Chapitre 116: Railius’ Future Plans
"Anyone who thinks the power of House Aurellion is solely in their military power is gravely mistaken."
"They do not understand the depths of House Aurellion's great influence that Railius meticulously planned since his earliest days."
"They do not see the hidden forces he controlled far before engaging in his stellar military career or understand the power it gave him."
"Nor the many streams of revenue and income that he created, which became the financial backbone of his noble house."
Baron Malwin Thornsworth, Teacher of Railius Aurellion.
….
After looking through the important game screens and checking on his Dynasties situation, Railius decided to have his character go to bed, knowing that tomorrow he would have to meet with his ex-regent and current Grand Commander of The Pelican Guards Leon Mantelon, who would undoubtedly put him through his paces. In the few times that he had done training sessions during his last Dynasty History Event, it was always Leon's 'training sessions that he hated the most.
Whether it was Leon chasing him while firing arrows or putting him onto his ass every single time they had a sparring session, compared to Malwin, who had exciting debates with Railius, Leon seemed to have one way of training him and one way only making Railius only more determined to slack off.
Hit him!
Did Leon think Railius was nothing but a human pinata to hit?
Hit him until he learned from experience! And while he did teach Railius the basics of swordsmanship, that was it for Leon wanted his young lord to develop his own style of fighting because he knew that was the key to becoming a master or grandmaster, which Leon wanted Railius to become as soon as possible so he can hold his own for a while until help came along.
After all, one of Lucius' biggest weaknesses when he was general was his poorer martial skills compared to his opponents. In fact, it was so poor that Drusus worried for his friend and capable subordinates safety requested the then King of Chavaria, Cassius Crestier, to give him some royal guards as protection when Lucius nearly died on the battlefield after he committed too many of his men, which is why Scorpius was with Lucus at Brunag in the first place.
It was only in his later years, when he became a master-level fighter, that Lucius had more tactical options, as until then, he had to keep a bodyguard of men around him so that he could not be killed. Even Bardornus nearly managed to kill the Spider of Chavaria because of this weakness.
After seeing Lucius struggle like this for years, Leon wanted his friend's son to be able to defend himself so he would not be so constrained as Lucius was and was one of the main motivations in the creation of the Pelican Guards in the first place so that even if Railius had to charge at the front to increase morale, he at least would be somewhat safe.
A master fighter was a master fighter because he had mastered his own way of fighting, and while it may be similar to his masters, completely copying someone's fighting style would never yield good results.
Unfortunately for Railius, this meant he spent his time getting battered and bruised by a much more skilled opponent, so it was no wonder he tried to escape whenever he could! But the boy never succeeded no matter how hard he tried, for no matter how sneaky he was, Leon always appeared before him with a smile, asking the same question every time as if Leon had an arrow that pointed directly at him, guiding the Grandmaster of Loyalty to his exact position.
"My lord, it's good that you are up and eager to train! You're not trying to get out of training, are you? For that would be most inadvisable, my lord, and if that were the case, I would be forced to give you some 'special training' to help you catch up with the others."
"Am I right?"
Even now, he could see his demonic teacher's wide toothy grin as he said this, forcing Railius to come with him and say that he merely got up early to do more training and not to escape just like he did every other time he wanted to train Railius but this only got worse now that Leon could focus on protecting and training him as most of the domestic affairs were expertly handled by Malwin.
Because Railius had much to do during his Dynasty History Events, he had not yet been able to train with the sword long enough to gain a combat-related active skill as his time was spent between learning from Malwin presiding over faction affairs, hiding from his enemies and practising his swordsmanship. This means he has been unable to focus on active skills, which, unlike leadership and other skills for combat skills like swordsmanship[ there was no list of skills for him to learn. Instead, he had to gain them from experience, whether that was through training or the crucible of war. This was similar to active skills related to military strategy.
A good example would be the skill 'Master Suppression' that Aldorus had mastered. This was an active strategy skill; unfortunately, you also needed others to learn the formation before it could be used, though as long as the soldiers knew it, only the leader needed the skill for it to be able to be activated.
This is why military strategy active skills were some of the most powerful in the game, as they combined the power of multiple people compared to an individual, making it far more powerful than an active skill an individual swordsman may use.
These skills are sometimes so deadly that even the outcome of wars could be decided by them, which is why master and grandmaster strategists are so converted and feared in Dynasties Online by all nations.
