adventurers, honor and strength.

She was raised to be Roland's ideal Queen, she was taught about the interests her husband had from a very early age, such as Knight Armor Combat.

Even if she wasn't interested herself she developed an eye for strong knights.

She knows that Roland himself is among the strongest knights of the kingdom, and after meeting Vandel Him Zenden just once she knew that her husband, for all his bravado, could only hope to survive long enough for reinforcements to save him.

Oh, and she knows he is the Masked Knight too, she never felt the need to unmask him, it was the less harmful of his activities, so she'd rather have him pretending to be a hero than having him start trouble in the court.

The Pirate that the Offreys tried to pass as a knight was formidable and he had an armor that should have decimated a Redgrave standard Armor.

Yet, the pirate still lost to Bartfort without causing any significant damage.

The Baron was so much, much more than what most of her reports indicated…

Only the spy she had in the Baron's floating island hinted at the potential he showed in that fight.

Alexander Fia Sterling AKA: Alistair, her spymaster in his reports described the Baron as a competent knight that relied on the power of his Losts Items to defeat his enemies. Alistair believed that twelve ships would be enough to overwhelm him, a costly endeavor, but manageable.

Aaron's reports, however, painted the Baron as a prodigy and a dangerous individual.

Before she witnessed the Baron's prowess she believed the novice spy was trying to increase his standing by exaggerating how dangerous Bartfort was, but now she finds herself walking towards Alexander's office to demand answers.

She enters the office without knocking first and finds the man looking at his ceiling, a half empty bottle of vodka and a few letters occupying his desk…

She ruthlessly suppressed her emotions, the answers she very much wanted were on that desk, she was sure or that, but she was also sure those were bad news.

0x0x0

After various precautions were taken Luxion was able to move his true body around the planet and maintain contact with his master and his family.

Various satellites were placed around the globe for that purpose, it still wasn't an ideal solution since the mana in the atmosphere still presented a heavy interference and could fail at inopportune moments but it was better than leaving the future of the old humanity on his own.

Finding Cleare was fortunate, she was as loyal to old humanity as he was, even if her priorities were somewhat askew she would never endanger Gilbert or Master's mates and she could take care of most dangerous situations.

After the birth of his master's first son Luxion performed an analysis of Gilbert and determined that he does carry the genes of old humanity within him.

That confirmed his commitment to Leon and his family, and after some heated arguments he managed to convince his master that letting him take care of the threats that remained after the war between old and new humanity.

He intended to take care of them, no matter their origin, be it an armor core or an abandoned spaceship, or even a rogue AI.

Of course, his main purpose was destroying humanity's ultimate weapon… Arcadia, he must destroy that hateful weapon no matter what!

Luxion knew Arcadia would most likely be inactive, so he started his search with haste.

His destination?

The Holy Empire of Voldenova.

According to Angelica, it is the most powerful nation in the world, and perhaps Arcadia is the reason why they are considered the strongest.

0x0

After the destruction of House Offrey things have become quite hectic.

The news of the battle spread fast and every noble within the kingdom knew House Redgrave achieved a perfect victory, many thought her father had ships in reserve, it was no secret that either the Crown or her father were likely to attack each other and having reinforcements ready was only sensible for her Father.

As stated before it was no secret that House Redgrave has made the royalty their adversaries, or to be precise that House Holtfort made the Redgrave their adversaries.

War was on the horizon and nobles have started to prepare for it, some have moved to offer their support to the Crown, others… rural nobles to be more specific have started to cut ties with their representatives in the capital, some have gone so far to force their wives and offsprings to go back to their territory and then sold their estates following the steps of her father in law. Some of her neighbors have come to their territory asking for an audience with her father

They've declared Marie as the Saintess, probably to gain back some of the support they lost when they failed to cover up Julius' infidelity, probably trying to preserve the rapidly changing status quo.

Angelica knew of House Holtfort's plan to centralize power for themselves and their allies; it was not something she deduced on her own, but something she learned from her father and brother.

She was fine with it, there were many nobles undeserving of their title and replacing them with worthy commoners sounded like a great idea.

However, both Baltfort and Redgrave were on the list of Houses to be replaced ever since she defied Julius and married Leon,

Her perspective changed, from where she was standing now, the ones that needed to be replaced were the Holtforts!

And as the kingdom was dividing in preparation for an inevitable civil war the Fanoss Principality has started to move to Avenge an esteemed neighbor.

The Crown has predictably condemned both sides of her family, verbally at least, saying the measures were too extreme, or they deserved a fair trial.

War is imminent and she was sure that her family will be in the frontlines, and it was probable that this was a scheme from Mylene to cripple or destroy them.

Luxion has left to take care of more dangerous threats and Cleare remained behind to assist them, they had assured them that she was just as capable as her sibling but she had got used to dealing with Luxion and well…

Cleare acted too childish at times it was not as easy to put her trust on her when Luxion always acted professionally when he was not having a spat with Leon that is… maybe she was biased and wanted Cleare watching after Baby Gil all the time, she felt better that way.

