Chapter 2:

…

For a normal, orphan scavenger, the change in environment I experienced would've been earth shattering.

I went from being a nobody that could be killed without a thought to a retainer of a warband's leader.

Ghor of House Khanrow was swift to reward me for the vital information that I provided.

Instead of the wagon and supplies I'd asked for, I found myself included in the general environment of the command structure. That meant a tent erected by the servants in the well-to-do area of the warband. I received my own cot, new clothes, and a chest to put my belongings in. With a word, the matter of me being reintroduced to servitude was dropped, and the things I stole were taken and turned to coin.

I took a bath, had a meal with cuts of meat that wasn't offal, and got dressed in clothes that weren't made of burlap and scraps of leather.

Then, I had a night of sleep, and got woken up to be placed with all my belongings in a wagon instead of having to trudge on foot.

I'm sure that a real orphan of this world, in my place, would've done everything for Ghor of House Khanrow after one night.

Meanwhile, I would've tucked tail and ran in the middle of the night with all that I could, if Riegert hadn't been on the same cart as me.

All this wealth was a trap.

I'd rather live harshly for long time than for a good, short time.

"Morning, kid. Hardly recognized you all cleaned up!" The scarlet haired and bearded man gave my head a quick tussle. Most of his armor was off, leaving his arms only covered by a green tunic, but he still had hardy boots, a chest plate, and a sword at his side. My small chest full of my belongings was beside his own luggage… and another's. "You should've seen him last night, Ilych. He was like you after a tumble or two in the mud!"

"I see." Ilych didn't really speak. Her words were more like confirmation. A direct statement of what she did. Like Riegert, she had green eyes and pale skin, but her hair was closer to black. Much like her father, she was lightly armored with a chest plate, hardy boots, and a sword. For a second, I was ready to just disregard her existence as an Elite unit. Then, I felt a cold chill go down my spine and I froze in my seat. "You said he is a scavenger, but he can sense danger."

She just imagined killing me.

I didn't know how I knew, but I just knew!

My heart was racing in my chest, every muscle I had felt ready to send me running away, and it took everything I had not to leap out of the carriage and run.

Thankfully, despite being a waste to invest XP into, Riegert put his hand between me and his teenage daughter's gaze.

"Ilych, I swear you never learn. You scared the kid to death." Riegert didn't admonish his kid. He just chastised her. I didn't expect him to stand up to his child for me, yelling right in her face, but it was still less than I expected. That was, until Ilych's brow scrunched and she nodded. She looked outright apologetic with just those words alone. "Good. Now, I want you to apologize. I want the two of you to get along. Ghor wants to keep Jack around, and we're his retainers, so Jack's under our protection. I'll be busy when we get to where we're going, so I want you to look after him."

"I understand." Ilych spoke and I felt something in my gut tell me that there was something off with the girl. Riegert didn't talk to her like a teenager around fifteen or sixteen. He addressed her like an equal, like someone as old as him, and she responded with the same maturity. I shifted away when she looked at me, but she didn't stop staring at me until I met her gaze again. She bowed her head a second later and spoke with the same dullness. "I apologize. Allow me to guard you without issue, please."

Usually, this is the part where I pretend to be a nice little kid who didn't know any better, but a voice in the back of my head told me that I should lie.

"I don't want you to."

"I will do as my father told me."

Riegert stared at me for a moment, the temptation to plead with me appearing for a moment on his face, before he let loose a sigh.

"Stick with one another for now, Jack. All the clues we've been following have told us where we're going will make heavy fighting necessary." That was an overstatement. Securing Citadels could be done with single Champions. Sure, in Extreme mode, you'd need one of the better ones and not the waste of XP that I was looking at. But, from my cursory look over this warband, it was at least twice as large as the one I'd previously in and they had Pegasus Knights at their disposal. They had enough magic damage in their alpha strikes to smash through any neutral armies that spawned at the start of the game. "Fighting in castles is hard enough, but underground ancient ruins are far harder to secure."

Wait, what the fuck?

They're planning on fighting the goblins and other shitty, fantasy mobs on their home turf!?

I needed that to not happen.

I needed that to not happen right the fuck now!

"Uhhm, ah… you don't need to attack them head on, sir!" My sudden energy caught Riegert's attention as planned. Unfortunately, it also attracted his daughter's gaze, which was looking decidedly less dull with combat at play. Some pieces were falling into place about my suspicions regarding her, but I put them aside for now. One massive problem and threat to my life at a time. "Lord Ghor found the amulet, right?"

"He did. Why is that important?" A raised brow told me that Riegert was suspicious about my sudden realization, but I disregarded it. "Did you forget something until now, kid?"

"Y-yes, I'm very sorry! I heard this when we were in a last town. Lots of the bosses were talking about hiring more people to help in the fight, but the biggest boss told them that they don't need any help, because of the amulet!"

"Oh, why is that?"

"Because, um, he said that you just need to put a drop of your blood on the amulet, then it'll be yours! It'll get rid of everything else!"

"Ah, the defenses will deal with the intruders inside, while it rises."

"Yes, sir!"

