Reincarnated Assassin

The journey began again like nothing ever really happened.

After hours of traveling, it was already sunset and the group could finally see the stronghold in the distance.

Alter yelled,

"We will be arriving at Sporco stronghold in half an hour. Enjoy the scene, this could be our last break before we go into battle!".

As the group approached the stronghold, the scenery wasn't as great as they thought. The closer they got to the camp, it gave more of a sense of death. The vegetation became more yellow, torn, or non-existent. The civilian's clothes were tattered if they even had any. The children were almost dangerously skinny and all working instead of playing. The people inscribe in the war were nowhere to be seen.

Ritzy felt it a little off and taped the back of the coachmen.

"Where are all the soldiers, the men, the warriors. Are they possibly up ahead?".

Coachmen,

"Not to be disrespectable my lord but you see the men around us, they are all the enlisted soldiers".

Ritzy,

"What do you mean soldiers?! They either looked like they are about to die from overwork or not being fed enough. Most of them barely have any muscle on them! Look, the only thing they hold are farm tools!".

Coachmen,

"Lord, those farm tools are their weapons. Ohh, wait! Do you mean muscular men and armor wearers?".

Ritzy,

"Yes, aren't they suppose to be our soldiers!".

All the soldiers and servants laughed when they heard Ritzy's response but then quickly tried to hide it.

After a while, the coachmen finally calmed down.

"Lord, the people you are talking about mostly live in fairy tales".

"The men here are the average army. The lords the farmers serve, volunteer them for service. That's how it's mostly been. Typically, the people you were talking about isn't possible to have. It's way too expensive and time-consuming. Remember, war is used to make a profit so they won't be providing those luxuries for us".

"Luckily, we don't have to work with these lowly people. We'll be working with people similar to what your thinking".

"You'll see them when we get closer to our camp area".

As they traveled down, they finally arrived at the stronghold. They were now waiting in long line of people waiting for inspections to enter the stronghold.

The people in line were very different from everyone else. They were all in better condition than the people outside.

Coachmen,

"These people are the ones that we'll be mostly with. These people are the merchants that bring the necessary material to the battlefield, mercenaries, nobles, and craftsmen".

"As a noble, it's customary that you'll be in better living quarters and surrounded by the best".

Ritzy,

"Makes sense".

As time went on, it was finally the group's turn to be inspected.

Guard 1,

"We'll be commencing the inspection. It's just standard procedure so I hope there won't be any trouble with us inspecting?".

Alter,

"That won't be a problem".

Guard 1 turned to the guards,

"Begin the inspection".

The guard then turned back,

"So, what household are you from?"

Alter,

"We are the proud Marquees Reds household".

Guard 1,

"Oh yes, the head of the household is the nephew of the king's wife, am I right?"

Alter,

"Yes, that is correct".

Guard 1,

"It seems you brought the appropriate material as a donation but where is your family's representative? I don't see his carriage".

The family couldn't prepare Ritzy's carriage in time so Christopher told him to lie to them since it's considered an embarrassment to not have a personal carriage.

Alter,

"The carriage was destroyed during our young master's magic experiment. You know how magicians are, they don't care about what happens as long as they can do research".

Guard 2,

"Yeah, that's true. They do love their research. So, is the representative in the back carriages?'.

As the other guards were inspecting the people and what items were in the carriage, one of the guards approached Ritzy.

He grabbed Ritzy's back and said,

"Sir, you need to turn back so I can inspect you".

Once the guard forced Ritzy to turn around, he became terrified. He released his urine as soon as he saw Ritzy's face. When he saw Ritzy, he knew he was not any person but a noble.

He noticed Ritzy was wearing extravagant clothes like a noble and angering a noble is extremely dangerous.

Though, that wasn't what caused him to drench himself. It was Ritzy's eyes that truly terrified him. When the guard saw Ritzy's eyes, it was the color of fools gold. It showed no light, glare, or even reflection. It looked like Ritzy didn't even care that someone touched him. He felt like death itself was watching him.

