Valkyrie's Shadow
Before the Storm: Act 11, Chapter 8

Chapter 8

『You did what?』

『I-It’s not my fault! Girls just keep coming after me for some reason!』

High above the western Azerlisian Marches, Raul wore an incredulous expression as Liam delivered his report. He had to have done something. Girls never came after Raul aside from Olga, and it wasn’t the same with her. Or was it? Undead and Demihumans were easier to understand than girls.

『So the Nobles are sending their forces out to retaliate against the households whose men ran. They’re also going to try and deal with the refugees coming from the north.』

『House Blumrush has been trying to get its vassals to, at least.』

『Do you know any of their plans?』

『Nothing specific. Laval’s faction is the most excited about it, though. The Count is the first one who suggested they do something about what’s going on, as far as I know.』

That part was predictable enough. Evicted tenants would become vagrants, and they would join the ones roving about the territory. They would take any work and food they could find. If they couldn’t find any, many would resort to things they would otherwise consider unthinkable to survive.

The increasingly chaotic conditions of the March presented a much higher risk to the territories with plentiful food stores than those without. Earlier that winter, the lowland faction had used such fears to justify raising the price of their produce. He doubted that they had ever expected to do anything with the gains they squeezed out of the people.

『Can you do anything to help?』

『That depends on what happens. If you find out more about what the Nobles are planning, let me know.』

The Message spell ended, leaving Raul to consider his next set of moves. A violent reaction by the area’s aristocrats had been well within the realm of possibility. In Raul’s opinion, however, it was a futile gesture. It would be a week before the ‘diplomacy’ phase of the war would end, leaving the Nobles with far too little time to carry out their new plans.

Of course, the Nobles weren’t aware of that. Figuring out how to mitigate the harm they could do in that limited timeframe was his new challenge.

“I just received a report from Liam,” Raul said. “The Nobles are finally starting to react to our moves.”

“Has our position been compromised?” Koro asked.

“I doubt it,” Raul answered. “They just think that their people are trying to avoid being conscripted into the levy. More men are being sent out: this time to enforce the law.”

“Further intervention in their domestic affairs seems unnecessary,” the Elder Lich said. “By your own estimation, our mission objectives have already been fulfilled.”

“I don’t think our success was ever a question,” Raul said, “but the specific outcomes matter. The more people we save, the greater the territory’s industrial capacity will be when the Sorcerous Kingdom takes over.”

“How do you propose to achieve the optimal result?”

“We’re already most of the way there. How we finish things up depends on what the Nobles do. For now, we need to gather our forces.”

Their Skeletal Dragon banked towards the Manticore Mountains, presumably towards the nearest group of woodsmen under his command. As one of the Elder Liches assigned to act as an adjutant to the Sorcerous Kingdom’s field commanders, Koro had almost two hundred Bone Vultures, Wraiths, and other Undead useful for surveillance under its domination. Those assets had been distributed across the Azerlisian Marches, so there was little in terms of ‘battlefield’ activity that the Elder Lich was unaware of.

Within minutes, they settled into a glide over a group of woodsmen making their way north along an eroded clay road.

『We have a change in plans. Head to the copse across that field.』

The woodsmen slowed for a moment before changing direction. Koro landed the Skeletal Dragon at the edge of the carefully tended woodland. Raul had his Invisibility dispelled before he dismounted to meet the men.

“What’s goin’ on, boss?” Said the leader of the squad, “Spot another official and his goons?”

“I wouldn’t have come down if it were that,” Raul answered. “The Nobles are finally getting word that their subjects are fleeing the levy. Lord Reginald is urging them to uphold the law.”

More than half of the woodsmen snorted.

“Good luck with that,” their leader said.

His derisive assessment of the Nobles’ chances wasn’t far off the mark. Not only had they been spreading rumours around the Azerlisian Marches, but they had also been quietly dispatching officials and their escorts, as well. In other words, the minor Nobles, who had little in the way of staff to begin with, now had no way to respond to Lord Reginald’s urgings even if they wanted to.

As former members of the Eight Fingers, using force to dismantle the practical power of the nobility was something the woodsmen were well practised in, so that part of the operation went particularly smoothly.

