Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 6

The tall grass rustled with the passing of many feet as the contingent of Adventurers made their way around the city wall. Once occupied by thick clumps of trees and brush, the cover that had been foolishly allowed to grow all the way to the curtain wall in the past had been cleared away. In its place lay an open field that stretched out in a three kilometre radius all around the city of E-Rantel.

Itzal mused over the change: Lord Rettenmeier, the previous mayor of the city, might have been an excellent civil administrator, but he was blind when it came to even basic security matters. He supposed it was proof that even capable individuals could still be unbelievably inept when it came to matters outside of their own expertise. Personally, the idea that the agents of the Sorcerous Kingdom were a bit more competent than those of E-Rantel’s former administration was not something he liked to see. On the bright side, it showed that the inhuman forces occupying the city still adhered to common principles and logic, thus possessing a predictability that could be exploited.

Despite the terrain being leveled and cleared of obstacles, they moved at a relatively slow pace. Well, it was a slower pace than he was capable of. As they were undergoing ‘Adventurer training’ – whatever that meant – the groups had a wide range of ranks represented in each. There were the four members of a Mithril-ranked Adventurer team that headed each of their respective groups. A Platinum and a Gold rank led the remaining two teams.

The ground that an Adventurer party could cover was generally determined by the slowest member of the party, and traditional parties were generally composed of equally-ranked members. Mithril teams could traverse vast distances compared to Silver teams in the same amount of time, and Silver teams would outpace Copper teams. As each training team had at least two copper ranks each – with at least one of them being a mage of some sort – every team could only move at the pace of a Copper-ranked mage.

It was a wildly impractical setup if it were to be applied outside of training but, since it was training, it allowed the higher-ranked Adventurers to serve as mentors to their juniors. That was the stated idea, anyways, but Itzal had severe doubts about the whole thing.

The mixing of ranks was not the only aspect that was wildly different. If anything, it might be considered reasonable given the circumstances. There were far more drastic changes that came with this ‘New Adventurer Guild’.

Foremost was the number of members in a party. A traditional Adventurer party was composed of four members, but the new organization had expanded that number to six. In addition, each party was a member of a larger expeditionary contingent composed of a maximum of 36 members. Only 30 positions – five teams – would be filled in regular operations. The last group would only join the expedition in extraordinary circumstances that required additional considerations, such as greater diplomatic acumen, economic expertise or raw physical and magical might. It was an arbitrary number decided upon by the coordinators from the Sorcerous Kingdom and, when a few asked for the reason why, the only response was that it was ‘the correct way to do things’.

As he slowly jogged along while pointedly attempting to ignore the wheezing of the Copper-plate mage behind him, Itzal supposed that the new formation also had its benefits.

The traditional four-member formation of an Adventurer team was composed of a Defender, Vanguard, Healer and a class that could act as a Centre Guard – usually a caster who shored up a common deficit in magical offence. This was generally perceived as well-balanced for the types of work Adventurers did, though variations of an Adventurer formation and its numbers were not uncommon. The two positions added were that of a dedicated Scout, and a variable position that served multiple roles or could be swapped depending on the expectations of the party’s work in any given environment. On that note, Adventurer teams were no longer fixed: they were now fluid groups whose compositions could be reconfigured according to the demands of their tasks and the availability of members.

The Scout’s role was clear enough as parties often utilized them, performing double duty in another role. With the new mandate of the Adventurer Guild, they would serve as trailblazers, trackers and survival experts out in the vast unknown that their parties were sent out to explore. Rogues and Rangers, who usually occupied a Vanguard or Centre Guard position, had been mostly assigned to the Scout positions. Rangers were adept at navigating and surviving in the wilderness, while Rogues were extremely useful in exploring dangerous ruins. Both excelled in reconnaissance. Bards could also fill the Scout position but, as there was currently an abundance of Rangers and Rogues, the few Bards present occupied the latter variable position as wildcards due to their broad skill sets and magical utility.

Admittedly, the newly prescribed six-member party was more resilient and adaptable, but one could say that adding anything to an already small party would make it so. There was one more, major, change that might have been seen as a reason for the increase in standard party size.

Each six-member party was also required to have a sort of diplomat – or a commissary, depending on how one thought about it – a member that was well versed with the foreign policy of the Sorcerous Kingdom, practiced in law and diplomacy, and would ensure that the collective understanding and behaviour of the party did not misrepresent the mandate of their organization and thus reflect badly on the nation’s image. It was not a role that was required in the vast majority of requests Adventurers normally took: one did not need a negotiator when exterminating monsters, or be mindful of public image and property rights when ransacking ruins and collecting rare materials, after all.

