Vol 4, Chapter 15

◆ Not far from the city of Eagle's Cliff, Erin von Klaus's POV. ◆

"My lady, it seems the city is intact. The enemy forces haven't reached it yet. Perhaps we should conserve our strength?" the knight addressed her with all due respect, raising his voice over the wind howling in their ears.

"No! Only a few kilometers left. The horses can handle it," Erin replied, spurring her steed forward.

"They might, but do you truly want to arrive at the city on lathered and exhausted horses? Is that the impression you wish to make?"

"Damn it," Erin muttered.

Eagle's Bluff had already appeared on the horizon. Judging by the absence of battle sounds, they had made it in time. Reluctantly, Erin pulled the reins, forcing her weary horse to slow to a walk.

Not out of concern for appearances... Better to arrive sweaty and tired than not at all. But since the battle hadn't started yet, it was wiser to slow down and recover. Just in case they had to jump into the fray immediately.

The horses began to slow, snorting with relief as they sucked in the cold air. The riders removed their helmets and drank from their flasks. In their haste, the unit had pulled several days ahead of their supply train. A unit of thirty knights had ridden ahead, while a hundred squires remained with the rear. Not enough to stand against Short's forces, but it was all she could spare.

"Thank you, my lady. The men are weary after riding nonstop for a full day," said the knight who had convinced her to slow down, removing his helmet and taking a drink.

Erin left the complaint unanswered. Ser Trey was clever enough, but entirely untrustworthy. He had come to the Third Duchy a few months ago, seeking service. Most branches of the Klaus family turned him away. It wasn't customary for nobles to employ someone who had abandoned a former liege. Erin, however, saw no need to turn him away. Even an unreliable man could be useful.

In fact, her entire unit consisted mostly of such men: those whose loyalty had begun to raise doubts... those who were simply too weak or lacked the resolve to fight against their battle brothers when the struggle for power begins. Sending them to the Condors was the perfect political move. It showed loyalty to allies and rid her of potential traitors.

When one can no longer trust long-time comrades bound by ties to the younger daughters of other branches, rejecting a former knight of Aluin seemed foolish. On the contrary, a man from the northern lands was guaranteed to be uninvolved in the tangled web of Third Duke succession intrigues. In a way, he was even more trustworthy, despite his past betrayal.

"Perhaps I should scout for a safe descent to the river? Once the horses cool down, we can water them," Ser Trey suggested.

"We'll use the city wells," Erin dismissed.

Who knew how close the enemy might be? It was better to make a proper stop inside the city.

"What is that... smell?" Trey suddenly wrinkled his nose.

A gust of wind hit them, bringing with it a stench that instantly overpowered even the reek of horse sweat.

Around the bend, just off the road, stood dozens... no, hundreds of crudely built wooden crates, each several meters long and high. Nearby was a wagon of manure. Several workers were shoveling its contents into the crates. Others were adding offal. One stood ready with a shovel of something white. Another cart held soil.

But the strangest part wasn't even that, or the buckets filled with something yellow. The oddest thing was the man dressed in the colors of House Condor, painting today's date on the crate with a brush.

Literate, clearly... but why was he working among peasants?

"Ser Trey, find out what they're doing," the noblewoman ordered, barely resisting the urge to spur her horse forward.

The knight soon caught up, wearing a baffled expression.

"He didn't give a straight answer. Just said the lord himself ordered it, even wrote instructions personally on how much and in what order to load the crates."

"Instructions? Tell me I imagined it, or were those buckets full of... urine?"

"They were, my lady. And there was also..."

"No. Enough. Spare me the details," Erin grimaced.

Randall's actions struck her as odd, even repulsive. Just imagining him writing the words "urine" or "dung" on parchment was hard to stomach. But she didn't rush to judgment. She wanted to believe there was a good reason behind his strangeness.

"What do you think, Ser Trey? Why would he order this?"

The knight scratched his head.

"It looks like compost piles. Peasants often heap waste together and spread it over the fields to make crops grow better. Crude, common work..."

"Ah. So he simply wants to ensure his subjects don't starve," Erin smiled in relief.

Everyone in the capital had heard about Condor buying up land. In that context, even such lowly matters as excrement made sense. After all, Randall was just giving the orders. He wasn't shoveling it himself.

Still, she'd have to hint to him later that a proper lord doesn't meddle in peasant affairs.

A lord's duty is to rule. A peasant's to grow crops and pay taxes. A wise man stays out of another's domain.

After all, stablehands don't try to wield swords and pretend to be lords.

But Erin immediately forgot the odd incident as their unit approached the city.

Moats. Cavalry barriers made of sharpened wooden stakes. Strange, spiked metal bushes... even stranger huts that looked like a geomancer had shaped them.

Erin von Klaus was stunned. These fortifications had so many flaws, she didn't even know where to begin!

"Take the moats, for example! They were so narrow any rider could easily leap over them at a gallop. So what's the point? Hoping a couple of unlucky fools break their horses' legs? They didn't even bother to conceal the moats. Who's going to fall for that?

