RD 4 Ch 39

I woke up the next morning both spent and refreshed in a way I hadn't realized I needed. This was why, after Simone's antics, I ended up taking Nyx both with and without legs several times, proving to her in every imaginable way that there was no significant preference between the two. My preference was simply her. I then reminded Gloria of who was in charge before spending the late morning cuddling Simone and finding the most casual places for her antics to continue. In the end, I found myself smiling as I kicked off my morning of meetings.

I was pulling up with the leaders of the Mul Branova, the generals, and their advisors.

"There is going to be a slight change of plans," I said, looking over the group. "We've been training nonstop, and the broader group is starting to get antsy. We can run them through as many instances as we want. That'll certainly get them levels, but it won't give them the experience they really need, which means it's time to get them experience."

Simone's head jerked up from where she'd been whispering to one of the Mul Branova that often came and went from her presence. "Wait, we're going to war?" She asked.

"No, that would be a little more extreme than what I'm planning. I want us to deploy four of our forces in the north, four in the central region, and four in the south. We’ll sweep for demon forces to the east, I have no doubt we'll encounter some given the scouting reports. How many remains to be seen, but this will be a live exercise. Each of you generals will be in charge of stopping their elite. If you want to protect them, find leaders for each ten man unit to try and cover. For the others, you've all organized them your own way, or not at all." I glanced at the monk, who even at this hour had a drink in hand and had zero compunction, slurping in the middle of the meeting.

"Isn't this a little early?" Winnie asked, though she was the most prepared having brought a number of women from her sect.

"I'd rather you all go out now, sweep the field and get a few small wins under their belts before we have a huge engagement, one that will undoubtedly cause us to lose forces. Besides, I think we should start showing our teeth with all of the noise we've been doing. I think it's impossible for the demons to be completely unaware of our presence. You all have rockie-talkies. We'll have our scouting units doing sweeps and updating everyone that remains here. If you do find a massive force that you end up engaging in a fight bigger than you can take, the reinforcements won't be far away. The goal is to sweep, let the demons know we have teeth, and most importantly, brush off the green from the new recruits. Do I make myself clear?" I glanced out over those in the room.

"Understood." Several of the advisors snapped a salute. All of them were more familiar with the chain of command than the powerful initiated.

The generals were initially rebelling at the idea of being told to go fight. However, my troublemakers took one look at me and nodded.

"Well then, dismissed," I said, walking away from my group.

"Are they that good?" Circe caught me as I left the room.

"Who? What?" I asked in response.

"Your ladies. Were they that good?" Circe was nursing a cup of coffee early in the morning. "I mean, I assume after the big date that you and your three had a fair amount of fun."

"What fun we did or did not have isn't for me to say. But I had a very pleasant evening and I woke up with a much clearer mind." I answered.

"The best defense is a good offense," Circe hazarded.

"We're over-preparing. We need to do something with all this training or these recruits are going to start to burn out or slack off. We give them a little experience and, yes, we might even lose a few. But that's going to give them the motivation to turn around and complete any training we have yet to do." I explained. You could only keep people on edge for so long before the edge was worn off.

Circe nodded in understanding. "That makes sense. And since you're sending everyone out, I assume that means the Mul Branova are going to babysit the base. We’re the emergency response team?”

I turned to her. “Are you okay with that? I could certainly use a second set of eyes. And you and Merlin are far more mobile than the rest of us."

Circe nodded with satisfaction. "I'm glad you realize that. And, Bran, for our date, I hope I walk away with as much of a glow as Simone and Nyx have this morning." She was trying to keep me off balance.

"Right. You didn't give me a date for that," I remembered to follow up.

"I didn't? Huh. I'll get on that soon," she said and turned away from the direction I was walking.

I half wondered if I was supposed to chase after her, but dismissed it for now. Sending people to battle meant I had just filled my plate with a lot of work, and I didn’t have time for any games.

Things could get away from me if I wasn’t prepared.

I headed straight to our little scouting division that consisted of three personal manning much of it, all with abilities to control flying animals or monsters. "I need updated maps, ASAP. You'll have the generals and their advisors sweeping in here within ten minutes."

One of them snapped away from the ability they were using. Their eyes had been glowing softly white, but were now wide with fear.

"Sooner now," I said, turning my wrist over as if checking a watch before glancing at the map.

The main map that they worked off of was kept clean to avoid marking it up. We had made a large number of little wooden figurines, each to mark the enemy forces and our own. Our fortress was dead center of the map. The outlying territory of the west was largely clear with a few markers for instances that we used. There was another marker for an S-ranked monster that I had left alive, hoping he would have some offspring and fill the forest with more things that our troops could use.

