The campaign had already lasted more than nine weeks. Two-thirds of the Season, and most, if not all of it, was consumed by the soldiers marching across the terrain, ensuring they were warm and properly fed. And entertained.
It was the last bit that Yuriko had some trouble with, honestly. While she knew an army marched on its stomach, she had not realised that camp followers could sometimes consist of numbers greater than the actual soldiers. It wasn't true in this campaign, but when she reviewed Damien's memories, it was rife with such examples.
The Bresian Reclamation Army consisted of twenty thousand soldiers, nearly half of them at the Journeyman Magi level, while the rest only had enough innate spell circles to activate arcane tools and weapons. The company leaders were Magi level, but the Field Marshal was at the True Magus level. He was the only True Magus—a stocky Durandir male that was more than ten inches shorter than she. He had wider shoulders though.
Not everyone was mounted on Steelds; just a couple of Brigades, really. The others were a mix of infantry, engineers, and the Magi Corp. Then, there were roughly ten thousand camp followers, and she only made the mistake of scanning them once, during the evenings. Well, at least they were well paid and the soldiers, male and female, were satisfied. She later found out that fraternizing within the ranks was heavily frowned upon, which justified the existence of the followers in the first place. The question that popped into her head was if the ban came before or after the custom of having camp followers. She did notice that the quartermaster received a purse from a representative of the followers every week, so…
As an elite, Yuriko was detached from the army hierarchy, and her job was simply to act as a deterrent for enemy elites. If none were opposing her, the protocol was still to wait for word from the army commander before she cut loose. Since she was on the payroll, she had little problem following the rules, even if they kept her idle most of the time.
In fact, she was often asked to hover above the vanguard as the army marched, which was all she did most of the day. They only covered five leagues or so during the short daylight hours, mostly because the blizzards and storms covered the land in several paces of deep snow.
Yuriko didn't know if the Season of Water campaign was foolish or genius considering that there were more than a hundred and fifty leagues between Greyith Strip and the Sodden Plains border fortresses. Five leagues a day on average would take them thirty days to get there…
The Ib'honara scouts reported that the entirety of the Sodden Plains was now the Frozen Plains, which gave a different logistical challenge to cross. Before, people could just walk across the shallow water. But the thin ice over it made the crossing far more hazardous even discounting whatever other dangers an Elemental Conflux threw up. At night, she flew up high enough to catch a glimpse of the plains, and she had to admit that the Luminous Light that reflected off the mirrored surface was beautiful.
Either way, the Field Marshal didn't expect any reinforcements from the Ishodir Empire since it would be too difficult to cross. The ReclamationArmy was only fifty thousand strong, but the Ishodirain's ten battalions would be split up amongst the three border forts, which meant they were outnumbered.
Defensive emplacements negated some of the advantages, but since she and some other elites had been softening the targets since last Season, those defences were hopefully compromised. Plus, the Magi Corp were well-versed in siege spells and they boasted endlessly of their superiority. Well, most of them graduated from Briarwin Academy, apparently, and those that come from there were trained heavily in cooperative spells. Nirlith encouraged individual prowess even if they also encouraged teamwork. Hmmm, she should visit the other Academy soon. Perhaps after the Season?
Anyway, it took a bit longer to reach the southernmost fort, Twilight Hold, because of the blizzard that swept across Virtalla province. That bogged the march down by a week. Thankfully, there were only a few casualties, frostbitten mostly, because Yuriko patrolled around the camp and kept watch for such things. Unfortunately, after the storm, some of the camp followers died.
'Should've looked at them too…' Yuriko thought then. She had wanted to give their customers privacy, and some of the debauchery she witnessed, while not too much for her sensibilities, made her Mien twitch. Ah, she also didn't really notice how cold it was during the storm. It wasn't as if frozen water got even more frozen…
It was the sixth week of the Season by the time they arrived near Twilight Hold only to find that the Ishodirians had abandoned the position. Field Marshal Garcia split off a Brigade to take the fort then immediately marched towards Featherwood. It took five days to get there, and they found the entire Ishodirian forces there.
Yuriko had been expecting the trio that ambushed her to do so again, or at least face her in open battle, but nothing of the sort happened. The enemy troops only had a single True Magus that she pummelled to submission, then she let her Terror Mien loose at him, which might have been too much since he fainted, and released the contents of his bowels and bladder, all at once. She did feel a tenuous thread form around her that her Mien greedily subsumed.
Hmmm, why did she like doing that so much? She actually felt real pleasure when it happened…
Shaking her head, she joined the Field Marshal in destroying the invasion force. She didn't kill them, of course, as that was beneath her. Instead, she terrorised and probably traumatised them with her Mien. Ten thousand soldiers, who were either the luckiest or the unluckiest of the bunch, were affected, and the feedback from her Mien caused her to soil her underwear.
