Chapter 28

It occurred to Joachim that he had never seen Lady Zahradnik wearing such a big, smiley smile. As she made her way out of the Tenth Company’s encampment, the men who encountered her smile couldn’t help but be enchanted as she walked by with it.

She certainly did smile, but, most of the time, it was a small, polite smile that wasn’t really a smile. There was also the charming, lopsided one she used to indicate that she was being lighthearted. Joachim was certain that she employed it because she could often be mistaken for saying something uniquely horrifying if she didn’t.

Those smiles were not the big, happy, wholesome-looking smile like the one she had on right now. Usually, the Baroness frowned. Even her smiles could be frowns. She frowned more than Joachim’s entire family combined – which made him wonder what the smiley smile meant.

Lady Zahradnik smiled all the way to the other side of the pass, where she smiled her way through the Demihuman dwellings along the shore and members of her new ‘company’ smiled in response to her smile. The smile led them to a rocky overhang where a half dozen Trolls were gnawing on bones stripped bare of any flesh.

“All healed up, Ough?”

The Mountain Troll answered her question with a sniff and a grunt. Was he being a sore loser?

“Of course you are,” Lady Zahradnik said. “Regeneration is quite convenient. Well, pick up your weapons and let’s go.”

“Go?”

“Not far – just someplace where the trees won’t get in the way of your practice.”

“Practice…” Joachim frowned, “Do you truly mean to have them fight alongside us, my lady?”

“Quoniam si quis non vult operari, nec manducet.”

Joachim blinked as he realised she had recited something in the language of the Slane Theocracy.

“I’m sorry,” Lady Zahradnik said. “I quoted something out of one of our scriptures. It means–”

“I understood, my lady. Barely. It was one of the languages I was taught before I became an Acolyte.”

“I see. What other languages do you understand?”

“Just three. Or maybe closer to two. Re-Estize and Baharuth have barely diverged in their language – the difference is a small selection of terms, at most. But would Demihumans understand something like that?”

“The ‘Demihumans’ are following right behind you, Priest Ward,” Lady Zahradnik replied. “Even if they aren’t familiar with our concept of work, it is not a difficult one to grasp. Being simple is not necessarily synonymous with being stupid. Also, throwing ‘Demihuman’ over everything will get you in trouble one of these days – a Troll here is not identical to a Troll elsewhere, just as a Human in the Theocracy is not identical to a Human in Baharuth.”

As they walked away from the camp, Joachim tripped several times in the stifling darkness of the night. Lady Zahradnik stopped to hand him a magical light. He let out a shout and stumbled backwards as the item lit up the faces of the Trolls looking down at him.

“Over there looks good,” the Baroness said. “Wait here, I’ll be back in a bit.”

Lady Zahradnik effortlessly dashed off into the gloomy forest, definitively proving that she was, in fact, a Ranger. Joachim glanced several times at the Trolls, who went to lounge about with their backs to the nearby trees. After a few minutes, he gathered his courage and turned to address them.

“I’m Joachim,” he smiled nervously. “What are your names?”

“Ough.”

“Ogh.”

“Uogh.”

“Guh.”

“Ouh.”

“Woh.”

How am I supposed to remember that?

Never mind their names, he had no idea how to tell them apart. Aside from Ough, who was a different species of Troll entirely, they may as well have been mossy boulders with arms and legs.

Lady Zahradnik reappeared thirty minutes later with a large buck over her shoulders. She dressed her kill in front of them before pulling five more of them from her magical container and doing the same. Shortly after she tossed one to each of the Trolls, several Goblins appeared. The Baroness held out the deer hides to them.

“Do you remember who Destin is?” She asked.

One of the Goblins nodded.

“Bring these to him and he’ll show you how to prepare them for curing.”

The Goblins took the hides, holding them up between themselves as they scurried back towards the camp.

“Eat up,” she said. “We have a long night ahead of us.”

“We’re staying out here all night, my lady?”

“Do you have a Ring of Sustenance?”

“I, uh…no? I’m not even sure what that is…”

“Then you’re retiring for the night,” Lady Zahradnik told him. “I need to understand how the members of Ough’s tribe fight and what I can do to help them improve.”

Joachim wordlessly watched as the Baroness had Ough and the other Trolls demonstrate how they wielded their weapons. There wasn’t much to see: they swung as hard as they could, shouting as they did. Sometimes they accidentally – or purposely – hit one another, but he supposed that regeneration trivialised such injuries.

There was no technique or finesse: only brute force. Lady Zahradnik, however, watched them intently. Maybe she saw things as a Weapon Master that regular people could not.

His fatigue caught up with him after thirty minutes of watching. He excused himself before shuffling back to the campfire. A few of the men looked up as he entered the light.

“Where’s Lady Zahradnik?” Iguvel asked.

“Back out there doing something with the Trolls.”

“Like what?”

“Training…I think?”

“Huh?”

Being increasingly confused himself, Joachim didn’t bother answering the infantryman. He crawled into his tent, no longer sure if he was a soldier of the Imperial Army or a member of some weird wilderness tribe.

Early the next morning, he came out to see Redwyn tending to the fire.

“Good morning.”

