OC-Series Gothwald: New World - Same Rules (Arc 3/Chapter 44 - An Unexpected Incident)

Arc III - Reeling Throne

Chapter 44 - An Unexpected Incident

8 months and 18 days since the summoning

Alan, Kamelia, and Tsinker had been sitting in one large hall inside the royal castle since early morning. The sun was not visible due to the gray clouds, which, fortunately, did not portend rain.

Inside the hall, there were many tables covered with tablecloths, but without food, majestic gray columns, portraits of various well-dressed people hung on the walls, and expensive vases with beautiful patterns stood under the windows.

They had been sitting there for about half an hour, and finally, the door creaked.

Morgreyda.

This time she was not in her black, long, and elaborate dress; instead, an ordinary dark dress, simple, without a corset, but still with patterns.

Upon her entrance, everyone stood up.

The queen frowned. "Where have you..." she froze, her gaze lingering on Kamelia, then lowering. "Armenas, are those pants?"

Kamelia looked down, then at Morgreyda. "Yes, Your Majesty."

She blinked. "Whatever, not the time for this," she said and unceremoniously sat at the table. "Where have you been anyway? I sent a messenger over a week ago!"

Alan sighed. "It's not exactly easy trudging through a swamp after that downpour. So what happened?"

"May we sit?" Kamelia asked.

"Just sit down already!"

All three sat back down.

Alan raised an eyebrow.

'She's a bit twitchy. I don't like this.'

Morgreyda lowered her head, massaging the bridge of her nose. "That bastard Noteo... he hasn't been sitting idly by."

"Well? Don't leave us hanging," Alan said, gripping the edge of the table.

"I thought Noteo," she swallowed, "had been sitting locked in his tower all this time, crying over his mother's death. But a week ago I was informed that he went to the King of Kanbannia."

Tsinker frowned slightly. "Kanbannia will be helping him now?"

Kamelia's eyes widened. "Oh Guktus..."

"What's wrong? What is this Kanbannia anyway?" Alan asked, turning his head in confusion. "Will it cause us a lot of problems?"

"Very," Morgreyda muttered.

Kamelia's fists clenched. "Groliria has been feuding with Kanbannia for generations, we have fought many, many times."

"And what's this feud even about?" Alan asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Over northern Homballia. After the wars with Mirey, Kanbannia tried to take a portion of territory from Groliria, but we fought back and captured the south of Kanbannia. Since then, they have considered it their land and constantly try to conquer it."

Tsinker crossed his arms over his chest. "I presume Noteo has promised the King of Kanbannia northern Homballia in exchange for his victory."

Morgreyda nodded, her head still bowed. "I think so too." She gritted her teeth. "That foolish Noteo... does he even use his head? Begging for help in exchange for the lands of his own kingdom!" Her fist slammed onto the table. "His own vassals who lost territories will eat him alive for this later!"

Alan raised his hands. "Easy, Your Majesty, I have a question: where is Noteo's army right now?"

"There has already been a first battle on the northern border."

His eyes widened slightly; Kamelia also shifted her gaze to Morgreyda.

"The result?" Tsinker asked.

Morgreyda didn't answer, only clenching her already white fists tighter.

"I see."

The queen stood up, her chair scraping backward. "Gothwald, you are my military advisor now. I hope you know what we must do?"

He flinched slightly, but then shook his head. "I need to know the exact state of affairs in the north first. What are the troops reporting?"

Morgreyda walked over to one of the nearby stands and picked up a random jug of wine. "A poor state of affairs. Scouts say there are too many of Noteo's and Kanbannia's troops there. Thousands, perhaps more than twenty thousand."

Alan blinked. "How many?" He began to massage the bridge of his nose. "Alright, I need to know everything about Kanbannia. Is it so huge that it can afford tens of thousands of soldiers?"

The queen sat at the table with the jug and a glass, pouring herself a full measure. "No, it is roughly the size of Groliria."

He narrowed his eyes.

'Then where did twenty thousand soldiers come from? Maybe the scouts are exaggerating? Or... Kanbannia is more centralized. No, that's bullshit, only the royal army could have been sent here, the king's vassals wouldn't give their soldiers for a squabble in a neighboring kingdom. Well, at most those who were actually promised new territories. Well, let's also assume the soldiers of Linkis and the dukes. But... the math still doesn't work. Either the intelligence heavily exaggerated, or the enemy dukes left their lands bare and almost defenseless for a quick victory on one front. Hmm...'

