Chapter 4

Michael’s Camp: POV (Quinten) One of the commoners.

Once Michael had left the camp after giving out his extremely simplified orders, his men had took to carrying them out with gusto, however about a day later it was discovered that the logistics of forming a camp to Michael’s expectations would take a bit more precise management than previously thought. Someone was needed who could keep track of the incoming supplies and personnel, and take up a sort of secondary leadership to ensure that Michael’s instructions would be carried out efficiently; enter Quinten, he was one of the commoners that was with the original bandit camp, when it was determined that better management was need, he took it upon himself to take charge and organize it into something that at least appeared professional.

Originally Quinten was the financial accountant to one of the more moderate nobles in Gallia; he was very good at his job and helped his previous lord to grow his wealth enough to advance through the aristocratic hierarchy to become moderately well known, quite an achievement for a ‘lowly commoner’… but of course, something had to happen. His lord’s daughter had taken a liking to him and tried to seduce him, but being the loyal servant he was Quinten ignored and declined all the advances and offers heaped upon him. This obviously wasn’t well received by the young noble girl, so she went and complained to daddy about how the nasty old commoner had tried to force himself on her and threatened her as well as other lies, daddy of course believed his daughter and did what any concerned father would do, he condemned Quinten to death by whipping, after castration.

Not even given the chance to defend himself and shocked at how quickly his lord could and would dismiss him, Quinten fled and managed to escape to Tristan were he eventually got picked up by an outlaw earth mage and wound up as a bandit robbing passing travelers. It was like that for nearly two years before Michael came and wowed him and his fellows with his new and powerful weapons, taught him how to use them, and successfully pillage a noble as well as kill said noble. So now here he was essentially the manager, bookkeeper, and overall unofficial second in command of Michael’s budding army. Under Quinten’s supervision the camp was larger, better organized, and steadily growing as people and goods trickled it.

It was mid-afternoon on the third day since Michael left when Quinten heard the shout from one of the camp’s sentries that there was a rider approaching. Quinten was currently updating their inventory, adding some recently purchased food supplies delivered by wagon, so when he heard the alert all he had to do was turn toward the camp entrance. What, or rather whom he saw, was their leader and inspiration for all that they were doing.

“It’s Michael!” Quinten yelled with a broad smile on his face. That announcement drew the attention of everyone in the camp, even those who were in the tents rushed out to see their beloved leader’s return, and the newbies all looked to see the mysterious figure responsible for their new found lease on life. Michael rode up to and dismounted in front of Quinten, wearing his trademark friendly smile.

“Good afternoon gents, Quinten, I see you’ve been the one to take charge of our endeavor.” Quinten was visually amazed at the fact Michael had remembered his name, after only a few seconds of being stupefied he abruptly straighten and did his best to give a professional report on the current state of affairs in a form befitting one under Michael’s command.

“A-ah, yes sir, well, *ahem*, s-someone had to take charge of the logistics in getting this camp in order and with my background as a noble’s accountant it was felt that I would be the most apt choice…” He was speaking rapidly with clear nervousness in his voice, something that Michael had to help him with.

“Quinten, buddy, I need you to slow down and calm yourself. I am very happy that someone took initiative to get this setup in order; the fact that it was one with your employment history only makes it better. Now, give me an update on the current affairs, I can already see that our numbers have grown and the camp’s expanded.” His voice was calm and encouraging, it steadied Quinten’s nerves. Taking a deep breath Quinten began calmly informing Michael of the major changes which have taken place since his absences.

“Well sir, as you have pointed out we have added new members to our ranks using the methods you instructed us to use, so far we have added a total of thirty-two fighters and three mages to the cause.” Quinten stated promptly and without hesitation this time. Michael let out a whistle at the numbers, a bit impressed.

“Thirty-two? Added to our already existing forces means that we have nearly tripled in size and three more mages, how’d you manage that?” Quinten gestured Michael to walk with him as he explained.

“It’s mostly thanks to Lewis sir, the day after you left he led nearly half our riflemen to another nearby bandit camp, one of our former ‘competitors’ if you will, hours later he returned with the mages and about a dozen more men eager to join up.” Quinten explained as they arrived at the area that the mages had setup shop at to produce weapons and ammo. From the looks of things, they had at least temporarily exceeded demand for weapons as evidence of a good dozen rifles and about half that in pistols and were currently focused on ammo production.

The aforementioned Lewis was one of the earth mages and the former leader of the bandit camp that Michael had taken charge of, so it only made sense to Michael that he was the one to lead the little outing to the other bandit camp. He actually was a good leader, which also explained why he was effectively the leader of the other mages.

Once they were in the production area, Michael spoke to the earth mage.

“Lewis, how goes production?” Startled out of his concentration, Lewis looked up to see who had addressed him and upon seeing Michael immediately stood up with a bright smile on his face.

“Michael, welcome back, well as you can see we’re currently ahead of demand for weapons. As for bullets, well we technically have more than needed, but as you explained, we’ll always need more. That’s something that we’ve learned quite well these past few days, getting these new guys up to par is proving a mighty challenge.” Both Michael and Quinten nodded at this, the former adding a bit of a chuckle while the latter had a more annoyed feeling.

“Indeed,” said Quinten. “Most of these men have never even held a bow much less one of your rifles Michael; add to that many were hard drunkards. Getting them capable of shooting strait has been nothing but an awful headache.” Michael sighed at this, he knew training medieval peasants into a semi-modern fighting force was going to be time consuming, but luckily he also knew some effective training methods.

