Chapter 6
25th Day, Upper Wind Month, 1 CE
In the darkness of the night, Nel lay alone, staring at the ceiling of her manor. It was a small manor – a tent, really – and the ceiling was made of sturdy canvas. Her face was frozen and she didn’t want to leave her bedroll. Not only was it terribly cold, but worries plagued her restless rest.
Many of those worries she was sure were needless, but they bothered her nonetheless. So, however, were very much real and would affect the future of her territory.
Sothing struck the roof of her tent with a loud tak. She ducked under her covers. After a mont, she heard the flutter of wings over her hamring heart. The cries of several ravens sounded. They were so loud that they may as well have been inside the tent with her. Nel squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the cacophony above. Her eyes opened again when a new worry arose.
What if they attack the supplies?
They couldn’t afford that. She threw back her blankets, whimpering over how cold it was as she unfastened the entrance of her tent. Outside, she found a dozen of her n already awake, sitting around the campfire eating breakfast. The ravens were nowhere to be seen. Her n turned their heads to greet her.
“Mornin’ Mistress…”
Their greeting trailed off into silence. The gazes of the n slowly slid down her figure. Nel frowned and looked down as well. Then she let out a screech and ran back into her tent.
A half-hour later, she ca out again, fully dressed for the day. The n at the campfire were gone, replaced by a different set of n.
“Mornin’ Mistress Nel.”
“Good morning,” she put on a friendly smile. “Everyone’s up so early.”
“Naw, ain’t so early as that. Just seems that way ‘cause half the sky is mountain.”
She checked her pocket watch. It was five minutes past six. She was used to getting up around four when she worked in the highway patrol, but the months of working with Zu Chiru’s caravan – which took advantage of the late crowds – had broken the habit.
Her gaze turned eastward, trying to catch a glimpse of the dawn through the tall conifers. They were in the shadow of a mountain range that ran from north to south, so that ant they would have less sunlight overall. It would be colder than expected as a result. How would it all affect their future crop yields?
Nel went over to a row of structures on one side of the camp. Their wooden fras were made out of small tree trunks and thatched over with layers of freshly-cut pine and spruce branches. Two of them sheltered their supplies from the rain. Another was being used to dry firewood. The last was a temporary workspace. A few woodcutters were stripping down small branches and weaving them into wattle panels. Dozens of them had already been filled with daub and were drying around a nearby fire.
“How many storehouses will be finished today?” She asked.
“These four we got started yesterday will be done today, Mistress Nel,” one of the woodcutters replied. “The big workshop is next. Rangers say they need a smokehouse soon.”
Though all they had were Rangers and woodcutters, there was still plenty needed to properly accommodate their work.
“How are you feeling so far?” Nel asked.
“Feeling? Er…good, I guess? Everything we’re doing’s becoming sothing. It’s satisfying to see it all co up, even if it’s temporary.”
“Now that we’ve gotten started,” Nel asked, “is there anything that you need that you hadn’t considered before?”
“Hmm…I can’t think of anything offhand. We got everything we need to turn everything around us into the other things that we need. Just need to work–oh, all these stumps are going to be annoying as hell when the ti cos to clear ‘em away.”
“They are?”
“Uh-huh. Guess we never had to deal with it back on Lord Gran’s land since it’s already nice and tad. A bunch of us tried pulling one up while you were away yesterday and we couldn’t get it to budge. Maybe you got so magic for that?”
She thought back to what she had seen and studied. The Imperial Army’s engineers did all sorts of things related to civil engineering and public works. As far as she knew, however, any magic that they used only saved ti by emulating labour. They didn’t wiggle their fingers at a tree stump and make it go up in a poof of smoke. That would be wasteful, anyway.
“I’m a War Wizard,” Nel said, “but I can’t blast tree stumps out of the ground. Ida might have an answer.”
Ida specialised in Transmutation-school magic, though the reason that she did was tragically stupid. In their rising desperation, Ida’s magic-illiterate parents latched onto the fanciful notion that their magically-gifted daughter could learn spells that could turn lead into gold or rocks into gemstones. They demanded that she study such spells, sohow not understanding that gold and gemstones would be worthless if such spells existed at low tiers.