Railius wanted to use Leon's dojo to spend some time learning active skills that he could use to defend himself when he went to the wider world. He also wanted to ask Malwin a few questions about the prices of different products throughout the kingdom so he could begin to build House Aurellions business, though this company would not be connected to Railius' noble house until he decided to reveal his identity to the world at large.
There were three courses of action that Railius had mapped out as potential courses of action he could take once he had completed training up his active skills.
The first is to join the Nathian military and rise through the ranks of the military, gaining military power.
The second was to create a mercenary company to take part in wars. Not only would this allow him to make money, but it also gives his soldiers, especially the younger ones, wartime experience, allowing them to perform better on the battlefield.
The Third was to set up a company and become a merchant for a few years as Railius was still young, being only 18 years old. So, after spending some time building up the foundation for his merchant enterprise, he could leave it in the hands of another and then join the army or become a mercenary.
While Railius knows military power is essential to maintaining a position of power, he had learnt from his experience escaping from Chavaria that unless your dynasty had complete control over it, then it was useless.
Lucius Aurellion was the most famous and respected general in the Chavarian Empire. Yet, no one but the Pelican Guards stayed loyal to his dynasty after his death, and even if Lucius were alive, not too many people in the Chavarian military would join his side.
The nobles of the defeated nations had little power by that time, either having lost it in previous rebellions or staying low key knowing that they had no chance of defeating the Emperor of Chavaria in a war and added to Lucius vital role in establishing Chavaria would be reluctant to take his side in the first place.
Next was the division of the imperial army, even ignoring the Imperial Guard, which, apart from Lucius' own 3000 Pelican Guards, had no equal half of the imperial army was under the Emperor's brother, meaning that no matter what Lucius would at minimum be opposed by them. This was not counting all the Chavarian nobles who wanted his head and were willing to send hundreds of thousands of troops collectively to resist him, making the situation even more impossible as Railius was part of the emperor's faction and a staunch loyalist so they would only laugh at the emperor turning on his once feared and loyal general wanting to exploit the situation.
Last was Amulius Lunaris, the Chavarian Minister for War, who had such firm control over the Chavarian military that it is likely that many of Lucius' own troops would have refused to rebel against the emperor with him.
Simply put, just because you have a strong army under your control, in theory, does not mean it is actually under your control and does not allow you to have tyrannical control over a nation as long as too many people oppose you and what looks like military power you control is, in fact, not that.
This is why Railius wanted to build up his own secret forces who would stand by him and his dynasty even into the jaws of death itself, and for that, he needed money; with money, he could buy weapons, armour, horses, loyalty, food and anything else he needed.
And the best way to get money and international contacts was for him to build up a company under a fake identity. For a secret company like this, it was no of little use if everyone knew who was behind it, for while it could make money, people would take precautions against it, taking away its use as part of Railius' secret intelligence network. What Railius really wanted was to use it as a way to build up an international network of spies that would allow him to keep track of the situations of not only his allies but also his enemies.
Just like how Railius used merchant convoys to get his people into Nathia, he wanted to use this same technique that many landed lords used to infiltrate their enemies' territories on a large scale.
At the same time, Railius could explore the world, something that would be hard to do as a landed noble due to their duties, at least that is if you want a well-run territory because if his recent experience was anything to go by, this world that James Larant had created was vast with many cultures to discover. The curious lord of Aurellion wanted to explore it a bit before settling down somewhere and gaining land through one means or another.
The only thing that Railius hoped was that he could keep his resources and power as hidden as possible, but he quickly tried to empty his mind of thoughts to sleep till morning.
BANG, BANG, BANG!
Railius was abruptly awoken by the sound of banging on his door, waking with a start sitting up straight in his bed as light streamed in from the window as tiny specs made it through the deep, crimson-coloured curtains that helped to block the sun and the gazes of others from getting into his room.
"Yes?"
Railius asked in an annoyed voice as he was enjoying his sleep as he was sleepy in real life for he actually got to sleep, and so was not happy when he was interrupted as in the real world, he had slept for less than 1 hour, and this would affect him in-game even if his body is in a resting state and only his mind was transported into the virtual world.
"My lord, it's 7:05! Time to get up!"