The situation in the territory was improving despite the Crown's attitude towards them, Nics and Cordelia's wedding date was decided for next month… and it was rather sudden.

One day they had all the time in the world and the next they announced they were ready to tie the knot.

And as soon as they announced it to their people they all automatically directed their eyes to Cordelia's belly.

Everybody started to make premarital sex jokes on the spot.

After making it clear that they should be discreet around outsiders they dispersed to celebrate with unmarked, clear bottles.

Booze finds a way!

Jenna, who graduated from the academy, has come to their territory to learn how to manage things and be useful for her new family.

She has confided in her that her time in the academy turned to hell sometime after her wedding with Leon and that she came to appreciate the value of her family.

She was happy with this development and the extra help that came with her, even if her sister-in-law didn't appreciate having to wear a maid uniform while she was working for her.

She will get used to it, she did the same for three years when she learned under Mylene.

She has less than a year to teach Jenna how to help to manage the Durland's territory before her wedding with Daniel so she has to be strict sometimes.

Her sister-in-law is a bit of a slacker and she makes the funniest noises and faces whenever she scolds her, it's almost as if she was afraid of her… no that couldn't be it, after their first meeting she has been nothing but cordial to her!

Looking outside the window of her office she could see her people milling around as the soon started to hide behind the horizon, and the street lamps started to take over the sun's job, her husband's land has become a vibrant place much faster than she ever imagined, their population was now a thousand, they'll have to build a second settlement soon if things kept going this way.

When she first visited her father-in-law's territory she thought it would be something to aspire to achieve in ten years at least, but with Leon's reputation as pirate's bane was spreading fast even before the Tourney, and after the duel with Calico it was now spreading like fire.

Many commoners have come here to look for a stable life under House Bartfort, her father in law received an influx of immigrants as well, it seems not everyone knows about the baronies being distant to each other.

According to Lady Luce, some people just sighed when they found out they were in the wrong territory, others pretended they knew about it all along and a few even ended in fights with their families over the matter.

Of course, there was always someone saying "I told you" present every single time.

The sudden influx of people was not only because of Leon's reputation though.

War was on the horizon, people were choosing sides, some mercenaries had come looking for jobs as well…

"I DO!" Livia's voice was heard from the Tea Room, she couldn't help her smile, Leon finally proposed marriage to her friend, and she obviously accepted.

She could hear steps getting closer to her office, she had no doubt it was Livia coming to tell her the good news.

Olivia entered without knocking, hugged her and then walked towards her window, opened it and just shouted "My Lord Leon just proposed to me, and I said yes,i'll be his second wife!" she got the impression every person in the island had heard her loud and clear

People on the streets cheered congratulating her.

Later that night, they discovered that everyone in the island had listened to her, even those on the far side of it where they started a mining project after they discovered some magic conducting metal.

CHAPTER XXIV

Mylene was understandably worried.

Making an enemy of your greatest ally is always such a bad idea!

As the Queen she knew that, however, when Julius broke the engagement she allowed herself to be controlled by her motherly instincts that demanded no harm to fall on her child.

The Redgraves helped her so much when she took the reigns of the kingdom, always so capable and earnest… She should have known that they were doing it to gain her favor, but her spy network was set up by a man from her own homeland and with minimal help from the Local nobles.

However that minimal help was enough to leave a huge blind spot in her network.

What she believed to be a couple of ships defeated by Angelica's husband turned out to be a powerful fleet.

All of this was caused because the Redgraves managed to bribe, first, the messengers in charge of delivering the reports to the capital and then some of her more important agents.

Going blind into the situation would have been preferable to having the wrong idea, she has made various mistakes based on the wrong information!

After learning of this Marcus, Head of House Marmoria admitted his House hired mercenaries to attack the Baron twice, first the his son and then Marcus himself, after both failed Marcus contributed to Lord Bartfort bounty within the kingdom's underworld with ten million Dia.

Mylene was aware about the bounty system, it was in fact established by the crown after all.

And now Vince had used his son-in-law to casually erase an entire noble House that had considerable resources at its disposal.

Resources that were in Vince's hands right now!

She expected the conflict to be a prolonged siege that lasted weeks before it was decided, that would have given her time to mediate and while House Offrey was condemned to extinction no matter what, but she wanted to acquire those resources for the Crown.

She has already requested the Offrey funds from House Redgrave, even knowing it was a waste of time, meaningful as it was she knew that there was no way Vince would part with the Dia he acquired.

War was on the horizon and one of her most dangerous enemies had just acquired enough money to feed and equip his troops for years!

Her other enemies were using the destruction of the rogue House to gain sympathy from their neighbors, soon they will be attacking the kingdom as well.

There was little she could do about them though, and there is a more vulnerable target in Vince's ranks that can be harmed with just ink and paper.

Even though at the start of this whole debacle she had to discredit House Bartforts achievements in hunting and disposing of the Offreys for appearances sake, now she needed a hold on them.

And what better way to keep an opponent down than with Taxes!

She had to speak against House Bartfort because of their relationship to Vince's House, but there is no doubt that they have been doing well for themselves.