Their young daughter was burdened with an impossible task that she could only try her best to make progress in. When her parents finally gave up on the idea, they decided to ‘recoup their costs’ by pawning off their ‘failed investnt’.
“I’ll ask her, Mistress Nel,” the woodcutter said. “Where is she, anyway?”
Nel looked around, then went over to Ida’s tent. The entry flap was still tied shut from the inside.
“Ida? Ida!”
“Heehee…stop, that tickles!”
A frown crossed Nel’s features.
“Ida? Is there soone in there with you?”
There had better not be. Nel didn’t want to stick her nose into their private matters, but if they started sleeping with the settlers, it would set an unacceptable premise. That premise could only result in sothing crazy if there were four won and a hundred n by the end of sumr. She was already vaguely wary about their situation as it was.
Another giggle rose from inside the tent. Nel pointed her finger at the sealed tent flap.
“「Knock」.”
The rope holding the tent shut unfastened itself. The tent flap fell open, revealing Ida, who was sleeping in a very unladylike position.
She was belly up and bow-legged, looking like an upside-down frog. Her linen nightgown was hiked up above her midriff and a hand scratched her belly. A trail of drool leaked from the corner of her smiling mouth.
How is she not frozen like that?
“Heeheehee…”
“Ida!”
The woman jerked awake. She took a deep breath, peering through a crack I’m her eyelids.
“Wuh? Why is it so cold…”
Ida groped around, pulling her blanket over her body. Her breathing grew soft and regular.
“Ida!”
Ida groaned. Nel grew annoyed.
“Ida, wake up already!”
“But it’s still dark out…”
“It’s already six! We have work to do.”
“Six? But we’re not travelling anymore. Eight is decent…”
“CAPTAIN! GET THE SACK!”
Ida sat bolt upright, eyes wide.
“I’m up! Please, not the sack!”
Nel stared at the woman’s absolute state of panic. She was starting to wonder what went through their minds when she ntioned sacks.
A while later, Fendros, Elise and Ida were sitting on a log in front of the fire, ekly eating breakfast across from Nel. The n were already off to work, clearing more space for the base camp. She eyed their dark surroundings. The lighting would be poor until eight or nine.
“How much were they selling those magic lights in the harbour for again?” Nel asked.
“Eight imperial gold coins,” Fendros said. “I think the commoners here are wealthier than my parents ever were.”
Eight imperial gold coins could support a rural family of two adults and three children for half a year. Or cover the costs for a season in the city. Either way, it was an astonishing amount and the people here were casually throwing money around like that for luxuries.
“We need to bring that thing up with our people,” Nel said. “We can’t go on as planned.”
“We actually could,” Elise said. “It’s not just timber prices that are depressed here: grain and talwork are too. We can still achieve a higher quality of life here than in the Empire even if we don’t use the Undead.”
“But think of the progress we’d lose out on!” Nel said, “Don’t tell you’re satisfied with the bare minimum.”
The three won stared across the fire at her with blank looks. Nel sighed. Maybe that was their parents’ fault too.
Everything they shared with her pointed to an acceptance of the status quo. No, maybe it was more accurate to say that they were brought up desperately working to preserve their forr status quo. The people here were already going to do better than most, which, in their minds, was more than good enough.
But did anyone really think that way? It was true that most people had to settle for their lot in life and live within their ans at so point, but she didn’t think that anyone would pass up the opportunity to improve their situation if it was made available to them.
For Nel’s part, she was raised to constantly improve. Her family wasn’t obsessed over it, but they sought to advance their magic item business and expanded House Gran’s library of spells. Opportunities to enhance and optimise the operations of their already-developed land were rare and costly, and one like this would be seized without question. Seeing Fendros and the others turn up their noses at the chance felt crazy to her.
Her common sense was apparently not common sense at all. At least between them. She never imagined that they could think so differently being of the sa age and attending the academy together.
