Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 3

“You’re back…early, I think?”

“I am,” Ludmila replied. “There was an emergency session of the House of Lords.”

“What was the emergency?”

“One of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s convoys was attacked by a party from Re-Estize. I suspect we will be at war with them shortly.”

“War, huh…when’s the first match?”

Ludmila stopped to frown slightly at Glasir’s question. Dryads were insular beings by nature, but she had to wonder how much of her response to the news was shaped by her education thus far. Practically speaking, Dryads naturally felt no need for information outside of the places where they permanently resided, but, at the same time, it wouldn’t be healthy for her to develop a mindset detrimental to defending the interests of her home.

“I do not know where the contest will be held,” Ludmila replied. “This is a war, however, so we cannot assume that things will play out in a certain way. Has news of the war reached Warden’s Vale, yet?”

“Nope,” Glasir replied. “Do we have to do anything?”

“No.”

“Alright, I will be at the base organising the local defence. Message me if anything comes in.”

She returned the greetings of several of her subjects as she made her way out of the village square. It had barely been an hour since she had parted ways with her friends in E-Rantel, so it was hardly a surprise that nothing official had come out yet. As far as official ‘steps’ went, the Royal Court still had to make its deliberations over how the war would be prosecuted, deliver their grievance to the Kingdom Re-Estize, and mobilise the Royal Army. It wasn’t unreasonable to say that the bureaucratic processes and diplomatic legwork involving the war would probably take longer than the war itself.

And then there was the possibility that Re-Estize might capitulate without a fight. There were a few ways to arrive at an honourable resolution, but a strong possibility was that the elderly King Rampossa would use the opportunity to resolve the Kingdom’s strangely-suspended succession dispute by taking responsibility for the actions of his vassal and clearing the path to the throne for the Second Prince, who had reportedly displayed a surprising amount of talent in the past year.

Still, it wasn’t an excuse to not make the necessary preparations for potential conflict. To many, her territory occupied a quaint little corner of the Duchy of E-Rantel. In reality, it had a deceptively long border with the Kingdom of E-Rantel. That border was little more than an empty expanse of wilderness to the Humans of E-Rantel, but it was home to many Demihumans, Heteromorphs, and Monsters who were counted among the Sorcerous Kingdom’s citizens. The protection of their territory against external threats was her responsibility even if the average levied infantryman from Re-Estize would probably be little more than an unexpected meal to most of her subjects.

Upon arriving at the army base in the future citadel district, Ludmila went straight to the command centre on the southern side of the growing complex. Wiluvien looked up from a large table where a map was marked with the territory’s patrols.

“Lady Zahradnik, you’re back early. Did something happen?”

“It seems you still have not heard,” Ludmila said. “We are on a course for war with the Kingdom of Re-Estize.”

A dozen Elder Liches arranged themselves behind Wiluvien as she came to stand before Ludmila. The mere mention of conflict seemed to have infused some excitement into their otherwise dispassionate dispositions.

“What are your orders, my lady?” Wiluvien asked.

“Implement War Plan B,” Ludmila answered. “Ready War Plan A as well, but do not execute for now. Call for the junior command staff…is Raul back from his expedition?”

“He’s still somewhere in the Manticore Mountains,” Wiluvien replied. “The Elder Liches with him are as obsessive as usual with their work.”

“I suppose it is fine to leave him there as an option…”

“Do you believe War Plan A will be necessary, my lady?”

The various war plans that had been drawn up for her territory were the result of thousands of hours of analysis, preparation, and testing conducted by the army group’s command staff since the invasion of the Upper Reach. War Plan B consisted of the deployments, tactics, and domestic procedures deemed appropriate for defending her territory in the event of a conflict with Re-Estize, while War Plan A dealt with facing the Slane Theocracy.

“Our job is to be ready for any situation,” Ludmila replied. “Broadly speaking, the Theocracy’s mandate involves the survival and long-term wellbeing of humanity. While unlikely, they may side with Re-Estize against the Sorcerous Kingdom for that reason.”

