Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 9

“Do we have any targets yet?”

“A radius of ten kilometres has been fully updated,” the camp overseer, Isorei, said. “No subjects have been located within the area. Wiluvien Linum has just assumed command at headquarters. Reconnaissance efforts are now being directed along the road between Warden’s Vale and this base.”

Ludmila leaned over the table, checking over the new information on the large map rolled out upon it. Lord Mare’s reshaping of the river had startled away all of the surrounding Demihuman tribes, so it was not surprising that they had found no one in the vicinity. Now that expansion and development had begun in earnest, the Linum sisters were in the process of conducting a full survey of the Upper reaches.

She frowned at the thought of her maids.

“I hope they’re not pushing themselves.”

“Nonsense,” the Elder Lich sniffed. “All subjects should offer their utmost in the service of His Majesty’s nation.”

“Why is it that the army officers seem to have more consideration for pregnant women than our civilian administrators?”

Isorei didn’t answer. Not that she expected it to. Ludmila also suspected that she knew the reason why the army officers were that way.

Elder Lich administrators were thoroughly trained by the administration, after which they were sent out to their respective assignments. Much like Nonna had been, they all started with a results-oriented mindset and a very sterile set of expectations. Citizens were tiny components that served a specific purpose in the greater workings of the Sorcerous Kingdom. Components worked according to specifications, or something was wrong. They did value certain things, of course. Mostly to do with improving their performance as administrators or territorial output.

The Royal Army’s Elder Liches received limited training compared to those that went to the administration, only learning how to read and write in the local script before being dispatched to their respective bases to await further instructions. Warden’s Vale was the headquarters of the southern army group and received roughly twenty per cent of the Undead created for the Royal Army. Another army group was stationed in the Azerlisia Mountains and received another twenty per cent, while the remainder went to the army group stationed in and around E-Rantel. With the Sorcerous Kingdom’s expansion across the Katze Plains, a new army group was in the process of being formed with forces from E-Rantel.

New servitors of various types trickled in day by day, usually two at a time. They arranged themselves neatly with the others and waited for as long as they were required to wait. Roughly every two weeks or so, a new squad was formed. Once training operations started, they became well acquainted with the Linum sisters.

With the experience gained from their impromptu role as reconnaissance coordinators in Fassett County, the two Half-Elf maids had then become involved with the defence of the Upper Reaches. After that, they moved on to oversee the deployment of security forces in Warden’s Vale. With the establishment of the new military installation in the harbour ‘city’, they had effectively become members of Ludmila’s general staff.

It had been a strange journey for the two former slaves, but His Majesty’s Undead servitors cared little for such things. Though the Linum sisters had no official rank in the Royal Army, they were two of the most experienced Commanders in the Sorcerous Kingdom, particularly in the fields of territorial security and military intelligence. Thus, they became instructors for the Royal Army’s Elder Liches, gaining the respect and recognition of all who benefitted from their tutelage.

The army officers saw the Linum sisters as being ‘afflicted with pregnancy’ – a curse which even Miss Pestonya could not cure – and the two Half-Elves grew in their collective estimation as they soldiered on despite their condition. It wasn’t the most gratifying of interpretations, but it was as good as could be expected from Elder Liches.

A strange sort of empathy between fellow servants had grown between them – the Undead mages even maintained Fly spells on the pregnant women to ease their burdens. The babies were going to have a rather strange array of uncles by the end of it all.

As for Ludmila, she understood that the Linum sisters’ work wasn’t physically demanding, but they were still due at any time. She regularly mentioned that they shouldn’t strain themselves, but her concern was always met with their stubborn insistence on continuing their tasks. With how things went on, she half expected them to give birth in the war room.

The overseer flipped through the pages of its clipboard, then stopped to write something down. After doing so, it reached out to place a triangular yellow marker to the north of the camp, three kilometres east of the river.

“What was the exact count?” Ludmila asked.

“Nine.”

“Anything else of note? Lord-class Ogres? Sorcerers?”

“No distinguishing features that may suggest they are anything but common Ogres have been identified.”

She tapped a finger on the table, waiting to see if anything more would be added to the map, but the Elder Lich made no further moves. Ludmila took a deep breath, releasing it with a quiet sigh.

“I suppose I will be off, then.”

“Do you require an escort?”

“Nine common Ogres will not be a problem no matter what they do. The location is close enough that I can contact you if I require anything.”

The Elder Lich lowered his head in acknowledgement, and Ludmila made her way north out of the construction camp. With her expansion into the Upper Reaches came dominion over the hundreds of tribes that dwelled within. It was a challenge unthinkable less than a year before: to claim the previously untameable wilderness and bring what she would have once considered inhuman threats under her rule.

