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Naturally, my parents were not thrilled with the idea of me going to a potential war at the tender age of thirteen, even if we were in a heavily defended fort. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“You will do no such thing, young man!” was Mum’s instant reply to my suggestion of personally guarding Dad.

“That’s right, it is still too early for you to be anywhere near the frontlines, much less a place where a potential war will break out.” Dad added.

“Mum, Dad, I am sure I can take care of myself. Besides, even if a battle breaks out, we will have the advantage of a defensive position. That way, I will have an easier time looking out for Dad, especially with the condition he is in right now.” I tried to argue.

Back and forth, I tried to argue my point while my parents shot those arguments down. And despite all my arguments, they had me cornered argument-wise, there was no good reason that I, the oldest son of a baron’s house at the tender age of thirteen, should be anywhere near a battlefield. Hell, I would not allow me to go to the battlefield if I was my own father.

But on the other hand, I could not leave Dad unprotected in his weakened state. It was not that I did not trust Dad’s men. I just did not like the idea of Dad being ambushed by assassins like he was in the last war.

Now that I was out of good reasons to join Dad, I resorted to using a card I did not want to use. “If you do not allow me, I will just sneak off and join Dad at the fort. At this point, I am confident the knights would not be able to stop me!”

“Don’t you dare pull that with us, young man!” Dad said sternly, “You are not coming, and that is final, we will not speak of this further!”

“Fine! I'll see you at the fort!” I replied, turning to go to my room to get my stuff.

“That's right! You are not- wait! No! Come back here!” Dad shouted, and I turned around to face him.

“Dad, like it or not, I am coming one way or another! With or without your blessing.” I said as I folded my arms.

Mum and Dad looked at each other, then went to the corner of the room to have a whispered argument before coming back to face me. From the look on their faces, they were not happy with their decision.

“We will let you tag along under two conditions. First, you go where I go. This means that even if we are under attack, the enemy is a few meters away, and there are friendly soldiers between us, you will stay put by my side. Second, if the gates are breached, you will be evacuated with all the non-combatants. Deal?” Dad asked.

I wanted more freedom of movement, but I agreed to it to ease my parents’ worries. My only worry now was my mother’s safety, but when I considered it more, I did not really need to fret about it.

After the first assassination attempt all those years ago, Mum asked Dad to pull some funds together to upgrade the estate’s defense arrays and wards. But when she brought up this subject, Grandpa and Grandma were at the dining table and were not having any of it, especially when their daughter and grandchild were attacked.

So Grandpa and Grandma pulled out all the stops on upgrading our magical defenses and wards, even calling in a few favors for specialists to come down to apply their craft. Now, if anyone wants to bypass the estate’s magical defenses, they are going to need a lot more than some mana-reactive powder and array interruption trinket.

Talking about trinkets, I pulled out Professor Sageira’s dragon scale and told her what was going on and that we would not be available for the foreseeable future. She grumbled but eventually relented and told me to keep her scale on me and that she would drop off something to protect her investments.

Two hours later, I was assembled in the courtyard, fully armed, armored, and ready to roll. But unlike other knights who brought their main weapon and a lance, my loadout was… let's just say I was carrying a heavier loadout than the average knight.

Besides my mana-steel sword and the spear I made while I was still schooling, I had bandoliers and leather holsters that held my throwing weapons, and besides that, I also brought along a warhammer with a nasty-looking pick to balance out the mallet side a satchel with some magic supplies, and a backpack of camping supplies.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

When Dad and his men looked at me, they gave me a weird look like I had grown a second head “Luke, what is all of… this?” Dad asked while gesturing to my person in general, and I am glad he asked, so I explained what I was bringing and why, but this only made him and his men chuckle at my expense.

“Son, we will be traveling fast to get to the fort, and I doubt your horse would appreciate the extra load. Leave the backpack and warhammer. Only take what you will personally use that is not standard issue, the rest can be issued at the fort.”

After I lost the weight that I would have been unnecessarily carrying, we all said our goodbyes to our loved ones before riding off. Mum was still pissed at me, but she still hugged me and refused to let go until Dad called.

***

The trip to Fort Eldric was uneventful. We rode hard during the day and slept under starlight at night, and when it was available, we took up residence in a village inn or compensated someone to house us for the night.

