The army was up and ready by around 5 AM.
And yes, I managed to understand how to calculate time from a magic lava lamp contraption.
Another thing I managed to learn was how the army was divided. There were sectors, divisions, battalions and platoons. I am not sure if they follow the logic system as how it was on earth but the system here did run smoothly as the leaders of group has magical artifacts for communication.
I managed to get all this information from random reports and such, and few by eavesdropping on soldiers outside.
At exactly 6 AM, a new servant came to announce that the vassal generals were here to report.
I was a little nervous but I convinced myself that it was much more harder to trick someone close to Lucien like Onyx than a few vassals who would not be familiar with him. And I did manage to trick Onyx so I was at full confidence.
There was no showers, so I wiped myself down with a bucket of warm water and rag. The servant then helped me into my armor which was a little embarrassing as a former girl.
It was the same black armor I avoided last night and now that I wore it, I admired how sleek and stunning they look when worn. Additionally, they weighed practically nothing due to being inscribed with magical runes and my stats. The small servant also brought a dark red cloak lined with soft fur and golden embroidery to fasten on my shoulder guards.
I looked into the mirror and admired myself.
Mhm, very handsome, very charming.
I nodded once and exited my bedroom.
What was once a spacious hall yesterday seemed be so cramped all of a sudden. I figured that there must be over fifty people gathered.
As soon as my presence was noted, the hall quieted down in a few seconds. I made sure that my face was expressionless as I walked towards the head of the table. My steady steps echoed in the makeshift room.
This must be what being a teacher feels like.
I turned around and quietly scanned the gathered men.
There were four men who were standing very close to the table, wearing much better armor than others. I deduced them to be the lieutenants of Lucien and possibly four of the militant vassal noblemen to Vanehiem. I narrowed my eyes.
One of them looked like a middle-aged uncle and the other three in their late twenties and early thirties.
I must say, I am quite possibly the youngest in the group—17 as Xueyin and 20 as Lucien. Even if our ages were combined it wouldn't reach the age of the oldest uncle in the room.
Sigh, Lucien is really impressive to be able to handle these old foxes.
"Good Morning, Gentlemen." I began, acting as if I knew what the hell I'm doing.
Confidence is my only strong point in this situation.
""""Good Morning, General!""""
The crowd responded in unison, nearly frightening me. But on the outside, I nodded serenely.
I quickly calculated why everyone might be gathered.
Before the Sun Scripture expansion, the Archduke of Vanehiem had been spending half a year in an expedition to the north of Helios Empire to repel the growing forces of demihuman tribes. In fact, from the previous event, they had banded together and elected a single leader leading to turmoil.
So currently, it's almost winter so we must be heading back to home territory.
"Is the army ready to depart?"
"Yes, Your Grace. The Sectors have been informed of our course of travel and vanguards are ready to move on your command." One of the vassal, a spectacled lanky man with long brown hair responded. I was about to nod when the uncle spoke up.
"Excuse my imprudence, Your Grace. I think that we must revise our course of travel for today."
I fixed my eyes on him and didn't speak.
Honestly, I don't know what to say. So I stayed silent. The old man seemed to be uncomfortable under my gaze so I decided that I should stop staring rudely and ask questions.
"Why?"
"Your Grace, due to yesterday night's incident with the food storage I think it is wise we do not take the Telan pass and instead opt more shorter route."
Oh yes, the rat problem. Yes, yes, we should finish the journey faster before they contaminate the food again.
"I disagree, Lord Woodsworth." The spectacled man interrupted. "Your Grace, it is much riskier to deviate from the Telan pass to cross the Capellium ranges."
If I remember correctly, Capellium mountain ranges were natural barriers separating the north-east from the borders of the empire. That means we are about to cross from wastelands to monster-infested terrain. The Telan pass was the only safer route from monsters in the north other than those under the demihuman territory.
He is right, it could be dangerous to go through unexplored terrains.
"I agree with Viscount Yevon." The squinty-eyed, bulky dude with red hair seemed to back the spectacled man.
"Lord Yevon, Lord Pistoria, you must understand that you are merely making a choice between our soldiers dying in the hands of men or that of monsters." The shortest, most unremarkable of the four quipped with an amused glance.
"Mind your words before your lord, Lord Ulrith." Woodsworth interceded. "The army headed by His Grace is not weak enough to simply wait for their death."
"I agree, but any loss is still a loss."
