Chapter 20: Improper Leadership
“Just how many monsters are we talking about?” Sasha asked the town guard at Gumunbund.
“Dozens! They passed just north of Gumundund and continued to the east! It was eerie…”
Sasha’s party had wandered from town to town, picking up any clues they could about unusual activity at dungeons, but they weren’t expecting to learn about an army of monsters marching from one border of the Empire to the other.
“Thanks for the information.”
She stepped back over to her party, who had been eavesdropping from nearby.
“Ardreth, what do you make of this?”
Ardreth glanced at the rest of the party, taking note of the fact that people sympathetic to both factions in the Empire were present. “Judging from the direction those monsters came from, they probably originated from the Lower Gordu Forest.”
“I mean, isn’t that obvious? Where else would monsters come from that march in groups like people?”
“I dare not speculate.” Ardreth narrowed his eyes at Sasha, who had recently lost her infect status. He didn’t even mention this fact to her, let alone the rest of the party.
“So what should we do?” said Luna.
“I think we should investigate the dungeon west-southwest of here—the one closest to the Twin Cities.”
“Why?” asked the older of the two brothers from the central region of the Empire. “You expecting to find anything special there?”
“I’m not sure,” Ardreth admitted. “Changes lately seem to be focused on monsters and dungeons. Rather than chase down a small army of monsters, I think it’s smarter to observe dungeons.”
“Well we’ve been practically everywhere else already!” the younger brother whined. “Fine, let’s check out that dungeon.”
“Fine with me,” Luna agreed.
Everyone had different objectives, but at least they all wanted to know what the heck was going on in the Empire.
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A rider arrived in the central city of Unbarag. He dismounted his horse and proceeded into the largest building around. A servant guided him to the dining room, where a married couple, both in their late 40s, ate dinner.
“News of the North?” the husband asked between bites of ground meat.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Let me guess. The Emperor is amassing his naval forces at Zirar.”
“N–No, that’s not what I came to report, Sir.”
“Hm?”
“Honey, do we need to discuss this at dinner?”
The man turned to his wife. “If my guess was correct I would have agreed with you. But now I’m curious.” He turned back to the messenger. “What is it?”
“Monsters were sighted from the walls of Adzah.”
The husband narrowed his eyes. “Monsters, huh? Wait, at Adzah? Just what happened?”
According to the messenger, monsters appeared on the horizon and approached the port city. After raising the alarm, the city guard prepared to defend the walls only to find the monsters bypassing the city. They passed just north of Adzah and stopped at the shoreline. Last the messenger had seen, they were gathered at the shore doing absolutely nothing.
“So, these monsters are just milling about along the shore between Adzah and Zirar?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Any attempts to deal with them?”
“No, Sir. The Captain couldn’t justify sending people out from the safety of the walls to engage a large group of monsters.”
“Dear, just what is going on?”
The husband turned back to his wife. “Karen screwed up somehow.”
“What? Why are you blaming Karen?”
“I’ll have to explain another time. I’m riding south.”
“Now!?”
“Yes. I’ll attempt to meet up with Karen and Jonathan near Nabilgat.”
“Honey, I have no idea why you’re riding south after hearing that news, but I’ll trust you.”
“Good.” The man then gave the messenger orders. “Good work. Return to Adzah and tell them to avoid engaging the monsters unless absolutely necessary.”
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A small city came into view.
“That must be Zirar,” Bandit announced from behind the map she was holding on front of her face.
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The girls had been following the traces of a path left by the marching monsters. So far, they were the only ones actually crazy enough to do this, apparently.
They approached the gate to Zirar, which was closed despite the sun being high in the sky. Guards monitored the approach from above.
“Um, can we enter?” Kat called up to one of the guards.
“Yes, uh, give us just a moment,” the guard answered, surprising the girls with his feeble reply. “Do you know where those monsters came from?”
“Their tracks come from the west,” said Kat. “That’s all we saw.” Of course, she could have provided more details, such as the fact that the monsters passed through a particular farming village, but it didn’t seem smart to reveal too much at this juncture.
“All right, here.” While the guard spoke, the gate screeched open. “Hurry inside.”
The girls were a bit surprised they weren’t asked anything about who they were or where they came from, despite the circumstances, but they didn’t complain. Apparently, the city was entirely preoccupied with the passing of the monsters. They were probably happy to have more armed visitors capable of fighting monsters nearby, even if the girls appeared like a newbie party to the naked eye.
Once inside, Kat led the girls to the eastern wall of the city. “Let’s see what we can see from the wall.” They received permission and climbed the wall to get a view of the coastline which ran from north of the city to south. “There!” She pointed in a direction east-southeast of the city, judging from the current position of the sun.
All five girls could see the monsters they had been tailing just standing as a group on the beach. The minotaurs and tentacle monsters stood out, but there were a few other monsters mixed in as well.
“What do we do?” asked Lupy.
“You girls should wait here,” a passing guard instructed. “Don’t go attacking so many monsters!”
The girls acknowledged him and climbed down from the wall. Once they were out of earshot of anyone else, they resumed their conversation.
