by Han Yang
Ah.
The idea of marriage popped into my head again, but I hadn’t prepared anything. Joanna wouldn’t need a ceremony with all the bells and whistles as far as I could imagine, but at the very least I wanted the proposal to be perfect.
And asking for her hand in the middle of a noisy, chaotic workshop? Not exactly dream-like material, right?
Joanna caught onto my dazed state as she pulled back enough to look up into my eyes. I saw a glimpse of concern in her gaze, so before I could overly worry her, I smoothly swung my head down and locked my lips to hers.
Our embrace lasted a few more seconds before we parted once more, though this time my lovely Baroness had a hot flush to her cheeks as she backed away.
“Bradley, I wanted to ask -”
“Sorry to interrupt!” Duke called out from behind my back, cutting off Joanna’s question before she could even start it. “There’s something you need to hear.”
“Is it about Ginli?” I spun around on my heel so I could see Duke. My second in command shook his head slightly as he glanced in Joanna’s direction, then back to me.
“It seems like Portin… has declared war on Norn.”
Chapter 10
The area quieted for a minute as the venturebots paused in their tasks.I had expected the old fart running Portin to try something eventually, especially after we had spotted their forces gathering at the edge of my lands. The fact they had so openly declared their intent without any preamble was a little peculiar.
No attempts to negotiate any direct or indirect threats to try to get us to surrender early.
And then there was the vote. Last I’d heard, the fact Gearnix had chosen to protect me had caused the leaders of Portin to hold back in their desire to wipe Norn off the face of the map.
Why had that changed? What could have given them the kick they needed to-
“Ah.” Duke shook his head slightly, as though he couldn’t quite believe what he had just heard.
A moment later he turned to me and spoke in a solemn voice. “Darden has also declared war on Norn.”
“Two against one? Cowards!” Joanna stomped her foot angrily, but I remained silent as I considered the ramifications of what I had just been told. Two well placed and supported cities against my fledgling little township. An unfair battle however you looked at it, but the reason for their alliance did make sense if you considered the way they viewed Norn.
My city looked like an untapped treasure trove, attached to bountiful hunting lands and unused material deposits and gathering sites.
In a strange way, I couldn’t really argue with their decision to declare their intentions.
“How long do we have?” I pulled myself together and turned to face Duke. Though I had studied up in regards to the political options I had in regards to other cities, the possibility of outright war had seemed like a far distant threat, so I had only skimmed that portion of the information I had been provided.
“Two weeks.” Duke glanced at the workers, who quickly went back to their stations under his admonishing gaze. “The populace will be made aware in one week, which will give them time to find safe refuge in another city nearby. Any who stay past that point will be classified as active participants in the war.”
“And what about those who can’t afford to leave?” Joanna brought up the question that hovered on my mind. “A train journey isn’t free.”
“Depending upon the situation, Gearnix may offer discounts or even free travel if needed.”
I nodded at Duke’s calm response. It made sense that the planet itself would not want the citizens it nurtured to be wiped out on a whim. On the other hand, it also meant that in a week we would likely face a mass exodus of citizens as they fled the upcoming battle.
After all, who would believe a single struggling place like Norn could face off against the combined forces of two major cities?
Well, I believed it.
There wasn’t any other choice. My future was unquestionably linked with the fate of Norn. A Dictator went down with their ship, at least in my eyes, and there wasn’t a chance in hell I would abandon all of my work to be picked over by those packs of ravenous dogs.
“Call the hunters back.” I leaned against the side of the Moonlit Goddess as I contemplated our next action. “Send out a message to every trapper, tracker, and scout in our employ. I want to meet them within the hour.”
“As you say, Baron Lord.” Duke bowed and strode off toward the stairs up into the manor proper.
I watched as the venturebots toiled away around me, either uncaring or not understanding the threat they faced. The repair projects were pushed aside as they shifted their overall focus to the now more urgent undertakings.
Weapons of various shapes and sizes were carted out and deposited on each workstation. The venturebots lifted up the blunderbusses, long rifles, and pistols laid out before them, and after a quick inspection, they began their work.
Cleaning, repairing, and testing. A few even seemed to work on upgrades like enhanced scopes or improved stocks. Joanna’s fingers twitched as she watched, and I could tell she had an urge to jump in to help.
But one more set of hands would not make much of a difference. After a few meaningful looks, I managed to lead her back out of the lair and up to my study once more.
“We have two weeks, then.” I dropped down into the chair at my desk and pulled out a large, well-drawn map. I assumed Duke had it made due to the fact it perfectly covered the available surface of the table top.
Still, it didn’t do much for my confidence.
Norn’s increase in size since the wall upgrade was reflected, but it was still a relatively small speck on the full sized land sketch before me. A second sheet held a zoomed in image of the city itself, along with every upgrade, both completed and ongoing.
Altogether, the graphs helped me formulate the first corners of a plan.
