Steel and Mana

"Did you read the reports?" I asked, looking at Yuri, whose belly was starting to grow as we were heading into winter. If everything played out right, my third child would be born early next year.

"Yeah, and I would go investigate it myself, but I know you won't let me."

"Damn right!" I chuckled, looking at her, inviting her over to my side of my drawing table, pulling her into my lap, and gently rubbing her belly. "Send your people down to my Uncle, along with a handful of my soldiers. Bring enough instruments to discover and mark everybody who is suspicious and keep tabs on them!"

"Should we capture some of them?"

"No. Let them be. I want to know what they are after, what they want, who they are. Let them operate and keep tabs on who they interact with. We will see which people fall for their bribes... We can marginalize those because Avalon won't work with untrustable families. On the other hand, those who can refuse to be bought, note them down and pass their names onto our Merchants' Guild."

"Roger! It was a good idea to install CC detectors at the gates! I wonder who sent people over with magical devices hiding in their carts..."

I don't think it even needed to be asked. This was precisely why I made sure that Elliot's city was equipped with the same defenses as Avalon. It was the first time it alerted us that someone was smuggling magical components into the city, but I was sure it wasn't the last. This means that we probably had our very first spies trying to infiltrate us, and our security system pinpointed it perfectly for us.

"Probably Ishillia. The question is, which one? Mirian? Or the old fucker. I sent Elena over to the capital with a handful of letters to inquire about it."

"Heh!" Yuri chuckled, stretching while sitting in my lap, "I heard she wasn't too happy about it!"

"She wasn't, but she is now an ambassador. She has responsibilities! Plus, she doesn't need to complain too much! Mirian was invited for the winter, so when she comes, Elena can return on their flying ship."

"Do you think she will really come?"

"I am sure of it. I also invited Matilda, but she won't return, not with all that happened to her."

"Mmm, I think she will. Her kids have arrived, so I think she would come and check on them!"

"I heard!" I shrugged, moaning a little that made her giggle, "Right on their first day, two of them trashed a bar because they got shitfaced immediately."

"They won't do it again~! Now, they are confined to bed just like their eldest brother."

"Was your hand in it?" I asked with a grin, but she shook her head with a wink.

"Nope! I just gave the order to break their legs. I won't allow three bastards to vandalize our city! We are renovating the bar and have paid for the damages, which will be deducted from what we are sending to Matilda for the steel."

"I bet they didn't expect the harsh punishment. Good work!"

"Yeah, they did not. Now, all three cannot stand, and their house is guarded by ten soldiers! They are watching them... Mmm... Twenty-four-seven, as you would say."

"I will make a wheelchair for them."

"A what? A chair... with wheels?" She looked at me, surprised, but then, finding the image hilarious, she began laughing so hard she almost choked on her own saliva.

"Yep!" I hummed, quickly beginning to sketch it down. "They can roll around in it until they learn their place. Tell Mikan to not heal them! It seems the moment they get used to things, they revert back to being little assholes. It will take time to beat them into complete submission and remold their personalities. You know what?"

"Hm? What?" She asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"If the three little piglets think this is a holiday vacation for them until mommy comes and picks them up, we can tie them to the chairs and place them in the Pass. Tell them they are going to be monster bait."

"Leon..." She whispered, turning around, licking her lips, "You are making me horny here!"

"Heh, you are always horny."

"That IS true, but... when you are saying things like this... I'm burning up!" She continued kissing me, and unlike how it was when Sasha got pregnant, there was simply no chance to stop her from getting on me.

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"You want to go to Avalon?" Pion asked, surprised to hear Matilda's words. They were standing on her balcony, watching the sunset while slowly sipping on red wine. Maybe, for the first time in years, the bottle was still almost full, as it only served to enhance the mood instead of blurring everything.

"Not permanently. I know that is not possible." She explained, "Not until I find someone to replace me."

"You want a kid?" Pion asked bluntly because he had already heard her talk about it in the past a few times, especially when she was drunk.

"I am still capable of that! But... I wouldn't want to pass the seat to him or her. Honestly? I had enough... I am tired, and I don't want to deal with this. I am considering returning the rule to the Empress and letting her put someone here to replace me. We just had a rebellion... It is the best opportunity to call it quits!"

"You are using us, so you won't lose your head." He chuckled, seeing the connections because if it had been any other time, if she had offered something like this two years ago, she might have been in danger of being executed for treason. But with how Ishillia was now, she could escape unscathed.

"Maybe!" She giggled, swirling her wine in her glass, looking towards the sunset. "I am fine being a regular old woman in another city. I could oversee my sons and maybe be the mother I never really was to them. They didn't grow up to be dicks because they were bad from the start... Parents are responsible for their children."

