Chapter: 26

The train slowed down as it came into Goran. There were a few bangs and splutters from the train engine throughout the journey.

“Won’t be long till one of the trains blows a boiler from the fuel going haywire,” Rick said as he stood.

“Might be an idea to try and get a clunker engine and get it working on mana, Xinta makes fine engines but with the pace of everything we’ll need a train to make the route up north soon,” Len pulled on his gear, preparing to exit the train. Len's ears pricked up at the sound of someone yelling in a tone that suggested orders.

They reached the platform where the mercenaries on the train were marshalling themselves off the train and into formation. Train carriage doors were yanked open as soldiers began unloading crates of gear and horses.

The crew from the engine hopped down and went towards the cargo carriages, pulling the bolts free and checking paperwork.

Soldiers worked in teams, pushing the now free cargo carriages off of the main track and over to the ware houses on the other side of the tracks.

Len and Rick stepped off of the train, keeping to the peripheral, moving behind those that were watching the display.

Units formed up, their boots echoing on the stone as they marched through the central station.

People cheered at their return. On the other side of the station, family members waited. They threw out flowers, called out the names of their loved ones, or tried to peer past the soldiers, searching for their own.

The soldiers marched on, heading through the city towards their barracks.

Len and Rick moved away from the crowds that had gathered and hurried on their way towards the Blue Manor.

***

Carolyn waited in the chair of her office, watching Adrian, the man who led the first Isendia company. He was a stout man with a black handlebar moustache that had gained grey through the years.

His eyes were a hard ghostly white, that were flickering over the contract on her desk between them.

He finished reading, marshalling his thoughts.

"Miss Carolyn, I have to state my disagreement. Rick is just a boy," Adrian raised his head. "A boy that, while he might have been sent to the academy to get him out of Tyrus's way, you've heard what he did there."

"I know very well what he did there," Carolyn said. He waited for more.

"He disrespected the entire academy, all of its staff, and then fled to Goran. I have heard the stories from the nobility,” Adrian said.

“Where he healed me and helped me retake power from Tyrus, who was going to run this family into the ground and use the mercenaries as his personal bank."

The company commander grimaced, but he didn't refute her words.

"So I think it's best to say that while Rick has had his problems, he's certainly on our side, no matter what. I appreciate you telling me your reservations about him. There are too many that would agree while internally disagreeing. I need people who I can trust and those who I have the word of. And that is why I need your signature upon this contract." She leaned forward and tapped the piece of paper between them on her desk.

"It also says that you want me to agree with this Len character commanding me. I have no idea who he is, other than his father is possibly a farmer and that he knows Rick. This makes no sense at all. Why would you give them so much power?"

"I can't tell you anything more than what I have already said. It is up to you if you decide to continue on as company commander or if you choose retirement,” Carolyn said simply.

“Do you wish for me to retire as company commander? I've been doing this job for nearly thirty years and loyal to you throughout."

Carolyn stood from her desk. "I don't wish for you to leave, but I know that I can't have troops and a company commander who disagree with or will not sign a contract that I believe in serving with my mercenaries. The decision is yours. Even if you do not agree now, in the future you might. But I can't give you any more information unless you sign that contract."

She spotted Everett standing nearby.

Adrian drew out a pen from the stand next to the contract and signed his name.

The contract burned up as he lifted his pen. “What?” Adrian stumbled backwards.

He grabbed at his stomach and grimaced.

Carolyn raised an eyebrow. A contract blow back?

Her mind cast back to what Len had told her about contract blowback. It was why there were so many terms in the contracts he drafted for her with the company commanders. Terms that would ensure their loyalty. If they had betrayed her trust, they would have to reveal their actions.

If they attempted to do so in the future, the contract would activate, alerting her and preventing them from breaking the contract, lest they be hit with the blowback.

He told me that the contracts link to one's core and their very mana. If there is a blowback, they will clutch their stomach, where their core is located, and be in pain at the very least. Depending on the severity and the terms of the contract, they could lose access to their mana or even be killed.

Carolyn pushed forward a pile of blank paper. "Adrian, it seems that you have been a bad commander. I think it's time that you came clean with whatever is weighing upon your mind and what you know."

