168 Moving army

Emp was marching with his troops. They had been walking for some time now but according to the map he regularly examined with the others, they should soon reach Rivière-duventeu.

They had not been met with many hardship on the way because most creatures of the forest knew better than to assault a group of over a thousand men. The most troublesome things, excluding the problems created by themselves, were getting permission to pass through the cities and towns they encountered.

They were obviously all on the same side but nobles naturally grew nervous when an army walked up to a city gate. Anytime they came across a town like Stonegrove city, they had to send a messenger first to name their group and commander, their mission and their intentions. Then the city lord would decide whether to let them through or not. They let them pass every time but it sometimes took days to get the approval.

The worst offender happened to be Stonegrove city. The place was the capital of the kingdom of Windbow and so housed their king. He wasn't particularly against letting them through but he insisted on meeting Emp in person and wouldn't leave his majestic palace.

Because of this, his troops had been stuck on the border of the city for five days straight while Emp was made to walk around the foggy grey streets of the city and attended high class dinners.

He had avoided Red-water to escape from exactly that but in the end, he couldn't afford to say no to a king who just wanted to meet and talk. Because of that, he had to endure the pointless talking and had to try his best to remain polite to everyone he was presented to despite his growing impatience. The lessons of Blackbull were invaluable here.

Even thought he found it tedious, he respected all the rules and protocols and left a good impression on everyone from the court of Windblow. At least, that was how he felt. He was presented to many well dressed ladies and noblemen covered in expensive accessories and filled with confidence but none truly caught his attention.

The most interesting encounter he made was with marquess Hectarow, the father of George. He didn't have much to tell him however because George, his fellow student, had always been very quiet or simply upset to be talked to.

When he finally managed to extract himself from the endless socializing, his troops were able to walk forward once more. Following the lakeside wasn't an arduous task in the least but the constant fog and mist surrounding it was a real annoyance. On the good days, they could see the road stretch into the distant grey for kilometres ahead of them but on the bad days, they could barely see a few steps ahead of them.

Being in an allied territory, it wasn't that stressful to be unable to see all his troops but he still needed to make sure that no branches would drift off on its own and that no strong monster would start picking them off roots by roots in the cover of the mist.

At least, he couldn't complain about the view of the lake. He didn't really like the wide expense of almost still water but he couldn't deny it was an impressive sight.

He had some fun sharing the view with Celtine, Svae and the two Porter sisters. None of them had ever seen the lake before and he enjoyed their impressed gazes more than the sight itself. He had seen the lake a few times already after all. The girls had all been just as impressed with the howling hills and the low woods and he was happy to show them everything.

He did notice however that all those impressive landscape tended to make it hard for an army to move. The path through the howling hill was narrow and passing everyone through took a really long time, the wind in the low woods was too strong, it blinded the scouts and made the archers useless, the lake did the exact same with its mist and dampened the sounds.

He was lucky that there were no battles to be fought anywhere on the way because those places weren't suited for that at all. They were best admired with curiosity instead of trampled with war.

Still, this was no excuse to not train!

Just walking the whole time following the road would have been inefficient, instead, Emp practiced commanding the troops and often sent out entire branches out in the woods on either side of their path. He gave them many pointless objectives with the sole purpose of testing them and their commanders, he needed to know what they could do after all.

He needed to know if they could follow orders, how long it took for his words to reach the different captains and branchers, how long it took them to execute the orders, how coordinated they could be, how they fared in the woods with low visibility and so on and so on.

Only by having extensive knowledge of his troops and their abilities would he be able to wield them in battle effectively. It was just like trying out a new weapon, one had to get familiar with its shape, weight and sharpness in order to use it properly.

He had them deploy in wings, march in tightly packed formation and spread out in reverse. Many formations were tested and many manoeuvres were tried just to let him get a feel for how quick they'd answer.

Things generally went no better than he expected but no worse either. The guys he had brought with him from the school could all understand his instructions easily but had no real commanding skills yet and didn't know how to make it so the soldiers under them would follow properly.