“Only the High Nobles can really do anything now,” Raul said, “and the closest one to the city is Laval.”

The woodsmen exchanged looks between themselves.

“The higher-ups usually bribed Laval. They were better to get on our side than beat down.”

“What does that mean for us?” Raul frowned.

“Means he hasn’t been beat down. Probably has more thugs than usual. Types like him use a piece of their cut to make sure none of their people can say anything ‘bout what they’re doin’.”

“Do you know anything about his forces?”

The woodsman shook his head.

“No, but I seen him with his Knights whenever he shows his face in the city. Means he’s got plenty back at home to keep everyone in line.”

“How strong are Laval’s Knights?”

“They’re louder than they deserve to be, but I guess they’re still Knights.”

“Uh, can you be more specific?” Raul asked, “How do they compare to Adventurers?”

“They’d be Silver…maybe? Might be one around Gold. ‘Course, each one’s got their tagalongs.”

Outside of the Sorcerous Kingdom, Adventurers were ranked according to their party’s ability to successfully complete commissions, so it was at best a very rough measure of individual strength. Still, it meant that none of those Knights posed a real threat to his forces.

“We gonna fight ‘em?” One of the younger woodsmen asked.

“If we do,” Raul answered, “it’ll be on our terms. Unless Laval has a regiment of Rangers at his disposal, we can run circles around his armsmen in this muck.”

The men slowly nodded in acceptance of his words. At first, many of the Countess’ armsmen had been fearful that their lives would be spent on battles with the callous disregard they expected of an officer from the Sorcerous Kingdom. By the end of the same week, however, they conducted their operations with a casual professionalism that exuded confidence and expertise. Their growing trust in his command also came with many benefits that they were consciously unaware of.

“I’m reforming you guys into your original companies,” Raul said. “Yours will gather in the woods north of the river on the eastern border of Laval County.”

“Companies?”

“Uh, gangs, I guess. In military terms, a group of around a hundred soldiers is usually referred to as a company. Anyways, I need to go around and talk to the others. Make sure you don’t stand out on your way to the meeting spot.”

With that, Raul returned to the skies to find the next group of woodsmen. As they flew to their next destination, he examined Laval County, which straddled the river winding its way west out of the Azerlisian Marches.

“This one fails to understand,” Koro said.

“Understand what?”

“All of the assets required to foil our efforts are available in the area. Why do the local authorities insist on its continued deployment of ineffective units?”

What’s the right answer here…

For anyone aware of what was going on, it would be easy to say that the Nobles were just being stupid. That was only an offhanded description of the result, however, and not what led to it.

“They’re fighting a different battle than we are. To them, it was supposed to be a routine round of recruitment. We’re sowing chaos and eliminating their retainers whenever we can.”

“You appear to be planning under the assumption that they will continue to operate along those lines.”

“It’s what they know,” Raul shrugged. “No, that’s not quite right. It might be what they know, but it’s also what they want. They envision proper war as a battlefield where elite squadrons of cavalry led by Knights and Nobles reign supreme. Infantry only exists to tie up the enemy until thecavalry arrives.”

“Why would they resort to this paradigm?”

“At first, it was because it worked,” Raul said. “Cavalry is useful for fighting in Human territory. A mount makes up for the power and weight that a Human lacks against the races that they fight against, plus they can get people and things around pretty conveniently. Re-Estize’s Human neighbours all use Cavalry in one form or another.”

“Yet the other Human countries have advanced in various martial aspects relative to the Kingdom of Re-Estize, according to this one’s data.”

“You’re not wrong,” Raul replied. “I guess the main difference there is that Re-Estize is the most insular Human country in the region. That’s where their wanting things to be this way comes in. In their decadence, they jumbled up the reasons why things were the way that they were. Making things up to suit their preferences.”

“Should it not stand to reason that those who operate on groundless assumptions will inevitably be tested and found lacking?”