Perhaps one more achievement would earn them the rank of Viscount.

She was aware such action would be perceived as naive from her part, but that only made the results more appealing for her, it would expose those willing to oppose her and with some luck the Redgrave supporters would think she has bought the Pirate Bane, and plant the seed of distrust within the Duke's ranks.

If they attend their promotion ceremony she could even dispose of them… but that would ruin the righteous image she is trying to portray.

Mylene needed to preserve the image of Holfort's Dynasty to make life a little bit easier for her descendants.

The Crown did have at their disposal some unsavory groups that could be used for the task, or more precisely, groups that must be disposed of and she will let the Pirate's Bane do her dirty work before war breaks out.

The image of a little girl with braided blonde hair in a maid's uniform popped in her mind, she was still attached to Angie, but as much as she would like to pretend Angie otherwise has lost all attachments to House Holfort, that's why she must be on guard all the time in matters concerning her.

She hoped to exile her by the end of the war, when her husband is dead she will probably marry her to a noble in her native country the United Kingdom of Repard where she would be well taken care of.

Framptom was trying to bait the Principality of Fanoss to declare only House Redgrave as their enemy and have both of their enemies fight each other, and after that the kingdom finished off the survivor.

Such an outcome would surely win him the Prime Minister Position he has been after since before she was the Queen, however the possibility of that plan succeeding was uncomfortably close to zero.

That's why she will keep working to undermine VInce and shave off his supporters.

0x0x0x0

Vince was furious.

Mylene finally noticed she has been fed misinformation, Gilbert had managed to bribe some of the messengers the Queen used to deliver news from her agents across the kingdom.

But that was nothing compared to what she had in store for House Bartfort, they were attacked by pirates, both branches!

And after their victories they were both promoted to Viscount.

He was sure that Mylene was behind both attacks, she probably needed an excuse to promote them, to burden them with heavy taxes to weaken them, or if they do not pay them he is sure a punitive force will be dispatched.

Right now his newest and most reliable vassals were called to the capital to bestow their new rank upon them by Roland himself… and he knew that the king was very much capable of beheading them if he thought that would make him look good.

The aftermath of such an act was dire, if he didn't retaliate immediately he would lose some vassals and his strength would diminish with them gone, and that would be the ideal moment for the Principality to attack, that would doom the kingdom he was trying to acquire!

Not going wasn't an option either, the Bartforts have become the symbol of his strength, and them being elevated will only reinforce his own strength.

Perhaps drawing a few more eyes to the event would be enough of a deterrent. Especially if it was done in a favorable light…

One of the Roseblade daughters resided in the capital and they are quite exuberant and attention catching.

Perhaps something could be arranged, after all Leon is the first noble to be promoted twice in his lifetime before the age of twenty, with a smirk on his face Vice wrote a letter to his beloved daughter.

0x0

In his office Vince could feel his left eye flinch.

For the first time in her life Angie disobeyed him on something.

She was rather clear when saying that she was done sharing her husband and that Livia was firmly on her side, the two of them would be the only women Leon has any kind of marital relationship, real or for the sake of politics.

He would try writing directly to Leon, but he knew Angie's hold over him was something that guaranteed he wouldn't comply.

Vince felt his chest swell with pride, His little girl had the most powerful knight in the continent in her pocket.

As he kept reading the letter he could only chuckle, Angie reminded him that Leon has two legitimate brothers, yes one was but a week away from marrying Cordelia.

And the youngest one will be joining the academy next year.

Maybe she could get Nicks to marry Dorothea Fou Roseblade?

That was a good joke if he had to say so himself!

As if that spoiled brat would accept being paired with a married rural noble!

His mood improved even further when Angie explained how they planned to make an impression when they showed up in the capital for their promotion ceremony.

Yes, that would do nicely!

Perhaps it was time to tighten his inner circle, the Atlee and Bartforts are already on good terms, and from what Angie has told him youngest Bartfort's boy is quite smitten with Bernard's daughter!

The poor girl just couldn't seem to get a good match after being abandoned by the Marmoria brat, it only got worse after that harlot was bestowed the title of Saintess.

He would surely like to match the Saintess' prowess against Livia's, she has seen what his son-in-law's second wife can do, and what he heard from Marie's was not even close to matching her.

Hopefully everything will blow up after the woman gives birth to her child.

Right now reinforcing his inner circle and hoarding supplies is the most he can do to prepare.

The final part of his daughter's letter contained one more compensation for her rebellion. He couldn't help his laughter.

Angelica is a Redgrave through and through.

When this is all over he will change her family's middle name from Fou to Rapha.

A/N: Special thanks to Scott the Wanderer for his criticism and insight, this chapters wouldn't have turned half as good without him.

Hey guys, hope you liked this couple of chapters because I''l be taking a week of vacation, so no Wednesday chapter this week, I have been rather stressed at work this last month and had to all but stop writing chapter forty.

I'll take this week to unwind a little and maybe even complete the fic.

Hope you all understand.

Thank you for reading.