Several things happened all at once when Rowan’s spear sank without resistance into Blake’s translucent chest.
First, the demon screamed as the ball of darkness evaporated at the spear’s attack. Second, Blake let out a startled gasp of a man who had just touched a red-hot stove top but somehow expecting it to be cool. And third, the glowing outline of the Goddess Sarina formed behind the partially corrupted hero.
Rowan’s power exploded the very next instant, opening a sizable hole in Blake’s back and eradicating every last trace of the corrupting influence within him. As Rowan took stock of the damage, his eyes met the glowing orbs of the goddess, and he could see the distaste there plain as day.
“This once. Once. I help you in return for this favor,” Sarina sneered, her voice echoing within Rowan’s mind as she thrust her hand in his direction. A beam of light erupted from it, striking the Stalwart Hero right in the middle of his chest, and then his senses vanished in favor of absolute darkness.
Words unfurled before Rowan.
[̷F̸r̵a̷g̶m̵e̵n̴t̶ ̸o̵f̸ ̸G̸r̴a̶s̸p̵i̸n̷g̶ ̷M̷a̵d̷n̸e̸s̷s̵]̵ slain!
͖̥̍͆C̵̤̳͠o̶̯̝͒n̶͈̓͘g̴͍̯͌̾r̷͝ͅa̴̟͔͆t̸͚͐̅u̷͔̎̀l̴͖̝̾a̷̍ͅt̸̛͈͙i̸̡̘̒ȫ̵̻͙n̶͓̆͆s̶̜̍͝, ,̵̨̧̡̨̰͓̮̘̙̱̮̼͉̼͈̮̲̳̦̪̞͕̻̩͕͈̠̙̫̱̌́̈̀̀́͝ͅ ̸̨̨̡̝̤̞͓͎̠̯͙̝̥̻̬̝̟̥̲̥̼͔̱̜͖̭͓̖̲́̆̌͝y̷̨̛̛̹̯̑͂̊̔̓͋̕͝o̴̟͇͈̖̖̻͎͖͕̞̽̔́̈́͌̀̒̔̏̂̽̅̆͆̕͘͜͝ͅu̶̧̢̺̦̙̱̳̲̹̦̟͈͚̱̙̜̝̪͈͔̲͉͛̏̑͆̉̉̋̓̎͛̔̅̋͒̊̾͗̐̚͜ͅ ̴̡̧̨̬̠̝̦̫̠̮͖̫̮̟͈̱̲͙̮̬̼̻̹̼̿̈́̾̈́̓̌̆̊̄͒̀̌͌͜͜͠ḩ̴͓̗͈̪̳͖͙̠̣̜̼̝̦͙̘̫̫̹͓͎̟͇͊̅̈̈́͆̊̿͗͊̐̾å̶̢̧̛̛̱̪̦̭̹̰͇̫̤̗͈̻̝͚̠̤͚͚̙͇̤̞̲͓̏̄͊͐͋͌͗̐͋̆̉͒͒̌̔̈́̐͆̎̍̀̂́̊̍͘͘̚̚͜͝v̷̡̡̛̦͕̳͍̖̼̺̗͔̣͎͎̠͕̘̲̝̘̟͍̟̱̱͍̥̣̯͇͆̓͊̀̄͋͋̊̾̉͛͘͜͝͠ȩ̶̧͕͎̭̮͚̝̝̠̮̞̟̰̰͎͎̚͝ͅ ̶̧̪̜̣̯̲̣̱̌̑͋͊̆̿̔̋̈̿̃͘̕ͅȩ̸̧̢̨̧̧̡͔̻͖̬͇̞͓̙͕͉̙̞̫͍̬̫͉̰̣̭͚̠̍͐̃́̒̏̆͒̓̒́̋͂̎́̅̍̑͗͛̃͐̋̆̔́̚͘͜͠ą̷̱̟͖̩̻͖͉̠̮̟̱̣̣̭̟̙̫͕̲̻̰̟̰̼͈̩̭̎̑̍͘r̷̛͔̣̻̘̗̤̘̮͉̠̹̠̩̣͇̜̫͇̲̹͎̩͕̬͇̳͎̪̭̺͛̀͛̊̐̊́̄̒͒͂̽̂͆̂̂͂̎̓̕͘͜͜ͅņ̸̯̹̹̥̳̞̯̠̜̯̞̤̫̈́̈́̍͛́͐͗̇̿̅͋͆̓͋͘͝͝ę̸̳̫̭͈̦̻̮̣̻̞̠͍̱̟͚̺̭͚̥̝̭̑̿́͋͑̃̄͗̓̚̕͜͝d̷̨̛͕̭̠̬͍͎͔͎̙̺̣̭̻̪̹͙̹̭͛̈́͐̌̽̄̀̔͑̃̑̑̆͘͜ ̵̡̤̭̭͖̼̘͕͇͎̗̭̼̘̦̲̩͙̻̫̙͚̬̘͐͊̌̎̽͋͂͑̆̃̈͌̽̆̑͊͑̐̈̍̒̕͘ͅ9̵̡̦̱̭̻͈̯̙̳̩̫̲̺̥̝̝̰̳̟̗͇̩̤̉͌̕ͅͅ9̵̢̨̪͔̼͔̯͕̯̣͇͎̯͖̰̲̳̗͓̪̏̏̅̓̌̆̂̐͜ͅ0̴̨͉̜̯̘̞̮̗̹̲͕̮͕̮̹̭̪͒̃̃͒̈́̈́̑̈́͘̚̕͜͜0̴̢̨̹̺͔̣̭̭̟̞̫̺̣͚̠̰̤͍͕̯̬̥̙͈̳̫̣̦̝̄̿̌̔̆̔͗̎͘͜͜͝ͅ0̶̠͚̖̘̒̃͒͑̍̇̈̍̋̑̓͐́̋̅͑͋̄̈́̀̈̍͋͝͠0̴̨̨̛̟̲͖̠͇̖͚̹̞̙͉̺̦̣̤̬̥͓́̆̄̀̾̈́̆̈́̓̉̍̐̏́0̶̢̢̡̡̧̢̛̞͍̯̠̰͇̟̘̩̻̳͇͚̳̫̬̤̗̦̹̣̃̃̋̍̇̿̅͋͋͗͒́́͘͘ͅ0̸̧̡̛̘̼̮̹̳̹̰̜̼̥̻̼̝̘̼͔̻̥̤̣̠͙̖͑͆͌̕͜ ̶̧̢̮̙̩̣̰͖͓̖̭̘̙̯̳͎̞͙̯͇̩̳̗̞̗̰̳̖̞̮͑͆̿̎̂̔͑̈́̌̐̇̾͆̄̓̈́̈̾͑͂͂̈̊̂̔͛͊͑͊̕͜͝ě̷̡̨̧̛̛͚̥͔̥̲̯̞̖̗̱̣̯̥͎̘͉̖̮͇͙͓͓͓͕̓̔̊̾̏̈́̅͂̐̇̎͗̀̒̍̐͒͋̒͌̕͠͝͠͠ͅx̵̧̢̞̘̼̝͎͎̪̭̠̦̪̺͔̩̯̪͇̦̤̘̪̦͕͎͇̣̪̗͓͓̎͑̑͒́̔̅̽̔̅̓̎̇͛̑̅͐͒̚̕͘͠͝͠͠͝͝͝p̷̛̛̛̜͓̺̟̗̝̻̬̪̗̬͎̤̰̯͙̱̗̜͚̖̮̯͔̱͇̳̋̈́̌̈́̽̆̃̒͗̃͛͌͗͆̉́̃̐̑͑̀͊̐̓̒̕̚͜͝͝ȩ̵̨̢̫̳̜̣͚͈͍̤̬̰͖̜̞̜̗͕̝͉̹͎̬̹͖͑̈́̈́̎̂̀̄́̉͘͜͝ͅr̴̨̼̺̹̭͚̬̗̜̼͑͠ͅǐ̷͔̣̼̲͇̲̲̪̜͉͖͍̞̱̘̟̼̭̩̬͒̈́͂̄́̑͑̀̈́́̊͒̕͝ͅͅȩ̴̨̛̛̛̯̖͎͇̥̝̠̖̹̰̺̲̬̺̱̼͈͓͍̮͚̜̪̫͎͗̿̋͋̀̾̈͆̓͑̎̾̽̒͆̉̉̌̋̾̀̒̈͘̕̕͜͜͜͝ͅń̷̢̨̢̡͙̻̰̯̤̥̰̟̫̗̈́̓̓͊͑̍̌̓͒͂̃̀͝c̷͈͓̘͖̬͉̻̥̻̥̞͓̠͍̀̌̕͝ę̷̪͕͎̰͖͛͒́̈́̈́̅̅̈́͂̃͗̌̑̈́̀͐̒̀̔͒̅͊͒̿͆͒͗̕͝͝!̸̢̞̩̫̲͓͙͕̠̘͎̘̘̰̰̮̞̘͎̝̼̰̣͚̋̂̐̂ͅ!
