Priorities

The Harbour Master Office

The Harbour, Shipbreaker bay

Alvia province,

Algrim.

19.13.1623. ST

...

"Your Grace, I would have suggested you to remain calm, but knowing you would just ignore me anyway I won’t," Sir Richard sighed as he stared at the Crown Prince of Hertalese, Prince Everhard Wesselbutum, sitting across from him.

The middle-aged knight observed with a hint of concern as his ward tapped his fingers incessantly on the table, his expression warped in righteous fury. It was a scene that caused one to develop an intense feeling of concern as well as question the other person’s mental well-being.

"How did this happen, Sir Richard?" Prince Everhard asked, his voice cracking under the sheer weight of his rage.

“I don’t know,” The knight replied. He truly didn’t.

"Then, what should I do now?" the prince asked again, confusion boiling-over rage.

"This is supposed to be a learning experience for you, your highness, not me,” the knight replied calmly, bluffing his way out of the question.

“You are still on that? Even with everything that’s happening?”

“Yes,” Richard replied calmly, forcing the prince to look at him with a disgruntled glare.

“Fine!” Everhard said, gritting his teeth. “Either way, we will have to return to Hertalese immediately.”

"That would be irresponsible of you, your highness,” Sir Richard replied, sensing an impending escalation. The knight sighed, rubbing his temple as he racked his brain to come up with a way to deescalate things before the dumb prince did something stupid.

Again.

Recently, Richard would sometimes question why the king would allow such an irresponsible person to lead an expedition of such importance… then he would remember even the king was not much different. After all, it’s no surprise Hertalese was in a state of decline ever since his coronation.

‘It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this…’ Richard mumbled inwardly as he observed the prince’s rapidly morphing expression. Rage, anxiety, fear and a few others flashed across the prince’s face in rapid succession. Despite having probably said this a million times before, the knight was quick to reaffirm that being a Royal tutor was more trouble than it was worth.

"So what should we do then? We can not just stay here while the capital is under threat of an invasion,” the prince retorted furiously. “I am not taking any chances. I am going to lead the army home back first thing tomorrow."

Sir Richard felt his heart stop for a moment. Abandon an invasion halfway won and return home? Wow…

"But Algrim—" Richard began only to have his words forced back down his throat.

"I do not care! Would you like Ivonne, Aries or even Verum to desecrate our capital just as we have done this one? If there is one thing I have learnt from this expedition. It is that no fortification is truly invulnerable."

The prince reeked of agitation. This was bad. Very bad. Richard knew he had to stop the prince now before he committed to an idea that was most probably very going to cost more than even he was worth. This knight would very much love not to lose his head.

“Calm down, my prince,” Richard interrupted with a possibly nervous chuckle, “no one is conquering Hertalese anytime soon.”

“How do you know that?” The prince argued back, causing Richard to chuckle yet again.

“You are failing to see something important, your Grace,” the knight said, waving his hands in a calming gesture. “Verum just announced funding a crusade to aid the affected regions, not invade them. An army of mercenaries has probably already been slotted to help defend the Grotha-Buzely border and another to expel the pirates ravaging the affected coastal regions. It’s very obvious the Verummites intend to keep their word.”

The prince paused. Thankfully.

“...Is that true?’

“Yes,” Richard replied. It was mostly true, but the mercenary army was never confirmed to be slotted to aid defend any of the affected coastal regions nor is anyone sure the Verummites would keep their word. For all Richard knew, the mercenary army could very well be sent to invade the kingdom instead… but the prince did not have to know that. If there was going to be a war in Hertalese Richard wanted to be as far away as possible from it.”

“But, Veum can not be trusted—”

“Yes, they cannot,” Richard continued, bluffing, “but there is nothing to worry about. Neither Ivonne, Aries nor Verum would make the mistake of sending an army within a hundred miles of the capital. At most a bit of foul play at the fringes of the kingdom, but nothing too devastating.”

The knight watched with a hint of relief as the prince slowly began to calm down. But he saw a hint of reluctance in the young man’s gaze.

"How about this,” Richard proposed, an idea quickly forming in his head, “you leave a third of the second fleet here to manage things while the rest return to Hertalese. I assume they would be enough to tip the scales and force Blacksails to make a retreat, while his Majesty can focus his attention on the conflict brewing in the north."

The prince's eyes brightened for a moment before quickly dimming again.

"But, who is going to manage Algrim until I return?" he asked.

‘Oh, you remember the importance of managing Algrim now?’ Richard mumbled internally before also considering the question.

A few moments went by before the knight replied with a truly reluctant sigh.

"Fine,” he said with the aura of a thousand saintly martyrs, “I will do it."

