Chapter 18 – The Generals

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Having finished breakfast I passed the tray to Raziel who put it on the food trolley while I sat on the bed border. When she turned back at me I grabbed her by her sides and drew her closer to me.

“So… When will the council start?” I asked while hugging her waist.

“Just after lunch. Speaking of which, I should probably explain you a few things about it.”

I looked up at her and said “Don’t tell me I have to wear an uncomfortable dress again.”

She bent forward and gave me a light kiss.

“Don’t worry you won’t.”

“Really? I wasn’t even hoping for it.”

“It’s tradition to attend to the war council armed after all.”

“That doesn’t seem safe for the king.”

“Don’t worry, all those who will attend the council has sworn loyalty to the king and proved their words. Also, no one would willingly go against me, Gabriel, Raphael and all those who would protect the king.”

“You’ll be there too?”

“Of course, not a single war council since the founding of the kingdom took place without me attending.”

“You’re something like the main attraction then.” I said and, pulling her even closer to me, made her fall on the bed on top of me.

“Well… you could put it that way too. Anyway, let me explain.”

“Sorry.” I said and kissed her.

She moved from being on top of me and laid next to me before saying “As I said, everyone will be armed so I suggest you wear your gambeson with the badge the king gave you yesterday over it and a weapon. It can be anything, most people come with a sword but there are exceptions every year.”

“Is the rapier fine?”

“Yes, the rapier is fine.”

“Then I’ll go with that.” I said and took two pillows to put under our heads.

Raziel lifted her head a bit as I placed the pillow under her while she said “You’ll also have to wear gloves and take the right one off right before the greetings, which will take place in front of the room, not inside. You’ll greet everyone with a handshake as equals except the king who you’ll bow to. Are you listening?”

“Yes, yes. Gloves, handshakes, bowing to the king. I should have a pair of leather gloves in the wardrobe, right?” I said while trying to get in a comfortable position.

“Yes, you do. Anyway, when everyone is present and the greetings are done with the doors will be opened and you will enter. As you’re the lowest ranked in the meeting you’ll enter first. I’ll be already inside. You’ll walk past the table, come to me and kiss my hand –“

“You really are the main attraction!”

“Stop it, they are just formalities, you already know my title as guardian of the crown, don’t you? It’s mainly because of that. After kissing my hand you’ll walk back towards the entrance and stay next to the chair nearest to the doors, waiting for everyone to do the same and get to their seats. After the king sits you’ll sit too.”

 “I don’t want everyone to kiss your hands though, they’re mine.” I said, took her right hand with mine and lightly kissed it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be wearing long gloves for most of the time.” She said and kissed me.

“On that note” –she continued—“I won’t be here during lunch as I have to prepare for the council too. The head maid will probably send Caethy; don’t tease her too much, okay?”

“I won’t, I won’t. But I’m still not convinced about all that kissing your hand thing. Some young noble could get the wrong idea.”

“Unlike you, most people are usually terrified when they see me, not turned on.” She said laughing.

“Just because you’re a vampire?”

Raziel stopped laughing and her face immediately became serious, a change that surprised me for a moment, and said “No, vampires are scary for a lot of people but most of them aren’t too different from high level adventurers in terms of fighting power, most of them get themselves killed before even reaching level sixty. Fortuna, you should already know how levels work, don’t you?”

“You gain levels by either killing an enemy or making them fall unconscious, the latter giving much less proficiency towards the next level, one’s level and the enemy level also greatly influences how much proficiency one receives for defeating their enemies, right?” I answered, a bit baffled by the question.

“Fortuna, you know what my level is, I didn’t reach it by knocking people unconscious or by killing dragons and monsters like a rightful hero. Even though I hated and still hate Leliah if she didn’t appear and Armand had not mustered the courage to ask for my help in defeating her, I might be the one people celebrate the death of instead of her.”

“Don’t you dare saying things like that!”

“It’s true, those are things everyone in this world knows but, except for the people who are given permission to attend the war and minister councils of the Kingdom, everyone on Kilis thinks I’m sleeping under the palace. Now that you are part of the council too I can tell you that the main purpose of the barrier around the capital isn’t to keep monsters out and make the fields fertile, those are just useful side effects. Armand trusted me” —Her face was clouded in sadness as tears fell down her cheeks, wetting the pillow, every time she spoke of Armand –”but the same wasn’t true for the other humans of the time nor the goddess, the conditions she set to bless me and allow me to walk by Armand’s side were giving up both my necromancy magic and my freedom.”

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The tears were now falling as a river as she sobbed uncontrollably. I put my hands around her and brought her closer to me, letting her rest her head on my chest.

“I hated humans and did terrible things to them; I might have killed Armand too the day he came to me if I didn’t feel like playing a bit with him. I now feel sick just thinking about what I had become.”

 “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought this up.”

“Don’t be.”

We stayed like that for something like an hour before Raziel managed to recover from her crying and went to prepare herself for the council. I stayed in my room, idling around before I decided to dress. When Caethy came, bringing my lunch, she was surprised not to see me happy go lucky like usual and seemed worried about it but didn’t question me and I ignored her worried looks.

Once I finished eating and the time for the meeting came I took the long mithril rapier out of the storage, put it on my side and went to the council.

In front of the large wooden doors leading to the circular room used for the council there were already three people waiting, two of them were Duke Besalel and Count Achar who were talking to each other, much to the displeasure of the duke; the third person was a tall, bulky man in his late fifty resting against the wall near a window wearing full plate armor, his visor lifted and his right gauntlet in his left hand.