Adrian's face was covered in sweat, trembling in pain.

He leapt on the paper like a man at sea might jump for a raft. His pen dug into the paper as he started writing down information.

"What did you do, Adrian?" Carolyn asked as she walked around the desk.

Everett's sword was in his hand, just a half step behind Adrian. His movements had been silent and wraith-like.

"I knew of Tyrus's plan to kill your son-in-law and daughter. I did not help them. Instead, I used the information to blackmail Tyrus, later to get the position of company commander and pick out where I wanted to go.” Adrian wheezed.

“He turned a blind eye to the payments I received from various nobles, securing the services of the Isendia mercenaries and using them as my own," Adrian confessed, flinching in pain.

" I took bribes from the nobility to carry out missions that would not have been agreed upon under the Isendia charter. Beating or killing those that went against nobles. I sold off the supplies going to my company. Using the information that I had, I sold it to nobility as well." He flipped through pages, writing on another.

"Why?" Carolyn asked, pushing through the rage and burning anger that filled her.

“For fifteen years, I toiled in the Isendia mercenaries without anyone realizing how astute I was as a commander. How I deserved the position that others were getting. So instead of trying to beat them with fighting or tactics on the battlefield, I used a different tactic. A tactic that they would never think of. The death of your daughter and son-in-law gave me the opening I needed to get what I deserve."

"I was suspicious as to why you got the position you did shortly after the death of my daughter and son-in-law. You'd always been a middling kind of man. Happy to sit back on his laurels, thinking of himself as some grand general. While in fact, you were a small man with a small mind and a petty hatred for others that were better than you. List it all out, Adrian. Let's find out what secrets you're hiding and the ones you've sold of mine," she demanded.

She glanced at Everett standing behind him. Adrian would not be leaving this room alive today.

Though she still needed to go through all of the other company commanders. She stepped past the two men and towards the windows overlooking the back of the Blue Manor.

Yet again, one of Len and Rick's creations had smoothed the way for her.

These contracts would change everything, making her mercenaries completely airtight from information leaking out.

Though where there is a will, there is a way. One step at a time.

***

“Oscar, good to see you,” Rick said as they walked through the gate into the Blue Manor.

“Mister Len, Young master Rick.” The man bowed his head.

“You’ve gotten stronger. Everett being a hardass?” Rick ribbed the man.

“He has been developing out our new talents with the increases in skill,” Oscar said.

That’s a yes. Len grinned, reading through the soldier speak.

“Well good luck,” Rick patted the man’s shoulder in consolidation.

Oscar grinned but didn’t saying anything else as they walked up the crushed stone road to the house.

The gate opened again as they were halfway up the road.

People nodded to Rick and Len.

He looked back, spotting a carriage being drawn up the drive.

It came to a stop as they reached the top of the stairs.

The carriage didn’t come to a stop as the door opened, revealing the woman he’d seen in Nedlin. Shit.

“Rick!” Her voice carried through the air, one that demanded attention and commanded others.

Rick’s shoulders bunched, his hand falling to his hammer as he stopped walking.

He clenched his jaw, containing his fury.

Len’s stomach tightened as he readied a spell in his mind, his hand straying closer to his sword.

“What are you doing with a hammer on your belt?” The woman demanded, the crushed stone of the paths grinding under her feet before she stalked up the stairs.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Len looked at Irene, she was built stocky, face weathered.

“Felt like it,” Rick’s voice strained with the words.

She seemed to weigh his words and find everything lacking. Behind her three men and a woman trailed. “I will talk to you once I’ve met with your grandma,” She promised and kept walking into the blue manor.

Rick waited for them to head up to his grandma’s office before he stepped into the building and walked towards their rooms.

“We’ll get cleaned up and go see my grandma,” Rick said.

“What of the Irene situation.”

“We’ll avoid it if we can, deal with it if we can’t.”

***

Len looked up from his notes as there was a knock at his door. He’d bathed and then started roughing up the enchantments that he’d need to make.

Len stood, and opened the door.

“Ready?” Rick asked.

“Sure,” Len stuffed the pages into his messenger bag and shifted his armor around, the only time he took off his armor or weapon was when he was bathing and he always had his weapon nearby.

Someone whistled as they walked through the house.

