Chapter 468 - First Contact Part III

Adrian Lemm was a young man in his early twenties, born and raised as an Austrian living in the province of Krain who came from a long line of anglers and hunters. He was too young to take part in Berengar's early conquests; however, when the Austrian Navy was founded, this young man was more than eager to sign up. 

If you were to tell Adrian that in a few years, he would be among the hundred or so marines dispatched to the mysterious land of Vinland on a top-secret mission alongside his King, he would scoff at you and insult your intelligence. Yet this was the reality he now faced.

Adrian was the squad leader of the Marine Reconnaissance Unit that had been dispatched as a part of the company of soldiers who accompanied King Berengar to the new world. Currently, he was in the field away from the outpost established for Austrian occupation.

Among the snowy landscape, this man and the soldiers beneath his command gazed upon an Algonquin village in the distance. To the Austrian soldiers, there was no distinction between them and the Mohawk who had visited the outpost in an act of friendship.

Despite this line of thinking, they carefully jotted down all intelligence on the nearby tribe; while the Mohawk had decided to act peacefully with the Austrian host; the Algonquin were instead preparing for war. The warriors painted their bodies in strange patterns and began to engage in their pre-combat rituals. 

Adrian gazed upon the warriors' actions as they gathered their warclubs and primitive flatbows. What the Marines witnessed was enough to confirm their suspicions, the natives of this land were not as peaceful as they were initially led to believe.

Those who had gathered at their fortress merely pretended to be friendly while their warriors prepared to invade.  With this information in hand, Adrian ordered his soldiers to fall back to the fortress and notify the garrison of the upcoming conflict. 

"We have seen enough to know of these Natives' intentions. Swiftly, we must return to the outpost and warn our soldiers of what is about to transpire!"

With that said, the Marine Reconnaissance force doubled back to the fortress to prepare their brothers for the combat that they would soon be facing. 

---

While Adrian and his soldiers were returning to the outpost, Berengar sat in the main cabin; a wood-burning stove had been set up to provide warmth to the structure; on top of it, Berengar cooked the contents of one of his rations. The canned was filled with diced chicken, that Berengar had marinated in a buffalo-style sauce. As the chicken grilled an intense aroma filled the cabin's interior, causing the Mohawk delegation to salivate in anticipation. 

Kahwihta gazed upon the tin cans that contained the food with a curious expression. Metallurgy was rare among the tribes of the Eastern Seaboard. Thus, she was interested in how these jars functioned and what the material was that they were comprised of. She had seen a lot of shining metallic substances in use by the pale-skin foreigners. 

This led her to believe that perhaps these pale skins were far more advanced than her people could even fathom. After all, they had rapidly constructed this timber fortress that was more defensible than any village she had come across in her travels. The beautiful teenage girl pouted as she reflected on her inability to communicate with these strangers. 

She had attempted to speak to the handsome one-eyed man, who appeared to be the leader of these people in all fifteen languages that she was fluent in, and yet, the man did not comprehend any of it. Because of this, Kahwihta was almost entirely sure that these golden-haired men had come from across the great sea. However, the very idea of their civilization being capable of doing such a thing brought an intense sense of fear to the chieftain's daughter. 

She had a firm resolve in her heart to avoid conflict with these men no matter what the cost may be. As such, she played the role of a perfectly humble delegate as she sat in the cabin waiting for Berengar and Honoria to finish cooking and serving the canned rations. After a while, the food was finished, and Berengar served it to his guests. 

Ultimately, the buffalo chicken was combined with cheese, onions, rice, and ranch to create a delicious casserole. Such a food had become a staple of the Austrian Military as it was easy to preserve, quick to cook, and quite delicious. Not only was it a common dish served to the soldiers of Austria, but to due to its inexpensive nature, it could be found within the lower and middle-class households across the Kingdoms of Austria, and Bohemia. 

The Mohawk Delegation nearly passed out as they tasted the exceptional flavor of the dish, the Chieftain's daughter, in particular, was deeply entranced with the meal as she dipped engorged herself on the substance. She began to speak in her language; from her tone of voice, Berengar could guess what she was asking, so he pointed to the resources that had been used to create the casserole and answered her in his native tongue. 