“Ideally, sure, but that’s not what happens in reality. A lot of the time, people don’t want competition. They want to keep things the way they are because they’re comfortable with what they have. Change is scary, whether you’re a Farmer, a Blacksmith, or a Noble, so people will make it so that change doesn’t happen. By doing that, they fence themselves into a ‘reality’ where everything they want to be true is true for everyone who’s trapped inside.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Cavalry is considered supreme in Re-Estize because military strength is the central pillar of aristocratic power. Proper martial training requires time and resources that most people don’t have. Only the rich can afford to use Horses for warfare. Only Nobles can maintain regiments of armsmen, squads of cavalry, and the Knights to lead them. It’s a self-perpetuating system that results in what appear to be self-evident truths to the people involved. ‘Groundless assumptions’ aren’t tested: they’re reinforced to the point that they become common sense.”

Historically speaking, the only true test of Re-Estize’s flawed military doctrine was its rivalry with the Baharuth Empire, but the Empire was too smart to draw any attention to it. If anything, they made the problem worse. When it had been Raul’s family’s turn to contribute to the levy some years ago, his grandfather had gone and returned with stories about baking in the sun with pike in hand while the Nobles paraded about day after day in an attempt to display their ‘honour’ and ‘prowess’ to everyone who cared to pay attention. By the end of it all, there had been very little in the way of fighting, but the Nobles left with proud, self-satisfied looks.

Back then, it had just been an interesting tale to him – indeed, everyone in his village received it the same way. After beginning his studies as a Commander under Lady Zahradnik, it would be generous to say that his opinion of how Re-Estize handled its military affairs was ‘less than impressed’.

It took until the afternoon of the next day to contact all of the woodsmen under his command. After that, he and Koro flew over to shadow Count Laval’s men, who had departed from Re-Blumrushr that same morning. Laval’s men arrived in Laval County’s central town the day after that, but, for whatever reason, didn’t immediately depart to do their lord’s bidding.

And that makes it about three days until the Sorcerous Kingdom confirms its war with Re-Estize.

Three days of mitigating the damage that Lord Laval’s men could inflict upon the people. The other Nobles with the means to act against their subjects would have barely arrived in their own fiefs by the time the Sorcerous Kingdom’s forces swept across Re-Estize. If he managed to keep things under control, then his mission would be accomplished with the best possible outcome.

Evening fell with no sign of further movement from Laval’s men, who appeared to have settled into the local inns and taverns of the county’s town for the night. Whether it was out of laziness or habit, he couldn’t tell, but it bought the time he needed to get about half of Countess Beaumont’s men into position near the villages around the town before dawn. As the sun peeked out from behind the nearby Azerlisia Mountains, Koro’s voice roused him from his study of the landscape below.

“The designated targets are on the move.”

Raul turned his attention to the town. From their altitude, he couldn’t tell who the Count’s men were until they formed into distinct columns at each of the settlement’s gates.

“They appear to be dividing their forces,” Koro noted. “Will we be employing the same tactics as before?”

“That depends on how many parties they split into,” Raul replied. “Before, they expected to be able to tell people to report for the levy. Now, they’re here to kill them.”

The average armsman in Re-Estize wasn’t that much stronger than the average Farmer, so they would probably go around in groups large enough to deter potential retaliation from fed-up villagers. There were also the vagrants who had crossed into the fief from the northern territories, many of whom had taken refuge with those charitable enough to host them.

Thirty minutes later, the original two columns had divided into a total of eight, each led by a Knight whose banner hung limply in the rain. The nearest farming villages were roughly ten kilometres from the town, giving Raul about two hours to prepare his response. It would still be a challenge to manage, however, as all but two of the columns would arrive at their respective villages at roughly the same time.

“I need to issue orders,” Raul said. “Let’s start from the north and go clockwise from there.”

The Skeletal Dragon banked to fly north along the road leading out of the town. Raul projected his voice into a copse not far from the first village along the route.

『Laval’s men are on their way. One mounted Knight leading two dozen armsmen on foot, eight kilometres from the village. Wake your guys up and ready your ambush.』

He continued contacting his troops as the Skeletal Dragon flew over the countryside, repositioning those who weren’t along the routes of Laval’s men. By the time they were back over the first group, the approaching column had come within three kilometres of the village.

Ten against twenty-five. This should be our win…

The road that the Knight was following skirted the copse on its way to the cottages beyond. It wouldn’t just be a win: it would be a one-sided one.

