Chapter 249 - Royal Future

Note : Chapter 250 and 251 have been written and added to the queue. Also holy FUCK is patreon unusable on my end, typing this is tortutre, there's a fifteen second input delay, literally I saw it started being written as I'm ending a sentence.

Chapter 249

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

City of Rebirth

"Our ships will proceed towards Darthar as soon as the So Much For Subtlety has finished her sky trials." Several of the councilors chuckled at the name, even if it was a little forced, and Alexandra smiled. "The name for that vessel is apt. Very apt."

"Any capital ship is hardly subtle." Commented Willard.

"This one less so than others. It's a siege ship."

There was a short silence, before Melia frowned as the dark elf tilted her head.

"I'm sorry, but how will it besiege anything? I did not see any guns. Wouldn't your Corsairs be better for the job?"

"That's because the Culture-class siege vessels do not use conventional artillery. They are ballistic missile boats."

"You're going to need a lot of missiles, if you're using the ones you've already deployed." Said Anders, the commander shrugging as Alexandra's gaze shifted towards him. "No offense."

"None taken. Those missiles were optimized for air superiority and defense. Not bombardment. They're positively anemic compared to the new ones."

"How powerful are they?"

"One ton TNT equivalent payload." Thank the Gods for that actually being used as a unit of measurement on Alcheryos, despite TNT being remarkably rare, even amongst the more advanced nations, thanks to superior alchemical alternatives. Or rather, she should probably thank her fellow extradimensionals, just like for the people here using the metric system or speaking standard english.

There was another, profound silence.

"Big missiles." Finally said Anders. "How many per ship?"

"Six hundred, with six rapid fire missile launchers, approximately ten minutes to fully unload."

This time there wasn't a silence, because Willard was hyperventilating, and Anders started to laugh.

"You are utterly incapable of thinking small, are you lady Crystal?"

"I admit I am sometimes guilty of a bit of megalomania."

"Ah!" The guard commander slapped the table. "Yes, yes you do! And our enemies will drown in their own blood because of that." Anders gave the twins a look. "Errr…"

"No, we understand." Said Eismi, looking even more tired than Alexandra had ever seen her. "This is war. Lady Crystal already managed to rescue several innocents, it is…much more than we could have realistically hoped for. And the slaves that died at her hands are nothing compared to those butchered serving as their masters' meatshields. Besides, after talking to them…death would be a mercy."

Alexandra winced.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"I know." There was something…else in the twin's voice, like…failure? And guilt?

Why would they feel guilty?

Willard cleared his throat, clearly trying to change the subject.

"I must admit, lady Crystal, your new golems are most impressive."

"Thank you. They're brand new, a type I developed recently." Or rather, Ghost did, and Emilia put in the finished touches.

"New technology?"

"New arcana."

After analyzing her first engagement with the Republic's airborne convoys and their arcane ammunition, she had started experimenting in earnest with active cooling systems for enchantments, and found ways to improve her golems without having to resort to high tech. Problem was, it was expensive. Too much to be worth distributing to her general forces. But it still allowed her to make a handful of golems that really packed a punch. Figured it would come in handy if she needed to get her hands dirty, and in the meantime…

Well, the enemy didn't have to know these were too expensive to be worth using on a large scale, so might as well show off to everyone and make them sweat a bit.

Given what she was planning with Darthar, making her allies in the Kingdom a bit more afraid of her would be a welcome bonus too.

She was also working on trying to make some kind of arcane power armor, but it was easier said than done, to say the least.

"I see…" Said Willard. "Well, it is good to see new weapons in the fight against our enemies."

"Quite. Speaking of, the So Much For Subtlety will undertake its commissioning trials in the coming day, then immediately set sail for Darthar. I've heard that the situation isn't critical yet, but steadily getting there."

Melia winced, and the dark elf shrugged as Alexandra glanced at her.

"You're right. They're holding, but it's getting there. There's simply…so many bodies they're willing to throw at the walls."

Anders nodded.

