“Sir! Those people…”

“Don’t worry about it, soldier,” I told the young knight running to me after I saw off the supposed hero and her entourage. “I’m unsure if they’re insane or if they have a plan, but we can’t stop them. That group has too much backing for rank-and-file like us…”

Calling myself, the oldest knight in service of Baron Christophen, rank-and-file stung. I was even comparing myself to some unknown aristocrat playing knight by my side, but that is the truth in this situation.

Just the symbol in their carriage was enough to overrule anyone in this frontier citadel. Worse even, now I had to get my boys ready to interfere if their little ‘expedition’ went wrong, or I would be the one paying for it too…

If at least I hadn’t failed on the same skirmish I fought dozens of times… The only thing that changed was a puny wooden fort, and it still was enough to take me. And that was without even mentioning the true attack that was sure to arrive soon. That ‘one-night castle’ was only a staging base, no matter what.

A royal around would be good to raise morale if anything. That is, as long as they weren’t more trouble than it was worth. If instead of a vague order from my lord and some walking trouble they had brought actual reinforcements...

Better hope the rumors were more than the truth.

“But I won’t risk my career to be sure.”

“Sir?” The rookie asked as I sighed, so I waved the boy away to start our preparations instead.

“You’re off watch duty, soldier. Go to the barracks and get everyone who can still move to mount a horse. We may need to charge that fort again today…”

I could see the surprise, and fear, on the knight’s face as he probably was involved in my failed attempt. How the fort appeared at the Triple Crossing from nowhere got everyone surprised and I hurried too much there, so it was far. Still, he obeyed his orders dutifully and moved on.

Next, I turned back to the walls and started to climb the gate tower to keep watch myself.

If things went wrong, we would need to react fast, and in the condition my men were in, they could make mistakes. Timing was of the essence here, and I could move out in seconds if needed. I only had to get a new spyglass now that mine was taken by the blondie...

Not that hard to do, but still a pain, and it still left one of the sentries without much more than his eyes to work with. He was but a city guard and wouldn’t need to rush away, so it was somewhat fine. Being ready to deploy the knights was more important.

So, while ignoring the troubled sentry trying his best, I started my watch while soldiers started to move down below.

Some minutes of observing gave me the worst possible revelation, though.

Instead of some scouting party or a very powerful mage going for a frontal assault, all the little group did was stop halfway between us and the fort. They stopped there as if it was a lady's outing. An outing after ordering every single knight in the garrison to wait, moving only if we saw enemies coming.

Where she was, it would be easier for us to help, of course, but being this far away would be a weak provocation to the enemy if anything at all. They wouldn’t even bother to keep an eye on her.

It was so useless, I wasn’t surprised when her maid got a decorated chair from the inside of the carriage and deployed it on the ground. The other three then started to unload boxes and weird packages all the while the pompous blonde waited on her chair. She even started to snack while there…

Some other things happened, but they were too far from me to see the details. The most I could get was that the forest girl was holding a bow while the noble-looking one did something to her arrows. I could even see a faint glow of magic there, but that was all useless.

Firing spells and arrows from this far away was just dumb.

This whole mess was going to be the greatest annoyance in my whole life. Or was it what I thought during the minutes before the first explosion happened on the hills around Frercross.

More even, after two patches of firing fields were made, a third explosion happened directly at the enemy fort. It was an attack with kilometers of range from what I could see. Something more than impossible.

All I knew at that point was: if that was her magic, be it hers or of that forest girl, then she should’ve told us beforehand!

And even before I could process the implications of having someone that could do so, I was already rushing down. Even if unsure if the girl herself noticed this fact, I had to go now.

The brat at that fort wouldn't stay quiet anymore.

*****

In a few words: it was too much.

By the time my knights reached the ‘picnic area’ the unusual heroine set, two dozen enemies were already dead. The blonde herself seemed to be either fainted or wounded, being treated by her attendants right now, but the results were way too much.

