log 004

The scholars are a weird bunch. Ask them anything related to the history of the continent and they would have detailed records of that event and the thousand events before it that led to that event. Ask them of anything that happen in the last century and they would not know it. It is a serious lack of knowledge for these bunch.

They are not so bad to talk to as long as you don't mention any historical event to them. This time I have three scholars to deal with, two apprentices and one master scholar called as Justin. Justin is one of the more normal scholars out there, though my contact with him is relatively little outside of work. They say that a scholar will keep working even if you were to keep torturing him.

Even now when all of us Stuck in the same room, the scholars are sitting in what is essentially their own world discussing some problem that I will not be able to make head or tail out of.

That is expected when dealing with the scholars. The scholars are extremely arrogant whenever they have to deal with the soldiers, well arrogance would not be the correct term here. They are very careful around the soldiers, almost as if we were spys trying to steal important information. This might certainly be true in their perspective. After all the scholars and their research is part of the reason that the black mountain is powerful. What they study is not only the history of the continent but the ancient paths of magics that exist in the continent. Taking these ancient spells as the base is the only reason the black mountain is able to keep their supremacy in magic.

While all of that is true, I have to admit that it still feels a bit insulting. Regardless, it is not my duty to make the scholars respect me but to protect them. They can consider me a idiotic fool if it means that I will get my rewards at the end of the mission.

Yet it is the part of protecting them that is worrying me so. Asking me anything about formations or fighting and I will be able to give you quite the bit of information, but ask me about diplomacy and the art of making people do what you want them to do I have zero knowledge. I have been sitting in this confusion for the last couple of days, waiting to be summoned by the commander.

The person that was supposed to help me in all of this was Trevor, who would completely shut me down even before I can ask him anything. Everytime I go near him, before I can open my mouth I am scolded by him as if I am interrupting something important. While getting scolded is still fine, it is the looks that Andrew and Jacob give me that make all of this really embarassing. thid is not an emotional satisfaction that I am giving those idiots.

Nobody knows what exactly he has been doing the The last couple of days. he has been roaming around the room, looking for something. While I don't know what it is that he has lost but it has certainly been grating on my nerves. I certainly have no desire to enquire what exactly is he doing. Asking stuff from Trevor is the best way to get lectured by him.

What is truly annoying is that over the last two or three days( it is kind of hard to tell the passage of time in this room), other than the two soldiers that have brought us here, we have yet to meet anybody else. We are not allowed out of our rooms and whenever I try to get out, we have nearly ended up to blows with the two soldiers outside. Thankfully I had removed my armour just before I decided to talk to them or we might have ended up fighting. Maybe I should have, whatever would have happen is better than this situation.

I honestly am starting to lose my mind here, but I have no idea of what we are supposed to do here. I am honestly wondering why the fuck did I even pick a mission to the north, it honestly would have been a better option for me to go the south. atleast there I would not be in so much confusion. War has a tendency of making things simpler.

"You really should learn to mask your emotions, kid.", I hear a voice to my side, breaking me from my present thoughts. It is Trevor who is suddenly standing next to me. From where did this man even appear.

"what do you mean, Trevor", I reply.

"Well, you have been following me the last couple of days, like a puppy trying to ask me what you are supposed to be doing." trevor spoke, his voice taking on a tone that reminded me of my combat instructors from before. "You want me to be honest, I have no idea why the head office have sent you here. You are good, almost amazing with formations. I have never seen a person bring us to this place in record time, but your diplomatic capability is pretty lackluster if i am being honest. Honestly you would do much better in the south, at the deadzones. Why you were sent here I won't be able to tell."

"Well, I was something of a last minute recruit, if I am to be honest.", I speak, trying to hide my nervousness. That is a question I myself dont know the answer to.

"Well, if that is the case you have been sent here as a sacrificial pawn, young kid. Every once in a while they send either an arrogant fool or an overly capable idiot to this place as sacrifices. They end up doing something that offends these guys and end up executed. The bloodlust of the snowwind empire is sated and the black mountain is cleaned of any future problems. You can decide what you are." Trevor speaks.

