23Empire of Zero part 4: How to deal with Orcs and just what the fuck is going on in Albion?
Authors note: Okay so making this chapter took a very long while, though this time around it was mainly due to the time I spent working on chapters for my other stories, damnit I had nearly forgotten how much of a pain it is to write a consistent time-line especially when you know while writing that most people won't actually read the damn thing… anyways a few house-hold notices before I post the disclaimer and go on to write the story.
Firstly, a general thanks to all reviewers of the story, your reviews give me inspiration for how to work on future chapters. Secondly, in this chapter I will try something a bit different than previous ones by showing things happening in the world outside of the Tristanian magical academy, though this will once again be a very long chapter so that will only be the first parts of it, the later half will, among other things, show Louise and company encountering problems in their quest to get a base for their armies. Thirdly, my thanks to all those that add themselves to the follow and favourite counts, they ensure I know people actually appreciate the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the games in the total war franchise, nor do I own the show or the literary version of Familiar de Zero/Zero no tsukima. If I did this story (or the Familiar de Zero in general) would come out as a campaign map DLC for Empire Total war in the same way the warpath campaign map can be bought. Also probably would have Osmond spend more time in his cunning plotting mood on screen and less time using his perverted old man act to get people to consider him a non-threat.
''Language''= Is regular spoken language in a language that comes natural to the person who's POV you are seeing the story through (Meaning one of the languages that they speak so fluently that at times they literally think to themselves in that language. And yes that doesn't have to be your birth language if you live with two or more languages being spoken near you consistently.)
''Language''= Text written like this means that it is a language not natural to the person, if the person can actually understand the language being spoken or not can be seen from whether it is written in cursive English (in that case they understand it) or in the cursive version of the actual language (meaning they do not understand it). For instance the character Piet van Vlimmeren can speak and read French fluently, however he hasn't mastered the language in the same way as he has Dutch and English. This means it will be written in cursive English. However if somebody were to speak to him in for instance Arabic, he just wouldn't understand it at all so it would be written down in cursive Arabic.
Language= Text written like this is a form of mental communication. For instance the whole VR to reality transition will cause the generals to develop slight psychic bonds with their troops and their communications will be shown like this. Not hive-mind level psychic connection, but closer to the level of Jean Grey connecting all X-men team members through their minds connection.
Language= Text written like this usually involves either a person trying to forcibly have another submit to their control through some kind of mental powers or secondly a mental command on how to act given to a person that is already under such control. Will also be used by both sides during mental battles or if truly supernatural powers are being used while the person chants the spells or just talks while exuding the power.
With supernatural powers I don't mean regular magic, but instead anti-army spells, EMIYA showing up and deciding to turn the battlefield into his weaponized soul or Louise chanting to summon numerous individuals from another world while also granting the majority of them actual physical bodies, a soul, life and a free will. Or if in an omake a Gandalfr familiar takes control of a multiple kilometres long space ship and uses vocal commands/mental to control what the ship does.
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World: Halkeginia, Location: The main work-chamber of Princess Henrietta in the Tristanian Royal Palace. Time: 20.00 hours local time on the day of the familiar summoning festival. POV: 3rd person.
In the room, princess Henrietta can be seen bowed over a desk looking at a report on the situation in the province of Les Mountagnes Rouge, trying to find a war on how to solve the issue. While normally she would simply have sent a large portion of the army that fell under the crowns personal command, the current situation with the civil war in Albion meant that the army was instead necessary to move to forward operating camps in and near areas that would form good landing zones for potential invaders, and while she could call upon the soldiers that the Nobility was required to drum up for the crown in the case of war, it would take close to a week if not more to gather a large enough number of those to win this battle without taking unacceptably large casualties.
Even then for those soldiers to move from their muster points toward a combined camp from where they could move to attack the orcs and liberate the province would take at least several more days after that. By that point in time not only would most of the region's population be dead, but the chances would be high that the orc tribe would either have heavily entrenched themselves or second option moved on to an entirely different region to raid.
On the other hand she could also call upon the palace guard and lead them in that battle herself, however that would cause the problem of forcing herself to be out of contact with the palace for several days or if she got wounded in the fighting potentially several weeks creating a golden opportunity for an invasion by either the Reconquista faction drunk off their ever more likely victory over the royal family of Albion or the Gallian mad king in his mad desires to get the resources to fight his 'holy war' against the elves.
A knock came from the door causing the princess to turn around. Moments later Elise d' Angleterre, a low ranking officer in her musketeer unit, opened the door. ''Your highness, my apologies for interrupting you, however a messenger arrived at the palace with a letter from one Louise de la Vallière addressed to you, do you want to read it now or should I put it in storage for you to read at another point in time?''
Upon hearing the name of the one that had written the letter the Princess's expression brightened and a small smile came to her face, causing her to reply as soon as the other woman had finished speaking ''Please hand it over now, I could use something positive to read from my old friend rather than these reports for a while.'' The guard nodded, headed in and gave the princess the letter, before bowing and walking out again.
As she unfolded the letter and started reading through it though, her facial expression changed multiple times between happiness, sadness and a steel determination and finally after finishing reading it she said to herself. ''Well Louise you have just handed me the solution to one current and potentially a number of future problems, however this might also cause even more of them in the far future.'' She filed her paperwork before heading out of the room.
''Elise, wake Agness and get her to organise it so that tomorrow morning at the light of dawn sixty mounted musketeer guards in full combat armament and my own horse will be ready to head towards the Tristanian Academy of Magic. Circumstances have forced the bi-annual visit to take place earlier than previously expected.'' She saluted and though somewhat confused raced towards the guard captains quarters. Meanwhile the princess turned towards the other four guards.