That had never been that intense before, and the distraction made her quit the battlefield, especially since her Mien shifted to Charm. Well, that caused more losses, and before they knew it, the enemy army was routed.
That should have been the end of it. Unfortunately, Field Marshal Garcia's prediction of no reinforcements from Ishodir had proven false when a new battle group emerged from the frozen Sodden Plains. It was a group Ice Golems that manipulated the surface of the lake to allow easy passage. Another hundred-thousand-strong army marched in, and they overpowered the Reclamation Army.
Thankfully, the Field Marshal wasn't obstinate and immediately commanded the retreat. The second army did not pursue, which felt odd to her, but she was too preoccupied with how her body reacted so she had not been able to check. They retreated a dozen leagues west and made a hasty camp on a hilltop. Then another blizzard covered the skies and they snowed in, again.
"Mistress." Ryoko handed her a steaming mug of hot chocolate. "We'll need to get more soon."
"Yeah." Yuriko hummed happily and took the mug. She sipped it slowly, savouring the taste. Ryoko's preparation today had a hint of citrus in the drink, no milk or cream, so the bitterness of the chocolate highlighted the fruity tones.
It was definitely a different experience from the first time she experienced the divine confection, but she found that she liked it, too, even if it wasn't all that sweet. She shivered in delight as warmth filled her body. Beside her, she felt Ryoko doing the same thing even if she didn't have a mug in hand.
"You can have some, you know." Yuriko offered. It wasn't the first time she did so, but her handmaiden had always refused.
"Watching and feeling you enjoy it is more than enough for me," Ryoko said with a smile.
"Feel?" Yuriko raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. I could feel your delight," Ryoko said honestly. "You're Mien has matured…a little bit."
"Oh?"
"Lady Sadeen and Lady Miya… Their Mien can also project their emotions. Well, you know that the Mien exists to draw attention…" Ryoko hummed. "I've felt the draw of the Mien, both from your cousin and your mum… It is different from yours. A bit more subtle, I think, especially when they use it proactively. Hie hie, I can say, with great confidence, that mistress is rather blunt, but when you don't try, it is so subtle that one can barely notice the effect."
"Alright," Yuriko answered, even though she didn't really get the point of what Ryoko said.
The Mishala Mien was the same with every inheritor, wasn't it? While it usually only manifests in a single descendant per generation, it was not unusual to have two at the same time, especially since the family tree was horribly tangled. Miya and Yuriko were nearly the same age, but if she looked at the genealogy, Miya was actually her cousin once removed. However, nobody in the Clan bothered with such distinctions since anyone in the main branch aged so slowly that they looked like they were in their prime until the very last years of their life. That was regardless of their Anima strength, and it wasn't unusual for two Mishala women to look like siblings—except one was actually the grandmother. And if that was the case, it was also an even chance that the grandmum looked younger than the granddaughter.
"Woof!" Duke Fluffington, Paragon of Fluffiness, First of His Name, barked from the cot. The tent was warmed by a brazier in the middle, but it was actually the wolf pup that really made the space cosy.
"Yes, yes, I'll have your breakfast ready soon," Ryoko giggled.
Yuriko smiled and sipped her drink. At the same time, she spread her Anima perception as far as it could go. She didn't keep it in a sphere now, but stretched it out into several threads then swept it around the area. It lowered the absolute coverage, but her tendrils tripled the distance she could feel the camp was less than a longstride across, and since she was in the middle, she could scout the entire place. And this time, she would not neglect the camp followers.
The snowstorm had buried the camp, but even though it was still precipitating, some of the soldiers were hard at work creating paths between the camp sections.
Her students had remained in Greyith Fortress since they weren't of age to be included in the army. Besides, the Field Marshal said that only elites were needed to bolster his forces, and additional foot soldiers, especially amateur ones, would only decrease unit cohesion. Even though the army had four Brigades worth of militia, at least they had been trained for several weeks before the campaign.
She had just finished the mug when the alarm came. It wasn't the warning spell that caused the commotion, but the impact of something slamming against the defensive wards.
Dong!
It was as if the camp was in the middle of a bell, and the reverberation went through everyone. Yuriko's perception, while stretched out into threads, was unable to see the source of the attack, or even where it impacted, but the moment she heard that sound, she focused her Anima towards the ward barrier and was just in time to see a massive chunk of ice slam down on it. The following reverb made her ears hurt.
She rushed out of the tent, just in time to see the next attack, which bypassed the wards. Giant boulders were blocked, but snowfall was not. Hailstones whipped down, striking every exposed surface with incredible force. The barrier controller was quick to change the ward settings, but the damage was done.
Groans and pained screams filled the air, and snow began to accumulate above the dome. More hailstones slammed into the dome but were properly stopped this time.
And that was when the ground forces rushed up the hillside.