The celebrations had been brief after the townspeople who hadn't volunteered for the militia returned home to pick up the pieces of their lives. As much as people wanted to celebrate surviving what would surely have been their end, there was a lot of rebuilding and cleaning up to do. Vance, for his part, had done what he could, using his heightened strength to lift things that others would struggle with, like support beams and the like. Yet still, he hadn't yet gotten so much of a wink of rest or sleep, having been kept far too busy acting as the impromptu leader of the town in place of the Lord who was still missing.

His exhaustion was starting to make itself known, too, as his vision would often blur, and his mind was foggy, forcing him to sit until he was able to collect his thoughts. He'd been running himself ragged and was now on day two with no sleep. Vance wasn't trained for this type of experience, as he was only a conscript, given the barest amount of training necessary to point, shoot, and march in line with the rest. So this whole journey was producing some exciting results and lessons for the High Human champion. Although he shouldn't be excited by the lack of sleep and creeping exhaustion, it was still quite the experience to see what his limits were with his newfound abilities. Yet, such thoughts were quickly pushed aside for now as Vance, who sat silently against a nearby wall, heard footsteps.

"Sir!" Called out a voice, shaking Vance out from his haze.

"Yes?"

"We just finished burying the goblins in the pit as you instructed; still hard to believe there were that many." The man reported.

Vance looked up at him, noting his ragged appearance. It seemed everyone was pushing themselves to their limit. Letting out a small grunt as he pushed himself back to his aching feet, Vance made for the door.

"Good." Vance replied, walking past, "Have you and your team get some rest while you can. No doubt there'll be more work for you soon." Vance ordered, giving the man a small wave.

Walking down the main street, Vance would note how everyone was hard at work—either cleaning up the streets or rebuilding some home or shop that the goblins had destroyed during their initial raid. Thankfully, there weren't any significant damages to any of the buildings, just some superficial stuff.

Turning his focus back to his original task, he spotted Estrid overlooking several reports arrayed before her on a table.

"Busy?" Vance asked, walking up.

Estrid glanced towards him, shooting him a welcoming smile before shaking her head, "No. Just looking at some of the reports compiled by the Adventurers."

"Oh?" Vance hummed, his interest piqued as he peered down at some of the scrolls.

"Mhm. But, is there something I can help you with?" She asked, trying to push past the subject.

Vance nodded, "Actually, I was hoping you could join Richard and me in checking out the Lord's manor."

Estrid tilted her head as she responded with, "Why?"

"I'm hoping you might be able to guide us there. Still haven't actually been shown the place." He replied.

"Sure, though I'm not sure why you'd need me for that when you could ask just about anyone to guide you there?" She shrugged, pushing aside the scrolls and parchment for later.

It was then that Vance smiled, "Actually, there is a reason. A selfish one, if I'm being honest."

"Please, if it's anything to do-"

"Wait!" Raising his hand, he stopped her, "I'm not talking about courting; no, what I want is to know how you were able to lead the militia and adventurers." Vance stated, noting her actions during the battle.

"Oh. That." Glancing down as she thought for a moment, "That's not an unfair request, I suppose..."

"Hah! As if we need her." Richard sneered as he emerged from behind the two.

"Richard?" Vance asked, brow raised.

Estrid glared at the horned redhead.

"I'm just curious, is all; you don't need to answer if you don't feel up to it. You owe me nothing." Vance said, trying to reassure the former receptionist while also ignoring the statement by Richard.

"No, I suppose, it doesn't seem fair that I keep my past a secret if you shared your own." She sighed, noting how earlier in the celebrations she had asked him about his origins, to which he replied earnestly... minus the stuff about his past life on Earth.

"I was a Captain in the Royal Kendirewen Army." She started while moving towards the exit.

Vance and Richard followed, the latter a little miffed at how he was ignored.

"Well, that explains the leadership abilities, but you seem pretty young for someone who was a Captain?" Vance noted, seeing as how she was likely a year or two older than he was.

Scratching the back of her head, "Well... that's because I bought my commission."

"Ah."

"Yeah... But, in my defence, it was my parents who bought it. They were hoping I'd be able to win fame in the army... maybe even a title if I played my cards right." She admitted.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"So? What happened then?" Vance asked.

"Well... I... I'm not of noble birth, and my family only managed to make the money they did through scavaging through battlefields." She continued, "Everyone knew it too... called me the daughter of grave robbers. I would often get into verbal arguments with my commanders and, well... I just wasn't able to rise any higher than Captain." She said.

Vance nodded; he could see how such an upbringing would cause her to be ostracized from the rest of the officer corps, as they were filled with elitists who valued title and land over anything else. Whatsmore if you were a common-born individual without a title yourself? Well, good luck trying to get anyone's respect. Yet, it was the second matter that caught him a little by surprise.

"Even if you were held back from earning the rank of Major through merit, surely you could've bought the rank like you did your previous?" Vance said, tilting his head in confusion.

Estrid shook her head, "Couldn't afford it."

"Ah..." It was then that it dawned on him.

Unlike with the junior officer ranks, which were kept at a standard rate as per regulations set down by the previous King, Major and higher required one to buy from their seniors who had either moved up in rank or were about to retire. It was much the same as back on Earth in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. If one wanted to prevent an upstart from rising up the ranks, it was an easy enough thing to raise the price or use one's influence to sway the Courts back home to reject one's appointment to a higher rank. Sadly, it seemed Estrid had come to a halt in her military career, but then that brought up the second question.