“I figured as much,” Michael began. “Later on after I’ve met the newbies, I’m going to teach everyone some basic rifle marksmanship fundamentals along with other battle drills which take advantage of the new style of combat that these new weapons bring to the fold.” As he explained, the other two’s eyes widened in interest. Lewis was the first to speak this time.

“Well sir I must say that sounds great, anything that you can teach us could only be a boon, and as for meeting the newcomers, well allow me to introduce you to them.” Michael just nodded and gestured him to lead on.

First to be introduced were the mages, they were two wind and one earth mage, all were line mages and all were lower born nobles until something happened to force them into becoming outlaws, now they work for Michael. After a welcoming talk, Michael managed to bind them to himself with his ‘Deal’ ability by a very cleverly worded speech. Once that was done Michael addressed Lewis again, this time holding up what to everyone else assembled looked to be a metal rock.

“Okay now Lewis, I know that you and that other mages are a little over booked in terms of manufacturing capacity, but I want to add something to your production queue.” Lewis and Quinten looked at the new object in confusion.

“What is it, it looks like a rock or an egg.” Michael smiled at this.

“This is known as a fragmentation grenade, it is an explosive which sends out deadly pieces of metal shrapnel. All you do is pull this pin, and then throw it at an enemy or group of enemies, and it blows them up. I’ll give a demonstration later.” They both were a bit skeptical, but they were also skeptical at Michael’s other weapons and were proven wrong.

Despite their skepticism, Lewis was adamant that he and the other mages could handle the added workload with no problems seeing as the grenades were only slightly more difficult to create than bullets. Insured by that, Michael bid farewell to Lewis and had Quinten guide him to the other new recruits whom were busy with target practice. Introductions were quick and Michael had managed to bind them all via the ‘Deal’ by disguising it as a group speech and then shaking the hand of every one of them.

That done, Michael then began his demonstration of the fragmentation grenade; by having his earth mages summon up several clay statues arranged in a standard medieval infantry line in the middle of a field, he then told the assembled audience to plug their ears, and then he pulled the ping and tossed the explosive object at the test dummies. The results shocked the onlookers, aside from the loud sound produced by the blast; most of the dummy line was destroyed with the rest of the statues sporting damage that could be fatal on a real soldier.

Now ensured of the lethality of the new weapon, the mages eagerly learned how to produce them, they along with Quinten were surprised at how simple a grenade actually was to make and got started immediately. It was then Quinten’s turn to be addressed by Michael.

“Alright then Quinten, I’ve got some new instructions that need to be incorporated into camp management, so prepare to copy.” Quinten was; because of his role he had started to carry around a sort of notebook, which Michael approved of wholeheartedly.

For the next couple hours Quinten paid apt attention as Michael explained to him what he wanted his soldiers to be taught; from basic rifle marksmanship (BRM) to marching in rank and file to a simplified form of U.S army combatives, Quinten made sure he recorded it all. A few things confused him and had to be further explained, but by the end Quinten was determined to carryout Michael’s instructions and make sure that the soldiers of the revolution would be well taught, he wouldn’t disappoint, the ‘Deal’ would make certain of that.

Six weeks later… POV change (Michael)

As the weeks progressed Michael’s army grew to over two hundred fighters and thirty mages, it could have been more, however a good portion of those numbers had come from other bandit camps and some of them had individuals that just refused to join up and so were gunned down, others were part of gangs that just wouldn’t mesh with the ideals of the revolution, these groups were basically murderers and rapists and thus were killed outright. Michael was convinced that he had acquired every rouge mage within several hundred miles that could be acquired, many were happy to join up, but a few just refused to lower themselves to the service of commoners and had to be put down.

Personnel issues aside Michael was pleased at how well his army was shaping up; the camp, despite not having any permeant structures, resembled a pseudo boot camp with very dedicated soldiers learning everything Michael had instructed them to learn with those who picked up on each subject taking on the role of drill instructors. Thanks to the fundamentals of marksmanship, accuracy was up considerably, discipline was improving thanks to a standardized physical training regime as well as marching practice, and they were even learning modern urban warfare to some degree of success. Everyone now had some training in using grenades, though because of noise issues they mostly just practiced with rocks. In terms of hand to hand fighting they only learned enough to be more skilled brawlers, simple tricks to make them more likely to win if it came to hand to hand.

Another improvement was the standardization of uniforms and equipment; utilizing the stolen gold from Count Mott, Michael had paid several clothiers for the discreet production of a distinctive new uniform for his army. From the ground up first are the combat boots designed to not only look good but are also water proof, comfortable on long marches, and had a specially made winter insert that could be added during cold seasons; this of course made the boots even more comfortable which resulted in the soldiers using the inserts all the time forcing Michael to warn them against using the them during hot days, while understood, it wasn’t completely heeded. The boots also came with several pairs of knee high dark green socks and a lesson on foot care.

Next were the pants; slightly baggy with numerous pockets and came with kneepads, there was also a matching belt. The fabric was easily washed, sturdy, and breathed fairly well allowing the wearer to keep cool even in punishing heat along with the ability to dry rapidly. After the pants of course came the jacket like top; worn over a tough t-shirt that was surprisingly comfortable to the wearers and thus the t-shirt came in sets of six, the jacket was button up because zippers were a bit beyond the clothiers of Tristan, the jacket went on the same principles as the pants to include several pockets, the same material, and even came with elbow pads. Gloves were also included, soft yet sturdy leather gloves that wouldn’t interfere with weapon operation. The head piece was the last part of the uniform, there were two pieces; first was the patrol cap similar to the U.S army’s, or an armored helmet designed to give full protection without hampering hearing or sight.