Ritzy himself, wasn't paying attention to what was happening. Since he knew that no one would attack them at the stronghold, Ritzy stopped paying attention to the area around him. Instead, he was deep in thought about how he could improve his life magic to the advance level.

Noticing that he was moved, he came back to reality. Now his eyes showed some life and became vibrant. Now instead of the fool's gold color, it was more like fantasy gold. It gave a bright shine of prosperity.

Seeing light come alive to Ritzy's eyes, caused the guard to release his bowels. He looked as if a monster had awakened.

Guard 3's mind,

"My damn rotten luck! Not only did I disturb a noble, but he also had to be a blessed noble. I'm in big ****** trouble now!".

---

In this world, nobles had to be well respected. If somebody disrespected a noble in any way. Their life would become a living hell, especially in wartime. Usually, the offenders would be sent to the front line.

The only people considered on equal standing to a noble was a blessed person. These people were destined to be the best, and nobles new that. Nobles would typically be kind to blessed people because the kingdom would treat them as prized allies and unreplaceable resources.

This allowed blessed people to seem more important than a noble. Blessed people became role models and important figures. Nobles and commoners alike treated blessed people with the utmost respect.

What made the moment unique was that Ritzy was not only a noble but blessed person at the same time. Ritzy was practically on the highest points possible below the king himself if he was the head of the household.

The knights and servants knew this and it was the reason why they didn't interact with him. The only reason Alter talked with Ritzy was because he was in charge of the knights and Junger only talked with Ritzy when Ritzy personally looked for him. The same went for the coachmen that talked with Ritzy.

---

The guard then fell on his knees and looked at the sky as if it was his last time. Small tears were running on his face.

Guard 3,

"I'm sorry kids, looks like I won't be seeing you anymore".

Ritzy was utterly confused about what was happening. The knight just touched his shoulder but then fell on the floor while releasing his bowels.

The guard who was giving the questions was noticing what was happening and quickly came to the scene.

Guard 1,

"Lord Reds, we're sorry for disturbing you and show this unbefitting scene. Please just go on ahead and forget about the checkpoint. This will not happen again. This was just a series of bad luck events. If we saw the family emblem we would've let you skip the inspection. So please, forget this fool and go on into the camp".

Ritzy had no idea what was happening but he just went with the flow.

"It's fine, just don't let it happen again. It was our fault for not having our emblem on display to know easily who we are".

Typically, personal carriages would carry their family emblem. It was a sign of being part of a respectable household.

Ritzy,

"We'll be going on then".

The coachmen saw his cue and signaled the horses to pull the carriage.

The head guard turn around and yelled.

"They are clear for entrance! Have someone guide the Reds family to their camp area!".

As they passed inside the massive wall, they saw many camps around the stronghold with a single small castle inside.

While they were being led to there camp area, they saw a whole different scenery. Unlike the outside, the place looked more lively and pleasing. There were no farmers and only people's slaves. Everyone inside was a guard, knight, noble, or important person.

Finally, they reached an empty plot with the family emblem on a flag to show that it was reserved. The flag showed a phoenix painted red with its wings creating a U above the bird. In the U was a small flame.

The flag held a Pheonix to show they were part of the royal family, and the flame represented a long lineage of talented fire users in the family.

Ritzy's family were all flame dominate users. His brothers and sisters mostly used flame related magic or skills. His father, in particular, was known for his powerful use in fire. Christopher was most known for burning a whole forest when an enemy army tried to use guerilla tactics in a nearby forest.

As they set up camp, Ritzy was a usual sitting in the carriage bored as ever. Luckily after a while, a servant came to the camp and brought a message saying that Ritzy was requested to come to the castle for a war meeting.

Joyful that he got something to do, he headed straight to the castle, but before he could go. Alter yelled for him,

"Lord, please wait you need an escort!".

Alter then turned to Junger and said,

"Junger, escort the lord to the castle. We don't want to embarrass the family by showing we can't even escort our lord".

Junger's mind,

"*****, it's happening. I didn't want to be recognized as Ritzy friend and become his personal guard. There goes my achievement filled future. Now I will never become a captain!".

Junger,

"Coming".