NOVEL NEXT V11: Chapter 13
V11: Chapter 13
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Interlude: Khanrow
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Watching the Guardians work with our forces to take on the Merchants was an interesting affair.
It was the first time our forces faced a foe also focused on using ranged weapons.
The average Merchant rifle was an entire generation behind our own. They used caps attached on the outside to ignite propellant and had pre-sized cartridges with wads, propellant, rifled barrels, and shaped bullets. The firing speed of each rifle was slow compared to the ones we employed, but they were accurate, rugged, and hit hard. A peasant drafted into the war was given a rifle, then they were sent off to the frontline to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with others to present as much firepower forward as possible.
They were supplemented by the military forces of the Merchant 'nobility.' Professional troops on retainer, they were either heavily armored vanguard forces, or light skirmishers that made use of the surrounding land. Merchants capable of flight were used as messengers or scouts, taking after our own doctrine, but they could not lift as much munitions to be effective bombers. Mages who could fly acted as flying artillery and could lay down devastation if permitted.
A drafted force armed with rifles supported by a professional force that held it together. The similarities between our defensive doctrine and the Merchants were not lost to me. They most likely had informants in our lands and analysts studying our methods. However, the Merchants only took from the surface and did not create the foundation needed to make it effective.
We had militias in every town that worked with local forces to coordinate and establish clear lines of supply. They had uniforms, satchels of supplies, boots, and had facilities to train at, even if those facilities were just clearings with targets. Professional riflemen cycled from the front or retired veterans were brought in to teach them to march, to fire, and to retreat. Their commanders were former military and they were supported by Iterants. Our militias and levees provided more numbers and firepower to our military forces, and when provided support, they could hold ground with the help of fortifications and specialists that could counter enemy mages and artillery.
The Merchants put guns in the hands of their people, told them to follow, and then they placed them on the field to fire upon us.
It was a desperate strategy to buy time through the expenditure of mortal lives and excess goods.
The strategy could not have hoped to stop the Guardians.
The Guardians and us together?
It took more time to process prisoners than to smash apart their militaries.
…
"Sir, there's a force approaching the mansion."
"Hm?" I finished placing the knife in the patriarch's hands. This was the last 'suicide' we were forging for the foreseeable future. This one was a lower-level officer of one of the board of executives. Small enough to have light protection, but important enough that his absence would be noticed and he would be replaced quickly by his son. His son who was inept compared to his father and heavily indebted. "The local police force?"
"No. A different group. Led by that escaped, potential Champion who you met with." I took a moment to recall what Elias was speaking about, before recalling that giant of a child. He must be part of the many groups strewn across the land now. "They have wagons with them. Empty ones."
I nodded.
"Check the basements. I suspect that this patriarch was hiding more than we thought." I made sure that no blood remained on me, and that the papers depicting the man's household was present on the table. The emptied bottles of wine, the stab wound to the chest, and perhaps most importantly concentrates of the pleasure-inducing fruit created by the Divine Engine of Life were present. He ended his life in delirium over his household's current state. A glance assured me all was proper. "Have a squad come my way. I will meet with the child."
Elias gave a nod and I made my way out through the window onto the unmanned gate.
I walked onto the empty night streets beneath too-dim lamplights and a cloudy evening sky.
The child soldier walked at the head of two wagons flanked by two dozen others in black cloaks.
He saw me and stopped the caravan with a sharp whistle, then he approached me with two guards.
His confidence grew since we last met.
"You are the spy from the King of Wisdom's lands." I didn't recall if I shared that fact with him, or if he simply determined it himself. Seeing as he was against the Merchants, I simply nodded at his words. "What have you done with the breeding master here?"
"We thought him a manager of considerable wealth for one of the Merchant's directors, so we took him out of the equation in the guise of a suicide. His son is inept and debt-ridden. Easy to influence." I told the young man simply. No point in hiding what they can find once they scour the mansion. "The guards were ours and we moved without the notice of the sleeping servants. If you want to confirm his death, just head through his office window."
"His death was not our only goal. It was to rescue those he kept to breed litters with to sell to our camps. That man fathered hundreds with unwilling wives." The young Champion rumbled. He did not cross his arms nor try to look imposing. He was more than aware that he towered over me. It was likely he was also aware that the walls surrounding the small manner had Iterants waiting for a signal to strike. "Do you have aims towards the mothers and children that we wish to rescue?"
