Chapter 27

What the hell is this…

Joachim’s cheek couldn’t stop twitching as diminutive Goblin forms scurried back and forth through the camp, delivering firewood, food and, for some reason, dirt. Their settlement had been reorganised into something that resembled an army camp, their crude lean-tos and litters radiating from the tents of Lady Zahradnik’s bodyguard.

“‘ey, Ward.”

He turned a half-dead stare to his left, where Pol, Merg and Igvel were standing watch over their camp supplies.

“What do the Temples say ‘bout Demis?” Merg asked.

“Nothing in particular…”

“Then what about the law? Are Demis illegal?”

“They’re not illegal,” Joachim replied. “No particular race is prohibited from conducting their business in the Empire.”

Technically, they weren’t in the Empire, but military regulations still applied. Not that there were any regulations that specifically addressed what was going on. The irregular nature of the Sixth Legion had taken yet another irregular turn and all they could do was try and figure out what rules were to be observed.

A – female? – Goblin came up to Joachim, proffering a handful of dirt, gravel, twigs, pine needles and other debris. He stared at it for a long moment.

“Erm…no thanks.”

The Goblin gave him a strange look before sniffing and going on her way.

“Why do they keep doing that?” Joachim muttered.

“Because you smell funny,” Lady Zahradnik’s voice came from behind.

“…I don’t understand what you mean by that, my lady.”

“They’re trying to teach you a survival Skill,” the Baroness told him. “Goblins mask their scent like Rangers can, actively applying the odours of their environment to themselves. Unfortunately, this can include too much ‘Goblin’ if they live there for too long, but that’s an issue that is easily solved. What she was offering you was a bath so you can blend in with them against predators.”

“A bath,” Joachim said flatly.

“A bath,” Lady Zahradnik nodded.

“A dirt bath. So I can smell like dirt.”

Civilian Nobles often did silly things like wearing perfume and using scented soaps and herbal baths, but Goblin methods probably wouldn’t catch on in the Empire. The Baroness smiled at his reply, looking around at the Goblins that now made up the majority of her forces.

“It wasn’t just dirt,” she said, “but that’s the general idea. Goblins are highly social and a Goblin community spreads simple Skills rapidly…or maybe they simply assume that everyone has the same Skills? Anyhow, every member tends to end up with similar skillsets after a while, so long as they’re capable of learning. The way that Goblins readily spread and absorb simple knowledge is probably one of the reasons why Goblin armies form so smoothly.”

“Did they offer you dirt as well, my lady?”

“No.”

“Why is that?”

Joachim belatedly realised that he had probably made a fatal implication. Fortunately, the young noblewoman appeared to be too busy paying attention to the goings-on of the Demihumans around them to pay it any mind.

“Perhaps they like how I smell?”

Following her absent reply, Lady Zahradnik produced a large sack from the magical container at her hip. She stopped one of the Goblins scuttling by and put the bag in its arms.

“Food,” she said. “Make sure you share it with the others.”

After sniffing the bag, the Goblin nodded and wandered off. Joachim’s gaze followed it until it vanished into the evening shadows.

“Do you always carry food around with you, my lady?” He asked.

“It seems that way,” the Baroness answered. “I grab nuts, grains, dried berries and other long-lasting edibles wherever I go out of habit. That was the five kilograms or so that I’ve foraged in the past week.”

He had been with her for that entire week and never noticed her picking anything up. Was there really that much food lying around all over the place?

Lady Zahradnik walked over to the fire where stew was simmering in her cauldron. The sound of her idle humming filled the air as it usually did when she prepared their meals. At first, Joachim enjoyed the tune, but then he found out that it was a warlike hymn of The Six. No, it wasn’t ‘warlike’ – it was an actual battle hymn. Several of the Goblins watching the Baroness made crude attempts at mimicking her.

A Ranger from the Tenth Company appeared, cautiously making his way through the camp under the curious gazes of the surrounding Demihumans.

“Baroness Zahradnik?”

“Yes?”