Jordis said from behind the door like he was the young lord's mother. For 5 minutes, He tried to call out to Railius but failed and, seeing that time was passing, banged on the door to ensure they were not late for their meeting with Leon, which appeared to have gotten the young lord's attention.
"Okay, understood. I'll be down for breakfast in a minute!"
Railius said with a yawn and quickly got himself ready and headed to the dojo under the lead and escort of Jordis and other unarmoured Pelican Protectors, who were wearing swords like any other martial artist but common clothes to help them blend in with the crowd more wearing mail armour if it was needed or at night when they were expecting enemies to attack their lord.
The discreet guards kept their distance, with only a few who were Railius' age, like Jordis, accompanying him as if they were friends, all going to the same dojo to train. They talked, laughed and joked around with each other, seeming no different from the dojo's other students. While the relationship between the young men was casual, these young Pelican Protector recruits never forgot their duty, each checking their surroundings occasionally to ensure the safety of the young lord of Aurellion amongst them.
It was because of these low-key moves and the Pelican Guards' customised armour being held under lock and key so that no one could find out about their true identity because House Aurellion was too well known by others because of the dynasty's role in the rise of the Chavarian Empire so seeing too much Pelican iconography would make any of them suspicious as older more experienced guards interacted like ordinary people did buying bread or talking to friends from the pub they happened to bump into while keeping an eye on the young lord.
This was the reason that Railius was annoyed when he got the Renowned Fallen Martial Noble trait because it meant that he had to be careful as even NPCs of other countries would know about him and his noble house; otherwise, he could have his men wear their customised armour more that was far superior to the mail armour they tended to wear now to help disassociate themselves from the exiled noble house.
The town that Railius was in that was close to the Captial of the Duchy of Deterner was called Garthram, a place under the direct rule of the duke. Its buildings were orderly, and it was a relatively quiet town perfect for keeping a low profile. Railius was also seen as a Nathian by many of the people, for his Chavarian accent was long lost as he spent more and more time there, and many forgot about his background as a citizen of one of Nathia's greatest enemies.
It was also here that Leon had built his Dojo, thanks to the support of merchants who wanted one of their sons to learn how to fight.
No matter how good the law and order was in a lord's territory, there were always some bandits that tried to raid merchant caravans, whether it was men sent by a rival lord to interrupt trade and the economy of a territory or bandits forced to take up crime due to tyranny every territory had the chance to have bandits around, making self-defence a vital skill for merchants to have to defend themselves from those with hostile intent.
Even a basic education in combat techniques can save their lives, and now that these merchants had the chance to get their children trained by a master fighter, why would they not take it?
After all, no matter how good your guards are, if you are shot by a stray arrow, even if the caravan guards eventually fight off the bandits, you are still dead, and likely, all your wealth is with you.
The dojo had actually become a very profitable source of income for Railius and his noble house that they could now use to expand their power.
Master fighters willing to give out lessons even for a price were rare as many were monopolised by the landed nobility who used them to train up their armies and family members.
So having an expert like Leon to give these scions of wealthy families the ability to learn how to fight without needing to join a lord's army was an opportunity that few would want to miss out on.
House Aurellion also used this dojo to train up their new Pelican Guards. In the future, Leon may even find a sect so that this is less suspicious, as people currently have to pay for the privilege of Leon's tutelage, so having too many students join the dojo for free would raise questions.
Luckily, because many of these students were the sons of members of Sigismond Security Solutions, not only did they have the relationship with Leon to get in without too many questions being asked as it was normal for master-level fighters to give help and pointers to the sons of friends but also had a decent amount of money to be able to afford it saying they want to follow in their father's footsteps which made their presence at the dojo legitimate.
Coming over to the dojo, he saw that it was fashioned from the best of woods, built on a hill with multiple floors dwarfing the buildings around it, looking very similar to an oval meeting hall used by the raiders of the north than one used by more sophisticated kingdoms and empires. A crossed sword and spear dominated its wooden doorway and hung there imposingly, making it hard to mistake the purpose of the building, and inside, the clacking of wood and ringing of blunted training swords could be heard from the outside.
Entering the imposing dojo, he saw fighting, and an arrogant young lad, Railius' age, greeted them.
"Well, if it isn't the great strategist Quinten Amberguard and his little loyal troop of Chavarian soldiers. I wonder if today you can wield a sword better than a damn amateur."
The 18-year-old dojo disciple said sarcastically.
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