A mine was secured, its hijackers were arrested or slain and Gamma and I started our journey back to Osberg City. I looked behind me on horseback at the hundred armour-plated officers on the street marching along on the ice-free streets A sea of second and third circles marched forward, all trained and doped personally by me. From standard CQC to the art of the sword, Many forms of combat were drilled into my officers with intense daily training that I personally handled. Meditation techniques I had researched and the revitalising tea—in its very diluted form—was given to all my officers. With their previously sloppy collection of ambient mana improved, only a month later, there are no first circles in my company. Overall fitness has improved as well. Thanks to the revitalising tea and cardio, they are fat lards no more, able to travel between towns on foot. Speaking of the tea, I had found the limit of absurd growth after reaching the fourth circle. After reaching the gold grade, I had been in a bottleneck. The tea’s effect waning with every circle, I saw no improvement so close to my fifth. So I focused on training my base attributes, which the tea could somewhat still help with. But it is not enough. The shaved bandit eluded my grasp. The man who beat me. The first man to make me feel fear in this world. In the heat of battle, I hadn't seen his attributes. But it's possible he could have gotten stronger as I did. And I wouldn’t be prepared for him. Fortunately, there have been no more attacks from those bandits since Fulken Road. No sight of them has been anywhere near the woods. But not even an attack on a normal travelling convoy? The silence is frightening. Could they be binding their time after such a devastating loss? Or could they be waiting for the opportune time to strike at their true target? Every passing day, I am more sure that Vanessa was their aim. I just haven't figured out why yet.

Vanessa.

I reached into my dirty, plain, black doublet and pulled out a silver necklace. A pendant shaped like a bear's side profile. Bought by Vanessa on our fourth trip to the market. A gift from her using her first paycheck. I rubbed the wolf's head for good luck and smiled to myself.

“Missing your wife, sire?”

I looked to the left at the hawk-faced, brunette ponytail officer beside me riding on his horse. “Fuck off, Lieutenant.”

“Haha, why so shy, Your Grace? It's normal to miss your loved ones. We have been gone for a while.”

Jimmy, Gamma lieutenant, none of the few with balls to talk to me like this. “Only two days, that's all.”

“That's all? I am itching to lay in my soft bed with my woman. I can't imagine how you feel being the husband of the prettiest gal in the city.”

“Umm. I wonder how your wife would react if she heard you said?”

“Your Grace. I humbly apologise. You were not missing your beautiful wife. You are a stoic warrior. A man's man. HAHAHA! Fuck it, tell her! I like it when she gets angry. Hehe!”

The only one with the balls, and his four circles made them heavier. A recent addition, he saw me at Fulken Road. Inspired by my beastly way of war, he left his squad of veterans to join my crass crew of rookies. Although he is young, himself only five years older than me, his talent superseded his age mates. Sometimes I wonder why he has not been sent to war at the border, and then I hear him talk. Yeah, my uncle cannot deal with him. He is fun as hell.

“Alright, you don't miss her. Then why the rush? Can’t be the party. Her grace is handling all the details.”

“I am curious about how my city is doing.”

“Bullshit.”

I stared at the idiot.

“I mean, come on. Her Grace has already changed the dump of a city in a matter of a month. Restored a lot of water fountains all around the city. She set up food kitchens all around the slums. Some of them she even visited! Brave girl.”

Always against my recommendation.

“She might be able to even fix the sewage system soon! Imagine not needing to shit in pots anymore and throwing it in the river.”

“All of those fixes cost a lot of gold.”

“Like you give a shit.”

I smiled. I didn’t care. Especially after my treasurer found hidden trunks of the late count's coins stashed away. I would prefer to use the funds for new weapons and garrison rebuilding but that is neither here nor there. She made my city stronger and my people happier. So I am content. Vanessa fit in the space made for her quite easily. Appointing her came ahead of schedule, but even when pushed into the fire, with Dunmer’s help, she had taken on the role of governance well. Maybe this talent for leadership was innate and all Haru did was break out of her shell for her. I knew killing Trak was a good idea. She was doing very well so Jimmy was right. There was another reason I had been rushing my men through the mines in the mountains.

Having previously sent a message by bird to the King, he deferred me to the church, saying, “The matter of marriage annulment is in the purview of the Church.” Being absolutely livid, I almost wrote the old bastard a scathing letter until my Duchess held me back from being stupid. My captured lawyer agreed with her and rewrote a new message asking the church for the same. He expected a message from the priests very soon. I couldn't help but be impatient when divorce was on the horizon.