The entire uniform was colored in dark blues and black in order to give the wearer an inconspicuous appearance in nearly any combat environment. The uniform also had areas on the shoulders for patches; the left shoulder had a patch consisting of cross-rifles over an ‘Aquila’ or eagle while the right shoulder was meant to have the new nation’s symbol once one was made and under that had the soldier’s rank.

For equipment the soldiers were given a pseudo rucksack which contained spare uniforms and clothing, a sleeping bag, a collapsible shovel (entrenching tool), and a primitive first aid kit. Those were just the standard items however; the individuals could also have other things like personal effects. They also had their own tent strapped to the outside of their packs which was water proof and slightly insulated, just like the sleeping bag. The final and arguable most important piece of equipment was the newly developed battle armor created as a joint project between Michael and his mages.

The armor was basically a series of overlapping metal plates covered by the same material as the uniform; covering only the torso, it was meant to stop simple arrows and protect against swords and hopefully spears, it wouldn’t do much against magical attacks, but it was better than nothing, not to mention that it was easier to move in than ordinary plate armor. One other thing that made the armor useful was the inclusion of magazine and grenade holders strapped to the front and in easy reach along with the fact that putting on and taking off the armor was fairly easy since all the wearer had to do was undo the buckles located on either side and slip it on or off.

Michael sighed as he set down the latest logistics report from Quinten, ‘You really couldn’t comprehend the difficulty of building and maintaining an army until you’re actually doing it.’ He thought wearily to himself; sure he had successfully managed to commission the uniforms and equipment discreetly and even in bulk, inventory shows that he had five thousand units, which means he could supply five thousand more soldiers with uniforms, equipment, and weapons. However, the suppliers were mages since only mages could make things in bulk in any reasonable amount of time in this medieval land, and because they were mages who had a business they were nobles, lower class nobles, but still nobles, and that made it a challenge to get what he needed since he was technically a plebian.

Luckily, the fact that they were lower class allowed him to succeed, because they were lower class they were more interested in money and thus all Michael had to do was supply more gold and they would make anything he asked and would be happy to make as much as Michael wanted, because the more he wanted the more gold they got.

Suddenly an attention grabbing ringing disrupts Michael’s musings causing him to reach over and pick up the source of the sound; it was a small rectangular object the size of a flip phone, mainly because that is technically what it was meant to be. It was a project he had gotten his mages to work on, it hadn’t been as difficult to make as he had first thought. Once he had introduced the concept of radio waves as well as a general idea of how they worked and what they could be used for, the mages were able to concoct a magical method to utilize them. After that it was a simple process to design an apparatus to act as a simple communications device; which was great since he really would need one sooner rather than later.

Flipping the little machine open revealed the number pad on the bottom half which had the same function as any other phone; which is to dial other phones. It was yet another concept Michael introduced due to the fact that original design made by the mages would have limited the new phones to essentially working like two way radios, meaning that they would only work in pairs creating the need for someone requiring one phone for every person they would want to communicate with, a real cluster fuck. Thanks to the idea of the number pad, every phone had its own number, and all anyone had to do was dial the sequence of numbers pertaining to the person’s phone that they wanted to contact, just like a real phone… real handy.

Now, just like an ordinary flip phone, the top half had a screen, but unlike ordinary ones, this screen showed the person on the other end, meaning that this phone was in actuality a vid-phone. The person currently calling Michael was one of only two people outside his army to have been given a vid-phone, one was Siesta, the other, whom was currently displayed, was a familiar little blunette mageling.

“Tabitha! How are you?! What do I owe to this rare occasion in receiving a call from you?” Occasion was right; this was the only other time Tabitha has used her vid-phone to contact him, the other time was the test to ensure it worked and that she knew how to use it. Any other time it was him calling her to request an update on specific affairs or on goings, the only one who actually calls him with any real regularity was Siesta. He had originally planned to give one to Kirche too, but during his visit to distribute them to his people in the academy she proved that to be an idiotic idea. As soon as she saw him she latched onto him and proceeded to ramble on and on about what was quite frankly a disturbing infatuation with him, in the end he had to fuck her comatose again in order to get away from her and as a precautionary measure he down right ordered Tabitha to keep the existence of the vid-phone a secret from Kirche, an order she agreed unequivocally with.

“I have received an order from my uncle, a water spirit has been causing trouble on the Tristan-Gallian boarder, I have been commanded to stop it, and I am notifying you because it is a task that I may not survive.” Her expression held its normal stoic attribute, as did her voice, however Michael was able to pick up on the underlining traces of fear, depression, and… pleading? She was in reality calling out to him for help, something he was actually counting on.

“I suppose you’re talking about the spirit at Lagdorian Lake?” Her expression took on noticeable surprise as she nodded the affirmative. “Oh don’t look so surprised, you should know better than anyone that I have info I couldn’t possibly have. Anyway, it should only take me about a day to get to the academy, I have a method for dealing with the water spirit and will accompany you, await my arrival.” Her expression changed from barely noticeable surprise to barely noticeable relief and even gratitude as she nodded her assent and Michael close his vid-phone.

With that he started gathering up some things he might need before heading out to inform Quinten.

“Hey Quinten!” Said individual turned to face him. “Something important has just come up so I’m heading out, shouldn’t be more than a few days.”

“What’s going on sir?” Quinten asked bewildered. Michael answered the query while mounting his horse.

“I need to go deal with a pissed off water spirit who had its most valuable possession stolen from it.” His answer only left everyone in earshot slack jawed in disbelief as Michael rode off with a cheeky smile on his face.

