Once the winter holiday was over, Fred went back to school. He had got his Military level up to 5 and his military class became an initiate. This gave him two points in the command structure, he was now (2,0)

He found an officer training skill when he went back to school, every two levels would give him a (1,0) boost to command structure and every 5 levels would give him a (0,1) to command structure.

It was split into theory and practical. When he got it, he was given a nice surprise.

*Notification* Invented flag signalling,

-every regiment with a flag signaller has its unit count halved, all subordinate units in that regiment are halved.

-300 exp to officer training skill,

-signallers under your command do not take up a subordinate slot.

-gain (1,0)

“Nice, I’m now level 3 with Officer training, so I can have 3 men under me.”

Fred was happy about this revelation, “Wait, can’t I just make training manuals from my old world, surely I would just be able to game the system.”

Fred spent another month writing military training manuals, he only managed to write two, which he thought was odd, he felt like he was writing in water or jelly, he could only put it down to bringing in skills from another world. He had gone with Roman military drills, for the first one and 16th-century pike and shot drills for the second one.

This had given him 400exp each in officer training, and the drill sergeant skill became a quarter of the price, so he took it, which was already level 4. This skill had the same benefits as officer training,

He was now at (7,0) base. With officer training at 400/800exp and drill sergeant at 100/800exp.

The two military drills also became a passive ability,

Roman Military Drills, 1% complete

+ [percentage completion] exp gain from training in heavy infantry skills.

+ [percentage completion] exp gain from training in mixed range and melee heavy infantry skills.

+10 to Den, Pow, Dex, End for each percentage complete

+5% Discipline when complete

+5% Professionalism when complete.

Gain the Heavy shock trooper doctrine once complete.

Pike and Shot Military Drills, 1% complete

+ [percentage completion] exp gain from training in Polearm skills.

+ [percentage completion] exp gain from training in mixed range and melee medium/heavy infantry skills.

+10 to Den, Pow, Dex, End for each percentage complete

+5% Discipline when complete

+5% Professionalism when complete.

Gain the Heavy Pike Formation doctrine.

“Ooo, what does discipline do,”

Discipline: Percentage modifier to all stats while in unit coherency, increase morale while in unit coherency, increase combat skills and doctrine efficiency.

“Nice”

Professionalism: increases efficiency when carrying out orders. Enemies receive an additional 10% damage for having 100% professionalism. You receive 10% less damage from enemies for having 100% professionalism. 10% reduction in negative modifiers from attrition.

Heavy Shock Trooper doctrine:

20% to all stats on the charge, when your military class is:

-Heavy infantry,

-Heavy (ranged weapon)/Infantry.

(Percentage modifier is affected by the percentage of the regiment with Heavy Shock Trooper doctrine)

(Extra 10% if the enemy unit was hit with a missile type weapon within 30 seconds of contact)

Heavy Pike Formation doctrine:

20% to all stats when charged, and an extra 10% to all stats from cavalry charges, when your military class is:

-[Heavy/medium], [polearm] infantry,

-[Heavy/medium] [ranged weapon]/[Polearm] Infantry.

(Percentage modifier is affected by the percentage of the regiment with Heavy Shock Trooper doctrine.)

(Must be charged in the front)

He wrote all these modifiers as the introduction to the Drill manuals and had them sent with 3 of his scouts for his home county, Delphine had managed to create a fire spice wax, if used as a seal, a messenger could input mana into the wax, and it would set alight. These doctrines could give his family forces the edge and didn’t want them to fall into third party hands.

___

Later that spring, Fred was sleeping in his bed, when a rumble woke him up. He was about to light a candle when one of his Knight barged into his room, quickly confiscating the candle.

“Master get dressed quickly, battle attire.” At this Jessica ran into his room and was about to scream as she couldn’t see who the knight was clearly, but the knight managed to cover her mouth. “Help your master dress and get ready yourself.”

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The knight ran to the other rooms to check on the other children.

As Fred was getting Dressed, he heard another boom, “What was that?” Jess asked.

