- Somewhere in the lower region –
“Unit three, support unit six,” guard lieutenant Vaaren yelled as he directed his men in the defense of outpost six-four. The ten men of unit three hurry to charge over to the earth rampart where unit six was desperately trying to keep an ogre from climbing over it.
Vaaren let his gaze flow over the front line where half a dozen starving ogres were currently trying to break into their fort to finally get some sustenance.
They were hideous creatures; four meters tall with muscle-packed limbs and faces that not even a mother could love. Their brownish skin was thick but not as thick as their heads. There was no way that they could break into this fort with their numbers, but they were getting desperate.
A virtual rain of rocks fell on the frontline and Vaaren could see at least one of his men getting felled by a head-sized rock.
“Archers! Focus your arrows on the rock lobber,” the lieutenant yelled and made sure that his shield was attached properly to his arm in case the brutes would return fire.
There was only one ogre that was smart enough to understand that throwing rocks was a better idea than trying to overcome the three-meter-tall earthworks lined by humans with spears.
The rock lobber was quickly peppered in arrows, but the size of the brute meant that they needed to hit specific places to inflict any kind of real damage with arrows.
The first ogre fell a short time later, even the big fellas wouldn't keep on their feet with a spear thrown in the eye. In return, Vaaren could see that one of his men took one step forward too much, had gotten grabbed at the leg, and was unceremoniously smashed against the very earth rampart he was just standing on a moment earlier.
It would probably take a couple of minutes of fighting to get these lugs off his wall, at least it would have if it wasn't for this huge hammer-swinging woman who appeared out of the woods and smashed the rock lobber's skull in from behind.
Behind her followed the rest of her silver-ranked adventurer group and proceeded to annihilate the small group of distracted meatheads.
Lieutenant Vaaren stepped out from his overlooking position and onto the earth rampart, looking down on the adventurers.
“Good to see you, Miss Clara,” he called out to her and saluted by smashing his fist to his chest.
The part-giant woman simply looked up and with what looked like no effort at all jumped up to the top of the earth hill.
“Heya, Vaaren. Another group, huh? You guys should probably have a knight or two stationed here with the frequent attacks on this fort,” the adventurer said in her informal way.
Vaaren scoffed with a little smile before replying, “The guard will do their job. It might not always be as pretty as you mana-fueled maniacs slaughtering your way through, but we get things done.”
“Don't worry, we maniacs will try to get your asses out of the fire if you can't handle it anymore,” she smirked, and the lieutenant couldn't help but do the same.
“I do prefer to have you on my side than on the other that much is for sure.”
Clara gave him a rare genuine smile and lightly punched his shoulder, “The feeling is mutual, little guy.”
Vaaren looked over the battlefield and noticed that there were still corpses from the previous engagement lying around that they hadn't managed to get rid of before these six ogres had arrived.
“The attacks are definitely becoming more frequent and much more desperate. I assume that we will start moving in and hunting down what is left in the middle region soon,” Vaaren thought loudly.
“Once the little lordling returns maybe,” Clara answered and got a surprised expression from the guardsman in response.
“What do you mean? Has Lord Rowan gone anywhere?”
“Yeah, I heard from some colleagues that he ventured into the upper region, the little bugger,” she ignored the annoyed expression to her disrespect. “Heard about a couple of groups that want to go up there exploring before everything is claimed by him too.”
Vaaren looked up the mountains while lost in thought, they were hardly visible between the trees though and wondered what could have drawn the young count up there.
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Michael
Michael hated that he had to leave so soon already when the sun hit his face. They had spent the night in the volcano but after another short conversation, they needed to get going. It had been risky to go up here in the first place and staying away without a word for longer than a day always had the risk that the knights and guards would get antsy and start looking for them. Doubly so after what happened in the dungeon a few weeks back. And so, they were now standing at the tunnel entrance looking down and the view was phenomenal.
The two wyverns were again or still resting on the stone plateau next to the tunnel entrance and had lifted their heads when the humans had exited. The brown one nudged Michael with his head to the horror of his guard but Michael told them to stay back and gave the wyvern a careful pat on the back of the nose.
