“So that is what are we gonna do today. Let’s discuss what we should do to help Lord Karel”
Duke Conrad finished his explanation to Elric and Alan. Even though Alan couldn’t comprehend any of this, Duke Conrad still call him over before meeting with Lord Karel.
But unlike Alan, Elric put more attention to it.
“I assume you lied to him about wanting to take advantage of him in the future?”
“Sure I did. If I didn’t say it, it would be hurting his pride. He’s the type of person who wants everything to be equal. Including about himself. If I didn’t give him any price, he would blame everything on his own. And that would lead to some serious unnecessary problems. My real reason is to show my loyalty to His Majesty by protecting the one he has approved of. Whatever the situation is, my loyalty has been given to the royalty”
“You can be a bit cruel, father”
“For the greater good, Elric. For the greater good”
“Well, I agree. But as you said to him before, there are many ways to help him. Sending our soldiers is not the only option”
“I know. Even now I don’t want to send our forces to become his aid. It cost too much, not that I meant we can’t afford it. But I want a minimum effort with the maximum result”
“Then why don’t we just send some of our elites? I can go there and fight if the monsters appeared”
Alan suddenly made a suggestion. But he immediately got rejected.
“No way, you have promised to protect Elric. Don’t do anything reckless, Alan”
“You make it sounds easy. Even though they’re just brute monsters, if they have numerical superiority in a defenseless area, you would be done for.”
“All right all right, I’m just kidding okay”
Elric sighed, while duke Conrad smiled.
“So, what is your plan father?”
Elric asked.
“I would send my troops as one of the last resort. I’m planning to give him some equipment and weaponry or send our engineer to build a better defense. Or maybe giving him some financial aid, whether it’s a loan or not, to allow him to purchase anything he could think would help. Well, that all depends on our discussion now”
“All right, I understand”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t find any reason for me to join up with this meeting. You know my negotiation skill is low right?”
Elric keeps silent about his brother’s question. He has a hunch about the reason, but he prefers to let his father tell it.
“All right Alan, I wouldn’t mind if you didn’t join up. But it may be unfortunate because you would have a chance to increase your knowledge about the field we were up to. It will be easier to protect Elric if we knew what we’re going to do, right?”
“Well, maybe you’re right. But I would stand still like a statue in that meeting. It will change nothing whether I’m present or not”
“You wouldn’t make any difference during discussions, but you’ll be able to make fewer mistakes in the future. Well, at least that would be up to you. Not me”
The Duke smiled after saying that. Alan gave up and, with a lazy look, replied, “All right, I’ll join”.
“Then it settled. Let’s move to another room. Imelda, please bring us some warm drinks. Anything is fine” said Duke Conrad to the servant who stand near them.
“Right away, Your Grace”. Then she heads out to the kitchen.
The three of them walk to the room next to where Baron Karel waiting.
When they open the door, they saw a man in his mid-twenties with fine clothes sitting on a wooden chair. He was accompanied by two other people. One of them is a young female with black hair, a little short in height, but quite pretty. She holds some papers and other writing tools. The other person is a man in his thirties, he has a sword on his waist and wears a fauld on his chest with little sabatons on his legs. He has a tall and burly body. Everyone can see his muscle. His skin is quite burnt and his hair is black and short.
“Good morning, Lord Karel”
“Good morning, Your Grace”
The man in the fine attire stands up from his chair and handshake the duke. While the other two bow their heads.
“Your Grace, I brought Elen my trusted executive and my fiancee, and Wallace the highest commander of my militia, or perhaps you call it Anarceton. I call them here to give us more insight about our discussion today”
“Very well, are they just recently arrived?”
“No, they already come here since yesterday. But they prefer to stay at inns, including some other officials and some more armed men who guard them along the way. I’m sorry to bring them without notifying you before, Your Grace”
“No problem, Lord Karel. More people who could be trusted, more efficient. Now, let us sit down first. All of you as well, please”
And then the Duke and his two sons are taking seats, followed by the three other people.
“First of all, let me introduce you first to my sons. This is Elric, my eldest son. He’s already appointed as Enilus and currently taking charge of fort Hadrian. He’s the one I meant on our first discussion, Lord Karel. His perspective might help us to achieve a better solution. And this one is Alan, my second son. He will act as one of Elric’s Sortens when he comes back to fort Hadrian. He joined up here as for studying more about our future battleground”
And then, the Duke took a short pause. One of the servants, Imelda comes in and brings a warm drink. She poured the drink into six glasses, served it on the table, and then put the drinks back on the trolley.
