Serve Me Or Die!

If there is only one thing you must remember about the real world, it is this.

Always pay close attention to the details of a deal.

Because in Dynasties Online.

It can be the difference between life and death, and an honourable reputation can save your life more than once.

Reginald Coulan, creator and head of House Aurellion in Dynasties Online.

….

Railius was deep in thought when he remembered the injuries that Declan had sustained while fighting. A dozen cuts were bleeding, but none was as bad as the large gash that ran from his left shoulder to his right hip. Thanks to the absence of any anti-magic crystals, his wounds could quickly be healed by healing magic, something that Aldorus was particularly proficient in, using it many times throughout his long service to House Aurellion to save his otherwise gravely injured comrades.

The young player sighed in relief when he saw Aldorus was already on it. He was always one of the more diligent people surviving his house, prioritising the injured old merchant, which was crucial to his lord's cause. Even with this magical care, though, Delcan would still need a few days to recover.

Luckily, after this show of force, Railius highly doubted that Amos would cause any more trouble after having his last force mysteriously disappear despite taking on 10 seemingly easy opponents. He would understand that trying to move against them with force will only lead to him losing more and more of his resources.

Delcan was not getting any younger and had lost a lot of blood defending his daughter, who remained uninjured thanks to the efforts of her father, while the young Alicia, who had been scared and hiding under a cart, ran to the safety of her father's arms as Railius gave him a stern look to occupy the innocent child as depending on the answer of the two as there was still room for more corpses to be added to the 50 odd that already littered the battlefield with 3 coming from Railius' own side.

The casualties to his loyal Pelican Guards, no matter how small or inevitable, still hurt the young lord's heart. As Railius became more experienced and fought in more battles, the impact would lessen until he could coldly look over a casualty report without flinching, something that is much easier to do if you are not emotionally connected with any of the men who died or was borrowing them from someone else which is essentially what he did at the Battle of Brunag as only Leon could be considered to be his houses man back then.

The main reason for this hurt is that the Pelican Guards with him were not the average recruits but the sons and daughters of those who had travelled months to serve him and were loyal to a fault, so every person was precious, not to mention that it made the years of gruelling training they went through be for almost nothing dying while fulfilling their duty and heavily outnumbered.

It was because of this training in Leon's dojo and the swift arrival of reinforcements who had been expecting such a situation to occur that the casualties were so low as it was mainly the recently deceased mercenary leader who was responsible for the casualties being a low-tier expert fighter and able to hold off the Pelican Guard veteran for a time who was reaping his men's lives like the scythe of the autumn harvest.

After Railius' sigh, the two captured soldiers finally made a decision, one that would end or change their lives forever.

"I would like to leave if possible. I swear I won't tell anyone what happened here and am done with being a mercenary!"

One said, seeming not to be the brighter of the two, only wanting to return to his family, not realising that after seeing the full extent of Railius' power, such a thing was impossible unless he swore loyalty to the young player.

"I am willing to serve the lord!"

The second man said, seeming to get Railius' hint, that he had long realised that the young man before him had a background that was far from ordinary. Even the most skilled fighters in the group looked to him to make decisions, meaning that he was likely a noble of some sort or, at the very least, held the power in this caravan despite looking like a common soldier.

A noble who seemed to want to keep a low profile at that. Would such a noble let them go just because they promised not to tell anyone? In this second prisoner's opinion, such a thing was impossible, meaning only one thing. While the offer seemed to give them leeway, it was a simple choice hidden in it that his comrade did not pick up.

Serve me or die.

There was no choice or way that the young noble would let them go after what they saw.

This is what the noble meant, as this second man thought quite rightly that Railius could not risk them telling anyone of the power in the young noble's hands, needing to keep a low profile, or a person with such a background would not be dressed as a common mercenary or set up a young girl as the face of his company no matter how much talent she had.

"I see that is unfortunate."