“‘Mornin.”

He looked around, stretching as he yawned. The squad’s tents and stores were still in one piece and a few of the others were getting ready for the day.

“So we survived the night…”

“Yep. Didn’t wake up with no Goblin girl in my bedroll, either.”

Joachim sincerely hoped that there wasn’t some story behind that statement.

“Did the Fourth Division come in?”

“The first few companies started arriving about an hour ago,” the Fire Cleric replied. “They’re camping out near the Tenth Company. I think they’re raising a fort over there, too.”

That much was to be expected. They hadn’t yet experienced any counterattacks, but they couldn’t afford to lose the pass. Redwyn handed him a bowl of soup and a roll of hard brown bread.

“You sure Lady Zahradnik ain’t actually a Hobgoblin?” The other Cleric asked.

“Someone’s going to lay you out if they hear that,” Joachim replied. “Why do you ask?”

“‘Cause this tribe’s startin’ to look like us pukes back in training.”

He frowned and twisted around, trying to verify Redwyn’s claim through the trees.

“It’s only been one night,” Joachim said.

“It ain’t pretty,” Redwyn said, “but neither were we. Well, I guess we were prettier than that. Still weird as hell, though.”

Unable to contain his curiosity, Joachim finished off his meal before quickly getting dressed. He made his way over to the clearing where half of the squad was gathered, watching dozens of Demihumans gathered into loose ranks. The fact that they were ordered into ranks wasn’t the only thing strange about them, but it took a moment for him to recognise what it was.

“Did those Ogres always have giant shields?” He asked.

“No,” Frank answered. “Lady Zahradnik had the Fourth Division’s engineers shape those bigass shields for them. The sticks, too.”

Each Ogre was holding a thick wooden tower shield two metres tall and a metre across. They also wielded a staff as tall as their shields. Aside from that, they had nothing but their crude tribal garb. Even so, the two pieces of equipment looked intimidating enough when wielded by the brutish-looking Giantkin.

The visible Trolls sparred with staves, though theirs were as tall as they were and nearly as thick as Joachim’s wrist. Without the shields of the Ogres, they wielded their weapons as polearms. Rank after rank of Goblins stood behind the Ogres, each holding a crude bow.

『Shield Wall!』

Rustles of Ogre feet sounded over the forest floor as they locked their shields together and planted them on the ground. They went to one knee, lowering their heads completely behind the defensive wall.

『Take your marks!』

The Goblins behind the Ogre shield wall looked forward, standing on their tiptoes or hopping up and down.

『Nock! Draw – Loose!』

About half of the Goblins loosed their bows in time. The others followed, sending dozens of arrows over the Ogres. The projectiles didn’t get far, landing between forty to sixty metres away.

“At least I ain’t out of a job,” Gaston said.

『Nock! Draw – Loose!』

Another volley of arrows went over the shield wall. This time, it was slightly better coordinated. After several more volleys, Lady Zahradnik called for the Goblins to retrieve their ammunition. The Ogres set their shields on the forest floor and sat down.

The Baroness came over to them with Ough following at her heels.

“Good morning, gentlemen.”

“Good morning, m’lady,” Frank said, “how’d you get them doing this so quick?”

“I’m cheating at the moment,” she replied. “After having them learn how to perform each step, I’m helping them to move at the right time with Command Skills. They’re still a long way from being able to march in ranks or coordinate between themselves. I’d really like to recruit a Hobgoblin one day and find out how they do it.”

“They do this sort of thing?” Pol asked, “Hobgoblins, I mean.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re better than me at this,” the Baroness said. “I had to fight against Hobgoblins once. They had full, independently operating battalions that could march and fight in formation with Captains and a General to command them. Heavy Infantry five ranks deep, Goblin archer corps and Wolf Riders, Bugbear shock troopers and all sorts of magical support. They could use Martial Arts, too.”

“M-Martial Arts? All of them? But Demihumans with Martial Arts are supposed to be rare!”

Lady Zahradnik’s dark-eyed gaze rested on the Cavalier for a moment, as if he had said something that she found strange. Joachim, however, did not believe Pol’s statement to be incorrect. It was nearly unheard of for tribal Demihumans to employ Martial Arts or combat Skills.

“All of the Hobgoblins could. Many Demihumans in the Sorcerous Kingdom can use Martial Arts, as well. The way that we were taking down Trolls yesterday was something I learned from those Hobgoblins back then…except that they were managing to do it against Death Knights.”

“Wait,” Merg said, “didn’t they think there were Hobgoblins up here pulling the strings? We have to fight that?”

“We encountered a Hobgoblin leading a raiding party into the Empire,” Lady Zahradnik said, “and there were reports of more raids after that. This cross-racial organisation suggests that something like a Hobgoblin is coordinating them. The air wing would have noticed a large army by now; since they haven’t, we shouldn’t be running into anything too substantial. Also, unless they’re being supplied with equipment by some unknown source, they should have the same sort of arms and armour as what you’ve seen out here so far.”

That much, at least, was a relief. Even with mundane equipment, however, Ough alone was an overwhelming threat against one of the Sixth Legion’s companies.

