“You called for us, Sir?” asked Alissa as she entered the office Sir Marsten used for himself. By then three weeks had already passed since the battle of Fort Silvia, and the fort’s construction had progressed noticeably. For once, the officers no longer used a large tent as a makeshift office to hold their meetings, as a proper one had been built in the meantime.
As Alissa entered the room, she noticed Ethan’s presence as well as Moira’s, who was in the same shift as him during the previous battle. Their third member had been Silvia, who was quite naturally unable to attend. The other half of their party were not in attendance, but that was to be expected. Bronwen’s group was still on their way back from their break and would not reach the fort until later in the day, while Joshua’s group had just departed earlier that morning.
Alissa also noticed Sir Inolet being in the room, which meant that they likely had something important to tell them, given how the veteran knight would not need to be present if it was just to give them a regular task or the like.
“Yes, I did, please be seated, everyone,” said Sir Marsten as he gestured towards the seats already arrayed before his desk. There were exactly five seats, just enough for everyone present, while the two old knights sat behind the desk and eyed them with thoughtful looks. It was the exact sort of situation that made Alissa want to immediately ask why they had been called there.
Fortunately, the silence did not linger for long.
“We have a new mission for your party,” said Sir Marsten. The simple statement naturally brought questions to Alissa’s mind, such as why such a thing was announced when only half of their party was present. The old knight seemed to understand what she was thinking however, and continued with his words. “As well as some things to say that I would like to keep between just those of us within this room.”
“Given how none of the Temple Guards are present, I take it you don’t want them to hear whatever you’re about to say to us, huh?” asked Ethan, who quickly caught on to the implication. All three of their party members present were part of the Royal Guards, instead of the Temple Guards. “Probably something related to… what happened three weeks ago?”
“Quick on the uptake as usual, Mister Greene,” said Sir Inolet with an approving nod. “Yes, this involves what happened three weeks ago, when we achieved our miraculous victory, as they called it,” the old one-eyed knight added. “The story had been spreading far and wide already, and the Temple had not missed the chance to pounce on such an opportunity delivered straight to their door.”
“What Henri is trying to say here, is that people have been flocking to the temple’s door after the news spread, and even amongst some of the nobles, there are clamors about elevating the temple’s priesthood to positions of true power, with rhetorics along the lines of surely with the blessing of the Gods there are no need for mundane authority and the like,” added Sir Marsten in explanation. “Needless to say, neither the crown nor us old fogeys are all too happy with that.”
“I can see why, yes,” commented Nadine with a nod. As the Kingdom’s Fifth Royal Princess, she received some education on politics even though she eventually opted for a path that took her to the Royal Guards. She was probably the most politically savvy person in Alissa’s party as a whole because of her position and education. “The more rabidly fanatical sides of the priesthood have been growing to be a thorn on dad’s side since I was young. No surprise they’d jockey for power after such a miracle happened.”
“Exactly, Your Royal Highness,” noted Sir Marsten. “We are worried that this jockeying for power might have adverse effects on the frontlines. Gods know that as fanatical and courageous as the Temple Guards might be, they barely have any proper military-minded commanders amongst them. There’s a reason we could maintain our presence as a sort of a neutral faction all this time, after all.”
“Oh god, the idea of having one of the loonier priests tell us to go charge forward because the gods are with us without any proper planning is making me shudder in terror at the possibility,” admitted Moira. “That would have been no way such a scenario ends in a good way. Either we’d get massacred or we’d win but with hideous casualties.”
“Such a possibility is indeed one we are trying to avoid, so I believe you all can see why I would like to have this talk without the Temple Guards listening in. I hope you can understand, Miss O’Connor, Mister Greene,” said Sir Marsten. “As for the mission, they are sending you towards the west, as they are confident that with the current force stationed here and the incoming reinforcements, Fort Silvia will be able to fend for itself.”
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“Basically they want to see if you can replicate the victory here elsewhere, regardless of how you do it,” added Sir Inolet with a shake of his head. “The delusional priests are probably hoping for another miracle, uncaring that such a thing would deplete your party of another member and weaken you in the long run. Meanwhile, the crown wants a victory without one, so they could counter the Temple somewhat. For either of them, your party just happens to be a convenient tool to be used, and will be that way until you can stand firm on your own two feet.”
“We noticed, yes,” replied Alissa with a nod. “That said, Sir Inolet, I am surprised that you’d be so open about this matter now.”