“Re-Estize is hardly the picture of Human prosperity,” Wiluvien scoffed. “In fact, the average Human does far better in the Sorcerous Kingdom.”

“That is a judgement made from our perspective,” Ludmila said. “What outsiders believe of us is another matter entirely. As far as I know, the populations of our Human neighbours still mostly believe us to be a kingdom of darkness where the Undead and Demons reign.”

“What of Countess Corelyn’s charity work with the lands south of her border? And I’m sure the Theocracy’s spies have provided plenty of information about the reality of things here…”

“While it’s true that Clara’s work is meant to foster goodwill as one of its benefits,” Ludmila said, “propaganda does not lie at the forefront of its purpose. By and large, the people of the Theocracy still hold the same views as generations previous. As for their spies…well, the problem is one and the same. Even if the Theocracy High Council knows the truth about life in the Sorcerous Kingdom, convincing their people about it is a monumental effort in itself.”

Even as a steadfast follower of The Six, learning about the culture and attitudes of her brothers and sisters in the south had come as a bit of a shock. The contingent of Paladins that had come to assist the temples in the Sorcerous Kingdom – even the feisty Alessia di Altamura – were counted among the most tolerant members of their society. Generations of indoctrination under a highly Human-centric interpretation and observation of their faith resulted in a population steeped in a religious fervour that was highlighted by a sense of Human exceptionalism and near-universal antagonism against non-Human species.

This prevailing attitude was so extreme that the ability of the Theocracy High Council to control the actions of its population was dubious at best. If the people of the Slane Theocracy got it into their heads that they had to ‘save’ Re-Estize from the Sorcerous Kingdom, Ludmila did not doubt that veritable waves of zealots would come boiling over the riverlands shortly after.

“If it’s just the people,” Wiluven said, “I don’t see how they could get past our regular patrols, never mind a full defensive deployment.”

“When I say the ‘people’,” Ludmila said, “I do mean all of them. Institutions from every branch of the Theocracy government draw their members from the ranks of the common populace and it isn’t as if they are conveniently freed from their beliefs in the process. The convictions of humble farmers are shared by soldiers, priests, and administrators alike.”

“It’s a wonder that they haven’t gotten themselves on the wrong side of something powerful and ended up being wiped out.”

“I suspect that this has happened on many occasions, except that the Theocracy is powerful enough to prevail over all of the powerful things they’ve come into contention with so far.”

That being said, there were several indicators as to the limits of the Theocracy’s power. Environments that were inhospitable to Human habitation were mostly left alone, but there were a few places where expansion into livable areas had been curtailed. The Argland Peninsula was one example. Another was the case of Evansha, where the Theocracy had been waging a long war against the resident Elves.

If one saw the Human countries surrounding the Theocracy as buffers that kept its zealous population from violently interacting with the wider world, it could be surmised that Argland was the one power that they could not afford to fight openly. Presumably, this was because of the Platinum Dragon Lord, who was reputed to be unfathomably powerful. One might argue that ‘unfathomably powerful’ wasn’t a reliable measure of strength, but, as someone who had plenty of experience with a number of unfathomably powerful beings, Ludmila had developed what she thought was a good sense of their practical limitations.

Of course, this still meant that her army group could do little more than buy time if an unfathomably powerful being came along, but they would do everything in their power to be as annoying as possible.

The junior command staff appeared several minutes later, arriving as a single group – they had probably all taken the same wagon to the base. Olga led six other children between the ages of ten and thirteen to join Ludmila and Wiluvien at the table.

“Lady Zahradnik,” Olga said, “has something happened?”

“It is likely that something will happen,” Ludmila replied. “In all probability, the Sorcerous Kingdom will declare war on the Kingdom of Re-Estize within the next month.”

“But…but our foreign policy is benign,” Olga said. “Why would we suddenly change our stance?”

“We are not the aggressors in this instance,” Ludmila said. “Just yesterday, a convoy conveying food aid to the Holy Kingdom was attacked by a scion of one of Re-Estize’s minor houses.”

Olga’s mouth fell open, her face awash in confusion.

