"well, that went well.", Daniels speaks. "You can say that Minerva has a bias against you formation types. The fact that she did not fight me on this matter is a very good thing. That means she is at the very least willing to give you a chance."

"Why would that be?", I ask, my mouth shooting off faster than my mind could catch up. The man in front of me might seem friendly, but he is a terrifying bastard. At least if my allies are to be believed. The man is someone that managed to grab the attention of the legion and the legion doesn't really like to appreciate anybody that comes from the guard corps. Their work is not as violent as ours after all.

"Well, somethings are better if you don't get to know about it, kid.", speaks the man, the man still with the same body language as before. He certainly does not seem to have taken any offense at that. That is good. "Still, since you have asked. Lady Minerva has a problem with those that practice formation magic. Especially those that work at the formation corps."

"I have never worked at the formation corps", I reply. "My master has never allowed me to do it. Will that help with lady Minerva."

"Well, then I should mention it to lady Minerva one of these days. I actually don't know how much it will help you, though.", he replies. "The committee will be sending her with me for your future performance reviews. They are of the feeling that I will be biased in your case. Well, then let's focus on the mission. it is not going to be anything easy."

"How long will this take. I assume that I won't have a lot of time to prepare.", I reply to the man.

"Well, you will be leaving for this mission within the week.", he speaks. "I normally would try to get a break for you, but everybody is already pissed off about the mess they had to deal with at the snowwind empire. That took a pretty decent amount of time and energy. You and your master also cost us quite the good will of the snowwind empire."

"That is fine, I kind of expected something like that to happen. It is not like I did good at the mission anyway", I reply, I honestly want to explain why I did fail, but my master has clearly warned me never to try and negotiate with this man. My master does not give warnings lightly. "What is the mission?"

"Well, this time the mission is going to be more in line with your capabilities. No more needing to worry about pissing of the wrong people.", he replies, a smile on the man as if he has won the lottery. The man really hates politics. "Firstly, it is going to be much closer to the hexmountain. So that would be a good thing. I will be able to send reinforcements more easily. As for the mission, it is reacting to an emergency in the soldar plains."

"Which power triggered their emergency beacon?", I ask. "And is the guard corps still handing those things out."

The emergency beacon is something that the guard corps has given to many powers in the soldar plains. They can be triggered to get the help of the black mountain. Very few actually tend to use it since owing a debt to the black mountain is something that no one likes. No merchant ever wants to be in the debt of his customer. Makes for a bad business and the black mountain is good at making you pay.

As for how I know about this, it was the formation corps that crafted those beacons. My master personally worked on a few of those.

"Yes, we still hand those out. Nobody really expects anything from them though. Even in the present case, no emergency beacon has ever been used. Instead, what we are doing is more akin to checking in. One of our key allies in the soldar plains, the mayfires have not been responding to any of our communication attempts.", he speaks.

Now that might actually lead to a problem. The mayfires are our only pure allies (least likely to sell us out to our enemies.) in the soldar plains. I can't remember beyond that about them, just that they are pretty important. I will need to hit the files once I return to my room. I really should memorise those files one of these days.

"So what seems to be the issue?", I ask the man. "The guard corps must not have suddenly decided to check up on the mayfires."

"Firstly they haven't been making their regular grain deliveries. The mayfires are not the largest supplier of our grains but they haven't missed a single delivery in the last couple decades. Even then it was only because their castle was under attack by multiple bandit groups.", the man continues. "Then we at the very least had communication with them. They have never gone completely silent like they have done right now."

"So is it going to be causing any issues. Do I need to rush to the location. I can leave now if there is a need to. I will be a bit underprepared in case of a combat situation.", I ask the man. "I will also be alone, since my troop has yet to return to the hexmountain. That is going to cause a few problems."

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"Well, you can leave once your troop has returned to the hex mountain.", he replies.

"Well, how much time does that buy me?", I ask.

"Not much, I would say a week, but I won't be pushing you to leave any time soon. You need to be ready before you leave for this mission." He replies. "Though don't make it too late or I will be in a pretty bad position."

"Isn't it an emergency. Will this delay not cause any problems?", I ask.

