A Complicated Scheme

The old warrior looked at Blink's sword. He blinked his eyes several times just looking at it. "That's a master fighter's sword," he finally said. "Did you also kill its owner?"

"Why would you think that? This sword belongs to my master. He's letting me use it for this journey."

"You must be some disciple to get your master to let you bring his sword along with you." The defeated warrior had a sneer written clearly on his face.

"Get to the point!" Blink snapped.

"Did you kill that shield's owner for it?" It was more an accusation than a question.

"I already told you, the owner gave it to me."

"Don't talk nonsense! Tovric would kill you if you so much as touch his shield or sword!"

Blink had a sudden realization.

"Oh, so you know Tovric," he said. "Are you friends?"

The middle-aged soldier gave Blink an annoyed look that Blink took as an affirmative answer to his question.

"That figures. I was wondering why a veteran of battles such as you would lose his mind and fight like a novice."

Blink felt curious about something. "How did you know this one to be Tovric's shield?"

"Every one of my soldiers recognize that shield. It has more scratches than any other shield in Tarask. Any other shield would have been ruined after taking half the blows that thing took for Tovric."

It was only then that Blink noticed that the shield was filled with dents and sword lines yet didn't appear to crumble anytime soon. The wood was also darker than that of the standard shields of Taraskan soldiers. It seemed to have undergone some kind of treatment to make it tougher. Lastly, the iron bass at the center of the round shield wasn't smooth but slightly pointed, apparently for puncturing.

–"It seems Tovric is no ordinary soldier in the Taraskan army. He also has a more complicated fighting system than his fellow soldiers." –

Blink checked the gear of the troop leader before him. Except for his sword, his shield and armor were standard Taraskan equipment. His weapon was a bastard sword instead of the usual long sword.

"Why have you come to Ragha?" Blink asked the enemy leader who responded by spitting on the ground.

With sword pointed at the soldiers, Blink grabbed the youngest among them and made him kneel in front of his leader. He looked about the same age as Blink, probably even younger.

"Answer my question or I'll kill this boy!" Blink threatened.

The older man glared at Blink, his face full of contempt. "You don't dare!" he scoffed.

"You don't think I won't? Think again. I had already killed over a dozen of your men. What is one more dead body to bury?"

Blink pointed his sword to the old soldier's throat then grabbed his the latter's bastard sword. He then switched sword, resting the blade of the bastard sword to the back of the young soldier's neck.

"I'm waiting," Blink warned.

The old soldier merely snorted.

Faced with such contempt, Blink raised the bastard sword, gripped the hilt with two hands and was about to swing it downward.

"Wait! Please spare the boy!" The troop leader couldn't bear to lose one so young in the end.

Blink was secretly relieved. He really meant to kill the boy if only to show their leader that he wasn't playing around.

"Alright, are you going to answer my questions now then?" Blink asked as coldly as he could.

"Yes," the old soldier replied in a resigned tone.

"Why have you come to Ragha?"

"We were going to invade Ragha."

"If that is so, why have you not marched to Ragha as one army instead of coming here in small batches?"

"If we marched with a large army, we would be noticed as soon as we entered Ragha territory. We were going to occupy a few villages around a designated town before we move in to take that town."

"Are you aware that your advance party was already intercepted?" Blink revealed to the old soldier. "We now know that you planned to capture Calandra and establish a base of operation for the eventual conquest of the rest of Ragha."

The old soldier looked into Blink's eyes, perhaps trying to find signs of a lie in there. He sighed deeply. "How?" he asked.

"I defeated and captured Arsianovix at Calandra not two months ago. My master and senior brothers interrogated him for several weeks until he revealed the designs of his kingdom and yours upon Ragha."

"I knew that Arsianovix couldn't be trusted to not act on his own," the old soldier said in resignation. His expression shifted from one of strained defiance to one of acceptance of defeat.

"What do you mean?" Blink followed up.

"He's supposed to wait for us to get to one of the nearby villages before attacking together."

"Instead he tried to reap all the glory to himself. Is that it?"

"That about sums it up."

"After you have captured Calandra, what is the next move?"

"We would raid all the storage houses and ship all the food to Tarask so that, in case we were driven back, we would have secured one of our objectives."

"Food?" Blink found the particular information intriguing.

"Yes, food. Tarask's food supply is very low at this time and we are facing threats from our borders."

"But this is not what Tovric told me. He said he came to Ragha on the promise of land if ever the invasion succeeded."

"The King lied to him. Even if we manage to successfully invade Ragha, it would be impossible to keep it especially now with three kingdoms aiming their spears at us. Tovric knew this very well."

"Tovric knew this! Yet, he came to Ragha. I don't understand." The revelation clearly shocked Blink; he needed a moment to get his thoughts straight.