''The remainder of you come with me, if I am to visit the academy to converse with the leaders of an army that wishes to fight by our side I will have to impress upon them that I am the right choice, for that I will need the Royal armaments to be readied as quickly as possible.'' This caused the guards to only become even more confused, but they followed the princess nonetheless. Unknown to them a being outside of their perception of reality had gained a smile, happy for his young heir to already be making waves.
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World: Halkeginia, Location: Vallière Estate, the working chamber of Lady Karin de la Vallière. Time: 22.30 hours local time on the day of the familiar summoning festival. POV: 3rd person.
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At an end of the room, a beautiful pink haired but also physically imposing looking woman in her early forties can be seen sitting behind a desk reading some papers. She has a grim look on her face, a sheathed sword-wand on her belt and is wearing armoured riding gear, the type that scouts would use on reconnaissance missions on horseback or mage knights while training with Griffins and other flying animals. This woman is Karin The Heavy Wind, Tristain's greatest knight and the greatest terror of any that consider the country hostile. However her usual name is Karin de la Vallière, mother of three and Duchess of the de la Vallière lands.
While Karin de la Vallière is looking through the reports on the logistical situation of her armed forces she hears the harsh thuds of running footsteps through the hall, reflexively she unsheathes her sword wand, a whispered spell lifting all the papers off of her desks onto a specifically designed plank on another wall while a second spell moves the chair out of the way so it won't hinder her movement while the defensive charms on the desk are activated. This all happens in the bare two seconds it takes the other person to arrive at the door and knock on it. ''Who is it?''
The person on the other side of the door can be heard breathing heavily for a few moments before he replies to her question. ''It is Arnold, Milady. I have two urgent letters, one from your eldest and one from your youngest daughter, both delivered from the Academy of Magic, they arrived less than five minutes ago.'' Recognising the voice and the fact that no hostile action has been taken yet calms Karin somewhat, however now she looks somewhat confused since as far as she knew her eldest was supposed to be on a short trip with her new fiancée near Bruxelles for them to get to know each-other better while Louise should be getting to know whatever new familiar she had summoned.
She visibly steels herself for whatever madness might have caused this before she moves away from the desk towards the door. ''Come in Arnold and give me the letters please, I need to find out what has gone wrong this time.'' The man, Arnold, opens the door, steps in and hands the letters to her, before stepping out again and waiting in the hall, expecting a large amount of work soon.
Meanwhile back inside the room Karin de la Vallière has moved her chair back into its original position before sitting down on it behind the desk, opening the letter sent by Eleonore first. At first she seems to just get a headache as part of the way through the first page of the letter she can be seen rubbing her forehead and muttering ''Not again….'' Before shaking herself out of it and reading on. Then she gets first confused then angry only to calm herself before moving on to Louise's letter to find out just how much of Eleonore's version of events overlaps with the opinion of somebody that is less unstable than her heir.
This letter once again brings an expression of anger towards her face and once done with it she moves as if to storm out of the room and mount her griffin before charging straight towards the academy, only to realize both her daughters and everyone else involved will likely have long since gone to sleep. Instead she calms herself down again and moves to open the door. Once outside she turns towards Arnold ''Go and make it known that my Griffin is to be prepared for a journey from here to the academy at first sunlight tomorrow morning.''
After he moved away to comply with her order, she went to her bedroom, with both letters in hand, to not only inform her husband of the situation but also to work off her frustration at both the current events and the overall ineptitude of her heir.
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World: Halkeginia, Location: A road through a forest in Albion, with a convoy some 30 kilometres from the small port town of Liverpool. Time: 01.00 local time, the day after the familiar summoning festival. POV: 3rd person
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A small convoy of a single large carriage, though it is more a large cart with a roof and walls placed onto it, a single mounted man and two men on foot moves forward on the deserted road. An owl flies towards a young woman who sitting at the front of the cart next to a cloaked man that is holding the reigns of said cart. The man sitting on the cart moves one of his hands away from the reigns and takes aim at the bird, only for the now slightly smiling blond young woman to stop him.
''James, that is Mathilda's familiar, an owl that can find the location of a person as long as she knows their magical signature well enough to associate it with a name and face. You were already introduced to her before Mathilda left.'' Before turning towards the owl who is now sitting on her left, having perched herself on the small railing on the side, from where she is glaring at the now named James, who sighs.
''Tiffania, you do remember I've only seen her twice before this and that as such I cannot really see the difference between her and other potential owl familiars yet from a distance?'' After which he turns towards the owl that is still glaring at him, while Tiffania takes the small letter off of the owls leg before starting to read it. ''I apologize to you my feathered friend, and I thank you for delivering Mathilda's message to us. You also look good today.'' While still seemingly attempting to look angry, the owl was visibly pleased by both the compliments and the man's attention.
While this had been going on the small convoy had just been continuing down the road at the speed of the average modern leg infantry march (some 7 to 8 kilometres an hour for most countries, so I maintained that principle here.) now they ground to a halt as the two infantrymen felt while the cavalryman saw a slightly sobbing Tiffania hug James to her, squashing her rather large assets into the man doing so while repeating softly ''We're saved, we're saved!'', though with all of the men having some level of enhanced hearing, they heard her more than well enough.
After some time, during which the children in the back of the cart had noticed something was going on and had come out, they learned what was in the contents of the letter exactly and just why Tiffania was so overcome with happiness by them: A group of other people from what was most likely the world the men came from had been summoned to Halkeginia, this time to Tristain, a large professional army had been gained by no other than the daughter of Karin the Heavy wind, who promptly went on to beat her older sister and several other students in a duel, and while this was all happening the secretary had somehow managed to convince the headmaster and his second in command to join her in an attempt to convince both Louise de la Vallière, her new army of familiars and the crown of Tristain to go bring them to the safety of Tristain.
