Road to the Capital

Captain Silvi Greenheart is a young woman around her early 20's and of an average height of 5.5 feet (170cm). She has tan skin texture with chestnut brown hair and wears the same military white uniform just like the Duchess. Examining the uniform, unlike the Duchess's gold and red, Silvi has green to represent her family line and silver to represent her rank as captain. Overall, William can tell that Silvi Greenheart presents herself as a reliable second in command and calculating person.

After leaving the Duchess's room, William and Captain Silvi walked towards the city wall where the Duchess's forces are stationed. On their way, William realized that Silvi wasn't carrying a sword or shield but an old oak staff and standard dagger as a backup weapon. Remembering that this is a world of D&D, William guessed Silvi could be a magic-user class like wizard or druid.

"I can see that you are wondering why I carry staff instead of a sword, Paladin. Unlike Duchess Beckett who is a pure combat warrior, I'm a wielder of magic. More specifically, I'm a druid, focused on support and healing using magic from nature itself." Silvi explained to William while showing her staff to William. Receiving the wooden staff, William used his appraisal skill, it displayed the information to his helmet with much more detail.

[Heart of Emerald Oak: Staff made from the ancient oak tree with properties received from nature itself. Gives the user wisdom and dexterity boosts while grant ability 'Conjure Woodland Beings: Red-Tailed Hawk' 1 per day].

ALERT! UNKNOWN WARP-LIKE PRESENCE DETECTED! CONTACT NEARBY INQUISITOR TO PURGE THIS HERESY!

After finishing reading the detailed information about the magic staff, William's helmet gave an alert to him as sensors detected unknown magic from the staff. This never happened to William's original helmet before but currently, he is equipped with the Emperor's Champion set of armor which is much older but advanced war gear. Because of this, William's helmet went out of control the moment he used his appraisal skill as it was somehow linked to the helmet.

'Ok, this needs to be turned off for now. I guess I need to reduce the sound since it went off like a fire alarm,' With that thought, William returned the staff to Silvi and continued their conversation as they reached the city wall.

When William and Silvi arrived, many of the soldiers and knights welcomed the two commanders as they continued their work. Some were carrying bundles of arrows to the storage while some were unloading boxes of supplies such as dried food and repair tools for the weapons. Overall, it was routine tasks for many of the soldiers as they are always ready for combat. For the knights, some took care of their horses and equipment even though they have squires to manage them. In a sense, the Duchess's knights were more direct with their equipment than Prince Benton's knights.

After a few hours of supervising and giving helping hands, Captain Silvi was satisfied with the transition of the city defense as most of the hard work was already finished by Sir Dolven's men weeks ago. Today was mostly replacing Sir Dolven's men and resupplying the wall defense as old knight's troops will leave the city tomorrow with Crown Prince and Duchess Beckett.

"So, since you are now officially the defender of Deron, what will you be doing until the king sends the replacement?" William asks the captain as he removes his helmet and places it next to him on the table. Currently, they are standing on the top of the gate wall where the command station is with a heavy roof and a large table.

"I will be securing both Deron and Fort Stormfist, so I will be sending a messenger every three days to the fort to make sure it is secured. As for potential enemies, there is not much as the main fighting force was undead but I will be sending a few groups to handle local wildlife such as wolves and other monsters. It is important to control the population of the monsters so they won't go out of control." Captain Silvi explained her mission to William and placed her finger at the map on the table. On the map, the city was surrounded by the forest and natural barrier of the mountain which only ways for enemies to reach from the other side are through Fort Stormfist.

With satisfaction, William knew these two places were in good hands as Captain Silvi is more of the support and military strategist. This unusual command structure was created because the Duchess never bothered to stay back and coordinate the military command during battle. So, as second in command, Captain Silvi decided to handle the troop movement while the Duchess charged first with her shock cavalry.

"That sounds boring, I don't think you will receive the king's new order and troops for a few weeks at least. Are you ok with that?" William asks the young captain to which she shows no sign of concern at all. For her and everyone else, this was standard military procedure taught at military school. Also, they will be more of a peacekeeper and security as the enemy was defeated just a few days ago, so there is nothing to worry about the new enemy army coming to take the fort.

"We will be fine, for us this is considered a vocation rather than a military mission. We have enough food and supplies to last the whole year, not to mention local wildlife and plants to extend it to one more year. I'm more worried about you and others since you will have to explain the situation regarding traitor nobles and their crimes. Even though the king gave the order for their executions, many of the nobles will pressure the crown for an official investigation." The words from Captain Silvi made William realize what he has to face in the capital when they arrive there. For now, his identity won't be questioned as he is currently an adventurer from the guild but many will ask questions about his weapons and armor due to their pride as noble and jealous.

"I guess I will face them when I get there. For now, let's worry about today and move to tomorrow's problem," William gave a smile and waved his hand to dodge the problem since this will be future William's problem (We all do this).

"I understand. For now, we are done for the day so please return to the city castle for your travel for tomorrow. I will handle the rest here," Silvi said to William as this concluded the transition of the Duchess's force taking over Deron and Fort Stormfist's defense. Before William left the druid, he gave her a message to pass to his battle brother.

"Tell Brother Reduriel that I will return after meeting the king. Also, tell him I will bring more battle-brothers with me."

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Next Day,

William was waiting for everyone to get ready to depart as he was sitting on the assault bike. When everyone got to their horses, Sir Dolven's army and the rest of the commanders left Deron around 9 am in the morning. The pace was slow due to the size of the army, carriages and troops on their feet, it will take at least four days to get to Greenhill. The same town where William registered as an adventurer and received a special mission to go on an expedition with the military.

Looking back, it felt like years ago when William came to this world as a Space Marine and killed the first goblins with his hands. Now, he is a formidable warrior without equal and received enough recognition to move to the upper-rank multiple times.

With his dual-mounted bolters and fully fueled tank, William took the lead as a scout since his assault bike is much better armored to handle an ambush from a large group of bandits or monsters. The first two days weren't much eventful as there were no monsters, enemy ambush, or any signs of chaos pawns.

By the third day, William who is 2 miles away from the main army got to do something as he saw large dust clouds in the distance ahead of him. Using his helmet's scope, William got to see what was causing the cloud of dust. To his surprise, it was a small army of orcs marching without any coordination or formation while a large number of people were in chains and following in the back.

'Oh, thank the Emperor. it's just an Orcs, not the Orks.'