More so, she seemed to have defeated the enemy commander while at it, the same weird general who was most of the reason I failed earlier. In a handedly way too.

We wouldn’t be able to run down most of the enemy force as I could already see their organized retreat using the rivers, but that was minor.

The daring ‘one-night castle’ was down.

It went down by a group of four girls in their leisure time. They would lose supplies and their staging area now, so even if it wasn't a massive hit for the Republic, it was a huge loss if they planned to campaign. And their oh-so-important senate would take a hit too.

“Ma’ams! Can I offer to hurry the wounded lady back to the citadel?” I asked with some newfound respect for the pompous hero and her entourage. “I’m sure my lord will give her the best treatment he can offer.”

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“Fuck off. We’re dealing with it.” The one in the hero’s group that I marked as the most troublesome answered me in a very authoritarian, and honestly, somewhat threatening tone. More so, it was the most disrespectful anyone was with me ever since my training days.

She seemed very angry, too much even. Enough to assure me I shouldn’t stay close to her. Someone who wouldn’t be against dispatching people in their sleep shouldn’t be ever trifled with, especially if they were royalty.

Her outburst got me surprise, though, so I couldn’t react as the maid in a bloodied dress nodded to the rogue princess and rushed away to their horses. She left right away, leaving the carriage with a single horse that the princess started to load with the remaining items thrown around.

Nobles… You can't understand them.

Knowing when to keep your head down was also an important skill for a commander. And there were few situations when it was truer than when dealing with any royal other than the royal couple and their oldest daughter.

“Better stay down and go clear this up…”

I turned my horse to the fortress in flames and rushed towards my soldiers.

*****

Luckily or not, all went as expected. The fight ended as a clear victory for us with little to no engagements the enemies fled. A huge strike for sure, nothing crippling, but a huge hit still. It was enough to get everyone in high spirits as we returned. Even those who weren’t involved in the fight.

From the horsemen coming back with me to the garrison waiting at the wall and the people bundled around the streets as we returned. It was almost as if we had won the biggest battle of them all.

I couldn’t understand how it happened, but as we moved back to the barracks, the truth behind this situation became clearer.

Or to be more specific, I heard shouts of ‘breaking news’ as we moved and noticed the kids spread through the city moving as if they were all criers. They were more numerous than the official criers too, not that the real ones weren't saying the same.

It was too soon for it, tough. That is unless someone fed them the information before it was all done. Was it something to do with the heroine again?

How many soldiers came to fight the four girls, how hard was running them off, and how thoroughly destroyed the fort was. They knew all. But in special, they knew too well how dangerous was the fort. More than any peasant could or should.

Some were off, but not by much, while the fact the blonde and her friends got ambushed or how she was wounded wasn’t there. It also didn't mention the second princess being there or how brutal their fighting style was.

This sort of ovation was good to have from time to time, but there shouldn’t be a reason for it yet. Not to underappreciate, of course, but even with the fact an enemy forward base was bad, it wasn’t anything that would topple this citadel right away.

It was bad, but not that much.

Even after I dismissed everyone back to the barracks, the peasants were still forming lines around the streets. Some were around until I and my lieutenants finally reached the inner walls, and I was very sure it was only because they couldn’t enter.

You needed to either be a noble or have good reasoning to enter the inner walls, and I’m sure watching a commander go back to report wouldn’t apply there.

Something irrelevant since it seemed my lord had new guests at his door right now. And I wasn’t talking about the knights commemorating the revenge against the army that defeated them. It was someone much more well-known. A group of mages who just left the waystone and were now en route to the castle.

Not exactly my job, but greeting them was something I should do still.

“Greetings, Archmage Randoul.” I approached and bowed to the chief of the royal mages and his group, likely also composed of mages, ignoring how he seemed to be looking for something else. “Can I take it you are the capital’s reinforcements?”

“You can say so, yes.” He answered me with his attention was somewhere else. “About what the peasants are saying in the streets…”

“I couldn’t ask much at the time, but it does seem to be true. Or close enough.”

