Alexander Smith
In the end, Joshua never got his wish. The high nobles seem to have lost their patience after the fourth attempt to track down Alex's family secret trade channel. A week after their family's caravel sail back to the family's islet fortress in the middle of the night, Charles declared war. The reason is as implausible as it can get and Alex stopped paying attention not even half way through the whole declaration. Something about how his family has been acting unbecoming of code of nobility, disrespectful of their betters and hence should be taught a lesson. Oh well, everyone is well aware of the true motivation behind Charles war declaration. The douchebag is just being greedy.
*****
"Looks like those high nobles have contributed to Charles war chest as well. For a small barony, he managed to muster an army of two thousand? At least two third of them must made up of mercenaries. The number of second major realm cultivators make things plain obvious." Joshua estimates.
"Don't worry much about the mortal army. Both you and Edward can summon five hundred undead each. An army of a thousand undead is far superior than the army of two thousand Charles manage to muster. Seriously, I don't even understand why he would bother with all that useless posturing. Our barony has a small population. A hundred or two soldiers will be more than enough to pacify any form of resistance if he won this war. Ultimately, the outcome of this war will be decided by cultivators. " Alex shares his opinion.
"Fourteen second major realm cultivators. It is double the third pirate fleet incursion number. Joshua is dead right. It seems like the royal family and the two dukes don't even bother hiding the fact that they are backing this invasion. There is now way Charles could finance this even with the Count of Winsloff backing him." Edward chimes in. "It is no wonder that most fringe worlds nobilities are looked down. Most of them are just a step short of being called bandits. it is great that our family no longer needs to hold our punches as well. Even if twenty or thirty second major realm cultivators come our way, it won't matter."
The family has everything planned out. A level four paralyzing scroll will immobilize any number of second major realm cultivators in a wide area. Given what has been revealed in the third pirate incursion, it is more than likely some or all of those second major realm cultivators will have in their possession level three protection items. Since that's the case, the family will just skip straight to a level four scroll, the lower realm limit. It is a rare item in such a backwater kingdom and Alex believes only the few third major realm cultivators in the kingdom would have in their possession level four protection items. As for the other lower cultivation realm cultivators, what's the odd?
Since the high nobles are too lazy to keep up the pretense, there is no longer any reason for the family to pull their punches as well. The family will just come out hinting that their family's background is far deeper than what is on the surface.
"Let's get this over with quickly. Fief war protocol dictates that we need to parley before the start of aggression." Alex states.
*****
"Hey douchebag, you can't hold back your greedy hand anymore? Why stop sending the pirates to do your dirty work? Anyway, it doesn't really matter. Given your poor planning and acting skill, we knew it is you since the first pirate fleet came knocking." Joshua starts taunting the moment the parley begins.
Charles acting skill is horrible indeed. His expression and emotions reveal more than he intends. "Stop spouting nonsense and throw around accusation without any evidence to back it up. I knew from the first meeting that none of you has an ounce of noble blood in you. Just because you have the money to buy a barony doesn't mean you are worthy to call yourself nobles. I can tell that your family is up to no good the moment I first met your family. As outsiders, you should fit in and defer to your better on how thing should be done here. As nobles, your treatment of your peasants is undermining the social structure of this kingdom. If I don't teach you a lesson now, should I wait until the peasants in my own domain become a problem?"
Alex could maintain a much better poker face than Charles. It is a survival skill he is forced to learn after months working under a horrible superior. Charles' claim about his family not being of nobility is indeed true. Although there is no true aristocracy in America, high society still exist. His family might be financially well of before his deadbeat father ran off with the family fortune but his family can only be considered high income but nowhere near the wealth need to be part of the state's high society and even less qualified at the national level. Daniel, as a trust fund baby barely qualifies.
As for the fact that Alex's family is up to no good? Charles instinct is true but there is no way he is going to admit that out loud. More importantly, that is all in the past now. His family no longer hold any ulterior motive in conquering Varune, replacing the old hegemons and transforming the kingdom into his ideal image. The entire undertaking is too much of a pain in the a**.
"How I run my own barony is my own problem. What has that got to do with you? If your peasant is unhappy, that is plainly due to your own greed and incompetency. Let's just settle our difference on the battlefield. Arguing with you is just lowering my own intelligence." Alex bluntly confronts Charles.
"Impudence, let's see if you are still so arrogant when I have you in chains." Charles arrogantly counters and immediately turn around and left towards his own army.
*****
Alex guess this should be the shortest fief war on Varune or even across the entire world of Hycean. The moment the war bugle is blown, Charles' side cultivators charge straight towards them. It is not surprising his enemies are overconfidence in their victory. Alex has not even bothered to muster his peasants to form an army and the undead army has also not been summoned yet. As everyone is well aware, the outcome of the fief war will ultimately be decided by cultivators anyway. On his side, there is only Alex, Joshua and Edward. It is almost a fight of one against five. Common sense would dictate that the superior number had the advantage.
Charles' only mistake is applying his limited common sense growing up entitled on Varune fighting a war against Alex, an outsider. The instant the level four paralyzing scroll has been activated, Alex has neutralized his enemies. After that, it is just a straightforward task of cuffing a level three 'Immortal Locking Chain' on all the cultivators on the battlefield. Off course, Charles and his retainers won't be able to escape this fate as well.
Aside from Charles, the fourteen second major realm cultivators are Alex's future VIPs too. Although none of them are part of the royal or dukes' family at a glance, they should be part of the kingdom's nobility. The ransoms will definitely add up to a sizable figure. As for the rest of Charles' army, they will remain docile even when the level scroll effect has war off. Without the protection of cultivators, a mortal army stand no chance against cultivators. Joshua and Edward just need to summon their undead army to keep them well behave.
The war's outcome is going as expected, Alex now needs to drag out the whole process of taking his enemies captives without rousing suspicion. With his cultivation at the third major realm, he has sensed the presence of a third major realm cultivator observing the war from a distance (probably due to a misconceived idea that he is at a safe distance, beyond any second major realm cultivator's detection ability). Although he had no idea which faction the third major realm cultivator belongs to, there is no denying the high nobles are equally shameless. Regardless of the high nobles' intent, he just needs to buy enough time until James has complete occupying the Barony Of Milton.
*****
James didn't waste any time the moment he received Alex's signal that the war has started. He has to say that Charles incompetence has made his task a lot easier. Despite the impending war, the security of his port town has remained lax. He has masqueraded as a travelling merchant and openly enters the port town and stays at one of the inn three days ago.
The port town offered almost no resistance since Charles has been overconfident in his victory (only a token force is left to keep his peasants in line). The whole process of occupying the port town and Charles' manor took him less than half an hour to accomplish. Seriously, he can't help complaining that even games in easy mode would have pose a much higher difficulty level.