14. Chapter 13: All in war isn't fighting

CHAPTER 13: ALL IN WAR ISN'T FIGHTING

Duran observed the surroundings. He was on top of another hill near Alnus, one man only needed about ten minutes to walk from there to the Gate. A forest nearby granted access to firewood and materials needed to build fortifications, and a river in the forest made sure that water was easily available. And while the hill wasn't very steep, it was still better than flat terrain.

"This will do nicely. Set up the camp here. Also, bring me Faeli."

"Yes, my lord!"

Kelimel saluted, before giving his orders to the officers nearby. While waiting for Faeli, the head of the scavenger divisions of his army, Duran dismounted his horse and let his squire handle it. He stretched his muscles, tensed as he was from five days of horse riding. Faeli came as he finished stretching his legs. He was a man who didn't have the usual build of a soldier, but his knowledge of nature as well as his previous occupation as a hunter assured that when he searched for food, he missed nothing.

"You called for me, my lord?"

The king groaned, before getting in a comfortable position.

"Yes, Faeli. I need your division to start scavenging immediately. I want half of your men to scavenge the forest for anything that is edible. Meat, fruits, vegetables, roots, I don't care what you bring back but it must be in large quantities. I want the other half to go to nearby villages and towns and get as much food as they can. And finally, I want you to take one of your men who's good with numbers to Italica, it should be a two-day ride to the north. There, meet with Count Formal and ask him for permission to obtain a part of his emergency food reserves. The old man is a friend of mine and he owes me, he should accept. Of course, buy anything that is edible too. You have my permission to take as much as you deem necessary from the war chests."

"Yes, my lord!"

Faeli was about to leave, but Duran called him.

"Oh, and I forgot! The men who you take to Italica, be sure to choose men who don't hate demi-humans."

The scavenger division leader was curious at this last comment, but he merely saluted before heading towards his men.

Duran then looked over the hill. His men were unloading the supply carts, setting up tents. In the distance, he could see his wyvern riders ascending to the skies to scout the area for any threats. For now, the situation was under control.

One week later

The camp was now fully built up, and wooden defences had been built at the perimeter. The king himself had quite a large purple tent which housed him and a few commodities. There was some discontent among Duran's men because he had ordered for food to be rationed. As such, the cooks took extreme cautions in what they used for the meals, and used the ingredients completely.

To set the example, Duran ate the same way as his men. A bone broth made from yesterday's dinner remains as well as some bread and a pitcher of wine made his current meal, not quite what a king would usually eat. He had ordered the officers to submit themselves to such a diet too.

However, the same couldn't be said of all the Kings that had arrived at Alnus hill last week. The Toumaren clan warriors were the first to arrive, quickly followed by the armies of the League principality, Esperian kingdom and the Alguna kingdom. The Boritan light cavalry was said to arrive the next day, and the Mudwans shortly after. Duran could already feel the headache he would get trying to mediate the talking between these two countries.

As soon as these armies had arrived, Duran had met with the king of each one, telling about the food situation. He couldn't tell about his suspicions of the Emperor as he didn't know if one of them was loyal enough to publicly announce him as a traitor. The King of Alguna, Count Formal, League Principality and the head of the Toumaren clan agreed and set their soldiers to a reduced diet, but the king of Esperia had politely refused. Fortunately, Duran wasn't known as the Lion of Elbe for nothing, and he had already thought of a way to convince him. Although, that would have to wait for later.

As he finished a cup of wine, he heard noise outside his tent. A few seconds later, one of his guards entered.

"My lord, Faeli has come back, he asks for a meeting with you."

"Let him in."

Duran wiped his lips with a napkin, then looked over Faeli who had entered and knelt in front of him.

"Raise, Faeli. Tell me the news."

The scavenging division head stood up and looked at Duran with uncertainty.

"Bad news I'm afraid, my lord. There was nothing left to buy in Italica. The traders I spoke to told me that Emperor Molt's army came a few days prior and took everything there was to eat. I could have barely filled two carts with what was left, so I left it for Italica's citizens."

Anger filled Duran's mind, and he banged his fist against the table. The empty glass fell on the ground.

"Damn it! That snake had already thought of that… What of Count Formal?"

A slight smile appeared on Faeli's face.

