Yvanna, now donning the official attire of a knight, the Plate-Mail Armor, sat at the head of the table, her metal-clad fingers tapping lightly on its polished surface. Martha, her advisor and the strongest member in her ranks sat on her right. Her left-hand side seat was occupied by Elara the Conjurer and the knight apprentices filled the reaming seats.

"Firstly, I wish to convey my gratitude to all of you for accepting my proposal and joining me on this endeavor."

Began Yvanna in a bored and tired tone.

She hadn't had a full night's sleep since she began the preparations for the departure, the days were filled with inspecting and gathering resources while the nights were spent formulating an official document regarding the same.

*Sigh*

With a soft sigh, Yvanna began scanning the faces of her new companions,

"As I am sure you are all aware, our destination is the Frostspear Stronghold. This means our task is a fruitless endeavor of guarding against an enemy that will never come our way."

Martha chuckled, kicking Yvanna's legs under the table.

The Apprentice Knights all had determined expressions on their faces, they all had heard of Yvanna Rochelot, the first daughter of Baron Rochelot, the Talented warrior who turned out to be a slob, which guaranteed that all of them were unsure about their new leader.

Elara was the only one with an indifferent look on her face, she had an unapproachable air to her along with the cold confidence that came with strength.

"Our first objective would be to reach that goddamned place before full winter sets in,"

Yvanna sighed again before unfolding a dusty old map of the Rochelot Barony and some of its neighboring territories. It displayed the Barony and the surrounding area, marked with various numbers and symbols representing important locations, landmarks, roads, and trade routes.

"From here to Frostspear is a ten-day journey, seven if we take a ship from the pier-town of 'Polartide.' But that will only make our journey worse since we don't know if there's any pier near the fortress. So we will continue on foot, from 'Ovley' to 'Moonfield,' it will take us five days if we go by road, but a bee-line would be three days and there is a forest path taking us there."

She pointed at the locations marked by the name as she explained the route. The others listened attentively, Martha nodded along with her words in understanding.

"From 'Moonfield' there's a road leading to 'Bleakhallow,' another day, and then from there to 'Glissmaw,' will take us two days. We will resupply there for water and firewood, and then take the road leading to 'Thaw,' another three-day journey and this will be our last stop before reaching Frostspear."

Yvanna paused, giving the others a moment to think and make additions as they saw fit. The map displayed a series of routes and locations that formed a network that interconnected the vast land of Rochelot Barony.

Seeing that no one wished to ass anything, she continued,

"Once we reach the stronghold, the first task on our hands will be to repair and fortify the place. We will be taking about ten craftsmen with us, some of the soldiers can provide us with the manual labor and we can recruit people from the nearby tribes to work for us. Martha, you will be the one overseeing the repairs, and Elara, I want you to assess the magical wards of the stronghold, repair any that you can, and try installing new ones."

Both Martha and Elara nodded their heads in acknowledgment, their expressions remained unchanged. Strangely enough, the conjurer wasn't as arrogant as the rest of the mages.

"The soldiers will be divided into different separate groups, Rachel,"

Yvanna turned to the tallest of the four Apprentice Knights, a tall Polar Bear-kin with the common lean and muscular physique but with a buxom chest.

"You will lead the Heavy Infantry and Archers, your responsibility is to regulate patrols and take care of the security measures. I don't want any rats sneaking in."

Rachel nodded her head and stood up, offering a small bow before sitting down again.

"Emily and Lily, you two are responsible for the scouts and hunters. Survey the surroundings, hunt any magical beasts that get too close to the fortress before its defenses are ready, and form a stable supply of meat for the garrison."

"Very well, my lady."

"Just leave it to me!"

The twin sisters too bowed their heads before sitting back down.

Lily, the elder sister, was the more responsible one while Emily, the younger was more playful. Their appearance may match but a few seconds difference changed their whole personality.

"As for you Roese, you will be in charge of connecting with the nearby villages and tribes, try to gather them around the fortress. Who knows, maybe we can turn Frostspear into a Fortified town."

Roese, a relatively short and stocky bear-kin with a serious demeanor, nodded in acknowledgment. Her role involved diplomacy and recruitment, something she was quite good at.

"Now onto the next agenda,"

Declared Yvanna as she started using a charcoal pen to draw lines across the map,

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"A supply line. Although we might be self-sustained in terms of food and water, we still need to purchase other materials and daily necessities. I guess I should be the one overseeing this one."

Yvanna concluded and the room fell into a momentary silence as they took in their allotted goals. Suddenly, Martha spoke up before any of them were quite ready to begin questioning,

"As your appointed adviser, I will do my utmost to ensure your goals are achieved. But what about the convoy? We need to decide how it will be divided."

The others nodded, after all, deciding the role in a convoy was important. Depending on the role of a person, the journey could either be a vacation or a death march.

Yvanna thought for a moment, the center position was hers no matter the cost. She was far too lazy to be a vanguard or a rearguard so that left the task of assigning posts to the rest of them.

"Right, the convoy, Since we don't really have enough wagons to carry all the supplies, we will have to purchase some carts or wagons along the road. Martha, it's your job to purchase as many wagons and carts as you can within today and tomorrow morning. Also, substitute the normal horses with beasts. Your budget is... 2 gold fangs? 3? OK, take 3 gold fangs and make sure we have an organized convoy."

Martha nodded in agreement, her eyes distracted as she began calculating the cost of her mission in her head.

"As for the convoy's distribution, well, it will be divided into four groups. The first one will be of scouts, Rachel, now it's your duty to scout the path ahead of the convoy. Your team will consist of 15 scouts, 7 Tier 1 scouts, and 8 Tier 2 scouts."

