Chapter 14: The Problems Keep Escalating.
Two days later, life at the castle had returned to some semblance of normality. The hunter vacancies were filled, and with Rose's approval, Murat appointed one of his men as the new head of the hunting group. This appointment was intended for the man to map the area.
The following day, having finally gathered enough builders for the barricade, the Matchless Marshal ordered the start of construction for the defenses around the city.
It bothered Rose slightly that Murat was essentially taking control of what was, in essence, his city. However, after he confronted her and reminded her that he was not only the lord of the city but also the son of the great Emperor "Mama Hen," and that he valued his life too much to allow himself to be killed, Rose agreed to leave the military work to the Marshal. For his part, Desmos complained bitterly that he wouldn't be allowed to spill blood or guts.
Rose assured him that, sooner or later, they would be able to hunt down and disembowel Carter. This, in fact, cheered up the "talking spear," although the drawback was that he now hummed annoying songs about how he was going to dye the earth red with the blood of scammers and traitors.
Aurélie, in fact, found it amusing. Although she couldn't hear Desmos (since only someone connected to the Underworld could), she was aware of the mythical nature and the somewhat dark personality of the weapon. Besides, seeing Rose irritated was always an entertaining spectacle.
Changing the subject, the young woman had finally revealed to Rose the agreement struck between their respective fathers. To her relief, the young man took it relatively well. After all, they were lifelong friends and, honestly, the accumulated fatigue and stress probably contributed to the news not affecting him with the same intensity as it might have under other circumstances.
He had also explained that he couldn't take her on a proper date; for starters, there was no decent place to go in that "damned trash continent." They were only thirteen days away from the start of a war, and he would likely have a lot of work pending. She, for her part, had snorted inelegantly but finally assured him that, in any case, she preferred to be useful and work rather than behave like a spoiled princess who is dazzled by a man buying her things. After all, her father had been one of the men who emerged from the French Revolution.
Lady Caroline decided that she would teach the young prince how to manage the accounts. After all, he had revealed to her that he couldn't do it correctly, as he was reading the income and expenses as if they were silver and gold, when in reality they were copper and nickel. She, of course, had lost practice with those types of coins and promised to help him convert the currency to a standardized coin as soon as they overcame the current crisis. Even many years later, Rose would deny that he had cried with relief while clinging to his mother-in-law's skirts.
The remaining nine men of Murat were divided into four groups to take turns guarding the castle, supervising the construction of the city's defenses, and patrolling the territory's borders. With this, they sought to guarantee a minimum level of security until the thieves' feast arrived.
Regarding Mr. Han, Rose decided that he would serve as an instructor for the castle's administrators and scribes. Although the man was wise and capable of doing the job, his advanced age was a limiting factor; he himself admitted that a task as demanding as assisting Lady Carolina was not possible for him. This contrasted enormously with Murat, who, in his fifties, was much more efficient than Han, who was only fifty.
However, Rose understood that the difference in quality of life was probably the cause of Mr. Han's health problems. Therefore, Rose sought a way to utilize his skills that would not only allow him to live out his last years with dignity but would also be of great use, such as instructing more scribes and future bureaucrats.
Rose stared intently out of the main study window. His eyes settled on the castle walls, where the people and Murat's men worked together to reinforce the defenses. They had started with the simplest thing: barbed wire, which they were trying to cover with leaf litter. Rose was not convinced of the effectiveness of this tactic, as the leaves could serve as a cushion. However, he was not a soldier, and since it was a strategy pushed by Murat's own men, he supposed they must know something he was unaware of.
"My lord," the marshal's voice caught his attention, causing the young prince to turn toward him. "It seems we have... problems with the people who are enlisting."
"I figured as much," Rose said, turning to look at the man.
Truth be told, he couldn't blame the people for not wanting to enlist. Even though they were currently busy looking for meat to increase their protein intake or working on the defenses, the idea of facing a horde of bandits was, to say the least, terrifying for them. If he could, Rose would go home and take as many soldiers as possible, but that was unfeasible. Uncle Zef's collar had been designed to allow him to travel specifically with its particular dimensions.
