The party arrived back in the city after over a day of nonstop travel. Due to the urgency of the situation, the usual 2-3 day journey was cut short to only a little over a single day. Upon their return, the team was quickly brought before Dor’ian’s city lord and Richard reported the grim situation that the city might face due to the new activity of the dark army that had occupied Melu’er City.
“They might be headed in our direction?”
“Yes, Lord. That seems to be the case since the vice-captain’s scout animals were always able to pick up their presence even as we moved nonstop throughout the day. If we had rested, we would’ve undoubtedly been caught by the dark army already.”
The city lord had a troubled look on his face when he heard Richard’s confirmation. His city wasn’t exactly that big and the defenses weren’t anything to brag about though he was one of the few border cities of his kingdom. Not only that, but the city lord was just a Baron, so his military forces weren’t anything outstanding.
If Richard’s reports were true and the dark army was indeed headed their way, then his city would be wiped out immediately by the dark army who had easily toppled the great Mercenary City of Melu’er in a single siege.
Without any further consideration, the city lord immediately began giving out his orders, “This is an urgent situation that could be treated as an invasion…Minister, prepare a few delegates and messenger birds requesting reinforcements from the nearby cities and from His Majesty, the King.”
“...Yes sir.”
“Commander William, I leave the city’s defenses to you. Also, issue a conscription order as we are in a state of the highest alert! Send an emergency request to the Hunter’s Association as well. We’ll need everyone’s help to defend this city!”
Commander William stepped forward and asked, “My Lord, are you sure about this? Shouldn’t we gather more information about the situation? What happens if Captain Richard’s information is mistaken? We’ll be inciting unneeded panic in the city and–”
“Then please feel free to continue ‘gathering’ information,” Richard said as he rudely cut off the commander’s words. He gave the man a subtly angry look before turning back to the city lord, “My Lord, I’ve lost good men on my way back here. We were only able to escape out of pure luck. The dark army is coming this way and if we don’t begin preparations, everyone will die…”
There was a rivalry between Captain Richard and Commander William. Talks about the latter replacing the former were up in the air but the city lord never really took notice of it in a serious light. He thought it was good to have some rivalry here and there, but during moments like these, when the situation is urgent and quick decisions really matter, the two of them would always butt heads needlessly.
This time around, the city lord sided with Richard as he said, “Enough talk. Are you questioning my orders, Commander?”
“What? N-No, sir! I wouldn’t dare! I’m just advising you, my Lord! The people—”
“Right now, instead of your council, I need you to act promptly upon my decisions!”
“…”
“Get it done, immediately. It is better to be safe than sorry. Also, what use is there in sending out another team for reconnaissance when Richard’s team was sent to do that already? You were the one that suggested this, Commander. Are you doubting your own judgment now?”
There was a look of contempt on Richard’s face as he watched William being reprimanded by the city lord but he didn’t speak out of turn. The city lord turned back to Richard and pointed at his team.
“Also, look at his team members. Haven’t we already lost enough good people? We even had to employ the services of a refugee child to guide us through the Mercenary City’s former lands!”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“...I will go and complete your orders, Sire.”
“Go…and speaking about the refugees, ask them if they are willing to fight and defend our city. Employing those mercenaries is better than just having them freeload in our city and it’s about time they repay our grace. We’ll even pay them for their services if we have to,” the city lord said.
William received his Lord’s orders and excused himself from the hall, but as he passed by Richard, he scowled at him and whispered something just before he left. Maria couldn’t hear what the prickly Commander said to the Captain, but everything that had happened before was all pretty juicy material for her video.
She and the rest of the members of the scout team were present in the hall together with Richard. It was something that usually didn’t happen because only people of status and importance could meet with the city lord.
Not only that, but all of them were still armed, which completely broke normal etiquette, but the situation was urgent and Richard wanted to make sure that the horrible state of his team was witnessed by the city lord because he knew that his rival, William, would surely say something to debunk his report and, sure enough, he did.
The city lord sided with Richard because he saw the horrible state his team was in and took into consideration the previous scout teams that he had sent out but were now forever lost because of the dark army that was surely headed their way now.