“Huh? Why would they do that? It doesn’t make any sense!”

“The world is not obliged to make any sense to us,” Ludmila said. “The fact is that it happened and the Sorcerous Kingdom will be seeking recompense.”

“Shouldn’t they just accede to our demands?” Olga asked, “The last time they tried to fight, they got squished. Literally.”

“I believe most rational minds would do so if the solution were so simple,” Ludmila answered. “In this case, complications come in the form of Re-Estize’s political realities. A liege must at least demonstrate the will to defend their vassals or their entire system of government falls apart. The civil war that ensues would result in the suffering and death of millions over years and even decades. King Rampossa is known to be an honourable sovereign, so it’s unlikely that he would allow that to happen. In normal circumstances, the optimal resolution is to accept a minor conflict that results in far less damage to the Kingdom in the long run.”

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“My lady, if this is going to be a ‘minor conflict’, then why are the Elder Liches setting up War Plan B on the map?”

The question elicited a frown from Ludmila. Was it an issue with their education? Admittedly, it mainly focused on the technical aspects of command, but that was because she believed it would be better to wait for her students to mentally mature before including the various considerations that came with military leadership.

It was an error, in hindsight. Each stratum of society had its own common sense, and, while there were some overlaps, most of her subjects didn’t have a mindset suited for military life.

“Our primary duty is the defence of the territories under our army group’s protection,” Ludmila said. “With conflict often comes the unchaining of reason, morality, and even the very perception of reality. Forget about convention and tradition: think about what is possible

A subdued silence fell over the table. The fact that they were about to enter a war due to an act of negligence on the Sorcerous Kingdom’s part both confounded and infuriated her. Though often extreme in her opinions, Lady Albedo had proven herself to be an excellent administrator. How the woman who had successfully rebuilt the Duchy’s administration through a combination of prudent policies and the selection of capable staff could somehow botch something so simple as the security of a regular transportation route was beyond her.

“How did this ‘inciting incident’ even happen?” Olga asked, “Was the convoy attacked by an army?”

Ludmila fished out her copy of the report detailing the attack and spread the pages out over the table. Though exhaustive when it came to the information surrounding the attack, the result was still confusing. Olga and the other students came closer to read the details along with her.

“Are these accounts from the survivors, my lady?” Olga asked.

“The report relates accounts from both sides,” Ludmila answered.

The furrow on the girl’s brow deepened as she continued reading.

“I don’t understand,” Olga said. “There are so many parts that don’t make any sense. Is the guy in charge of the attack even a proper Noble?”

“He was born to a minor house, at least,” Ludmila said. “As for the rest…it says that he styles himself as a Baron, but the report also mentions that his father still lives. There are no details as to how he gained any kind of authority over his father’s fief and I can’t imagine him being allowed to raise a levy, however small it was, to essentially engage in banditry.”

Two other scions had been involved as well, each adding roughly seventy-five men to the offending party. In total, they had a force of roughly two hundred, mostly consisting of villagers with little in the way of training and even less when it came to equipment. With this force, they made the mind-boggling decision to march to the fief of an uninvolved Noble, which was a logistical miracle in itself.

“Why didn’t this other Noble stop them?” Olga asked, “Don’t Nobles need permission to march their troops through the territory of other Nobles?”

“They do,” Ludmila nodded in answer, “but I am uncertain if it would have made any difference. As you should well know, most fiefs in Re-Estize are small and impoverished. They have no Knights and few armsmen, if any. Responding to two hundred men appearing in one’s territory – however poorly trained and equipped they are – would be next to impossible without any forewarning. I would not be surprised if the local Noble was not even aware of what had transpired in his territory until much later.”

Olga scratched her head, looking no more pleased than before.

“It’s still weird that they can prepare a battlefield on someone else’s land just like that. And the tactics they wanted to employ weren’t even possible with what they had on hand. What kind of idiot even considers using a Crane-Wing Formation with a bunch of villagers?”

Ludmila looked over the younger students to either side of her.