"That is why we must follow our original plan to cross Telan pass. You can outwit man but not brute animals."
"You over-estimate your talent for trickery, Lord Yevon."
"Understand that I—"
"Silence."
At my word, all conversation ceased to silence.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose in annoyance.
This was getting out of hand, so much so that it reminded me of the time I once decided to be in charge of hosting our school's cultural festival. I had a hundred different people nag me 24/7, from choosing a color for the banner to the number of chairs on the stage.
I quit after that year.
Since quitting is not a viable option in this scenario, the hamster wheel in my brain started turning.
I had two people wanting to go through Telan pass, one against and one neutral. I cannot cite the majority by vote because it is not a true majority due to the undecided party. There is also the concern of contaminated food.
Hmm, is it possible to…
"Remind me of our troop's composition," I spoke up.
The four vassals looked at each other in confusion before Yevon spoke up.
"Each sector has 15,000 men of which 2,000 are mages, 5,000 are greater aura wielders and the 8,000 are lesser aura wielders. Infantry headed by Lord Pistoria and Lord Woodsworth, cavalry by Lord Ulrith, mobile forces, and archers by me. A total of 59,400 able-bodied men."
I was silent for a minute as I calculated the feasibility of my plan. I wanted to solve this problem ignoring the fact that this is not a game but reality now, if I had a force of roughly 60,000 men in the game and faced with the same problem.
"Woodsworth."
"Yes, Your Grace."
"You will form a task team of 6,000 of your best men and adequate resources." I tapped the table in thought. "The rest of them will join the vanguard forces. Then you are to travel parallel to the main force not farther than 10 km, beyond the Telan pass. Any prey you encounter will be handed to the main force."
Woodsworth seemed to be surprised by my decision.
"As you command, General."
"Yevon."
"At your service, General."
"You will be on standby should Woodsworth require your assistance."
"As you command, General."
"Additionally, I must remind Pistoria and Ulrith to coordinate in a pincer formation."
""Yes, General.""
I went over the plan once again in my head.
6,000 is a reasonably small size of men to travel in rough terrains. Any hunted animals can supplement the food uncertainty for now. And should they come across any tough-to-beat monster, Yevon can help. This way most of the army would travel safely on the Telan pass while the task force solves the food issue. Moreover, selecting Woodsworth, who first put forward the idea of deviation, as the head will give him pressure to perform.
Putting the remaining troops in pincer is said to be a good "joint operation" in the game if you have large and varied NPCs traveling through dangerous terrain.
Mm-hm, everyone should be happy now.
I was nervous about how the execution in real life may be different to that of the game but this would be the decision I would make as Empress in the game.
I remember that this Capellium-Telan situation was an ongoing issue that many serious gamers dealt with. I had led trade caravans through this pass before. There were always bandits hiding in the pass and more powerful monsters always kept a distance from the Telan pass where bandits camp and armed humans traversed.
Back then I split my caravan the same way and let my attacking team pincer the bandits.
It wasn't foolproof, but it worked.
An army is a hundred times larger than a caravan but if my bets were right, not so different. It was much better than betting all my eggs in one basket anyway.
"If there is nothing else, the meeting is adjourned." I swept my eyes through the crowd to see if there were any disagreements.
Everyone was silent and solemn, so I took it as a success.
"Prepare to move out."
"""" Yes, General!""""
Everyone bowed and filed out orderly, after giving me another fright.
Are all army men always this loud? You can just whisper and with Lucien's ears I can probably hear you just fine.
When the last man exited the tent, the servant who helped me dress up came towards me holding up a large, very ostentatious tray. Surprisingly, the tray didn't contain food or anything of that sort.
On the tray laid a sheathed, black longsword.
I guessed that this must be Lucien's primary weapon. I picked it up, waving the servant away before examining it closely.
Its sheath was in expensive black leather of unknown origins and embossed on it was a very familiar crest in platinum. The crest is pretty unique in the game and that was how I noticed it in the first place. It depicted a dragon's open maw with two menacing fangs, biting down a specter, in a unique mixture of anger and pride.
Only the House of Nightshade, in the entirety of human civilization, dared to use a monster motif in their crest.
Not to mention a dragon, one of the—if not the—most powerful of all non-humanoid creatures in the game.
Even the Imperials and other royal family used non-living motifs as their crests.
And there is a good reason for it.