“Do you really believe that the n will be satisfied with that?” Nel asked.
“Do you really believe that the n will go along with the idea?” Elise asked back, “There might not be any temples here, but they all worship The Four.”
It was a valid, yet stupid concern. In the Empire, the nature of created or summoned Undead was a major point of contention. The Imperial Ministry of Magic and, by extension, the Imperial Magic Academy, asserted that they were no different than any other summon. The Temples claid that the Undead were the Undead, no matter their origin, and that they would bring with them all the ills attributed to their unholy and unnatural existence.
Attendance at the Imperial Magic Academy was mandatory for Noble scions, but only the most talented of commoners could win a scholarship or draw the eye of a wealthy benefactor to pay for tuition. Beyond that, almost everyone finished their apprenticeships before academy age. By the ti a commoner was fourteen, they had already finished their apprenticeships and would be engaged in their professional careers.
Everyone, however, went to the Temples throughout their lives. Nearly the entire literate population attended temple schools. Thus, those that shared the Ministry of Magic's stance were a tiny minority.
Nel could just order them to work with the Undead, but she didn’t want to do that. She needed to figure out alternative thods to get them to accept Undead labour. Maybe ti and exposure would take care of their reservations.
“I guess we’ll see what happens,” Nel said. “Let’s sort out our work for now.”
The previous evening, they had divided the woodcutters into teams of five. Their Rangers worked in pairs. The first task – the creation of their base camp – would keep them busy for weeks.
There was a whole pile of processes to observe in the manual Nonna had provided them. Their Rangers had to do survey work, not just for the terrain, but for everything in the area. Plants, animals and minerals had to be identified and catalogued.
Fendros and Elise, who specialised in divination-school magic, could help with identification. Ida would help with construction, moving soil around with magic. She could also use Shape Wood to straighten branches and minimise waste in processing timber. While they waited for their mana to regenerate, the three would study the materials that Nel left with them and help with accounting.
Nel, to her great chagrin, was probably the most useless out of them. She was a War Wizard who worked with the Imperial Air Service, aning that any non-combat-related magic that she had learned revolved around her duties with the highway patrol. Those spells also included many of the identification spells that Fendros and Elise used, but, since they were specialists, she left it to them.
As a result, she was the one flying samples of unidentified stuff from the territory to the harbour. She also delivered reports to Baroness Zahradnik’s manor. The rest of her ti was spent checking on the progress of the camp, updating their records and making sure everything was roughly on track.
The day went by and she read through the Sorcerous Kingdom’s materials, discovering that she had to rework almost everything to be in line with the administration’s policies and expectations. With how different everything was, she decided to allocate so ti to observe how the people in other parts of the territory worked.
About three hours past noon, a pair of Rangers returned from the most recent leg of their survey, which went ten kilotres up the tributary flowing past their base camp.
“Mistress Nel, we found so Demihumans upriver.”
Everyone looked up at the Ranger delivering the report.
“…what kind of Demihumans?” Nel asked.
“Goblins. We started seeing them about five kilotres out, partway into the trees on the opposite shore. On the way back, we noticed more of ‘em.”
“What were they doing?”
“Um…dunno? Maybe a Ranger from the border might be able to tell, but we didn’t have no Demis in the old barony.”
All gazes in the camp turned to her. She placed the binder in her lap on the log she was seated on.
“Is there any way for them to cross?”
“Not easily,” the Ranger replied. “Well, I dunno how well Goblins can swim, but things are warming up bit by bit here and the lt’s flooding the river. They’d have to go the long way around to get to us…”
“Are we going to be raided?” Elise asked worriedly.
“I don’t have any war magic,” Fendros said.
“We could set up patrols,” the Ranger offered. “Our kit’s for hunting, but an arrow’ll go into a Goblin just as easily as it’ll go into a deer.”
“W-wait a minute!” Nel said, “We can’t start killing and eating the neighbours so suddenly!”
The Ranger blinked.
“E-eating them, Mistress Nel?”
“I an being violent. We can’t just go out and attack people for no reason.”
