44 Baron

"My Lord!! A letter from the Duke!!" Hans walked brusquely as he held a sealed scroll adorned with golden edges. Mark twitched a corner of his mouth at how ostentatious this scroll was, just a message but the letter has at least a few grams of gold.

People here really need to learn some humility, Mark has spent years already here but he is still not used at the views of people on daily things. As he received the letter he broke the seal immediately ans opened it.

[By the power vested in me by the King of Bretonnia and the blessings of the Lady of the Lake, I François Veletucci Rebio Beaumanior the Duke of Mousillon, hereby declare Mark Johnson, Signeur of Creacheur town to be given the noble title of Baron.

He shall be assigned with the fief of Castle Rachard and the towns surrounding 50 leagues from every cardinal direction of the castle. The safety of the fief will be under the care of Baron Johnson effective immediately as of the day this letter is opened. May the Lady guide you and protect your people and serve for the glory of Brettonia.]

"This old fox." Mark cursed as he read as he could tell the hidden meaning of this letter. He handed the letter to Hans who then read the contents and was surprised as their Lord is now officially a Baron which was already part of Higher Nobility. But he was not sure why their Lord did not look pleased at all.

"My Lord, is this letter not a reason for celebration? You have now become a Baron by the Duke which means you are now part of higher nobility." Hans asked as he was curious as to why their lord is cursing at the side. The guards nearby also heard it and was happy for Mark but they too were confused as to why their Lord seemed to not like the contents of the letter at all.

"It means I have to deal with every problem within the fief I was assigned too. This was done by the Duke as he was not sure he could take on every traitorous scheming nobles in his territory so he gave the trouble of this area to me. This is some sort of test from him as he might have heard of my reputation but all he wants is someone to delay the nobles in their area for him to ride here with his knights to clear them out.

The Duke wants me to prevent the nobles in Castle Rachard to escape but he knew that we have no equipment here to take down a castle. Thus we would be force to siege them if we want to claim our fief, but having no equipment we would be indebted to the Duke once he rides with his knights here to get rid of the insurgents.

Making me appear as a loyal pawn of the Duke, thus forcing me to take sides in this conflict. And I cannot decline this as it would challenge the dignity of a Duke's house, so rather than offend a Duke, I would pick to offend the Nobles of Castle Rachard. Even when their family is declining a scheming noble will always try to put themselves ahead.

Seeing I gave him information of the various noble family that'll betray him gave him reason to plunder these noble families. Giving his family enough funds to get back on top. Me on the other hand would be forced to watch him take down the ones in Castle Rachard while taking the money inside as he sees us unable to even breach a castle." Mark analyzed as he felt this was what the Duke wanted.

He was quite pissed off as it seems that the Duke is still not planning to give him some piece of the pie and leave him with an empty crust. But Mark smiled as there was something the Duke did not estimate is that he is crazy enough to try to break through the castle.

"Hans have at 15 of our best riders to come with me, pick the best steeds available and arm them to the teeth, we have a castle to break into." Mark smiled as he went to get an armor set he has which looked intimidating as well as Gideon who was now the leader of the horses inside the Backyard. He also took a claymore that was wide as two palms and as long as five feet including the handle. Melissa saw the preparations of Mark and could see he wanted to go in the dark.

"My Lord could you take me with you?" She wanted to come as she fears that Mark might not be able to distinguish the differences between a vampire within the ones he'll fight. She did not want some of her sisters to die in vain from the blades of her new liege. But she was also afraid he would decline as she was just new and had not given much of her worth other than the information she had provided.

"Can you follow us without a ride? I can't have my subordinates other than the shadows learn of you yet." Mark did not decline but instead even asked her if she could keep up.

"The night is my domain my Lord, I can follow you within the shadows." Melissa bowed as she to get the rapier she had with her in the shelf. She wanted to show her worth as she was sure her Lord would be victorious, that titanic image has still not faded from her mind so any thoughts of rebelling against a mighty being is absent within her mind.

She just hopes she could save her sisters from the tragic fate of opposing Mark. Even the her own thralls concerned her as she wanted them to serve her new lord. Thus she would also request to pick them up within the County of Pinot.