Len looked around, noting the man’s uniform.

Rick took in a breath and stopped where he was.

“Where do you think you’re going? Trying to slink off?” Irene demanded, rounding a corner.

“Lets get this over with.”

Len could feel the mana around Rick tighten under his control, constricted.

Irene looked around, sensing something though she’d probably had mana for a few days. Rick’s used it for decades.

“Everett!” Rick yelled as he turned on his foot towards the rear of the manor.

The man walked out of a room.

“Rick?”

“Need someone to watch over a spar,” Rick said lazily.

Everett frowned, seeing past them. “Commander Irene I did not realize that you made it back to the city.”

“Just got in and met with the lady. She had a number of interesting things to talk about,” Irene sounded somewhat distracted.

“How was your time at Morkaz?”

“All kinds of odd creatures have come out of the delta.” Irene said. “Though what the lady said might draw some light to it.”

Rick pushed through a door, Len followed. It wasn’t a long walk to the training square, enclosed on four sides by bushy trees.

A rack of wooden weapons lay off to the side.

Irene walked over to it and picked up a sturdy stick.

“A teaching stick Commander?” Everett asked.

“It seems that Rick has failed to remember his lessons about the sword, carrying around a hammer.” She turned and faced him. Len moved off to the side with Everett.

“Are you sure—”

“You called for this spar, shall we begin?” Rick asked from the right side of the square, Irene on the left.

“Where is your sword, this is a spar?” She asked.

“I don’t use the sword much, the hammer suits me better,” Rick said.

“The sword is the weapon your mother and father used, the weapon of nobility and of knights!” She snarled.

Rick put one hand on his left hip and patted the head of his hammer with his right. “Feels juust right.”

“I see that attitude of yours has only got worse,” She stepped forward, her very body seemed to be shaking in rage.

“So the spar is on?” Rick looked at Everett.

“Yes,” Everett said hesitantly.

Rick’s smile made Len feel a numbness come over him, his peripheral vision spreading out to the others in the sparring area.

Rick strode across the training area.

“You look like you’re on a stroll! Did you not remember any of my training?” Irene waved her sword-stick with indignation.

“Oh I remember all of it,” The smile fell from Rick’s face as his lazy steps relaxed into a predatory walk.

He stepped into her range, she whipped her stick at him. Rick grabbed her wrist, casually punched her in the gut that drove the air out of her lungs and made her sputter.

He casually grabbed her by the throat, lifting her up as he brought her ear level with his mouth, whispering into her ear.

Len could still hear him as he put a hand on Everett’s shoulder as he made to move forward. He tried to pull away but Len kept his hand there and shook his head in the negative, promising injury if he tried to intervene.

“I am no longer a defenseless child for you and my uncle to beat mercilessly. Know your place commander. You will follow orders, you will defend Goran you will defend this family and these people. I will make you weather the storm ahead of us. Not because I care for you, but because I can use your talents.” Rick turned her head so he could see into his eyes.

She recoiled at what she saw there.

“You have given your oath, your contract. I own your soul now.”

He placed her down, gently, like one might put down a fragile piece of art. She stumbled backwards as Rick turned and headed out of the training square.

Len released Everett’s shoulder and followed after him.

***

They stepped into Rick’s Grandma’s office. Len picked up on the scent of blood. Rick glanced back at him, recognizing it too.

“Based on your sound transmissions you have been quite busy indeed,” Carolyn said, sitting back in her chair.

“Just started to get things into motion.” Rick said.

“Quite. I have a group of logisticians from the mercenaries being pulled out to coordinate the transport of materials from the Crystal dungeon as you’ve been calling it and the other dungeons in the area once your sister clears them. Can we trust this Lucius?”

“We have a contract with him in place,” Rick said.

“He is a criminal.”

“He has used all the options available to get the position he has,” Rick said. “You’d be surprised with how similar you are. Now Len, you’re the one with the plans.”

And now I’m the decoy. “Thanks—though you are right. There is a lot that we have to do.”

“Lydia is heading off on the afternoon train to Warwick,” Carolyn said.

“Gotcha, also what is Adrian and his squad doing?” Rick asked.

“The First company commander has been relieved of his position.” There was a cutting undertone to her words.