Ludmila was honestly at a loss as to how she should approach this challenge. The Demihuman tribes of the Upper Reaches did not possess anything remotely close to the social structures of the Sorcerous Kingdom, nor did they have anything resembling an economy beyond perhaps bartering with their own. Florine had seen success after spectacular success in the Great Forest of Tob and had moved on to lay down the foundations for integration with the tribes of the southern Azerlisia Mountains.

When Ludmila had approached her on how she should integrate the tribes of the Upper Reaches, her friend had only smiled and told her that it was ‘easy’. All she needed to do was approach things with an open heart and an open mind. As someone who had been trained to poke holes in Demihumans for her entire life, Ludmila was fairly certain that the denizens of the Upper Reaches would not appreciate any of her open-heartedness.

“Mornin’, m’lady.”

Several familiar faces turned to greet her as she reached the point where the old road was being cleared of encroaching forest. They removed their caps and bobbed their heads, and she offered them a warm smile in return.

“Good morning.”

“Back to the harbour?” The first speaker, Lyndon Roscoe asked.

“No, I am off to see a few of my new subjects.”

A furrow creased the weathered brow of the woodsman’s face.

“...new subjects, m’lady?”

“A tribe of Ogres across the river,” Ludmila said, and her smile grew at his shifting expression. “House Zahradnik has been keeping the Demihumans here at bay for over a century. Now, I need to figure out how to bring them under my rule.”

“Don’t envy you that, to be sure. Figured you’d just send the army out to show ‘em who’s boss.”

Her army officers had made that recommendation, as well. Ludmila probably knew more than anyone about the value that Demihumans placed in strength, but sending out the army would likely result in an outcome that was not in line with the Sorcerous Kingdom’s domestic policy.

The invasion of the Upper Reaches in the summer had drastically depopulated the area, meaning that the tribes would not be as aggressive as they had been previously. It was pointless to fight if food and territory were plentiful, after all. With territorial behaviours in the area relaxed, Ludmila thought it an opportunity for smoother resolutions.

“I do not think it will be necessary,” Ludmila told him. “The results of that sort of action will put us behind when it comes to integration, as well.”

“I-integration, m’lady?” One of the other woodsmen said, “You mean they’re gonna be livin’ with us?”

“We already have the Krkonoše and the Lizardmen, do we not?”

“Yeah, but they stay in their places. Don’t know what the wife’ll say if an Ogre moves in next door.”

“I suspect that most of the denizens of the Upper Reaches will stay in the Upper Reaches,” Ludmila said. “I would not be surprised if a few eventually come to live in the harbour, but there is no reason for them to be anywhere near the farming villages unless they are passing through on their way up the valley.”

Several of the woodsmen heaved sighs of relief. They were all followers of The Six, and while the faith in E-Rantel was not belligerent, it was still one that put humanity first. After the excursion to the Katze Plains, she understood that His Majesty meant for this to change, but it was a change that they could afford to gradually bring about. Once it was demonstrated that Humans could thrive in a harmonious relationship with other races, the transition to new ways would become much easier.

Ludmila left them to their work, continuing north up the overgrown road. After several kilometres, she flew over the river, equipping her armour before alighting on the opposite shore. It wasn’t long until she detected traces of the nearby tribe – at first through the smell in the air. She concealed her presence and went around observing their activities.

As reported, there were nine Ogres in and around the camp. They ranged between two and a half to three metres in height and were adorned in unwashed animal skins. As obligate carnivores, the life of an Ogre was generally divided between hunting for food and conserving energy between hunts. One who did not know this would see them as slow and lazy while they lay about.

What little construction the Ogres had consisted of panels of woven branches slathered in mud which were not unlike the wattle-and-daub construction of Human dwellings. Though such building materials were modular and convenient to fashion into complex structures, the Ogres’ homes were mostly in the form of simple lean-tos that kept their sleeping places dry. A small fire was maintained in their midst: likely for warmth as Ogres commonly ate their meals raw.

The more she considered her options for diplomacy, the more she was certain that said diplomacy would come down to a display of superiority. According to the Difficulty Rating system of the Adventurer Guild, the average Ogre was roughly on par with a Silver-rank Adventurer. This assessment was an abstraction, however, and did not accurately portray their qualities in battle. The average Ogre had the body strength of a Mithril-rank Adventurer and possessed tough hides with protective layers of muscle and fat.

