Chapter 25 - Let's Hope They Don't Know How to Climb

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After the horn stopped everyone in the guild seemed to be in high gear as people started rushing outside.

"Could you tell me where the branchmaster is?" I asked the girl who just gave me the wonderful news.

"I'm sorry, but he asked not to be disturbed as he is speaking with Viscount Granger."

I raised an eyebrow and stared at her for a few seconds before she realized what she had just said and, visibly nervous, told me, "Oh, right, I'm sorry Lady Fortuna, they should both be at the guard barracks."

"Which is...?"

"Near the Northern gate."

"Thank you beautiful." I said and walked away from the counter, gesturing Holiés to follow me.

“What was that?” He asked me as we walked North from the guild.

"What was what?"

"That ‘thank you beautiful,’ what are you? Some creepy old man?"

"Are you jealous? I can start calling you beautiful too if you want."

"Please don't, you'd only remind me of the old lady who used to live outside our village."

"And I thought I had a good skin all this time, I should look for an herbalist when we finish with this matter."

"Too bad they don't make anything for the head."

"Oh no, they do, they make those lotions that make your hair look all glossy and easy to comb."

"Sorry, I should have been more specific. Too bad they don't make potions for mental illnesses."

I stopped walking, turned to face him , placed a hand on my chest and, faking a concerned look, said "I didn't know you had that kind of problem, I'm really sorry I haven't noticed until now."

"I don't, you do."

"That's the worst comeback you gave me since we met," I said, resuming walking.

"You're right, it probably doesn't even qualify as one... I must be sleepier than I thought."

"Try not to faint on the walls then."

"Good joke, too bad I only agreed to hunt with you, not getting mashed by an army of treants. I'll accompany you to the barracks and see you again later... If you're still alive."

"I didn't know you were a coward."

"I'm not a coward, I just like living, especially when I have no obligation to die. Also, bows are pretty useless against walking trees, you know?"

"Fair enough. What are you going to do then?"

"I'll find a good place to eat, have a walk, browse goods at the market -"

"Hit the brothel."

"You know what? I might do that too. It should be pretty free with this situation going on." He said, then mumbled something like "I don't think I could resist another night otherwise."

"Sorry, did you say something about nights?"

“I said, ‘if I had slept more tonight it would have been more wise.’”

“Well, you’ll get used to it.”

“You mean there are more to come?!” He shouted at me

“Oh fuck me.”

“I’ll let the misses at the brothels take care of that for today.”

I stopped in front of a building guarded by the city guards with soldiers running out of it towards the walls and said "well, this looks a lot like the guard barracks. I think this is where we separate," giving my hand to him.

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"Yes, good luck Fortuna," he said, shaking my hand.

"Good fuck, Holiés." I said before leaving him and walking towards the barracks.

The two guards on duty at the entrance of the barracks were surprised, almost shocked, to see me. Before they could say anything though, I told them "I'm Baroness Fortuna Tullius, Hero of Humanity. I was informed that the guild's branchmaster and Lord Granger are discussing the matter of the Treants here."

The two bowed lightly at me and one of them said "Yes milady, they are in the captain's office. Please, I'll guide you."

I followed him inside the almost empty building, the few remaining guards just glanced at me as we passed them and walked towards the stairs. Once on the second floor the guard guided me to a door at the end of a hallway and knocked on it.

"What is it?" Said a voice from inside the room.

"Captain, Hero Fortuna is here to talk about the treants."

I heard some mumbling I couldn't distinguish before the same voice said, "let her come in."

The guard opened the door for me and bowed a bit as I passed through. Once inside he closed the door behind me and I walked towards the three men facing me while standing around a desk on the other side of the room.

The one in the most expensive clothes stepped forward and gave me his hand saying "It's a pleasure to meet you Hero Fortuna, I'm Viscount Granger. These men here are Branchmaster Leandre and our guard captain, Chaney."

"The pleasure is all mine, Lord Granger, Master Leandre, Captain Chaney." I said, nodding to the other two after shaking the viscount's hand, "now that the greetings are dealt with, I heard you have some adventurers managed to anger the wrong tree."

Lord Granger laughed and said, "you heard right, according to their depositions, they followed the beast they were hunting up to the sacred tree of a great spirit we had a contract with and… Well, let’s say they did their best to anger it and now we are in this situation.”

“I heard they set the tree on fire then tried to put it out using their own urine.”

“...yes.”

“Well then, what is the course of action?”

“Most of our farmers and the few earth mages we managed to find are digging a large moat north of here, we hope to delay them as much as possible. Luckily for us a group of elven adventurers arrived in Dulsalies two weeks ago and should arrive by late evening."

"How long will the moat delay them?"

The guard captain glanced outside his window and said, "At most a couple of hours as it is now. Treants are slow but it won't take them much more to walk around it or get out of it once they fall in anyway. The city guard and any adventurer we managed to find at the guild are ready to intercept those who do."

"I see you have everything planned out already. Is there any way I could help?"

Lord Granger and the branchmaster looked at each other and the latter said, "yes, if you know earth magic it would really help us. We don't have much time before their arrival and shovels can only do so much."

"Yes, of course. I'll gladly help."

"Was there anything else you wanted to ask?"

I thought about it for a moment before saying, "no, I will go and help with the moat, then reunite with the adventurers deployed to intercept the ones that escape."

As soon as I said so the viscount’s expression changed to one of worry and, after thinking for a few seconds, he said, "about that... I'd prefer you stayed inside the city during the actual battle."

"What?" I said baffled.

"I'm sorry but you're a too valuable asset to the kingdom to let you fight on the open field like that only a few weeks after you became an adventurer. If you want to help during the battle, please limit your action to what you can do inside the city and on the city walls."

"I... I understand. I will offer magical support from the walls."

"Thank you."

"Well, good afternoon Lord Granger, Branchmaster, Captain." I said, bowing a bit towards the three before leaving the room.

After walking out of the barracks I went north, exiting the city at the gate facing the ongoing works. As I passed the gate a man in full armor came up to me and said, "you are Lady Fortuna, right?"

"Yes?"

"Are you here to help with the works?"

"Yes, the guildmaster told me you needed Earth mages."

"Perfect, a courier from the merchant guild is about to bring potions to the mages, we'll have you ride with him." He said, then turning towards a young teenage boy he told him, "Micky, when you're ready bring Lady Fortuna to the moat."

"Yes, My Lord." The boy said as he brought the horse to us.

I mounted behind him and smiled at the man in armor. "May I know who I should thank for my lift?"

"First son of Viscount Granger, Reynard Rook"

"It was a pleasure, Lord Reynard."

"The pleasure was all mine, Lady Fortuna."

I gave a pat to the boy saying "let’s go" and he shortened the reins and with a yell made the the horse gallop away.

As we neared the moat I started to see hundreds of people digging with any tools they had at their disposal, and the four mages who were equally distributed along the length of the site.

Once there I dismounted and, after he passed me a few bottles containing the mana-restoring potion, told the boy, "thank you Micky, could you tell the other mages that I'm here and to reposition themselves?"

"Yes, Milady." He said and galloped away.

I walked up to the border of the moat and started moving or cracking every rock in the way of the people digging and moving the soft soil away from around them, making sure to not interfere with their work.

After forty minutes of digging the moat reached a depth of about six meters and a wideness of eight as the treants were finally visible from the ground at the edge of the forest.

The mages regrouped with the adventurers while the workers were evacuated and I walked back to the city with them.