『You should be able to see Laval’s men by now. Put them down as they pass your position. Don’t let the Knight escape.』

Raul tapped his fingers on his thigh as the mail-clad column crept its way forward. Without another Commander or at least a Mage among his troops, he couldn’t even be certain about what they were doing. All he knew was that they were hidden in the copse somewhere, hopefully following his orders.

Five armsmen collapsed. Confused shouts of alarm filtered up through the rain. Three more armsmen fell before the Knight stopped and wheeled his mount to see what was going on behind him. As he did, he was thrown off his horse into the mud. The Knight was down to six armsmen before they figured out where the arrows were coming from and raised their shields in the right direction. Another crumpled onto the road as an arrow got past his defence anyway.

Now, it’s ten against six.

“Cowards!” The Knight roared as he pushed himself to his feet, “Show yourselves!”

An arrow bounced off the Knight’s pauldron. Another glanced off his helmet. The Knight brandished his longsword and charged the treeline.

“Laval! For Laval and the March!”

The remaining armsmen joined the Knight in his charge, shields and sidearms raised.

『Spread out. There’s no reason to fight them in melee. Take them down when it’s safe to do so.』

“Koro, bring us lower so we can see what’s happening in there.”

Curse-laden challenges – some of which didn’t make any sense – grew louder as the Skeletal Dragon descended. A woodsman occasionally appeared in the chaos, harassing the Knight and his armsmen while retreating through the rows of coppiced trees. Being denied a ‘fair’ fight only seemed to infuriate Laval’s men even further, right up to the point when a branch as thick as Raul’s arm whipped out of the carpet of dead leaves and sent the Knight flying through the air.

Oh, yeah. I forgot Rangers could do that.

The armsmen stopped to stare at the figure of their fallen leader. Less than three seconds later, they were all dead. Raul released a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding.

“Koro, let’s get to the next column.”

『Good job. Hide the bodies in the copse. Take what you can use, but don’t overburden yourselves.』

Raul wiped the rain from his face as the Skeletal Dragon sped away to its next destination. The first battle of the day had gone more smoothly than expected, but not every confrontation would have a copse conveniently located nearby.

The next battlefield was one such circumstance. Every village had a copse, but the one in question cultivated theirs further up the valley. As a result, the woodsmen here had to make do with a drainage ditch dug along the edge of the village’s territory. Just like the previous group, Raul only had a vague idea of where they were.

Their opponents, a column of similarly equipped men as before, trudged their way towards the bridge spanning the ditch. The wooden structure was of simple construction, consisting of layers of long planks that allowed wagons to cross the gap. Aside from the bridge and the ditch it crossed, there was nothing more than winter fields divided by the occasional windbreak.

『The column’s almost at the bridge. Get ready to hit them as they cross.』

Once again, the only answer he received was the sound of the wind and rain. He watched intently as the column closed with the bridge, its members clutching their mantles close to keep out the cold and the wet.

A startled neigh cut through the air, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood. The Knight and his mount joined the fragments of the bridge at the bottom of the ditch: fragments which had broken far too cleanly to be the result of an accident.

Looks like they sabotaged the bridge.

The front ranks of the column rushed to the edge of the crossing to see what had happened. The remainder went to assist their leader, stepping carefully down the grassy inclines on either side of the road. It was the handful who came down the side nearest to the woodsmen who were the first to fall. The rest of the column didn’t notice.

“Are these units defective?” Koro asked.

“Not everyone responds to attacks on nearby allies like summons do,” Raul answered. “Most people don’t. Between the weather, the broken bridge, and the way they’re splitting up, it’s hard for them to know something’s going on unless it’s happening right next to them.”

Another volley of arrows flew out from the reeds carpeting the ditch. This time, shouts of alarm sounded as the men overlooking the scene were struck down and nearly fell upon their allies below.

Chaos ensued. Some armsmen held their shields over their heads as they waded forward to reach the Knight in the water. Most retreated to find cover. A few simply fled, nearly falling over themselves as their feet slipped upon the muddy route back to the town.

“Should we not order a pursuit?” Koro asked.

“They won’t get far,” Raul answered. “Beastman hunters ran circles around the Royal Army in similar weather. Those armsmen won’t be able to escape these Rangers.”