Seeing the obvious corruption of the status window didn’t startle Rowan nearly as much as seeing the garbled font in blue. Still, he didn’t have all that much time to reflect on things, since the very next instant, he was gasping back into awareness.
“Rowan! Rowan?”
Rowan cracked open his eyes and saw Olivia’s tear-streaked face. A goofy smile rose on his face. “Oh, hello there.”
And then he passed out.
—
When Rowan woke up again, he did so slowly. He first became aware of the softness under his skin, enveloping most of him in its embrace. The next thing he noticed was the sound of humming and tinkling glass. His heart skipped a beat when he recognized Olivia’s voice. He relaxed into the bed. Olivia wouldn’t be humming a tune if they were still in immense danger.
Rowan finally blinked his eyes open and dispelled his last vestiges of terror and anxiety. A smile found its way to his face as he watched his favorite alchemist whirl around the working stations around her.
For some reason, he was laid out on a bed which had been brought into her potioneering lab. Despite the potions being brewed, it was a pretty good place for a nap. All the windows were heavily curtained. Rowan could even remember a rather tense conversation where the baroness forbade her daughter from boarding up those same windows fully.
He wasn’t sure how long he just laid there and watched her work, but Olivia eventually put down the various vials, stretched, and took a glance in his direction. The second she spotted him, she was by his side like she’d learned to teleport.
“You’re awake. How long have been awake? No, wait, don’t answer that. I feel like you’re just going to upset me.” Before Rowan could answer, Olivia was kissing him, and Rowan definitely didn’t want to interrupt that.
Some fifteen or so minutes later, once Olivia had worked through most of her frustration by assaulting his lips, she was curled up on his chest and Rowan could no longer continue ignoring reality, no matter how tempting.
“How are we here? What happened?” Rowan asked.
“You passed out and traumatized the lot of us, is what happened,” Olivia grumbled, but there was no real heat in her voice.
“A bit more detail, dear?”
“Well, after you used the secret new ability you refused to share with us, you and the other hero both passed out. His party freaked out and we weren’t far behind. The corruption on his chest briefly flared up, but then it actually got better. We all calmed down a bit, at least until you both woke up again. You were fine, but seeing him throw up blood all over the place and pass out was…”
“Traumatizing?” Rowan offered hesitantly, earning a glare for his efforts.
“Sure. Traumatizing is a serious enough word. Anyway, after that, he was finally corruption free, so we figured you were both well enough to move. There was a thoroughly terrifying roar somewhere in the distance, felt like it flattened us all for a second, but nothing all that significant happened.”
It was Rowan’s turn to pause as he caught onto the implication she’d tried to gloss over. “Nothing all that significant? Meaning something happened?”
Olivia huffed, but clarified. “There was a bit of a disagreement,” she hedged. “You know, with the other hero party. Well, and your fellow hero Kayla, when she finally showed up.”
Rowan tried to sit up, but with Olivia intent on keeping him down, the attempt promptly failed. He settled on using his words. “Kayla showed up? When?”
“Just about when we were arguing with those infuriating women about how we weren’t about to escort them all the way to their frontier town, and that they’d have to either shut up and come with back to Rest’s Remorse or be left behind,” Olivia grumbled, and while that was very interesting, it also wasn’t what Rowan was in a hurry to learn about.
“Focus, please, dear. Kayla?”
She sighed, sinking into his chest again. “Not much to tell, I’m afraid. She showed up with her mage army, and then demanded we hand both you and Blake over to her. We refused, obviously, which she wasn’t entirely happy with.”
“Did she try to push the subject?” Rowan asked.
“Might have, if we didn’t have so many epic tiers with us. I don’t think she ever expected to see so many gathered in one place. Did you know she only has her mentor at the same tier as her? She doesn’t even have a proper party, apparently,” Olivia said.
That was definitely a surprise for Rowan. He was under a strong impression that Kayla would have way more epic tiers following her than either him or Blake. If that was true, then he had to wonder why she was in such a disadvantageous position.
“That honestly doesn’t sound like the Kayla I know. She’s many things, but she wouldn’t just cripple her own power base like that,” Rowan said.
Olivia simply shrugged, prodding him in the side when Rowan spent a little too much time fidgeting and too little time acting as a proper pillow.