Worse yet, judging by the heads of soldiers inside them... they were planning to defend from inside the moat. That... that's utter nonsense!

We need to widen the trench immediately and raise an embankment on the opposite side for the spearmen to hold. That way, they'll negate the riders' height advantage. Still, a trench and embankment isn't the best option. Instead of digging into the earth, they should have started building an earthen wall. Logs and soil would already make things much harder for enemy cavalry, helping to even the odds."

"Oh, Almighty..." Erin slapped her face. "Thank goodness I made it in time. Randall knows absolutely nothing about fortifications."

************

The hot air balloon had been set up in the square, and the bullet holes and tears it had suffered during transport were already patched. Overall, the first flight had gone fairly well...

At least we didn't crash and die. But to fly again, we'd need a proper safety line, not a rope. I don't want to watch my invention drift off with panicking soldiers aboard. I knew what to do in a crisis, but would they? I doubt it.

So, sitting beneath the awning in the city square, I was reforging scrap into a strong steel cable, while two workers manually turned a drum, winding the finished product into place.

Not exactly the most pressing task. As always, a mountain of work waited, but this simple, repetitive job helped clear my head and reflect on the current situation.

Was I right to let Kazimir live? It wasn't like I truly expected to use him as a bargaining chip. Marquis Short had already proven he only cared about himself.

And now the Younger Short had escaped.

Maimed some people, fortunately stopped short of killing. Sure, the healer could reattach the arms... but still.

Unpleasant.

I should have killed him and been done with it.

Especially considering the way he escaped. Townsfolk saw him racing through the city with a girl, then BAM, he vanished. The entire city was surrounded by troops and he hadn't passed through any checkpoint. Is he hiding somewhere inside? Or worse... did he know a secret exit?

The enemy could use that route.

We searched every crack in the area where they were last seen, but found nothing unusual.

All I could do in response was tighten discipline and recruit more soldiers.

While half the army stood guard and kept digging in, the other half practiced maneuvers, stabbed straw dummies with bayonets, and fired at lone trees whose trunks now resembled tattered cloth. A few more days and they'd fall over entirely, felled by repeated volleys.

In other areas, things were not great. Stern had started examining the core, but the specialists from the capital hadn't arrived yet, Falcon was still absent... and the enemy was gathering strength.

I didn't like it. I was preparing as best I could, but an uneasy feeling lingered.

They weren't stupid. Would they really charge head-on again?

A mere handful of griffons had already caused serious problems. What if a couple dozen came next? We need more balloons, more weapons, better anti-air...

I could barely stay seated. I wanted to get back to the turbine model. But the cable was important too. If our balloon drifted off into the void, that wouldn't help the defenses.

The mangled breastplate beneath my hand stretched into steel threads, meter by meter. But my thoughts remained unsettled.

How could I quickly boost the balloon's firepower?

In the mid-term, I had solutions. But what if they attacked tomorrow? How effective would drum rifles be if a single salvo filled the air with smoke, leaving us blind? Perfect for point-blank hits... but what if the enemy stayed at range? Do you fire and blind yourself, or wait until they're right on top of you?

We need something more.

Arm the crew with crossbows? The bolts are too slow, hitting anything would be difficult. And how much damage could a bolt really do to a massive creature? It'd probably only enrage it.

Take the bolt-throwers from the castle? But only mages could use them effectively. For regular troops, crossbows were still better...

"What are you thinking about?" A female voice snapped me out of it.

I looked up to see Mira. She was carefully hiding her tail under a long hem and her ears beneath a scarf. Surprisingly, she wasn't alone. Tamilla stood nearby, holding a tightly rolled scroll.

"We have a problem, don't we?" I guessed.

"How did you know?" Mira smiled.

"Because you both came together. So... what's wrong this time?"

"Take a guess!" Mira teased, only for Tamilla's irritated voice to cut in.

"I don't have time for games. Stop wasting breath. Here's the list." She handed me a scroll so thick I wasn't sure it could still be called that.

I set the cable aside, brushed iron dust from my hands... and froze.

"Wait. What did you just say?"

"The list. Here," she repeated, trying to hand me the papers again.

But my thoughts were elsewhere.

"Before that."

"Stop wasting... breath?" Tamilla ventured. "Why?"

"Breath..." I echoed, thinking aloud.

Sure, pneumatic weapons weren't as strong as firearms, but... they could surpass crossbows, and fire faster. Most importantly — no clouds of black powder smoke blocking everyone's view. I need to build a couple prototypes and test them as soon as possible.

"Considering that historically, jaegers with air rifles served alongside ordinary muzzle-loaders, this might turn out to be quite a good idea. After all, Napoleon did order any soldier using such weapons to be hanged. That means it could very well rival gunpowder..."

The scroll poked my hand again, snapping me back to reality. Tamilla was tapping her boot on the cobblestones impatiently, clearly running out of patience.