Naturally, all of the weapons had been confiscated once the audience was well underway, since they still needed to remain respectful of the city lord, but the man himself had forgiven Richard and his team for their offense. No matter what, they were still the brave party members that had put their lives on the line to return and give the city the important news about the dark army’s activities. Without them, the dark army could’ve marched up to their front yard before any preparations could’ve been made to defend against them.
Once all of the serious business was over with, the city lord decided that he should reward the scout team for their mission now. He wanted to personally hand the rewards to the people that had risked their lives for his city.
“Richard, come and receive your team’s reward. I will also compensate for the ones that lost their lives today.”
The city lord waved his hand and an attendant stepped forward with a tray that had a few bags of gold on it. Richard put them away into a single sack before waiting for further orders. He would allocate the funds later once the audience was over. He didn’t want to show his liege the disgracefulness of his team members scrambling for their rewards.
The city lord wasn’t done with announcing the rewards just yet as he spoke to the minister beside him, “Minister, allocate some compensation to the families of the previous scout teams that were lost because we can now confirm that they are not missing but have likely been killed by the dark army.”
“Yes, Lord.”
The city Lord turned his attention back to Richard and said, “I know this may be asking for a lot since you and your team have just returned, but please work together with the Commander to defend the city.”
“Yes, Lord, but if I may be bold enough to ask for a request...”
“What is it?”
“Please begin evacuating the city of any noncombatants once the announcement of the dark army’s approach has been released.”
Richard already knew about the undead’s ability to turn corpses into one of their own, so he wanted to prevent any unneeded casualties from occurring that could bolster the enemy’s numbers. He wasn’t optimistic enough to believe that the city’s defenses could possibly be enough to hold back the dark army that had already taken down the more fortified city of Melu’er. They were definitely not going to be able to defend this city, so with that in mind, it was best that the ordinary people were evacuated early or else they would just die in vain.
The city lord seemed to have already understood Richard’s concerns as he let out a defeated sigh before saying, “I was already planning on doing that. Even though I’ve already sent messenger birds and delegates to His Majesty, the King, and the surrounding nobles of my territory, it will take them a while to respond—and that’s if they’re even willing to send reinforcements…”
“That is the wisest course of action, my Lord. We have to prepare for the worst.”
“Yes…I also have very little hope that our city can hold out for too long when the dark army took down Melu’er in the span of a single night…”
“We will still do our best to defend our home,” Richard resolutely replied.
The city lord smiled at him before saying, “You can go now, Richard. You and your team should get some rest.”
“Thank you, Lord.”
Maria was glad that the city lord wasn’t a coward but things would’ve been more interesting if he had been.
‘Being left behind by the high-ranking officials to secure their escape, Rio and a few others from those that remained to defend the city would be the only ones to survive the dark army’s attack and, together, they would form a mercenary team that went out of their way to constantly fight with the dark army’s forces. Instead of being treated as cannon fodder by some noble, it was better to rally together under a righteous cause and defend the helpless people from the evil forces of the dark army.’
That was the kind of scenario Maria wanted to make for Rio and her story. To do that, she needed Richard to stay alive because he needed to take center stage instead of Rio even though he was the main character of this story she made up.
Over the past few days sticking with the team, Maria had already noticed that Richard was a pretty decent guy and he had the makings of a charismatic leader. It was only now that she saw Richard being suppressed by his circumstances, which was why his talent wasn’t able to bloom just yet.
It took more than a bunch of reckless idiots to gather around a similarly reckless guy and go on a scouting mission that was so dangerous that the previous scout teams who took the mission had all gone missing and never returned.
Richard had the makings of a charismatic hero and Maria wanted this trait to blossom so she needed to make sure he was kept alive even after this battle. Unfortunately, however, the city lord didn’t seem to be the cowardly type of guy, so she wouldn’t be able to use him in her next scenario, but Maria knew of someone who would definitely be of use.
“The perfect person has appeared and I’ll use him to help you blossom, Mr. Richard, so please be grateful and play as the ‘hero’ of my story~”