"Really?" Everhard asked, sounding somewhat doubtful. “I thought you hated dealing with other nobles. You will be doing a lot of that if you are in charge, you know.”

Richard was well aware of this fact and he hated the thought of it, but he knew better than to follow this buffoon into a warzone ever again.

"I do,” The knight replied rather blandly as he still found the task to be of great distaste to him. “Though this is only until you settle the issues at home and return to take over. I would not involve myself in this any longer than necessary."

"It is settled then," Everhard replied, sounding particularly pleased with the arrangement. Richard simply sighed in response.

“I will take my leave then, my liege. There is a lot I still must attend to before you would be able to begin your expedition back,” he said standing up to leave.

“Take care.”

“You too, my liege.”

Stopping just short of exiting the room, Richard paused hesitantly before asking softly.”My liege…”

“Yes?”

"What do you intend to do about the missing princess?"

"Iris?"

Sir Richard nodded without turning back.

"I do not know," the prince sighed, frustration quickly clouding his expression.

"...Be careful, your highness," Sir Richard cautioned mildly after a short pause. "Your fixation with her is becoming unhealthy. It doesn’t speak well of the Royal name if the crown prince is unduly obsessed with the princess of an enemy nation."

"I am not obsessed. I just want what is mine!" the prince growled, his tone quickly growing sharp.

Sir Richard simply glanced back, his expression unreadable.

"Take care, my prince," he said.

And with that, he turned back and left.

{COS}

Greenfields

Souville province,

Algrim.

20.13.1623. S.T

...

"These are the men you recruited to join the militia, my lord?" Sir Carter asked Levi, looking at the crowd of peasants engaging in vaguely synced physical workout exercises in an open field. The blond, middle-aged knight seemed befuddled as turned an uncomprehending expression towards the young earl.

"Yes," Levi said simply, also observing the peasants with a faint frown. Under the supervision of Sir Justin and three other knights, they underwent various physical workouts in the sloppy manner attributed to all beginners.

“Four hundred and fifty men within the ages 18 to 30, of passable physical condition, and with no tangible criminal records. I am sure we can work with this, right?” Levi asked, turning to match Sir Carter’s gaze.

Sir Carter turned back to look at the group for a moment later before sighing. “I don’t know. Maybe? I am not sure… Ancestors help us if they do not shit themselves and disperse the moment they have to face a proper charge, or even worse freeze up in fear while the enemy hacks them up. I still suggest we recruit mercenaries from Gena town or somewhere else in Quilton to defend Greenfields. At least until you can get more trustworthy knights under your banner.”

Lancelot who stood at Levi’s other side hesitated briefly before whispering into his ear. "My Lord, This method... Look at them, which one of them can wield a sword? They are called fodder for a reason. I am afraid that in front of a proper knightage, they would not be able to stand a chance."

Levi sighed, turning to leave with the two men quickly falling in step behind him. “We have discussed this. Quiltonian mercenaries… no mercenaries, in general, are unreliable. They fight for money, not loyalty or faith and are notorious for turning on their employers in sight of greater benefits. Unless you can provide a more reliable alternative, we still will be forced to use these peasants to bolster our forces.

"Besides, most yeomen are usually selected from amongst the peasants. Since they would eventually make up a sizable portion of our forces, I don’t see why not use them to make up the majority.

"You want an army of fodder, my lord?" Sir Carter asked with a level stare. Levi halted turning to hold the older knight’s gaze expressionlessly.

"...Pardon my impudence, my liege,” Sir Carter soon sighed, relenting. “You summoned me to train them in combat, so what should I start with then?”

Levi nodded, content with the response as he turned to continue walking.

"Well, since I and Lancelot intend to drill them on discipline, basic formations and supervise their physical training exercises… You will handle defensive close-combat before moving on to more specialised programs like crossbow archery or the basics of spearplay.

"Lancelot would debrief you on the specifics later and assign a few more men to help lighten your workload. Steward Robert is in charge of the logistics. He is responsible for managing accommodation, feeding and acquisition of war materiel.

“I currently do not need warriors of your calibre,” Levi added intending to clarify the most likely question the knights may have,” those would take too long to grow and are not feasible even in my mid-term plans. Rather, I require a group of disciplined cohesive units that would follow and execute every one of my orders without fail. My goal is to form this clumsy rabble into a unified and responsive front in the shortest time frame possible. This I hope you can accomplish before next spring.”

“A tall order, my lord, but I will manage.” the older knight sighed again.

“Good, I knew I could count on you, Sir Carter," Levi said with an encouraging smile. "Now, please follow me. I would like your opinion on the new equipment I just commissioned.”

“Equipment?” Sir Carter asked, baffled.

"Patience, Sir Carter. Patience."