[Tips] Scribes, secretaries, and tax collectors work in close proximity to the local magistrate. Often these jobs go to those who will succeed the rule of their canton or are in the running to be married into the family. Due to the nature of the job, reading, writing, and arithmetic are essentials, as well as an understanding of politics insofar as it ramifies on the magistrate and the local community.
Oftentimes, reality and your expectations don’t match up. I supposed I wasn’t the only one—many people probably were upset with their current lot in life. But I couldn’t help but think, I really wanna go on an adventure... This whole situation reminded me of how it felt after the third week in a row of nobody’s schedules lining up for our next tabletop session.
As I tried to tamp down my itch for excitement, I heard the warning bell and my body jolted up. I was having a light sleep, on a constant, low alert, and thanks to that my brain was able to get into gear quickly. I grabbed Schutzwolfe from its place by my side and headed out, not willing to waste any time even putting on armor.
“What’s the situation?” I said.
A Fellow who had been on watch on the north edge of the canton came rushing up to me. His breath was ragged from sprinting all the way here, but he managed to announce in a loud voice that a large assault had begun on the north end of Mottenheim.
“I need more than ‘large’! Give me some rough numbers and details!” I said.
“Frontline soldiers followed by a few tight formations! Those are the only details I have!”
“Understood. Good work and hurry with the evacuation!”
I almost found myself tutting despite being in front of my subordinate. Calm down, I told myself. People will panic if they see their leader panicking. Remain calm and composed. I sent my Fellow off to the Watchhouse and Mister Giesebrecht’s manor to begin the evacuation. We couldn’t keep them all packed together in their temporary residences in the plaza, so I’d sent everyone home today, the third day since Margit had left with the messengers. Our enemy, canny bastards that they were, had been keeping close tabs! It was painful to see them move into action so quickly.
I didn’t have the time to rush back for my armor; I hurried north and clambered up the watchtower as I had done a few days prior. The Watch stationed there with their quivers looked utterly shocked, but I couldn’t deal with that right now. I peered into my spyglass and finally let that tut slip.
Under the light of the waning half-moon, a group of shadows approached, as if laughing at the Night Goddess’s faltering protection. There were five tight rows made up of five to ten soldiers. Leading the charge was a group of assault troops. This group seemed small, but I supposed they were there to act as meat shields. Skirmishers like these were usually armed with bows and marched ahead to launch a projectile assault before the main forces engaged in battle. Their job was to collapse the enemy’s own formation. Indeed, a few in the front line coming toward us had a mishmash of bows; the remaining majority of them bore slings at the ready.
However, the distance was too great. The front line would get crushed as soon as they met the enemy forces and the main forces that followed couldn’t hide behind them when they were that far behind. Wait, I thought, they don’t need to hide them. This was all designed so that the front line could set off the napalm mines and negate any danger for the main forces that followed behind!
They had around eighty soldiers, with half of them being cast aside to protect the main forces. What a bleakly logical strategy. Granted, it only worked with fearless, perfectly obedient undead soldiers. If you asked a normal army to do this, you’d have a revolt on your hands.
In order to reduce the costs and produce as many mines as possible, I’d simplified their design so that they would activate either manually from a distance or automatically upon impact. I regretted not integrating a method so that I could choose one or the other. All I could do from here was turn them on or off—no freedom in between. And if I did turn them off, I would need to dig them up and imbue them with mana once again. I wouldn’t ask for such luxuries as being able to switch between functions. If only I could have been able to switch between on and deactivated, I’d have laughed at them as I temporarily disabled the mines then reactivated them once the main forces were in range. This had been a painful decision, considering how many we planted and to reduce labor, but it had come to screw me over now.
“Erich, our people are here, but we’re low on numbers for the evacu— Whoa, where’s your armor?!” my comrade said.
“Thanks Siegfried! And there wasn’t time to put it on!”
“Are you stupid?! Dammit, anyone got a moment to spare? Someone get his armor! Surely you don’t plan to send your boss into battle without his armor?!”
Someone responded immediately and dashed out from the line. I had made the decision because I needed to move into action in a hurry, but it wasn’t encouraging to see someone walking around a battlefield without any protection, so I was grateful. I’d dashed here wondering if I’d even have enough time to head back and get it.
“Sorry!” I said.
“Shut it and give your orders! We got eleven Fellows here in total. The others are helping with the evacuation and gettin’ our defenses up!”
Siegfried was moaning at me, but he didn’t have a full set of armor on either! He only had the top half of his new scale armor. I looked around and saw that we were all bearing signs of our having been caught on the back foot.
This wasn’t good. Our sentries were wearing helmets and breastplates to save their stamina during long shifts, but without full armor, they were dismayingly vulnerable in these conditions. I had been optimistic enough to think that the enemy wouldn’t come so quickly that we wouldn’t be able to prepare even a little. Forsaken by luck yet again.