"It seems you are prepared, let's go. I'll show you how to take down a castle with a dozen and a half men and women." Mark was quite confident with the various people he had trained as he also taught them knowledge from espionage, camo-painting and many things that'll increase their survival rate in the field.

Sure they might not be as good in fighting head-on like knights but they are competent enough to be considered good rangers. Mark felt that he might have to expand the amount of men he has in the future after rigorous screening. He looked at the 15 men and women who would be following him tonight.

"I know that this might be hasty in your eyes but now is the best time to strike while they have not yet bolstered their defenses. You should have heard from Hans by now that I have been given a Title of Baron and Castle Rachard as my fief." Mark saw that they have no surprises in their eyes but only excitement.

"Now is the time to show the things I have taught you all to be put to the test. I cannot guarantee that all of us would return alive but I can say this. If we succeed in my plans then no one would ever look down upon all of you again. Once we take the castle as our own then we could go for greater heights for the peace of our future." Mark was not a good speaker so he is just randomly thinking of inspirational words.

"This night we will show the Realm how a Dozen and a half team, of men and women take down a castle in one night. Hans I'll leave the matters of this town to you." Mark said as he rode out with 15 riders along with the Butler Knight. It was about 3pm in the afternoon if there was a clock when Mark left with the riders. With only an hour of preparation they rode to capture a castle, if most knights hear of this they would laugh and scoff at how this mission would fail.

But Mark has no choice because as soon as he opened the letter a mission prompt has appeared giving him no choice to prepare at all. And also the rewards made Mark impatient as he felt that he has hit a jackpot.

[Mission Issued]

[Capture Castle Rachard with less than 20 men within one night]

[Time Limit: 15 hours]

[Rewards: 10x Normal Anywhere doors, Capsule House: House Wagon]

[Failure: A debt to the Duke, Francine would be disappointed, people will call you imcompetent]

Mark did not even give one shit about the punishment he would receive from the mission as he was impatient to finish it already. If the Last reward is what he thinks it is then he had struck big. If it is the capsule house from the Dragon Balls series then maybe he could reverse engineer the technology used. He did not care about the House Wagon but the tech made by the Capsule Corporation in putting stuff into small capsules.

Mark felt giddy thinking pulling out a small capsule and boom a large tank is now present. The tech alone could make many powers and geniuses in Marvel and DC alarmed. In Dragon balls they pull floating castles within a small capsule, so imagine if Loki invades and you just pull a small pill then transform it into a large floating fortress.

Hydra would totally drool over it, and Mark was sure he could reverse engineer it using the techadon alien. These species of alien who were even prideful claiming that they were not inferior to Azmuth, the old frog super genius who put a failsafe in the omnitrix that could destroy the universe. Mark was sure that even Azmuth has tech like these but it was not sure that the techadon transformation would give him blueprints in his mind.

At most it would make him into a super genius level alien, sure he could make amazing things with just the knowledge he has but having a tech to reverse engineer would make inventing things faster. With the Capsule making technology Mark could make a lot of things and carry them inside his pockets. His inventory is limited anyways so it was better to get the tech as soon as possible.

It took about three hours of riding in horseback for them to get close to Castle Rachard. The could reach sooner but they had to detour to avoid scouts and outpost of the nobles of Castle Rachard to notice them.

Mark was sure that news had not yet arrived but since the Mission had given him a very short time limit then maybe soon someone would inform the nobles here of the actions of the Duke.

Giving them time to prepare to escape of defend thus the Duke gave the troublesome task to Mark to delay these nobles. But the Duke would surely be surprised as Mark wanted to take down the castle without his help.

"Since everybody is here let us start preparing. We have about two hours to scout the area for a weak place to breach." Mark started taking out materials in a satchel and painted his face with dark colors. Melissa watched this from the dark as the men and women with Mark started to put on camouflage and realized that they all wore dark colored armor.

Even Mark did not wear heavy metal armor but a dark colored leather set that would make their travel light and discreet. After two hours the group has now equipped with short swords covered it dark paint as well as small blow pipes to dart the guards patrolling.

"Okay, everybody let us proceed to Bronn-style this castle." Mark murmured which the others did not hear.

[I got that reference] System

"Huh?"