“Now before we continue our discussion, Elric, is there anything worth mentioning about Ein forest since you take charge in fort Hadrian?”
All the people in the room turn their eyes to Elric immediately. Elric stiffened up a little, but deep inside he was sighing.
“I’ve been taking charge of fort Hadrian only around three weeks. During these three weeks, I focused on strengthening the surveillance and making plans for a sudden attack. And according to our surveillance, there has been no sign of the return of those Beastcleaver. The forest is quiet, and there’s no sighting report from the nearby tower. Although this year the possibility of their appearance is high, I haven’t seen any sign of them. That is something I need to focus on because we do not know when they would come”
“I understand, do you perhaps ever tried to get closer to the forest Elric?”
“No, I haven’t. I think it’s too risky, what if they suddenly come in hordes? We all know an open area is a terrible terrain to face Beastcleaver.”
“I know, I just wanted to know if you ever have that kind of curiosity”
“Of course not, but maybe I would do it sometime later”
“How about villagers? We have some villages nearby the fort, are they having rumors about this?”
Elric thought for seconds.
“Indeed in these three weeks, we purchase some cheap firewood from nearby villages. I heard them saying strange marks on the wood they cut, but it’s similar to a hit by an axe. But I think it was something that was done by humans. It wouldn’t be strange for some kids to play with wood. And after all, we didn’t even know are these marks exist before or after the tree was cut. I did find it intriguing, but it has too many possibilities so I didn’t think about it too much”
“Pretty wise, we can’t get stuck with one thing which has a lot of possibilities. Anything else, Elric?”
“Aside from rumors about the strange mark on the wood, there’s nothing suspicious”
“I see. How about your troops? Are they in good condition?”
“They are. Morally and physically good. We have enough supply for months, including horse fodder.”
“Good. How about equipment and weapons?”
“Both are in good shape. We have more than enough arrows, a big one for longbows. We have ballista as well, and around 15 warwolf. There is enough weapon for every Praxis, and horses are in a good shape for Proxios. We can charge at them when the opportunity arises”
“Sounds pretty reassuring. How many exactly troops do you have right now Elric?”
“I lead one Delmos. I have 5200 troops in total, 4800 Praxis, 300 Proxios, and 100 Sortens. Those 4800 Praxis consist of 1200 archers, and 3600 infantry. The infantry was dominated by spearmen, but all of them can wield a sword as their secondary weapon. Right now, they all are on guard. I took twenty Sortens with me here, and leave the command to my Assilator Primus, Barlo.”
“I see…”
The Duke keeps silent for a few minutes, leaving everyone wondering what is he thinking about. Alan keep his face expressionless, Elric sipped his drink from his glass, and Lord Karel kept his sight on the Duke, while Elen and Wallace whispered something on Lord Karel’s back.
Then, the Duke suddenly speaks up.
“All right. That’s all about Ein Forest that we know until now. Lord Karel, let’s discuss it.”
The duke repositioned his seat.
“As far as we know, the appearance of the Beastcleaver hasn’t happened. I have to be honest, it’s quite concerning rather than relieving”
The whole room showed a surprised look.
“What do you mean by that, Your Grace?”
Lord Karel is the one who finally asks.
“It’s concerning because, in the end, we cannot predict the worst case”
“Isn’t the appearance of those monsters already the worst case?”
“Yes it is, but there’s something more troublesome that could happen”
Everyone in the room becomes curious, but the Duke quickly changes the topic.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“But don’t worry, let’s talk about it some other time, Lord Karel” the Duke starts to give a smile rather than a serious expression.
His smile and relaxed expression made Elen and Wallace lower their suspicion. And Baron Karel, although he is still more curious about it, chose to not pry up more about it and continue the discussion at a pace that the Duke settled.
“Lord Karel, I already have a rough description of your territory condition. But right now, let me hear the details. If you don’t mind, I would like to know about your financial condition first”
“Yes, no problem Your Grace. I have a whole document about it, would you mind reading it?”
“No problem at all”
And then Lord Karel ordered Elen to hand a bundle of paper to the Duke. It took a few seconds to collect them, and then she handed them to the Duke. Then the Duke read it in just a few minutes.