Railius sighed. The sword that had only recently been sheathed as soon as the battle was over flashed before the eyes of the two men cutting one's neck, whose eyes widened, clutching at his bloodied throat and chocking on his own blood, having a betrayed look on his face as his life slowly drained away.

The hot blood once again stained Railius' sword as a few drops splashed on his face from the torrent that gushed out of the open wound.

"Don't look at me like that. I said my men would not harm you but nothing about myself."

"In your next life, always pay attention to these details, and you may have a better ending."

Railius said coldly as he watched the life slowly vacate the prisoner's body, the man's eyes joining his old comrades in the ice-cold embrace of death, showing the ruthlessness of the medieval virtual world where war crimes like killing prisoners were the norm in situations like these and unless the person had a high enough status had few if any consequences.

"Your name?"

Railius asked the surviving man, keeping his tone ice cold, who had closed his eyes when he heard his old comrades answer, knowing that he had just unknowingly signed his death warrant the moment he was not willing to follow the young lord and was not surprised when the noble cut his throat.

Unlike the other dead disguised mercenaries, Railius took a good long look at this person's appearance. Two large horns protruded from his head that were shaped like a bull, and he was one of the few people without a helmet, as few could accommodate the facial features of a minotaur.

Railius was surprised that no one had died to him, but when he saw his dented armour where Railius' horse had kicked him and the pained expression on his face from a cracked rib, he saw why this man was seemingly absent from the battle. Minotaurs were known for their strength, which could rival even the strongest of orcs, but even they were no match for the raw strength of a horse.

"Vamak."

Vamak said in a deep voice, his large, pitch-black eyes looking at the young noble he had just sworn to serve, most likely for the rest of his life, due to what he knew.

"Nice to meet you, Vamak. For now, as far as you are concerned, my name is Captain Delron. Of course, you are smart enough to know that it is an alias, a fake name, if you will and you will accompany me on my excursions around the world."

"I imagine I don't need to tell you the consequences of betraying me in the future."

Railius said darkly, gesturing grimly towards the dying man at his feet, who was still twitching on the ground before turning limp, the last signs of life leaving his freshly made corpse.

A clear sign of the consequences of betrayal and the grim fate that befell those who went against this young lord.

….

The days in the game quickly passed as a report was delivered to a man in a luxurious mansion that was shaking, failing to keep his rampant emotions in check.

"What do you mean they all disappeared?"

"They were facing 10 men!"

"10 MEN! There were 50 of them and an assassin. What the fuck were they doing! Are all their opponents master fighters or something? Not even the royal family has that many at spare, so how could some random merchant have that many to spare!"

"And Declan!"

"How did he survive the slow poison? It is even resistant to magic!"

Amos shouted angrily, throwing his glass to the floor. But beneath his anger, he felt fear in his heart as if he had just provoked a hidden dragon and could not deal with the fire now coming his way in retaliation for his attacks.

He sent an expert assassin after Declan, and now this person who could kill even governmental officials had mysteriously disappeared when trying to kill an old merchant who appeared to have next to no background.

This was an expert! Apart from master assassins, who cost an extraordinary amount of money, to the point that even some landed nobles would struggle to pay, these experts were the best you could get in the business!

Yet somehow, even with a prearranged ambush and distraction by 50 men, he still failed in his mission and got killed and disappeared to boot.

Amos didn't know that while Depravia was a place looked down upon by the wider world, it was not to be underestimated.

Many members of the game's underworld resided there, and who better to know the cures for poison than the people who used it most?

The pharmacist who promised to cure Declan was not joking. He was an expert in poisons, both in terms of their creation and their counters, and when he checked up on the old merchant, he quickly found what was wrong with him.

Once Railius acquired this medicine through no small amount of subtle threats to the man's life, it was only a matter of time before Declan would be back on his feet.

'Just who the hell is this Quinten Amberguard person!'