It was a markedly difficult position to fill with the Adventurer Guild’s current membership. Amongst those present, it was mostly the Bards who were closest to fitting the bill. Itzal supposed that if it were a Human nation, Clerics and Paladins with such inclinations could also perform in this capacity. As it was, there was only one Cleric in the guild present here – who did not meet the qualifications anyways – and so they had to turn to unconventional choices to fill the last couple of openings. Those vocations normally associated with such matters were by and large civilian occupations. Since each member of a party was also required to be a proficient combatant capable of surviving hostile scenarios, they could not simply recruit an office worker for the position.

The first individual who had volunteered was actually a veteran of the City Militia, who at least had experience dealing with a wide variety of people from abroad and was somewhat familiar with local laws. He had decided that, with all of the powerful Undead sentries employed by the Sorcerous Kingdom in the city, he could be better put to use elsewhere and was now studying to fully qualify for his new career as a diplomatic representative working for the Adventurer Guild.

The second person that had shown up was a young noblewoman, who had become the personification of all his frustrations with the former subjects of Re-Estize. Itzal’s initial assessment about the future course of the duchy was that its economy would eventually encounter issues related to the huge portions of its rural population fleeing its lands. Since cities existed to service the regions that they lay within, the collapse of rural industries would result in the collapse of the city’s industries: causing the situation to rapidly deteriorate into intense hardship and unrest. It never happened, however – E-Rantel only ever seemed to gain in momentum on every front as the weeks went by.

It did not take long for realization over what was happening to dawn upon him: most of the citizens were actually collaborating with their new overlord, though they probably did not even think of it in those terms. The people just resumed their lives, fueling activity which would ultimately benefit the Sorcerer King in whatever schemes he had set into motion. The nobility, however, was playing an active role. He did not know how it had started, but eventually every noble had fallen in line with the inhuman administration, playing their part in the realm’s governance. Many had started to adopt Undead labour to varying degrees in the territories under their management, which shored up the shortfalls in manpower that would have otherwise spelled doom for the city.

He had known since the previous spring that his superiors had a plainly poor assessment of Re-Estize’s leadership and had turned to favour the Empire instead, but it was not until it had come to this point that he truly understood the depths of depravity that they had fallen to. That they would be willing to subordinate themselves to an evil monster and spread the Undead to all corners of the region just to maintain their wealth and power was absolutely disgusting. Their moral corruption knew no bounds; he had nearly emptied his stomach in the street upon piecing together the truth.

In a word, it was bad.

Nearly everything about the situation in the city was bad.

The people were being blithely led to embrace their monstrous sovereign by greedy and corrupt nobles: sellouts and traitors to humanity.

The local Adventurer Guild, formerly an organization that served as a shield of the people, was now being repurposed into an expeditionary force – who knows at what point they would be turned against their neighbors? All it would take was for them to engineer a singular incident, and the armies of the Sorcerous Kingdom would have a convenient excuse to devastate a nation.

E-Rantel had become a pit of hell, disguised as a fragrant blossom which lay out its insidious tendrils across the land to drain the life out of everything it touched. It would continue to grow until it had a stranglehold on the entire region and, from there, it would wither away the entire world.

Itzal thanked the gods that he could see what was happening here. His reports would filter out to the Theocracy, who must surely do something to counter this great scourge that had appeared before the nations. He only prayed that a solution was devised before too many innocent lives were exposed to the suffering that would surely come with the Sorcerous Kingdom's heinous actions.

But not these people. These people could burn along with their accursed ‘king’.

The Adventurers in front of him slowed their pace. Itzal looked around at their surroundings, then up at the sun above. They had made their way out of the city gate a little over an hour ago, circling around the city walls to the northwest. At some point, they had straightened their course and slowly distanced themselves from E-Rantel. The city’s massive walls could still be seen looming to the east, but they had traveled quite a ways.

The contingent of Adventurers entered what appeared to be a standing ruin hidden in a wooded meadow, with weathered pillars and piles of stone strewn about. In the centre of the ruin was an old-looking structure with a darkened, rectangular entrance.

Itzal furrowed his brow. This close to the city, any ruins would have been picked clean and the structures repurposed into useful building materials by generations long past. Before he could think too much on it, a trio of figures appeared from the entrance of the ruin.

Sighs were drawn from the assembled Adventurers as the first came into the light. Dressed in an extravagant gown the likes of which Itzal had never seen before, she was a pale, voluptuous girl in the cusp of adolescence. Her porcelain skin shielded from the harsh light of the sun by a dark parasol, she came forward with a seductive, swaying motion accentuated by her voluminous skirts.

The two following after her were a pair of Elf children: twins, going by their close appearance. One was a boy in sturdy-looking leather gloves and a red leather outfit overlaid by a pristine white vest and pants to match. In his trail was his timid-looking sister, with a similar outfit save for the blue leather and a short skirt. She clutched a gnarled staff in both hands, as if to hide behind it when they lined up to stand before the Adventurers. The dark-skinned Elf children were crowned in golden hair, with glimmering mismatched eyes – emerald and sapphire in hue.