"I see..." Pion whispered, finding it surprising and, then again, admirable that she said it. "Well, I can understand the reasoning... and as I told you, the Empress should also be in Avalon this winter. My recall is timed to her arrival, so if you can put someone up until you go and visit her, you can come with us."

"Don't worry; I am going to announce that I am leaving to meet with the Empress. If anyone decides to stir the pot, they would be insane! And the others would kill the idiot on the spot. People find it hard to forget what they have seen on the day of the battle..."

"And they have seen nothing yet." Pion added, turning his head towards not the sun but towards the north, wanting to be in the Pass with his comrades, bracing the winter and protecting his city. It was something that, by now, was almost like the main call for every soldier under Leon's rule.

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The first snow of the year came around the same time as always, telling me that it wouldn't be another harsh winter that lasted five or six months. The regular soldiers in the Pass were becoming truly nervous, feeling they should be behind the tall walls, but none of them had any grounds to complain because I was out there with them.

Through the autumn, trenches were dug into the ground, traps laid out as far as the eye could see, and multiple battlements built to funnel possible beasts to a narrow corridor where we could stand and fight them. We were prepared for a proper battle.

Was this necessary? Wouldn't it be better to be on the walls? Maybe. But if I want an army that can genuinely fight and survive, I need them to endure hell first. I still remember my very first deployment, straight out of boot camp, where I was transferred into a hellhole where I was replacing the previous mechanic who blew up with his tank.

Well, that was then, this was now, but still. The current circumstances reminded me of how it was before, and mingling with my soldiers boosted everyone's morale more than I expected. When I was not in my mech, I walked and talked with them, helped maintain our gear, shoveled snow, and checked the howitzers, getting dirty like any mechanic would. It was... like returning to a much simpler time. It helped me relax, however weird that sounds.

Yet, winter was winter because our first 'attack' came in the second week of continuous snowfall. It was the middle of the day when the sentries, up in their balloons, spotted something crawling through the Pass. Yes... crawling. Up in the Princess's cockpit, using the newly added Marker spell, I could look into the distance and pick out the outline of a... thing. I would want to say it wasn't scary, but I would be lying. It had eight thin legs surrounding a disc-shaped body. As for size, I put it somewhere around the size of a horse, so it wasn't enormous, but it was hairy... It gave me the creeps!

"Are you seeing this?" I asked, transmitting my voice to the cockpit of the Lion.

"Yeah..." Father answered after a moment of silence, "It looks horrid. I hate fuzzy bugs!"

"Same... What do you think? Should we shoot at it? It is in range of our howitzers."

"It is moving slowly, so it is probably a scout. I don't think we should engage, not yet."

"I agree. If we miss, they will know about our range." I hummed, handling the enemy as if they were just as intelligent as humans. That way, we wouldn't be surprised. We were keeping a watch on the thing in the distance, sometimes disappearing under the snow or behind the curves and jagged edges of the mountainside, advancing slowly and carefully.

We were on high alert after that encounter, but in the end, whatever it was, it didn't approach us, remaining five-ish kilometers from our position. But it did come close enough to let us take a better look at its weird disc-shaped body before scurrying away. The whole thing was a nightmare up close... Not enough that its stick-shaped legs were hairy, it had a massive mouth on its underbelly with multiple eyes on the side of its torso. Ugh... Of course, we get the nastiest-looking creature when I am at the frontlines!

Anyway, after its arrival, we were officially in the winter season, and we kept scanning the Pass every hour so it wouldn't sneak up on us by burrowing under the snow. For the next few days, it never returned, but on the fifth morning, there it was again. This time, four others came along with it, the same shape, same size, and the same kind of hair-raising look.

"What should we name them?" I asked, feeling disgusted, something unsavory welling up in my stomach.

"Spiders." Father answered me, not really in the mood to go far with it. I could tell he was just as creeped out as I was. We were watching them raise their bodies, stretching their long legs into the air like antennas, rubbing them together or swaying in the wind as if waving at us.

"Head crabs?" I asked, chuckling, knowing he wouldn't get it anyway.

"Crabs have those clickity-clanky things on them. These are spiders."

"You mean claws?" I laughed, receiving a snort from the radio as an answer.

"Whatever... They are leaving again!"

"Do you think it is because of the mechs?"

Most likely was his answer, and I agreed, even if not because of size but because of the monster core within our machines. My and Merlin's guess was that beasts could feel it and mistake us for their kind. Being the same kind of beast that we killed. I had no other explanation as to why they left again. As for proof? It arrived a week later, in the middle of the day... It came in the form of a much more massive but still disk-shaped monster. It was about 14 or 15 meters high, and to complete the nightmarish look, the smaller ones crawled on the big one's legs and back, hanging off from their 'mothership.'

"Let it walk closer." I opened a radio channel, speaking to our soldiers while I was marking the position for the howitzers. "When it gets into the marked zone... fire at will!"