Figuring Out Braxels Mysterious Backer.

"Sometimes, when I'm trying to understand someone's motives."

"I play a little game."

"I assume the worst."

"What's the worst reason they could possibly have for saying what they say and doing what they do?"

"Then I ask myself."

"How well does that reason explain what they say and what they do."

"So tell me…."

"What's the worst thing she could want."

Littlefinger Game of Thrones season 7 episode 7

AN: yes, I know the later seasons were shit, but they still have some great quotes, while few and far between.

….

Railius's ship sailed away from Braxel and his men, who were busy calculating their losses. Surprisingly, the young lord's own were relatively few, and none bore any weight on his heart as he sat in a cabin which had become a sort of office, looking over the report on what they had lost.

Nearly 300 sailors died out of their 1000, not a small number by any means, but they would just have to make do with what they had left, which was still more than sufficient to bring them into port, especially when the other pirates in the area find out just how well armed and dangerous his small merchant fleet was which should be more accurately called a small war fleet just with a rather ample cargo space which can hold either valuable goods or men depending on the situation.

Or both; they could also always have both, just like they did for this expedition, which allowed Railius to defeat over 10 pirate ships while taking minimal casualties. 

His Pelican Guards suffered no deaths, with just under 1/5 suffering varying degrees of injury. However, none lost limbs, and all could return to service once they had recovered, even if it would be a month or so before the worst wounded would be back in tip-top condition, though most of this was thanks to the armour they wore Railius finding that armour even if it was heavy mail and brigandine and not full plate was very effective at protecting his men from harm.

Thanks to the over-dramatization of medieval times and fantasy medieval worlds where the swords of the main protagonists can cut through mail and plate like a knife through butter, many people are under the illusion that medieval armour was less than adequate, which, of course, could not be further from the truth.

Armour in the medieval world was effective, especially against weapons such as scimitars and sabres, which were not designed for piercing through heavy armour such as that which the Pelican Guard wore. Even if their current outfit would be considered more medium armour than heavy armour, it was still more than sufficient to protect them against the weapons of the pirates, saving many of the lives of the younger members of the Pelican Guards while allowing them to gain much-needed experience taking on the veteran pirates while being able to survive.

Dynasties Online focused primarily on realism and accuracy within a medieval fantasy world and, as a result, recreated medieval armour's effectiveness more from history than fantasy, which at times could completely protect someone from damage done by swords and other slashing weapons.

After all, there was a reason why blunt weapons or those with exceptionally sharp points became the popular primary weapons used in the late Medieval and early Renaissance era. 

This is why it would typically take a few hits for someone to die in the game, with only master fighters or above having the skill to hit an armour's weak point and do enough damage to kill someone in one strike.

Unfortunately, the sailors were less than fortunate; half were injured or killed in the battle with the pirates. The toil of violent conflict once again became apparent, showing that no matter whether it is the victor or the vanquished, both sides in such a conflict will take losses, though usually, the victor will get compensation to make up for it, which was very much true in House Aurellions' case.

For pawns are far more useful than a few thousand gold, especially pawns with no seeming connection to him.

Sitting in his cabin, Railius sighed as he put down the casualty report before taking out a piece of parchment and writing a letter to Baron Malwin, his goose-feathered quill dipping into an ink pot before it scribbled on the parchment, ignoring the sound of boots denoting the approach of one of House Aurellion's four pillars.

After all, only Aldorus could pass through the guards at his doors without any of them stopping to announce him, with even Kaila needing to be granted permission to enter despite their increasing closeness towards each other.

The silence stretched for a few minutes, with only the scratching sound of a quill meeting parchment being audible as the two guards inside the office doors looked at each other with confusion and worry as their commander and lord seemed content with the silence while the tension in the room mounted with neither man seemingly affected by it at all.

Aldorus' glare bored into Railius, who seemed not to care at his growing annoyance as he seemed to cross out a few words and add a few others as this would be just one of many drafts of the letter he would send to Malwin as they still had a few weeks if not a month before they would be anywhere that they would be able to send the letter to the overworked Baron.

As a result, Railius was in no rush to finish the letter, which to most people would just seem like the ramblings of a madman.

In actual fact, Railius was using Aldorus' glare to train himself up for when he has to deal with scorn and looks of disgust from pompous pricks who would look down on him and his house for not only being a new noble house and therefore seen as 'lowborn' but also for being labelled as a dishonourable house of traitors.

Despite being one of the laziest men in the world, or at least the laziest man as far as he was concerned, Railius could not be said to not be resourceful in his effort to find ways to do things efficiently, in fact, when he put his mind to accomplishing something he can be terrifyingly efficient he just usually couldn't be asked to get his ass into gear.