“You asked to be informed when Captain Seris woke up…”

The Ranger’s voice faltered as the men nearby glared daggers at him. Several of the Goblins nearby picked up on their sentiment and glared daggers at him too. Lady Zahradnik smiled slightly.

“How is he doing?” She asked.

“The Clerics say he’ll be alright,” the Ranger answered. “He’s in his tent right now.”

“I’ll join him once dinner is served here,” Lady Zahradnik said. “Thank you for letting me know.”

Dinner was dished out several minutes later. The Baroness and her bodyguard seated themselves around the fire. A few shifted and looked out at the Demihumans in the woods all around them. Dozens of pairs of Goblin eyes watched them in return, glittering in the firelight.

“You sure this is a good idea, m’lady?” Yohann asked, “They ain’t gonna slit our throats in our sleep, are they?”

“Why do you think they’ll do that?” Lady Zahradnik asked back.

“Dunno. Goblin things, I guess.”

“They’d certainly do that if you were a certain type of enemy,” the Baroness said. “But we aren’t their enemies anymore.”

Upon taking control of the Demihuman tribe, Lady Zahradnik had laid down some simple ground rules.

The first was that they weren’t allowed to be ‘mean’ to one another. This was presumably because conditions in a tribe could vary and, depending on the situation, the weakest members were treated cruelly. Lady Zahradnik’s first mandate was understandably popular with the Goblins.

Secondly, they weren’t allowed to eat one another for the time being. How this did not count as being ‘mean’ was lost on Joachim. The ‘for the time being’ was also concerning. When asked whether her subjects in the Sorcerous Kingdom ate one another, she answered ‘it depends’. Dwelling upon her answer only dragged him to a dark and terrifying place in his imagination.

Thirdly, they were to not act violently towards ‘the Humans’. If Humans came and did something ‘mean’ to them, they were to let her know and she would obliterate the offenders. The last part was said with a perfectly straight face as they were now subjects of the Sorcerous Kingdom and afforded the protection of its laws and armed forces. None of the imperial soldiers wanted to find out if she was serious about that or not.

“What do you mean by ‘a certain type of enemy’, m’lady?” Destin asked.

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“There are enemies,” Lady Zahradnik answered, “and then there are enemies. Most of the time, a tribe’s enemies are rival populations competing for resources. This type of competition manifests as ‘wars’ that consist of threat displays, raids and skirmishes which persist until one side gives up. The loser migrates, usually fighting weaker tribes for their territory. This is what is happening when the Imperial Army responds to Demihuman incursions.”

“But the Empire isn’t a rival tribe,” Igvel said.

“I was trying to frame it in terms that are easier to digest…I suppose I’m horrible at that. Maybe it should be broken down even further. Try considering it from a living being’s point of view: what do they need to survive?”

“Food, water…a place to sleep?”

“That’s right,” Lady Zahradnik nodded. “Broadly speaking, a tribe’s territory amounts to the land that is needed to support them. Anything that threatens to take from their territory is competition. This includes beasts both mundane and magical, other tribes, monsters and assorted intruders that might take resources away. Essentially, it’s poaching and, like us, they retaliate against poachers. When poaching is conducted by groups, it’s called ‘raiding’.”

As the scion of a frontier house, this was something that Joachim already understood. The vast majority of the Imperial Army’s common soldiery, however, came from the towns and cities sheltered from contact with the wilderness tribes. To them, as Lady Zahradnik once put it, ‘Demihuman’ was an idea: a vague concept that was cobbled together out of popular beliefs that tended to focus on the potential threat that they represented to humanity. Those that knew better – indeed the Empire itself – did nothing to dissuade them of those notions as thinking otherwise was unnecessary or even undesirable.

The way that Lady Zahradnik phrased things, however, did not carry the hard tone that his father or grandfather used – one that simply described tribal behaviour as something that happened and needed to be dealt with to defend imperial interests. Instead, she defined the motives that led to their behaviours, dispelling the illusion that Demihumans were the irrational, violent savages that most imperial citizens believed them to be.