For example, Emp would tell Oliver to send out two branches of spearmen to the right to clear the nearby woods of dangerous critters while they were there. The messenger would soon reach and he would choose branch one and two to go. At first, he didn't think of the number he selected and mistakenly had a bunch of branches cross others to get to the designated position making a huge mess on the way. Now he at least paid attention to who was were. Gilbert would receive the command from Oliver and lead his branch into the woods but had no military knowledge and his hundred and twenty five men always ended up in a messy line while the rooters under him tried to follow his inaccurate orders to the best of their abilities.

Emp would look at the result from the middle of the road and would only see soldiers scattered everywhere with seemingly no coherence, making him sigh. Oran and his swordsmen were just as bad since he insisted on being at the forefront of his troops. Messages sent his way always took longer to reach and Emp expected his commands to get drowned out in a real fight.

At least, the constant practices he put them through on the way greatly improved their overall coordination. Mistakes were slowly being worked out and slowly but surely, the troops reacted more quickly and more precisely to his words.

Still, a lot of strange things can apparently happen when leading an army around. Emp had not expected that there would be so many difficulties unrelated to the general handling of the troops.

There were a lot of guys getting lost in the woods during exercises, complaints coming from here and there about marching for so long, people from the support staff getting harassed because of the lunch served, so much lost equipment Emp started to believe they were doing it on purpose and so on.

One time, he even had to stop a fight where two guys decided to argue over one strip of salted meat even though there were more than enough for the both of them. That one particular slice was apparently given to them by the lunch lady and according to them, it made it much better than the very same that was given by one of the three men sharing the same job.

There was also the problem with Odilon who was supposed to keep an eye on the supplies but was so unmotivated he often failed to keep track of how much of everything they carried around.

Then there were the young men making up his army who all wanted to get a kill to graduate from their childhood and tended to scatter in the woods whenever an exercise was performed. A root would spot some random monster like a twin headed beetle and rush after it, leaving their post in the process and messing up the whole formation. Then the rooters and the branchers would try to count the heads and find out someone had strayed out of sight. At those times, everyone had to stop marching just to look for that one guy even though more often than not, he was just collapsed somewhere trying to empty his bowels because of a wild mushroom induced fever.

Emp did his best to remind everyone time and again to not wander off to forage because they had enough reserves but apparently, the soldiers really wanted some variety in their food. He ended up having to punish them for doing it because it kept causing trouble.

There were also a good amount of disputes about women. Some guys would argue and show off trying to seduce some of their fellow soldiers or the girls working in the support staff. One of them even threw a vulgar comment at Erin who flew into a flustered rage and kicked the soldier right in the face leaving a boot print on his forehead.

Svae was safe from this sort of thing thanks to her clear cursed-blood nature and no one dare speak to Celtine who spent most of her time directly on his shoulders. In fact, they treated the slave like some sort of important princess. The guys ended up seeing her as the flag of the legion more than the actual flag they were carrying.

Erin was a bit offended to not be treated the same way as Celtine but Emp refused to switch and carry her or Leonni on his shoulders for a while. He urged them to keep improving their riding skills instead and pay attention to learn.

As he had expected, their first horse riding experience ended up with both complaining about their backside and walk around with pained grimaces in the evening. It made the soldiers laugh but Emp was pretty sure they'd make the exact same face if they were in their places. The girls felt a bit better when he told them that. Only the actual riders would have any right laughing but they kept their serious after Jin glared at them to support Emp.

He kept diligently instructing them and after some time, he didn't have to lead the horse himself anymore. They wouldn't be able to ride in a difficult moment like a battle but they shouldn't fall off either. Like that, he was able to focus more on the practice manoeuvres and was able to show the sisters a lot of things.

Erin and Leo watched everything with gleaming eyes, drinking in the sight of the army and how they operate. Emp hoped they were learning properly how everything worked while they witnessed it all. He wanted them to keep growing after all. Sometimes, he'd glance their way to see if they were listening properly and was satisfied whenever they answered his gaze with a few questions on what was happening.