A day or so later… Tristan Magic Academy: POV (Michael)

It was a little after noon when Michael arrived, however there were hardly any students currently at the academy due to the fact that most had returned home because it was currently their version of summer break. Despite this there was one person that Michael knew that was sitting at one of the outdoor tables normally used for tea time. It was Louise, sitting there by herself reading a large book most likely about magic. During the past month and a half Michael had only visited as scant few times, during which he had noticed a remarkable difference in Louise’s attitude compared to canon. She was far happier, though she was still a bit of a loner, she just seemed like all was right with her world since she had made her deal with Michael.

However, this didn’t mean that her old attitude was simply gone, hell no. In fact her old temper had resurfaced briefly when she had learned that Siesta was now Michael’s maid, Louise nearly lost it the first time she heard Siesta referred to Michael as ‘Master’. Thankfully she managed to retain control enough to hear Michael’s description of how he had obtained Siesta’s employment which ended up calming her down. The whole visit ended with Siesta as Louise’s personal retainer when Michael was not at the academy and Siesta was.

Louise did however explode when she learned that Michael was the reason that Kirche had ceased being the school’s number one harlot and had reputably broken off every single relationship she had spawned with the male student body population. At first Louise thought that her longtime nemesis had turned over a new leaf, but then she heard Kirche’s declaration of unabashed love for her ‘darling’ Michael. Needless to say the resulting mess hadn’t been seen since Louise’s days as a zero. Despite that little episode Louise still considered Michael a very close friend, possibly her only true friend other than the princess; after all thanks to him, she was no longer a zero, it was something that she could never repay him for. It’s just that her hatred for anything Zerbst still gets to her.

Walking over to Louise, Michael took the seat across from her while simultaneously saying…

“Afternoon Louise, how’s life treating you?” Startled, Louise practically jumped before calming down and brightly smiled upon seeing who it was.

“Michael! It’s great to see you; I’m doing fairly well, just studying up on some advanced fire magic. What brings you here?” She gestured the book as she explained what she was doing, all the while her happy expression never left her face. Talking to the one who basically righted the primary and practically only problem in her life was definitely a reason to be cheerful.

“I just stopped by to say ‘hi’ and chat with friends. Advanced fire magic eh, trying to one-up Kirche are we?” Michael smiled a fiendish smile as he said that last part and Louise smiled right back the same way.

“Now why would I want to do something like that?” They both chuckled at that.

“Master, when did you get here?” Both Michael and Louise turned to see Siesta walk up to their table pushing a cart carrying tea and snacks.

“Ah, Siesta, I just arrived, hope you’re doing well.” As he spoke Siesta started distributing tea before taking a place standing beside Louise.

“Oh yes master I’m doing quite well, will you be staying long this time?” She asked with a hopeful undertone. Michael just shook his head and explained to both Louise and Siesta that he would only be at the academy for a short period of time, much to their disappointment.

They continued to converse about different subjects, mostly about Louise’s progress in her magical development, Michael was right when he predicted that Louise was going to develop into a powerful mage, she had already advanced to the top of her class in all branches of magical study and application. Their conversations would have continued if not for a shout of ‘darling’ and a red blur resulting in Michael’s world being smothered in bronze cleavage.

“Oh darling I’ve missed you so much, it’s been so lonely without you here, are you going to stay longer this time please say yes…” Kirche continued like that for several minutes and would’ve kept going, but Louise had been growing in anger the whole time and even Siesta was sporting an impressive tick-mark and her smile was anything but genuine. Finally Louise could take no more.

“DAMNIT ZERBST, WOULD YOU SHUT UP ALREADY!!!” Louise was red with rage at her families’ archrival lewdly rubbing her body all over Michael. Kirche just looked at Louise with a haughty smile.

“Why Louise, I was just expressing to darling here about how much I’ve lamented his absence.” She said it so innocently that even Michael felt a hint of irritation; Louise on the other hand was still fuming.

“What you’re doing is nothing but shameful and unbecoming of a noble!” Kirche’s smirk never faltered, however Michael knew where this was heading and before Kirche could retort Louise’s statement, Michael pried the amorous redhead off of him and spoke to defuse the situation.

“All right that’s enough you two. Louise for the sake of civility please try to put your distaste for Kirche aside. After all, I’m sure that Kirche can behave herself, right Kirche?” As Michael said that his hand dipped beneath the bronze girls skirt to rest on her panty clad ass and began gently stroking the sensitive contents within. This brought a blush to Kirche’s face and she settled to stand close to his side with just her arm draped over his shoulders and just resolved herself to simply enjoying her love interest’s ministrations.

“Why yes of course darling, I’ll gladly behave for you.” She said with a little strain in her voice at the effort it took to talk without moaning. Luckily for Michael, the table was at the right height and the others were positioned in such a way that his naughty hand was out of view, thought based on the level of intensity that Tabitha was staring at him from over her book, it was apparent to Michael that she more than likely knew what he was doing. What he couldn’t determine was the emotions going through her head, every so often he thought he saw jealousy, but that couldn’t be right… could it?

“Well… I suppose in the interest of civility I can put aside past grudges, if only for a little while.” Louise managed to make it sound like an impressive achievement. Michael just smiled kindly.

“Well now, that’s good.” With that they all continued conversing with each other, though much of the conversation was Louise and Kirche exchanging poorly concealed jibes at one another. During the entire time Michael never let up on his teasing of Kirche’s naught bits. Kirche just got redder and her breathing got more labored until it looked like she could hardly stand, before anyone got a chance to address it Michael finally called it night, much to Kirche’s relief, she immediately offered her room to sleep in and practically dragged him off. Louise almost attacked her, but before she could Siesta beat her to it and went after them spouting at how much better she could facilitate Michael’s sleeping arrangements.

