Narrator:

Apart from a few fatal faults, Kalitran, the previous king, had been pretty good at the kinging stuff. Consequently, when Eleanor went over the plans for various invasion scenarios, there was little for her to add.

When the three signal flares were seen, like a well-oiled machine, the process started.

Some guards rushed to the town bells and started clanging them like mad. Some more went to the guard's barracks and brutally woke everyone up. Another guard, under express orders from Eleanor, went and showed no mercy in waking up the Queen. Finally, the semaphore light tower operator was rudely interrupted by another guard. He was halfway through transcribing the daily news from a semaphore station a third of the way around the ring. Unfortunately, what was going to have to wait.

The semaphore operator cleared his channel, requested emergency access to Crysteth, and waited. Six minutes after leaving the coast, Alexa slowed down and staggered to the semaphore operator's desk.

"Four slaver ships soon to dock at the Manifestorian port. No other ships sighted," she said.

She then turned and sprinted to the castle while the operator started producing the light flashes needed to route that message through to Crysteth.

Naturally, this ability was another specialised skill awarded by the Voice of the World.

Eleanor:

What? What is this guard, a man too, doing in my bedroom...

Oh, by the Voice, that's what.

A mere five minutes later, fully dressed in her non-queening worker clothes, she was at her desk. She was busy doing her shoelaces as Alexa ran up and made her report.

"Right, Jane. You get half the guards and start running to the coast as planned. I'll stay here and coordinate -"

Ding! A friendly reminder, Eleanor. You pledged to personally lead any fight against the slavers whenever practical.

"Oh, er, what, ah, damn."

"Change of plans, Jane. I'm coming with you. Get your second in command to deal with the rest of the preparations here; it's all in the planning documents."

"That's right, that 100% vow you made?" said Jane.

"Yep."

Lena:

At this stage, Lena appeared. She was still busy putting on her coat, and she was carrying her boots in her hand.

"Say, what's up? Everyone is rushing around like monsters on a stampede, and it's barely morning!"

"The slavers are attacking the port or something," said Eleanor, "And due to my vow, I need to go with the guards to supervise."

Bloody hell, that sounds serious. I'll have to manage to look after my little orphans all by myself while she is gone...

Ding! A friendly reminder, Lena. You pledged to be by Eleanor's side whenever she needed it.

Oh.

Lena gave Eleanor a sickly little smile.

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"Well, guess what? Due to my vow to you, I must also come along."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Aren't these 100% vows a bit of a pain?"

And what do I do about Mason and Becky...

Ding! A friendly reminder...

The Voice of the World didn't get any further since Lena immediately shouted it down.

"OK, OK, I get it; I have to bring the orphans also!"

Jane's face palmed. "Fine, fine. We had better get moving."

Three-quarters of an hour after the initial sighting of the ships, the group from Manifestoria arrived at the coast guards' position on top of the cliff.

The guards ran while Eleanor, Lena and the orphans were in a horse and cart.

Fortunately, Eleanor knew how to drive a horse.

Eleanor:

She brought the carriage to a halt at the parking area behind the guard's residence, and she and Lena and the orphans alighted.

Wherever the Queen goes, thus goes her entourage.

Yeah, what bullshit. I'm endangering the lives of Lean and two little kids - sigh - but their lives are in danger anyway, so...

But forget about that for now.

How, by the Voice, am I supposed to lead my guards in a battle against the slavers?

My tutors back when I was a teenager never covered Battlefield management.

Ding! The skill [Battlefield management] has been added. Thirty three points out of a total of a hundred have been assigned.

... No kidding ...

Anything to do with the Misfits really is total bullshit.

Then she had a blinding headache as the Voice of the World forcibly downloaded a few gigabytes of data into her brain, all about strategy and tactics of fighting, with a side order of an extensive description of weapon systems, lines of communications, leadership methods and best methods of dealing with attacking slaves.

The next thing she realised was that she was lying on the ground, covered in sand and dirt. Around her was a circle of people, all looking concerned.

"Oh shit..." she said as she struggled to stand up. Jane helped her.

"Well, anyway, never mind me-"

She was going to say something more about her new ability, but that new ability immediately informed her that telling just anybody about it was very bad.

Ah, of course. If it became public information, the slaver emperor would learn about it and factor it into his plans.

She looked around. Everyone was watching her.

"Err, sorry; I think I might be under some stress, haha."

They don't look very confident in me, do they?

Eleanor was still out of sorts from her forced brain upgrade, but she noticed that the two little kids looked very worried, if not horrified. So she smiled, or tried to smile, at them.

"Hi, Mason and Becky. Lena will be looking after you, so there's no need to worry about me, OK?"

There's no time for any more reassurances - and now I know what to do!

And no matter what they might think of me now, I'm still the Queen, and they will obey me!

I hope.

Step one: Gather intelligence.

She ran to the lookout platform.

Sure enough, four ships with different designs were currently tacking their way into the wind to get over the bar and into the sheltered bay waters.

Yeah, the wind is still blowing offshore, but the closer they get, the more they are sheltered by the cliffs, so the faster they will get... No, wait, the more they move into the wind shadow of the cliffs, the less wind they get, so the slower they become... I think.

She realised it might be better to ask someone who knew about such things. She used her skill [Addressing the Public]:

"Can anyone tell me how long until they reach the shore or the docks?"

"About half an hour." said a couple of guards.

"Will they land on the shore or continue a bit more and land at the docks?"

There was a brief discussion; the guards decided the slavers would probably land on the shore. It was closer and more straightforward to attack from.

Step two: Deploy one's troops.

She realised that part of her brand-new skill was [Addressing a Subgroup]. So she started commanding.

She commanded one group of guards to get to the docks and another, bigger group, along with Jane, to get to the shore. They started running down the stairs. Included in the latter group were the three coastal watching guards and Alexa, who had returned with Eleanor.

There were now only four guards left. Guards with high physical attributes.

"This isn't dignified, but you will carry us down. Since Lena and I have pitiful strength and speed abilities,"

And they were off. The two children had it easy; they were carried princess-style and could see the scenery go by. Mostly, it was a lot of sky and water on the one side and an almost vertical cliff face on the other. Lena and Eleanor didn't have it quite as easy since the guards did not have maxed-out strength abilities like the Misfits. So they were slung over the shoulder of their respective guard like a sack of potatoes.

Eleanor had a lovely view of the guard's back and feet as he skimmed down the track. She tried turning her head to the side to view the port area, but vertigo and motion sickness made this a bad idea. She just kept her head down and watched the back of his feet.

I hope he doesn't fart.