“So basically your territory is dependent on woodcraft and various fish marketing for the main income. With how many gold coins you have in your reserve, I have to say I’m impressed with how you manage to control your outcome. You almost didn’t have any loans and maintained a good relationship with merchants. It seems the tax revenue from your people is also stable. You already made good territory management in terms of finances, Lord Karel”
“Yes I’m quite proud of that, but most of them are the result of my father’s effort. I only helped and assist him in some way”
“I believe he couldn’t have done this without your help. You have to have more confidence in yourself, Lord Karel. Now, let’s move on to another one. I’ve seen your well-documented finances, may I know about your defenses?”
And this time, Wallace suddenly becomes the one who answers the Duke’s question. His voice is unsurprisingly deep.
“Yes Your Grace, if I may, I can explain it to you since Lord Karel has given me the full authority on managing our troops”
“Your name is Wallace, right?”
“Yes, your Grace. I’m the commander of the whole armed unit in Parvus. We call ourselves Parvax. I’ve been in charge since Lord Karel inherit the Baron title from Lord Kimber passed away.”
“I see, it’s quite interesting. It’s rare to name Anarceton with another name.”
“It’s not an official name. On paper, we are still named Anarceton. We made our name just for motivating ourselves and made a sense of pride when we became one”
“That’s making it more interesting. How many of you?”
“We currently number around one thousand. But we’ve been split up to each town and fort. But we still have trainees although they are only a couple of dozen people.”
“How long is the training?”
“It depends on the individual. But usually, it only takes around two months.”
At this time, Elric showed a surprised look. He’s horrified by imagining how lack of training they are judging by the time alone. Of course, as a graduate of the battle school and Proxios academy, he received good training to become a soldier. He’s not just trained to wield weapons but also strategy, geography, cartography, and other important knowledge. His horse riding skill is top-notch, even better than Alan’s. All of his ability in the military world was made in training. He spent a one-and-a-half year attending battle school and Proxios academy. As someone who has spent more than a year in training, he was surprised by how short these Anarceton training in Parvus.
And because of that, he cannot contain his question.
“What kind of training you implemented?” Elric asked.
“We only trained them on how to wield weapons. We trained to use swords and halberds since we don’t have many kinds of weapons. Other than that, we learned by experience”
“Who’s the one training you all?”
“It’s Hal. He’s older than me and already an Anarceton since we were still under Lord Bellou’s lordship. He’s the most experienced one in our unit. So he’s been appointed as a trainer since Lord Kimber took over.”
“Did he ever attend battle school?”
“I don’t think he ever has. But his swordsmanship is great. There’s barely anybody ever holds a candle against him”
“Oh well, but to be a soldier, you have to-“
“They have different circumstances, Elric. I understand you might be worried for their well-being and survival, but I believe those Parvax guys are strong. Wallace, I hope you didn’t misunderstand Elric’s question. He’s actually just concerned about your well-being”
The Duke cut off Elric’s explanation and replaced it with his own. Meanwhile, on the other hand, “Hmph, no one holds a candle eh. Seems interesting, I think I want to have tried a duel with him”.
Alan who keep silent since the beginning, suddenly says something frivolous. With an innocent face, his spirit is suddenly going up because he feels out of the world during the discussion. And hearing about someone who has a good swordplay ability, he felt that finally there was something he could understand.
But the timing wasn’t right.
“Alan, this is not the time for having fun” the Duke scolded him.
“Be more aware of the topic, will you?” Elric gave him a little punch on Alan’s shoulder.
“Sorry, I just got hyped up” Alan replied with an apologetic tone.
Then Wallace showed a smile, it looks like he was rather than annoyed, actually amused.
“Lord Alan seems eager to have a fight, shall I introduce you to Hal?”
“Don’t be ridiculous Wallace, Hal wouldn’t stand a chance against Lord Alan”
Wallace’s offer was rejected immediately by Lord Karel.
“My apologies, my Lord. I just suddenly had an idea to motivate our Parvaxs to become stronger”
Duke Archibald suddenly interjected.
“What do you mean by that, Wallace?”
“Our troops actually didn’t have any battle experience. Even Hal, our instructor didn’t have any battle experience. It makes them rather underestimate any kind of threat. I tried to persuade some of our finest younguns to train in battle school, and I would handle the paid tuition. But they just brushed it off and said ‘Nothing beats experience’. At first, I thought like that, but that point of view was immediately crushed after watching students in battle school here”. Wallace’s face showed some embarrassed expression, and his tone got lower and lower.