First, finish the sniper towers. Though they wouldn’t have the durability of the wall itself, the vantage points provided would allow our soldiers a tactical advantage as they picked at Portin and Darden’s forces before they even got in range to return fire.
Second, sight lines. Now that they had declared war on Norn, the forces of Portin and Darden could only muster within a specific range of our city walls. I used a ruler and pencil to roughly mark the edge of the no man’s land between our defensive line and the upper limit of their forces.
A good amount of space, to be sure, but not infinite.
Thankfully, they couldn’t steal resources from our mine, at least not until the war was over and they had been declared the victors. I had made sure to officially claim every potential spot on the map which might yield useful resources, so at least those tactical areas were protected.
Temporarily, at least.
But it wasn’t like we had to cower away and wait for their inevitable assault.
Usually wars were declared in advance, then forces would need to be sent directly to the city itself via blimp or boat. Trains were locked down during the war itself, so using Gearnix’s own transportation system against our enemy was out of the picture.
Portin and Darden had tried a new trick, however.
Was it impossible to muster in the wilds? No, but it was a risk to do so. Usually only a smaller faction would attempt such a dangerous path, and the two cities arrayed against me were nowhere near that level, comparatively at least.
It was clear they wanted a quick and easy war. No one would have expected an enemy with such a huge advantage in both bodies and resources to use such an underhanded tactic.
But I knew about it already.
As I looked over the map once more, Duke sent a message to me via one of the venturebot guards. Everyone with skills in tracking, scouting, and trapping waited in the main hall.
Why he didn’t just show them up to my office confused me a little, but I waved off the thought as I left my study and strode down the stairs two at a time.
Once I
reached the entrance hall of the manor, however, his reasons became abundantly clear.
A large group of people stood at attention before me, far more than I had expected. Though we only had barely five hundred citizens, a full fifty had answered my call to arms, and not a single one seemed on edge of worry in the slightest toward my reasons for calling them so abruptly.
Duke waited off to the side with a large roll of paper in his hands. After a quick exchange of glances, man to man, I shook my head and turned to face the audience he had provided.
“Hello there, pleasure to meet you.” I slowed myself for the final few steps and forced a confident grin onto my face. “I have a request, and some information. If you decide against helping me, then you will be free to leave, though I will ask you to keep what you learn here to yourselves.”
Most of the crowd nodded, while the rest kept their gazes firmly locked in my direction as they waited for further details.
That would have to do, I guess.
“Portin and Darden have declared war on Norn.” I paused for a moment as a murmur spread through the crowd. They quietened themselves after a few seconds, and I saw that no one had decided to leave after hearing the severity of the situation. “More so, they have decided to muster their forces on the edge of our lands. In the wilds.”
Another confused gasp and several angry yells. It seemed like most of the trackers and scouts before me agreed with my thoughts on the cowardice of our enemy’s actions.
Still, no one left. A good sign.
“Now, as you are all aware, we have two weeks to prepare. I know you might be confused as to why I asked for you specifically, though I hope my reasoning becomes clear soon.” I glanced at Duke who nodded and unfurled a large scroll.
As expected, he had prepared a map of the wilds. His boundary markers were more precise than mine, but the city of Norn didn’t show on the drawing he had brought for the scouts.
Instead, it focused on the wilds. More specifically, it had paths laid in for the Portin squads we had spotted as we returned from the survey area several weeks previously.
“So, we know their routes and a rough estimate of where they are gathering.” I took the long pointer Duke proffered and tapped the map he held up like a teacher with a blackboard. “A full on assault against their main camp is likely suicide for us right now, but that isn’t our target.”
A tall man shimmied his way to the front of the crowd to get a better view of the map itself. “The reinforcements?”
I smiled as I recognized the scout. More specifically, he was the Master Scout, or at least that’s the title I had promised him for helping me return to Norn from the mountainous region safely.
“Indeed. We have rough estimates on the scale of each deployment, and it would be within reasonable limits for us to… waylay them.”
“Permanently, I assume.” The Master Scout grinned wickedly as he glanced back at his fellow trackers and trappers. “Ambush points, wild beast stampedes, things of that nature?”
“Anything and everything you can think of, as long as they can’t directly link it back to Norn.” I folded my arms and looked out across the gathering of trained personnel before me. “Look, this is a dangerous task. If anyone wants to leave now -”
“Thank you for the offer, Baron Lord, but I think most of us will have to politely decline.” The Master Scout spoke up for the group, and not a single one of them said anything to counter his response. “This is our city too, and we will do everything we can to help protect it.”
“Good to hear.” I walked forward and slammed a palm onto the man’s shoulder. “I’ll come with you for the first foray, and we’ll have venturebots assigned to assist with the clean ups.”
“I- Thank you, Baron Lord.” The Master Scout blinked before he pulled himself together to give me a bow. “We appreciate everything you have done. I will contact you as soon as we are prepared to begin our operations.”
The rest of the trackers also offered their thanks, as well as confirming their commitment to joining the cause. Though in a pitched battle they weren’t as useful as a trained soldier, the role I had provided them was perfectly matched to their skill sets.