With a sigh, I unrolled it and began reading.

Inside were names. A lot of names.

Some sounded more like nicknames: Dead Dog, Grinner, Nick-the-Holey-Shoe...

I unrolled more, but the names just kept coming. Carefully numbered, they quickly passed a hundred.

"What is this?"

"One of five scrolls with those who enrolled in the school," Tamilla huffed.

"Whoa! That many?" I exclaimed, pleasantly surprised.

Honestly, I had been afraid no one would want to study, so I promised not only a free meal to everyone who attended, but even a few copper coins for those who did well on the tests.

"Exactly, that many, and that's not a good thing!" Tamilla snapped.

"Hmm... I didn't promise much money. Is this really a problem for the budget?"

"Everything is a problem for the budget right now. Why didn't you consult me first? We're already giving them free education, and now we're feeding them too. But paying people to be taught... that's just... that's just...!" She sputtered, unable to find words.

"It's just a scholarship, Tami," I said with a shrug.

"A scho... Never mind. If they can't pay now, we could teach them on credit. That way we wouldn't just reduce our expenses, we could make a profit!" Her chest heaved in frustration.

"Student loans," I nodded calmly. "Once the staffing shortage isn't so dire, we'll do that. But for now, we need people more than money."

She froze, contemplating the unfamiliar logic.

"Weeell..." she began, clearly about to argue that money mattered more.

"Anyway, it's just lunch to keep them from starving, and a few coppers they can use to buy extra food if they do well. Don't be so stingy!" I cut in.

"I'm not stingy, I'm prudent. It's just that... fine. Just promise me next time you'll talk to me before handing out money to people!"

"I promise."

"Really?" She blushed and looked away.

"Ahem ahem!" Mira cleared her throat loudly. "Actually, the money isn't the real problem here."

"Then what is?" I frowned.

"The fact that over five hundred have signed up already. The mayor's house we prepared won't fit them all. And even if it could, we don't have enough teachers!"

I scratched the stubble on my chin. Teachers, huh.

Damn, she was right. People who could teach were few and far between.

"We'll figure something out. For now, announce that enrollment is closed," I said with forced cheer, already wracking my brain. Damn it all, as if I didn't have enough problems already.

Tamilla immediately pulled back.

"I can't teach. I already have too much to do!"

"I wasn't going to ask you. You have your own job..." I said and turned to Mira.

"Meow?" she squeaked.

"You," I said, poking her in the side.

"But..."

"You'll do great," I said encouragingly, patting her shoulder. "You can take on, say, fifty students?"

"I can't! What if they see my tail?"

"If anyone gives you trouble, I'll rip their head off," I promised.

"Fine... But we still need at least ten more people. And another building."

"We'll find one," I waved it off. If nothing else, there were plenty of buildings in this city.

"And people?"

"Well..." I started counting on my fingers. "Len said he'd help, we can bring in Ada, there are a couple of servants at the castle, plus two clerks from the town hall that you rejected, Tami."

"They were too stupid. Not only were they stealing, they didn't even try to hide it!" she snorted.

"But they can teach people to count, can't they?"

"No, no, no!" she cried. "They're the kind of people who think two plus two equals three plus one in their pocket! I'm against it!"

I held up a fist with five bent fingers.

"We don't even have half the teachers we need. Not much choice. We can look for literate townsfolk, maybe someone will volunteer?"

"Good idea, let's do that! But those idiots better not end up doing anything more serious than shoveling sewage," Tamilla huffed, folding her arms.

"Lady Tamilla, Lady Mira, my lord," came the voice of a boy in Condor livery.

"Hey, kid. How's life?" I greeted the familiar face and ruffled his hair.

"Um... fine, milord," the boy mumbled, clearly flustered. He was the same one who'd once helped me reach my grandfather's castle.

Both women gave me a suspicious look.

"Ahem," I coughed awkwardly. "So, what brings you here?"

"Here. Documents for Lady Tamilla," the boy said, handing her two more scrolls.

As he passed them over, he accidentally dropped one, which unrolled. Another list of names. Oh, no...

"How... many?" I gulped, looking at Tamilla as she skimmed the second scroll.

"Nearly eight hundred," she said wearily.

Looks like I went overboard offering such good conditions. Of course, not everyone who signed up will actually study, but still, that was a massive number for a first class. We should have taken it slowly, tested the system first, figured out how to teach them.

Who knew so many people would rush toward knowledge... and free soup? And there weren't even many beggars on the streets, so these must be regular townsfolk. Don't they have jobs, to jump on my offer like this?

"Commander!" a soldier's voice rang out across the square. "Riders are approaching the city!"

"Enemy?" I tensed.

"No, Klaus knights, led by the Countess!"

"For once, reinforcements arrived before the battle started," I muttered, though I couldn't help but smile. Extra troops are always welcome...

Wait.

Suddenly, it hit me. The solution to our problem!

"Tami, do you think the von Klauses encourage literacy among their knights?" I asked conspiratorially.