“Who can tell me what a Crane-Wing Formation is?”

All of the children immediately raised their hands. Ludmila picked out one of the younger students: a ten-year-old boy by the name of Orlan. The boy went to a side table, returning with a dozen unit markers. He arranged four Death Knights in a line in front of him.

“Crane-Wing is an offensive formation,” he said. “The toughest soldiers go at the head of a wedge. Strong attackers go on the wings.”

Orlan placed some Death Warriors and Death Cavaliers to each side of the Death Knights, rearranging them several times until he had the Death Cavaliers on the tips of each wing.

“When they fight,” the boy said, “the tough troops in the centre stand firm against the enemy while the flanks swoop in to envelop them like the wings of a crane. That’s why it’s called the ‘Crane-Wing’. Nobles like it because cavalry gets the flashiest role in the formation.”

The boy moved the pieces on each flank, inverting the wedge. He frowned as he fiddled with them to create a convincing representation of what he described, but there were too few pieces to do so. Ludmila smiled.

“Very good, Orlan. Now, why would Olga claim that it is impossible for the force we are studying to successfully perform this manoeuvre?”

“Um…because they’re regular villagers? They don’t even have armour. They’d just go splat.”

“Splat,” another student agreed.

“Splat.”

“Splat.”

“It looks like they at least understood that much,” Olga said. “It says here that the centre force was supposed to conduct a retreat to expedite the envelopment. After that…wait a minute, they didn’t fight at all – the Merchant leading the convoy just surrendered!”

Indeed, it seemed that all of the planning and preparation described in the reports up to that point had been for nought. In the end, the offending force had foregone any chance at an ambush or structured attack and simply plopped their men on the road without any semblance of organisation. If the events had been relayed to her over a cup of tea by someone, she would have passed it off as a poorly conceived joke.

“This is…why…argh!” Olga finally shouted as she slapped her hand on the table, “I don’t get it! The convoy had an escort of twenty-four well-armed and experienced mercenaries. That’s easily more than enough to rout two hundred random villagers with some crude farming tools. The tools didn’t even have metal blades!”

“Perhaps the mercenaries were unreliable or underpaid,” Wiluvien suggested. “It would hardly be the first time a Merchant decided that a visible deterrent was sufficient to secure their cargo.”

“No, the Merchant was only hired to lead the convoy through Re-Estize to Re-Robel,” Ludmila said. “Security should have been arranged by the same party that hired the Merchant, as they are responsible for seeing that these shipments get through the Kingdom.”

Ludmila silently fumed at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. Both the convoy and the offending party were, in fact, under the Sorcerous Kingdom’s influence. For no apparent reason, one side had decided to randomly attack the other and had thus sparked an international incident. The excuse that Philip Monserrat had acted independently without authorisation was a laughable one, at best. His profile already marked him as a risk for his erratic and politically destructive behaviour, so the prudent course of action would have been to lock him away in a dungeon so he wouldn’t be able to continue his foolish antics.

The fact that he hadn’t been led to all sorts of unpleasant thoughts. One might have concluded that he had been left to his own devices to create problems for Re-Estize and opportunities for the Sorcerous Kingdom to seize upon, but the result was so utterly petty that it almost didn’t warrant the Sorcerous Kingdom’s attention.

In Ludmila’s mind, the demerits of taking all but the most inconsequential of actions against the offender far outweighed the merits, as the wider world would undoubtedly interpret events in Re-Estize’s favour. After all, it was difficult to believe that anyone could do something so monumentally stupid for no discernible gain. Word of a country ruled by an Undead sovereign indiscriminately attacking its neighbours, however, was something anyone would accept as fact without a second thought.

“At any rate,” Ludmila said, “we should focus on the task at hand. There should be enough time to test our deployments a few times before we settle on our final arrangements.”

“What do we need to test, my lady?” Olga asked.

“Based on what you know about the capabilities of our adversary,” Ludmila said, “in what ways do you think they can threaten our territories?”

