“Impressive indeed,” noted Sir Inolet from the side. “I don’t think I’ve seen anyone actually breach your defense in the last couple decades or so.”
“First time in decades that someone actually managed to go through my defense all the way, yeah,” replied Leonhart DelVillar with a more relaxed tone. The old knight did not seem the least bit annoyed that his defense had been broken for the first time in a long while, and instead looked positively pleased. He grinned at Alissa and gave her an appreciative nod, even. “Very nice combination of skills, girl. If you can punch through my defense, I doubt many, if any, demons can withstand that strike.”
“The hard part with her skills is to hit somewhere fatal with them, to be honest,” mentioned Sir Inolet with a shrug of his shoulders. “Her skills combine to give O’Connor here a lot of penetrative power that would overwhelm most defenses, but they do nothing to increase what damage she does other than what she achieves by stabbing them.”
“It’s sometimes a bit hard to land lethal blows on faster opponents, and my stealth skill’s cooldown isn’t short enough to use frequently in battle yet,” admitted Alissa with a nod. “Because of that I’ve focused on making my first strike count, and to just get what I could when I no longer have surprise and stealth to work with.”
“Not a bad approach, and I expect Henri would have drilled you quite a bit on how to fight with that spear, though nobody would be able to become an expert in a mere few months,” noted Sir DelVillar with another nod. “Do you have a skill to help you with using your weapon, girl?”
“I do, Sir,” replied Alissa. “It has evolved a couple times and is at level nine, now, so it might evolve again in the near future. It has helped me a lot, though I am also trying to not be too reliant on the skill and keep up with my practice as well.”
“Good attitude to have,” praised Sir DelVillar. “Sorry for making you all exert yourself so soon after you arrive, but I figured it was best to get that out of the way as early as possible. I need to know what you kids can do before I can make any informed decisions about you,” he explained. “I’ll see all of you tomorrow on the training grounds, until then, you can follow Deena. She’ll show you to your accommodations.”
“Understood, Sir!”
*******************************
Deena turned out to be a granddaughter of Sir DelVillar’s who worked at the fort as an administrative staff member. She was the youngest of the fort’s officers who had welcomed the group together with Sir Delvillar, and while the party’s chaperones left with the old knight to discuss things, Deena led the group of eleven towards their quarters.
Compared to Fort Ixlay, Fort Abernal was at least twice if not three times the size, a fortress that pretty much contained a city inside its defensive walls, though its primary function remained that of a defensive fortification and military base. The civilians that lived inside the fort were mostly family members of the soldiers stationed there and typically served the fort in all sorts of supportive roles.
There were buildings of all sorts inside the fort’s walls, but Deena directly brought Alissa and the rest of the party towards an area further west, where the buildings had a more crude, function-over-form look to them. There were several squarish, multi-story buildings that probably served as the dormitories for the people stationed in the fort.
Deena led them towards one of those buildings, which reminded Alissa a lot of apartment buildings in her previous world, just far more basic and cramped and with far less amenities.
“These are our officer dormitories, where you all will be staying,” explained Deena. For an officer’s dormitory the place was extremely basic, with each floor having a dozen simple rooms that only had curtains in the place of a door. Some of the rooms were empty and left with their curtains open so Alissa managed to get a look at them.
The inside of the rooms only contained a simple cot as well as a deck with a chair on the other side. There was a wooden chest set at the foot of the cot, likely meant to hold the belongings of the person staying in the room, but little else. The simple window was just an opening on the building’s wall, and had wooden shutters to cover it.
Under Deena’s lead, they climbed up to the fourth and highest floor of the dormitory, which was entirely empty. The party would get the floor to themselves, while Deena explained that Sir Inolet and the rest would stay at the third floor. Each of the floors had a couple of shared washrooms where they could tend to the call of nature or clean themselves in a rather rudimentary shower of sorts.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Deena left the party alone as they unpacked and placed their belongings into the chests in their respective rooms. Since the party did not exactly carry that much with them – several changes of clothes and their respective equipment, mostly – it had not taken them long to unpack, and before long, they went back down as Deena led them towards the fort city to get some lunch.
There was a mess hall where the soldiers ate most of the time, but the fare there was basic military fare, so it was not exactly the most appetizing thing. On the other hand, there were some eateries and pubs in the fort city, which provided their services to both the civilians and the members of the military. Soldiers who were in the mood for something better would often spend part of their pay there, while the officers were frequent customers to such places.
It was a far cry from the quality that could be found in more peaceful and prosperous cities, sure, but it was plenty for the inhabitants of Fort Abernal.