To ‘offset’ this, they tended to be clumsy, slow-witted, and unsophisticated in their movements and tactics. Silver-rank Fighters were ‘on par’ with these Demihumans not because they were just as strong, but because an Adventurer’s combination of equipment, martial skill and experience made up for the gap in physical power.

As such, the Ogres who trained against the Adventurer Guild – and had killed Ludmila on several occasions – could not be compared to these ‘wild’ Ogres who would neatly fit on the Adventurer Guild’s Difficulty Rating scale. Ludmila identified the strongest Ogre, who was relaxing against a fallen log, and made her way nearby. She tapped it lightly on the shoulder.

The Ogre grunted and threw a frown over its shoulder, then returned to whatever it was doing. After a good five seconds, it scrambled to its feet and picked up the log it had been leaning on.

“Hu-Human!”

His – or at least Ludmila thought it was male – bellow filled the air, rousing the rest. Ludmila soon found herself facing a wall of Ogres. Their stench was probably more of a wall than their massive forms. Several of them scanned the surrounding forest.

“I came to visit on my own,” Ludmila offered reassuringly.

So reassured, the strongest Ogre brought his makeshift club down upon her shoulder. The log came to rest on her pauldron. The force behind the attack was probably enough to kill an Iron-ranked Adventurer in plate armour. Between her equipment and damage reduction, however, it caused no damage. As it caused no damage, Ludmila did not budge in the slightest.

The Ogre frowned in confusion, then hit her again.

“Are there any other challengers?” Ludmila asked.

A dull thud sounded in front of her. The lead Ogre jerked forward, howling in pain. A large rock landed at their feet, and the Ogre with the club turned around. It stormed forward and punched one of its fellows holding a rock in its hand.

Shouldn’t it be one of the empty-handed ones that threw the rock?

The innocent Ogre went tumbling to the ground, the rock in its hand rolling away. After going over to pick it up, the lead Ogre turned and hurled it in her direction. The attack was surprisingly accurate: considering their environment, the Ogre probably possessed Ranger Job Class Levels. Still, the rock failed to penetrate the defensive enchantments of her armour. The Ogres gaped at the shimmering hemisphere that briefly appeared before her.

“Mage!”

“Human mage!”

“Human mage. Weak!”

“I am not a mage,” Ludmila said.

“No?”

She shook her head. The Ogres exchanged glances, and their leader spoke again.

“What want, Human not-mage?”

“I am Baroness Ludmila Zahradnik, a Noble of the Sorcerous Kingdom and vassal of Lady Shalltear Bloodfallen. The Upper Reaches and its surrounding ranges will be under my full control before winter comes. As the new lord of this territory, I would like to offer you the opportunity to peaceably become my subjects.”

As one, the Ogres frowned. A long silence passed between them.

“Not go?”

“Go?”

“Human come, make tribes go. Not long stay. Tribes come back, Human go.”

Ludmila wondered how they knew the history of Human settlement in the area. Was there some communal lore shared by the local tribes?

“I am not here to drive you away,” she said. “The Sorcerous Kingdom is a nation that welcomes all races. Already, there are many Ogres who count themselves as its subjects. We will not be going anywhere any time soon, either.”

“Then…we join boss lady’s tribe?”

“I was thinking that you could simply continue as you were, but do Ogres not form great tribes?”

“Old boss tribe – Sun Rock Tribe.”

“You belonged to this tribe until just now?”

The Ogres nodded.

“In that case, how much of the land does the Sun Rock Tribe control?”

“River to Sun Rock,” the Ogre leader said. “But not past. Cloudstalkers come – mountains theirs now.”

The ‘Cloudstalkers’ were probably the greater population of Krkonoše Rangers who existed outside of the Druids’ attendant population. Ludmila filled in the spaces on her mental map of the Upper Reaches.

“How many smaller tribes does the Sun Rock Tribe rule over?” She asked, “Which races?”

“Many tribes. Ogre. Goblin. Troll. Army come in hot summer. Sun Rock Tribe fight. Many tribes join. Many tribes die. Then great death come.”

“Great death?”

“Great death,” the Ogre leader repeated himself. “Dead things walk. Smash army. Much land now.”

It seemed that her reputation preceded her, if not her name and appearance. The cloudstalkers; the great death – it felt a bit unfair to be controlling so many elements of the board. At least the Goblin Army and the powerful Fiend that followed had nothing to do with the Sorcerous Kingdom.

“One more question,” Ludmila said. “If the leader of the Sun Rock Tribe submits to me, will it mean that the entire tribe falls under my control?”

“Yes, boss lady.”

“In that case,” Ludmila smiled, “take me to your former leader.”

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