“In the event of an attack on a town or a city, it is not recommended to hold on and confront a demonic threat. Instead, authorities must prioritize a ‘fighting retreat’, holding the monster off from its rampage with just enough time to let the people escape. In fact, in most cases, preserving combat strength by completely abandoning the populace may be a necessary desperate measure. Most engagements with demons are a hopeless endeavor. Involve civilians, and it is a situation that has gone beyond out of control and a waste of lives to fight for.”
- Excerpt from “An Emergency Treatise on the Subject of ‘Demons’” by Daniel Specke.
+++
+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Rousselot City
AUG 5, 1538 CE
Hans, Adelyn, Captain Strobel, and of course, even the newly arrived IYC mercenaries—Captain Weibel and Lieutenant Preisnel, arrived at the Countess’ Estate in the afternoon. Earlier, Hans executed his first phase of the plan. He went to the slums and reported back to both Captain Strobel, then Adelyn, and then they went to grab the two mercenaries.
Of course, the duo was easy to get. All he needed to do was to tell them that there was money involved. Specifically, the bounty for the ‘Tentacled Eel’. That, and the deal that would bind Adelyn and Hans into the interests of the IYC too. Like the last time, the deal meant they essentially smoothly finished their main goal of going into this city. And so, Hans got them in on the operation.
All that was left was the Countess. She would be a hard lady to nag in order to join the fight, Hans imagined. But he was going to report to her and make it clear that she must join them in the fight. Sure, it violated her desire to remain out of the fighting, but Hans needed a truly strong individual to stack the odds in their favor.
When they arrived at her office the Countess, as usual, was calmly tending to her books, her cat merely looking at them for a scant few seconds, before yawning in disinterest. Even the presence of Captain Strobel seemed to not even elicit a response from her.
Captain Strobel removed his hat, and so did Captain Weibel and Lieutenant Preisner before they all bowed respectfully. Captain Strobel then walked forward and straightened himself.
“Milady, we bear bad news,” Captain Strobel said. “Lieutenant Hoffman here has reported a possible sighting of the ‘humanoid form’ of the demonic entity we were preparing against. The ‘Tentacled Eel’ might be in this city.”
Silence.
“Who told the three of you to bring two rats to my office?” the Countess asked, a hint of hateful distaste in her otherwise serene tone. “It is not a pleasure to conduct business with those things. You know that, Captain Strobel.”
Captain Weibel left a split-second chuckle before he composed himself.
“I apologize, but these two also have some experience dealing with demons,” Captain Strobel replied. “They’d be participating in the search. I’m also mobilizing the available units in the city to conduct the searches. But we also need you—”
“It’s almost late afternoon,” she flipped another page of her book. “What kind of fairytale does the bunch of you live in to believe you can find a monster in the darkness? I’m no military commander, but I know that commoner footsoldier with…pardon me for belittling these men—a mere musket and torch won’t be able to effectively find it, nor would he have a chance to fight, escape, and report back to us should Lieutenant Hoffman’s findings be true.”
Hans frowned and walked forward.
“Respectfully, Madame, that’s why we’re trying to get you in on this,” Hans said. “That demon is a threat to the city. Your city. You must act.”
“Or I shall evacuate at once—”
“It looked like a middle-aged human male in obviously aged and ruined clothing…but his head has been replaced by tentacles,” Hans added. “And he’s trying to hide in the darkness. Preparing to strike when we’re vulnerable. I know it. That’s why you must act, Countess Fresnel. You must.”
The woman was clearly disturbed by Hans’ speech, but she took a deep breath to recompose herself. The five watched as the Countess closed the book she was reading, and stood up to face them. At last, in Hans’ mind, he made progress. All he needed was to push further, and the Countess would fold.
“Then what’s your plan, Lieutenant Hoffman?” the Countess asked. “Good, perhaps it is in the city. Then we’re doomed. Should I order an evacuation this late for an unconfirmed threat? Should we cancel our plans? You even made the plan to have a parade tomorrow, should we cancel that? You might be bringing unintended chaos to my city.”
“No, no plans are getting canceled,” Hans said. “We’re sticking to it. I have reason to believe that the monster would either attack tonight or tomorrow. Where, I do not know, but we need a stronghold for that.”
“And what stronghold would that be?”
“Your Estate,” Hans said. “Captain Wittenstein will cooperate with you to fortify this estate in a reasonable manner should an attack happen. This is also where you are, Countess Fresnel, and we expect you to defend this estate at all costs. It’ll be our headquarters once the chaos starts. Our staging ground. And where we’ll muster our forces before attacking the demon. You will lead it, Countess Fresnel. You will.”
She laughed a bit.
“You’re ordering me…”
“I am,” Hans said. “Now, that’s your job, Captain Wittenstein, and Countess Fresnel. Captain Strobel here will be in charge of our forces, as usual. He’ll be coordinating the search attempts tonight, and then tomorrow. Me, Captain Weibel, and Lieutenant Preisnel will be on the ground too. We’ll try to cover as much ground as possible.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Hans,” Adelyn cut him off. “What about our Wanderpanzers? Shouldn’t we deploy now with it?”
“Only once the sighting and location are confirmed,” Hans replied. “We can’t lose those assets. We have to use them carefully. We use it now to search for the entity, not only would we be sitting ducks on the search, but we’d also be disturbing the peace. Immediate panic right now will only hamper our efforts and will just…trigger that thing. We need to mobilize our troops here in relative peace. And we only have at most one night left to do that and rest.”
“What if it attacks us right when everyone’s asleep?” Countess Fresnel asked.