“Anyways, we scared her off. Then the brainless trio finally realized they didn’t have an army or particularly useful classes, so they stuck with us. Much to my regret. More to the point, much to my mother’s regret. The princess is becoming an issue,” Olivia said.
“An issue I need to go out there and do something about?” Rowan ventured, feeling quite reluctant to follow through on that particular course of action so soon after waking up.
Olivia considered that for a moment, then thankfully shook her head. “No. Not that urgent. She’s just trying to boss everyone around and take the place over. Surprisingly, those other two aren’t as bad. Anyway, my mother just stonewalled her, citing that you’re currently in a coma and therefore incapable of turning over control of your army to a passing royal.”
“She wants my army?” Rowan’s voice dropped an octave, betraying his feelings on the matter. “On an unrelated note, how hard would it be to cover up the death of a princess?”
“Let’s not go committing regicide. Yet. If she pushed too far, I’ll let you know when it’s okay. And yes, she wants it, but can’t rightly have it. Legally speaking, the nobility isn’t obligated to give up private armies to the crown. Technically, as a hero of the kingdom, you count as a high noble.”
Rowan let out a relieved breath, then decided that the princess and the rest of Blake’s party was a future problem. For the time being, he was going to spend some time with his favorite alchemist and then work on his problems for there.
—
Gods dammit, past me, Rowan complained, staring blankly ahead while the blonde woman in front of him who prattled on and on for what seemed like an eternity.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The moment word got out that Rowan was once again up and on his feet, the princess started demanding meetings. If it weren’t for the rare tier guards that were posted outside of his room, she would have simply barged in. Point of fact, she had tried to do just that in spite of the guards. Ironically, she simply didn’t have the strength to force the issue in the way she wanted to.
As it turns out, being a saintess left a person with very few offensive measures against anything that wasn’t a corrupted, demonic, or undead creature. Rowan was just happy that the blast of light did nothing more than temporarily blind his guards and make them feel oddly warm, like they were in someone’s embrace. Otherwise, he would have been forced to hunt down a princess, and neither of them would enjoy the fallout of that.
Rowan couldn’t rightly avoid meeting his nominal ruler’s daughter forever though. Which is why he was stuck in a meeting featuring the baroness, the Mercenary King, the full hero party, and the saintess-sized menace.
The Rhys princess was trying her best to clobber everyone over the head with bogus justifications on why they should all bow, kiss her feet, and then pledge themselves to her service forever more in a glorious show of devotion to king and country. Everyone was refusing to do so, much to her frustration.
When she started up a fourth round of circular arguments on the same subject, Rowan finally had enough. “No, I will not hand over authority over my army. No, the Mercenary King will not be leaving with you. And no, my party and I will not subordinate ourselves to Hero Blake so we can attempt a ‘through and righteous cleansing of the wastes.’ We barely survived. I’m not throwing everything away to charge at a legendary demon.” By the end of his words, Rowan’s voice had grown to a complete shout. Noticing that, he collapsed back into his seat. “Princess Rhys, I understand where you’re coming from. Blake is my friend. I won’t let anything happen to him. But there’s more at stake than just him. Plus, he’s still comatose. I believe he could benefit from your healing.”
The princess sputtered, spouted some nonsense, and finally left. Rowan wanted to groan in relief, but reined himself in to look relatively dignified.
The Mercenary King, on the other hand, didn’t care about looking regal. He chuckled then broke out into full on laughter. “Well, look at you, lad. Right as day. If you can shout that loudly, you’re recovered. Still, had a question on my mind, you see. Why didn’t she ask for Tamara to be present too?”
Camilla scoffed, crossing her arms and bringing her elbows down on the huge table they were sitting around. “She’s the princess. Probably doesn’t want to associate herself with a disgraced, banished member of nobility, epic tier or not.”
That made perfect sense, though Rowan felt like it wasn’t quite enough to explain everything. Nonetheless, they had other things to worry about. “What is Blake’s condition like? Tried to visit him, but his party members weren’t letting anyone into his room.”
“I saw him, briefly, when the soldiers brought him in,” Camilla said. “He looked fine. A little pale, sure, but fine. I’m guessing he was just more badly hurt due to whatever happened while you were passed out. Speaking of, I’m told it was due to a card effect?”
Rowan flinched a little. Curiosity was plain on all of his party member’s faces, and even the Mercenary King leaned forward a little. Frankly, he trusted all of them but he still hesitated to speak.
“Of course, you don’t have to tell us if it’s a secret.” Olivia came to Rowan’s defense.