Is that were the bloody smell comes from?

“They are currently working through the company, clearing through its ranks. Once they’re finished they’re going to bring in people coming out of retirement and want to serve again and train up the whole unit. Everett is going to take command,” Carolyn said.

“I thought he gave up on command taking care of you and the family instead?” Rick asked.

“It was pointed out to me multiple times that we need a better defense here in Goran to make sure that our fields and people are protected. I can’t think of anyone I trust more.”

“That’s fair and what of the other companies?”

“Third company has been on tour for a long time. They’re going to get a month and a half rest, then get them trained up, refill their ranks and then I’ll send them off on a expedition. I expect I will do the same with the other companies too. We need to level them up and quickly with the civil war brewing.”

Len crossed his arms, looking at Carolyn. “You make it sound like you have intentions with the civil war.”

"The king was the one who knighted Rick’s grandfather and gave us Goran. We owe him a debt.”

“And which son are you going to repay that debt to? What do they choose, which one is the rightful heir?” Len asked.

“Neither of them, in my fucking opinion," Rick grumbled.

"The civil war will lead to two years of strife where everyone's fighting one another.” Len pressed on. “Some people are trying to loot dungeons as much as possible to sell that on to parties outside of the nation for a profit. Meanwhile, everyone's getting killed by stronger and stronger attacks instead of getting ready for what we really need to get ready for.”

"So we make sure that it doesn't happen," Carolyn said.

"I already told the princess what she needs to do to cure her father. What she does now is up to her. We," Rick gestured to all of them, "don't have to do a damn thing but stay the hell out of it."

"It's a civil war. There's no way we can just stay out of it," Carolyn said.

"We have time until he dies," Len said. "We use that to build up our infrastructure and turn Goran into a bastion.”

"But you two know what's going to happen," Carolyn said. "You can change this."

“We just going to go knock on the king’s door, heal him and tell him ‘hey your sons are assholes?” Rick smirked.

Carolyn gave him a pointed look.

“Rick might be poor in how he’s saying it but he has a point. Also the nobles have already started falling into groups,” Len said. “From what Lucius said, the divides are already there now. They have put in a lot of resources to building up their fighting forces. Are they just going to step them down?”

Carolyn crossed her arms, sinking into thought. “No, they’ve been raising the largest fighting forces possible. It will turn to a fight of pride if nothing else.”

"We can change some things," Rick said. "It's not on us to change everything. And honestly, this civil war is a blip compared to all the stuff that's about to happen.”

“That’s not reassuring,” Carolyn said.

“We focus on the things that we can control,” Len said.

“What if the king recovers?” Carolyn asked.

Rick looked at Len. “I guess we deal with it then?”

“If he recovers then he’s going to need to deal with the mess that’s happening throughout the country,” Len said. “Wait, do you have an agreement with him?”

Carolyn grimaced. “Yes.”

“That doesn't sound good,” Rick said.

“What’s the nature of the agreement,” Len said.

“My husband was given land and a high position based on what he had accomplished in the name of the king bringing peace to Plynthia and keeping out the Solis league. That is the public information,” Carolyn took in a deep breath. “The Isendia Mercenaries are made up of people from across the nation so that they would be largely neutral. A large trained force with experience that would be ready if Plynthia needed to defend against attackers once more.”

“This would be an internal fight so we could argue about us remaining neutral, protecting the people behind our defenses,” Rick said.

“The agreement is that if the king or his rightful heir asks for it we will support them,” Carolyn said.

“That’s something we’ll have to cross when we get to it,” Len said.

“Goran was torn apart early on so it wasn’t able to contribute much to the civil war. Us being around still is already a change,” Rick said.

“Were you able to get access to the newspaper’s printers?” Len asked.

“Yes they print at night to have the news ready in the morning. You can print throughout the day without issue. They are okay with signing contracts to not tell anyone what they’re printing,” Carolyn said.

“Good, that will change things. Crafters and those that work with their hands will climb levels quickly. The common people just want peace and if they’re as strong or stronger than the fighters under the nobles it will make it harder for a civil war to happen,” Len said. “Spreading it is going to be hard.”