To the east, however, were scattered dots representing demon scoutings. There were also black tokens where the animals they were using to scout were shot down before they could confirm what had killed the animals.

Largely those were considered more dangerous areas if they could detect and kill the birds before they even knew what they were fighting.

"Where are we attacking?" one of the scouts asked, quickly pulling up a fistful of tokens, ready to mark the maps.

"Generals one through four will sweep this region," I gestured with a finger. "Five through eight this. Nine through twelve here."

They were quickly placing tokens down. "All of them?" they asked, almost in unison.

"We'll leave a reserve of the Mul Branova for the fort," I said. There were always a number of Mul Branova that had been trained and had gotten levels, but weren't incorporated into any of the standing armies. It was more correct to say they were Simone's personal army. The more we worked, the less we involved the Mul Branova with the armies, keeping them separate for our own purposes.

Those at the scouting area quickly laid out tokens and looked amongst each other. "We'll split up. I'll take scouting for the north, you for the central, and you for the south." They quickly began organizing themselves, even as the advisors all swarmed into the room, looking at the map and picking up sheets that had more expanded details on what they'd found. 

"There's not that much here," one of the advisors said. 

"There isn't now, but I guarantee if you move through, your army will be like honey to the demon's flies. They're very hierarchical, and you can bet one of them's going to think they can sweep in and take out your entire army to use them for possession fodder and rise up the ranks."

The advisor scowled at me. "Do you not have any way to prevent that? The possession?" 

"Not cheap enough to cover your entire army," I said, before handing out stacks of talismans. "However, this can stun a demon during possession. If you have a Mul Branova with you, they might be able to create one of those blood simulacrums and send it into their heads, hopefully to deal with the demon." 

The advisors picked up those talismans like they were some sort of fragile art piece worth more than their entire lives.

"We will take great care of these and see if we can’t hire a Mul Branova or two for the mission." One of the retired generals bowed in my direction and put them in their spatial ring, watching to see if I was going to take them away.

If Simone allowed them to go out then that was fine. Not only could they stop the possessions, but they were decent healers having an ability similar to my Blood Transfusion. Though I rarely seemed to need that ability myself, healing others was rarely my priority.

"Good. While you may not get the title general within these forces, I want you all to know your opinions are highly respected. Those that you are sent to advise have the kind of personal power needed to lead. However, if despite that and your advice, they are less capable than you think is worth working with, please inform me after this exercise. It's not just a trial for the recruits, but for everyone involved." 

Winnie walked in the room as I said those words and gave me a raised eyebrow. “Is this secret information?”

"You get the information if you come to the meeting where there's information." I gestured at the map and then at the advisors who were lacking any of the other generals at present. 

"Noted," Winnie said, frostily. "I came to confirm the intelligence myself." She breezed across the room, and I gave her a wide berth, as did all of the other advisors, save for her own.

Power was rightly respected. Every day I could see people’s personally abilities becoming a more prominent signal of power. Rarely were people trying to strut any monetary or political power that used to be held.

Some slight conflict with the nearest governance had been dealt with firmly enough that no one else seemed to think they could influence our little fortress. Or at least not yet.

"While you're out there, you are in charge of your people. Make what calls you think best, and if things go too badly, call Merlin. Our goal is to get everyone experience. Part of getting experience is understanding where your weaknesses are, preferably without losing everyone involved, so that experience can be passed on. Each of you have your own rocky talkies. Don't let your general get out of hand. When you are finished collecting your things, you are dismissed," I said to the group, only for more salutes to slap their foreheads as they scurried out, with the shuffling of papers back into stacks to be left here. 

Winnie glanced at the information one more time, turning to leave. But she paused, waiting for the room to empty.

"I want you to know that I think this is dangerous, just as you are getting information on them from these three." She gestured at the three with the ability to communicate with animals. "The other side is likely getting information from you. Everything in your information packets suggests that these demons likely understand large scale warfare, probably even better than our advisors. Not to mention, their ability to possess humans means that even if they are physically weak, they might be tactically far more sound than us with greater numbers. This is rash, and you are exposing all of these recruits to more danger than is necessary." 

"What’s your alternative?" I asked her, staring her down.

“Send just one or two forces, with a large support of generals or other elites.” She replied.

“No can do. We won't be there for the real thing, and too much for them to rely on will make them complacent. Dismissed, Winnie. I think you have troops to prepare." I told her.

She was too risk adverse, we needed these recruits tempered and if you were too gradual it would only make the end result soft.