The trio seemed each a manifestation of physical perfection, drawing various reactions from the contingent that had come to assemble before them. After the Adventurers in the rear finally caught up, the boy standing in the middle stepped forward to speak.

“Alright~” He said in a cheerful voice. “Good job making it out here! Welcome to the Adventurer’s Tomb~”

The boy threw his hands up excitedly into the air, as if his announcement should be received to great fanfare. The Adventurers simply stared.

“I-I really don’t think that’s a good name…” His sister said off to the side.

“Haaah?” The boy rounded on his sibling with an annoyed look, “It’s for training Adventurers, and it’s a tomb. What’s wrong with that?”

“But it sounds like they’re just coming here to die!” She tearfully protested.

The boy laughed; his light voice carrying over the wind.

“It’s not like they’ll be dying all the time,” he waved his hand dismissively beside his head as he turned back to the others. “The Adventurers of the Sorcerous Kingdom couldn’t be that weak!”

With the voice of his cowed sister going ‘Uuuu’ in the background, the boy cleared his throat before speaking again, slowly turning his gaze over the men and women of the New Adventurer Guild.

“Anyways…now that you’re all here, let’s–” His voice stopped as he turned his eyes to something that caused him to frown slightly.

Itzal followed his line of sight. The annoying noblewoman was looking down suspiciously at a broken pillar covered in vines. When she leaned slightly closer to inspect it, there was a barely discernible flicking motion from one of the plants. The noblewoman blinked once with a blank look on her face before keeling over.

There was a shimmer in the air as the girl in the black gown appeared to receive the falling noblewoman. She must have been standing at least thirty metres away – how did she get there so quickly?

“「Cure Poison」.”

Kneeling on the grass, she cast a spell, resting the noblewoman’s head on her lap. She looked up towards the Dark Elf siblings with a displeased expression.

“Mare, could you not break my things immediately after I lend them to you?”

“Awawa…” the girl in the skirt fretted, looking nervously about.

The first girl turned her head to level her crimson gaze on the party’s Cleric.

“…and you.” She spoke imperiously, “You are a Cleric, are you not? Were you just going to stand there and stare at a poisoned party member until they simply expired?”

Their Cleric, a young man in his late teens, looked down to his feet with no answer to her reprimand.

“Hey you!”

Itzal jumped as the boy’s voice came up from his side. He had been paying attention to ongoing exchange and did not notice the Elf’s approach. He turned his head to look down at the boy. The young Elf’s hands were on his hips and he looked up at him with a miffed expression.

“You’re the scout for that party, aren’t you? It’s your job to make sure that things like that don’t happen!”

What! How is this my fault? Why is this midget of an Elf talking down to me? That noble bitch!

He struggled to keep a lid on his rising temper, but the act of doing so just seemed to make it worse.

“Should we heal her?” Mare asked quietly.

“Hum…”

Her brother rubbed his head while he seemed to think on their situation. After a minute, his frown turned upside down and he clapped his hands to gain the attention of the assembled Adventurers again.

“Time to start our first Adventure!” He declared in a bright voice, “You’ve entered the territory of an unknown tribe. One of your negotiators is down, and they’re angry at you for trespassing on their territory!”

“…what happened?” The noblewoman finally came to, weakly rising to her feet.

“Um, casualties aren’t supposed to move,” Mare said timidly, holding her staff towards her.

Vines exploded out of the ground at the noblewoman’s feet, rapidly wrapping themselves tightly around her body. She let out something resembling a squeak as the vines covered her from head to toe and she fell back down.

“What are you saying, kid?” A Gold-plate from another party asked, “We’re supposed to be training in the tomb, right?”

“Huh? But you’re already in the tomb?” The Elf boy replied.

“That’s the tomb, isn’t it?” The man pointed to the entrance of the ruins, “We’re just standing in a bunch of trees.”

“What kinda crazy thing are you saying?” The Elf boy gave the Adventurer a look one might have bestowed upon a mental invalid, “Any proper tomb would have trees.”

A rock sailed over tall grass, bouncing off of the Adventurer’s armour. Another followed, striking a nearby mage in the jaw and sending him sprawling to the ground.

“What! Who threw that!”

“It came from the edge of the meadow!”

The Adventurers who carried shields raised them warily. Another rock flew in from a slightly different direction and one of their archers retaliated. The arrow disappeared into the grass; there was no indication that it had hit anything.

“Aaanyways, like I said: the tribe is angry, so here’s your objective...”

The Dark Elf’s smile turned into a broad grin…but it did not reach his eyes.

“Survive!”