If this worked, they finally had a plan that all would agree to follow that would truly get them out. Originally the two men had proposed a different plan: James would use the power of his supernatural side in Danny Phantom to duplicate himself numerous times, capture and crew a frigate sized Reconquista ship with those duplicates then start a fight with the Reconquista making them believe a portion of their regional naval garrison had gone rouge, using other duplicates to take on their dragon-riders in close quarters while during the distraction Oliver would capture a small transport ship, load everyone onto it and head towards Tristain.
However Tiffania and the children hated the plan and convinced them to not go through with it because firstly to them it was uncertain if James, even as phantom, would actually manage to hold his own against an entire fleet causing them to fear for his life and secondly, if either a pirate or Reconquista ship managed to catch up to the fleeing ship the remainder of the group left with before it reached Tristanian air they would be little more than target practice, since outside of Oliver none of them had the slightest clue in how to handle canons or any powers truly useful in a naval battle.
Now as Tiffania was writing a reply to send back to her sister in all but blood, the cart was resting for a moment, while the men didn't watch out for a moment, causing their hoods to be blown back by a stream of wind. All four of them had black hair, while three had the exact same young face with a large scar across their left eye socket, with slightly glowing blue eyes, all seemingly cold as ice, the fourth had burning gold eyes and a burn scar taking up roughly a third of his face. It only lasted a moment before they pulled their hoods back up and luckily for them nobody outside of their own group had been near enough to see it.
Then the golden eyed man looks at the man holding the reigns of the cart and nods, causing a nod in return before he concentrates, creating two more duplicates whom then both head out into the forest to scout out the road and forest ahead of them, moving at speeds equal to those of a galloping race horse, while not disturbing even a single fallen branch or leaf.
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World: Halkeginia, Location: Headmasters Office of the Tristanian Magical Academy, Time: 8.30 local time or in other words an hour after Siesta walks in on Saito and Louise. POV: 3rd person
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The headmaster can be seen behind his desk writing down some notes before sighing, shaking his head and crossing off whatever he had been writing. He then turned towards his secretary who was worriedly working at her own desk. ''Any chance of you having a plan on just how to go about convincing the princess or the young Louise of assisting us in rescuing your family my dear?'' The green haired woman turns her head towards the headmaster, still slightly surprised by how different his behaviour is when not trying to give off the image of an old perverted buffoon.
She gives a sad sigh though and shakes her head to give her non-verbal negative confirmation. ''Sadly enough I don't. And even if we manage to make a plan, the chances of it actually working to convince both the crown princess and lady Vallière are very low, unless we reveal she is of the royal bloodline of Albion, and even then we would need to keep back the part about who exactly her mother is until they meet in person and hope Tiffania's innocent charm would win them over. And considering we're talking about a de la Vallière and a current Halkeginian head of state here I'm not all that optimistic about her chances on doing that.''
Just then the door was all but rammed open, with Jean Colbert storming through somewhat out of breath. ''Osmond, Karin is here!'' he huffed and puffed for a few moments before continuing ''She seems to be in full combat armour and is probably landing her griffin right now. How do we deal with this?!'' Both the headmaster and his secretary look surprised at this, though the headmaster seems more intrigued while the secretary is a more frightened surprise, both of them knowing the only reason that the Heavy Wind would come here on a griffin to be that she was either extremely angry or feared for the safety of her children.
''Well this might very well be our chance to convince her of the need to send somebody to retrieve your family and with Karin's resources she can easily enough get us the ships to both transport soldiers to there but also to get your family out of there.'' Both Mathilda and Jean look at him as if he's gone mad. The headmaster sighs before continuing ''Please just trust me on this for the moment, though Mathilda could you please go and get lady Louise here, I am unsure where young Eleonore is right now but since I do not want her to start a fight with Louise again we should probably only have one of them in the same room at any moment anyways.''
The secretary nods, before going through the door for Louise's room. Less than twenty seconds later the door is rammed open again, though this time a female figure walks through, some 180 centimetres tall, in enchanted Griffin Knight armour with long pink hair flying behind her and a sword-wand in hand. ''Osmond what the hell for kind of school are you running here that my daughters apparently have a duel after a familiar summoned by my younger daughter gets into a fight with my eldest?! Also what is this about Louise summoning an entire army of human familiars and you didn't even think of informing me about it?!''
''You see milady we spent a large portion of the afternoon negotiating with the soldiers summoned by your daughter, doing administrative work regarding them and ensuring the duel didn't get out of hand. By the time we actually had a moment to sit down and draw up a letter the messenger to the capital had already left, while his familiar raven with the letters to deliver to the main postal office in the Vallière lands had also already left. We had no way of contacting you before he returned outside of sending somebody to your lands ourselves, and since the situation had already cooled down we assumed we could just wait till tomorrow when the actual messenger and his raven would have returned here.''
The lady Vallière calms down a bit, her face showing that she considers the explanation at least somewhat reasonable. ''Now I wish to know two things.'' Both Osmond and Colbert look at her. ''Which of my daughters won the duel and does either of them have significant injuries? Can you get either of them up to this office so I can an explanation from either or better yet both of them in person?''
''Neither of your daughters was significantly injured and the duel was won by the group of your youngest daughter in less than a minute, it was quite interesting to watch. Her three summoned soldiers moved with speeds and agility that exceed the average line wind mage using the winds of fortune spell, the main reason the duel even lasted as long as it did being that they were restrained by the no killing rule of duelling. My secretary is already bringing your youngest up, and it would be best not to have both of them in the same room yet, your eldest is… let us just say afraid of petite pink haired teenagers and tall dark-haired commoners right now.''
