Chapter 8

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-VB-

Zernez

Fingers drummed on the wooden table.

Only two valleys away from the Bishopric of Chur, the head of the Wildenburg noble family sat within a small room dedicated to his family's gathering. All of the family's important members were here. His retired father, his son, his daughter-in-law, his grandson, and he all sat in a circular table wide enough to comfortably keep them occupied but not too wide enough to make them feel distant from one another.

"The Bishop of Chur lost," he opened up. "And lost a significant chunk of his levies along with his men-at-arms."

"You wish to use this chance to break us away from the zealous bishop's influence," his elderly father, Ulrich von Wildenburg, spoke up.

"I do, father," he nodded. "Unfortunately, the damn baron who won against the bishop stands between us and the bishop. If his martial prowess is anything to go by from his victory over the bishop, then he would not idly let her pass through his lands."

"But of course. Our two families have been at odds for years," his son, Terrance von Wildenburg, agreed while ruffling his short light brown hair before letting his hand drop again. Ruffling one's hair was kind of a trait among the Wildenburgs*. "But is the baron not also weak from losing troops?"

"Ha!" Rudolf von Wildenburg barked out a laugh. "Saying he lost troops is like saying he gained nothing. He lost a few men-at-arms and levies just like the bishop but not in the staggering numbers. Why, I heard that the baron barely lost a hundred troops!" This came from a merchant who sold goods at baron's seat of power and had traveled south and then north to sell his goods at their castle town. "In fact, I wager that he is very tense right now and more than a few levies have been hired on as full time men-at-arms to replace his lost ones. He must know that the beating he gave the bishop won't go unnoticed or not taken advantage of."

"... Then should we not strike when we have the chance?" Hugo, his grandson, asked.

"Yes, but the baron will have his troops ready. Our Greifenstein Castle does not hold enough men to surprise attack the baron and win. No, if we must attack him, then it must start from here in Wildenburg Castle and Zernez."

"How do you suppose we do that in a timely manner?" Terrance asked him.

"The Fluela Pass," his father hummed. "We can use it to cross directly into the baron's lands. If we capture all of the villages in the valley while moving quickly, then we will no doubt prevent him from raising levies in that area. I suspect that depending on how quickly and successfully we conquer, the baron might not be able to raise any levy in the Landwasser Valley."

"How many men do you think we need, great-grandfather?" Hugo asked.

"I wager at least five hundred."

"Which … would be everyone we have," Rudolf grunted. "It'll leave Wildenburg with barely a hundred men as a garrison."

"But to miss this opportunity of a lifetime?"

"It'll be the fall of our family if we lose," Ulrich grunted. "But it is a risk worth taking if only because there will be too many other vultures who are after Chur."

Rudolf agreed with his father.

"... This will be a low war, won't it?" Hugo asked with a sigh.

"It must be if our family is to secure our future," his daughter-in-law, Adelina von Wildenburg nee Bormio, sighed. "We will do what is possible to keep the soldiers disciplined. After all, those villages will soon be under our control."

Rudolf agreed with her.

"What about our neighbors to the south?"

His family continued their discussion until the sunset, but by then, they had come to a decision.

Landwasser would be theirs.

-VB-

Landwasser-Fluela, Barony of Vaz

"Did you hear?"

I did not hear anything but gestured for Kraft to go on.

"The bishop got into another war. His northern neighbor, the Count of Sargans, is attacking him for Freudenburg while the Count of Toggenburg is attacking him for Maienfeld," he told me.

This was the first time he's visited me since he dropped two of his children off with me (it felt weird for me to call someone around my age "children" but then they were his children), and brought with him news of the outside world.

Apparently, the Bishopric of Chur was under assault from all sides, and shit didn't look good for us, too. Travaos was within the Barony of Vaz, which had been a part of Bishopric of Chur until a month ago. The short duration was enough casus belli for most lords to bring Vaz under their control.

I think I needed to prepare, one of which included finishing this month's scheduled training quest for a stat boost. I might also have to block off this valley so that no one who used the Fluela Pass could strike at Travaos without running over me.

After all, that village was Arnold, Kraft, and Alvia's home village; I wasn't going to let it burn without doing at least something about it.

"Thanks for telling me," I grunted. "I'll have to improve the defense of my home, just in case someone from the other side of the mountain decides to come over here," I said while gesturing towards the pass.

Kraft stared up at it, slightly pale, and then looked back at my home.

"I think you've done well on defenses."

I snorted. "It's not wrong to be overprepared but it is certainly wrong for one to be underprepared," I remarked before standing up from the log facing the small campfire near one of my guardhouses. "It might be time for you to take your kids with you."

He hesitated. "Have you… done anything with them? My daughter?"

I squinted, looking down at him while trying to determine exactly why he was asking about Alvia specifical…ly…

My eyes flew open as the implication set in. "Oh no no no no!" I vehemently rejected. "I haven't touched her that way!"