“It’s okay. But what we talk about here doesn’t go beyond that door,” Rowan demanded, motioning towards the double doors that the princess just used.
“Aye, lad, we’re fine with that,” the Mercenary King rushed to agree, ignoring the glare Camilla sent him for trying to work his way into the group.
“Right. So, I picked up a class called [Spear of Unity] which gave me slots for eight [Knights] who I can designate at will. When I do, and they accept, which is a requirement, they get to use a duplicate of one of my cards. It doesn’t count against their deck either.”
The Mercenary King whistled, leaning back in his chair, and Rowan could tell that everyone else was obviously interested too.
“And the cost the [Knights] have to pay for that privilege?” Camilla asked.
“That’s honestly why I didn’t bring it up before.” Rowan admitted, worrying at his lower lip. “I’m linked to all of my [Knights]. I can feel most of their emotions, and though I didn’t really push at the link yet, I might be able to catch snippets of thoughts too.”
That definitely did the job of quashing further interest, since everyone looked understandably reluctant to place themselves in such a position. All but Olivia, who was looking at him contemplatively.
“I also get ten percent of the stats each of my [Knights] have, as well as thirty percent of all experience they earn. The stat sharing is sort of like yours.” Rowan nodded at the twins. “I don’t steal those, just share them.”
“And the experience?” the Mercenary King asked, frown on his face.
“I don’t know. Haven’t had much chance to test it out. Though… I’ll note that there’s no tier restrictions on choosing knights. If I can just pick a common tier soldier, and then help them level up quickly to the peak of rare? That’s a very nice chunk of experience instead of having to exclusively hunt epic tier monsters.”
“You could go all the way to the peak of epic, all without getting stuck because of a lack of monsters,” Camilla said, catching onto the implications what the class brought. “And you’re already linked to the other hero.”
“Unless he asks me to break the bond.” Rowan tried to temper her expectations, though he didn’t deny the usefulness of having Blake be one of his [Knights].
“We need to test this. I’ll find you a promising common tier,” Camilla said. “We can’t waste that slot on someone you won’t fully benefit from in terms of stats, especially if class quality somehow affects things. Hero Blake might ask you to break the bond? That means you can cancel your link to your knights? Are there drawbacks to doing so?”
Rowan grimaced, a part of him instinctively unhappy with the mere suggestion of doing such a thing. A second later he realized it was his new class card influencing him and pushed the feelings down as far as they would go. He used his deck. He couldn’t afford to let his deck use him.
“Yeah, I can cancel the link,” Rowan said. “Unfortunately, it takes a year for the slot to refresh.”
The baroness hummed thoughtfully, fingers drumming on the table. “It makes sense. Otherwise, you could just continue training people from common to epic and then dropping the link, never even having to risk your life for progression.”
Rowan shrugged in resignation. He wasn’t entirely sure he’d go for such a thing regardless. Somehow, he wasn’t entirely sure it was healthy to be power leveled that way, even if it could theoretically let him improve his tier. Case in point, he was thoroughly unimpressed by Blake’s party, even if they did have fancy class names.
“We can look for [Knights] and experiment with my class later. For now, I’d honestly prefer we figure out what to do. Can we help Blake awaken sooner? What do we do with him and his party once he is awake?”
“That depends. How much do you know about the man? I know you mentioned you were friends, but is he likely to cause problems if he stays here?” Camilla responded.
Thankfully, Rowan didn’t even need to lie or try to twist the truth.
“Blake won’t be any trouble, trust me. We talked a little already and he hasn’t changed enough from when I knew him. He seems pretty big on Sarina nowadays but otherwise he’s the same good guy I know.”
“You talked? I heard everything that happened, and from what I’ve heard, that didn’t seem like enough time to reconnect,” Camilla said.
“The two of us didn’t just pass out,” Rowan admitted, then launched into the explanation of what they’d gone through together, leaving out a couple of details about what the demon said in the end but otherwise talking about his entire adventure. “I still don’t know what that was all about. Were we stuck in Blake’s head? His soul?”
“It’s a mental realm battle,” the Mercenary King said. “There are records of high tier demons doing so but most such battles are lost.”
“Lucian’s right. There’s simply not enough knowledge about such things. Sarina would know, obviously, and she might share her knowledge with Hero Blake,” Camilla said.
The baroness’s suggestion was sound, but Rowan winced at that, knowing there was little to no chances of him ever getting that kind of explanation from the Goddess’ champion.