According to game lore, monsters were intuitive creatures and their intuition would only grow with their power. Therefore, using monsters such as dragons, phoenixes, or griffins would earn their ire and bring curses upon the bloodline. So the only families in the continent of Aradia who would dare do it would be elves or beastmen as they were blessed races from nature itself.
The only other loophole to this exception would be the slayers.
Since these monsters were beyond the scope of sentient races to beat in a battle, if there was ever one who could beat them fairly would be granted the right to use the image of the slayed monster.
And you guessed it, the patriarch of House Nightshade is a dragon-slayer.
Honestly, the existence of Lucien Nightshade is such a cheat it's unbelievable.
The cheat doesn't even end there as Lucien's bloodline has another secret that makes it doubly sure that no dragon or phoenix curse ever affects them.
That was a Pandora's box I had to think about afterward. I rubbed my glabella to stop a headache from forming.
Anyway, there was nothing I could do immediately and even more pressing issues awaited me, so I exited the tent to join the army. A guard led me towards a single stable where a tall, black warhorse with red eyes waited for me.
I nearly balked in intimidation but fortunately kept my cool.
I nodded to the guard and he bowed before retreating. Once he was gone, I fixated my eyes on Lucien's mount which kept watching me. It almost seemed to see me as Xueyin and not Lucien like everybody else and it spooked me.
That was when it hit me.
This was no mere horse, it was a Sephilnir!
I looked down at its legs and sure enough, it had six legs—four forelegs and two large hindlegs. All of them were armed with jagged hoofs. I would have asked it to open its mouth for me to see its fangs but my courage only extends so far. No wonder it realized that its master had changed, stronger monsters were intuitive!
I walked up to it under its unnerving stare and stopped at a safe distance.
If deception doesn't work, submit and beg for mercy!
"Hey buddy…" I whispered in a friendly tone. "I know I'm not your master but your master is gone, I think. Can you please let me ride you? I really don't know any other horse around here. Please help a lady—I mean, a man in need."
The horse still stared.
"I can get you any apples you want, I promise. Even an enchanted one… if I come across one." I negotiated with a strained smile. "Mr. Horse, please believe me."
{…. Ragnar.}
"Excuse me?!" I was taken aback at the echoing sound in my head.
{My name. Ragnar.}
I blinked, trying to mentally adjust to the fact that the horse in front of me just telepathically communicated with me. Then I thought back to Lucien's bloodline and it made sense. But it was still a very weird feeling to have a horse tell you its name.
"…Nice to meet you, Ragnar."
I gave the horse a crooked smile that looked like I was about to cry.
{Your soul is different. Why?}
I briefly debated the pros and cons of confiding with a horse. Even though no ordinary humans would be able to communicate with Ragnar, there were still the elves, beastmen and other legacy humans who could. But then again, Ragnar had identified my soul as being different from that of Lucien. And if he can detect it, won't other monsters will do so as well?
{Ragnar knows your worry. Be calm. Only Ragnar knows master's soul.}
"I-I see."
{And Ragnar is loyal.}
"But you are loyal to the previous Lucien. Not me."
{True.}
"So…."
{You say he left. Now Ragnar is free to choose his new master.}
I panicked at his words. "You can't just run away now! What the hell am I supposed to do then? Ride the cargo mule?" I hissed.
{Why should Ragnar let you ride Ragnar?}
"I said I would give the apples!"
{Ragnar only eats enchanted apples. Ragnar ate three in the morning.}
I was dumbfounded.
My only bribe was a common food to this spoiled horse. Never have I ever felt like poverty really limited my imagination.
"I don't know what you want. You want another apple?"
{…}
"You know what, how about this? It is going to be incredibly hard for you to escape the army encampment anyway so why don't you put me on a probationary period and see if I'm what you're looking for in a master? I am confident I can perform well."
{… Ragnar likes strong man.}
"Okay... I may not be strong now but I do have Lucien's body so at some point I will be able to use all his power."
Ragnar stared at me for a few moments in silence.
{Ragnar likes your stubbornness. Ragnar will allow you to mount for now.}
"Thank you so much! I will make sure you don't regret it."
{Ragnar has no regrets.}
"Oh…"
Then he just looked away, tired of this conversation. I guessed that it was tactic approval to mount him. I approached him and he looked pretty complacent, putting me at ease.
But then I realized that it was my first time riding a horse.
I hope just like the signature, Lucien's muscle memory will save my desperate ass.