This included using his protector's less-than-impressed attitude towards his conduct during battle to get used to dealing with both angry subordinates and enemies alike. 

The silence finally broke when Aldorus finally had enough of the little power games his lord was playing and decided to get to the main reason for his visit.

"My lord, we need to talk about your conduct during battle."

The middle-aged man said, his voice calm yet with no small amount of bite.

"I don't think there was a problem with it at all."

"If I don't have actual combat experience, then in an event when my men cannot protect me, then I'm screwed as I imagine there will be times where I have to rely on only myself to see to my protection, especially in a chaotic battlefield."

"I'm surprised you noticed while being distracted by that Captain Ryman person, so I suppose that Cedrick finally cracked and complained to you."

Railius replied just as calmly, though with a small sigh. He put his quill back into the ink pot on the side of his desk and calmly looked into Aldorus's menacing eyes, finally deciding to give his loyal commander his full attention and stop writing the letter to Malwin.

Aldorus scoffed while shaking his head, smiling slightly.

"If it is any consolation, Cedrick has remained loyal and has not complained about you at all."

Aldorus sighed before muttering.

"Only your Pelican Guard can stomach your eccentricities without complaint."

"What was that? I didn't catch it."

Railius asked, though his expression indicated that he found the complaining mutter more amusing than annoying.

"Don't worry about it, but it seems you have forgotten that I am more than capable of watching over such a small engagement and controlling and noticing every single little aspect of it."

"After all, I am used to a much grander stage fighting in wars that decide the fates of nations, not whatever this small conflict is meant to be."

Aldorus commented arrogantly, not that his arrogance was misplaced, mind you, but Railius raised an eyebrow, asking seriously.

"Since when did you become a master strategist?"

Railius asked, surprised as only a quasi-master or master strategist would be able to accomplish such a thing while simultaneously fighting someone on the level of a master, as usually, a battle between two masters requires the full attention of both combatants and only master strategists and above can both fight a person of the master rank while noticing every detail on the battlefield.

Apart from their deadly strategies that can overturn the battlefield and decide the outcome of wars, this was but one more reason why master strategists were so feared and desired at the same time.

"Since a few years ago, but that is irrelevant."

The Pelican Guard commander replied calmly; out of the three more maritally inclined four pillars of Aurellion, Aldorus was always the one with the most strategic talent, able to control the flow of battle far better than Leon or Darius who were far more muscle-headed but each had their own uses advantages and disadvantages.

While Aldorus would be sent to command a particularly complex part of the battlefield, Darius and Leon would instead be sharp swords sent charging into the fray and cutting down all in their paths until they could cut off the head of the enemy general, leading to a collapse in the armies morale and victory.

While the common people celebrate Leon and Darius due to them getting the killing blow, those experienced generals who fought many battles understood that people like Aldorus were as much if not more important in gaining victory than those heroes celebrated by the public as it was people like him who held out long enough for the tide to turn to their favour.

"But I'm not just talking about this battle. Though I do appreciate that you at least tried to send out Cedrick first before deciding that you need to make a move yourself, however, I still don't like that you decided to risk yourself by confronting three men more skilled than yourself."

Aldorus complained despite Railius being far easier to deal with on the sea than on land where his seasickness is not present to prevent him from taking more reckless actions as he still inwardly laughed every time his lord complained about being at sea each day, vowing to never step foot on a ship again despite everyone knowing that it would be a vow he would break.

"I never intended to take them on myself, merely ensuring that my more than capable personal guards help protect one of our greatest assets, as without Kaila, the development of our company will be put back by years."

"Not days, not months, years, Aldorus! This is not something that we can afford."

"I assure you that everything was planned out to the smallest detail, and if 10 of my Pelican Protectors, my own personal guards, can't take on a mere three elite pirates, then I am in need of new Pelican Protectors." 

Railius replied calculatingly, his eyes shining with an intelligence his men were more than familiar with, an intelligence that had won him the support of Baron Malwin at 10 years old and allowed him to be the only descendent of a noble family to escape from the centre of the Chavarian Empire while being hunted by the emperor himself.

"On a different and more important note, who do you think sent our dear new friends to attack us."

"Who do you think was their previous backer?"

Railius questioned his mentor and friend while bringing a teacup to his mouth and taking a sip.

"You really think we can trust someone who betrays their employers so easily, not that he had much useful information beyond the fact that someone wants us dead."

"As if we need a fucking reminder that someone wants us dead after having been hunted down like animals for the last decade, afraid of our own bloody shadows, which could at any moment turn into knives in our backs."