Amos thought to himself, but one thing was absolutely clear from this incident: this young merchant was nowhere near as simple as people initially thought. He at least had a background as the son of a powerful noble or general for there to be that much military strength that he could call up at a moment's notice and to be so fiercely protected.

The merchant group leader's only consolation was that nothing could be linked back to him, as only the mercenary group leader knew who hired them. That man had disappeared, helping to ally Amos' fears. Even if a link could be found, all Amos had to do was give up the subordinate who made the deal and kill him in prison to keep him silent.

For a man of his wealth and connections, this was an easy feat, and this method was also used by nobles and other people with significant power to silence those who could threaten them.

As for the assassins' guild, he contacted them. They were very trustworthy and never, unless under severe duress, gave away any information on their clients to outsiders. Not even the assassins themselves are told who the request came from so that if they are captured, their employer would not be exposed, and this was the reason why they were trusted by all, as everyone from the lowliest commoner to the most respected kings and emperors every social class has used these guilds services in one way or another.

In fact, Flavius, the crown prince of Chavaria, had put an open bounty on Railius Aurellion of 100,000 gold, enough for one to live lavishly for the rest of their life, but even if Railius' location was exposed and not such a well-kept secret, just the presence of the grandmaster of loyalty was enough to make people hesitate and was why they were so feared and desired by every nation in the world.

Hell, even if millions of gold were offered, few would take it as you had to live to be able to spend it, something that not even the most skilled people in the world like Amulius Lunaris, the ageing Chavarian minister of war was confident in killing Leon let alone others.

However, even in the shady world of assassinations, certain rules had to be followed.

The first was that no contracts were allowed to be placed on the ruling family of any nation or very powerful nobles and military officers in general.

The reason for this was obvious. These assassin guilds had no fixed home or person to whom they were loyal, and they did not have the power to confront the armies of these angered nobles or their grieving children.

In the past, it was discovered that the Dark Blades, a renowned worldwide assassin group, was responsible for the death of the crown prince of the ancient and now-destroyed Kingdom of Oclar. This assassination was commissioned at the request of a nearby kingdom to try to destabilise the ancient, powerful nation, which had a talented ambitious crown prince.

However, the king, enraged by grief at his son's death, began a vicious manhunt for any members of the guild and their families, which caused the deaths of thousands of people, all dying under the powerful king's furious blade.

He even started wars if any nation refused to punish or arrest the guild members. After leading his army to destroy the kingdom that plotted the death of his son and hanging its entire royal family, he shocked the world with his vengeful actions. The wise old king, once seen as a loving father figure to his people, in an instant, became a rage-filled demon wielding his military might against anyone who stood between him and his revenge.

After this incident, with nations being destroyed and hundreds of thousands dead, all for the sake of one man's vengeance, the remaining assassin guilds established new rules as much for their own survival as well as that of people in the world.

Never under any circumstances attack or offend a powerful person with enough influence to call a nation down upon you. Leave that to the hidden forces under the noble's command so that they would not be hunted down like The Dark Blades were, which was why powerful nobles were rarely killed, as it created hatred and blood feuds between the squabbling houses and powerful factions within the world that was no good for anyone.

Amos' hands, balled into fists, relaxed as he took a deep breath to calm himself down. After thinking about it more clearly, he realised how stupid it was to attack the caravan in Dertarnor.

While it was true that they may have left their guard down in such a safe place, he forgot one key thing.

This merchant originated from there, and it was the place where his power was at its highest. He foolishly ambushed them there in his powerbase, so, of course, it was bound to fail, not realising that the intelligent player had long predicted his move.

"Let them go."

Amos said, sighing as he motioned for another cup of wine to be brought to him. Thanks to his venting, his mind was much clearer than before.

"If we couldn't kill them with that ambush, then any of our other attempts will fail, especially as they will be more on guard after that attack."

Amos said this while trying to figure out how to deal with Declan's return to the merchant world, which would severely affect him and his future business once he used his old contacts again.