"We were unaware that they existed. When you approached, I ordered for a search. They should be coming soon." I looked at the gate and found Elias there. I motioned for the Iterant and he came forward covered in black cloth from head to toe. He feigned being composed of flesh, walking naturally and pretending to breathe. "Report."
"The basement is an underground breeding camp. Over eighty young women. Many will die delivering without help. All restrained and sedated and gravely weakened." I listened and nodded at Elias's words, but kept the corner of my eye on the young Champion. His breathing increased for a moment, but he regained his composure quickly. The more that I met this young man, the more interest I had in his future. "Your orders?"
"Let them take as many as they can. We'll smuggle out those who they cannot rescue." I looked over at the young man. One of his guards stepped forward, until he glanced at them. They cowered and stopped. "If you don't want us to take any with us, we will not."
I gave him an option.
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I wanted to see if he was anything like Morgan or the King of Wisdom.
Morgan would search the household and seize their wagons after deciding to liquidate the whole household for their wrongdoings. It would compromise our approach, but she held a firm view on matters such as these. Households that participated in actions such as this would have their bloodline eradicated. She will find another patsy to control and gain information from, rather than this one, if she were in my place.
As for the King of Wisdom?
In the child soldier's place, Jack would speak and provide the perfect plan, I would be swayed by his words, and I would find myself assisting him with his cause despite my loyalty to another. Or, perhaps, he'd reveal all his additional warriors were in fact healers. Or, maybe, he had another force ready walking through the sewers or flying in, to accommodate all the souls who were imprisoned.
Something along those lines.
"We will take who we can. Those we cannot, you can retrieve. Better to trust them with you than those who would find them if they were left." The young Champion, instead of innovating as Morgan would or creating a miracle through planning as Jack would, chose to accept my offer. How disappointing. "Inform your guards to let us through. We will harm no one and take nothing besides our flesh and blood."
I motioned for them to be let through, before speaking to Elias.
"Assist them. Take those who they cannot. The sooner they're gone, the sooner we're gone."
Elias nodded and I was left alone in the street in the Merchant capital.
I stared up towards their looming Citadel where the most influential and rich resided, pretending that they had everything under control, while the vice grew tighter and tighter around their neck.
They will die, then this deplorable place will be for the Guardians of the Moon to fix.
As nearly the entire world bore down upon us, I couldn't help but wish more people would come forth of Morgan or Jack's caliber.
We needed more of them in this world.
…
If I were still just playing a game, I'd be laughing my ass off at the Merchants being idiots. It was like they had a guide on how to do everything wrong and stuck to it.
First, they went out onto the field with levee'd peasants with muskets in formations against an opponent with air and artillery superiority. Second, they decided that their 'elites' were good enough to make up for their forcibly drafted troops, even when I've got two thousand Conquerors running around who are armed to the teeth. Finally, despite everything, they weren't trying to force a decisive battle and doing their best to set up a prolonged siege around their Citadel.
Their peasant formations had decent DPS, but they were being blown up before they could get volleys off. Their elite skirmishers and heavy cavalry were getting hunted down by formations of Conquerors with more experience, training, and numbers than they had. Finally, by not engaging us and preparing for a siege, they were letting us set up supply lines unabated. They had once Citadel at the fourth stage, while we had five each at the fifth, and Morgan was moving to the take the Wardens, so soon it would be six.
Everything pointed towards us winning.
If this was just the game, I'd let it play out as planned, but since this was reality?
I was suspicious, so I sought out Harper.
Well, technically, I asked for her to come meet with me and so she did.
She was frightened, glancing at every corner of the room, and she flinched when she was served tea.
So, I played into that fact.
"What do the Merchants have besides their child super-soldier program? Their current strategy can only end with their destruction, unless the Guardians and I are missing something." Campaigning from a flying castle allowed me certain luxuries. One of them was an executive suite for dignitaries in each of the aerial bastions. Most of the ship was just a massive cargo hold, along with facilities to support carrying supplies and vital equipment We still relied on transports pulled by flying horses to rapidly relocate. It could establish a landing zone, but it was better to seize an area in conjunction with an army. "We have also not received a single message demanding terms."
