County of Vermont

"Luciel, there are many things that I hated so much, two of those things are War and Politics. I have always considered myself as a wise, peaceful and good person, despite my profession as an adventurer, my heart is the heart of a good man, so I always try to stay away from politicians, soldiers and nobles, sadly, sometimes life is cruel with you, and things don't happen as you wish them to happen." – said an old man who red eyes were losing their natural brightness.

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It was the Year 9951 in the first days of the month of the Breeze, the second month of the year, when my nation, the Kingdom of Arcadia, together with the Kingdom of Celia and the Kingdom of Flora declare war against the Ancestral Empire and its allies: the Kingdom of Dan, the Kingdom of Nadia, and the powerful Kingdom of Antares.

The three kingdoms (Arcadia, Celia, and Flora) were known since the year 8473 as the Triple Alliance and joined the Great Empire of Rilentor against its rival.

Is funny, you know, the Triple Alliance was created in the beginning as an alliance against the Great Empire of Rilentor whose power and armies destroyed and conquered many kingdoms, it was more than a millennium later that the Triple Alliance and the Great Empire of Rilentor formed an alliance in the Year 9576.

Our greatest enemy was now our greatest ally.

So, now, most of the nations of the Continent of Skypea were in war, with the exceptions of:

The Kingdom of Kardia, which was the nation most far away of the Kingdom of Arcadia and other nations, and who had no alliance with either of the two empires.

And, the Sacred Empire, which has always remained neutral in the conflicts between the Great Empire of Rilentor and the Ancestral Empire.

The current King of Arcadia travelled to the front of conflict, the frontier between the two empires, and he command and take with him five of the Seven Armies of Arcadia.

Only the I Army that defended The Citadel, capital of the kingdom, and the II Army who stayed around to protect our nation from other dangers around us, stayed at the kingdom's territory.

The Navy, and other elite units also stayed.

But not only the soldiers of the five armies go with the king, but many of young adults were also recruit.

Tens of thousands of recruits were sent each year, so the male population decreased too much, there were of course also women who joined in the war, but mostly they were young men who joined in search of fame, money, connections, or for duty.

The Kingdom of Arcadia had sent in just a few years more than eight hundred thousand people to war, an enormous number of people who leave the country, in for that, a consequence of the war was that in the time that the war lasted, and in the years after its conclusion, the crime in the kingdom increased a lot.

The golden age for bandits, murderers, thieves, and the corrupt people.

Four years passed since the kingdom joined the war, it was the Year 9955, and I was already a Rank C Adventurer, known as the leader of the Party of the Five Losers, an adventurer party with more than a hundred successful missions and without having failed any.

A perfect performance by a team of losers, a perfect balance if I could be honest.

It would be in that year, in the month of the beginning, the first month of the year, were I would meet and come to know, at the most beautiful woman I had ever seen… Priscilla Arwyn.

Yes, so beautiful.

Priscilla Arwyn was the oldest daughter of Ruben Arwyn, Lord of the Town of Dalaris, a town in eastern of the County of Vermont.

Lord Arwyn was one of the many lords under the Command of Baron Bals.

In the County of Vermont, the highest authority, the one who held the maximum respect, fear, and control in the population, was undoubtedly the Count of Vermont, who for centuries had always been someone from the Seychelles Family.

The Seychelles Family dominated the Political, Military and Economic Power in the county, not only was the Count from the Seychelles Family, but many other members of the family were talented and powerful people.

Some were powerful warriors, some were great strategist, and some were excellent businesspeople.

The most important member in the century-long history of the family was the one and only member who surpassed the Rank of March Grand Master and obtained the Rank of Duchy Lord.

He was the member who precisely consolidated the power of the Seychelles Family, that passed from being a simple Baron Family, to be the Count Family.

With him, the Seychelles Family became the lords and masters of the County of Vermont.

Even so, at the national level, the Seychelles Family did not really possess much power, but within the county, their territory, there was no family more powerful than them. Under the command of command of Count of Vermont and his two Viscounts, the County of Vermont was a peaceful territory, of that was how was supposed to be.

The Viscounts: The Viscount Manet and the Viscount Norris.

The Manet Family and the Viscount were loyal to the Count of Vermont, and therefore the Seychelles Family, but the Norris Family and his Viscount weren't.

The Norris Family had always been an ambitious family, and for centuries under the command of the powerful Seychelles Family, the Norris have fought three turf wars against the Seychelles and their allies.

They lose all three times, but they didn't disappear, they stood still and even now are still a Viscount Family.

They still stand thanks to their enormous influence they managed to obtain in the territory, their great economic power only below that of they Seychelles, and their alliances with other nobles' families in other territories, specially, the Norris Family were important and strategic allies of the Count of Prisma, the lord of the neighboring territory at the east of Vermont, the County of Prisma.

The County of Vermont and the County of Prisma had a centuries-long rivalry, all the more so for the old-time wealth that the Vermont once possessed, something that the people of the Prisma territory has never enjoyed, specially the Counts of their time, who envy the Counts of Vermont and the fortune that they have, although that is now something of the past, because now the two territory were equal in power and money.

At the time I didn't comprehend yet the grievous situation that our territory had.

The War of the two empires and their allies have caused the security of the Kingdom of Arcadia, - and of course the other kingdoms – to suffer, and the king was not in the kingdom, so, many nobles' family had now a greater freedom to carry out the Territorial Wars that they were obsession to have for a long time already.

In the north of the kingdom, the most important territorial war was the one between two Marchs: the March of Ark in the western of Vermont, and the March of Chester in eastern of the County of Vermont; two Marchs who Marquis hated each other to death.

The counties of Vermont, Prisma, and other five served as a barrier for the two powerhouses, so, the battles between the two armies of the territories took place in the counties.

Yet, no private army from either of the Marchs' Armies dared to go inside the County of Vermont, the northern and closest territory to the dangerous zone known as the Great Dark Forest, a feared place, and the two Marquis fear of attracting the attention of the monster, and because of that, the invasion of a powerful horde of monsters.

Still, the County of Vermont was not spared from the thing called WAR, as the County of Prisma sent a private army of ten thousand into the southern part of the Vermont territory, starting the conflict between the two territories.

Angered by the act, the County of Vermont commanded half of his private army to the war by himself, also using the guards from the National Guard, who although officially were not part of the command of any lord and were only under the sole command of the King, they used to serve the orders of the lords that lead the different places where they were stationed.

This was made to maintain a healthy collaboration between the guards and the lords and their private armies, so that not conflict occurred that could make the bystanders (civilians) to suffer.

Thus, by the beginning of the Year 9955, the County of Vermont, or more precise, the Southern of Vermont was at war.

And I, I was at ease in the City of Mara, chatting day by day with the wonderful, beautiful, intelligent, and kind, Priscilla Arwyn, the most beautiful woman that I have even seen and will see.

Long and shiny light brown hair, adorable blue eyes, seductive body, and the most captivating smile that I have seen or will see ever.

I was so happy, I was in love with her, I feel that I could do anything and everything to maintain her smile, so, imagine my feelings were in the month of Rain, the sixth month of the year, when she would break my heart in pieces.

She broke up with me.