This caused Karin to look on in surprise. ''My daughter and three commoner soldiers somehow managed to beat four mages including my eldest and a young man trained for years in elemental combat in a straight up duel? Without using lethal force and in less than a minute? And in such a way that my eldest is now completely frightened of my other daughter that she has been dismissing as any potential form of threat for years?!'' Both of the members of the teaching staff present give a confirming nod to this.
The two teachers then leave her to her thoughts for a moment while they watched her process this new information, though a knock on the door interrupts them before long, causing them all to turn towards it before a voice is heard through it. ''Headmaster, I'm here with Louise de la Vallière and general Saito de Hiraga. Can we come in or do you want them to wait outside for a moment?''
''Please do step in with the both of them Miss Longueville, it would be useful to have both of them in here immediately.'' As the door opens and Mathilda walks in, behind her follows a pink haired teenager that looks like a shorter, less physically matured version of Karin, or in other words Louise. She stops in complete shock upon seeing her mother, staring at her open mouthed. Behind her meanwhile, a young black haired man steps in before closing the door behind him, after which he turns around before stopping for a moment as he notices what is going on. This causes him to grimace before he moves in front of Louise while pulling out his sword and aiming it at Karin.
This stumps the teachers but the lady of de la Vallière looks at him coldly. ''And this is supposed to be the young man that took out the young Gramont in a duel?'' After this she turns towards Louise. ''Also daughter, just why did you think it a good idea to hire a number of mercenaries than act as if you had summoned an army? You and I both know you do not have the funds to maintain such an army and I will not pay for their upkeep, especially not if they all have as little in the way of manners as this young brute does.'' While saying this she is now fingering the sword-wand she has sheathed at her side.
Suddenly a harsh stomping could be heard through the halls before the door was shattered to pieces by a form charging through, with the Duchess only barely managing to bring up her sword-wand in time to deflect the first hit, nearly losing her wand before she used a wind hammer spell to throw her opponent away from herself, only for it to barely push the now revealed dark haired tall and scarred man of roughly her own age away from her. A fraction of a second later he was at her again, with the Duchess's strength, which was heightened heavily by an infusion of wind magic, being severely tested by the assailants raw physical strength.
Then, while her attention was on the blade, he kicked her left leg before using the moment of weakness caused by that to throw her out through the window that had already been broken by the shockwaves caused by their clashes, though while being thrown she used a triangle class wind pull spell to throw him out of it after her, before hitting him with a triangle class wind hammer, much more powerful than the line version she previously used to throw him to the ground harshly while levitating herself down towards the ground at a much less rapid pace.
Meanwhile back in the office Saito looked numbly before cursing and rushing out through where there was once a door, while the remainder of the group kept staring at where previously magically enhanced glass meant to be able to hold against musket fire and direct impacts of long range line-class spells had been. Then Colbert shakes his head, gathers himself and says ''We need to get down there, now, before one of them kills the other!''
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World: Halkeginia, Location: The Tristanian Magical Academy's courtyard. Time: the moment Karin de la Vallière lands from her fall off the tower. POV: Karin de la Vallière.
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Hmm that sheer physical strength this man possess makes it that anyone below a decently skilled triangle mage would have been dead by now, very interesting. My daughter wasn't exaggerating in her letter about their physical capabilities, the opposite in fact, she was vastly understating them. Though I do not understand how in the world that simple taunt brought out such anger from this man, nor that he somehow knew what was going on even though he wasn't in or even near the room?
Also the magic resistance he seems to possess, that can be very easily used to both his and my daughters advantage. Now I do need to put him in his place to make him realize that I am in charge when it comes to my daughters affairs, not he and his fellow familiars. Walking up towards the dust where the probably unconscious man should lie I use some detection magic on the area to determine his condition and feel .. no not a body, instead there's only air… and now I'm tumbling along the ground before I put myself to a stop with a quick airwall. Standing up I see him moving towards me, worse for wear but still very determined and far from defeated.
''YOU WILL NOT HARM HER!'' Is all he says before he charges at me again, causing me to form a wind wall in front of me by reflex only for him to break through it, barely managing to jump out of the way of the hit, which causes a several metres large and at least a metre deep crater in the ground. If that had hit me, even with this spell armour survival chances would have been extremely low.
Sending my signature spell gives birth to tornado like winds, throwing him back towards the walls of the academy, smashing him into them. As I stop the winds for a moment to ensure there is a good chance of him remaining alive for questioning, I see him stand up again, somewhat slow this time around, but still certain. I aim my wand at him only to hear a warning from the other side. ''Don't even think of it child abuser.'' As I turn slightly I see a man aiming a musket at me, this one also a tall dark haired man but with a blue uniform. On his flanks other similarly uniformed soldiers are forming up, aiming their muskets at me.
''Steve, you still alive?'' He yells at the man I had just taken down, whom gave an affirmative answer in return. ''So Ms. Vallière please tell me why me and my men shouldn't just open fire at you for abusing your daughter so harshly she froze and was completely overwhelmed with fear at the very damn sight of you?! Give us one reason why we shouldn't take revenge in her name?!'' What, they started this because they thought I abused my own flesh and blood to some extreme amount?
Just then the young man from the office came storming into the courtyard before he took in the situation and called out. ''Piet stand down, Louise wasn't actually frozen by her specifically or her words, she froze because as far as she knew her mother being there in her armour meant that either Tristain had come under attack or that she was going to be pulled out of the academy.'' He made placating gestures to both the soldiers and myself after this. ''We should all calm down a bit and take this confrontation back inside to the headmasters office.''