“It sounded like an explosion. Go get dressed, I can manage here.”

“But?” Jess hesitated; it was her duty to help him.

“Go!” Fred snapped. She ran off quickly.

Fred finished putting on his armour when another boom was heard, but much closer.

He went into the hall he was the first one ready between the kids. The first knight was there guarding the stairs when Rudy and Delphine came out, another knight was running up the stairs with Holly Harold and the twins. “It looks like there was an explosion at the school” the new knight commented.

“What about everyone downstairs?” the first knight commented. This was followed by a fourth boom that shook the house.

“They are all ready, the knights are packing the horses and carriages, while the servants are cleaning the house of valuables or documents.”

“Are we leaving the city?” Rudy asked.

“Yes, the city looks like it’s under attack.”

This time Fred could hear his bedroom shutters being broken and out came a lightly armoured man from his room. “Scout reporting.”

“Go,”

“The dockyard is ablaze with the sounds of fighting and the northern gate seems to have been breached, although the invading force is being held up there at the moment. There is a fire in 3 places within the school and more fighting there. We will have to move quickly to reach the west or south, we don’t know if they are targets too, but there is no conflict there at the moment.”

“Do you know how big the enemy forces are, or who they are?”

“No, it’s unclear.”

“Ok, we move, get the kids on the carriages.”

Before they went down Fred ran back into his room while telling Rudy and Delphine to take or destroy anything of value, especially documents. The Knights told Edwards kids to do the same and meet downstairs.

Another two explosions went off in the city before Fred came downstairs.

“Right, Everyone Ready?” the commanding knight asked.

“Yes” he got a bunch of affirmatives, and they left the house.

They found more carriages of house Aquitaine and formed into a convoy heading for the south gate. When they reached the south, they met up with the Normandy houses. They ended up in a standoff, neither side was friendly to the other, and right now there was no referee to keep the peace.

Fred looked out of the carriage and heard a familiar, but somewhat deeper, voice, “That’s him, as long as we get him, we can retreat.” It was Percy and he was pointing at Fred.

Fred got on top of the carriage and took over the reins from the driver, the driver was a knight, and it was better for him to be available for a fight than driving the carriage.

“Rudy, Delphine, Load the pistols, the crate for extra’s is under the seat.” They had made 18 pistols by now, and all 3 of them were proficient in loading them. The knight on the carriage swapped with a scout, so he could fight on horseback.

The convoy started moving, they were going to turn around towards the west gate. Houses of Normandy followed suit.

The scout only had a short sword and a dagger, he had no ranged weapon, Fred gave him two pistols, “Hey, Point the hole at someone you want dead and pull that trigger, it has 10-15 meters effective range and one shot. Once used, swap it with one from Rudy or Delphine. Do not lose it.”

The scout was confused but took them anyway.

The two groups were racing down the avenue that hugged the curtain wall.

Clashes had already started between the knights. Aquitaine was slower but had the upper hand, all of the knights had better armour and weapons by far. This dragged the horses speed down, but Normandy couldn’t properly commit to an engagement.

But Normandy didn’t want a pitched battle, they wanted Fred, and so two of the fastest men managed to meet up with Fred’s carriage, as one of them were getting close to the side of the carriage, the scout with Fred decided to try out one of these weapons.

He pointed and, boom, a loud explosion was heard, distracting everyone for a few seconds. When they looked, they say the scout’s raised arm with the hand hidden by his head and smoke coming from it, and the Normandy horseman near the carriage had the top part of his head blown off.

It was just the nose and down that was left, and the guy slowly fell off his horse.

“I think I made the calibre a bit too big,” Fred mused to himself, the recoil was too strong, and the pistol was quite heavy, if he reduced the calibre, he could reduce the size of the pistol and strength increasing its range and accuracy. He didn’t need to do that much damage to kill someone.

The scout quickly swapped the pistols in his hands, so his best hand was holding a loaded pistol.

He shot at the other horseman, but this time the bullet hit the horse, ripping its shoulder apart, causing it to tumble.