“I think you answered the first part with the second. Get people to put the pamphlets in with the newspapers. We have papers printed in Eskon passing by us every day to the other cities, get someone to sneak on and put in the pamphlets,” Rick said. “Heck we get someone in the news paper print shops in Eskon adding in the pamphlets to spread them as far as possible.”

“I’ll need to add in our ‘signature’ too,” Len said. “Is there a place I can work?”

“You can use the warehouses where the materials from the Crystal Dungeon are being stored. There's enough room there for everything," Carolyn said. "But we have a problem in the shape of funding.”

"Go on," Len said.

"I need gold. Right now, we're not generating any money. The debt collectors are asking us for basically everything they can get their hands on, thinking that I'm some idiotic old lady who can't read a damn ledger. It's been a rude awakening for them, but they're still writing us to pay off the debts or at least get in on the interest.” Carolyn shook her head. “I've talked them down a lot, but we need to generate money, and soon. I know you said how they'll lend us more, and I can get access to a lot more, but the problem is the payments we have to make monthly. Until such an event happens where the banks really do have bigger problems than collecting debt, which I am quite doubtful of, we have to continue paying the interest. I can do that, but that doesn't leave us anything to pay the farmers and workers you want to employ.”

“Its going to be a while before we can generate money,” Len said.

"Promissory notes," Rick shrugged. "Write up a contract saying that we will pay them back what they are due, and in the meantime, we will make sure they are properly housed, fed, watered, and have their needs seen to by providing them a credit that they can use within the city.”

“Tracking that credit would become a nightmare,” Carolyn said.

“There was that system that they used in Velkaris,” Len said.

“The payment tokens,” Rick said.

“Right,” Len said. “They were enchanted pieces of metal that one could load up with funds at a cashier or retrieve the funds from, also at a cashier. Velkaris had a problem with pickpockets, robbers, and thieves.”

“Well, what do you expect in a city of criminals, right?" Rick interjected.

Len shrugged. "Yeah, so they had to create this slip to prevent people from stealing each other's wealth. It started to be used in other cities as well. You enter the city with a token load it up with gold or other valuables. Then, you could set your token to transfer a certain amount of funds. Tap it to another person's token, inject your mana, and voila, your count would decrease and the other person's count would increase.

"It would be easy to implement it here," Rick said, "because you control the pay of the soldiers coming through the city. If the soldiers are using the system to get their pay, then all of the other sellers are going to switch over to that system. You'll need to have it instituted in places like stores that sell food and the quartermasters.”

"If it's easier and simpler to use the token, they'll use the token instead,” Len said. “While we can prevent them from using the tokens to get gold for a little while, we will need to ensure that we have enough gold on hand to meet their demands and needs soon. Otherwise, if we're not keeping that cash ready, then they're going to have a big problem with trusting us, and if they're putting gold in, they want to get the damn stuff out.

"We have to make it fair for everyone," Rick said including ourselves.

“Which is what led to everyone trying to get into Velkaris's own vaults,” Len said.

“What a vault that would have been to crack,” Rick grinned and elbowed Len.

Len’s face spread in a grin. “Yeah that would have been a fun challenge.”

"Okay, okay." Carolyn's eyes were distracted, filmed over, and caught on some idea.

Len looked to Rick, who shrugged. "She's always liked numbers."

Guess I know where he got his love of gold from.

“It would make it so people would purchase more within Goran, keeping the value here,” Carolyn said. “If we were able to link it up to Velkaris and have them use it in their trades as well. It might be best if we had others think they were the ones that came up with it. Start in Velkaris, we adopt it and then others can later on. Pay for the troops will go out in a week and then in three weeks.” Carolyn looked up at Len. “How long would it take for you to create a thousand of these tokens?”

“The enchantment is a little tricky but not too bad. I can use molds to make them and powdered crystal. Once the first is done its just on the amount of people that we have to make it because we can make as many molds as we need.” Thankfully we have a lot of that crystal from the dungeon.

“We’d give them for free to soldiers and businesses that sign up. In a few months we’ll start selling them to cover the cost of production,” Carolyn said.

“Well sounds like I need to get to work,” Len said.

“Where’s Tenebrook?” Rick asked.

“The man has been locked up in his lab since you left.”

“I’ll check in on him then,” Rick said.