"So, if you left the military, why didn't you just become an adventurer?" Richard asked this time, his own curiosity getting the best of him.

Vance smirked and shook his head.

"My looks." She remarked. "I was offered a large sum of capital just to sit behind a desk, so... I took that instead of risking my life to scrape by." A weak smile formed across her lips, "Plus, I figured it'd be better working at home here than travelling all across Tavaria looking for a big score."

"True enough..." Vance replied with a shrugged.

Just as the conversation died down, they reached their destination, a large mansion surrounded by a protective iron fence, much like the rest of the homes the wealthy had in this part of town.

"So, this is the place? Seems small." Richard observed with a tone that showed his absolute disinterest with the place.

Vance, meanwhile, glanced over at Richard as if saying, 'really?' before he walked forward, drawing his sabre and cutting the lock holding the gate shut. "Come on then. I want to look around and see why the Lord pulled the guard out." Vance said as he sheathed his blade once more while walking towards the door.

The other two followed close behind.

"I thought it was to reinforce the Royal Army?" Estrid asked, a little confused by Vance's statement.

"That's the story everyone's heard, but what we saw at the armoury says differently," Vance replied before kicking the front door open.

Estrid's eyes went wide at the sudden force used, "Why'd you break his door down!"

"Because he's not coming back, and I doubt the person who inherits the place will want it either," Vance noted as he pointed towards the hanging bodies of the previous Lord's servants.

Estrid covered her mouth in shock; she couldn't believe what she saw while Vance and Richard walked by, unphased by the sight. "How?... how could this happen? Did the goblins? No... that's impossible... the gate... the door..."

"Now you get it," Richard remarked as he and Vance climbed up the nearby staircase.

She wanted to make a retort but couldn't find the means to form one, but instead just followed in behind Vance, who led the way through to the area he believed to be the study. The small corridor had several rooms on each side, but Vance, who seemed guided, walked down the hall and found himself standing in the Lord's main office.

"Look around for any documents, seals, or anything that might implicate the Lord in what happened here yesterday," Vance ordered as he made for the desk.

Estrid and Richard nodded, "Right." Replied Richard, while Estrid gave a soundless nod.

Vance began to dig through the desk for his part in the search, pulling out the drawers. Before long, he came to see there was nothing that stood out to him, but, given what he knew of most nobles back on Earth, there was always a hidden compartment. Feeling around and under the desk, he kept his eyes on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary or didn't match with the rest of the desk. Sure enough, he found a small decoration that just seemed out of place compared to the others. Pressing the carving down, he heard a slight noise, indicating something had unlocked before a hidden compartment came popping out.

"Cliche as cliche gets for villains." Vance joked silently as he began to dig through the letters and orders.

Standing up with a stack of documents, he arrayed them on the desk, letting the other two continue with their own searches. Reading through each, he found the evidence he sought, and once more, the ones that stood out the most from the others were ones marked with 'E'.

"Well... seems this E fellow has a lot of influence." Vance thought.

Reading through each of the letters, he came to the startling realization that the Lord was in league with this E guy, and what's more had dispatched the guard not to join up with the Royal Army, but instead, they were to be ambushed by a force of Askal soldiers. The initial orders were to reinforce the Royal Army, but instead of heading to where the Royal Army was camped, they'd be walking into a valley that would offer them no protection from musketry. Further reading of a copy of orders given to the Guards showed that they were told they would be provided with weapons, uniforms, and other such gear upon reaching the Royal Army. Vance grimaced at the contents of the letter.

"Well, I know why the armoury was fully stocked," Vance announced aloud for the others to hear.

The others turned and came to the desk, "Oh?" Richard said as Vance passed him the missive.

A quick read prompted a sigh from the Dragon and the look of anger from Estrid. Vance just calmly continued to read through the other messages and reports.

"Additionally, it seems the Lord was being paid by a man going by the name of E... a fellow whose troops I had the displeasure of running into on the slopes," Vance noted, as he passed on more of the documents.

"Traitors..." Estrid growled.

Vance glanced up at her, giving her a sympathetic look. "For now... we'll keep this as evidence when officials from Kendirewen come."

"If, if they come, you mean?" Richard said.

Nodding, Vance had to admit that there was a chance the Lord and E were planning an ambush for anyone from Kendirewen. "I wouldn't be too sure. It might seem like a sound idea to ambush any officials coming to check on Luna, but I doubt the Lord would do such." Vance replied, "If anything, I'd imagine he'd want to use the town to leverage more support from the Kingdom, which in turn would be funnelled to this E fellow." He noted, only to show a report that showed hidden shipping routes.

All three let out sighs of annoyance at how much more exacerbated the situation was getting for them. "So, how do we deal with this?" Estrid asked as she practically fell into a nearby chair, exhausted.

"For now? We wait." Vance noted bitterly. "We have neither the energy nor means of transport to do anything yet. And, even if we did have a horse, the trip would be a week," He continued, taking a seat himself.

Richard continued to read through the documents, "Actually, I might have an idea."

"Oh?"