At the same time, she did not cast them in a good or evil light: she merely pointed out that their actions were driven by understandable purposes.

“Why do they keep pickin’ on the Empire, then?” Pol asked.

“They don’t,” the Baroness shrugged, “at least not in the way you’re probably seeing it. Including the northern ocean, the Empire has about 3200 kilometres of external frontier. Before this year, it had the same amount of internal frontier. This means that there are thousands of Demihuman tribes bordering imperial lands, but they’re not conducting some collaborative effort to ‘pick on’ the Empire. They simply target the lands around them, Human or otherwise, probing defences and searching for the most efficient gains.

“I believe that most social races do this on some level and independently strong creatures are similar in the sense that they also defend their hunting ranges. But every race has a different approach to growth. The tribes that my house has observed are fairly methodical: they grow, test borders, erode the power of the easiest tribe to deal with and push them out to take their land. Change tends to be slow because reckless warfare may reduce their numbers, allowing tribes the opportunity to capitalise upon their weakness. As far as I’ve heard from the lords of the Wyvernmark, the behaviour of the tribes here is nearly identical.”

“So you’re sayin’ that Demihumans attacking us is normal, m’lady?”

“It’s natural, yes. Humans do the same thing, but the way Human populations expand is rather…one-sided? When a Goblin tribe wins a war and expands, they don’t transform the environment that they move into. When that tribe loses, they either move away or become slaves depending on whether migration is feasible. When they fight and their people die, it’s just the way things are and life goes on.

“Humans – especially Human-controlled territories – have this way of casting everything in shades of monolithic antagonism. If a small tribe attacks a village, they think that they’re attacking another tribe. A Human territory, however, will consider an attack against a single village an attack against the entire territory and you end up with the Imperial Army paying that tribe a visit. That tribe had no idea that they were picking a fight with a country of eight million: all that they saw was the farming village next door.

“This type of collective thinking that Humans have has a way of spinning out of control. Everything that the group wants is good; everything that stops them from getting what they want is bad. Often, these groups are told what is good and what is bad by those in authority. Some might even go so far as to employ ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in their rhetoric. All opponents become the type of enemy that threatens their very survival and a kill-or-be-killed mentality is applied to entire populations and even entire races. But, as you can see from what is going on around us, it is not the only option.”

“But you never know when they’re gonna turn on us,” Merg said from across the campfire.

Lady Zahradnik set her empty bowl on the log beside her. She shifted slightly on her seat, folding her hands in her lap.

“Tribal populations, at least, are very ‘clean’ in the way that authority works. The dynamics of tribal populations reflect the realities that they must consider. Conflict and displays of power make clear who holds the advantage in a way that conserves energy and results in the least damage. Every action must efficiently convey meaning because unnecessary action can lead to unnecessary casualties and requires more food. In a tribe that subsists on their territory, this leads to a vicious cycle that invariably leads to death – it is inherently suicidal.

“Turning on the winner of a contest is also terminally stupid. A subjugated tribe might have lost but they have also become part of a stronger population that can compete for more resources. If they are being added to the tribe rather than wiped out, their survival becomes contingent on their new tribe’s survival for as long as that tribe can dominate their territory.”

“You make it sound as if we can go and do the same thing.”

“Before the Sorcerous Kingdom annexed the Duchy of E-Rantel,” the Baroness said, “a farm girl on the northern frontier was able to establish her dominance over a tribe of Ogres. They joined her village and even fought for the sake of their new tribe when danger came for them. They’re still there, as far as I know.”

Joachim frowned. Her claim sounded like a whimsy spun by a Bard. If Demihumans could be so easily tamed by farm girls, there would be no need for the Imperial Army. Maybe it was a farm girl in the Realm of Heroes, as silly as that sounded.

“I don’t think our village girls can beat up Ogres, m’lady.”

The Baroness smirked at Winson’s words.