Aldorus cursed like a petulant child. His rarely seen fiery anger came to the forefront for once, stemming from years of sleeping with one eye open.

"We can trust his self-interest as long as that interest coincides with our own, which, as it happens, it does, and you can't blame him for giving up his employer; his life is at risk here, and it's not like he's not from an assassin's guild known for keeping their employers anonymous."

"As long as we don't make the same mistake as his previous employer of making him bite off more than he can chew and getting captured again, we have nothing to fear as we are giving him more than enough benefits for him not to betray us."

"He will also be under the assumption that we have the backing of a nation thanks to you using grandmaster-level tactics. As a result, they will assume that we had a grandmaster strategist amongst us, and it is known that only nations and extraordinarily powerful noble houses have the services of such powerful figures."

Railius said seriously, stating a misunderstanding that would only benefit him before an amused smile appeared on his face.

"Come now, surely life isn't that bad. You only reunited with me a year or so ago after completing your assignment in Plantaria, so unlike many of the others, you have had a break from my shenanigans."

Railius' mirth-filled voice was enjoying his commander's anger far too much for Aldorus' liking, not that he was that surprised as his lord seemed to take much delight in riling up both allies and enemies alike as if life was nothing but a game to him.

To be fair to Aldorus, Railius happens to be a player, so for him, the world of DO and everyone in it does happen to be a game. Even if the young university student treated it more like a second world than a game, he sees his real life as a game, so his attitude would have little to no difference.

Not that he knows this.

"No, it was bloody worse there than being here with you. Honestly, I can hardly believe such a thing could be possible, but it is. Being within the empire's borders while being hunted is way worse than doing so within the comfort of Nathia."

"Of that, I can assure you, my lord."

"Well, I am flattered that accompanying me is more comfortable than going on a training mission and working for a Chavarian duke. I imagine his grace was most pleased with our end of the bargain. After all, even teaching them part of our Peilican Guard training regime would allow them to create a unique unit of their own."

"He was, and you are right."

"He did indeed manage to use what he picked up from us training him some Pelican Guards as a basis to build his own unique unit; however, the core essences remain concealed from them."

"I also believe that our Pelican Guards will be superior to whatever his grace and his retainers can come up with both in skill and loyalty as it is not just training methods that bind the Pelican Guards so tightly to House Aurellion but other factors too."

Aldorus said confidently.

"Good, the Pelican Guard are our trump card, a military asset that can only be gained by getting my allegiance. We cannot afford anyone to get their hands on the training manual; otherwise, the value of our house will be drastically reduced."

"As there is a big difference between training up a few thousand men for someone using our training techniques as a favour and someone being able to create Pelican Guards without our help or input."

Railius said seriously. It was only because of the Pelican Guards' extraordinary skill and loyalty that allowed him to negotiate a secret alliance with the Duke of Plantaria and gain help, which was crucial in allowing Railius and his men to escape relatively unscathed. 

"Anyway, let's get back on topic."

"Who do you think was our new friend's mysterious benefactor?"

Railius asked, a hint of anger in his voice wanting to pick at Aldorus' rather intelligent brain, as there is nothing that the young lord of House Aurellion hates more than being inconvenienced by men working in the shadows like this.

"Chavaria?"

Aldorus asked, though the doubt in his voice revealed that he did not believe it was them but asked the question all the same.

"No, they are not incompetent enough to fuck up the job this badly. The Chavarian Imperial family are many things, but they are not incompetent; after all, unlike most people, they are fully aware of who is around me and wouldn't send only two master fighters to take on the Grandmaster of Loyalty, whom they would assume to be protecting me.

Railius replied without emotion.

"Amos Hosted that guy who tried to kill Kalia in the past."

Aldorus asked with a thoughtful expression. This was a much more likely suspect, but Railius mercilessly refuted it.

"No, it's not him either. First off, he is the most obvious suspect, and he already lost all the men he sent against us despite outnumbering us 2/1. He does not have the guts to try again, or he would have done so long before now, and Leon would have put him in the ground for it. He also does not have the spare funds or connections to contact someone like Braxel."

"Do you really think he would want to die so quickly by daring to pull off something like this?" He knows that us or our mysterious backer would not let them off the hook like we may do for a noble house."

As he said this, Railius' eyes widened as he finally realised who it was that sent Braxel to attack them.

"Summon Kalia for me."

Railius said, his voice cold and commanding, giving orders to the guards at the door, a small vengeful smile gracing his lips as now he had a target.

'And what a wonderful surprise I have planned for them.'

Railius thought with a vicious glint in his eyes.