Jeff was the son of a baron, but he was cut out of the succession process. He was the third son, and quite talented at that. In fact he was the most outstanding of all of his siblings.
Jeff was a tall, stalwart man. He had refined features auburn hair and blue eyes. His cheekbones were defined and his forehead broad. Overall, he was quite a handsome man.
He gave of the impression of a solid wall. When he wasn't armoured like a tank his muscles rolled beneath his skin like steel coils. He was an embodiment of martial prowess on the battlefield as well.
He knew his way around most weapons, such as the sword, mace, spear and war bow. He was a talent, slotted and predicted to awaken soon. By all accounts, Jeff was an asset to his land.
His siblings were impressive as well, but clearly, they fell short of his brilliance. It seemed that his rise to the ranks of the barony was all but assured.
Sadly, for all of his Martial talent, he lacked in cunning and vision. His eldest brother, and the second could read the room.
By virtue of tradition, The eldest was the heir and slotted to inherit the fief, while the second was his backup, in case anything happened to him.
In return, if the eldest died of any weird circumstance, like a mysterious assassination perhaps, the second would not inherit. Instead the Crown would pick another of the relatives of the Barony.
Only ehn it had been investigated and proven without a shadow of a doubt that the rest of the relatives were unsuitable, and the second heir was innocent without a shadow of a doubt, then would the second inherit.
That had only happened thrice in the history of Vaught.
Therefore the Eldest was the best de-facto heir, with Jeff as his direct competitor.
Therefore, the extent of outstanding that Jeff showed was a direct threat to his siblings. And even if Jeff had no intent of stealing the post, his father had begun to show signs of hesitation.
It was well within the rights of any noble, especially the smaller ones, to choose their successor. In such cases, if, after the death of the noble, one of their offspring wanted to challenge the decision, there were ways.
It was considered a huge taboo, however. It was a form of dishonor towards the dead noble, especially if the claim succeeded. It was sort of like shouting to the world that the previous noble was incompetent.
It was a good way to lose long standing allies. Only the supremely talented, supremely desperate, and the outstandingly foolish attempted this course of action. Of course. None of those were mutually exclusive.
And so the brothers had hatched a plot. Before the Baron had managed to cement the idea in his mind that Jeff would be a better replacement, the two sons had conspired to have their father killed.
A Baron was a noble, yes, but in the eyes of most of the higher nobility they were commoners among the nobility. Aside from knights, who were nobbles in name only and extremely numerous, they were the lowest rung of real power.
Commoners didn't count. They were barely people in the eyes of their rulers. And so the death of the Baron hadn't had much of an impact in the kingdom. Neither had the investigation.
In fact Jeff was pretty sure that the Investigators had been bribed and sent off by his brothers, the new Baron and his second in command.
Jeff was not so fortunate as to reap something from the events. He had been stripped of his attendant, which was the ultimate humiliation to a noble. They had then trumped up charges and sent Jeff to be imprisoned.
It was in prison that a shady force had approached him. They made themselves up to be the rightful rulers of the land. They called themselves a resistance, rising up to fight the tyranny of the nobles.
The movement had freed him, and given him a new home and a new mission. He became the boss of a gang, responsible for the underworld in the fief of a distant Viscount. It was there that his talent had bloomed and he had awakened.
Today he had drawn the short straw. He had been drafted in an attack against one of the strongest powers in the kingdom which, ironically, was being suppressed by that same kingdom.
As his superiors kept the Baron and his wife busy, while being toyed with at that, he fought one of the knight captains. In truth none of them were going all out in this battle.
After all, their target was the heirs, and the Baron couldn't disengage easily. It would also lead to a gap in the battle formation, and the Barony's strongest pillars could suffer. The battle was like chess.
Unless the Baron was way more powerful than they knew, He wasn't going to be able to quickly force a resolution. The Barony had the advantage in pure strength, but the movement had the advantage of numbers.
And they were prepared to use it.
That was why when a subordinate came to the battlefield named Roach came to the battlefield and signaled him with a priority message, he was able to quickly arrange a replacement for him self on the battlefield.
There were still awakened on the battlefield in reserve. He took the shifty and shabby looking Roach away to a secluded place not far from the fighting.
"What? If you used a priority message because you can't kill a bunch of unawakened brats, I swear I'm going to send you to the Butcher so that you can at least earn me a profit." Jeff said to Roach
"Nothing of the sort sir. Well something of the sort. Well you're sort of indeed right but also its complicated sir. But then agai…" Roach nervously started.
"If you continue wasting my time I'm throwing you into the melee with the awakened."
Roach shivered. That was a death sentence.
He cleared his throat and said. " The Little Snake is dead. Our intel was wrong. Irik Albrecht was a pseudo awakened."
"Still, the Little Snake should have won. He was an old veteran in the assassin game." Jeff mulled. "Wait, what do you mean was?"
"Well, sir, during the battle, the young Albrecht awakened."