“Perhaps not, but violent subjugation is not the only answer. Having strong people around merely expedites the process. What is key is understanding the nature and motives of each race you encounter. Getting started is the hard part because differences in culture can present challenges to effective communication. Coexistence is a continuous effort, as well – just as Humans might not always agree to get along, so too can it happen with other races.”

“But…is it worth it?” Pol asked, “What makes a forest full of Goblins better than a farm run by Humans?”

“As with anything else,” Lady Zahradnik answered, “potential must first be recognised before attempts at effectively harnessing it can be made. Even though I’ve barely explored that potential with my own subjects, I’ve already come across some surprising things. Also…measures of worth should not be solely based on what you can immediately perceive. The more perspectives you have, the more opportunities you’ll identify. Anyway, I should go visit Captain Seris – he’s probably five different types of confused right about now.”

Lady Zahradnik rose from her seat, going over to rinse out her bowl. She left it to dry on her desk before making her way towards the west side of the pass. The men of the Tenth Company rose from where they were gathered around their fires and greeted her, their tones ranging from approval to adoration.

“I think half of them still think they watched an arena match,” Joachim muttered.

“Maybe it’s the same thing,” Lady Zahradnik said. “Or perhaps what they witnessed just now was the real thing. Not long ago, I was disdainful of the Empire’s love for the Grand Arena, but I described the source of their apparent lust for bloodshed with an incomplete understanding of what I saw. I believe that I have a better idea of it now.”

“What do you mean by that, my lady?”

“Watching a match in the Grand Arena or a duel on an exercise field brings us back to the time when Humans lived in tribes and the fortunes of all rested on the contests of our champions. It is an appreciation – a deep, primal respect – that flows in our blood regardless of lineage. To this day, it is an inviolable law of the world that we cannot escape no matter how we dress our reality. Something within every one of us simply knows that such an event demands our attention, even if conscious thought denies all else about it.”

They found Captain Seris lying in his tent, one of his Clerics attempting to force-feed him some sort of grey goo. The Captain turned at their entrance, seemingly relieved for the excuse to send the man away.

“Baroness Zahradnik,” he propped himself higher on his bed. “It appears that the Tenth Company owes you their lives. That damn Mountain Troll came straight for me. I don’t recall ever meeting him before.”

“He probably identified you as the leader. I hope you don’t mind the avenue that I chose to follow.”

Captain Seris snorted, shaking his head.

“I’m still not sure that I can believe what happened, but from what I hear you could have destroyed the entire tribe on your own. Why did you do what you did?”

“They were being civil, so I decided to take them in.”

“Civil?”

“Yes, they were observing certain tribal customs. Ough went after you because you appeared to be the strongest. After you were incapacitated, they tried to induct you into their tribe instead of slaughtering everyone. Pretty nice of them, don’t you think?”

Joachim exchanged a look with Captain Seris. He had no idea that they were so close to being added to a Demihuman tribe, nor did he want to think about what that would look like.

“Well, we’re not in any position to complain,” Captain Seris said. “General Ray aside, Commander Schuler asked us to confirm what happened four times before sending Dragoons up to take a look around.”

“I thought the Imperial Army had security protocols to authenticate their communications.”

“That’s…uh, I guess it just sounded that ludicrous.”

“Is the Fourth Division on their way up now?”

“Yes, my lady,” Captain Seris nodded. “Might I ask what you plan on doing with these Demihumans? The Fourth Division’s companies will begin arriving in the morning.”

“They’ve submitted to my authority, so I suppose I have my own company here now.”

“A Demihuman company…”

“It’s not wrong, yes? Before our present-day government structures, Human tribes had leaders and their warriors. Those leaders and their warriors become martial Nobles and their regiments composed of men at arms. In the Empire, those regiments evolved to become the companies of the Imperial Army. My company just happens to be mostly composed of Demihumans.”

The Captain shook his head again with an incredulous expression, scratching his unshaven cheek.

“Wait,” Joachim frowned. “Does that mean you’re going to have us fight together with these Demihumans, my lady?”

A forebodingly winsome smile spread across Lady Zahradnik’s face.