During one of the nights that we were camping out, I got a call from Professor Sageira to stay still and reach out my hand. As it did so, expecting something to fall into my palms. Instead, I had to quickly bring my hands up to intercept a package airstrike to my face.

I bitched at Professor Sageira for almost killing me, but she just ignored my complaining and replied with a simple [Don’t die.]

When I opened the cloth package, I found two palm-sized wooden totems and a note that read, “Break in case of emergency.” The note did not elaborate on anything else, so I passed one of the totems to Dad and told him who it was from and the instructions.

When we reached the fort, I noticed the sentries’ expressions of unease. Dad and his men noticed it, too, but they kept quiet about it. When we entered the fort, we were greeted by the garrison commander. He was a grizzled man with more than a little white in his beard.

When we dismounted, Dad and the garrison commander clasped arms, “Woodsen, glad to see you are still alive and kicking, you old bastard.”

“Oh, you know me, m’Lord. Healthy as an ox, I’d be. And besides, someone needs to stick around to keep these youngins in line.” he then whispered softly, “What about you, m’Lord? No offense intended, but you don’t look so good since the last time I saw ye.”

Dad just shook his head. “It is nothing that serious. I am recovering from a recent sickness. It is just bad timing that our neighbors to the north started making trouble. But what can I do? The king calls, and I must answer. Besides, I will be standing back unless someone truly strong comes knocking, but that's why I brought these strapping lads with me.” Dad said while gesturing to me and the knights standing behind him.

Then, after a few minutes of catching up, Dad’s expression became more serious. “As much as I would like to catch up with you over a pint, I have to ask, what is the current situation? From the looks of the men, I assume you have some worrying news to tell me.”

“Aye, m’Lord. Since we first noticed their movements a month ago, the Valorhelm Dominion has stepped up its scouting efforts, forcing us to send out more of our scouts to counter them. It was around a week ago that their scouts started purposely exposing themselves at places that have no strategic importance, forcing us to send our own scouts further afield. But even if this is a ploy to stretch out our forces, we have no choice but to respond accordingly in case they really do push in through a place that is not strategically important.” Woodsen replied grimly.

Dad just nodded and said, “Let's go to the command room to put their movements on the map.”

With that, our party moved inside the fort’s command building.

***

When night fell, one of the laborers inside Fort Eldric crept along the shadows of the buildings until he reached the alley near the fort’s wall. There, he crouched down between some crates and started pulling out some loose bricks from the alley wall to reveal a leather roll.

The laborer removed the leather roll from the wall and unwrapped it to reveal an unstrung bow that was even shorter than the average short bow, a few arrows, and a vial of bluish liquid.

The man then pulled out a note from his pocket, rolled and tied it around the arrow’s shaft, and dripped the bluish liquid on the fletching end of the arrow. When his preparation was done, he strung the bow and shot the arrow into the night sky over the wall before quickly unstringing the bow, packing up, and stacking the leather roll back into the alley wall. The man then slinked back into the shadows with nobody the wiser.

On the outside of the fort, out in the treeline overlooking Fort Eldric, there was a hooded man and his dog. From time to time, the hooded man would look out at Fort Eldric with a monocle that glowed dimly with the glow of magic.

When the hooded man looked out once again, he saw what he was looking for, out in the distance, near the wall, was a faint dot of mana that was attuned to the monocle so that it was not drowned out by the glairing mana that made up the defensive arrays on the fort’s walls.

The hooded man took out a bottle of bluish liquid and put it in his dog's nose. After a few good sniffs, the dog ran toward the fort but slowed down near the walls. The dog then closed in on the scent its master had let it smell and found an arrow sticking out of the ground.

And just as the dog took the arrow in its mouth and plucked it out of the ground, a light was shone down from the wall. The dog froze in the magical light shone on it as a voice from the other side of the wall called, “Cid, what you shining at?”

The light went off as the man who shone the light called back, “Just a stray mutt, Bill.”

When the dog returned to its master with an arrow and a note tied to it, the man ruffled the dog's head as a reward and took the note from the arrow to read. After the hooded man was done reading, a smile grew on his lips.