Rachel nodded,

"You can leave it to me."

Yvanna continued with assigning the role within the convoy,

"The second group will be the Vanguard. Roese, you're up next. The vanguard group will consist of 10 Tier 2 light infantry and 10 Tier 2 archers. Your job is to take care of any enemy or ambush detected by the scout group."

Roese nodded while Rachel chuckled and patted her on the back.

"The third group would be the main body, led by me and flanked by Martha and Elara on both sides. Our group would consist of all the wagons, the remaining soldiers except for the hunters and assassins, and the non-combatants. Martha, once again, it's your job to make sure the wagons are working properly and the repairs are done on time."

Martha nodded, still lost in her calculations while Elara simply hummed in response.

"The fourth group will be the rear guard, led by Emily and Lily. The rearguard group will consist of all the hunters and assassins. Your job is to keep an eye out for any potential threats and to hunt down any magical beast that might be attracted to the convoy. Also, remove our trails."

Emily grinned, quite excited about her role involving discreet elimination, even lily couldn't help but crack a smile at the thought.

Martha suddenly reminded her of something,

"What about contingency? Distance? Communication?"

*Sigh*

'Why do I have to deal with all this!?'

Yvanna groaned in her thoughts but began planning nonetheless,

"The scouting party is instructed to maintain a distance of five miles ahead of the main body. Each group within the convoy should stay within a kilometer's proximity of one another. In the event of encountering an overwhelming enemy force, the directive is to retreat to the group immediately behind. For the rear guard, the retreat protocol is towards the group in front. In the unlikely event of a leader's death or incapacitation, each group is to designate a second-in-command responsible for assuming control in such situations."

Surprisingly enough, it was Elara who responded to her plans,

"It's a good plan, but we need efficient communication methods to coordinate proper movements. I have a spell called 'Though Communication,' if you like, I can create a temporary mental connection between all seven of us so we can communicate over a distance of four miles."

Martha added to her answer,

"And we are trained in communication over distance through flares and smokes."

Although Yvanna was initially hesitant, she still agreed to their proposal,

"Very well then, Elara will open a communication link between us once we are on the road. But are you sure it won't exhaust your mana reserves? Would you still be able to fight or defend yourself?"

Elara chuckled and Yvanna had to admit... her laugh was creepy.

"Don't worry, I can keep the spell running for a month straight before even showing signs of fatigue."

Their planning meeting continued as Yvanna and the rest of them addressed all possible complications that might arise during their journey. Well, it was more like Yvanna was constantly outlining the plans while the rest of them were filling in the details and refining it into an effective one.

After nearly three hours of discussions, they finally arrived at the last topic of the day,

"The traveling speed huh?"

Yvanna muttered as she thought about the question she hadn't considered before.

"We need to maintain a minimum of 15 miles a day to cover the distance between us and the Stronghold. We can go thrice as fast but I don't want all my subordinates to be a walking wreck in case we are ambushed by bandits or beasts..."

After a couple of minutes of thinking, she finally concluded the final detail of her plan,

"We will be traveling at the speed of 20 miles a day, taking an hour-long break twice, setting camp half an hour after the sun goes down, and be on our way after the second light of the morning. This gives us a good nine hours to cover as much distance as we can."

Martha nodded along with her and so did the rest of them.

"Very well then,"

Yvanna declared, signaling the end of their meeting.

"Let's get some rest. We will be departing tomorrow afternoon. Dismissed."

As the women began to make their way to the door, Martha suddenly let out a rather unruly smirk,

"Hey, Yvanna, do you think yer' gonna follow the customs?"

Yvanna sighed, she knew this was coming.

"And what 'customs' are you referring to Martha?"

Martha's unruly smirk widened and her voice dropped to barely a whisper,

"Well, there's the whole 'Knightly' tradition things amongst us Knights. We usually have a feast before taking part in a campaign, you know, feasting, drinking, and merrymaking. It usually boosts everyone's morale. Also, there's a tradition of getting 'laid' before the first major campaign. So what do you say? Want your aunt here to snag you a good bear be bed?"

Yvanna sighed with even more exasperation,

"I'd rather not. And did YOU ever get laid to suggest you are gonna grab me a man?"

Martha choked on her laughter before answering,

"Hmph, of course I have. In fact, I am the only one who did, the rest of you are simply too young!"

Elara, who for some reason was listening in on their conversation, shattered her lies,

"She's a virgin. The chap she'd been hoping to lay with got covered in her vomit after she drank too much."

Martha turned bright red as her lie came out into the light, she coughed to cover her embarrassment before mumbling a weak retort,

"It was a one-time thing! I swear! And it was that guy who pursued me!"

'No denying the virgin part huh.'

Yvanna chuckled,

"My answer is still no, I'd rather not ruin my reputation more than it already is."

Martha groaned childishly,

"Oh come one! What's your type then? The rough ones? or the gentle teddy ones? Maybe the short cute ones? Huh? Spill!"

Yvanna stared at Martha, a cold smile plastered across her face,

"I don't have one."

Martha started to complain again, throwing a tantrum like a little kid running wild. Her face was filled with bright expressions, expressions that were a mix of excitement and surprise, anger and reluctance. Like a child being denied a treat after being promised one.

Seeing such an expression on her face, Yvanna simply couldn't resist herself,

"You know what? I didn't know that someone like you could have such a childish side at the age of nearly 30. You are exactly my type."

Martha froze in her tracks, as did the rest of the members of Yvanna's new inner circle who were stalling behind in hopes of seeing a drama.

"Umm, what... what did you say?"