That was the lore-reason as to why the beasties inside the Citadels got out to meet armies in open battle. Naturally, the neutral warbands would like to entrench themselves and fight in fortified positions. However, that wasn't an option with the Citadel being claimed. So, they had the option of fighting for their home and taking the amulet, or running and getting run down for free XP.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The XP will be going to Riegert, which will be a waste, but it was better than pressing this warband into a meat grinder—

Suddenly, I had a pair of emerald eyes blazing with interest in front of me.

"You know more than you should." The statement was final and I half-expected it to be accompanied by a knife to the gut. However, instead of that, I received something more terrifying. The undiluted interest of a creature that was the bane of every half-decent's player's existence: the worst Event Unit. A unit tied to a specific series of events linked with by a Champion Unit activating it. The voice line that followed sealed the deal, since I'd grown to hate it with a passion. "Do you hear it? The whispers of the winds?"

I wasn't just dealing with the worst Champion Unit, I was also dealing with the dev's idea of a sick joke on April Fools, right after they added the option to disable all events.

The le random, le meme Champion unit with completely random features, random class, random growth stats, randomized skill trees, and random traits that everybody treated like their pet dog.

The Chosen One.

An insane Champion Unit whose voicelines all implied that they heard the player as "wind" and would do anything the wind/player said. Examples ranged from attacking its own allies and army with a click, launch area-of-effect spells on their own armies regardless of friendly fire, and siege their own and allied cities without question and regardless of consequence.

The creature that could be the most terrifying, the absolute weakest, or an average Champion all dependent on RNG.

Either immediately thrown away, or kept as a the cornerstone of an entire campaign to the very end.

The Chosen One loomed over me, asked me if I was crazy as her, so I uttered the only answer I could.

"N-no! I just overheard, and I remembered, because I wanted to sell rumors!" I want out. I do not want this event. Let me out of this living meme's immediate vicinity. I scrambled back and even considered going over the back of the wagon, until I suddenly found myself caught by the shoulders and dragged forward. Ilych sat me right next to her, putting Riegert between me and escape. She smelled like honed metal, varnished leather, and cleaned linen, as she kept me close. "Uhm, please let me go!"

"No. The winds favor you. Your words caused it to shift, and now I know I must protect you." Ilych spoke with a zealousness that frightened me. I looked to Riegert, but the mountain of a man just looked at the situation with interest. No. He looked at his daughter with interest. He barely cared about me. Why would he? I was just a scavenger that they picked up yesterday. Ilych was the one being strange. "The winds of fate shall guide me well."

Augh, generic NPC lines sounded even worse when my life was on the line!

I looked to Riegert for help, not finding any words that would get me out of the situation without dying, but the red-haired man merely shook his head.

"Well, I'm glad that these winds have told you to do what I told you to. As for you, kid, just bear with it. Ilych is a fantastic warrior." Of course, she is! She's a Champion Unit! Even with the worst stats, she'll be able to smash through a few hundred Tier 1 soldiers without issue and there's nothing around at this time that can stop her! That's awesome, but she's still batshit crazy! "Hm, we're almost there."

Riegert tugged on the canvas cover of the wagon and it came off, while the wagon turned into a corner.

In the distance, I saw it as it shuddered, shook, and rose from the ground.

"Looks like you were right, kid." Riegert tapped his ear. I barely took notice of the little stud that somehow used magic to let him communicate with his lord. "One drop of blood was all that it took."

A white tower arose from the ground. The road beneath us rumbled and the horses strained at their straps, but the driver held them fast. Still, the entire caravan slowed and beheld the rise of the Citadel.

I'd seen it hundreds of times through a screen, but the importance of the structure, and how it gave its owner the right to claim being a king, became more apparent as I saw it for real.

It was enormous for the age. At least thirty stories tall, the main building was a perfect, bone-white building that arose from the ground and stretched into the sky. Like a tree unfolding from the earth, it reached into the sky, easily visible for miles and miles, even while surrounded by trees and hills. Just as it stopped its growth, the ground shook even more fiercely, and around it arose lesser towers, a tall wall, and a shimmer of palpable power that sent electric waves over my limbs even from at least ten miles away.

A castle out of legend rising unblemished from the Earth like a sword.

Or, in my view, like a middle finger to my dreams of a peaceful life.

"Let all the world know of our majesty and might, indeed. The ancients never fail to impress." Riegert intoned, while the shimmer around the tower solidified and flowed into it. Soon enough a deluge of creatures flowed out of its walls into the surrounding forest. Giant spiders, goblins, and other fantasy standard mobs left it like a tide and found no means to enter once its gates closed. "Now, let's see if we can take for ourselves and end this ceaseless war."

Ilych nodded at her father's words, and I noticed a few men on horseback and on foot begin to pray or cheer at the sight.

Meanwhile, I felt like heated lead had just been forced down my throat.

It was majestic, and it was amazing, but now things were truly in motion.

This Citadel rising up will galvanize all the other factions to do the same, everyone will gather power, and everyone with Citadels will fight and fight until every single one was theirs… and then the invasion will begin, and it'll roll over the whole continent.

Knowing that I had to get out of here was one thing.

Looking straight at it was another.