“Do you think Blake will wake up soon? He has my card but I honestly don’t know what my attack might have done to him, or how quickly any such wounds would heal,” Rowan asked.
Camilla glanced at the others before responding. “I don’t know. Hero Blake is alive because of divine intervention. Typically, people corrupted to that extent would either perish or turn. Without seeing him, I can’t tell you what might happen.”
“Right.” Rowan didn’t like it but the baroness was right. “What about our army? What are our losses like? It didn’t seem like we’d lost too many before I passed out, but…” Rowan trailed off, hating the fact that he was thinking in terms of numbers instead of human lives. Those people had trusted him, put their lives into his hands, followed him into danger.
To Rowan’s surprise, it was the Mercenary King who answered. “It wasn’t too bad altogether, lad. Twenty-seven of mine, and six of yours. Tamara lost none of hers, of course. Frankly, I’d call it a miracle, but I know we have mostly your shield bearer to thank.”
“I was just doing my job,” Marcus mumbled when all the eyes focused on him, blushing even harder.
“Well, it’s a good thing that you’re so great at it.” Rowan stretched to pat the man on the shoulder. Then, he turned his attention to his sister. “And Milena, I saw you unleashing hell in the fight. What in the world did your epic class do to you?”
Milena hadn’t stopped grinning since the conclusion of the battle, and it didn’t seem like her good mood would run out any time soon. “I can finally fight properly, that’s what it did to me! No more waiting forever or casting lengthy rituals for the most basic spells and curses.”
“Yeah, you were eradicating those monsters almost as fast as I was. But still a bit slower than me,” Olivia said, and when the two women’s eyes met, Rowan could practically see the sparks flying. Frankly, he was feeling sorry for whatever enemies they would encounter in the future in their newborn rivalry.
The baroness’s face lit up at the reminder of her daughter’s epic class. “Olivia, don’t be rude to your party member. Especially now that you’re an epic class. You have to have some class.”
“Because father was refusing to let me fight on my own! I told you I could do it,” Olivia grumbled and crossed her arms, a picture-perfect copy of her mother.
“Gotta say I’m a little jealous, kids.” the Mercenary King admitted, leaning back in his chair. “Can’t tell you how long it took me to claw my way up to epic. It really does pay off, teaming up with a hero.”
“Well, you’re welcome to join us more officially, if you’d like,” Rowan offered, knowing it was unlikely that anything would come of it. After all, the Mercenary King had all but outright stated that the reason he was stuck in Rest’s Remorse and so unwilling to ally with the new mayor was pressure from the kingdom. If he was seen as making moves in direct opposition to the official king’s interests, he could get into a ton of trouble.
Much to Rowan’s shock, though, the man didn’t immediately turn down his offer. If anything, he was holding the gaze in a way Rowan wasn’t sure he liked.
“We’ll see, lad. We’ll see. For now, I’d like to excuse myself. Gotta make up for the losses we took, if I still have your permission for recruitment?”
“Just keep in mind that we need a couple of good candidates to test out Rowan’s new class,” Camilla said. “If you find someone promising, send them our way. I bet they wouldn’t say no to having access to an epic card at common.”
The Mercenary King huffed in amusement but nodded. “Sure. Rob me of my best potential recruits. I’m leaving before you shake me down for more.”
The fact that the man actually jogged out of the meeting room sent the hero party, and even the baroness, into soft chuckles.
“We really should think about doing another recruitment drive, too. If we can afford it?” Rowan aimed the question at the baroness, who looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding.
“It’s not impossible. We’ll need to plan around our expenses a bit more carefully, but we should be able to pull it off. As long as you don’t outright double your army. We should be able to support another two hundred or so recruits.”
“I don’t think we could find enough people to double our numbers to begin with,” Rowan said with a grimace, and by lack of disagreement, he was probably spot on.
Rest’s Remorse wasn’t the biggest of frontier towns even before it was attacked twice. Now? They would likely be scraping the very bottom of the barrel when looking for recruits, and fall short regardless.
“We’ll think of something,” Olivia reassured Rowan. “We can put out a recruitment notice through messengers and send those to the nearest settlements. Likewise, we can even petition the king for more troops.”
Rowan didn’t think it would be that easy. Stealing people from under the noses of other nobles wouldn’t be easy, frontier or not. Similarly, he legitimately doubted that the king would be willing to do anything to help. And even if the king did, that help would likely have strings.
Still, Olivia was right. They’d think of something, together.