Alfred Von Autarch [Part 02]

[Ding. System Activation Complete.]

[Ding. Welcome User to the Overlord System]

"Wait what? Overlord system what is that?"

[Ding. The Overlord system is created by Primal Chaos to assist the host in his future conquests and help him survive this alternate world.]

"Alternate world? Isn't this a dream?" Alex Asked as a bad feeling rose from his heart.

[Negative. This is not a dream, nor this is any kind of simulation. The host died in the last world and now the host's soul has transmigrated to an alternate world in the universe. The system could be said to assist the host to survive in this world and help him achieve the final goal.]

"Dead? What do you mean dead? I clearly remember spending time and having the time of my life with my friends. How could I be dead? And why should I believe you? You are just some stupid voice who suddenly appeared in some random weired dream. Why should I listen to you?"

[...]

[Ding. Inflicting mild pain to the host's body.]

"Ahhhhhhhh" Alex's miserable scream reverberated throughout the room.

[Host, the pain you currently feel is very much real. The pain could serve as proof that everything around the host is real. This is not a Dream. Asking the host to reconsider his opinion on this matter.]

"Ok...I...Get...It...Please...Stop" Alex said while enduring the unexplainable pain in his body.

[Acknowledging hosts orders.]

The pain disappeared as quickly as it came. But Alex felt a little bit of lingering pain still remaining all over his body.

Shrugging off the remaining pain, Alex took a deep breath to accept his new reality. After all there was no reason to deny it further

"So, System, can you answer a few questions so that I can sink into my new identity more easily. You know, like who am I and what is this place? Some pointers would be great. "

[Affirmative. System can restore previous hosts' memory to a certain extent. But it would require permission to access the host psyche. Yes/No]

"Do whatever you want." At this point Alex was too tired to even properly think about anything. The news that he died already had sucked most of his energy out of him. And whatever left was used up processing and getting over it. Only thing he wanted was to close his eyes, lay down in his bed and forget everything.

[Ding. Scattered memories fragments detected in host's psyche. Proceeding to integrate the fragments into host's memory]

[Integration Completed]

As the prompt ended, Alex felt as if a huge amount of superimposed memories which did not belong to him had entered his brain at once. The sheer amount of superimposed memories were so much, that it overwhelmed Alex's brain.

For Alex it was if he was taking a drug induced trip down memory lane, genuinely experiencing every emotion that came with it.

Alfred Von Autarch. The Autarch aristocratic Family. The Great North Citadel. Winter Beast Tide. The last hair. And The last Defence.

Memory after Memory entered Alex's mind, as each Memory contained its own emotion experienced by the previous owner of the body, Alfred Von Autarch. The only remaining scion of the centuries old Autarch aristocratic Family. Well at least he used to be.

Alex did not know what to think about his predecessor. After experiencing the life of Alfe the dead, Alex did not know whether to salute his predecessor's stubbornness in face of adversity or ridicule the simplistic mindset of an idiot.

From the memories left by the predecessor, Alex found out that he reincarnated in a world which is quite similar to middle ages on earth. Still this world has its own differences. Unlike earth where it is mostly inhabited by humans, this alternate world is home to countless magical races other than humans.

Yes everyone heard right, this world has magic. Putting it in more familiar terms, it was a world that would often appear in role-playing games. Elves, Dwarves, Fay, Dragon, Griffins, any creature than Tolkin could imagine in his books,that creature is present in this world. If not many more.

As for poor Alfe, he was born in the northernmost part of the small island of Grand Duchy of Ellesmere, he was the only child born to the House of Autarch and the only one eligible to inherit the title of Count as well as the territory that his family owned.

Being the only son of a count, Alfe received the best education in the northern lands. From horse riding to diplomacy, from art of war to writing poetry Alfe spent his childhood studying under various teachers and scholars. And contrary to what one would expect from a teenager from this age Alfe performed better than the average nobel kid in all aspects.

He was well mannered, well educated and had a good grasp of martial art. But alas, not everything was sunshine and flowers for our poor little Alfie.

You see, the Autarchs were not your average noble family, they were a family with a mission. For more than two hundred years, the Autarch family was responsible for guarding the Fortress of Everwinter.

From times unknown, every winter, beasts that inhabit north of Ashmir mountain range will move southwards and invade the territory of Autarchs' through the valley of final hope in search of food and shelter.

To councre the northern lands, the founding Grand Duke of Ellesmere attacked the north with all the nobles under him and took control of the north successfully. Later he entrusted the task of guarding the northern mountains to three different families of Autarchs, Campbell and Monroe in exchange for a promise of autonomy in rule, tax amnesty and many other concessions for their services.

For years, the three families fought side by side, contributing troops every year to defend against the winter beast tide. Until the discovery of an Iron mine in Ashmir mountain range by the Autarchs family, sixty years ago.

The profits made by the Autarchs' from the Iran ore trade induced the greed and envy of both Campbell and Monroe family. And forming a crack in the relationship of the three families.

At first it was petty squabbles and small arguments among the three family heads, which were easily pacified by Autarchs' by paying a small amount of coins. But soon the cracks expanded, and the relationship between the three families worsened. The situation turned so bad the Campbell and Monroe family openly tore the previous pact of brotherhood and bluntly asked for money to Autarchs in exchange of sending troops every year.