"Not really, the mayfires are a pretty formidable force themselves. It is unlikely for them to be overwhelmed anytime soon. If they are struggling against an enemy, then I would like you to go in there with your full preparation. At the very least I need you to wait for the troops. Already that master of yours has restricted it a bit too much for my liking. Whoever has heard of a troop of only four people." He speaks. "Right now the assumption is that it is an active combat zone. I would suggest that you take it as seriously as you take a trip to the bone pits. That is another place that we consider to be an active combat zone, by the way."

"Could the situation be that bad. I mean, I can't say I remember much about the mayfires, but their fire magic is something that even the legion noticed. That must mean that it must be strong enough to handle anything.", I reply. "I mean they should be able to deal with anything in the soldar plains on their own."

"Well, you are asking the wrong guy here, soldier. Maybe the mayfires can handle it on their own, but they would still appreciate it if we were there. They might not speak about it, but they will remember. I can't really tell much about the politics going on here. After all, the place that my guards usually are sent to is the bone pits. There is not much politics there thankfully.", he replies. "Still, based on the reports that I have read. The guard corps is sure that something is wrong there. Firstly, the mayfires are good allies of ours. They have ways of communicating with us that do not involve the emergency beacon and secondly, you are not the first set of guards that have been sent to this place."

"Which group is that?" I ask.

"One of the groups under lady Minerva actually. A troop of twenty soldiers. Not particularly strong, but they should be halfway decent at the very least. They have yet to send any logs or communicate with us in any manner, so something has to be wrong.", he replies. "That is why they are considering sending you actually. You have shown a resilience in the snowwind empire, that the guard corps thinks that you should be able to handle whatever happens there, even if things do end up being worse than we assumed. After all, knowing the soldar plains, it can be any of our enemies pulling their strings in that place."

"Well, am I going to be provided with any resources at least. The mission sounds risky enough for some help from the head office. Maybe another troop to support me.", I ask the man. I know that it is pretty unlikely but a man has to try.

"You won't be provided with anything. The legion is already pretty pissed off with you, kid. The snowwind empire has been a fiasco of the highest degree.", he speaks. "I haven't seen the committee this annoyed at somebody for a while and that is saying something. Better that you don't ask them for anything. I could try if there is a need, but who can tell."

"There should be something. Some reward for the previous mission. It is not like I messed things up that badly. It was mostly my master if we are to be honest.", I reply.

"Well, I could ask them but the committee doesn't like you already. If you were to go in there demanding rewards, they will remember that. You want the committee to be on your side, kid. If you piss them off, they can make your life pretty annoying.", he replies.

"I need mana stones. I need to buy some stuff and my personal reserves will not be enough for it. There must be something that can be done?", I ask the man.

"Well, there might be something that I will be able to do, but you will need to explain to me for what purpose you need this and be ready to provide me a detailed list of what exactly you have bought. I will be submitting all of this to the committee.", he replies.

"Why won't I be ready? As for what I need it for. I mainly need it to install a coordination matrix and another cannon on my ship. Right now the one I am using is quite lacking.", I reply, explaining as I see the confusion on my supervisors face. "A coordination matrix will allow me to coordinate all the cannons on the ship and aim them as is needed. I can already do that, but it is not very useful in an actual combat situation. With a coordination matrix I will be able to control multiple cannons as if I were aiming them myself."

"Well, your troop could have done this for you. if you don't give a good enough reason, then I am not going to be able to get you the funds. You know how stingy they can get.", he replies.

"Well, I have only three soldiers. I can't really have all of them on cannon duty now can I. If things go well I will be adding more than three cannons to the ships, what should I do then?", I speak, pointing out the obvious. "Even now I can't really spare them. I have them do vital tasks such as patrolling for boarders and so on. If they were busy shooting cannons, I would need my troops to be expanded at least."

"Fine then, we supervisors are allowed to lend their guards some money for their missions. This is meant mostly to allow people to prepare for their missions. You will not need to pay interest on it and the amount lent will be cut directly from your rewards of the mission.", the man speaks. "You can actually choose not to pay back the head office, but you know how stingy those bastards tend to be, so I am warning you before you take the credit, to pay it back as soon as possible."

"I know how the head office can get. You have to remember that my master is the one that does maintenance on their formations.", I reply, "my master tends to get less frustrated with the merchants down south, then he can get with the guard corps."