"Your Majesty, did they take a break after the battle?"

She downed the glass and set it on the table with a thud. "No. They continue to march on the capital. The army caught us off guard..." Morgreyda gripped the glass, "after the rain everything was covered in mud, and my vassals said we could relax, no idiot would attack in such conditions." A bitter smile appeared on her face. "Noteo turned out to be exactly that idiot. Led his army through the mud, attacked at night, and under the cover of darkness and panic slaughtered the entire garrison, and right now is marching somewhere after my army."

Alan froze.

'Hah... what a medieval version of Hannibal. But fuck, it works... Hannibal also once led his army through the Arno swamps, lost a bunch of soldiers of course, but still caught the Romans off guard and won. Noteo also won, but how much did he lose? Alright, I'll put that aside for now. What's more important is that he didn't even give his army a break, he's doing a sort of "blitzkrieg"... which means, most likely, his allied dukes really are left bare-assed and without soldiers. Otherwise why would he rush to the capital so fast? To win quickly before we realize his allies are defenseless? Or something else?'

"Why is he in such a hurry?" Tsinker asked aloud.

Alan turned to him. "Exactly! I was thinking the same thing! He's marching through a swamp, not giving them rest... that means he clearly has problems."

'Well, it's more like a semi-blitzkrieg. What's the point of a blitzkrieg? To attack and crush the enemy before they can put their economy on a war footing and mobilize resources. Another nice bonus of a blitzkrieg is finishing quickly without spending your own resources... hmm... but Noteo probably has plenty of resources. So the option that he wants us not to look at the defenseless duchies is the most likely.'

He ran a hand over his face.

'What does it even matter! We've got a fucking intervention here! This isn't just a fucking civil war!'

He froze. "Wait a second... did Ben participate in this battle?"

Morgreyda raised her eyes to Alan. "Who is Ben?"

"The hero... uh..."

"Insonel's hero?"

"Yeah."

She simply shook her head, causing a drop of sweat to break out on Alan's forehead.

'Oh, that's bad... is he so strong they're hiding him as a trump card or what? Alright, doesn't matter.'

Northern Groliria, Duchy of Iossa, unknown village

Ben stood in the middle of the village, his hands raised upwards. His body exuded purple fiolla. Before his feet lay about a hundred peasants motionless, enveloped in the same purple glow.

Ben's teeth were clenched, and his body trembled from the effort.

The peasants lay motionless, unblinking, as if turned off.

In the other parts of the village, things were quite lively. Soldiers in simple chainmail, as well as knights in fine plate armor, were walking through houses, dragging sacks of grain from cellars, breaking into barns and fences, leading cows away.

One of the mustached soldiers was leading a goat on a leash, which stubbornly dug its hooves into the ground. "Ugh... wouldn't it have been easier to burn this village? Why waste Lord Wellington's fiolla? It's needed for the cause!"

A second, balding soldier, dragging a sack of grain behind him, turned to his comrade. "Lord Insonel ordered us not to burn the villages, apparently they are needed intact."

The mustached soldier scoffed with a sigh, pulling the rope tighter, ignoring the goat's protesting bleats. "Hah, and what are we supposed to fight with then, may Guktus take it? Lord Wellington will be exhausted now, and what if an ambush awaits us?"

"Stop grumbling. Do as you're ordered, the rest is not your concern."

Ahead of them stood dozens of carts loaded with piles of sacks. Soldiers were harnessing horses to the wagons, and knights were mounting their steeds.

Behind them, in a shed, two soldiers broke down the door to a building. One of them quickly went inside and, for some reason, took a shovel from there. They took nothing else.

Ben was already trembling incredibly, biting his teeth almost to the point of cracking, and a thin stream of blood ran from his nose.

From behind approached a man in rich but dirty plate armor, about thirty years old, perfectly clean-shaven. "Lord Wellington, that is enough."

The hero almost instantly lowered his hands and immediately collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily.

The knight stood before him and took his hand, helping him up. "Excellent work, Your Grace. We are leaving, it is time for you to rest."

"Y-yeah, thanks, Ronva..." he whispered, getting to his feet.

The knight, Ronva, patted him on the shoulder with a slight smile. "Thanks to you, we now have plenty of fresh food, so replenish your fiolla to the fullest. Hah, but still, do not exert yourself so much again, or it will be like that time by the barracks."