Together with Deena, the party went to one of the better establishments in the fort. The eatery in question used a shield as its signboard, and as it turned out, was run by Deena’s own parents. They were warmly welcomed and ushered to the second floor where the twelve of them shared one large, long table and sat down as they waited for their food to come.
“I did not expect your parents to also be working here in the fort,” noted Alissa while they sipped on some ale and snacked on some small, cracker-like crisps.
“Most of our family works and lives here, actually. Seventh Aunt is the only one that doesn’t,” replied Deena with a shake of her head. “Many of my cousins are working in or for the military like I do, as do my brothers. Two of my sisters help mom and pop run the eatery, so they’re good anyway. We figure we might as well help Grandpa out.”
“Isn’t that a bit risky? There’s a large demon base around a couple days to the south if I remember correctly,” asked Ethan with some curiosity. “Ar-something? I don’t remember the name.”
“Arh-Getlam,” supplied Deena with a melancholic sigh. “That base is the main reason this fort is guarded so well, because we would be in the best position to react to the demon movements from there. That’s the strategic consideration. For many of us who live in this fort, however, there are also personal considerations when it comes to Arh-Getlam.”
“Many of us living and working here, be it the soldiers or the civilians, are people who once lived in Arh-Getlam or are descended from people who lived there,” she continued. “Arh-Getlam was part of the Kingdom until the previous war around half a century ago. That was when we lost it to the demons. To many who survived the battle back then, the desire to retake their hometown from demon hands becomes one of their main drives in life. It is the lifelong desire of many of them.”
“Half a century ago… so your grandfather, Sir DelVillar, also fought there at the time?” asked Joshua in a rather rare show of curiosity.
“He did, and it was then that he gained the nickname ‘Shield of Arh-Getlam’ when he fought to defend the people escaping from the city as part of the rear guard. To him, the nickname is a reminder that despite all his efforts he still failed to defend his hometown back then, and it gnaws at him. He would like nothing more than to reclaim the city with his own hands one day, which I suspect is why Grandpa pushes himself so hard all the time.”
“We were sent here likely for a reason unknown to us. Given what you said though, maybe there’s plans to assault Arh-Getlam in the near future,” speculated Alissa after she gave the matter some thought. “Has there been activity from the demon [Champions] near here?”
“We faced attacks from the suspected demon [Champion] that used wide-ranged buff skills several times, but last I heard you all faced and defeated them at Fort Silvia?” asked Deena in return.
“We did, though not easily,” admitted Alissa. “I heard Sir Marsten mention that he expected the demons to retreat and recuperate after their grievous losses, and in the weeks since the battle there was indeed no demon activity near the fort.”
“Our own scouts concur with that assessment. The demons had not returned this way, so they likely withdrew deeper into their own territory,” said Deena with a nod of her head. “I believe that is one reason why Grandpa and the others managed to convince the higher-ups that now would be a good opportunity to attempt retaking Arh-Getlam.”
“It makes sense when you put it that way. The… barbarian [Champion] is mostly active further west while we just turned away another two, though that still doesn’t account for the fourth one…” muttered Alissa. “Does anyone have any inkling on where the fourth demon [Champion] is, by the way?”
“So far, no. We are quite certain that they are a creator type, which means that their direct combat ability will likely be below the others, but the artifacts they created had been seen all over the place, so we cannot pinpoint their whereabouts so far,” replied Deena with a shake of her head. “I do not know that much, so Grandpa will likely be able to answer your questions more clearly when you meet with him tomorrow. He will want to assess your party first anyway, no offense intended.”
“It’s an understandable thing to do,” nodded Ethan. “I would be wary of going into battle with people I’m not familiar with too, so for Sir DelVillar to desire a better understanding of what we can do makes perfect sense,” he elaborated. “In exchange, we would also learn more about him and his capabilities, as is only fair.”
“Oh, Grandpa’s abilities are no secret. He’s pretty famous after all,” replied Deena with a proud grin.
“I don’t think Sir DelVillar is a mage, but the way he used the stone was rather similar to how Master conjures them,” commented Joshua from the side. “Still can’t narrow it down by much though.”
“Well, tomorrow you’ll see for yourselves,” replied Deena with another teasing smirk. “I doubt Grandpa would keep you in the dark, but I’ll just say this for now. Looks can be quite deceiving, especially when it comes to Grandpa. The way he fights is nothing like what most people expects when they see him or hear of his title.”
“Well, that’s something to look forward to I guess,” noted Alissa. “Oh, I think that’s our food?”
Sure enough, Deena’s older sisters came to their table with large platters held on each arm, each of which had several smaller plates set on them. Deena got up from her seat and helped her sisters distribute the plates on the table before she sat back down and invited everyone to enjoy the meal.