Louise was left alone at her table, silently fuming at the maid and her rival leading Michael off in an attempt to what she thought was to secretly spend more time with him, little did she know it wasn’t quite that innocent. Eventually Louise left the table in search of something to distract her from her troubles, or at least someone to vent to.

Later that evening… POV (Montmorency)

It was a romantic evening; the moons were out in all their wonder, there was a candle lit dinner all set up under said moons and starry sky, and it was just the two of them. So it was a perfect time for Montmorency to enact her plan to get her boyfriend, Guiche, to become completely faithful to her once and for all.

“My dearest love Montmorency, in the face of your beauty, even those two moons would be ashamed.” Guiche declared as he gazed at said moons.

‘I’m sure that you’ve said that same thing too many girls’ Montmorency thought with irritation. Guiche then put his arm around her to bring her in for a kiss but she stopped him and grabbed one of the wine glasses that she had specially prepared for this occasion. One was ordinary and was hers, while the other contained a love potion that she brewed for her cheating boyfriend. “Oh Guiche, before all that lets have a toast.” She explained as she lifted her glass and Guiche lifted his. He was about to drink but then he noticed something.

“Hey isn’t that Louise?” He asked and pointed to the angrily muttering pinkette. Montmorency looked over and indeed saw her.

“I suppose so, but who cares? Now, our toast?” Again they were about to drink but were interrupted.

“Hey, what are you two up to?” Louise had apparently thought talking to them was interesting enough to distract herself from whatever was irritating her and walked on over.

“Oh, just a lovely evening together, just the two of us.” Montmorency said in a way that tried to hint that Louise should leave. She apparently got the signal, but before she turned to leave she swiped Guiche’s glass and downed its contents in one go. This of course brought a shocked look to Montmorency’s face and she even stood in surprise.

“Well then, sorry for disturbing your evening… what’s wrong with you?” Louise asked as she observed the curly haired girl’s strange behavior.

“Whoa… um… n-nothing!” She said hurriedly. ‘Oh no oh no, this is not good!’ Montmorency thought as she desperately tried to remain calm.

“Hey guys, what’s up, a moonlight dinner?” She about jumped as she turned and saw Michael approaching. Ever since the duel she and Guiche had done their best to keep away him, but every so often they ran into him, he had been surprisingly courteous and polite, but they were still uneasy around him and the current situation wasn’t helping at all for her.

“Y-yeah, that’s what’s going on.” Her calm was slowly breaking as time went on, then she took a quick glance at Louise and went deathly white. Louise was standing there, staring at Michael; her face beat red with a dreamy look. Michael noticed this and inquired if there was something wrong, Louise’s response was to throw herself on to Michael and her response made Montmorency blackout for a split second in fear.

“Michael, why won’t you pay attention to me? You always shower Kirche and the maid with affection, but none for me even though I’m the one who loves you the most?” Michael just looked at her bewildered and disbelieving look, and so Montmorency took this opportunity to turn and flee. She got one step before a powerful hand reached out and grabbed her by the collar and turned her around while lifting her up to eye level with the angriest expression she had ever seen in her life. She trembled in abject terror and based on the growing warm wetness between her legs she figured that she had just pissed herself.

POV change: (Michael)

After Michael left with Kirche and Siesta they found themselves in Kirche’s room where then Michael had proceed to do extremely hentai things to them that eventually left them in a very wet and sticky mess on the bed, both dead to the world. He then proceed to clean himself up and headed on out to the kitchens in an attempt to get a late dinner. However before he could get to the kitchens he noticed a strangely familiar sight in the form of Montmorency, Guiche, and Louise at a table with several glasses. Louise looked a bit peeved and had just swiped Guiche’s glass and downed its contents, his curiosity getting the better of him, Michael then went over to see what was going on. Montmorency seemed like she was nervous about something even though she acknowledged that Michael was right in his guess as to what was happening.

Then he turned his attention to Louise and saw that she was flushed and had a faraway look about her. When he asked what was wrong the answer he got was her latching on to him and proclaiming her love for him. It took him a moment but it finally clicked; the love potion. His head snapped up and noticed Montmorency trying to make a break for it, but he caught her and brought her up to eye level. His face was one of pure rage while hers was clear unabashed and trembling terror, not to mention the fact that he could tell that she pissed herself. Truth be told Michael’s anger wasn’t solely because of Montmorency’s fuck up but was mainly because of the fact that he had totally forgotten about the whole love potion incident, he just completely focused on the water spirit, but that didn’t stop him from using his anger to intimidate Montmorency.

“Fix this, now.” Michael said to the terrified blondie whilst pointing to his new pink haired tumor, aka Louise. Montmorency started stuttering as she tried to answer.

“Well…I…don’t…ah…”

“Don’t even thing about trying to deny this, I know exactly what you were planning to do here tonight, and now you are going to provide the antidote to the potion that Louise is now afflicted by.” Michael said it calmly but his face never changed from its absolute ‘I’m going to kill you if you don’t cooperate’ look that it’s been showcasing.

“B-but I don’t have all of the ingredients need to make an anti-potion!” She blurted out, and Michael just nonchalantly replied.

“Then we’ll just have to get more now wont we, money will not be in issue.” Montmorency was panicking more than ever now as she then explained the main problem.