"But you touched her…?" he asked with his eyes covered by his bangs covering top half of his face.

"No! I just had to show her how to cut the gemstones!" I begged.

I was not going to be accused of eloping with a girl when I haven't even popped my cherry in this life yet!

"... I trust you."

"You do?"

"To take care of my daughter."

Oh God No.

It took me the whole day that nothing had happened between us, and Arnold attested to it. I wasn't sure why Kraft looked upset with his son about confirming that nothing happened.

Kraft took his children with him as he left, and that left me free to operate as I needed to.

Which meant no more dragging logs like I had to last time! No more stacking logs one at a time into a hole! Or digging holes!

Huzzah!

Seriously, building the high wooden walls took me so much longer than it had to because I had to hide my supernaturalness from the two Kraft-Travaos (my way of giving them unofficial surnames: a mix of their known parent's name and their village of origin; officially, none of them had a surname that my System recognized).

I rolled up my sleeve and walked over to the pile of logs waiting for me.

It was time to start making more walls, and after that, training time!

-VB-

Vaz, Barony of Vaz

Fredrick, the newly independent free-baron of Duchy of Swabia in abeyance, glared down at the letter in his hand.

No, it was not a letter but a declaration of war.

The Baron of Sax-Misox claimed the Mans*** portion of the Aluenude**** that was under the Barony of Vaz. The greedy baron cited "historical ties" and for him to hand it over.

It was all rubbish, of course. Sax-Misox saw an opportunity and wanted to jump in to claim a piece of the wounded lion. Frederick would fight against this greedy bastard. Let him come!

… But he knew as well that he was not strong. In fact, the only reason he won that battle in the first place despite numerical disadvantage was because of Hans. He wanted to call Hans to Vaz, but also knew that Hans was better used fighting potential enemies who might use the frequently traveled Fluela Pass to invade the Landwasser Valley.

No, he had to fight this out himself, no matter how painful it would be.

Perhaps it was time to hire more men-at-arms and, failing that, mercenaries.

He began calling up his men.

Now was not the time to celebrate.

War was coming to Vaz once again, and he and his men will stand against the tide of would-be plunderers!

-VB-

Landwasser-Fluela, Barony of Vaz

It took me only one day to complete what I had to slow down to complete.

Not only did I surround the first set of walls with a "china wall," a Rust in-game term for a high wall made using foundations, floors, and walls from the Construction Blueprint and not High External Wooden Walls, I also built a second set of high external walls around that! The china wall also served as an internal pathway for access up to the battlements of the china wall.

Then I also extended the second external high wall to completely wall off the more easily traversable areas of the valley.

My home stood out like a true fort from a distance, which also unnerved me. Would I and my home be mistaken for the local noble's fortification and come under assault?

… Maybe.

Probably.

Most likely.

Still, I preferred that I came under assault since I could take it better than a normal villager.

Now, it was time to put up additional defenses like wooden barricades all along the outer wall. Each wooden barricade consisted of lap-jointed three-inch-thick wood poles sharpened at both ends and separated by six inches between each cross and took up a volume of two yards long and one yard high and wide. I placed down at least a hundred of these.

As I did so, I lamented my lack of iron which I could have forged into wires and metal barricades. It would have done a much better job than wooden barricades which broke much more easily than metal barricades did. In fact, I was half-tempted to make World War I trench wire set up, but again, I lacked the iron reserve nor time to make those.

It took me another day to finish the new line of defensive barricades.

Perfect.

Now, I had time to train and finish the monthly training quest.

"718! 719! 720!"

I was going to be here for a while. Probably do away with sleeping, if only for a day or two, because I wouldn't be addling myself with sleep-deprived exhaustion with unrest about to hit the area. Still, I guessed that I was being ultra-conservative with those time estimates. Despite my past life's modern sensibilities still believing that the medieval world was filled with nothing but agony, pain, and war just like how movies and games liked to portray, the truth of the matter was that the Vaz-Chur war was the first big war that's happened around these parts.

There's no way that another war of that size would break out less than two months after the last one ended, right?

Right?

"734! 735!"

Just keep swinging~. Just keep swinging~.

"736!"

Just keep swinging~.

-VB-

[Character Status]

Name: Hans, son of Louis of Ourzcvelt, of Travaos

Age: 18

LvL: 27

HP: 490

MP: 200

ST: 245

STR: 39

END: 49

AGI: 60

DEX: 44

INT: 20

CHA: 8

Current Objective: Set Up Home [3/?]

Current Quest: N/A

-VB-

*Not much is stated about the Wildenburgs. This is one of the things I made up.

**Changed Vas to Vaz to clear up confusion.

***modern day Mons Albula

****Modern day Albula/Alvra

A/N: Yes, Hans like to call on Murphy more than is healthy.