I took off my right glove and went to greet the two I already knew.

“Good afternoon Duke Besalel, Count Achar.” I said to the two giving them my hand.

“Good afternoon Baroness Fortuna.” They said, shaking hands with me one at the time.

Besalel guided me to the man in armor and said “I think you still haven’t met Duke Cahel Forsche, he’s the head of the Forsche house and governs the Armored Dukedom in the north.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Duke Cahel.”

“It’s a pleasure for me too, hero.” –He said, grabbing my hand in a firm hand shake.—“I hope you will prove yourself worthy of that title in battle.” He tightened his grip around my hand as he said so.

“You don’t have to worry; I’ll make sure I won’t be outshined by an old man.” I said reciprocating the hand-smashing hand shake.

Duke Cahel let go of my hand and burst in a loud laughter.

“Duke Besalel, when you said you liked the hero I was expecting to see a petty whore ready to cock-ride her way up the ranks. I’m really glad I was wrong.”—He said, hitting both me and Besalel with a bear version of a pat on the shoulder—“I would have liked to see your match against Lord Gabriel and Lady Raphael, Hero Fortuna.”

“You would have been disappointed, it was mostly staged. I might have the hero title but even for me is impossible to win against those two with only a few months of training.”

“It’s good that you know your limits, I wouldn’t want to see you dead before you can overcome them... Speaking of not knowing one’s limits, my crazy girl is here.”

I turned around and saw a woman in her early twenties with a long, gray robe that covered almost everything except her head and her hands. On the left side of her face there was a large burn scar that reached to her now white eye that contrasted heavily with her otherwise bronzed skin.

“Fuck you old man.”

“Is that what you say to your foster father after so much time?” He said, catching her right hand and bringing her closer to him in a hug.

They separated from each other and, after exchanging a big smile, turned towards me.

“This ungrateful little girl here is Aeithne, my adoptive daughter and General of the Arcane.”

We shook hands and I said “It’s a pleasure to meet you General Aeithne.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Baroness Fortuna. Don’t mind what this old man says, even after all this years he still hasn’t learned how a person of his rank should talk.”

“I’m still here, you know.” Said Duke Cahel behind her.

“I’m saying it exactly because you can hear me, maybe this time you’ll understand it.” –She said without looking at him while walking towards Duke Besalel—“Good afternoon Duke Besalel.”

“Good afternoon General Aeithne. You’re as beautiful as ever.”

“If you try putting your cock in my daughter I will cut it off for good.” Shouted Duke Cahel.

Besalel gulped but Aeithne ignored both of them and said “you flatter me Duke Besalel” before turning towards Count Achar with a big smile on her face.

“Good afternoon Count Achar, I’m glad to see you’re in good health. How is your wife? Did she like the beauty lotion I gave her as a gift?”

“Good afternoon General Aeithne. My wife loved it, but your concern for my family and me won’t make your spending less grave.”

Aeithne smile broke and despair seemed to take hold of her.

“By the way”—I said to Duke Cahel who was next to me—“what is the General of the Arcane?”

“Has no one explained you the structure of our military?” He asked me baffled.

“Not really.”

“There are four generals: the General of the Ground who manages the army; the General of the Air who manages the air force, mainly constituted of the griffon corps; the General of the Sea who manages the navy; finally the General of the Arcane who manages the mages of all three corps and cross-branch operations.”

“She must make you really proud.”

“She does indeed, I wish I could say the same for those two idiots of my sons. She was already a steel ranked adventurer when I adopted her and she was only twelve at the time. If it wasn’t for her few loose screws I would have been submerged by marriage proposals a long time ago.”

“I can hear you old man!” Shouted Aeithne, interrupting the count’s scolding.

“General Aeithne is as loud as ever.” Said a voice behind me.

We turned around and I saw two men in their early fifties, one wearing a brown gambeson , with a sword at his side while the other was dressed it what looked like a blue uniform with a tightly closed jacket.

“General Kemble, General Murdoch. I’m glad to see you’re both still in one piece.” Said the duke next to me.

“The feeling is mutual, Duke Cahel” Said the blue dressed man while greeting the duke with a handshake.

“Good afternoon Duke Cahel, won’t you introduce us to the lady next to you?” Said the man with the brown gambeson.

“Of course, Generals, this woman next to me is the summoned hero. Hero Fortuna, these two men are General of the Ground Kemble and General of the Sea Murdoch.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Baroness Fortuna.”

“The pleasure is all mine General Murdoch. General Kemble.” I said greeting the two one after the other.

“So, are we the last ones?” Asked General Kemble.

“No, both General Beval and the king have yet to arrive.”

The moment the duke said so a griffon with a man covered in leather and fur on top of it appeared outside the window. When the man saw us he started waving his hand at us.

“I guess that is the General of the Air, right?” I asked.

“Yes.” General Murdoch answered while the other two men sighed.

“Should we open the window?”

“No, ignore him; he’ll learn to be punctual.” Said General Kemble.

The General of the Air arrived ten minutes later running and panting.

“Aaah, aah, am I, aah, on time?” He asked, trying to catch breath.

“Barely, luckily for you the king has yet to arrive.” Said Aeithne who was talking with me about my equip magic when he arrived.

“Good afternoon General Aeithne. Aaah”—He said, then looked at me—“you must be the hero, Baroness Fortuna, right? It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine General...-“

“Beval.”

“It’s a pleasure, General Beval.”

As we were shaking hands the king arrived and we all stopped what we were doing to bow to him.