“Simple. We stick to the plan and kill it. Everyone in the higher chain of command will be on high alert. No one’s sleeping tonight.”
+++
Alizée seemed confused when Hans and Adelyn returned to the St. Heka church to pick her up. Quite frankly, Hans didn’t know if what he was doing was truly right—he was, after all, putting her directly in harm’s way based on what he knew from his past lives. He really couldn’t be sure about how it’d end up. What if instead of abducting her, the demon simply killed her this time?
Hans didn’t know for sure, which ached his heart more. He was probably the worst guardian to a child that could ever exist. But he had already convinced himself that this was a necessary thing to do. He needed Alizée as bait to get the Countess to fight. He needed to make sure she’d be surrounded by powerful people when the demon tried to take her.
And he permitted himself to just that plan all because his mind was convinced that Alizée wouldn’t corrupt this time around. His entire strategy. His entire plan. All of it hinged on this little girl not turning into one of them.
He hoped it’d work.
“Alizée,” Hans kneeled to her level. “How are you doing today, hmm?”
She tried to smile.
“Studying, Sir Hans.”
“Good,” he gave her a pat on the head. “Hey…you know, you don’t actually seem too fine to me. Come on…tell me if anything’s wrong.”
“I…will it really be alright, Sir Hans? Am I…useless?”
“Where did you learn those words?”
“The voices…”
“What?”
The girl looked down, her hands gripping the hem of her skirt.
“S-studying…”
“Focus on positive words and phrases first, okay?” Hans shook his head. “If you understand that, of course. But no, you’re not useless, Alizée. Get that? You are not. You are valuable. Important. To us. You know, me and Adelyn over there. Look, things…aren’t looking up right now, but it’ll be alright. Trust me.”
“I’m scared…”
“It’s okay to be scared,” Hans said. “I am too. Everyone is. But you need to remain strong. Alright. You’re a strong girl. A good girl even. Just keep that up. What monster is going to stand against that? What bad men would? So long as you can keep your head high, I want you to know, you will be fine, eventually. And if not, maybe you’ll fall. But you’ll fall with grace and dignity. This world is cruel. But you must remain strong.”
“But I’m weak.”
“The strength of the mind can be more important than the strength of one’s fist,” Hans said. “Your mind is your guidance. And you must keep your guide in its best condition. Trust. Belief. The hope for a better future. I can’t tell you fully if it will be alright, but right now…just believe, for your sake. We’ll do our best.”
Hans paused.
“You don’t fully understand me, no?”
“...Yeah.” She looked down again. “But I’ll remain strong. I’ll trust you. You will stop anyone trying to harm me. You will. Because…because you always did, Sir Hans.”
“Alright. You’ll be staying with Adelyn in a safer place. Just…just stay there, and hold on. It’ll be over soon. I swear by that. I would never break the trust you place on me if you placed it on me. I’ll die first before that happens.”
And I mean that literally.
“So, be a good, strong girl. That’s all you need to do. Things will work out.”
Hans stood up and guided Alizée to Adelyn, who was standing behind him.
“Captain, take care of her. Keep her safe.”
“I’ll do my best,” Adelyn replied. “Just…radio me when it’s spotted. I’ll act quickly.”
“Noted.”
+++
The night drew in quickly. Quite frankly, as Hans expected, it was a hopeless search for the trio. They even mustered multiple platoons of the 4th Holy Ygeia Regiment to scour the slums, but alas, the presence of the demon didn’t materialize. As expected. More importantly, it was already too dark that further search attempts would be suicidal.
And so, Hans turned to face Captain Weibel and Lieutenant Preisner.
“So…what do you think?” Hans asked. “Seems like it’s hiding well.”
“Assuming it’s even really here,” Captain Weibel said. They looked around. The group of run-down buildings around them was already too painfully silent, its inhabitants most likely asleep or attempting to avoid them by remaining silent. Lieutenant Preisner, who had his wheellock pistol out, sighed.
“Sir, I think this search is futile,” the IYC mercenary said. “Think we should pull back?”
“Lieutenant Hoffman?” Captain Weibel turned to Hans, the question being passed to him.
“I’d say so…perhaps,” Hans said. “It seems the beast prefers to stay low right now. Strange…it should attack us. It shouldn’t do this.”
“You know, I’m starting to feel like we’re just expendable bait at this point,” Captain Weibel said. “The plan of yours. You know, it looks desperate, I must say. I believe there’d be severe casualties.”
“It is desperate,” Hans answered. “I’m not joking when I say that a demon in an urban area is a death sentence. We are in a death sentence type of situation. And in these situations, extreme measures have to be taken.”
“You think the Countess is the prime target, no?” Captain Weibel said. “Or that someone in her estate is.”
“What?”
“I can see it in your eyes, Lieutenant,” Captain Weibel laughed. “You scheming son-of-whatever place you came from. You want to bait out that demon, if it exists, and attack our best strong point. Hence, the concentration of forces in the Countess’ estate.”
“Well…” Hans couldn’t answer him properly. How the hell did he find out so easily? He wasn’t sure. “I’m still hoping we can find it. And force it into a fight outside of the city center. It’s the main plan.”
“But it’s not the plan that’ll work in your mind, Lieutenant,” Captain Weibel said. “I hope whatever scheme you prepared, it will work. Because if it doesn’t…well, our pay might be in danger. And I don’t like it when my money is in danger.”
Hans shook his head.
“Believe me, there are things more important than your pay that are in danger in my plans,” Hans said. “But it’s a necessary sacrifice to win.”