He was far from a talented commander since he was only just beginning but he was happy to tell them what he knew. After they escaped the clutches of the fog on the lakeside, they'd often point at the troop while he was giving commands to ask what he was trying to do and what it all meant. Emp knew all the theory but had never led any actual troops before so he could tell the sisters and Kenneth who acted as his second in command what he was doing but couldn't be certain on how anything would turn out.

Emp would send his forces to deal with an imaginary opponent or actual small monsters and explain his reasoning to those around him. With his troops spread into wings on either side of the road, they caught a wide variety of weak monsters and many soldiers got their first kills in relative security.

Whenever the scouts found anything looking too dangerous, Emp would order Ivar and his company of archers to rain down arrows in the area instead. Their supplies of arrows were enormous and it wasn't worth it to risk the lives of the new soldiers just for the sake of training. Whether the monster was a falsestor or a flock of flying blood slimes, they'd accurately and swiftly get showered with five hundred arrows and cease moving.

It wasn't for nothing that the main forces of the empire were made out of archers. All the arrows would thread the needle between all the ancestors and hit their intended targets. Even while shooting blindly in an area where the scouts said that the monster was hiding, they'd find the corpse of the creature riddled with arrows.

Sadly, Emp expected their accuracy to plummet once they'd step into the plains and mountains of Greenpeaks. The blessing of the ancestors was a great help after all so when they'd leave the forest behind, the archers would only be able to rely on themselves.

"General, reports from the scouts yielded nothing this time again."

Emp felt a bit sorry for it but couldn't remember the name of the guy who gave him the report. It was only an unimportant detail however, the name of most of the soldiers didn't really matter in the end. He only needed to keep in mind the names of the important staff and officers.

"Good, have them go out again at the scheduled time. We're almost there so it shouldn't be long before we come across the scouts of the main army."

"Yes sir!"

The soldier left in a hurry and Emp turned his attention to Kenneth.

"The real mission will start in a few days at most so I'd like you to go around and make sure the others understand that the old guys we're meeting might not receive us warmly. Even though they're here on my invitation, I need them to act professionally in front of those. As you know, there's no way for me to tell which side they're on before we make contact. If they follow my uncle, I'll have to convince them to switch side somehow and acting silly won't help."

Kenneth made a face like he was just asked to do the impossible. Emp didn't bring all the most elegant nobles with him after all. He brought Oran who didn't understand gallantry, Gilbert who wasn't a noble at all, Oliver who thought highly of himself and his skills with a spear and Odilon who was worse than all of them combined.

He had Jin Josephal too who Emp didn't know very well at all. Before, he was a really strict person but he was playing a role. Since Emp had been established as the top of the army, he had turned into someone very lax instead. Because the terrain was mostly covered in woods, Emp didn't really have any occasion to test the abilities of the pack of riders and their meutier Jin so he had no clue about what they could do. He knew that Jin took good care of them and kept them in order but he also knew that he spent most of his time in a small world with his cursed-blood lover.

He was worried how he'd react to be told to rein it all in again when in front of the veterans. Would he just accept like it was nothing or would he get upset because he could be himself for once and didn't want to revert to his previous mask?

"I'll talk to Jin myself if you take care of Odilon." Emp proposed.

"Understood, I'll do my best."

A muffled shriek caught his attention while Kenneth started talking. Emp glanced to the side a moment and thought he saw the sisters riding under the horse and flailing instead of what he was supposed to see. When he looked properly however, they were both sat normally and waving his way with a stiff smile. He probably just imagined it.

Turning back to Kenneth, his face had turned to stone.

"Don't be like that Kenneth, Odilon isn't so bad, he's just upset."

"No I... Right, if you would excuse me."

He turned around abruptly and left with a wry smile while the surrounding staff giggled to themselves. Celtine too was shacking her head from her perch on his shoulder and looked amused. What was up with everyone?

Anyway, now was not the time for silliness.

"You, go tell meutier Josephal I need to speak to him."

"Yes sir general!"

