Inside a pub in a hidden room, Reginald was drinking with a few young women and a couple of his retainers.
"Hahaha."
"Hey Max. You think that thug took care of that mercenary by now?" Reginald asked one of his most loyal retainers who was also an apprentice knight that acted as his guard.
"I think so young lord. No matter how skilled that old mercenary is, he can't survive against a group of ten armed men. He might have another adventurer with him, but Luke said it's just a young rookie. No matter how unskilled those thugs are, they can't fail at something so easy." The apprentice knight in his mid thirties responded.
"Good. That means he'll soon also get rid of that Osric guy."
"Also, do I know Osric from somewhere? I think I heard the name somewhere in the past before he recently gained some fame."
"I doubt it young master. How would an orphaned commoner ever get anywhere near an esteemed person such as yourself?" Reginald's other retainer replied.
The second retainer was more of an adviser and never held a sword before unlike Max.
Reginald smiled at the sneaky looking older man in his fifties. He was about the age of his father but served him loyally.
"Hah! You're right Samuel. How would I be acquainted with a peasant?"
Samuel's face quickly turned serious. "But are you sure about not trying to recruit him like the Baron ordered?"
"Tsk. Why should I bother? My father's too busy with other things anyway, he probably already forgot about it."
"I have other shit to focus on myself. We need to recruit capable soldiers from our military. My two older brothers are way too far ahead in the succession compared to me."
"Of our only three Knights in the Household, one of the 1-Star Knights isn't supporting anyone yet while the other already supports my second eldest brother Edmund. And while our army commander who's a 2-Star Knight, doesn't officially support anyone and only follows the Baron—
Everyone knows that he favours the eldest heir because of tradition and my father's favour towards my eldest brother Eadric."
Max also agreed. "I agree young lord. I'm currently the only full fledged apprentice knight supporting you, with only a couple of trainee apprentice knights too. We absolutely need to recruit the second 1-Star Knight."
"Yes you get it. That's my only chance of getting a shot to the throne as patriarch."
Samuel on the other hand exasperated.
'What idiots.' He thought.
'By only focusing on recruiting someone even his more capable brothers couldn't, he's missing out on recruiting lower ranked people who might have potential and aren't known yet.'
'The patriarch gave him the perfect opportunity to recruit a capable adventurer with potential, but he would rather get rid of him because he's too lazy. Why am I following this idiot?'
Samuel didn't have much of a choice considering his ambitions. He could easily switch sides to one of the two real contenders to succeed, but he wouldn't hold an important role since they already had capable retainers.
'I need to do something. I decided to become Reginald's retainer because he is third in line and I thought he could be controlled easily, but he is way too erratic and unpredictable. Only idiots like Max here choose to follow someone like him.'
'But what choice do I have? His younger brothers are even less likely to succeed.'
'The first, Eadric is a capable politician and strategist, plus he has the fact of being the first heir to his advantage. Meanwhile Edmund the second heir is respected by every soldier in Ashbrook for his combat abilities. That's also why one of the 1-Star Knights chose to follow him so early on.'
Reginald and Max kept drinking and enjoying their time inside the private room in the pub with attractive young women. Samuel sighed and stood up slowly.
"Young master. I will take my leave early and take care of some things if you don't mind."
Reginald just waved him off. "Sure, sure."
Samuel turned around and scratched his thick grey goatee.
'I'll have to see this Osric myself and check out whether he's worth intervening in.'
—
Meanwhile inside the main Ashbrook library while all kinds of things were happening on the outside in a short time span.
Osric was peacefully reading one of the books he picked out.
A Historical Overview of Aldreth.
'This is really interesting.'
The Kingdom of Aldreth was founded six hundred and ninety-five years ago and is among the oldest surviving human kingdoms on the western side of the continent.
Unlike many neighboring realms, Aldreth did not endure because of military strength.
Its survival was largely the result of geography.
To the north lies an impassable mountain range.
To the east stretches a vast forest separating Aldreth from foreign powers.
The western coastline and southern routes further limited large-scale invasions.
As a result, Aldreth was rarely conquered.
Osric paused briefly.
'So the kingdom survived because nobody could easily reach it?'
That wasn't how most people talked about kingdoms.
Growing up, he had always assumed kingdoms survived because they were powerful.
'Well Ashbrook definitely doesn't give the impression that it's part of a powerful kingdom.'
Modern Aldreth differs greatly from the kingdom described in earlier records.
While the central territories continue to receive significant royal attention, many distant regions have steadily declined over the last century.
Several northern territories have already been abandoned or absorbed by neighboring lords.
Royal investment increasingly favors strategic and economically valuable regions.
Osric frowned.
'Northern territories were abandoned?'
He had heard complaints about taxes his entire life.
But reading that entire territories had simply been left to collapse was something else entirely.
Osric became more and more intrigued.
'Whoever wrote this book is very brave. They would surely be punished for talking about the kingdom like that.'
He continued with more respect for the author.
Among commoners, loyalty to the crown has declined sharply in many regions.
Records from traveling magistrates frequently describe the same sentiment.
"Our rulers are all the same. Cruel, greedy, and blind."
The phrase appears repeatedly across western and northern Aldreth.
Osric stared at the passage for several moments.
It felt strange seeing something written in a book that everyone in Ashbrook already believed.