Chapter 162: Prep For War (P2)

"Are you sure you saw them head this way?" Juri asks, and annoyingly not for the first time.

Lazily, I lift my tired head from the neck of my trotting horse and look at the tall, broad man fitted in fine steel armour and set right with his large broadsword.

"Do you doubt my magic, Juri?" The man hesitates to answer. Good, this is how it ought to be at the beginning. The friendly, quick to speak nature of these my so-called councilmen irks me.

I would have thought throwing the Diviner in a dungeon and rounding up the litter of priests that wander about the city would have been sufficient action to show I'm not of the intents of being a 'normal' Mayor.

"If you doubt my magic then volunteer for it to be tested on you, I've got more than a few rituals pending trials, Juri and I need volunteers…live ones."

"Oh, don't bother the man so much." Anselm sighs, "He was just asking a simple question, I too wonder if your familiar truly saw them go this way."

Now this makes me sit upright, "Why is everyone so doubtful of me today? First Kaylin now you and Juri?"

Looking back, I scream at the relatively mute soldiers following on horseback, "Do you lot also doubt me? Let me know!"

They don't answer. Muttering quietly to themselves in confusion

"Well, according to Kaylin you haven't been very inspiring lately."

"Have you been talking to everyone you meet while I toil in that office trying to sort things out?"

He shrugs, "Administration has never been my strong suit," flexing a muscle he smiles, "I'm sure you'd agree."

"Is that really something you should be saying about yourself? Doesn't at all seem embarrassing, or perhaps, just maybe self-deprecating?"

Anselm chuckles and shakes his head, "Nothing self-deprecating about knowing your strengths and your weaknesses, Asher. Isn't that right, Juri?"

Juri looks lost but nods nonetheless. The middle-aged, buff man however, poses a question, "I simply ask if this is truly the way an injured person from Aste…from this March even, would go to."

"And why wouldn't an injured person want to go this way, Juri?"

He looks stunned, "Uh, I told you, earlier when you made your way out of the Palace…"

"Did you? Uh nope, I don't remember that."

"It's the reason we're bringing fifty of Aste's best guard with us? Remember I suggested, or rather begged that you let us come with you?"

"Hmm. No, I thought bringing them was my idea. I have some use for them."

"Aside protection from the monsters?"

"Yes, aside protection from the…wait, monsters?"

"Monsters?" Anselm queries, looking just as puzzled but perhaps more excited than I at the thought.

Juri lets out an exhausted sigh.

"Tell us why again would you Juri, I'm all ears this time."

The man, looking quite disheartened sighs yet again. "I see. Well, you spoke of your…familiar communicating to you that the people we are after were in a village called Demme, Demme is to the North of Aste, where the forest is thick and the grass is as long as a man."

"So, these forests have monsters in them? What does that have to do with us?" Anselm asks.

"The monsters do not simply plague this village; they are actively in combat with it."

"How does that happen? Aren't monsters supposed to be rare and mind their business?" At least, this is what I've thought of them for a while. 

The goblins I saw living in the cave could either be a product of the cave which may actually be a dungeon…or perhaps more likely, the goblins are just another species in this world, much like human, dwarf or elf.

Juri shakes his head to this, "You approach from the south of the land, you have spoken of places like Carbina, Ioina and Arak. These places have been infested with the Cult presence for long, and the Cult is no good news for anyone."

"Monsters living in those areas have long been forced to migrate up North, during the migration period even Aste was faced with its own monster trouble. But in the end, a great many of these monsters, with grassy, vegetative regions being their natural habitat, found a home in the spiralling forest we will soon see much of."

Isn't that interesting. I have yet to stop learning the history of this land it seems.

Juri continues, "Demme is right at the mouth of this forest, and while many of the monsters living within it are not particularly quick to violence, an incident occurred between the previous Mayor of Aste and the Mayor of Demme."

"Previous Mayor being Serue?"

"No, I speak of Trever."

"Right then, the same Mayor that was…violent with the elves."

Juri's cheeks redden at the mention of this, "I apologize for my actions in those days, I was only doing as my Mayor asked of me." He bows his head lowly as he says this. 

"I also apologize for the…recent killings I have been a part of."

I stay silent for a bit, staring at the centre of his head; there are greys littered all around, I wonder if he realizes his age will likely be what puts him out of the job.

Perhaps he does.

"It's alright, Juri" he lifts his head at this, "Orders are orders." I understand that better than most, I think.

"Keep the same attitude with me then, if you've been unquestioning, not bothering to check, or reason if the orders you're given are warranted with other Mayors, then keep the same blind loyalty with me, should I perceive anything less then I will truly be offended."

It may be wrong to draft the atrocities of a man as simply 'orders' but I believe I am not exempt from persecution either, especially in my past life.

And perhaps, I am not exempt as the commander giving the orders in this life either, after all, I have asked Kaylin to do rather…

But perhaps that sort of thinking may be reserved simply for those of a moral mind. In a world where there are crazy Cult gods, Wolf Deities and a Winter deity that brings blessing through suffering, I doubt many people are too hung up on these things.

"Now, please continue."