"Well, that was would certainly make sense with the people at the head office. While they have no particular reason to want me dead, they will certainly be happy about it.", I reply, with a sigh." That still does not answer my question though, what am I supposed to be doing here."

"Well, If I am to tell you the truth, you clearly do not have much of the basic knowledge you need for a job like this.", Trevor spoke "for example, do you know what I have been doing the last couple of days."

"Well, I would like to say that I have had guesses, but somehow each seems more implausible than the rest. I will let you explain that to me", I reply

"Remember this lesson well. If you are in enemy territory, than it is always wise to assume that your enemy has some form of methods to spy on you. I have just spent the last couple of days ensuring that this guys do not hear our every move as we make them to the best of my knowledge.", Trevor spoke.

"Ok, I did consider it to be something like that. I was more along the lines of poison formations though. Poisoning us in our sleep if we were a threat", I speak

"nope, too risky to be that violent. Anyone finds out and the black mountain will go to war, no matter how much they don't like you. Well, now that it is clear, I will need you to focus now. Those of the snowwind empire are very particular folk. They are very sensitive to any damage on their perceived honour. Thankfully the folks here are still commoners. It is the nobles you should beware.", Trevor began, "thankfully, the commander of this fort is still around so that greatly decreases the difficulty of your task. I honestly do not know the last time we had reached before the hunting party left."

"Shouldn't it be the opposite, how am I supposed to do diplomacy with him if he is so strong." I speak, with an edge of worry that even I can recognise.

"Well, it can be considered to be one of the basic tenets of diplomacy, that you are supposed to be of equal strength for diplomacy to occur. That is especially true for these guys.", Trevor spoke "any hour now, the commander is going to be summoning you to his office. No matter what you attempt to do in there, do not even attempt to bargain with. Do not even have the thought of trying to bargain with him. He might not kill you, but he make your life quite hard. Given your present skill in formations, I have a feeling that whatever work you will be given will be related the defence of the fort. It is after all the season for the snowlords to attack."

"Well, formations and all are fine, but the act of creation of formations is not something that can be done in a day or two.", I replied, looking at the chest to the side " I think that we cannot wait that long. Those scholars look as if they want to strangle us in our sleep. You want me to be honest, I have never seen a bunch as dedicated as these guys."

"Well, then we can do that. Me and the boys will accompany the scholars to the ruin if the need comes to it. With the snowlords coming, you won't be finding anyone other than the snowwind army so our safety is essentially guaranteed. I am sure that you do not need us to protect you. That way we can complete both of these tasks at the same time. At the same time, you can look for the materials for the propulsion formation at the same time. Honestly, the way that we are going on about this task we will be completing this mission in record time", Trevor spoke as he quitened down.

"Well, how long do the scholars take to complete their research.", I ask, looking at the scholars who had not moved in their present position for the last couple of hours.

"Well, you want me to be honest. I have never seen a scholar leave the ruin that we are going to unless they have been forced to. In our case that would be the end of winter. So for quite the while.", Trevor replied.

"Well, thats long.", I ask.

"Blame the scholars if you wish, but they do get such rare opportunity to come here that I cannot really blame them. It just bad luck for us", Trevor speaks. "One good thing is that this place is so desolate and other than the ice beasts, it is rare to find any other enemies. I am sure that you will be given a task to keep you busy. The snowwinders rarely get access to a formation master. They will make sure to keep you busy, though let's hope that we don't need to spend too long here or you might just end up fixing every broken pot and chamber pot."

"do they really have such a weak foundation for formation magic.", I ask.

" Well it is more of a case that they are being supressed than that of a weak foundation. Everybody knows the expansionist tendencies of the snowwind empire. Nobody would be idiotic enough to give them any kind of knowledge related to formations. That would be giving them another weapon and God knows the snowwind Empire has enough of those already.", Trevor replies, as we continue this discussion on and on, going to topics that I shall not bore you with by putting it here.