Chapter 4 - Departure

A week had passed since the strategy meeting. Arnest, who was essentially named general, swiftly ordered his hundred elf soldiers. Half of the group were delegated towards enlisting and training the rag tag bunch of inhabitants of Fox Village. The other half was busy stockpiling food and supplies on the boat. The usually quiet village started to bustle with activity.

“Marcus, how’re the villagers doing?” Arnest asked the elven officer to his right.

“The fifty men have been taught a basic formation for five men. We’ll be able to have thirty squads if we count all our forces.” Marcus replied seriously. Being forced to follow the orders of a young human would usually be a humiliating situation but it didn’t seem to bother Marcus.

A soldier came running from the direction of the beach. “Lord, we’re finished stocking the boat. We’re ready to sail at any time.”

“Good. Marcus, order the men to board the ship. We set sail at high noon.” said Arnest as he walked towards his hut.

When he opened the door, Black Fox was sitting reading a tattered book.

Arnest sat down on the chair opposite to Black Fox. “Grandfather, I’m getting ready to leave now. Will you be coming with me?”

“I’m getting too old for traveling, let alone a battle.” Black Fox snorted, still intently reading his book.

Silence filled the room for a while. Arnest looked up towards Black Fox. “I will miss you.”

Black Fox was his only family in this world. Arnest had used to ask Black Fox many times about his parents but it would always end with his grandfather slanting his eyes and beating him severely. So despite his yearning to know, he knew to hold back his tongue and stopped trying.

“Bah, just run along boy. Let me finish my book.” he said waving his hands at Arnest, pushing him away.

Once Arnest was outside of the hut, a small, mahogany and leather bound book hit him squarely on the forehead. “Read that if you get bored.” Black Fox’s voice echoed as the door magically slammed shut. While rubbing his forehead, Arnest picked up the book and started walking towards the coast.

By the time Arnest was on the ship the men had already finished preparing to set sail. The hundred elf soldiers took hold of the oars while the fifty conscripted men were running around the deck, checking each and every knot. “Set sail!” Arnest shouted and the sails were loosed and a breeze filled the cloth. The boat started to take off away from the island and eventually shrank past the horizon, out of view.

“Y-young master.” a voice stuttered behind Arnest who was standing at the bow.

Turning around, Arnest saw a disheveled, beaten face. “Rufus?”

“Yes it’s me. I wanted to apologize for the other day when I told you about women. I didn’t want to mislead you and-” Arnest placed his hands on the kneeling village idiot. “Why are you apologizing? I know you didn’t mean any harm.” he smiled.

“Grandfather told me that it’s because you’ve only known men and never had an intimate relation with any woman. It makes sense that you don’t know much about them. He also said something about you liking men in bed? I’m not completely sure what that means.” said Arnest trying to reassure the frightened man.

“Curse you, old devil. First you beat me then you spread false rumors?” Rufus muttered under his breath. “Young master, I don’t know what your grandfather has told you but I most definitely do not like men in bed. I would much more prefer a woman or two.” he said, trying to dispel his misconceptions.

“Ah, okay. I will remember that.” Arnest then lead him towards the cargo hold to find some medicine for his face.

After treating Rufus’s face and eating dinner in the galley, he returned to the captain’s quarters. It was larger than the hut and had a neatly prepared bed, a simple desk and chair. Sitting at the desk, he pulled out the small book, that Black Fox had given him, out of his pocket.

On the cover it had no words so he decided to open it. The first page was drowned in black ink but seemed to have a mesmerizing quality. Arnest stared at it and as more time passed, he could feel himself becoming light headed. His mana seeped out of his body and into the mysterious page.

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“Thud.”

Arnest fell unconscious off his chair and onto the gently rocking floor.

The scene before him unfolded into what seemed to be a large bedroom. Arnest sat at an ornate desk with a window overlooking a gardened courtyard.

“During the Battle of the Beasts, Prince Maximilian and his wolf howlers numbered at a few hundred. Wolf howlers were his elite troops, said to possess the spirit of wolves, who could fight easily against many normal soldiers with ease. But his enemy, the Silver Winged Duke, had at least four thousand troops - a thousand of them were his elite, the silver eagle riders. Against all odds the prince was able to fight them evenly, eventually pushing them back towards his province.” A slim man, wearing a pair of glasses spoke like he was giving a lesson to his pupil.

“How did the prince beat the duke?” Arnest asked.

“There’s many theories, some say that the prince had a powerful magus and others that he bribed the enemy soldiers with coin. But from the accounts I’ve read, I believe he used two main strategies. The first is that the battle was delayed until night due to the wolf howlers being unable to be caught by their chasing enemy. A battle in the dark is heavily beneficial for the wolf howlers because they have a keen eyesight. Although this is true for the silver eagles as well, a majority of the enemy troops were just regular men.”

“And the second?” impatiently Arnest said with his eyes glossy interest.

“The second strategy, is that he lured the enemy into the Warren Forest. Within the maze-like trees, they were able to force the enemy to fight with at most a few hundred at a time. Also the silver eagles could only fly over the dense canopy above the forest, unable to attack from the sky. The wolf howlers led the regular soldiers deeper into the labyrinth and continuously ambushed them. In the end the duke called for retreat after losing half his army.” the tutor said as he adjusted his glasses.

“So to win, Prince Maximilian was able to use his natural surroundings to his advantage and win a seemingly impossible battle.” Arnest was able to figure out the crux of the victory instantly.

The tutor continued to talk but the sound seemed to not come out. His body turned ghostly and then disappeared. The entire world around Arnest also started to fade to darkness.

And then he opened his eyes.

“What exactly are these dreams? They feel so real.” he wondered.

Ever since that one night, he’s been having these strange dreams. Sometimes it would be someone teaching him about some war and others would be him being taught how to fight. When he woke up, he would remember the dream vividly and would be able to replicate some of the things he learned in his dreams.

He felt stiff from laying on the floor, slowly rising up. On the table there was still the book with the first black page open. However there were golden words that were not there the night before. Arnest read the text.

“Magus Talent: Navulian High Grade. Attribute: Darkness.” he murmured.

Turning to the next page, it was titled [Shadow Step]. There was a simple chant and a few diagrams. “Darkness, embrace me.” it read. The diagrams were instructions on how to control the mana. After repeating the chant for an hour  and continuously circulating his mana according to the diagrams, he felt his body start to disappear. Arnest melded into the dark corner of the room. Within the darkness, he could move freely but once he neared the light of the candle on the table, he became fully visible again.

Once learning [Shadow Step] he felt jubilated and was eager to see if the book had any more abilities. But when he turned to the next page, it was blank. Arnest realized that it was the same for the rest of the book, just a series of blank pages. Slightly disappointed, he placed the book back into his pocket. “Grandfather must have given it to me so I could learn magic.” he felt a bit homesick already, thinking of Black Fox.

A knocking on the door made Arnest direct his attention towards it. “Lord, we’ve reached an island!” the soldier who was knocking shouted.

Surfacing to the deck, Arnest saw in the distance a mountain that scraped the sky. The clouds were even lower than the mountain’s peak. A few fishing boats could be seen closer by who were quickly rowing towards the island away from his giant ship.

Marcus, the elven officer, walked up next to Arnest. “Should we dock at this island? They have a small harbor.” he asked.

“Sure. Let’s make some new friends.” Arnest smiled.