“So, what should we really do?” This time, Shiba asked the question.
“We just wait, right?” said Vulp.
“Yeah,” Kat agreed. “Let’s wait and see what happens with those monsters. They might lead us somewhere else.”
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DM was growing impatient. In recent months, he had grown fond of the console and got used to playing around with it, whether for dungeon development or simply just to play games with himself. Meanwhile, he was in the habit of constantly checking in on all the people he had infected. Temporarily losing access to both sources of engagement left him feeling bored, kind of like losing a cell phone in his old world.
Just when he was seriously contemplating giving up on his subterfuge and busting out of this situation to resolve his utter boredom, relief, in the form of a party of horsemen, arrived from the north. Karen and Jonathan both jogged over to the small group who were dismounting nearby.
“Father!” Karen called out as she approached.
The lead man eyed the monsters lining one side of the clearing and then turned his attention back to his daughter. “Inside.”
Karen and Jonathan led the man into a tent they were using like a command center. DM was not invited in, not that he would fit anyway, but he wasn’t being guarded to begin with so he just slithered close enough to listen in on the conversation. Nobody else noticed or cared.
“Father, why did you come here?” asked Jonathan.
“Hmph. I’ll tell you that in a few minutes. First, give me your report.”
“Of course, Father.” Karen proceeded to explain what had happened. “After inviting the Holy State’s dungeon master, we placed the special collar on him and had him seize control of the western dungeon. The army of monsters you saw outside is from that dungeon.”
“Why kobolds?” her father asked.
“I refused to march with more disgusting monsters.”
The man sighed. “Karen, whether they are disgusting or not isn’t what’s important. We need strength.”
“We have a second monster army on the way.”
“Oh. That’s why I’m here, Karen. Tell me, when will that monster army get here?”
She turned to her brother. “What do you think, Jonathan?”
“Me? I have no idea how fast they’re traveling or if they even are finding their way…”
“Oh, come on Jonathan, I gave clear instructions for the monsters to be guided directly here.”
“Yeah, but Sister, as I’ve been trying to tell you for days, how is he supposed to—“
“Enough,” their father interrupted. “I’ll tell you when those monsters will get here. NEVER!”
“What? Father, what happened to the monsters?”
“Well, Karen, they seem to be enjoying a nice long stay at the beach.”
“The beach?”
“The beach! I received a report that the monsters marched east through the Empire’s countryside and stopped when they reached the coastline between Zirar and Adzah!”
Karen paled.
“Everyone’s panicking, waiting to see which city the monsters assault or if they’ll attack the first travelers to set out from either direction.”
“That… That tentacle monster!” Karen stood. “I’ll see him beaten for this!” She turned toward the door.
Jonathan hopped up from his seat and lunged at her, restraining her with a bear hug. “Wait, Sister!”
“Unhand me, Jonathan!”
“Wait, dammit!”
“What!?” Karen paused her struggling, directing her fury toward Jonathan instead.
“First, do not antagonize the creature! Second, this is probably just because your orders were insufficient!”
“Oh?” Their father hadn’t moved from his seat. “Exactly what orders have you issued?”
Karen calmed down and regained her composure.
Jonathan released her but made sure to stand between her and the exit to the tent.
“First I had him summon a second army of monsters in the Holy State and a third in the Union. Then I ordered him to have the monsters march here to this dungeon.”
“Karen,” her father said sternly. “How are monsters supposed to find their way to this dungeon?”
“Through him!” Karen pointed in the approximate direction of where DM and his monsters were milling about, in her estimation. “He already knew the route from the Holy State to the western dungeon. I simply told him to pay attention to the route as we traveled from that dungeon to this one. This is betrayal most foul!”
“Let me get this straight,” her father said just slightly above a whisper. “You expected the tentacle monster to provide detailed instructions to monsters for how to march here?”
“But I even permitted the creature to communicate with its armies! Did you know it can telepathically command monsters from afar?”
“Karen, I read the reports, too. I know what transpired over the border. I think you’re missing a key piece of information here, though.”
“Just what am I missing?”
Her father rubbed his temples. “You’ve never commanded an army, so I can see why some of these simple concerns never occurred to you… Suppose you were trying to telepathically direct a group of monsters here from the Holy State. What exactly would you tell them?”
“Hm. To join with the road east out of the Twin Cities, follow it across the border, then turn south—“
“You think monsters know when they’ve crossed a border?”
“I… I suppose they would not care about such things.”
“Karen, I’ll spell it out for you. Your charge instructed the monsters to begin by proceeding east. They didn’t know when to turn so they just kept marching. Don’t blame your subordinates when you set them up for failure.”
“But!” Karen prepared to object. “But it is the subordinate’s duty to inform the leadership when they cannot obey their orders!”
“Sister… You restricted your subordinate from even communicating.”
“What?” Now their father was just confused.
“Well yes,” Karen acknowledged. “I didn’t want that crafty dungeon master manipulating us with half-truths and the like, despite the collar, so I decided to have it dismiss its uh, morphlings. All it needed to do was follow my instructions to the letter.”
“And this is the result,” her father declared. “How are you going to fix this, Karen?”