So, with one less thing to worry about, I waited for the group to funnel back out of the manor before I turned to Duke once more.
“Don’t even say it.” I held up a palm as my robotic companion rolled up the huge map with careful precision. “I’m going out there, and that’s final.”
“Of course, Baron Lord.” Duke’s body let out the telltale screech of metal against metal as he forced a slight shrug from his shoulders. “I wouldn’t even dare to persuade you otherwise… especially after your showing at Langshire.”
His pointed comment hit home as I realized what he meant. I looked up the stairs and thought about the lovely lady waiting for me far above. She had decided to stay by Ginli’s side while I spoke with the trackers, but it was unlikely she would have thought I would offer my own services to the cause.
“Damn.”
Chapter 11
Joanna accepted my decision with relative grace, though I did have to make it up to her with an extended, intimate session in the bedroom. Of course, Duke ensured that I had my damaged arm fully repaired in case any sharp edges got in the way of our makeup time.
She knew as well as I how close to the edge we were hanging. The ambushes would slow the buildup of soldiers on our border, but it wouldn’t stop those who had already mustered there, and they only had one way to get home from their one way trip.
They had to take Norn down or die trying.
How the leaders of Portin and Darden had persuaded their followers to agree to such a crazy plan was beyond me. Even if I could persuade those who worked under me to consider such a strategy, there was no way I would consider putting it into action.
There was a difference between sending scouting parties to ambush unaware squads in the wilds near their home city, and dropping an entire army in the middle of a monster infested forest. Leaving them to survive as best they could before you finally sent them to assault a well defended city without any means of retreat didn’t seem prudent.
Still, the die had been cast, and the bones would fall where they may.
The Master Scout didn’t leave me hanging for all that long. As soon as I stepped back into my office, I received the message he had left with my venturebot workers to advise me they were making the final preparations for the first journey out into the wilds.
After bidding farewell to Joanna, I pulled on the winter clothing Lei had created before our trip to the mountain mine and picked up a long rifle and pistol side arm combination.
As I made my way toward the main exit from the manor lands, Duke stopped me with a large, securely wrapped package. The whole thing was around an arm and a half long with a large, bulky protrusion at one end.
Only after I unpacked it did I understand what he’d done.
A beautifully crafted blunderbuss rolled out from the packaging onto the carpeted floor before me. Though it hadn’t leveled, the materials used in its creation looked far and beyond those I had seen before.
“This is- Wow.” I lifted the weapon and hefted it in my hand. Lighter than any blunderbuss I had used before while easily out sizing them all.
A quick, stealthy clench of the barrel showed that it was far sturdier than the average gun, even though outwardly it looked to be created from a silver alloy like most I had used in the past.
“Try not to blow this one up, Baron Lord.” Duke disposed of the packaging I had ripped aside as I stared at my new toy. “And be careful how much power you feed into the reservoirs. It holds more, but too much of anything is bad.”
His comment checked out, so I nodded firmly as I swung the blunderbuss into the sheath on my back. It fit in snugly, as though the strapped container had been created for its chunky frame.
Finally, I felt ready to face the battles to come.
I pulled the hood of my jacket up o
ver my head and tugged the face mask up over my mouth before I walked out into the open. A few curious folk glanced in my direction, but most ignored me as they failed to recognize their Baron Lord through the thick layers of leather and wool.
Exactly as I had planned.
It didn’t take long to make my way to the side entrance where the scouting party waited for my arrival. The short distance between my manor and the outer wall once more showed the difference between Norn and the other cities I had visited, but that downside might actually end up being a boon in the upcoming battle.
Though we didn’t have as many troops as the invading army, the scale of the area we had to defend was also relatively compact. By my estimates, I imagined it wouldn’t be impossible to have every sector of the wall covered by several arcs of fire.
Sure, it might not be enough to stop a literal army in its tracks, but the damage we would deal would be significant at the very least.
Before I could worry myself over the upcoming war, I pushed such thoughts away to focus on the present. The Master Scout recognized me the instant he spotted my approach, a good sign for someone who needed to trust their eyes in the wilderness. He didn’t call out or show anything to indicate my identity as he nodded in my direction and motioned for the gate to open.
That was another thing. I made a mental note to remind Duke to add strengthening points to the gates. Though the wall had been created by Gearnix itself, the few entrance points spaced along its perimeter were easily the most vulnerable sectors for any attacking force to break through.
Once we had made our way out into the cleared sector outside the walls, the atmosphere turned tense and serious as we strode toward the wild land forest in the distance.
The army couldn’t gather too close to our walls, but they still could have scouts perched high enough to catch a glimpse of a squad leaving the protection of the city. It was a danger that, thankfully, we had planned for in advance.
Most hunting parties would head directly into the woods and follow a path that mostly led them in a straight line. It made sense to cover as much ground as possible before they needed to return to their city, and would leave a relatively clear route to take as they made their way back.