"Better news. I met him, and he managed to convince the Emperor to allow him not to participate in the Alnus Hill campaign. He told him he couldn't bring a sizable troop without endangering the stability of the Empire's breadbasket. As such, the count agreed to let us take part of his emergency supplies, here's the list. However, he told me that with this amount it was you, my lord, who now owe him."

Faeli handed him a rolled-up parchment, Duran grabbed it and read the content. More than one hundred sacks of grain, sixty crates filled with dried vegetables and fruits, fourty crates of salted meat and about sixty barrels of various alcoholic beverages. While all of these were very good news, it still wouldn't be enough to feed the bottomless pit of more than two hundred and fifty thousand stomachs once the allied armies would be gathered together. With some rationing, it would push away the deadline by a week at most.

"Secure these supplies, they may become more valuable than anything in the coming weeks. Make sure that they won't be getting stolen or raided by any means! Ask my second-in-command, Kelimel, if you need any help."

"Yes, my lord!"

Faeli saluted, then left the tent. Duran was left with his meal and the letter of supplies. Despite the fact that only a few armies had arrived at Alnus, it still represented about thirty-five thousand men. He had lead his men multiple times, but it was the first time he participated in a campaign with such a huge army. And for a little while, he sympathized with Molt. The Emperor may be a double-headed snake, but when it came to leading large armies Duran had to begrudgingly accept the old man had the skill.

With the food situation temporarily dealt with, Duran re-focused on how to deal with the king of Esperia who didn't understand the danger of a malnourishment for an army. He was quite young, having sat on the throne merely five years ago after the premature death of his father during an unfortunate hunt. And word was that he was quite the duellist.

Surely he wouldn't refuse the honor of fighting against the Lion of Elbe? If Duran played his cards right, he could get closer to the young king and convince him to set his troops to a lighter diet.

"Guards! Bring me a messenger!"

As he waited for the messenger to arrive, he started to think of the message he would send.

Another week later

The majority of the armies were now gathered at Alnus hill. For now, it was about two hundred and thirty thousand men, all here for a single thing: making sure nothing would pass through the Gate. And even if the allied armies had their points of discontent, they agreed on one thing: boredom was a very real danger to such a huge army.

In order to avoid it, construction had begun last week. With that huge of a workforce, in only a week a wall composed of wooden spikes had been erected at the base of Alnus hill, completely surrounding it. With the forest nearby and the number of engineers each king and leader had brought, it wasn't that long to accomplish.

But if the men had to fight off boredom, then the kings too. The interior of Duran's tent was lit by the opened entrance, showing two sat people on either side of a table.

"Looks like I win, Kelimel…" Said Duran, moving a chess piece and checkmating Kelimel's king. His aide groaned, observing the chess board for a while, before admitting defeat with a sigh and pushing his king down.

"I'm afraid I'm not much of a chess player, my lord. Your wife and concubines surely can give a harder challenge."

"I would be lying if I said no." answered the king with a smile. Kelimel lightly chuckled in response. As they rearranged the chess pieces for another game, Kelimel raised his voice.

"It looks like your worst fears didn't come to pass, my lord."

"Mmh?" Duran looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"With the precautions you took, we still have quite a lot of food supplies. And we've even been selling these supplies to the other armies, so the war chest is growing."

The king sighed in defeat.

"Coins won't be of any use when there's no more food, unfortunately. It's only a temporary solution. I've sent a messenger to the regent in my absence, my wife, for her to arrange a steady merchant caravan between Elbe and Alnus, but it still won't be enough."

As Kelimel had the white pieces, Duran let him begin. A few moves were spent in complete silence, both players focused on the chessboard, until the Kind initiated the conversation.

"Even if the food situation is temporarily dealt with, it doesn't mean it's the only problem…"

Kelimel's expression darkened.

"Ah, yes, the… Snake-folk problem? What was their name again?"

"The Lamii tribe." Corrected Duran.

That had been a huge problem, about two nights ago. Part of the allied armies were a people of snake-like folks, with a humanoid body, four arms and a long snake tail instead of feet. They hailed from the edges of the western desert and were used to an extremely hot climate. Unfortunately for them, two nights ago a light but cold rain had fallen from the sky, along with a strong wind. The men and other humanoid races simply put on coats and capes over their heads, but half of the Lamii tribe had fallen asleep in hibernation, while the other half struggled to keep their eyes open. The consequence had been that a large part of the forest had stayed unguarded for a full night.