“Then, about that heroine and her magic?”

“Only asking her to know how it works, but she set the enemy fortification on fire from farther away than anything I ever saw. Even a group of earth mages wouldn’t reach a fifth of that range.” I tried to explain even if the person hearing me was barely paying attention. “She did get wounded at the fight, I believe, so she should be recovering somewhere.”

“So that’s how it is…” He sighed in an annoyed way before turning back to me. “Could you escort me to your lord’s location, captain? I have to organize the situation with him now that we’re here… And I believe you have to report.”

“Of course, milord... Please follow me.”

“Thank you.” He answered in a business-like voice and then turned to the closest person in his group, a tall mage in glasses. “Can you take care of the hall, Calixto? Just stay around with me and make it clear we got here. It doesn’t seem we’ll be staying for long…”

Not exactly something I wanted to hear as I was the one who called reinforcements, but it was fair. Concentrating resources now that the enemy threat was down wouldn’t be very smart.

For now, I’m better off focusing on escorting these mages and reporting. The consequences will be seen soon enough.

*****

My report was very fast as it seemed my lord was already aware, and seemingly angry, about what happened. The talk with the archmage was much longer, but I wasn’t in there to hear, and neither did I want to.

Messy politicking isn’t something I’m interested in.

The castle hall was having a ball, or something close to it, now, so I had something else to focus on.

All the knights and the few local nobles who were close by were together and patting their backs for doing nothing. A very boring meeting of dignitaries while the people outside were having a festival.

I wasn’t keen on what came after too, but by then, it was my job to take part. Not that I couldn’t understand the point of having a party this big. Even the guards and the people in the city were in a festive mood, and all because the news kept going overboard.

I wasn’t even sure if what I saw was true with all the rumors going around after a few hours. And that was without the subject of these rumors ever coming to light.

Even I was to see that girl again after she was taken away.

This little ball would be more worthwhile if she and that silver-haired princess were around. I would at least be able to be sure of what they were doing here…

“Good evening, captain.” The mage that was following Randoul before approached me and my group of knights as we tried to drink a little. It got me a little surprised as I sipped my wine like before, but only for a moment.

“Evening, milord. Anything I can be of use?”

“It seems my father is still stuck at his meeting, so I would like to ask some questions if you wouldn’t mind…”

Father? Is this one the youngest of Randoul’s sons then? Someone more important than I thought to be sure.

He was with the hero’s party before they got kicked back to the capital, right? I wonder if I could ask about that… There’s an implicit gag order in motion from what I heard.

So complicated…

“Ask away. As long as I can answer it, I will do so without a problem.” I answered at the end without stopping my cup from moving. At least this much I would enjoy.

“Thank you, sir.” He kept on talking in his educated tone. “Then, could you tell me all you know about the construction of this ‘one-night castle’ and how it fell? In particular, about the construction methods and what was used to make it burn. What I heard seems overblown...”

“This? It’s a little hard, but alas…”

Knowing everything about this situation wasn’t on me. Most of what I was going here ended up being hearsay and guesses, which was probably one of the reasons I lost at first, but I knew some.

Most of it was about the construction and the situation leading up here, though.

I also knew the fact they were relying on a mercenary commander. A guy named Willian Gown who trapped my forces and made sure to appear in full view and draw attention to himself while laughing at our loss. A terrible shrewd weakling I would love to have a rematch with.

The destruction of the fort was a different mess. Some of it simply didn’t make sense, and I had no idea how the ambush against the four girls didn't kill them.

I tried to go through all I could say, of course. Having someone like this boy owning a favor would be very useful, so being amiable wasn’t a problem here. He was hearing well as it was something interesting for him.

That was until I heard a low voice somewhere and Randoul’s son turned in a hurry. He then turned back, apologizing that he would need to leave and moving away with someone I could barely notice.

He returned soon enough, but all the while I watched his back as he seemed to talk with someone, all I could think was that this boy was maybe crazy…