With Laval’s men pinned to their cover behind the broken bridge, the woodsmen started to emerge from the reeds. They split up into three groups: one staying put to keep the armsmen from moving, while the other two encircled their position from a distance. No calls for surrender were made once the woodsmen exposed their targets’ position: they merely put arrows into them until they stopped moving.

『Four escaped and are trying to get back to the town. I need a group to hunt them down. Everyone else, hide those corpses and stand by for new orders.』

Six men jogged off to pursue the column’s survivors. Given their pace, Raul guessed that it wouldn’t take more than ten minutes for them to catch up with their quarry.

“Koro, what’s the progress of the other columns?”

“Of the remaining enemy columns, three are engaged in combat, one has been defeated, one is searching for a way around its flooded route, and one has reached its destination.”

Raul’s grip tightened on one of the Skeletal Dragon’s ‘ribs’.

“Which column got through?”

“The one following the road west above the river.”

“Take us there.”

He bit his lip as the Skeletal Dragon banked and assumed a westward course. It was the column furthest from the woodsmen’s initial rendezvous point, and so it was the most likely to reach its target before it could be intercepted.

“Where are the troops we assigned to that column?” Raul asked.

“They appear to be on standby five hundred metres from the periphery of the village,” the Elder Lich answered.

“What happened to their ambush? Did they arrive late?”

“Affirmative.”

“What is the column doing now?”

“Villagers are being gathered in the central area of the settlement. This one is unable to discern the purpose of the action.”

“They’re probably going to make an example of the households whose men fled,” Raul said. “But that might not go the way Laval’s men want.”

The effectiveness of his initial strategy was starting to work against him. Re-Estize was a land of many superstitions, one of which was the nonsensical notion that the Undead were capable of consuming or imprisoning one’s soul. One’s soul was obviously far more important than one’s mortal existence, so the logical response to the idea of being conscripted to fight a war with the Sorcerous Kingdom – which they believed was a nation of Undead and Demons – was to run away.

By the same token, Count Laval’s decision to punish those who only wanted to avoid a fate worse than death wouldn’t sit well with the villagers. Raul wasn’t certain how far the villagers would go to protest what they considered unfair treatment, but it was unlikely that Count Laval’s men would respond to any sort of opposition kindly.

“We need to get there faster,” Raul said. “I don’t think this is going to end well.”

The Skeletal Dragon angled down slightly, picking up speed as the flew high over the river flowing towards the Kingdom’s heartlands. A frown pulled at Raul’s lips as he made out a plume of inky smoke through the sheets of rain ahead of them.

“That’s too big to be from a hearth,” he said. “What’s going on down there?”

“Members of the target column have set one of the village buildings on fire,” Koro replied. “Judging from the reaction of the villagers, its inhabitants are still inside.”

Raul’s frown deepened. The only explanation he could come up with was that Laval’s men were trying to burn out the people they were evicting. It was an astonishingly stupid idea, however. Villagers hated arsonists and any that they caught tended to be lynched before they could face judgement from an official. Anyone who put a village at risk by purposely setting buildings on fire would be looked upon poorly, even if it happened to be raining.

Figures in the crowd gestured urgently as the blaze quickly grew. The armsmen formed a defensive line, putting themselves between the villagers and the burning building. The Knight’s deep voice echoed up at Raul as he spoke down at the villagers from atop his horse. Raul couldn’t make out what the Knight was saying, but his arrogant, authoritative tone required no translation.

The armsmen twisted around as a woman burst out of the burning home, cradling a baby in her arms. A scream pierced the air as the nearest armsman stepped forward and shoved her back inside.

Ah hell.

A Farmer rushed forward, clubbing the armsman in the back of the head. One of the armsmen next to him buried his arming sword in the Farmer’s gut. The Knight shouted something as he drew his sword and started slashing at any villager who came within reach.

The crowd erupted into a panic. Men rushed to grab nearby farming tools while women fled with their children in hand. Rocks pelted the Knight, but that only served to infuriate the plate-clad warrior as he rallied his retinue to him.

High above the growing chaos, Raul stared, aghast, at the unfolding scene. He may have handily completed his mission in the Azerlisian Marches, but he had a feeling that the outcomes of his actions were still far from resolving themselves.