The situation became so bad by the time of Alfe's father, Campbells and Monroes were blackmailing 70% of mine's profits in exchange of sending only a tenth of the number of troops that they used to send previously.

The only thing that left grace for Autarchs, was that they invested their early gain in the right place. Building the Fortress of Everwinter at the mouth of the Valley of Final Hope.

By building the Fortress of Everwinter, the task of Guarding against the beast tide not only became more easier for Autarchs, it also required less troops to reinforce the north. This meant not only both Campbell and Monroe families had an perfect excuse to not send troops but also felt safe enough to think the beasts were not a threat to them anymore.

This lack of a common threat and human's personal nature of jealousy and greed, coupled with Autarchs ineptitude in maneuvering in complex political and diplomatic games of their neighbours, led to the situation of being taken advantage of by both Campbells and Monroe families.

As for complaining to grand Duke Or taking the situation to court of the nobles? Ridiculous.

As stated before, the three families can rule their land in autonomy as long guard against the winter beast tide on their own. Several times when Autarchs in formal gathering of Nobles, this matter was brushed aside with the reasoning that 'the three families should short the matter out themselves'.

Even the Marquis of Goldhorn, ruled several times in favour of Campbells and Monroe families and even reprimanded the Autarchs for bringing the matter up several times. In the end little by little generations of Autarchs fell victim to the scheme of their enemies and had their assets ripped apart piece by piece to satisfy the hunger of their much smaller yet cunning neighbours.

All these events led to Autarchs making a vast number of concessions to safeguard the fortress. By the time of Alfe's grandfather, the situation was so bad for the Autarch family that they were begging the two families to send troops to defend the fortress. This led to the decline of Autarchs prestige both in the military and economic sector.

By the time of Alfe's father, the situation was so that the both Campbells and Monroe families were continuously interfering in the Iron Ore trade and colluding with merchants to gain more profits from the Autarchs.

Not satisfied with the status quo, Alfe's father protested and had an argument with the Campbell and Monroe family's heads over matters of ore trade and each family doing their fair share.This infrutated both Campbell and Monroe family.

After all in their eyes, the money from the ore trade should belong to them. And Autarch family should just act like an obedient little dong. When the dog behaves well and guards its masters territory properly it should be fed. If the dog is disobedient and questions its masters it should be punished.

And punished it was. Last winter, desperate for troops, Alfe's father paid double the usual promised amount to both Campbell and Monroe family and sent a written letter begging them to dispatch reinforcement to the Fortress to relieve the defending troops. But all he got in return was verbal promise from the two family heads.

Believing in the last shred of integrity of both Campbell and Monroe family, he held onto the promise of reinforcement and fought against the tide with all his power but in the end all he got was death.

Furious at his neighbours betrayal and saddened by the earth of his father, after taking over his father's title, Alfred started a purge against who he deemed betrayed his father and his family. He directly stopped any future payments that were supposed to be made to two families. And cutoff all trade coming from Campbell and Monroe families territory.

As expected this further angered the two families heads. In fit of anger, the two families petitioned the Marquis of Goldhorn, but somehow in a fit of luck, their protest was brushed over.

Still the two families did give up and directly sent letters to threaten and blackmail Alfred to send gold in exchange for troops .

Fueled by anger, Alfrad tore the letters into pieces and ordered the guards to imprison the messenger of the two families. Feeling humiliated, Alfred decided to defend the fortress without the help of his neighbours.

Alfred directly spent a large number of coins and bought out slaves from the west, along with a large amount of food and war materials to supplement his troops and logistics. His plan was the same as the beasts. Fight quantity with quantity. In absence of enough trained knights, Alfrads was going to supplement them with a large number of cannon fodders.

Although the general expense of using serfs as cannon fodder was much higher than directly paying to Campbell and Monroe families for troops, in Alfrad mind it was better than paying those backstabbing neighbours.

Unfortunately, Alfe's plan was thrown into disarray when the winter came earlier than expected. Although he had bought enough slaves to fight against the winter tide, there was a delay in arrival of logistics. In particular food. Due to heavy snowfall most of the supply caravan was stuck at halfway point.

On top of that the beasts were a lot fiercer, this year. To avoid the worst, Alfred decided to go to the Fortress of Everwinter to defend, early. The fighting was bloody. Many died just defending the first wave. Even poor Alfe was injured when a Rank 2 beast broke through the castle walls and Alfe had to expand all his strength to kill it. In the end it seemed he succumbed to his injuries, and became Dead Alfe the first.

Alex was not a religious man in his previous life. Although he did not believe in god or heaven, his concept of death was not what he was experiencing currently. He never knew that he would suddenly be thrown into some unknown alternate world and assume some godforsaken identity of an out of luck noble who died surrounded by vultures on all sides.

"What a cliche." Alex shook his head. "System, is there any way I could return to my old world?"

[Negative. The laws of hosts' previous world does not allow the dead to be resurrected. Trying to forcibly put back a soul will lead to instant collapse of the whole fabric of reality, destroying both space and time and turning eternity into nothing in an instant. And even if it was possible, the remains of the host are already cremated and the host's soul has no vessel to return. It is utterly impossible for the host to return to his former world.]

"Well alright I get it ,I get it, there is nothing I could do. I have already become someone else. The past is already past. Although I will always remember my old family and friends, I have already died in that world, there is no need for me to return."

"The Old Alex Bowman is dead. From now on I am Alfred Von Autarch"