The messenger ran off to the place where the pack rode towards the front of the small army while Emp kept walking casually. To be honest, he felt like just walking slowly like this was a bit boring. He felt he was going too slowly to make any significant progress but still couldn't stop to just take in the scenery anywhere or the whole group would stop with him.

There was nothing else for him to do than to train and speak with the others as he walked. As usual, Celtine was the one he spoke to the most.

\u003c What will you do with me when we get there? \u003e The girl on his shoulders asked.

Emp had the definite habit of keeping her with him everywhere he went. It was almost strange to not have her close at this point but there were some things that couldn't be helped.

If he knew there was a battle about to happen, he would not recklessly keep her on his shoulders for example because it was dangerous for arrows and similar things. She'd be taller than anyone else and exposed, it was simply a bad idea if the opponent wasn't a mindless beast and it would hinder his own movement slightly even with all the combat practice he did with her on his shoulders.

On the other hand, facing these army officers wasn't like walking into a battlefield at all. He wanted to just walk over there with her on his shoulders like he did back then in the great hall of the school. They both understood that it wasn't the right way to do things this time however. He wanted to present his conviction and resolve to them by showing them his usual self right away. He wanted them to see that logic and reason where more important to him than appearances and traditions. Celtine disagreed with his point of view however and took a long time to convince him otherwise.

Despite how he felt reluctant to yield on this she was adamant that being forced to walk for once wasn't so terrible. She had convinced him that enduring for now would be better in the long run than to confronting them head on. He had ended up agreeing that instead of placing himself as an opponent, he should first try to see if they were truly on his uncle side and if they could be turned to his own.

Taking things head on was a perfectly fine way to do things for a Muracier as none of them seemed to like going at things in a roundabout way. That was what he first believed he should do as it would bring him respect for upholding what he believed was right. It didn't mean it was the only way to go however and as long as Celtine or someone else was able to provide a proper argument to show the other option was better he was willing to change his mind.

In this case, he ended up agreeing that as long as Celtine wasn't bothered to not ride on his shoulders for a while, it would be for the best to not alienate them for something so silly. It would be more advantageous to learn about them first. He should act more like wind around a boulder instead of a hammer, that was what she said.

"You won't be on my shoulders but I'll keep all four of you around me to provide help and advice." He finally answered her question.

Svae and the Porter sisters would help her stand if there was such a need and the mere presence of those four shouldn't annoy them too much since two were his own sealed slaves and two were his retainers. It was his right to want them close to provide assistance. Celtine would be able to take notes as usual, Svae would be close by to do the servant work that needed to be done and the Porter sisters would be able to learn and maybe help if the occasion presented itself.

"By you four you mean Erin, Leo and me too right?" Svae asked to confirm.

She was currently swimming at his side, just high enough to catch the sisters if they happened to fall from the horse. Emp didn't think they would fall though, they were getting pretty good at it. That being said...

"Yes, I'll keep all of you close but I'll have to have you all walk. Getting here on foot and lending you my horse is fine but I can't meet the lords on foot. We'll have to switch before we get there."

"Oh! Thank the ancestors!" Leo cried out while Erin let out a profound sigh.

Maybe they didn't like riding all that much.

"I'll repeat it all before we meet them but just to be safe, I'll ask you three to stay silent with them. Unless you're directly spoken to, please don't say anything. Celtine can still write me some messages because they won't be able to hear but that's all."

"Don't worry, we won't disappoint you!" Erin said while straightening her back in pride.

That was a good answer but he still gave them an additional warning and advice.

"Even if they look down on you for your age or size, don't fall for the provocation. Even if they were to snicker, it would not be the time to prove them wrong, you would just seem immature. Just wait for the right moment to show them your worth, whatever they say or think, remember that you two are here because I trust you and I believe in your talent."

Leo made a sour face in answer while Erin smile deepened.

"We'll show them you are right and make you proud!"

Emp would rather have her stay calm than try to impress anyone but if she at least understood the point, Emp didn't feel the need to insist anymore.