''How can I be certain that none of you will attack me once more while we are inside there?'' I posed the question mainly to test the waters, I don't expect they will actually do anything against me again since if so they would just start it out here in the open where they can actually use their superior numbers and muskets against me. Especially with that strange formation they just formed up, a semi-circular double line formation in my direction with both lines being able to fire at me? While reloading might be less easy in that way, it would provide a decent enough way to deal with charging infantry or cavalry, though I doubt it would do much against aerial combatants.
''If you stop behaving so similarly to the piece of shit that killed her own daughter in a fit of anger at my little girl not doing what she wanted fast enough then I will not have to spring into action to defend another child from a similar mother.'' It was said by this Steve in a very growling tone but… that information… his 'little girl'… his wife killed their daughter in what he considers as little more than a fit of anger, but she behaved similarly to said child as I did to Louise when testing her resolve… now his reaction is far more understandable. I might even forgive his behaviour if he can keep calm for now, though I do need to watch out with these men my daughter summoned.
I would have to rebuke him though. ''That 'behaviour' as you called it was simply a test of my daughters and her familiar's resolve and though you showed it very strangely the fact that you were willing to fight in her defence with no hesitation shows good things.'' Then I fully turned to him while stepping closer and looked him in the eye, which was somewhat of a strange experience since I had seen he and his companion were tall, but I hadn't seen just how tall they were, at least a hand taller than me which meant that while normally I could use my height to look down on people, now such a same sort of height advantage was being used against me.
''Keep those tests to yourself for the remainder of the time being, or we might very well conclude it is a form of psychological warfare against the young lady and be forced to draw weapons upon you in her defence.'' Just then I could see Colbert arrive into the courtyard out of the corner of my field of vision, he looked around frantically only to see what was happening and likely coming to the conclusion the situation had calmed down somewhat already. Behind him my daughter, the headmaster and his secretary filed in, though my daughter wasn't surprised the situation had calmed down already unlike the other two? Did she know already? And if so, just how?
A young man came riding in from the gate of the academy, moving over to Osmond the moment he noticed the man was in the courtyard. ''Headmaster, sir, a cavalry brigade, bearing the banner of royal family is heading in our direction, they will arrive in less than ten minutes.'' Osmond nodded to the young man.
''Thank you, go fetch both yourself and your mount something to drink and something to eat.'' Then he turned around towards where I and the two men were still standing. ''Lady Vallière, general Van Vlimmeren, General Churchill, if you would all be so kind as to postpone any remaining hostilities until after we've received the group heading towards us now, the princess is most likely among them as she did send us a letter indicating she would arrive at some point in time this morning.'' As this was said I can see my daughter gasp in the background seemingly very unsure of herself before the young man at her side steadies her with a hand on her shoulder and a smile aimed at her. Her return smile is looking quite a bit too affection filled for a young lady with an ongoing betrothal contract, I will have to talk to her about this later on.
World: Halkeginia, Location: Courtyard Tristanian Academy of Magic. Time: 8.45 local time. POV: 3rd person
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As the royal mounted musketeer brigade moves into the courtyard their path is surrounded by a honour guard of men in blue uniforms, muskets with bayonets equipped in parade hold over their shoulders. At the end of this honour guard, the headmaster stood together with the available members of the Vallière family, Colbert and several other faculty members while the Generals stood more to the side, with the exception of general Piet, who was in command of the honour guard troops and thus among their ranks.
While the first ranks of mounted musketeers looked around somewhat surprised at how they are received, they shrug and move on to the front, though somewhat wary of the unknown soldiers, Karin the Heavy Wind and her family are nearby, the most loyal members of nobility in the country. Most of the musketeers think these men are simply foreign expatriate forces, having fled either Albion or Gallia, now looking to serve under the Tristanian crown.
When the Crown Princess entered the courtyard on her horse, all the soldiers saluted simultaneously spooking the guards for a second before they realize what is happening is little more than a military salute of sorts that is unknown to them in origin. As the first mounted troops near the academy staff, the mounted troops part to make way for the princess to move forward. All of the dimensional travellers are stunned by the appearance, which is nothing close to what they had expected of a late medieval princess, even with Louise's faith in her leader.
While a beautiful young woman with long purple hair which they all knew to expect since Louise had told them about that, she is wearing a set of enchanted armour coloured a mix of silver and dark purple with a sword-wand by her side and a small crown in her hair, which Louise quickly informed them was essentially a magical version of a retractable helmet that had cost the Royal family a fortune to make centuries ago, instead of the expected dress and fine jewellery. So overall a far better first impression then the men had expected.
As the horse reached the group containing the Vallières and the teaching staff, they kneeled for her, causing her to say ''Stand, all of you. I will not stand on formalities, there are multiple situations that need to be handled quickly.'' While saying this she dismounted from her horse, with the group rising to stand before her. ''I will take four of my musketeer guard inside with me, please have a meal and drink brought for the remainder of them.'' The secretary exchanged a look with Osmond for a moment before she gives a hand signal to a nearby dark-haired maid whom, after giving a short bow, moves off towards the kitchens.
''I have several things that I myself and my staff need to discuss with you, so this would be fortunate. If you would please follow us to my office, your highness?'' She nodded and four of the musketeer guards near the front of the formation joined them, while Piet, Saito, Steve and two soldiers trailed after them, ensuring no one other than themselves was following the group. As they neared the door to Osmond's office, the two Blue Guards Dragoon soldiers took up positions next to the door while the generals checked up on the troops outside and how everything was going telepathically before they followed the other group into the office.
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World: Halkeginia, Location: Headmasters Office at the Tristanian Academy of Magic, Time: 8.50 local time. POV: 3rd Person.
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As the generals file into the room, the crown princess looks on from the head of the hastily setup large table with a map of Halkeginia spread out over it. ''So I assume these are the commanding officers of the troops summoned by my dear friend Louise?'' She looked at Louise after saying this, who both nodded and verbally confirmed it with a ''Yes your majesty.'' As the men formed up in a line, with Piet being in the centre, Saito on his right hand side and Steve on his left hand side. ''Could you introduce yourselves, gentlemen?''