Duran and the other human kings had considered banishing them back to their lands, but their desperate plea to stay along with their status as powerful mercenaries had convinced most of the kings to simply punish them with hard labour on the defences being built around the hill.

But that wasn't the only problem. Cultural differences made it hard for the different armies to see eye to eye. The men that came from the countries far to the west of Falmart had a radically different culture to those of central Falmart, which themselves couldn't agree with the men of the north and the east.

A few scuffles had broken out, thankfully with very few casualties, and in order to prevent more of them the Kings decided that each army would make its own camp separated from the others, spread around the gate. Thus, currently there was about fifteen camps of varying size surrounding the Gate from all sides.

"Well, that's simply how it is… Can't please everyone…" declared Kelimel, moving a knight to threaten Duran's bishop. The king took some time to think over the situation, before moving a rook which now threatened one of Kelimel's own bishop. As his aide thought about whether to sacrifice his bishop or move it out of harm's way, Duran talked once again.

"I'm also afraid about Molt… He ought to have heard about us having dealt with the food situation, and it isn't like him to do nothing… Has there been no news from his part? Not even a rumor?"

Kelimel finally decided to sacrifice his bishop and took Duran's bishop.

"There's been a number of rumors, I'm sure you've heard of them, my lord. Not many of them are on the Emperor though."

Duran groaned, moving another chess piece. Indeed, the rumors were numerous in the camp. Most of them were on the Gate, and on what was on the other side. The worshipers of each god proclaimed it as a sign, with different interpretations marking it as a good or bad omen. There were also mentions of what laid beyond the Gate. Some said that Hardy's domain was on the other side, and that the Emperor was afraid of all the demons that could come, hence why he had gathered his vassals. Others said that a land so rich was on the other side that silk flowed like a river, gold grew like flowers and trees with fruits so full of juice that the branches bent down were everywhere.

However, some of the rumors also spoke of some of the beasts that came through the Gate. Small beasts, but still. For now, they had identified two types. One was a small beast, barely reaching a man's knees. It moved with four wheels made of some kind of black material, and a single huge eye on top looking all around. The guards that stumbled on these easily killed them as the beasts were pretty slow.The second type they had identified was more problematic. It was even smaller than the previous beast, flew with the help of four wings rotating at an extremely high speed, but it had the same single huge eye. So far, they had only caught one of them thanks to the lucky axe throw of a northern soldier, but there were reports of more of them successfully sneaking by into the night, the guards spotting them too late to do anything. The reports also said that some of these beasts came back through the gate for reasons unknown.

Duran, like all the kings, had seen the carcasses of these beasts and he had no clear answer to this enigma. Some of the kings said that these were obviously crafted by hand as nothing in nature had such clear and defined lines, while others said that they knew literally nothing about the other side, and all kind of strange beasts could live there, including those. Duran saw the points of both sides, but he tended to stick to the second theory.

"Ach, you win again…" Said Kelimel with a defeated sigh. His king was blocked by one of his own pieces to the left and right, he was stuck on his side of the board so he couldn't back away and there was a rook in front of him.

"You need to practice more if you ever wish to defeat me, Kelimel."

"I will, my Lord. But I think it is time anyway."

Duran cast a glance through the opening of the tent and indeed, the light was orange, sign that the evening was coming. That meant it was time for the meeting of kings. It had been decided that every two days, the kings would meet in order to talk strategy and among themselves in order to improve their coordination should a battle happen.

"Bring me my horse and the usual ten guards, Kelimel. Get your horse as well."

"Yes, my Lord!"

Soon, a guard came back just as Duran finished being dressed up in armor. As it was a military meeting, each King was expected to come armed. Just after that, Kelimel came on his own horse along with a troupe of soldiers behind him, ready to escort Duran out of the camp.