\u003c I'm happy that you care so much for me that you're reluctant on letting me walk by myself but I'm also glad that we can agree on what needs to be done. I really don't want to be a burden to you and I need you to succeed to get what I want. \u003e

Emp didn't know how to answer that properly so he just rubbed her ankle affectionately. He wasn't sure that this was really all that she wanted to say but he knew it would be impossible to extract her complete thoughts from her. She made it sound like she wanted him to succeed only for her own benefit but he believed she really wanted him to win regardless of whether it helped her or not.

Since the time he had spoken to her about his desire to get her love, it had been pretty hard to get her to state any of her own desires at all. She had somewhat closed up despite his best efforts and whenever a topic like that came up and he insisted, he would get no answer aside from her obvious frustration.

He knew it was important to speak to her again about all of this. Not only because he wanted her to be happy no matter what but also because it was this talk that had prompted him to say he'd make himself the emperor of Steelwood for the first time. This was a sort of turning point for him but even after all of this time, he still hadn't managed to get an answer out of her. He just wanted her to tell him if absorbing the tribes land and ending that senseless war would be enough for her to acknowledge his feelings. He just wanted her to tell him what she wanted him to do.

He felt he still shared a good relationship with her but missed how open it was before. There was some sort of veil between them now and he couldn't get through it. All he could do was to show her that he hadn't changed his mind.

The voice of Jin interrupted his thoughts as he rode his horse closer to him.

"Lord heir great general, sir, you called for me?"

He sounded formal but still looked upbeat. He wasn't worried at all about why Emp called him here. He had been in a really great mood since they left Dark-glint after all.

Turning his head towards Jin, he saw that today as well, the mouse-like girl rode with him on his horse. He held her in front of him and it didn't obstruct his line of sight at all because she was too small. Cursed-bloods from the mouse tribe were always short and Jin was rather tall so this wasn't strange at all.

The girl looked equally pleased and embarrassed. As they left Dark-glint, she had mostly looked worried but as things went on and she understood that no one was bothered by how close to her master she was, she had relaxed a lot. Now she was just embarrassed by this public display even though she seemed to enjoy it too. Her long tail was coiled around the leg of Jin and holding on to him as strongly as it could and her back was resting on him.

Emp hoped the two of them would not be too upset by what he had to tell them.

"I did call for you. We need to talk about how we will all present ourselves to the troops we're joining with. I don't know yet what to expect from their commanders so Kenneth and I are going around to ask everyone to refrain from doing anything strange."

Jin immediately frowned.

"I think I know where this is going already."

"It annoys me too but once we get closer to them, I'd like you to not be so open about your relationship with her."

"What was the point of telling me I was free to do as I pleased if it was to take that right back just after." He asked in clear displeasure.

The mouse girl tried to calm him down but it didn't seem that effective.

"I'm not telling you to put an end to it, I'm telling you to not wave it right in the face of the commanders waiting for us. I don't know how they'll react and as long as I'm not the actual great general, I can't force their hands effectively.

I can't let them use something that silly to go against me and help my uncle, we can't show mistakes or weaknesses. That's why I'll put Celtine down too and order Svaenaha to walk instead of fly as well. I'm just telling you to keep it private while I'm looking for how to deal with them.

If they turn out to be friendly enough then I'll let you do as you please again. If they aren't you just have to not turn her into a target. Please understand what's at stake here."

Jin still looked unsatisfied but had to bend in front of Emp's orders.

"Understood general. I won't make things difficult for you."

The mouse twisted her upper body around to look at him in the eye and spoke a few words.

"Don't be upset. I'm fine, I don't want to cause you any trouble." She assured him.

She was sincere of course but Emp understood that Jin didn't care at all whether she caused him trouble or not. He was clearly willing to face the problems. Now that his heart had been left out of the box it was hiding in, he was unwilling to place it back inside.

Once again, her words were ineffective on him. He was certain that she would eventually manage to soothe him but at least for now, he needed to give something more to Jin.