“W-we can’t, there was only one dealer that sold the water spirit’s tear and I bought all he had left and used it all already.” She was practically sobbing now but Michael wasn’t deterred.

“Then it’s a good thing that your family is contracted to a water spirit.” He said as he unceremoniously dropped Montmorency on to her tiny ass. “Pack your shit, we leave at first light, and so help me if I have to come and get you… you’re going to wish that all I had done to you was what I had done to Guiche during our duel, have a pleasant goodnight.” With that Michael turned and left, leaving a whimpering Montmorency and a useless blond idiot to get ready for an early morning commute.

The next morning…

Michael, Louise, Tabitha, Kirche, Montmorency, and Guiche were all riding along in a topless cart with Guiche as the driver and Michael in the back with the girls. Louise and Kirche were molded to either side of him while Tabitha and Montmorency sat across from him. Under threat of pain from Michael everyone sat in silence, and were all going to be silent for that whole trip that was only to stop for bathroom breaks in order to cut travel time by as much as possible since despite leaving at dawn, they wouldn’t arrive at Lagdorian Lake until dark due to the method of travel they were using.

The estimated time of arrival was unfortunately all to correct, upon arrival they all saw how much the lake had risen and Montmorency had started to plead with Michael to abandon his pursuit for an anti-potion and just wait for Louise’s condition to clear up on its own.

“Please Michael, the water spirit is obviously angry, requesting something from it now may put all our lives in jeopardy.” Montmorency all but begged Michael, but he wasn’t going to hear any of it.

“You should have thought of such things before you decided to make an illegal potion because of your stupid schoolgirl jealousy, now shut up and help get the camp set up. Kirche, you’re with me, we’ll be getting fire wood.” Michael declared as Kirche jumped at the chance to do something with her darling while the others let out groans at the prospect of actual work. Well, actually only Montmorency and Guiche complained, Louise was sleeping and Tabitha didn’t say anything and just nodded.

Michael and Kirche went deep into the surrounding woods and started picking up dead tree limbs for fire wood; this went on for several minutes before Kirche couldn’t take it anymore. Dropping her collected kindling she then practically tackled Michael and started frantically kissing him and only stopped went she needed to breathe.

“Oh darling, I can’t take it anymore, you’ve been stoking my amorous fire the whole trip here, and I desperately need you now.” Michael just gave a predatory smile and tossed his collected fire wood into a pile near them. He had indeed been teasing her the entire time they had been traveling as a means to stifle his boredom, and now it looks as if his efforts have paid off. Reaching up with his hand he unclasped her cape, letting it fall. Then he used that same hand to gently stroke her cheek while his other hand undid the few buttons keeping her overly stretched blouse together, letting her large breasts spill out and them cupping one and pinching the nipple drawing a lustful moan from her.

“Well I suppose you have been a good girl today; however we are still fairly close to the others, so we need to take special precautions that we aren’t heard.” As he said that he reached into his greatcoat and pulled out an item that Kirche had only read about but never actually seen, but it was clear as to what it was, a ball gag. Despite knowing what it was and what it was used for, she made no attempts to resist him when he put it on her, her deep seated masochism had once more been brought to the surface and was causing her to become extremely excited at being treated in such a manor, that excitement intensified even more at the sight of the next object he pulled out, padded wrist cuffs.

After getting her hands restrained behind her back, Kirche was then subjected to Michael’s unrestrained ministrations. Kirche’s breasts, cunt, and ass were all massaged and teased thoroughly bringing her close but delaying her climax numerous times and causing her to moan and whimper loudly, lewdly, and desperately. It wasn’t long before she was sobbing and trying her hardest to plead for orgasmic release through her gag.

“Poor girl, do you want to cum?” Michael asked as he tenderly caressed her cheek and wiping away her tears while at the same time discreetly freeing his excessive erection. Her response was a tearful and pitiful nod. “Well then, CUM!” He ordered as in one fluid motion he moved aside her panties and buried his length. The sensation of being filled so instantly and so fully combined with being so close to climaxing caused Kirche to explode in a violent orgasm making her shriek through her ball gag and viciously tremble in long delayed release.

All throughout Kirche’s orgasm Michael kept thrusting his cock and tormenting her nipples, drawing out her climax to near maddening lengths. When it looked like she was about to pass out from pleasure overload Michael pulled out and lowered her to the ground to let her recover and catch her breath. When she did Michael then reinserted himself and set a firm and steady rhythm which saw Kirche through another orgasm, when that one started he quickly pulled out and flipped her over on to her knees with her face to the ground and before she finish climaxing he realigned himself with her tight little backdoor and pressed into it.

The feeling of her ass being penetrated by Michael’s hard member sent Kirche into another wave of screaming orgasmic bliss that had no end in sight as he started to mercilessly pound her from behind whilst grabbing a hand full of her long red locks and pulled sending even more incredible sensations through her masochistic mind. Eventually Michael’s own release started to build so he let go of her hair and bent down and reached around to grab ahold of both of Kirche’s breasts and began to roughly maul them. Then, minutes later he finally came and poured his seed into her luscious bronze ass and as he did he pinched and pulled roughly on her nipples, these two sensations caused Kirche to have a whole new mind-blowing orgasm that eclipsed the one she had been enraptured in for the last few minutes and brought out yet another wide eyed shriek from her gagged mouth.

Once he finished dumping his load in her ass Michael pulled out and allowed Kirche to fall into an exhausted and trembling heap, then he undid her ball gag and pulled her by her hair to her knees and presented his cum coated cock, with no other prompting she began a cleanup blowjob that eventually led to him releasing another load down her throat. After that Michael put his softening cock away and released Kirche from her cuffs, he then assisted her in getting presentable before gathering up the discarded fire wood and heading back to camp.