Even if they were allowed to fight and eat each other, there must be sothing that kept the area from erupting into a perpetual state of warfare.
“Continue your surveys of the territory,” Nel said. “I’ll figure out what to do about the Goblins.”
“Will do, Mistress Nel.”
She rose from her log, brushing the debris off of her skirts. During their journey around the Empire, Da Verilyn always spoke about Human nature and how it tended to place Humans at odds with their neighbours. In the Sorcerous Kingdom, they had already seen Goblins in the border town and E-Rantel, so there was a chance that these ones wouldn’t try to eat her.
“What are you going to do?” Fendros asked.
“I should see what they’re like for myself,” Nel answered. “If they can’t cross the river, I’ll just watch them from the river.”
Nel went and put on her equipnt before leaving the camp. She cast a Fly spell, rising through the trees and over the river. Lowering her flight goggles, she scanned the gaps in the undergrowth for signs of Demihuman activity.
If I was a Goblin, where would I be…
In hindsight, the education from the Imperial Army concerning Goblins was ‘tactical’ in nature. Her coursework and training went over their strengths and weaknesses, how they fought and how to identify the different individuals that might appear in a raid. She knew nothing about how they lived, their perspectives or anything about their tribal societies aside from the fact that they had tribal societies.
She activated her Invisibility cloak when she spotted movent in the trees.
So close! They’re only two kilotres from the base camp…
The swollen river was two hundred tres across, so there was at least that. Nel descended to canopy level, carefully drifting closer to the Goblin camp. Being invisible was not a guarantee that one would not be detected. Goblins did not have any senses that Humans did not have, but there was a chance that they could still sll or hear her. A powerful Ranger would have no problems detecting an invisible individual nearby.
Four Goblins slept around a small campfire. A mystic sat under a lean-to made out of woven branches similar to the wattle panels her woodcutters were fashioning. Three more were labouring, though she couldn’t tell what exactly it was that they were doing.
She moved closer, hovering in the branches above trying to identify what sort of equipnt they had. All of them had crude stone spears close at hand. A row of unstrung bows was being kept dry near the fire. Aside from the mystic, who had so sort of ceremonial accessories on, all the Goblins had in terms of armour were tanned hides.
Wait, tanned hides?
If they knew how to tan animal hides, then they also knew the rudintary alchemical processes involved. They had basic construction skills, as well as woodworking and weapon crafting. The pieces of at roasting over the campfire ant that they could cook and the mystic was working with herbs.
Goblins were generally seen as a primitive race. What they were doing was primitive, but most people’s idea of ‘primitive’ ant having absolutely nothing beyond sticks and stones. The Goblins below her had all of the basic skills required to eventually build villages and towns, so why were they living out in the wilderness with barely anything?
Nel flew away with a strange new puzzle to think about. She examined three more Goblin camps, seeing more of the sa. Upon her return, Fendros, Elise and Ida got up from around the central fire to see her.
“Nel, are you alright?” Fendros asked.
“Did you get into any fights?” Ida trembled.
“I didn’t go out to fight,” Nel furrowed her brow. “I don’t think we need to worry about them for now.”
“Are you sure?” Elise looked in the direction of the river.
“I’m pretty sure,” Nel said. “First of all, they don’t look like they’re preparing to fight – it just looks like they live there. Secondly, it’s freaking cold on this side! Their side is warr. It’s green and there are animals everywhere. The Goblins use campfires and clothing to stay warm, so I can’t think of any reason why they’d want to co to our side.”
She was starting to grow jealous of the Goblins because of that. Hopefully, Da Verilyn’s territory would get nice and warm soon.
“Did anything happen while I was away?” Nel asked.
“The Rangers brought a deer in,” Fendros said. “We’re using all of our mana to summon salt and li for them now.”
Nel nodded. Hides and at both needed to be cured. With the price of almost everything else being so low, what her Rangers brought in would be the territory’s most valuable exports.
“What else?”
“We’ve packed today’s survey samples in the crate for you to take to the harbour…that’s about it.”