They set out of the camp towards today's place of meeting. It had also been decided that each meeting would be held in a different king's camp. Today, the meeting would be held in the tent of a king of the far west. Apparently, the correct calling was "Sultan", although for Duran it was a difference only in name, as he had the same authority as other kings. He had seen the man a few times already, and he couldn't say he liked him. Not because of the man himself, but the woman he always brought with him. She was clad in dark clothes, with only her eyes sticking out of the black turban she wore over her face. Her eyes were those of a ravenous beast, ready to pounce at anything that threatened the Sultan.

The Sultan himself was named Shaham the Third, and he was quite an important part of the allied armies. He didn't bring that much soldiers, only about five thousand, but he commanded the terrifying armored elephants and their riders. Duran had seen the beasts, and he now understood why the conquest of this country in particular had cost so much to the Imperial armies. Only one of those beasts could wreak havoc upon the Empire's prided formations, so if ten, twenty or fifty of them charged at the same time the entire line could break.

They soon arrived at the camp, the guards letting them pass no questions asked. The men there had a dark complexion of skin, much darker than Kelimel's and wore light armor, preferring to wear wide cloth robes and turbans.

That, or they hid armor pieces behind their clothes.

Duran and his men were guided to the largest tent in the camp, in which a wide table with enough chairs for every king were set up. Duran wasn't the first to sit, with five or six chairs already taken. A servant Duran to his chair and Kelimel stood behind him, while his ten men stayed outside.

Soon enough, all the kings arrived. And it was quite a sight. Men of literally the entire continent met and spoke together, drawn together by the Saderan language all had to learn because of their status as vassals. As a cup of tea was placed in front of each participant the young king of Esperia, Dagobert, approached Duran. It was the same King who Duran had to convince a week ago about the dangers of malnourishment of his soldiers. Even if the youngster was a skilled duellist, he was also someone who viewed honor and chivalry in high regard. When Duran had outskilled him during a duel, Dagobert had asked for Duran to teach him the way of the sword, to which Duran answered that he would do it if the young king agreed to reduce his soldier's diet. From that point on, each day King Dagobert would come for an hour or two to train under Duran's tutelage. A relation of teacher and student had formed between the two, Duran taking the occasion to teach him handy tips about governance.

"King Duran!" Said Dagobert. "It is good to see you! You still owe me for this morning!"

Duran smiled, taking King Dagobert's extended hand. During the training session this morning, they took a bet to see who would draw first blood. Only in name, as it was nothing more than a friendly bout, but the first one to hit the other was considered to be the winner. Duran had miscalculated one of his parries, to which his opponent had hit his left arm. The bet was to let the winner drink a glass of the finest beverage they brought from their own land.

"Do not worry King Dagobert, I'm sure Esperian tastes will be in accord to Elbian mead…"

The two them spent some time discussing unimportant matters, for the important matters came when the meeting would begin. Slowly the tent filled as more and more kings came, and when all the fifteen kings were present, Sultan Shaham raised from his seat and spoke to the assembly.

"Well, friends, time to begin speaking about important matters…"

This meeting began like any other.

Except it wouldn't end like any other.

Hello there, author here.

Sorry for the delayed chapter posting, but as I'm moving to a new city for the next uni year I have a lot of things to prepare, which didn't leave me a lot of time to focus on writing. I'll try to stick to saturday releases, but I'm not sure I'll be able to every time. But if one thing is sure, it's that I'll definitely stick to one chapter per week.

rmarcano321: Are things going to get worse? Depends for who...

BigBadAud666: I'm still not sure. In the original anime, the US didn't take part and honestly as long as the JSDF can handle themselves I see no reason for the US army to take part. Unless there's no big event which will cause many casualties for the japanese. That would be of course not considering an armed invasion from the country you mentioned.

BrokenLifeCycle: Well, they obviously won't be able to make guns immediately, but you'd be surprised at how humans can be ingenious when it comes to killing... That and reverse-engineering is much easier than thinking something from scratch.

guests101: Her magic isn't useless without a staff. In the Police HQ scene, she's able to use it. Just that the staff gives a higher control over her powers. If I had to give an example, I would say that a mage without a staff would only be able to cut potato into rough halves, while a mage with a staff would be able to peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. It may be a lame comparison, but you get the idea.And about the trade part? Well, I won't spoil anything.

Again, thanks for the support. I didn't expect people to take the change of story so good, so I'm very glad!

See you next time!