Michael ended up getting back first and saw that there was a fire going with some stew ready for eating curtesy of Siesta who prepared their food before everyone left so all that had to be done was heating it up over a fire. When everyone saw Michael return they were treated to a look that demanded that no one question anything. He sat the gathered wood near the fire, got himself a bowl of stew, and rested by the fire. Minutes later Kirche also showed up with her load of wood and she too walked over, though her legs were a bit wobbly and her face had somewhat of a blank look, nobody said anything. Adding her wood to the pile and getting some food she plopped down next to Michael and snuggled close and ate with him in silence.

Eventually everyone called it a night, Montmorency and Guiche decided to sleep in the cart, while Tabitha curled up on the opposite side of the fire as Michael, Kirche, and Louise who all slept together. Tomorrow was going to be a long day since according to Montmorency the water spirit wouldn’t come out until sunset for some reason.

Morning…

Michael came to that morning to a delightful and familiar feeling between his legs in the form of a wake-up blowjob; as his mind registered that fact a wave of panic over took him at the thought that it might be Louise. However the feeling dissipated when he opened his eyes to see that Louise was still cuddled to his side asleep. Sighing in relief he lifted the blanket, careful not to disturb the pinkette at his side and saw the familiar bronze redhead bobbing on his morning wood.

“Well aren’t you the naughty girl?” He said in a whisper with a cocky grin. Kirche’s reply came with a sultry smile.

“Only for you darling.” She then went back to pleasuring him.

It didn’t take long for him to spew his thick and hot load in her eager mouth as he didn’t feel the need nor thought that it was a good idea to draw out this surprise wake up with Louise of all people at his side and three other individuals nearby. This one act seemed to be a prelude of what this day had in store, since they had all day to kill, Michael and Kirche spent it playing fuck-fuck games.

Sunset eventually did come and when it did Montmorency did the whole send out her pet frog to find the spirit, it showed up and Montmorency asked it to communicate in an understandable way which caused it to take an the appearance of an unnecessarily detailed water copy of a nude Montmorency, complete with carpet. Montmorency was about to say more but Michael interrupted her.

“I’ll take it from here.” He said as he placed his hand on her shoulder and moved her back ignoring her protests; he then looked to the water spirit. “Spirit, do you recognize me?” He asked.

“Yes, we recognize the Gandalfr and remember the past dealings we had.” Everyone looked at Michael in confusion and astonishment, but he ignored them.

“That is good; tell me, why have you risen the water level of the lake, what has angered you?”

“Our treasure which we have guarded for an eternity has been stolen from us, we can only travel by water, so we will flood everywhere so that we can find and retrieve our treasure.” The news was dire to the assembled mages, but Michael already knew all this and was just acting the part for convenience sake, no point in looking suspicious to an immortal creature when you don’t need to.

“This action would cause great distress to the land dwellers, instead I would ask you to entrust me with the recovery of your treasure. In return I would request only two things.” The water spirit paused for a moment as it thought before accepting.

“Very well, the Gandalfr can be trusted, what do you ask?” Again the mages were astounded.

“First I would ask you to return the lake to its previous level, and second, I ask you for a part of yourself so that I may cure a friend of mine of an ailment.” The water spirit’s avatar nodded.

“Your terms are acceptable.” It then showed a water representation of its treasure. “This is what was taken, Andvari’s ring.”

“I shall not fail water spirit.” With that a small vile floated from the avatar and was caught by Montmorency, the avatar then dissipated.

The events that followed were fairly straightforward; Tabitha offered to take everyone back to her manor to brew the anti-potion, once there they all learned about her sad past which Michael already knew. Louise was cured and had a tantrum over the embarrassment of what she had done while under its effect. Michael then said that he had to leave; he said his goodbyes and took the horse that pulled the cart that they had been using and set out to return to his army’s camp.

After a four hour ride he pulled out his vid-phone and dialed up Quinten who answered fairly quickly.

“Quinten, I’m on my way back, I should be there in a day and a half or so. In the meantime have everyone pack up their stuff and strike camp, ‘cause when I get back were all going to march to the nearest port to Albion, it’s time.” Quinten was stunned; nearly two months of nothing but training and preparation and now finally they were going to head out and start the revolution in earnest. He quickly saluted Michael and spoke proudly.

“Yes sir, we shall be ready move out as you have ordered!” Michael smiled and nodded.

“Good man, see you soon.” With that he closed the device and set out at a steady gallop. His reason for suddenly wanting to get things rolling was simple; with the episode with the love potion and water spirit now past it was only a matter of time before Princess Henrietta tasks Louise to retrieve that letter from Wales and he wants to already have a slice of territory when she arrives, plus he was itching to get to the real action.

A week later, road to the coast: POV (Sergeant Briek Evron)

For Rifleman Briek Evron the feeling of pride at being one of the first sergeants in the great Michael’s army was still there. He was nothing but a homeless drunk in a no name town near the capitol before he found himself knocked unconscious and then waking up in the revolution’s training camp being told all about what Michael was trying to do, saw the weapons that were going to be used and signed up then and there. Now he was a sergeant and was fanatically loyal to Michael and all he stood for, just like most of the others.

