"Lord Yevon, what do you think?"
Personally, Ormis Woodsworth found it especially demeaning to ask for intellectual help from someone else. Even his wives. That was why he never had many advisors. He takes pride in his natural inclination for tactics and politics.
Yet now he had to ask.
To a man who was his junior by almost two decades and a Viscount to boot nonetheless.
But it cannot be helped. The Archduke was a man with profound thoughts despite his young age and William Yevon was one of the geniuses of his generation.
As much as it pained him to admit, there were few people more intelligent than he was.
Fortunately, all was not bleak as he was also a level 67 aura swordsman who was once a candidate for Imperial Knight Captainhood.
"I am not sure if I am being honest, Lord Woodsworth." Yevon sighed. "His Grace was never a man who let anyone guess his deep thoughts."
"But isn't splitting the army at this position quite dangerous?" Landon Pistoria mused. "I mean, is this not a move that the merchant caravans who would be under attack from bandits do? But which bandit would dare attack an army bearing the imperial flag?"
"Yes, you are right."
Stephan Ulrith spoke, in a rare instance of agreement with Pistoria. He seemed to think the same as he took a double take to stare at Ulrith.
"Eh? You do?"
"One must acknowledge the truth even if it is spoken by a fool."
"Lord Ulrith, you are going too far! Fight me in a duel if you dare!"
"I do not wish to duel like a savage as you do, Lord Pistoria. On the other hand, I will take you up on that offer if you dare to pick up a lance to joust like a true knight."
"To play as a poking tinman? I decline." He huffed.
"Gentlemen, calm down." Woodsworth intervened and the two glaring men backed off.
"Coming back to the topic." Yevon spoke up, "Lord Pistoria is right in pointing out that this is a maneuver that merchant caravans often take up against bandits. Time and time again they are quite effective too as caravans often employ mercenaries who have the same fighting power as the bandits do. But war formations will never be attacked by bandits, unless…"
"Unless?"
"Unless His Grace is expecting a confrontation in Telan pass similar to bandits with caravans, but on a much larger scale."
"You think bandits will attack us?" Pistoria asked to confirm.
"Not necessarily bandits, but some other forces who would dare to attack the imperial army."
"Like the poisoning perpetrators last night…!" Woodsworth completed the line of thought, aghast at the implication.
Ulrith stroked his chin in thought. "Do you think last night was done by the people who His Grace expects to attack us?"
"Most possibly." Yevon nodded.
"Then they must already know that their plan failed," Pistoria commented. "I don't think anyone is stupid to attack when His Grace is personally leading the army. Hell, he alone can annihilate a small army by himself."
"If you can think of that His Grace should have already thought of this as well. And yet he still commanded for such a maneuver."
"Then the legendary shadow guards must have moved." Ulrith chuckled to himself.
"Indeed."
"Haha, His Grace is truly terrifying, isn't he?"
"It must be the Nightshade blood in him."
"Enough idle chat, gentlemen. I will have to move ahead of the main force so allow me to take my leave."
"May the Goddess be with you, Lord Woodsworth."
"You too, Lord Pistoria. Lord Ulrith, Lord Yevon."
The four noblemen split to arrange themselves according to their General's commands.
The vanguards left immediately and the special team headed by Count Woodsworth was ready to leave on command. They waited atop warhorses, along with the thousands of imperial soldiers, for the General to appear.
They felt his presence even before they saw him.
The large gathering of 60,000 men silenced in an eerie coordination, signifying respect and fear. It was almost a collective reaction to a man who no one in their ranks can hope to beat. A legendary existence who had reached the unthinkable scale of power, a Monarch level 100 mage swordsman.
And above all, a man whose charisma and influence far exceeded any extraordinary noble out there.
Everyone's eyes were trained on the awe-inspiring figure atop the fearsome Sephilnir.
Archduke Lucien Nightshade was wearing his dark armor that accentuated his well-defined body, his handsome face devoid of any expression and his icy eyes carrying a sense of oppression. Silky black hair was pulled back from his clear forehead, highlighting his pale skin and sharp eyebrows. His posture was like a drawn sword, his line of sight far taller than everyone else on the field due to the size of Sephilnir and his height.
His noble bearing and self-assuredness gave the gathered soldiers incredible confidence.
As if they could conquer the heavens and cross hell if he was the one leading them.
"""" HAIL GENERAL NIGHTSHADE!""""
The Archduke scanned the assembled men with a cool gaze, prompting them to stand straighter and puff out their chests.
He gave a nod of approval in the soldier's direction and they felt incredibly proud.
This was one of the reasons why Archduke Lucien Nightshade was feared among the nobility and royals. Should he call for war, hundreds of men would respond to his call ready to sacrifice anything to take part in his honor.