"He came over because he was banking on the chance that the invasion could sustain itself with local cooperation."

"Local cooperation? You mean he expected the locals to willingly submit to your rule?" Blink had a hard time believing what he was hearing.

"It's not unusual for an invading army to find support from the locals. Especially from the bigger clans."

"The bigger clans?"

"Yes, Tovric was counting on the big clans of Ragha to support the invasion in exchange for favors."

"And he thought they would agree?"

"Where have you lived all your life? Of course they will agree! The big clans always put themselves ahead of everything else. The land may be ruled by demons for all they care for as long as they retain the status quo or elevate their local hierarchy."

Blink found himself unable to refute this. During the Battle of Calandra, he noticed several warriors staying a distance away from the battleground. When he asked one of the men who stood with him in the battlefield, the man replied that those were fighters from the big clans. When the fighting was done, many of their companions arrived only to find that the fighting was already finished. The men beside Blink shot them an enraged look. They all said that the men from the big clan intentionally delayed their arrival so they could come in at the perfect time to "save Calandra" from the brink of defeat.

"I understand what you're trying to tell me," Blink told the old soldier. "I just have one last question."

"Sure. Ask away."

"Why bandits, thieves and all other forms of ruffians?"

"Besides it being a really good way to get rid of them, you mean?"

"Yes. I mean you have many soldiers in Tarask, I'm sure."

"Because our king couldn't afford to send even just a thousand soldiers outside of Tarask. Like I said, we are facing the threat of an invasion. If Tarask so much as sends five hundred soldiers out, our enemies will gladly attack us and make Tarask part of their kingdom."

"I see. So that's how it is. You're not trying to make up a story, are you?"

"Why should I do that? Not now that the plan was sabotaged by Arsianovix. And especially not now that my dear friend is dead."

"Who is your dear friend you said is dead?"

The Taraskan troop leader looked at Blink with a dumbfounded expression for a long moment. When Blink returned him a questioning look, the old soldier's countenance fell a notch below ugly.

"Tovric?" the troop leader blurted out in disbelief.

"Tovric?" Blink asked in bewilderment.

"Yes, Tovric. He is my dear friend."

"Oh!" Blink felt embarrassed. He was overwhelmed by the complicated scheme of the kingdom of Tarask to obtain food from Ragha in the guise of an invasion that Tovric actually wanted to turn into his golden opportunity.

"You killed him, and now you're using his shield?" the old soldier continued to clarify the matter about Tovric.

"I didn't kill Tovric," Blink clarified. "In fact, we bade each other goodbye just three days ago."

"Tovric is alive? But how? You have his shield!"

"I already told you he gave me his shield as a token of friendship."

"You made friends with him, and he accepted? That sounds unbelievable."

"Actually, he offered me his friendship and I accepted it."

It was too much for the Taraskan troop leader to take in such that he fell silent for several breaths of time.

"If you want to know what happened to Tovric, you can walk with me a little further off." Blink understood that these soldiers could no longer return to Tarask. If this old soldier and Tovric were indeed friends, Tovric could always use a few more men to help him.

The old soldier followed Blink towards the riverbank. Blink was still holding the bastard sword.

When they reached the riverbank, Blink told the older man about Tovric's plan.

In return, the old soldier thanked Blink on behalf of his men. He revealed to Blink that half his men were actually Tovric's loyal followers. If not for them, the old soldier, who identified himself as Tresiax, would not have accepted the assignment. The men wanted only to serve Tovric, or nobody else.

After a few more discussions, Blink returned the bastard sword to Tresiax.

However, he had a different idea when it came to the men.

"I need your gold pieces," Blink announced to them. "Give them all to me."

The men were surprised by Blink's proclamation. They were about to protest when Blink told them that he needed a huge amount for his journey.

"But if you get our money, what will we use along our journey then?" one of the soldiers asked. The rest of his companions voiced out their agreement.

Another one spoke up: "We'll need our gold coins to purchase equipment along our way since you took all our weapons and shields."

That gave Blink an idea.

"You can buy one piece of equipment for three gold coins," he declared.

The men were quite reluctant but eventually agreed to buy back their swords, but not before Blink agreed to two gold coins each. Only a few bothered to also buy a shield.

Tresiax and his troops soon crossed the river to follow Tovric to Velagro.

Blink went on to collect all the shields left behind by the Taraskan soldiers and kept them in his dimensional ring.

Afterwards, he decided to stop by at a nearby village and gave their chief a situation update. He requested that the chief send a runner into the next village to relay the situation until it reaches the other towns and villages of Ragha, and ultimately Master Tszarek.

At this time, Tarask was about five days away at the pace that Blink was travelling.