“When you all were just fledglings without any power you can call yourself, what would be the use of knowing? You can’t do much of anything about it,” replied Sir Inolet with a scoff. “Nowadays you kids have grown powerful enough that they cannot quite ignore you anymore, even if you’re still far from making them sit up and take notice. I figure it wouldn’t hurt to let you know of the real fuckery going on behind the scenes.”
“I guess I should thank you for the vote of confidence, sir,” replied Alissa with a bit of a chuckle. Over the time they had spent together, she had realized that despite his rough exterior, the old knight cared for his charges, perhaps too much, even. “When would we be strong enough to make them sit up and take notice, in your opinion?”
“When you can match me one on one, with no holds barred. At that point they will have to give you their attention, no matter who they might be. You would be too powerful as either an asset or detriment to ignore at that point,” replied Sir Inolet. “Anyway, that’s not what we called you to talk about today, so I’ll let ol’ August take over from here.”
“Thanks, Henri,” replied Sir Marsten with a nod. “Anyway, what we would like to ask is for you to try to prevent any of your remaining party members from the Temple Guards from repeating what Silvia had done three weeks ago,” he said openly. “Mind you, this is not entirely about politics or power struggles behind the scenes, but also for your own good.”
“If your party kept losing members to win battles like this, it would not be long before you run low on people, and the war would likely still be ongoing at that time, so this sort of self-sacrificial behavior is not exactly in your favor either. I will admit that I am grateful for the girl to have made the sacrifice back then, as it would have been a bloody mess for us otherwise, but it still pains my heart to see a youngster sacrifice themselves so old farts like myself could live on like that. I do not wish to see it happen again if I could avoid it.”
“The gist of what August said is basically to try to avoid a situation where you were stuck between undesirable results like back when we were being besieged,” added Sir Inolet. “Try to direct your companions to victory or retreat together with you, hell, knock them out cold if they try to pull off that sort of self-sacrifice if you need to!”
“The area of the frontline you will be sent to is under Leonhart’s lead. He’s another of our old companions and also one of the few people who can boast of being stronger than Henri here in the Kingdom, so between him and Henri, you should have plenty of high-end firepower in that region,” continued Sir Marsten. “We have also sent him a letter asking him to watch out for you all, but he has his responsibilities as well and could not be everywhere, so please try to keep yourself safe there, all right?”
“Of course, we’ll repeat most of this after the rest of your party returns from their break, minus the parts about the temple. I hope the five of you can agree to keep this a secret between us and not tell them about it?” he asked. “The reasons why we excluded Joshua, Ormond, and Glenn from this talk should be obvious.”
“Glenn and Ormond are my brothers’ men, so they’d be reporting this to their respective lieges if they caught wind of this, and knowing my third brother, some of it will definitely leak to the temple, so yeah. I’m not even sure that my first brother can keep a lid on this sort of talk,” noted Nadine with an understanding nod. “Makes sense to keep them out of this.”
“Smith’s been very close with that priestess who’s been his minder since we were summoned, rather suspiciously so, so I also understand why you wanted to exclude him,” said Alissa. “In that regard, is Magus Drummond also potentially a leak? I know he’s still out with Smith at the moment, but I thought he was pretty close with you.”
“Murdock is neutral in this, but the old fart tends to be a blabbermouth when drunk, and as his student, Joshua Smith is definitely in a position to catch some of his drunken rants, so we usually keep him out of things like this until the last moment,” admitted Sir Inolet with a chuckle. “Don’t worry about the old fart’s feelings. He’s used to this and knows how much of a noisy drunk he is.”
“Understood.”
“While you’re out in the west, listen to ol’ Leo, and if push comes to shove, stay close to him. Even if I die, that old coot will find a way to survive. He’s a survivor by heart, so sticking with him would be your best chance of getting away in an emergency,” added Sir Inolet with a more solemn tone. “He will take care of you if push comes to shove, though we should of course do our best to make it so it doesn’t reach that point.”
“That’s all we can do for you for the time being, so please do take care of yourselves when you’re out west. Your departure won’t be for at least another two weeks, so you will have some time to prepare until then,” concluded Sir Marsten. “We do thank you for your willingness to help with problems that should have been ours to handle. I truly wish circumstances had been different and we wouldn’t need to have youngsters like you deal with problems caused by us people who got too old for our own good, but I guess the world just isn’t that nice.”
“Either way, I wish you all success in your new postings, and may the gods be with you, if they ever do bother to trouble themselves with us mortals. Godspeed.”