The three of them exchanged looks before both of the other men nodded to Piet, mostly for show since they had already decided this in a previous telepathic discussion. ''Your highness, my name is Piet van Vlimmeren, I am the commanding officer of the local army of the Seven United Provinces, which is roughly a fourth of the overall strength of the combined army summoned by Louise de la Vallière, on my right is Lord Saito Hiraga,'' At this the royal heir and her guards turned to watch the younger man,
''the commanding officer of the local army of the British Empire, also roughly a fourth of our overall strength. On my left is Steve Churchill, commanding officer of the local army of the Papal States, also in charge of a fourth of our strength. Meanwhile the last fourth is the French Imperial army under command of Pierre D'Alain, whom is outside ensuring our armies currently have a high ranking officer with them in case something happens.'' The crown princess looks thoughtful and nods at this.
''Thank you for the introductions ser van Vlimmeren, I had read in Louise's letter that she and you four had been gathering a force to relieve the Mountagne Rouge province?'' at this she got nods from all three of the generals, causing her to turn towards Osmond. ''You mentioned outside that you also have other business that needs to be dealt with?'' The aged headmaster nods at her in confirmation. ''Could you explain exactly what said problem is?''
''To explain the situation that we would like assistance with from both the Tristanian crown as well as if possible the armies of the Vallière family, I would first need to give some context. Is it alright if my secretary explains this in my stead?'' Both the Duchess and the crown princess are visibly surprised at this but the princess still nods causing the headmaster to lay a re-assuring hand on the secretaries shoulder. ''Your majesty I am not really called Longueville like the headmaster claimed, my real name is Mathilda Saxen-Gotica, which is important to this case because as you probably knew my parents were sworn to the younger brother of King James of Albion. What you probably didn't know is that he had a wife and child, but that he kept it hidden from even his own brother out of fear that King James would kill them.''
Seconds later the implication of what Mathilda thought of why said younger brother to the king of Albion had suddenly disappeared more than a decade ago was very clear to all of them. The princess sprung up at this, enraged. ''How dare you accuse King James of this! My uncle would never do something like that to his own brother!'' Seconds later two of her guards began pulling up their muskets to take aim at the secretary.
Now it was Mathilda's turn to become enraged. ''You little bitch! I was there, in a closet hiding with his young daughter inside my arms while her mother went out to confront them after they had already killed not only the prince but also my parents, with us fleeing out through a hidden exit once they had left the general area believing her to be the only one there. I was the one that had to hold the young girl and console her about just why strangers had killed her mother and father after calling her mother, the most caring woman I know, a demon just for the race she was born into, while her father and my parents, all good people were called demon worshippers for actually caring for both Tiffania and her mother!'' By the end of this tears could be seen rolling down the woman's face, before she was pulled into a slight hug by Colbert into who's shoulders she started crying.
The whole room with the exception of Osmond and Colbert where completely floored by both this revelation and the woman's reaction in general. ''I apologise for her reaction, but after what research I could do into the situation it turns out that at the very least the broad lines of her story are true.'' The old man let that sink in for a moment before he continued. ''Which brings us to the current issue: the young Tiffania is currently trying to flee from Albion, however she is being chased by a group allied to the Reconquista, while the only nearby port from which she can actually leave the floating island is in the hands of a Reconquista garrison, with only a relatively small force on the ground, however with a decent sized flotilla defending it in addition to there being a militia training camp less than ten miles from the city where they could drum up to a thousand men from, which means that even if most of those men are only half-way trained, that anything outside of a full invasion army would have a very large amount of trouble doing anything in the area.''
After taking all of it in for the moment and looking around the room, seeing that outside of the Academy staff everyone is as surprised as her, Henrietta turns towards the secretary. ''While I have my doubts that my uncle was the one who ordered the attack on his own sibling, I can more than understand wanting to free a loved one from the hell that is the current state of Albion.'' Then she turns towards de Duchess Valliere and Louise. ''In addition freeing a member of the Royal family of Albion will give us a good rallying cry against the Reconquista in the near inevitable war that will start sometime soon as it would lower their credibility as the true rulers of Albion, albeit not by much considering they would still hold the floating continent itself.''
Now the Princess took a deep breath, thought for a moment before turning towards Mathilda again. ''Now I am very interested, however just what is your plan on freeing them? And what role would you wish for the Crown and the de la Valliere families to play in it? Because at the same time we still have to handle the issue of orcs taking over a province. We need to spare at least some 800 men to deal with the combination of the orc forces and with the aftermath of the orcs having occupied the region.''
''There will be relatively few ground forces needed, at most 150 soldiers, to deal with the problem in Albion. Louise here is not the only one that summoned human familiars, so did Tiffania, however of them one is seemingly a mage able to cast wandless fire magic, while the other is a demi-spirit that can shift into a spirit form able to use a strange form of magic. The two of them combined can take on a small army, especially if they have the element of surprise.'' Louise and the generals share a look before nodding to eachother, which is noticed by the Duchess de la Valliere.
''Louise, dear…'' She says in a somewhat chillingly friendly voice that immediately makes Louise go rigid while the generals palm the handles of their swords. ''Could you please explain to us why it seems to be that you and your summoned soldiers recognise this person and have come to some sort of silent decision?'' This silences the room, with all the locals looking at Louise with interest, especially Mathilda, who is uncertain of just how the young noble would be able to know who Tiffania was.