"If a conflict still happens over this, I'll take your side. I am not a coward Jin, I will stand for what I think is right. The way people treat the cursed-bloods is wrong to begin with. I want to make a change, I will make a change, but this isn't the way to do it or the time for it.

I still believe that if you two love each other, you should not be ashamed of it but I need some time to find a real solution. Please, for now, take comfort in knowing that everyone here is working towards the same goal and have no problems with you and her."

Jin looked at the soldiers and officers around them. They had been pretending to not be listening in but Emp was talking out in the open so of course they overheard most of it. Since Jin looked their way, they showed and voiced their support to prove Emp right.

Emp felt he just needed to show everyone the good side of the cursed-bloods to get the favorable opinion of the majority. As for the soldiers of his legion, Emp felt they had mostly aligned with him.

It couldn't be said that all the soldiers in the legion were in agreement since all sorts of opinion and past experiences existed, there would always be some that disagreed. Since their leader Emp Muracier was pretty open about his own opinion however, the current majority sided his way. Those already in agreement had been bolstered by Emp and those clearly against had either changed their mind or bit their tongue like their opponents usually did.

One of them even made some explicit comment about how cute he thought the mouse girl was. That wasn't really proper but not worthy of a punishment from him. Maybe his rooter would scold him later for it. The next moment, a rock crashed into his helm with a loud bang and the offending soldier collapsed unconscious with his helm bent inwards.

"Spencer got knocked out!" The surrounding soldiers mocked while Emp turned an accusing frown towards Leo.

"I don't understand why you said that throwing rocks at the bad guys wasn't a good idea. It's really effective!" She claimed in excitement.

"I don't think that's why he's frowning." Svae told the younger girl.

The two of them had now fully assimilated the elixirs and were much stronger and faster than they were before. The rocks they could now throw no longer just harmlessly bounced off armor but punched deep dents into them instead. Rocks were now lethal weapons in their hands.

He still thought that rocks weren't proper weapons however and didn't want them to hit his own troops.

"Could you please refrain from knocking out my troops while we're marching." Emp said on a scolding tone.

"What? Why? What he said was clearly uncalled for and inappropriate, he got what he deserved, he's a bad guy."

"Yeah but he's still one of his soldiers, he needs them to fight for him, they're no good if they're unconscious." Erin explained to her sister.

That was only half right but now wasn't the time to try to explain to them who in the hierarchy was supposed to inflict punishment on who nor was it the time to tell them that a rock in the head wasn't a proper punishment.

"Lady Leonni should take example from Lady Erin. She'd be much cuter." A soldier complained from the side.

"Yeah, lady Erin is the best after all! Lady Erin! Won't you please give me a chance! I'll show you how impressive I can be!" Another enthusiastic soldier shouted before a second loud bang knocked him out as well.

No luck for him it seemed. That was the harshest rejection Emp saw from Erin up to now.

Emp turned his frown towards Erin who quickly tried to pretend that it was Leo who threw that second stone as well. Emp wouldn't be deceived however.

"Erin, you know that when you two damage those helm I have to either replace them or have them repaired right?"

"I think the general is missing the point too." Another soldier complained in a whisper.

"That's because he trust the shacking lad who stutters a lot to pull us back on our feet."

Emp ignored them and focused on Erin who lowered her head in apology.

"I'm sorry, the rock flew on its own."

"Where did you get all those stones anyway?"

Leo puffed up her chest to tell him.

"We picked them up earlier while we where ups/" Erin interrupted her quickly while blocking the mouth of her sister with her hand. "While we were up on the hill! Earlier while we were up on that short hill, yeah."

Emp thought it was a bit suspicious but since the soldiers around them chuckled it probably wasn't something too outrageous so he let the lie slide.

In any case, Jin seemed to feel a bit better now so Emp let him go.

Now he just had to hope that no one would do anything ridiculous in a few days when they met the others.

Behind him the rooters were working hard to fix the mess so everything was fine for now.

"Don't just let them lie there in the middle of the road! Someone come pick those two idiots up!"