“I understand. I’m glad you thought highly of Alan’s ability. I didn’t mean to show off, but Alan is a prodigy in terms of swordsmanship. Even in the battle school, no one can beat him aside from the instructor. I understand your intent, but I think using Alan wouldn’t be wise because he’s already an exception in battle school. But aside from Hal, is there any other Anarceton who previously served Lord Bellou and switch to serve Lord Kimber?” asked Duke Archibald.
“As far as I know, there are some of them but Hal is the only one who is currently still active. But it would make sense since our territory isn’t important for him, so he wouldn’t put any troops there before.”
“Lord Bellou said that?”
“I heard my father ever said that to me. I believe my father himself has been said that by Lord Bellou. And I said that to Wallace as the leader of Parvax.” the one who answered the question is Lord Karel.
“So every Anarceton, those Parvax that you have is dominated by new recruits?”
“Yes, we are. The ages of our troops ranged around 25 to 30. I can’t say they’re young or old. But their strength is still in prime.”
“How long have you been in Anarceton, Wallace?”
“I’ve been served for House of Ethelwerd since Lord Kimber arise as Lord of Parvus. But as I said before, I became the commander since Lord Karel replaced Lord Kimber”
“Who chose you as the commander?”
“Lord Karel chose me. We’ve known each other since the House of Ethelwerd was born. I’ve been his guard since the first time I joined the Parvax”
“You’re the highest commander, correct?”
“Yes I am, Your Grace”
“Then how you organized the troops you have? You said they’re spread around the town and villages. How do you maintain your coordination with them? Are they having a field commander?”
“Yes for each village and town, there’s a chief guard who is acting leader. I mainly contact them through the chief guard and have a regular report from them every week.”
“I see… I’ve seen on the map that Parvus has around 6 towns including the capital, Kastro. There are also around 10 villages. With only around 1000 Anarceton you have, how do you divide it?”
“I send 100 Parvax to each town, and 20 Parvax for each village. We also had two newly established forts, which had 100 Parvax for each fort.”
“Those forts, is it strong enough to hold Beastcleaver?”
“I’m sure it’s strong enough to withstand Beastcleaver attack. But I’m ashamed to say this, I personally think it would be difficult to repel them from the fort. Since we didn’t have any archers, it was almost useless to have higher ground. We do try to improvise by making a long wooden spear, it’s about 3 to 4 meters. And we also plugged in a sharp wooden log around the fort, except at the entrance. I hope it will effective against those monsters.”
After Wallace answered, Duke Archibald, keep silent again for a few minutes. Elric has some ideas to talk about, but he thinks it would be unwise and let his father think it more thoroughly. And Alan, this time seems a bit interested since the military affair is more understandable for him. Meanwhile, the other party is imitating Duke Conrad who kept silent.
And finally, Duke Archibald opened his mouth, but his eyes still looked down to the floor.
“Lord Karel, I have two last important questions. First, are there any records or history about your territory being attacked by Beastcleaver?”
This question made Lord Karel surprised a little.
“I’m not sure if there’s any official record about the attack since we never found any document about the damaged report by Beastcleaver. But we do have many stories about our territory being attacked by Beastcleaver when it still belonged to the House of Rosewood from every townsfolk and villager. We do not have any official records of this, right Ellen?”
“Yes, my lord. We do not have any document in any town about the Beastcleaver attack”
“That’s right, I didn’t realize it sooner before you ask, Your Grace. My apologies”
“You can’t be careless more than this, Lord Karel. Then, my last question. Who’s the one giving you information, or persuading you to start concerning the security?”
“That would be the wandering merchants. We mostly trade with them so we also exchange information with them. I happen to know some of them and talked with them personally. They talk about the possibility of Beastcleaver’s appearance and point out that the border between Parvus and Brevis is vulnerable. And by that, I should strengthen the defense and if possible ask for other noble support since we’re just a newly made fief. I don’t see anything wrong in his statement and as far as I know, what he said about the defense between Brevis and Parvus low is true, I should start preparing to face it.”
“Okay, who’s the merchant that talked with you?”
“There’s actually more than one who knows me personally. But they mostly came from the city of Eru in Collis. They are Kachel, Yugo, and Irving. They work on different businesses and never work together, but they are our precious connection and mostly our trading is done with them.”
