บท 21: Hearty Laughter with a Friend

The bandit fiasco was a buzz among the people in Castle Blackfyre, Reitz had yet to recover from the injury he suffered. He thought he would die at the hands of his attackers. Fortuitously, Viscount Aaron Bedross arrived at the scene. It was pure luck that he was there though, as he was not summoned, he had been in Fulmen and just wanted to greet Reitz as they were childhood friends. The Viscount found out that Reitz was not in Castle Blackfyre two days prior and wanted to go and greet his friend at the suburbs of Fulmen where Reitz led the campaign. The domain where the skirmish happened was not under the control of a Lord, so Reitz was the one who oversaw the expedition. It was also an important part of his domain as he was planning to put sentries in the caves near the Badlands and fortify it.

The corpses left from the battle were unrecognizable and no 'bandit' was caught. A peculiar thing about them was that they did not act like bandits at all as displayed by their advanced strike tactics. Reitz could not find out about the person who sought his life. They had hoped that they could catch one of the 'bandits' or gain the corpse of the others so they could find out who tried to act against Reitz. Sadly the seven bandits upon seeing Lord Bedross fled with their injured comrades in tow. They could not get information on the mastermind behind the attack.

Whoever they were, the people behind the mercenaries were of great means since they could hire Baron level combatants. It was not unheard of that some bastard sons of nobles would be conscripted for private armies. Also, the number of high-level mages had been on a rise, no doubt because of the current policy of the Rex Imperia. The sons of bastards also have a formidable magic aptitude. Currently one out of every five commoners had a high level of magical ability. It was a fact that magical ability was possessed by all living beings but it was thought before that only the nobles could manipulate this power. The current system, however, did not teach these persons with talent in magic any formal education in magic control. What happened was that nobles would conscript these people into their army and turn them into knights or magical combatants. It was common for purebloods to be stronger in magic and with the current ranking system, the Rex Imperia or the Primarchs could award you land and better titles if your aptitude and combat ability was high, thus the ranking system for mages were the noble titles but noble titles remained exclusively to those that were already nobles in the first place. There was no awarding of noble titles to non-nobles in the current system, no matter what merits a knight had they would remain, knights, all their life and the title could not be passed even if, in theory, a knight became a viscount level combatant.

Reitz was a special case. His title was that of an Earl but his domain was as large as a dukedom. His power, however, was on par with a Primarch Seat holder, if not a little bit higher because of Reitz special status as Praetorian. The Praetorian were supposed to be Rex's royal guard and should have been with him at all times abandoning both titles and land, but Reitz belonged to the Augmenti, a force that was only on call by the Rex Imperia during times of war. Many nobles envied this, so Reitz could not actually pinpoint a specific person who would want his head. The most shocking event for Reitz was the betrayal of Allister. He had tried to contact the knight's family but they were nowhere to be found. Reitz found out they had moved out a week before the campaign but he was too distracted with Ezra and the news of the bandits to notice this suspicious move.

'How in the world did a noble get to Allister? I can't imagine the sum that a noble used to buy him out. What kind of offer did he give Allister that he would betray me?' Reitz thought.

Reitz was still bedridden and was recuperating in his room.

"You bloody bastard Reitz, did you want to die so bad that you attacked forty mages? Are you wrong in the head? You large piece of shite?" Aaron inquired airily. There were no titles in this room for now. The two were really close friends, formality was discarded as they were the only two people in the room.

"Shut up you little fucker. Can't you give it a rest? " Reitz replied. He had called him little, though presently he was even taller than Reitz. When they were children, he was half a head smaller than him even though they were roughly the same age. The mischievous runny-nosed lordling had now turned into a handsome gentleman with auburn hair, a high bridged nose, and penetrating eyes. He was a womanizer but didn't seem the type as he exuded a pious aura when he was with other people.

"I could have easily killed all those bastards if I wasn't backstabbed by that two-faced rat of a knight." Reitz continued grumpily.

"Well look what happened to the Great Ashbringer now? Ey? Stuck in bed with bandages like a lowborn idiot. You should have thought of the consequences when you fought them I imagine that you would not want to leave your wife with my handsome self? Oh, I would enjoy her thoroughly as she services my man-"

There was a loud bang as Reitz attempted to throw the wash basin beside him at Aarons' face.

"Hey hey, I was just jesting," Aaron said with a grin.

"You better watch that tongue of yours or would you rather have no tongue at all?" Reitz bellowed angrily.

"Relax you ape, I'm just saying that you should not jump in and pick fights like that. You are a smart fellow, Well of course not as smart as I am." Aaron said as he continued grinning.

"Well we were at a disadvantage, I did not think that there were mages present or at least they were very few, I did not expect two whole troops. They were killing my men left and right so I couldn't stand by. Plus that bastard Allister thoroughly angered me. I could kill a hundred barons all day if it wasn't for my wound." Reitz replied

"You always had a soft spot for commoners. I know you could scrub the floor with a hundred barons all day in a duel Reitz. A duel is one thing Reitz, but that was a platoon. They were well trained. You did see how they moved didn't you?" Aaron stated this as he had seen how the mages had fought.

"Yeah, those knaves could predict my movements and aim at my weaknesses. They knew where to strike and how to strike. Looks like this was a trained army." Reitz said.

"It could be one of the Primarchs, Reitz."

"I know but it could be the magistrates as well, only they can expend a force like that" Reitz answered thoughtfully.

"Thank you for having my back, Aaron."

"The pleasure's mine Lord Blackfyre, Indeed I am your vassal."

"Stop saying that, you arse" Reitz laughed merrily.

"You will stay for dinner, won't you? I'll have my servants cook a banquet. Though I cannot participate of course." Reitz asked as he laughed.

"You should not go through the trouble, Reitz,"

"Nah consider it as my gift of gratitude to you."

"Well, you are a cheap bastard then. Is your life just equivalent to one banquet? " They both laughed and Aaron left afterwards. Someone out there was after him. They would definitely be after his family as well. Whatever happened he was stronger now as he was vigilant and even though there were betrayals at least he knew in his heart that there were people he could trust with his life.