Now Normandy would have to expend more resources to capture Fred. The two groups had travelled a mile from the first gate and had 3 more miles to go.

Rudy swapped the scouts pistols with fresh ones. The scout was loving the pistols, the accuracy was something to be desired, but the speed at which it could be deployed against someone was a dream.

The scout might not have much training in firearms, but his high Dex gave him a boost to ballistic skills, which was enough to make up for it.

With the shock the weapons brought to the Normandy, Aquitaine capitalised on it with a quick assault, bringing down 3 Normandy knights in quick succession.

This gave them room to pull away, however, Percy, who was a squire now and was lightly armoured rushed past the Aquitaine defence with two others, heading for Fred’s carriage.

“Rudy, pass me a pistol and get ready yourselves.”

As the 3 squires got close, the scout fired 2 more, but only managed to down one man, before they closed in, Percy jumped aboard the carriage, and the second was attempting to when Rudy and Delphine opened fire with 3 pistols at him.

Percy managed to knock down the scout. The scout ended up dropping the pistols, they would have dropped on the floor but luckily Fred used the Metal Esper ability to catch it just in time. This however left him vulnerable to Percy who kicked him in the gut. Fred managed to swing the guns towards Rudy and Delphine in time, and they managed to catch the pistols.

Percy grabbed Fred by the shoulder and was trying to pick him up to leave the carriage, at this time the scout recovered and tried to tackle Percy, who butted him with the handle of his sword, knocking him down again.

But Fred could now shrug of Percy and Draw his sword, they were now fighting on the carriage roof.

This time, Delphine climbed to the driver’s seat and took the reins.

Percy was surprised, he was only slightly outpowering Fred, and Fred was making up for it with better skills, but Percy should be a whole ascension above Fred, with even more stat points.

They had their bout for another mile, and now they were one mile away from the West Gate, “We can see the gate.” Delphine shouted.

This distracted Percy, but wasn’t enough to distract Fred, Fred managed to swipe Percy’s leg, causing him to fall on his back. Fred came down for a swing, but Percy blocked it and then blocked two more strikes from Fred.

Fred had enough of Percy, and drew his pistol on him,

Percy’s eyes went wide. “Wait, I surrender. Don’t kill me.” Rudy came up to the side of Delphine to check on the scout, he was just injured, and so he to, drawn his pistol on Percy, allowing Fred to check the surroundings and try to stop the conflict.

“Do you wish to continue?” Fred Shouted, getting everyone’s attention, they looked over to see Percy, pinned down by that new weapon, and his hands up in a surrendering gesture with no weapon in them.

Percy was a son of a very prominent family in Normandy and had direct lines towards the duke, militarily he might not have the highest rank, but from a civil position, he did.

“We will withdraw if you release him” the commanding knight spoke up.

“You take me for a fool. My family will be in contact with your family.”

The knight’s face went dark, this meant he would be ransomed, and this incident would become public, but there was nothing they could do if they wanted Percy alive.

“Just do it!” Percy shouted. This was his plan anyway, and he would take just as much blame as the knight.

“Fine, withdraw men,” he signalled with his hands and the Normandy troops stopped pursuing.

Aquitaine exited the Western gatehouse, there was the main road going West, two small roads going north-west and South-West respectively, and a ring road that hugged the wall. The West Road would take them directly West, but the northwest went up to the border before going West.

“We will take the Northwest Road. Normandy might have other plans, and this road would get us out of their territory faster.” The border between the two duchies on the island went from South-West to North-East.

“Ok” the command Knight agreed, and so they left, they sent two scouts to move in parallel to the West Road and North-West Road so they could see what was happening.

Fred’s intuition was right, there was an ambush party stationed on the west road, however, they couldn’t identify insignia.

The ambush team, presumably Normandy, only got wind of Fred’s route too late, Fred had crossed into the Escroquer county, the one bordering his county, with the metal mine, by the time the ambush team caught up.

The ambush team didn’t have the manpower to face Escroquer and had to give up.

All in all, Fred and his entourage got back to Poilutonne in one peace.