The hunt is now on, when my parents who were indeed home were told the news they went rather ballistic. After copious amounts of debate and negotiations between my parents(dad was all for me going, mums were not) I would be allowed to go if both the head butler and maid came. If something happened to me with these two on the watch this entire fiefdom is in serious trouble. The group spent a bit of time going over a few tips about fighting large creatures or large swarms, mostly about situational awareness and sometimes going to disable if I cannot get a killing blow was good. They emphasized disabling limbs and to make sure I did not get pinned down by enemies along with coordinating plans with other people. While they took their turns going over things and going over them again along with copious remarks about staying intact my parents went with a general search plan. The timing of things was not the best with harvest in full swing so being cautious was the main point.

Now that the hunt is on the house is committing 15 troops for now, once the harvest in the area by the forest is done we will have about 30 militia total who can be spared. The rest are busy running around making sure the villagers on the outskirts are safe and that nothing slips past while we are searching the forest. We are establishing a small fortified camp by where the goblins first came out with a stash of supplies and some horses to help with patrols. Since the direction said goblins went is out of our land we don’t have to worry about them but whatever shunted them out has to be made the priority. While the harvest is going on we have prioritized workers to the closest areas and delayed the ones further away. Either we manage to find and take down what is disturbing the forest or we miss it and the harvest is safe. No chances taken since no one wants to starve if we rush into the field with the soldiers and militia.

The plan for when we actually go in is for the head maid/butler, 3-4 guards, several militia and me to form one search party while the rest of the troops and militia will also be split into similar sized groups and we will all take a portion of forest to search. Beside each team will be at least one local hunter or guide to help them search and not get lost. The borders of the forest ill have the rest of the guard and militia patrolling where it is near the fiefdom borders. If we don’t find whatever caused this mess then we can be safe in the knowledge that it left whatever it is. My body says we should just go in now but my mind vetoes it and says to play it safe. Regardless its not like I can leave on my own to search, now that is suicide. I am not an op ability reincarnated hero, I have no special abilities and a small knowledge of magic. Most of the actual useful info is controlled by the guilds and free magi and even if I had it I am busy with regular training. Our house is supposed to have more detailed information but it is at our other estates in the capital and the frontline border. This is a bit of a vacation home and rest area, presumably from the political affairs of the capital and the actual warfare by the frontline castle since the monsters are still there even if the tribes have backed off for generations.

Well this waiting game sucks, we have at least a week before we can reasonably finish the harvest. At the very least my actual weapons and armour are here now, A 2-handed sword with a secondary hilt on the blade near the hilt, not sharpened for blocking and half-swording use. A set of cloth under armour and a bronze scale chest plate and bronze scale vambraces/thigh armour. Besides all this are my leather tunic and pants, leather gloves with metal reinforced gauntlets along with a fur mantle for warmth. All this armour were actually family heirloom hand me downs, sound weird well most of the family has used the bronze armour over the generations after the founding which is why I don’t have mail armour as this is part of the family coming of age. What makes it special is that there are some sigils to improve my speed in moving and attacks, an agi stat boost so to speak. Also some durability sigils so this thing won’t break so easily. All the weapons and armour are stitched or inlaid with materials from magic dense plants and animals making it easier to use ki powers directly on them. A few small common gems act as power reserves but this is training armour to the family even if a common guard or even experienced adventurer would kill to get this stuff.

The rest of the guard is going in with somewhat similar clothes, bronze or iron brigandines and spears or halberds. Most wear lighter armour since we have to be fast in the forest and mail is noisy. Most of the hunters are only in leather clothes and shortbows with seaxes. The real heavy hitters are the horsemen with cavalry spears, these guys are dressed in full iron heavy scale armour and their horses have cloth barding. If forced to retreat we are to run to where these guys are and let them take charges at the enemy. They might even be nastier than the knights of the old world since these guys use reinforcement ki to buff themselves and the horses. Practice runs they took when I was on the field with Eurus were simply devastating to watch. That reinforcement ki they use I have myself been learning it now but it is difficult. I can use it just fine with nothing going on but in actual battle maintaining it is harder. Having Eurus be under it’s effects is just a no go at this stage as well. On one hand going out now seems exciting but at the same time using the wait to train my use of reinforcement is going to be so useful in the future. That weapon hardening I learned will also be handy but it does not really make my sword cut better. Well now just to finish the logistic preparations and have enough of the harvest finished that we won’t starve in the winter.

On another note the residents of the manor are not having fun, the duke has already left for the capital a week ago but his daughter is staying for another few months. She is not happy with things and has been sulking, the servants she left behind are used to these things though so she has not exploded yet. I pray I get left alone enough to prepare, being dragged around in search of entertainment is not going to be good to say the least when I have to prepare myself for this. She was rather curious about my battle with the goblins and expressed surprise at the numbers, I had asked father about this earlier and he had also congratulated me on doing so well since inexperienced fighters get overconfident and will usually get dragged off the horse. I did not want to talk about the somewhat bloody affair but I gave some details about how the fight went. I would make a few remarks about this potential upcoming one but that sounds like a bad idea.