Was it already that late? It was. With so much to do, ti was flying by.
Nel flew off to the harbour with the crate. This ti, an aerial patrol didn’t intercept her.
I’ve been using too much mana on flight magic lately…
If she went by the rates for magic in the Empire, she was burning through several silver coins’ worth of mana every day on Fly alone. It was convenient to get around quickly, but it wasn’t necessary now that she had a feel for how to pace out her new job. Since she couldn’t conjure commodities like the others, the best use of her mana was to study magic and conduct research.
It was sothing she would have to get used to. The Imperial Magic Academy only ntioned the subject of magic research in passing, as it was sothing generally reserved for the Imperial Ministry of Magic – or to more bluntly put it, monopolised. However, Nel’s parents conducted independent magical research as a part of their business. She would be able to ask her family for help in getting started.
She arrived at Baroness Zahradnik’s manor, alighting on the street in front of its entrance. Two Death Knights stood on either side of it like spiky black sentries.
According to Da Gronvidr, these ones are footn…
“Nel Gran,” she announced herself. “I’m here to submit my evening report from Da Verilyn’s territory.”
The Death Knights exchanged a crimson-eyed look. One of them ca up to her, leaning forward with its arms extended. Nel placed her crate in its arms. The other Death Knight held open the door as she followed the first Death Knight through.
Wow, they really are footn.
Nel fixed the thought firmly in her mind. Before coming to the Sorcerous Kingdom, the Undead were more of a ‘concept’ than anything else. A threat. Unnatural abominations that harboured an unreasoning, unrelenting hatred for the living. That was what the Undead were to the citizens of the Empire…no, that was how they were seen by nearly the entire world.
In the Sorcerous Kingdom, all of the Undead labourers that she had seen so far were created by the Sorcerer King. Furthermore, they occupied familiar roles in society. That made them much easier to ‘digest’ – especially when they acted the part. The Death Knights in front of Lady Zahradnik’s place were footn. Nonna was a bureaucrat. The Undead in the army base were soldiers. Vampire Brides served as officials for the various branches of the Departnt of Transportation. The Elder Liches that intercepted her yesterday were patrolling aerial mages, just like her…well maybe not just like her, but the idea was the sa.
The Death Knight placed her crate on a table along the east wall of Nonna’s office. Nel offered her manifest and report to the Elder Lich, then waited quietly as the Undead administrator flipped through the pages. After several minutes, Nonna rose from her seat.
“Thank you for your hard work,” she said.
Nonna went over to remove the items from the crate. Nel watched as they were neatly organised on the table.
“Is there sothing else?” The Elder Lich asked.
“Um, yes, two things…”
The Elder Lich turned from her work to regard Nel silently.
“First,” Nel said, “I didn’t notice any rchant Guild branches here. We’d like to hire an agent, but there’s nothing written about that in the provided manuals.”
Nonna produced a clipboard from sowhere. The sound of her pen scrawling over paper filled the room. Did they write that loudly on purpose?
“Your request has been noted,” the Elder Lich said.
“Secondly, is it possible to build a stop for wagons across the river from our base camp? Like the lots we see for wagons around the Sorcerous Kingdom.”
“The Ministry of Transportation handles queries of this nature,” Nonna told her. “Their office is above the harbourmaster’s office.”
“I see. Thank you very much.”
Nel dipped her head before having the Death Knight footman escort her back outside. The sun had dipped below the highlands in the west, but, unlike villages in the Empire, sleep did not co with sunset. Magical lighting turned the area as bright as Arwintar’s market district. The settlent looked far more active than it had been during the day, with people of all vocations coming out to dine, socialise and shop.
Rather than the remote, undeveloped frontier villages described in stories and observed in her aerial patrols, Warden’s Vale represented a different sort of frontier. Baroness Zahradnik wasn’t developing her territory in so effort to ‘catch up’ to the developnt of the interior – she was pioneering sothing entirely new. A concept unknown to the imagination of the region. Nel wondered who or what it was that had inspired her to do so.