“Well,” the girl said as she leaned forward to look down at the map, “if they try sending an army this way, they would be detected weeks before they arrive. Even small bands of cavalry would be spotted a day or two beforehand by Bone Vultures…actually, if we are officially at war with Re-Estize, there is no reason why we would not extend our surveillance beyond the border, is there?”

“That is correct.”

“Then the only way they would be able to approach the border undetected is with Rangers or maybe infiltrators disguised as caravaneers.”

“We do not have any transportation routes used by Humans on our part of the border,” Ludmila said, “but the latter can be true for the other western territories.”

“But they can sneak over to us to cause trouble if they have the time to get here before the war starts, right?”

“That is true,” Ludmila said. “How would you address that particular problem?”

“Unless we want to charm everyone and question them,” Olga said, “all we can do is be extra vigilant against people coming in.”

“Is closing the border also not an option, my lady?” Wiluvien asked, “If the main conflict will be as brief as it seems, then the disruptions to trade and travel will be minimal. We’re being embargoed by the Guilds anyways…”

“A valid option,” Ludmila nodded. “I also believe it is the best way to single out infiltrators, but we will have to ask headquarters for approval just in case they want us to avoid doing anything conspicuous. Now, onto the remaining concern…”

Her gaze went to the map spread across the table, where roughly one-third of her army group had been positioned on their border with Re-Estize. About three-quarters of the border was along the foothills where she had expanded into the Southern Border Ranges and the remainder was her part of the official border between the Duchy of E-Rantel and Re-Estize.

Is Re-Estize even aware of how the borders have changed?

It was unlikely. Intelligence reports from the Azerlisian Foothills indicated that the Human populations west of them had no clue that their tribal neighbours had all been subsumed by the Sorcerous Kingdom. Re-Estize’s southern frontier was far less developed and her territorial administration had received no reports of any clashes between her subjects and any of the sparse frontier territories.

“Would anyone like to describe the fundamentals that our defence is built upon?” Ludmila asked.

This time, Orlan was the only one who raised his hand.

“A Death Knight and a Death Warrior are placed at the streams and animal trails leading into our territory,” he said. “Bone Vultures and summoned Wraiths will do their best to spot anyone trying to sneak by…but why would anyone try to do that?”

“Because while we may consider this a minor conflict,” Ludmila said. “Re-Estize might believe they are in a fight for their existence against monstrous, evil opponents. When open battle is perceived as undesirable, people start looking for ways to wage asymmetrical warfare. As Olga has already noted, the only apparent means for Re-Estize to do this is to try and sneak past our defences to conduct raids against our population.”

Olga snorted.

“No raid would last very long. The moment they start, the Elder Liches will come flying in to blast them.”

“If they are allowed to start,” Ludmila told the young Commander, “then we will have failed to achieve the main objective of our mission. In war, all enemies must be treated with the utmost seriousness, no matter how weak they are. Damaged assets and lost lives are not so simply restored.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Ludmila eyed Olga as they continued their work. She knew that the girl idolised her and that somehow meant incorporating a high-handed attitude into her imitation of her personality. Was that how people perceived her? While Ludmila understood that leaders needed to keep a certain degree of space between themselves and their followers, she didn’t think that she acted in the callous manner that sometimes surfaced in Olga’s behaviour.

“My lady,” Wiluvien said, “you mentioned that we’ll be conducting tests against our defences. Does that mean you’ll be the ‘attacker’ again?”

“I believe our Rangers-in-training will serve as a better representation of what Re-Estize’s army may have to offer,” Ludmila replied. “I will brief them once we are done with our opening preparations. As for everyone here, the command staff will split up into three teams. Wiluvien, Lluluvien, and Olga will lead their respective shifts. We are starting this now so everyone has a chance to adjust to their new sleep schedules before the war begins. I will, of course, be around at all times of the day.”

“What about Raul, my lady?” Olga asked.

“Raul is still on his mission in the Manticore Mountains,” Ludmila answered. “I decided not to alter his orders until headquarters comes up with their plans for prosecuting the war. Since he is already so conveniently positioned, he may even get to play a role in Re-Estize itself.”