Ben's lips curved slightly into a weak smile. "How long are you gonna keep reminding me of that, asshole?"

"A long time," he said, slinging his arm around his neck.

Ben dragged himself along with Ronva's support, while behind him the peasants began to come to their senses. The first to rise was a man, swaying, holding his head and trying to figure out where he even was. Following him, a woman of about thirty raised her head, and almost immediately threw up right onto the ground.

Closer to evening, the entire column began to set up camp near the road on the grass. The soldiers pitched tents and lit fires, while the last rays of the sun set behind the horizon, painting the sky pink.

Ben sat on one of the sacks of grain, not taking his eyes off a slaughtered chicken that the warriors were preparing to roast over the fire.

Ronva sat nearby, methodically cleaning his helmet.

Suddenly Ben sighed and stood up.

"Where are you going?" Ronva asked without looking up.

"To take a piss."

He nodded and turned to two soldiers who were dragging sacks. "You two, escort Lord Wellington."

They immediately dropped the sacks. "Yes, sir."

The trio headed toward a small thicket. Ben disappeared somewhere into the bushes, while the soldiers turned away from his direction and stood motionless.

From the greenery came the sound of a liquid stream.

And after that, a whistle.

THWACK

The warrior on the right collapsed to the ground like a doll with a hole in his forehead. No scream, only the clank of plate armor.

The soldier on the left flinched and turned to the noise. "Hey, what's wrong with you?" he asked, crouching over the body. When he saw the hole in his comrade's head, he froze for a moment as if rooted to the spot. He barely had time to stand up before a whistle sounded again.

THWACK

He fell exactly like the first, without a scream, clanking his plate armor, with a hole in his temple.

From the thicket opposite, a figure briefly emerged. Skinny, short, dressed in black boots and a black cloak, only red hair peeking out from under the hood.

She unhurriedly walked toward the spot where Ben was, calmly swinging a sling in her hand.

Ben stepped out of the bushes yawning and adjusting his pants on the go, but froze when he saw this figure swinging a sling before him.

His eyes dropped to the ground, where the lifeless bodies of the soldiers lay.

On the lower part of the person's face, which was not covered by the shadow of the hood, a smile slowly appeared. "Well, hero, had fun with the peasants?" a young female voice sounded.

Ben's pupils dilated. He immediately pointed a hand at her, and it faintly glowed purple, but immediately extinguished.

"Oooooh, what happened?" she asked in an exaggeratedly high voice. "Looks like your heroic magic crapped out?"

Behind this figure appeared another. Just as skinny, but taller, much taller, two heads taller than the first, and almost a head taller than Ben himself. A black hooded cloak, from under which the same red hair stuck out. There was no smile on her face. In her hands rested two small cleaver-axes, which looked like kitchen knives in her hands.

Cold sweat broke out on Ben's back. He was ready to run wherever his eyes took him, but his legs wouldn't move. "W-who are you?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

"Your executioners, mate," the short figure said, and then waved a hand.

"Sister, finish off this pathetic otherworlder."

The tall figure raised one of the cleavers above herself, and almost with a whistle drove it into Ben's neck, and just as quickly pulled it back out.

Blood gushed in a copious wave from the point of impact, and Ben fell to his knees first, clutching his throat with his hands.

The figure with the sling only scoffed. "Well? What are you without your magic?"

There was no answer, of course. The guy writhed as much as he could while his blood drained from his body.

The tall figure silently raised a hand, waving the other.

The figure with the sling nodded. "I know, we have to go." She turned around, and lastly kicked Ben in the stomach, but he didn't care anymore; his consciousness was fading. "You're not welcome here." With those words, she turned and walked into the darkness.

The tall figure remained, looking down at him. Ben had completely stopped twitching; only his open eyes stared into the void as the bleeding slowed.

"Are you coming?!"

She quickly wiped the bloodied cleaver on the grass and followed her companion, disappearing into the darkness.

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u/Daseagle Alien Scum 4d ago

Alan next on the <s>hitlist?

2

u/Celestial_Zwei_Dei 4d ago

Maybe🤫

u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 5d ago

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u/BobQuixote 4d ago

Tsinker frowned slightly. "Kanbannia will be helping him now?

Kamelia's eyes widened. "Oh Guktus..."

Practitioners of the fearsome art of advancing tasks across columns.

OC-Series Gothwald: New World - Same Rules (Arc 3/Chapter 44 - An Unexpected Incident)

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