"Tyrol Sauce!"

He then pointed to the Ranch dressing and referred to it as such

"Ranch dressing!"

He repeated this action for every component, instructing the multilingual mohawk woman of the German language and how they referred to these items. To his surprise, she repeated the words back to him, making sure she was pronouncing them correctly, and committing them to memory. Thus while the two groups ate together, they educated each other on their languages. 

Ultimately, the peaceful meeting was cut short when a knock resounded on the King's cabin; Berengar instantly got up and opened the door to reveal none other than Sergeant Adrian Lemm, who immediately saluted his King before expressing the information he had acquired. 

"Your Majesty, I would not trust these savages if I were you; we found their village and marked its location on a map we are creating. They are preparing for war! These two-faced barbarians are probably here to spy on us and sabotage our operation when their Warband finally arrives!"

When Berengar heard this, he frowned. It was entirely possible that the Mohawk people were playing him; However, it was also likely that his marines had found a different tribe and had made a mistake in identification. The only reason Berengar was able to surmise this possibility was because of his status as a reincarnation. If he did not have the knowledge of his past life then he was liable to trust his scout's words as absolute proof of a conspiracy and in doing so make a huge mistake. 

Luckily, Berengar was more knowledgeable than his soldiers on the various tribes who inhabited this land, and thus he did not act upon this intel in the way that his soldiers might expect him to. Instead, he had a calm expression on his face as he gave his soldier an order.

"Hand over the map and whatever other intelligence you have gathered. I want you to alert the garrison and patrols that there is a high probability of conflict to occur shortly. Though I do not doubt your abilities, I sense no hostility from our guests; the village you found may be a rival to these people. After all, we have no way of knowing how large this land is, or how many different factions inhabit it..."

Adrian nodded his head as he heard his King's reasoning. He honestly did not even think of that as a possibility; these natives all looked the same to him after all. However, the King might have a point; these savages were clearly a tribalistic society, which meant that each village could have local governance. This meant that there was a possibility that their guests were friendly, whereas the other village they had encountered was entirely unrelated, and hostile. If such a scenario were reality, then Berengar's actions were understandable. 

After giving the orders, the Austrian King dismissed the marine Sergeant and brought the highly detailed map to the dining table. He had a frown on his face as he revealed the information that his soldiers had gathered. As Berengar pointed at the village's location, he inquired about what the Mohawk delegation might know about the area and the people who inhabited it. 

Shosheowa was the leader of the guards assigned to protect his sister; he was considered a great warrior of his village and an excellent scout. Upon seeing this map, he knew exactly who lived in this tribe and immediately shook his head—confirming in Berengar's eyes that this was not their village or their people who were preparing for war. 

Thus Berengar pointed at the map once more and then to the war club that Shosheowa had brought. He hoped that this gesture could communicate that this village was preparing for war. Luckily the man was intelligent enough to understand Berengar's intent, and thus his response was within Berengar's expectations. 

"Anishnabe"

was the word that Shosheowa used to refer to the people who inhabited this village. Berengar scratched his chin as he searched his memories before recalling that Anishnabe was what the Algonquin referred to themselves as. This meant that Shosheowa and Kahwihta were likely from the rival Iroquois Confederation, or one of the tribes that consisted of it. He now had a general understanding of what he was dealing with. 

If that were the case, his guests were most definitely hostile towards the tribe preparing to attack the Austrian fortress. Berengar had a wicked grin on his face as he thought about the massacre that was about to unfold. Honoria gazed over at her husband's expression and knew what he was thinking about; thus, she was not surprised when the Austrian King uttered the following phrase.

"Let them come! I want our guests to witness what happens when savages march upon Austrian soil!"

Though the mohawk delegation did not know what Berengar had said, they could tell by his expression that it was not anything kind.. Thus an eery atmosphere prevailed across the Austrian fortress as the marines and sailors stationed within prepared themselves for battle with the Algonquin warriors.