Currently the entirety of the near three hundred members of the revolution were marching down the dirt road on their way some port city he had never been to. They were marching in a long five man wide columns, organized into five ‘platoons’ which were each composed of five squads. Each squad had nine riflemen and was led by a sergeant; platoons were also led by sergeants, but those sergeants were actually higher ranking sergeants, Briek was one of them, he was in charge of one of the platoons, the front platoon to be precise, which was lucky since Michael was at the front of the whole formation, leading it.

The formation was organized as thus; two platoons were in front, and then came the wagons that carried all of their extra equipment, weapons, supplies, and the thirty worker mages that made everything. That fact made Briek giddy, mages weren’t for war anymore, they were for labor. Following the wagons were the other three platoons with the last one acting as what Michael called ‘rear guard’.

So far the army had been marching for about a week; they would march all day and camp at night. During the day they would stop and take a short rest every four hours, as of yet nothing had cause them to stop ahead of schedule, since no one would stand in the way of the three hundred man uniformed fighting force. So it was a surprise when suddenly the column was called to a halt; instantly Briek and every other platoon sergeant rushed to the front to receive commands from Michael as per current protocol.

“Sir, what’s going on?” Briek asked as he saw Michael having a heated discussion with Quinten, who was Michael’s second in command and was the first and so far only one with the rank of lieutenant. He, Briek, and every other of the sergeants all carried pistols displayed plainly on their hips as another way to distinguish rank, however for the sergeants it was only a secondary weapon.

“Well sergeant, as you can see we have literally come to a crossroads. The path to our front leads into what Quinten here tells me is orc territory and has advised me to take the path to the right to avoid the danger. The problem with that path is that it leads around a mountain and would add nearly two extra weeks to our march, something that I am not keen on doing.” Michael explained; Briek and the other assembled sergeants nodded in understanding, orcs were big, ugly, and mean, any reason to avoid them was advisable. However a longer march wasn’t something anyone would look forward to.

“Yes, that’s right…” The lieutenant began. “Orcs are very dangerous and tend to be in groups the size of small armies, not to mention that they’re bigger and stronger then humans. It’s best to just avoid them.”

“However as I explained, our men are well armed and well trained, we should be able to handle any orc attack that comes our way, plus it would be good combat experience, I have complete faith in all of us.” Michael said firmly, causing everyone in earshot to stand straighter as pride swelled up in their chests at his proclamation; even Quinten felt it and nodded his head in agreement.

“I agree with you sir, no pathetic gathering of orcs could defeat us, I think I speak for all of us when I say let us at them.” Briek said with certainty in his voice and the other sergeants nodding enthusiastically. Michael smiled at their determination.

“Alright then, back to your platoons, inform your squad leaders that everyone is to march with their weapons at the low ready and to be on the lookout for any sign of an orc attack.”

“YES SIR!” They shouted and ran back to give out the orders. Soon they were on the march again; it was to take two, maybe three days to get through the orc infested land.

For the first day since entering orc territory everything went as per usual as no attack came, nor did one happen at night when they made camp, though they still posted double the number of guards. It ended up being the afternoon of the second day when it happened. They were marching through a narrow valley when a bestial roar was heard from either side of the column. Instantly the call to halt was given and Michael started to shout orders that reverberated back along the formation.

“Form outward firing lines, 3rd platoon, cover the wagons, 1st and 5th platoons, watch the flanks!” Briek quickly formed his platoon up and everyone began scanning the hill sides.

At some unseen signal the hills on either side of the road suddenly erupted with hundreds of orcs charging the intruding humans. They ran full tilt roaring madly and brandishing wicked looking blades. They got to about two hundred meters when the order was shouted.

“OPEN FIRE!” In that instant the wall of rifles unleashed their fury and a veritable wall of lead lashed out at the charging beasts; dozens fell as fist size holes were blown in them and limbs were severed. That was the first second, after the order to fire was given every soldier started shooting as fast as they could sight in a target and their fingers could pull the trigger. Thousands of rounds were being sent at the orcs per minute and soon orc corpses littered the ground in droves.

Briek was taking his time however and was careful to sight in headshots, each time he fired his rife an orc would lose a good portion of its skull, dropping it quickly. He scanned the rushing enemy; they were falling rapidly and couldn’t quite seem to get closer than that two hundred meter mark before getting shot to pieces. Every so often an explosion would erupt amongst a particularly large orc cluster signaling that someone had lobbed a grenade, which sent limbs and gore everywhere. The attack went on for nearly a half hour as the orcs came in the hundreds; they were unorganized and seemingly mindless in their assault, apparently headless or uncaring of their dropping comrades.

Eventually the orcs stopped coming and the attack ended, both hill sides covered in orc dead. It was a massacre, the orcs had no way to reach the human army and thus the humans lost no one nor did anyone get injured; a completely one-sided battle. After waiting an hour to ensure that no more orcs were coming, the army reloaded, reformed, and continued on. They had no other encounters as the made their way out of the orc territory.

Finally after several more days of marching they reached their destination, the port city of Dunkerque. They ended up stopping just outside the moderate sized port city so that Michael and Quinten could tell them exactly what they were to do.

“Listen up, we are about to enter this port and book passage to Albion as you know, you will be entering by platoons. Once a ship had been chartered you will proceed in an orderly fashion to that vessel and will situate yourselves by squad. You will not cause any problems nor will you interact with anyone not required to carry out these orders. Am I understood!?” Michael’s voice was loud and commanding as he issued his orders.

“YES SIR!” With that Briek and his platoon followed Michael, shortly after the next platoon came, and then the next. They ended up purchasing the use of an entire cargo ship for their short voyage and they loaded on and set off on the relatively short trip across the channel towards that floating island.

Next stop, Albion, and their destiny…

Chapter End