"They seem to believe that they need to trade troops for time."

Eismi grimaced bitterly.

"That, and they don't believe it matters. Once they have the city, they'll enslave the population, and we'll be back to square one, except they'll be behind the shields."

Silence descended upon the room. It was…not a comfortable thought, to say the least.

Allya, who had kept more or less quiet so far, got up.

"Then we'll make sure it never gets to that." There was an edge of finality to her words, and everyone nodded. None of them even looked dubious, though that was probably thanks to Alexandra's demonstration of force. "Let's get to it people. We have oathbreaking slavers to defeat!"

Everyone cheered, and Alexandra faded into the background, content to let the baroness regain the spotlight.

Plus…she was reluctant to admit it, but the young noble was probably a better leader than her. No, scratch that, the former assassin was a natural born leader.

It was just taking her time to fully return to what Alexandra guessed had been her old self.

*****

"Milady, we have a priority message from our contacts in the UDC." Said Seraph, and Alexandra blinked, looking up from the plans she had been working on.

The fourth floor might be far from as profitable an endeavor as another step would be, but it was a passion project both for her and CQ. Had her deal with Allya not been effectively moot at this point, she would have probably been doing more support for it, but, well, they were full allies now. No need for undercover deals for artillery as loot in exchange for metals, whatever they thought they could get away with was 'stolen' by Alexandra's stealth golems, or just transferred outright, and the dungeon core could just ship the guns directly to Allya. If she was doing it with the Republic, she sure as hell could do it with her ally after all.

Besides, at this point she could use the warehouse space, and Allya could start training her people on the new guns right away, with no fear of running out of ammo.

She looked at the AI's golem, raising an eyebrow. At this point, her friends within the dying organization had given up on pretenses, and just started sending stuff directly to her rather than to her advisor. Though they still took some precautions to maintain plausible deniability for the vampires passing the communications along.

"Decrypted it?"

"Yes milady."

"Then go ahead. Summarize."

"An Erisian battlefleet is set to arrive in Gorromar within the day. That fleet has been deployed under secret orders, but possibly to intervene in the war."

Alexandra froze.

"WHAT?!?"

*****

"Can't sleep?" Elker Umbrar, third of his name, duke of the city of Asaria, regent of the great plains, shield-master of the bulwark against the wasteland, and by the grace of the Gods and the council of nobles, king of the Asarian Kingdom, said as his wife leaned against the balcony's railing.

Elais shook her head, and he sighed as he joined her, looking at the lights beyond the walls, shining in the night.

Once, those would have been the houses and industry beyond the ramparts, where the city had expanded beyond it's architects' vision or capacity to adapt.

Now it showed the bonfire of Sunrise, built amongst the ruins.

He waited, patiently. He knew his wife would speak, open up.

It only took a handful of minutes this time.

"We failed them." She said, softly.

"Maybe." Admitted Elker. "We did all we could."

"But it wasn't enough. We should…we should have seen this coming."

"No one had expected those brands. We had accounted for everything, even the Republic arming them." It hadn't been pleasant news, but it hadn't been a surprise either, when that particular tidbit had reached them. Thankfully, before the duchy rose in revolt. "We are not Gods. We cannot see the future. Hell, even the divines couldn’t, or they would have foreseen the Great Night."

The queen nodded softly, as she stayed silent for a few seconds.

"Do you think…we can win this?"

"I think that you are better positioned to answer this at this point."

"No. You are. Our victory is no longer a question of military strength. It is a question of diplomacy. We cannot win this. Rebirth, its baroness and its dungeon core, can."

"I…" The King sighed, and turned around, leaning his back against the railing. "I don't know. I think, think, that the baroness will stay true to her oaths."

"But?"

"But it will come with a price. If nothing else, if she pulls it off she won't be a minor noble anymore."

"She'll be a duchess."