"W-what terms? Your majesty, you move to take the Citadel and all their power from them. They will fight to death to retain what they currently have." As far as I could tell, Harper was telling the truth. She had her mask removed and her upright, pointed vulpine ears were in full display, while her long fox tail was curled up. She was deathly afraid and knew better than to lie. "If you are asking me if we have anything like that weapon you wielded, that Scarlet Mist, we do not."
"Your people never sent an expedition to the outer lands? You never recovered anything from there in secret?"
"Our expeditions never returned. They failed." That sent off alarm bells. In fact, I wasn't going to take the risk. I motioned for Ayah to come and I wrote a message for her to send. We were now going to work under the assumption that the Ascendant and the Sahuagin had up-to-date information on the continent. Not good. "We were recovering from our civil war, vying for power, and devoted ourselves to having more people, soldiers, and wealth. Anything else was a luxury that we c-could not afford."
Was it even possible to poorly manage the Merchants to such an extent?
If it was the first time was playing the game, and they kept getting hit with bad events… yeah. It was totally possible. Not only that, but they couldn't rewind or load up a save.
That knowledge calmed me down a little, but I pushed it aside.
"So, there are no secret weapons in play, but the Merchants are throwing bodies our way, not disrupting our supply lines, and reinforcing the Citadel. Their sole intention is to hold out, until we wrench them from the tower?"
Harper was quiet for a while.
"They… they may threaten to destroy it, if you do not allow them to have it." Harper offered after a moment.
I only raised an eyebrow at that statement and took a sip of tea.
"If they were willing to do that, they would've threatened us with that possibility the moment we breached the border." Harper flinched at my words. She said it as a possibility, so she wasn't lying. Most likely she was saying it was something that she would've done. "Those who you brought to rule beside you never believed you about me, did they? They thought you craven and they worked to usurp you the moment you accepted their help to retain your position."
Harper shot up out of her seat.
Or, she would've, if not for two Iterants dropping from crawlspaces above me room.
They kept her seated with one hand, while their other hands turned into long blades.
The guards she brought with her just stayed still as the other Iterants in the room moved to stand in their way.
"You… you say that as though you weren't the cause! That day… that day you took everything from me!"
"No, you lost everything yourself. Twice. Once when you refused to help during the famine and the second time when you refused to pick up the sword." I told her with a shake of my head, before leaning on the table and looking at her. In her eyes, there was anger and fear, but also something else. A calculating gaze. She knew something. Or, at least, that's what my instincts told me after all my years spent trying to figure people out. Honestly, I was tempted to ask her what she wanted, but I had another idea. "Replace her and her guards. Send her to Eminent. Her guards, we will relocate somewhere obscure along with their families. They will be compensated."
Harper's eyes widened as Sara nodded and changed to look exactly like her, while her two guards just watched in horror as the two Iterants in front of them changed.
"You… you said that they were here to ensure all peoples of this continent would be protected. That they would protect all here from the world entire." Harper whispered while looking at me with eyes half-frightened and half-disbelieving. "They follow you? Only you?"
I gave her my best answer to that question.
"They are loyal citizens of my nation whom I trust and who trust me in turn." The Iterants somehow managed to stand straighter at my words, while Harper slumped into her chair. "Now, Harper, must I extract the truth from your corpse or will you tell me what your people have planned?"
She was silent for a moment, before speaking once again.
"Armored landships from materials made in the Citadel. A thousand of them armed with cannon and repeating guns of our own design." Tanks. They jumped forward by throwing money at the problem and using their Citadel fabricators for tank parts, weapons, and armor instead of industrial equipment. "Supported by infantry and mages, they were meant to destroy the Forgers, but now they will be aimed at you and the Guardians instead."
I couldn't help it.
I sighed in relief at her admission.
At her look of surprise, I simply told her the truth.
"Every single cannon we have has specialized shells meant to kill Ascendant. The engines that the Citadel can create can only carry so much armor while remaining mobile… what we have now can punch straight through it." Harper balked at my statement, then I looked towards the Iterants and made sure they saw me wave to them to stand down. "Thank you. Go ahead and do as you wish. I need nothing from any of you anymore. Make sure it stays that way."
Harper paused and grimaced as she realized what I was threatening her with. The fact that every Iterant in the room was staring at her without blinking made the message clear.
She rose from her seat and gave a prim bow, before turning to leave.
I was honestly tempted to tell her good work for not falling on her ass this time, but I decided against it.
There was no need for that.
Those tanks will be very useful against the Forgers, so I couldn't just let them get deployed and be destroyed.