''Well… ehm you see…'' Louise stammers out before taking a deep breath and righting herself while Saito had walked up behind her without the others in the room noticing giving her silent support with a hand on one of her shoulders, giving her the extra confidence needed to go on. ''Back in that moment where myself and my familiars suddenly gained such a large headache, the runes gave me some information on other nobles that had summoned human familiars. It gave relatively little in the form of their full titles or additional capabilities, however with the addition of my familiars knowledge about some of the summoned beings both myself and my soldiers will be able to recognise them on sight.
For instance, the girls name is Tiffania, she has blond hair and a very… generous figure. She also runs the small orphanage she lives in as if the children there were of her own flesh and blood. There are other groups of human familiars that have been summoned, however except for one they are not, or at least should not be involved in this situation. The one that might be involved is the one we got the least amount of information on as they are somehow shielding themselves from the influence of whatever magic allowed me to see them in the first place.'' After she was done explaining she turned towards Steve. ''You are the one trained most in handling similar situations general Churchill, might you be able to come up with a plan on how to deal with this?''
He walked over to stand closer to the table before turning towards Mathilda. ''Do you possibly have a somewhat detailed map of the area?'' She nodded, walked over to the cabinet and pulled out the topmost map, it having most likely already having been used shortly ago to check out the last details. ''Thank you. Also this town here close to the centre of the map with a river going through it is the target right?'' She nods again at this. He looks around on the map for a while, searching for any nearby location they might be able to pick the people up at farther away from the port, sadly enough not finding any.
Then he looks closer to the port and sees something. ''Okay so this large area is a relatively flat plateau that is elevated a decent amount over the flatlands below it in which the town is located right?'' The secretary looks at the area on the map he was pointing towards before nodding. ''Hmm while not large enough that more than a single decent sized ship of the line would actually be able to land it is more than enough for the ships to get close to the ground and then simply have the troops rappel down along ropes from decent sized transport ships while a single ship remains in the open ground for the elfin woman and civilians to get onboard along with some of the soldiers before it rises to allow a second smaller ship to land with the first giving covering fire to the troops that would then be boarding their ship.''
Karin stands up and looks over the spot on the map the general is pointing towards. ''Not a bad plan, however now comes the harder part: how to deal with the hostile navy? A port town of this size will have at least five or six airships guarding it, with the flagship being a ship-of the line. This in addition to the fact that we can't send over ships that would be identified as part of either the Tristanian navy in general or the Valliere family flotilla in particular make it near impossible to actually send anything strong enough to challenge these people into it.''
At this the headmaster speaks up. ''Theoretically speaking this is the case yes, however currently in practical terms of the six ships there, four are damaged and being repaired in port. While well repaired enough that they could be made combat ready within an hour, possibly even less, however this is where the familiars of Tiffania come into the picture. With the enchantments on the ships being turned off for the repairs to be made while in the docks, the ships will be far more vulnerable to fire than normally would be the case. This in addition to the fact that her other familiar can both duplicate himself and use his strange magic to make himself and others temporarily invisible and incorporeal as long as he is not intending on fighting nor is the other exerting much energy, this means that they can go in and set fire to most of the docked ships, making it impossible to get them combat ready at any point in time.
The problem, and the reason they haven't done this beforehand is very simple on this front: there is a quick reaction flotilla located slightly more than an hour away from the port, meaning that they would have far too little time to commandeer themselves a ship afterward and make enough distance for an enemy to not catch up on them. One of the being repaired ships is the official flagship, making the situation even easier. The main problem will be getting in and out before the quick reaction flotilla arrives to put a stop to it, making speed of the essence. With both crown and Valliere family funds, a number of ships could easily be bought, we have the ground troops, now it would simply be the problem of actually manning the ships.''
At this Louise spoke up. ''Actually we might have a solution on that, a number of troops from Lord Hiraga's and van Vlimmeren's armies are naval infantry, and as such know how to handle sailing the ships. The only thing that we would need to put somebody on the ships for is the handling of the wind-stone, as none of them have ever had to perform such a task. Additionally they have some weapons that could be used to fight off any smaller faster hostile air-forces such as enemy dragon or griffin squadrons, they call these machineguns.'' The eyes of the locals went to Louise while she was speaking before looking to the officers for confirmation on the subject, which was given.
At this it was Henrietta that spoke up. ''Alright that is the planning of that scenario dealt with, and everyone knows what to do?'' All answered in the affirmative to this. ''Okay now how to deal with the orc threat. How many troops are your armies intending on sparing for this? And how much of that would be infantry, artillery or cavalry?''
The generals shared a look before Saito spoke up. ''I will take over on this point as it will be generals van Vlimmeren and Churchill that will deal with the situation in Albion as they have the most experience in similar situations. I meanwhile will be leading the troops against the orcs, along with Miss Valliere. I will have 320 men in two units of line infantry regulars, 480 men in three units of militia troops supporting them that afterwards will be permanently stationed there, while I will also have 12 canons and 72 crewmen for those canons spread out over three different units.
To top it off I will have three cavalry units and a single marksmen unit, with the cavalry totalling 114 soldiers while the marksman unit will contain 80 soldiers. This means that our total troop number, excluding myself and miss de la Valliere, will be some 1065 soldiers to relieve the region. Our main plan was to link up with what remains of the local militia, get more information on what the orcs have been doing exactly and so forth before moving our main army and the artillery against the orcs main encampment while I will send out one of the cavalry units supported by the marksmen and one of the militia units to take out any patrols, raiding parties or secondary camps that the locals have noticed.''
The current heir to the throne looked around the room to see if anyone disagreed with the idea, which they did not, with Karin and Agness both giving their silent approval through a nod to the princess when she looked at them. ''As long as you supply the troops and sailors, we can easily get you six ships to do this within the next twelve hours. This should be enough to carry up to roughly 720 people, crew included. Of these ships one or two will not have all that many canons or other weapons. Will that be enough?''