"Have the vanguard left?" He asked in his usual mellow baritone that washed over the silent encampment.
"Yes, General."
"Good. You may proceed, Woodsworth."
"As you command, General." The Count bowed and turned to his men to bellow.
"Men! Let's make His Grace proud! ONWARDS!"
"""""ONWARDS!"""""
Amidst a loud warcry, the task team departed in a cloud of dust.
"Pisotria, Ulrith, Yevon. Let's move."
"Look sharp, men! MOVE!"
"VICTORY!"
""""OOOOHHHHHHH!!""""
"Ragnar."
Neigh!
The Archduke patted his Sephilnir and turned around majestically to gallop ahead.
On his lead, the entire imperial army followed after that reliable back.
*
"You know it will be nice if you can move without having me remind you all the time," I muttered as the wind sharply whistled past me.
It was nice. Reminded me of the time I rode my cousin's motorbike without a license.
If I selectively drown out the thunderous noise of the army behind me, that is.
{Ragnar's previous master was a great equestrian.}
"Alright, alright. Geez."
{Ragnar would like to remind that Ragnar was promised a strong man.}
"Yeah, I remember," I grumbled softly, but a monster of Ragnar's caliber was sure to pick up. "But then again, you are not any ordinary horse, are you? Why is equestrianism one of your requirements?"
{… Because Ragnar doesn't like thinking.}
I had nothing to say against that because I think it is a trait I might share with Ragnar, unfortunately.
Who would like to think if you can just sleep?
Anyway, I must point out that Ragnar was grossly exaggerating his situation. Equestrianism is largely muscle memory and my body remembers its abilities. That is why I was able to balance and be at ease at this breakneck speed. But what I noticed was that other than balance and other habits, many memory-based skills were sort of a blank to me.
Like the little thing Ragnar was bitching about, when I was supposed to nudge his flanks to move forward. First of all, everyone was yelling to the point I almost had a heart attack multiple times, let alone remember trivial things like that.
Truth be told, I am very optimistic about my other talents that mainly rely on muscle memory like sword fighting. Although I have a long way to reach the perfection previous Lucien had.
I gently touched the sword strapped to my waist.
Haahhh. I wish I had an opportunity to test out these skills.
Magic was another avenue I had to test my control on. But travelling with an army is hardly the right time to do it, if I didn't want to clue in on others that I was not the Lucien they knew.
I tried recalling Lucien's class in the game.
Swordsmage was a very unique class that not many people chose, including me. I was an artificer and runesmith in the game with a few levels in elemental magic.
This class was very popular with pay-to-win players like Ye Fei because the higher-level players in this class were very powerful in PvP.
I say pay-to-win players because its demerit lies in the fact that you would be incredibly weak till level 50s or so, which is a long time to be weak. You have to grind in harder maps in later levels so you need life-saving devices if you want to make it out alive to unleash the full potential of this class.
Fortunately, Lucien's mage proficiency is elemental which I know something about.
Ice, to be precise.
A rare elemental magic among the NPCs.
The struggle was to incorporate magic into swordplay and not just be a sitting duck like most mages. Swordmages replace the aura of the normal swordsmen with magic, so the goal is to create a pseudo-aura that works better than normal sword aura. The current plan is to try and imitate Ye Fei's moves as much as I can.
But he was a wind manipulator, not an ice manipulator… If Ye Fei's character's signature move was speed, I wonder what Lucien's strong point would be.
Could it be a pre-emptive attack?
Defense?
I was lost in thought when I heard a shrill horn from way ahead. Before I could register what it was, Pistoria's horse overtook Ragnar and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"GET READY, MEN! AMBUSH AHEAD!"
I nearly jumped at Ulrith's ear-splitting yell but soon my attention was diverted to what he just said.
Ambush? AMBUSH?!
Don't tell me the bandits attacked!
I wanted to stop and think if I wanted to engage actual battle-hardened men who would kill for money as a citizen from a peaceful country, but Ragnar was ruthlessly speeding up to my doom.
Almost as if this little bastard wanted to test if I could deliver my promise of being a strong man.
This little shit.
I internally jot down on my little black book to cut down his ration of enchanted apples to regular apples as I speeded towards the towering mountainous pass.
Sounds of metal on metal, roars of fighting and yells of pain were clear even as far as here.
Don't panic, Xueyin. You learned kickboxing and went to nationals, how hard can this be? Don't think too deeply just trust Lucien's broken stats.
Okay!
Once prep-talk was done, I could spot fighting figures ahead and I calmly unsheathed my sword.
Here goes the testing I wanted, I guess.