(IN) Chapter 17 - The March To War

Duke brought back the deformed eight-legged horseback to the Pendragon Camp right after buying it from the merchant.

The small creature had just woken up from a fever after being fed milk that was mixed with the mysterious grain in the pouch Duke had gotten from the merchant. Duke tried feeding it ordinary food at first, but then he realized it was actually still a young child, and so he tried feeding it milk. After a bit of trial and error, Duke added the mysterious grains in the pouch which finally alleviated some of the deformed horse's fever as if finally woke up, liking Duke's hand.

Although the creature was unconscious the whole time and was still somewhat weak, it didn't fail to recognize the hands of the one who saved him (Duke).

The creature licked Duke's hands, as Duke happily patted its head to reciprocate the show of affection.

As the small horse looked at Duke, it was still quite weak and tired, but Duke didn't mistake the strong will that young horse had to survive. Within those eyes, Duke saw both intelligence and strength, and so he continued to keep looking after it, despite the other people's disapproval.

"Milord! You shouldn't take home such suspicious-looking creatures!" Bran cried while Caleb implored: "I don't think that creature's clean, milord. I suggest handing it over to me for studying, it might contain diseases and infections harmful to you..."

Even Byran was opposed to taking care of the creature.

Only Galleo silently observed the creature without voicing his opinion too loudly.

In the end, Duke continued to care for the creature the whole day until it was healthy enough to walk and keep near the other horses within the temporary Pendragon Camp's stables.

As Duke guided the weak limping young horse towards the other horses. Netsie, Duke's commonly used horse looked at the young horse with pity as it neighed angrily at Duke. Netsie knew the hardships of carrying the oversized Duke around everywhere, and so it was quite sympathetic to the young sickly horse Duke had just brought thinking Duke tried to ride the poor foal.

*Neighghh! NEGHGHH!* Netsie neighed. To Duke it seemed as if she was telling him with her angry and judgmental eyes: "I can't believe you'd crush that poor child with your weight!"

"Now now girl, I didn't do anything to him..." Duke awkwardly laugh, remembered the many times Netsie dropped from exhaustion due to him riding her through long journeys.

In truth, this is was the main reason why Duke didn't charge along with Byran and the other Knights as lancers, opting instead to be part of the infantry as his weight made it quite hard to charge with a horse.

As Duke put down the foal and patted its head, the young foal, in turn, rubbed his small head on Duke's hand to show its affection to Duke for saving him.

Duke happily looked at the healing young creature with its weirdly doubled pair of legs.

Nodding and smiling as he noticed the boils and hairless areas around the mutated foal seemed to have healed somewhat.

[Maybe you might survive after all...] Duke thought to himself as he continued petting the beast.

On the 18th day of the month, two days after the arrival of Duke's army at the meeting point. Commander Alexei decided to finally start their march towards Konigsberg.

The different armies marched in a linear fashion, following the road towards Konigsberg, in the order of their Army's role.

The vanguards spearheaded the march followed by the main troops in the middle, then followed by the reserve, where Duke's Army was stationed, along with the Camp Follower's caravans behind them.

It was convenient for the Armies of the lords designated for the reserve to march near the Camp Followers as the reserve's main duty of the reserve was to guard the Camp Followers who carried the supplies.

The men continuously marched in line, and when Alexei saw that the men became somewhat exhausted, he made them camp in the same linear fashion and order that they had marched in, unlike the fortified circular encampment they did at the meeting point as this made it easier to uncamp and resume their march.

Although this style of marching did have the disadvantage of making the Army as a whole more susceptible to ambushes, especially whilst they were camped, most of the Nobles believed that the path they were taking was safe from ambush since the land they would march through was still free from Barbarians raids as most of the enemy troops were reported to be concentrated Konigsberg, besieging the poor city.

And so the atmosphere within the Army was concerningly lax since everyone deemed their route of travel, safe. Or at least they thought it was...

Whilst marching, Duke used that time to continuously train his Aura while marching with the troops or riding on good ole' Netsie.

And whilst encamped, since Duke's army was stationed at the back, he had the chance to mingle with a lot of the common soldiers and hired mercenaries stationed in the middle sections of the line.

And so Duke became quite well-acquainted with the common soldiers due to his friendly nature. Using the time they camped for socializing with all sorts of people or writing letters back home to Vivian. Thanks to the numerous caravans arriving back and forth from the Army to Maine, Duke and Vivian could have a continued correspondence of letters.

Duke also mingled with other less fortunate Nobles leading merchant caravans or small parties of men like he was. The smaller, less relevant Noble Lords, like minor Barons or destitute Counts, especially took a liking to Duke during those times as he shared with them the many get-rich success stories Duke had 'supposedly' from the Merchant's Guild and how they too could make a profit if they invested NOW in this new Commoner Merchant fad in the South.

Duke was basically giving Vivian's merchant's free advertising. Duke might've been an awkward outcast back in the Academy, but one thing Duke was not, was shy! In truth, maybe the reason Duke was such an easy target to bully, was because of his literal and metaphorical thick skin, and his embarrassing lack of care for people's thoughts on him... which inevitably made him out to be the weirdo of the batch. But given time, nobody could deny Duke's emerging glib silver tongue and his penchant skill for creatively telling stories... Maybe all those fictional novels Duke kept on reading did have some benefit to them.