He then turned around and gave everyone an intense stare. “Listen up. No one here will lose a single word about Ferrekxan and the wealth we have found up here. I will decree that this area will be off-limits by the threat of death and say that I made a deal with an intelligent alpha wyvern. That is our story and that is what has happened up here, am I understood?”
Everyone nodded, most were just glad to be going home and the rest knew that it would be only trouble if anyone found out that there was a living dragon in these mountains sitting on a treasure trove of riches.
“Good, let's go home.”
The way down the upper region was much more relaxed with two wyverns leading the group to the treeline. Michael waved them goodbye and then made his way back to camp, Geron and the others had to cut down a couple of monsters in the middle region that threw themselves at the group in desperation but other than that nothing happened on the way down.
Once back in camp, Michael went straight to the command tent to put the upper region into lockdown and had that ruling communicated with all relevant parties.
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“Well, I think it is time to return to Reen,” Michael said while leaning back in his seat.
“Huh,” Geron couldn't help but perk up and look at his liege with suspicion. “We are not done with everything, and you want to leave?”
“Everything that is left is cleaning up, you don't need me for that;” Michael replied with an amused expression.
Before Geron could say anything else, Lance entered and announced that the dwarven survey team was waiting outside.
“Ah, they have finally arrived,” Michael said, quickly got up, and went outside to see a group of dwarves followed by a similarly sized group of human teenagers and young adults.
Greetings were exchanged between Michael and the leader of the group Zinnel before they got right to the main topic.
“We have confirmed that there should be mineral riches in the mountains, I will leave it to you to find them and report back,” Michael told the dwarf. They had been one of the most important hirings that Michael had made in Garekha, even if they weren't able to find expert craftsmen, having an expert group of miners and surveyors would yield a tremendous fortune from what he had seen in the mountains.
“Aye, will do, Lord Rowan,” Zinnel answered with a heavy rustic accent and played with the silver jewelry in his grey beard.
Michael was taken aback for a moment; he had been called Lord Rowan by most in the last months but somehow this one hit him. He had to think of his father and a blunt pain went through his heart.
What would father think of what I am doing here, he thought. Michael had managed to not think too much about his family lately with all the work he never was able to let his thoughts wander much anyway.
He imagined Lord Cedric Rowan sitting behind his desk looking over the reports of the Ereic Mountain Invasion and commenting on inefficiencies and errors.
“It would be faster if we didn't have to bring the wee lads with us,” Zinnel's voice ripped Michael out of his thoughts and back into reality.
“I am sorry. What did you say?”
The dwarf looked at him with a frown and pointed at the group of humans that had followed him. “It would go faster if we didn't have to train the humans on the job.”
“Oh, yes. You know very well that training new personnel will only be a temporary loss of efficiency and a much greater increase later on,” Michael replied.
The dwarf waved him off, “Ye ye, I know. It is part of our contract so we will do what we have to either way.”
“Good. Do you have everything you need?”
Zinnel looked back to a female dwarf, and she nodded. “Should be fine. It is not dwarven quality, but we will do just fine. If these mountains are so full of treasure as you say, then we should be able to unearth some veins easily, and once Farel and Waren have set up shop we should get better equipment to find the more elusive veins.”
“Alright then, I look forward to your reports. You will have full autonomy about where you start and where to establish the first mines, but the upper layer is off-limits and I would appreciate it if you could start with something that will make us some money quickly if you manage to find something,” Michael said with a slight smile. He was sure that he would get a lot of grief from his steward once he returned regarding the treasury and debts they were in now.
Zinnel laughed and replied, “We will try to dig up something good for you, lad.”
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Mira
Mira sneaked through the corridors making sure that no one saw her. She was supposed to be present at some kind of event of the young nobles in the capital, but she just couldn't stand having all of them fawn over her and pretentious idiot Julius Wulfen.
She knew that the servants were on the lookout for her so she chose to hide where they would never expect her, in the council wing. She normally stayed away from it to not be pulled into politics or be stopped by some old man talking to her about his sons.
With a sigh Mira dipped into the council chambers, she knew that Zen was currently training so they should be empty right now. It was richly decorated, in the way of House Merland, with many lions and a lot of silver with high-quality dark wood to make the silver stand out even more.
She liked this room; it reminded her of her father who had often let her sit on his lap while in a meeting.