“I guess being big and tough here will count for a lot, then,” Frank said. “Even with these plain wood shields, these guys are going to be tough to get past.”

“That’s the idea,” the Baroness nodded. “The Ogres will function as a mobile wall that hits people with sticks if they get too close and the Goblins will be able to use that wall for shelter. I had the Trolls equipped with simple polearms that they already understand the basic use of, but I’ll continue to train them in quarterstaff techniques as we go along. They’ll be the hammer for this company – a regenerating hammer.”

“And since everything’s made of wood,” a voice came from behind them, “broken stuff is easy to replace.”

They turned to find Captain Seris and a squad of men from his company behind him. All of them wore the incredulous expressions that Joachim and the others must have had when they first saw what was going on.

“Except for the arrows I requisitioned from the Fourth Division,” Lady Zahradnik replied. “Good morning, Captain Seris.”

“Good morning, my lady. Commander Schuler arrived on Hippogriff just now. General Ray is on his way over, too.”

“Thank you for letting me know, Captain. One moment while I speak to the Ough tribe.”

“The Ough tribe…”

Lady Zahradnik smiled at the Captain’s reaction, turning away to address the Demihuman tribe. The Trolls and Ogres were instructed to rest while a third of the Goblins were sent out to hunt and forage. Joachim followed Lady Zahradnik and Captain Seris over to the Fourth Division’s encampment, which had been raised behind a wall not dissimilar to the one General Ray had raised for the pass he had taken.

General Ray’s flight arrived just as they entered the central area of the camp and he joined them in Commander Schuler’s pavilion. Several of the Commander’s Captains were gathered around the simple table that had been put together out of sections of magically-shaped pine.

“Good morning, General Ray,” Commander Schuler said. “The Baroness appears to have delivered as you’ve promised.”

“She has,” the General replied, “a step on the way to a proper answer, I suppose.”

“An answer, sir?”

The General nodded, offering a tight smile in response to Commander Schuler’s befuddled expression.

“We’ve spoken at length about the Sixth Legion,” General Ray said. “About its mandate and how the long-term goals of the Empire will be best served. While our task seems understandable enough, the standing doctrines we’ve carried with us from our domestic duties are ill-suited to carry it out. There are also…nuances to operating out here that we need to understand as an expeditionary force.”

“…I see,” Commander Schuler replied. “Well, I would be a fool to disagree. The Imperial Army hasn’t seen an operation like this since, well, never. If we are to provide you with an answer, my lady, what is the question?”

“There is more than one question,” Lady Zahradnik told him, “but they are the same questions that the Sorcerous Kingdom has asked the Empire since it formalised its status as a client state. The Empire lacked the ears to hear those questions in past months, providing answers it was unaware that it was providing. I have come across several outstanding individuals who have recognised the questions for what they are, but it is in this expeditionary army that the Empire can ill afford to produce answers blindly.”

The Commander’s eyes went to the table, where a map of the region lay as it tended to in the officers’ pavilions of the Imperial Army.

“I’m a military man, my lady,” he said. “Of these questions that I believe that your Royal Court is asking, I am only qualified to offer input on those related to our military operations. It’s not the place of the military to dictate national policy.”

“It isn’t,” Lady Zahradnik agreed, “but, at the same time, the Court Council has charged you with leading the Empire into unfamiliar territory both literally and figuratively. The steps that you take in pursuit of your charge will form the foundations of imperial foreign policy in regard to its expansionary efforts. As such, you would be doing a disservice to the Empire if you do not explore all potential avenues.”

“And this is what you’re doing now with this Demihuman tribe? Showing us a ‘potential avenue’?”

“I am bringing many potential avenues to your awareness,” the Baroness told him. “As a liaison officer, my duty is to help develop mutual understanding. There are many aspects of the Sorcerous Kingdom that the Baharuth Empire appears to be blind to. The root of this blindness is part ignorance and part cultural conditioning. While I’m sure that my government will be able to work with any answer you provide, I believe you would at least like to make an informed answer.”

Baroness Zahradnik made a broad gesture to the map lying between them.

“The Baharuth Empire is on the precipice of drastic change due to the advent of the Sorcerous Kingdom. On the security front, the adoption of Death-series servitors will effectively make your lands impervious to all but the most powerful hostile incursions that the region can bring to bear. With the supplements to your security comes the solidification of the Empire’s existing stability. A period of unprecedented growth and development lies before you.

“Your former military venture – the gradual annexation of Re-Estize – is no longer a valid avenue for expansion. As an ascendant power, you will of course seek other avenues. This leads us to the formation of the Sixth Legion as the expeditionary arm of the Imperial Army. Your ventures are not the occasional operation by a local division to carve out a bit of frontier for development, but the systemic conquest of vast swathes of territory that will inevitably draw the eye of all concerned parties in the region.”

The young noblewoman looked up from the map, her gaze drifting over every man at the table.

“By your actions, you not only answer the questions posed to you by your suzerain but those posed by all who are aware of you. The Baharuth Empire is not a singular existence that stands above the rest of the world – you are a part of the world. I would urge you to consider those actions and their results carefully lest you inadvertently paint yourselves in an unflattering colour.”