Looks are exchanged, before both Van Vlimmeren and Churchill both nod. ''That should be enough to get us down on the ground while the hostile ships should be kept busy without too many problems, while our ground troops will be numerous enough to hold off the hostiles until the refugees can board. However our main problem will be if the enemy manages to get in re-enforcements faster than we expect, as the refugees are being chased, likely by the human familiars we know little about.''
The princess turned towards Louise. ''Can you tell me what you do know about these familiars? How many of them are there for instance? Is it a military force like your allies, or are they more of a large workforce? Do any of them have the abnormal physical capabilities similar to your own familiars?'' Louise thought for a moment before replying.
''These other human familiars are in far lower numbers than my own, a hundred or so at most. However that will be one of the few advantages we'll have over them, with possibly also far less supernatural physical capabilities attached to their leaders. The problems however start after that, since while my troops are well-trained and equipped as well or better than any regular soldier from our own or any other national army, to them this is centuries old, antiquated weaponry. Meanwhile the opponent is armed with weapons that they consider close to modern.
To give an example of just how devastating this can be in a battlefield: in the simulations my soldiers went through, they did one just to test the devices to their full capacity, where+ they gave the four generals modern weapons and equipment, while putting them against 500 of their troops armed similarly to those currently stationed outside. The 500 won the battle eventually as should logically be assumed with a situation like this, but with only 20 men remaining, half of which were wounded, and even then in part because the generals had limited ammunition for their weapons on a combat map smaller than the maximum range of their weapons, which eventually forced them to try to change the battle into a close quarters fight where numbers started to count far more. The quality differences will not be as extreme weapon wise with these enemies as it was in that battle, however they will still be significant enough that even with a 10 to 1 advantage victory will be uncertain if the enemy is dug in defensive positions that they had more than a few minutes to prepare.''
Henrietta looked worried, which she was, both at the sheer technological difference and how dangerous a battle between her friends familiars and those of the other mage would be. ''Are you certain this force you will be taking with you will be enough for this mission? If the enemy truly can perform so much better than any of our own troops, isn't it too much of a risk?''
The generals seemed to give a collective sigh while Louise looked troubled. ''Sadly enough we have little other choice, if we don't move to support now Reconquista will have strengthened their position in Albion as its ruler, instead of now when there's still organized resistance and direct combat with royalist forces in other regions meaning that 'in control' regions such as this will have far fewer soldiers to hold them. In a few months they will likely have close to double this number in all towns, with a far higher chance of the actual familiars being stationed in a quick reaction location, meaning that instead of a chance of meeting them in battle, we will certainly be forced to fight them.
The princess sighed in return. ''I will have to send one of my confidantes along with your group to ensure they can handle in the name of Tristain.'' She turned towards her guards. ''Any volunteers?'' All of them looked between eachother for a moment before raising their hands. The princess sighed once more, before looking towards Agnes. ''You'll be the most suited to this job Agnes, as you know me best and also have some experience with stealth and undercover work.'' She turned towards generals Van Vlimmeren and Churchill ''I trust her safety to the two of you, while she is a good person she has the issue of getting in over her head sometimes.'' In reaction to the princesses straight faced declaration, Agnes let out a shout of 'Hey!' which was ignored by all other inhabitants of the room, while two of the musketeer guards started coughing in a way usually meant to hide laughs, making it very obvious exactly what they thought of the situation.
General van Vlimmeren stepped forward and bowed slightly while holding his hand on his heart. ''I will defend her with my life if need be your majesty, I do so swear.'' The earnest proclamation took the princess of guard but also caused satisfaction to well up within her.
''Good. Now for the campaign against the Orcs. I am going with you on that one, there will be no debate about this.'' This brought on looks from the seated members of nobility with Louise quickly reacting ''But your highness, that would be far too dangerous for you to do?! If anything happens we will be without a competent royal heir and…'' she continued in a much softer voice ''I do not want to lose one of my few friends…'' Everyone at the table was nearly as surprised by this declaration as the previous one from the princess, though it caused said princess to look at Louise very fondly.
Jean Colbert cleared his throat causing everyone to turn towards him. ''While it might be a dangerous task miss Valliere, with the large and competent professional army surrounding her and against an opponent like the orcs whom barely make more use of military tactics than the average wild beast, this is the safest way for the Queen to get viewed as a capable military commander by the general populace, and the commoners especially will love her for putting an end to a group of raiding barbarians like this. We might very well need said popular support in the near future to rally the nation against an outside invasion with the way the civil war in Albion is going. We are likely to be the next target of a group like Reconquista to get themselves a foothold on the mainland of the continent.''
The younger Valliere sighed and nodded her ascent to the idea, at which the Princess looked around the room once more. ''Is there anything further that needs to be discussed?'' Almost everyone in the room shook their heads. ''Alright then, Agnes go with the generals van Vlimmeren and Churchill and get to know them a bit better while also assisting them where you can, Louise, general Hiraga, I have much to discuss with the two of you in a more private session.'' Everyone nodded and filed out of the room.
And the end of this chapter. Alright I admit I am an arsehole and should have probably gone on to the actual battles, the problem is that I wanted to keep this chapter under 15k. Both battles have at least 6k words to them, and this chapter is already close to 11000 words. I would then have to cut them in half at a cliff-hanger moment, which would be even more of a problematic move. I apologize for this taking so long, between being busy with the other story, work related issues (I've had three different jobs in the time it took to write this chapter), health issues and family related issues, I've had very little time to write on this.
I hope you guys liked it, please review on what you did and didn't like so I can improve, but please do not flame or only say something is bad without the reason why, that would give me little in the way to help me improve.