“I miss you, Dad,” she mumbled to herself. Things had just not been the same since he had died, Zen was doing the best he could, but he was pressured from all sides and even if he would never admit it without Lord Cedric here, he was vulnerable to outside influence.
She walked around the council table and let her fingers run across the intricate carvings. This room perfectly mirrored how she felt, it was once home but now she was alone in it. Her mother was mostly concerned with Zen, her father was gone, and her friends were either busy all the time or far away.
Heavy steps pulled her out of her thoughts, and she scrambled to hide behind the heavy curtains. Mira breathed slowly as two men entered the chamber.
“It is a concerning development down south. I have gotten numerous strange reports from Reen and Emall,” the first man said, Mira didn't recognize the voice though.
They are talking about Michael's land, Mira thought and listened closely.
“Yes, apparently Lord Rowan's mad quest into the Ereic Mountains has been a success. That is indeed concerning, if the predictions that my spies have reported to me are true, then we will see a massive rise in wealth and strength in Reen and Emall and in extension the Duchy of Praanen,” the voice sent a shiver through Mira, she knew it all too well, it was Duke Leopold Wulfen. She clasped her hands in front of her mouth, he was the last person she wanted to be caught by.
He had this scary way about him, the way he talked with a total lack of emotion and his eyes seemingly piercing right into one’s soul. Mira shuddered which sent a ripple through her hiding spot. She held her breath for a moment, but it didn’t appear as if anyone had noticed.
“Having that backwater duchy rise in power might interfere with my plans and that can't be allowed,” Lord Wulfen continued in a dangerous voice.
“I heard that there is a large faction of nobles who are not happy with the way the young Lord Rowan is running things. We could support them and put more kindling into their grievances to bring them on a course of confrontation with their liege, that should stunt his growth effectively,” the other voice suggested, and Mira continued to listen with growing horror.
“Let's keep that option open,” Lord Wulfen answered calmly. “I have another idea which might be able to make their advantage into ours. For now, we will wait and see if our information proves to be correct should it be, then we will be prepared to choke out the kindling in the south if we must.”
I need to tell Zen and Michael about this, Mira thought but still kept quiet until she could no longer hear the two men.
She then hurried out and nearly ran into her knight Antreos Lampert.
“Your Highness, there you are. I have been looking for you all over the palace,” he said and frowned when he saw the tears in her eyes. “What happened, milady?”
She told the knight everything she had heard about how Lord Wulfen and another man wanted to incite unrest in Michael's land and that Lord Wulfen wanted to do something against him.
“You should keep this to yourself, milady,” the knights said with a hard expression.
“Why would I do that?! I need to tell Zen; he needs to put a stop to this!”
The knight shook his head at the emotional girl with the patience that he always exuded. “It would only do more harm than good. His Majesty King Zenial's rule leans strongly on Duke Wulfen at the moment so he won't be able to do anything about a vague threat and noble squabbles. Everything that telling him would achieve right now is pitting him against his strongest supporter, however selfish this supporter might be, and expose yourself for having listened.”
“I need to tell him anyway. Michael is our friend and Zen should know,” Mira spat back and began running. The knight was easily keeping up with her, but she ignored him, and he didn't try to stop her.
She ran through one corridor after another, dodging startled servants until she reached the training square where Zen was currently sparing with Sir Gavin Strom.
“Brother, I need to talk to you,” she said after catching her breath, but he didn't listen to her.
“Brother! Zen!”
“I am a little busy, Mira,” he replied while blocking a strike of the knight commander.
“It is really important.”
She managed to distract him so much that he didn't react fast enough and got a strike against his upper leg as a reward. He cursed in pain and whirled around to his sister.
“Dammit, Mira! Can't you see that I am busy?! I don't have time for your childish behavior!”
Mira stared at her brother with tears in her eyes and his anger quickly vanished, but it was too late already.
Sir Antreos was right, Zen doesn't care, she thought, remembering what had happened when Michael’s family died. Zen would put his duty as king first and she couldn’t change that. She turned around and ran away before her brother could say anything else.
“Mira, I'm sorry. Come back!” Zen's calls went unanswered as Mira stormed away.
If Zen won't help me then I will have to protect Michael myself, Mira thought angrily and hurt.