Two months of planning and working had come to a head. With Vanessa situated well in the position I left open for her and finally divorcing, she will be able to be in the position of power to allow her to be invited to the ceremony happening in a year and a half. Things are going on track. Almost there. The final stage of this fake marriage. I rub the pendant again. Almost there.

Our procession marched down the road to Osberg. Our journey back had been faster, with spring coming and snow absent from the roadways. Slums on the outskirts of the city came into view. I cannot believe I could miss this city. Maybe camping on the hard snow had made me crazy, but the nostalgic smell of stone, rotten wood, and unwashed clothes made me feel at home.

Remind myself to invest in a soap business.

I heard screams in the distance. I looked to my left and saw that Jimmy heard the same. “MEN! ON ME!” I spurred my horse. Galloping at speed, Jimmy followed me. Turning the corner of the building, citizens shrieked as they ran over each other. I rode towards the corner, ready to face what they were running from.

My world twisted as I fell off my steed. Rolling on the ground, my left hand pushed me up to stand as I unsheathed my greatsword from my back. I gathered my wits, and I found my horse bloody on the floor. Stabbed through its body, it gasped its last breaths.

Oh, dear…

A spider’s leg, longer than a two-story house, pulled out of my horse's belly. Its long, fuzzy obsidian leg flicked the blood from its hooked toes and stomped the ground, quaking the earth.

Lands above…

Eight red eyes noticed me.

Here we go.

I put forward my blade and blocked a heavy blow from the spider’s leg. Flying backwards, hovering above the ground, I jabbed my blade into the earth, making a groove on the ground. Another leg came. I sidestepped, and a crater opened where the leg hit. Muscles burst with mana and I charged at the ugly beast. I depressed the earth with each sidestep out of the spider's spindly legs' way. Right and left, I jumped around, gradually coming closer to the cursed beast. The giant spider shot off another leg. Dogding with minimal movement, I let it pulverise the air beside me. A slash downward with a blade of blue aura cut deep and the beast screeches with one less leg. I blitzed the beast, running into its shadow. With the spider distracted by its pain, I looked up at its black abdomen. My blade cocked back, and my circles revved to their maximum rotation speed. My mana condensed to a tiny point on my sword and I charged.

I hear the thunder of footsteps. “MEN! KEEP IT DISTRACTED!”

“YES, YOUR GRACE!” Blades and shields glowing, Gamma kept its attention. I heard bows being pulled as my mana whirled and hummed. Under the dark spider, my sword is a beacon in the shadow of its huge mass.

It is enough.

I aim straight up and I trust.

Light almost blinded me as a cone of mana shot out of the tip of my greatsword. The great power tunnelled into the large spider until I saw the sky in its abdomen. The cursed beast fell on me, leaving me unscathed as I jumped out of the hole I bore. I land on the dead spider’s exoskeleton, looking at the road from up high.

“Jimmy!”

“All here, sire!”

Another round of screams.

“FOLLOW THE SCREAMS. PROTECT OUR PEOPLE.”

Gamma shouts, “YES, YOUR GRACE!” My armoured men in the hundreds followed my order and the cursed spider's exoskeleton crushed under my boot as I rushed in. The earth rumbled as I ran down the street. The screams tortured me and I called for my status to tap in my spare points into Agility. A great step pushed me against the wind. My face was pulled back by resistance, and I raced to the cries.

No…

Spiders, the size of large dogs, crushed meat within their fangs. Blood poured from their mouths as they gorged on human remains. A man screamed for the gods above to save his poor soul as he was eaten alive by the obsidian beasts.

NO…

A woman's head looked at me before being crushed between talons

“NO!!!”

I stomped on the earth, and the dirt and stones of the road floated, rejected by gravity. Mana burned my sword of Osberg bright with all-consuming light.

I swung.

A wave of mana incinerated hundreds of baby-cursed spiders. An ungodly burning smell wisped into the air as my Mana slice ended its journey with a single cursed being left standing.

Standing alone, covered in a swirling mist of black energy, a strange being turned to me. Its blackened nails grew and sharpened from its deathly pale hands.

WHAT?

At the corner of my vision to my right, I saw Vanessa and Charles armed, standing on the blood of many. Kurt bled on his side on the floor, with Jen by him tending to his wound. Behind them, dozens of my people huddle together in fear. With Kurt’s sword in hand, she noticed me.

The cursed humanoid turned his head back to his victims and a mana slice gained back his attention.

“COME OVER HERE, YOU PALE BASTARD!”