“All right, that’s all I need to know. Thank you, Lord Karel. Now I already made up my mind. James! Are your there?”
“I’m here, Your Grace” suddenly a butler came in from the door.
“Please bring me a piece of paper, a pen, and our stamp and seal.”
“As you wish, Your Grace”
Then James walk out of the room and went to take the errand from Duke Conrad.
“Now, Lord Karel”
The Duke lean his body forward on his seat, and everyone listened obediently.
“I decided that the best course is to us making a pact. I’ll send you 10.000 gold and some battle school instructors to teach your Anarceton, or Parvax, to be able to master other important skills. Use the gold I gave you to improve your Parvax equipment, and defense facility, and paid your Parvax. I would be glad if you can use those gold to make some of your younguns attend battle school. And in exchange, your annual report about finances should be sent to me as well other than to the royal administrative along with a detailed report about the income and outcome of your finance every month. I will have a right to control your way of trading, including merchants you associate with. And I can order you in the same degree as a royal decree. This would be implemented in one generation. Any questions?”
“N-No, Your Grace. I am really grateful for your aid! I swear I would use this to the fullest!”
Lord Karel’s eyes were brimming, and a huge smile appear on his lip. But turns out, Duke Archibald hasn’t done yet.
“As for emergency, I will send you my reinforcement. Elric, I entrusted you to take the lead. I’ll send you five more Belgrate from Barkton and Adiutrix fort combined, along with 300 Proxios from each fort and some freshmen from the academy as additional troops. I’ll send them to fort Hadrian in a week,”
“Wait, hold it right there, father”
Elric suddenly interrupted.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I’m sure fort Hadrian is at least the second closest to the Brevis. The closest fort is Acrewatch. I’m sure it will be more efficient if we gather the emergency troops there rather than in fort Hadrian.”
“You have a point. But Acrewatch is quite safe, I want the additional troops I gather would also be useful in repelling the Beastcleaver in our territory. If they gather in Acrewatch, they would only do nothing.”
“But they could arrive faster if Lord Karel is in an emergency”
“They do, but is that what you think would happen? I sent another kind of aid not just for wasting our resources"
“All right. But then, I’m the one who leads the reinforcement when the emergency comes?”
“Yes you are”
“Why? You could choose another Enilus who has more experience than me”
“Because you’re the one who is suited the most for this task”
The smiling and happy face of Duke Archibald changed into a serious and indisputable face. Just by seeing this, Elric knew something bigger is about to happen.
And Elric is not just the only one who noticed this.
“I and Wallace would make sure everything is under control, Lord Elric. Don’t worry about us, Duke Archibald has already given us a huge help. It would be a disgrace for my own if I failed to protect my territory at this point” Lord Karel made a statement to ease Elric’s mind.
“My Lord is right, Lord Elric. I, as the commander of Parvax, swear upon my name to protect Parvus until my last breath. I will do everything I can to keep our people safe. So Lord Elric could focus on your own duty to command the frontline in Morlev duchy.” With a huge and bright smile, Wallace also supports Lord Karel’s statement.
Elric felt a bit of ease because he thought their spirit to protect the people is something to admire of. And by any chance, he also believes they could solve their own problem with his father's aid.
But he has a hunch, a real battle wouldn’t be in Parvus. He had no definitive proof, but all of the events made him think so. The strange carve in firewood, Lord Karel’s visit, Lord Bellou’s decisions, and his father’s eagerness to entrust him to take charge of the reinforcement. All of it seems like has no connection at all on the surface. But he sure, there’s a small thing that connects them all. And, it wasn’t just the appearance of Beastcleaver.
Elric tried to connect everything, but he realized he lacks information. And his best source is his father. And so, he determined to ask his father about it all later on.
“You heard them, Elric. They just need a little help, the rest is up to them. We should trust each other. So I trust you, Lord Karel. I believe you can handle this with dignity”
Duke Archibald said it with a huge smile, it’s a face showing full trust. He really believes Lord Karel would succeed in facing this crisis.
After that, the other party showed their gratitude once again. And not long after that, James entered the room bringing a paper, a pen, and a stamp of the House of Conrad. Duke Archibald with the help of James and Elen, documented the result of the whole discussion.
After that, a new treaty was made. Signed by Duke Archibald Conrad of Morlev and Baron Karel Ethelwerd of Parvus. Later on, the treaty would be known as “The First Treaty Of Conrad-Ethelwerd”.