She took a wagon to the harbour, eting with a Vampire Bride official to make her request. The discussion was short, consisting of her asking and the Vampire Bride saying ‘okay’. There was paperwork of a sort, which consisted of her filling out a blank page with what she wanted and why.
Fifteen minutes later, she was riding a freight wagon south out of Warden’s Vale. Nel was instructed to park the wagon where she wanted the new stop to be. The construction crews would co by at so point and turn it into a proper lot. She couldn’t help but feel a bit strange over the lack of the usual bureaucratic delay in everything.
Her request involved building piers on both sides of the river, which would allow the Death Warrior captain to ferry goods back and forth between Da Verilyn’s territory and the highway. It was a temporary arrangent, as a barge route was projected to start between the Upper Reaches and Warden’s Vale in two or three years, depending on how well things progressed.
That being said, it would be crucial for when land developnt in Da’s territory started to exceed their current capacity to export through the knarr alone. It would also save Nel mana from flying back and forth every day.
Nel spent a good half an hour figuring out where she wanted the Soul Eater to park its wagon, as she wasn’t exactly sure where the future piers would be and thus where the wagon stop should be. After that, she flew across the river and returned to the camp. Ida looked up from her place by the central campfire.
“Welco back,” she said.
“I’m back…I’m ho?”
“Does it already feel like ho?” Ida asked.
With nothing but endless conifers and crude construction, it was a long way from being the developed lands of the Empire that they were used to. Then again…
“I don’t think it will ever be like the Empire,” Nel answered, “but that’s not a bad thing. There are a lot of odd rules and regulations to observe here, but we’ll probably end up falling in love with this place once it begins to take shape.”
Ida looked up at her with a quiet smile.
“What?” Nel frowned.
“You’re really sothing else, you know,” Ida said. “You’re more of a Noble than my parents ever were. Or anyone else I’ve seen really. Except for Lady Zahradnik…and you’re more like her than us. Looking back at everything and my parents did and comparing it to you, it all feels fake. I…I should apologise too. Back when we were travelling together with Zu Chiru, we thought you were just like us. That you lived in the sa world as us – that world where appearances and prestige are everything; where we constantly have to look behind us and endlessly fight for every advantage against people that didn’t care whether we lived or died.”
“Maybe my approach was different,” Nel said, “but I lived in that sa world, too.”
Ida looked down at the carpet of needles at her feet, her smile turning lancholy.
“But you didn’t,” she said. “You really didn’t. The way you see things; the way you act. It’s all so different. It’s like you’re from sowhere else – so better place that I can’t even imagine. When you talk with us, we hear what you say but we can’t see what you do. We can’t think what you think. Everything you say goes into our ears and it becos twisted into our reality. We’re just terrible people, Nel.”
“Do you plan on remaining terrible people?”
Ida looked back up at her.
“Do you plan on remaining terrible people?” Nel asked again, “Even when you’ve moved to the Sorcerous Kingdom; when you’ve co all the way out to the wilderness, is the Empire still ‘reality’? Did you leave your heart in Arwintar sowhere?”
Nel sat down on the log beside Ida, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
“You say that I’m from so different world, but you’re wrong. The difference is that my house refused to follow the path that your houses did. That ant we couldn’t get ahead like so others and we lived pretty humble lives, but it also ant that we remained free of all the filth choking so much of the Empire and so many of its people. It’s not as if we’re unique in this, either – there are plenty of others who do the sa in their own way.
“Sowhere in the past, your houses made a choice. That choice affected every generation after that, but it didn’t force them to stick to that choice. Now, it’s your turn. Your family isn’t here. We’re not even in the Empire anymore. There’s nothing that makes it necessary to remain that way.”
“You make it sound so simple,” Ida sighed.
“I don’t know how hard or simple it is,” Nel said. “But I do think that a lot of those things you think are terrible don’t necessarily have to be. They’re just experiences and skills turned in the wrong direction. Changing that direction is a choice that you have to make – no one else can change you on your behalf. And, out here, no one can stop you except for yourself.”
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