"Or maybe our first archduchess in three hundred years. Yes. And a great noble…"

"Needs great domains." The queen hesitated. "Philia…"

"Is absolutely right. We need to make them our allies, not our enemies. And yes, that means giving up the southern reaches which…damn it, we'd have lost anyway! Might lose still, if only for it to be reconquered by Rebirth."

"What if they don't stop? Continue their march north?"

"I hope they will, we need their forces to break the siege here."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I know…" The King sighed again. "Nothing is ever certain, but I don't think now would be the right time, even if Allya was planning that. If she just marches on the capital and crowns herself Queen, the whole kingdom will fall apart."

"Use our own legitimacy as a shield then?"

"Something like that." The King looked away, briefly. He…didn't need to bother his wife about his suspicions. Like that the dungeon was using the baroness for legitimacy. Some things were better left unspoken. "If we give her greater territories, they will comply. Manson won't like it, but he'll swallow it." If nothing else, the duke of Sarth knew a lost fight when he saw one. Which spoke volumes of his decision to stand by his oaths and fight besides Rebirth. "That is, if we don't make him her vassal. That…would actually allow everyone to save face."

"How?"

"Allya is going to swallow Darthar. I'm no one's fool, Erakis is only the first step. She's trying to secure the trade routes. It's insane, but with the dungeon she'd actually got a chance of pulling it off. With a contiguous, zero tariffs, protected corridor through the wasteland? She'll actually stand a shot at dethroning the Gorromar routes."

"They won't like that."

"No, they won't. But they're also very pragmatic people. They won't do anything stupid. I hope. But Allya is going to take Darthar, no matter what we do. We can either give her the city by taking it from Manson…"

"Or we give her the entire damned duchy."

"Bingo."

"Will Manson swallow that?"

"Manson?" Elker laughed out loud. "Honey, if Allya wasn't head over heels and engaged with her knight, he'd be offering his daughter's hand in marriage. Shit, I'd probably be offering her Urys'!"

Elais chuckled. Urys was his brother's daughter. They themselves didn't have any children, not yet. With the war with Sunrise on the horizon, eventually…

Securing the line of succession was already done by his siblings. They could wait to bring their own children into this world once the blood had stopped flowing and the horrors receded.

"Your brother might object to that."

"Semiran would be ecstatic. Right now his daughter is the backup to the throne, and he knows that she'll probably never inherit the crown. He knows she's ambitious, and has aspirations too. Marrying her to, let's face it, the soon to be second most powerful noble in the kingdom, one that is poised to rise even higher still, perhaps by leading further conquest into the Republic? He'd be bouncing with excitement."

"And Urys?"

"She swings both ways, and Allya has proven time and time again how much she cares for those under her care. Let alone for her own knight. Plus, you know her wonderlust. Combine that with her ambition, and marrying an Erisian Knight-Valiant, exiled from the Empire, and former adventurer? She'd be less than opposed to the idea, though their personalities might clash."

"I suppose that's fair." The Queen leaned back from the railing, the light briefly catching on the bandages covering half of her face, and indeed half of her whole body.

The retreat had taken its toll on her…and her abuse of health and stamina potions during it had taken its toll. It had allowed her to get a larger portion of her army than anyone could have dreamed of back home safely, but there were consequences.

"Ready to go to bed?"

"Yes." She gave one last look at the lights beyond the walls. "We'll have another busy day tomorrow."

"Quite. And-"

The knock on the door made them both turn to face the glass pane. They weren't especially worried about assassins, both wore shield generator belts as a matter of course, and the balcony itself was enchanted and engraved with runes, containing its own bag of tricks, but they still tensed a bit.

They relaxed as their old adventuring companion and bodyguard opened the door.

"Yes Dominic?" Said the King.

"My apologies for interrupting your majesties." They both stiffened. They literally had to teach him court protocol, the old adventurer otherwise couldn't have even bowed to save his own life. Which meant that something was wrong. "We have received word than an Erisian airfleet has arrived in Gorromar."

"...Fuck." The Queen looked at her husband quizzically, and the King shook his head. "There's only one person they could be here for."