"How many enlisted?" the young prince asked.
"To be honest, not many. And those who did are more like idiots with more hormones than brains, who barely passed the physical tests," Murat admitted with a heavy sigh. He knew he wouldn't get elite soldiers from among the peasants, nor anyone at the level of his own men. However, he expected more than teenagers just looking to impress some girl.
"Any ideas?" Rose asked. He really didn't expect to have a damned functional army overnight, but he would at least like his newly acquired people to live for at least a year.
"Honestly... without knowing how many thieves will attack us, there is very little I can plan, my lord," said Murat, who, to be honest, was thinking that maybe, just maybe, boarding the Providence with all the villagers and waiting for winter to pass was actually his best idea at the moment.
"Do you want to know how many men usually make up the Thieves' Feast?" asked Mina, who, as always, was able to slip into the room without making the slightest sound. Had it not been for the fact that both Rose and the marshal had already gotten used to it, they might very well have stabbed her.
"I'm going to put a bell on you," Rose growled before simply shaking his head. He would find a way to stop Mina from surprising him another time; for now, he would simply listen to what the young woman had to tell them.
"What can you tell us about the event, Madame?" asked Murat.
"To be honest, the celebration doesn't usually change its program much... and frankly, with the rumors that the Invincible Marshal is in the city, they will probably even postpone the attack, waiting for a moment when we are unprepared."
Mina didn't understand much about military strategy or the logic of deterrence, but she did know that Marshal Murat, even at sixty years old, was still one of the greatest elements of war deterrence in the Empire of the Rising Sun. Therefore, the circulating rumors and his men patrolling would surely contribute to delaying the arrival of the "thieves' feast."
"It's no use having a deterrent, or more time, if we don't know what we're facing, Mina," Rose said, rolling his eyes.
"Between 200 and 250 men," Mina revealed seriously.
Such a revelation left the young prince and the invincible marshal completely astonished, although not for the reason Mina believed.
You see, in the badlands, that number sounded immense. In fact, it could be considered a small army, given that the great winter storm almost 20 years ago had decimated the continent's population, reducing it today to barely a shadow of what it once was. Therefore, 200 men usually constituted a truly unstoppable force. Only the largest cities possessed a permanently trained army strong enough to repel them. Most smaller cities, like Sedena, had barely more than a dozen knights.
However, by the standards of the Empire of the Rising Sun...
"Are you telling me... that I've been worrying for a week... about only two hundred men?!" asked Rose, gradually losing patience with every word until he finally burst out.
"At least that makes things easier, sir," said Murat, trying to calm the young prince, who genuinely looked like he wanted to strangle Mina at that instant.
Murat couldn't blame him; he himself had completely overestimated the "thieves' feast," which ultimately turned out to be only a relatively small horde. It was a group that he could have defended against alone with his men and the firearms they brought with them.
"Easy?" asked Mina, incredulous.
"Mina... we are from the Empire! I expected a damn Mongol horde and brought supplies for that shit! Not for a skirmish that Desmos and I could have easily dispatched!" Rose shouted again.
Certainly, if there were only two hundred men, they could go more unnoticed, but at the same time, they would fall like flies to the arrows.
[For some reason I'm not that disappointed with it] Desmos commented dryly. Yes, he expected a massacre of thousands of men, but on the other hand, the cities they had visited so far would be lucky to be considered villages in the Empire.
"What is a Mongol horde?" Mina asked, as she had never heard that term.
"The Mongols were one of the most numerous armies faced by the great emperor Qin in his time, madam. They numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and their invasions were usually known as "hordes," formed by no less than 20,000 expert archer riders, capable of riding and shooting at the same time, and mortally efficient in sword combat," Murat explained. "Hence our... little paranoia. We were blinded by our experiences or, in the case of my prince, by the history and numbers of the empire."
Murat gave more details than strictly necessary, as he needed Mina to clearly understand why she should have told Rose from the beginning that the party did not represent a colossal threat as she had been imagining until that moment.
Mina's mouth opened at such numbers. Hundreds of thousands of men capable of sending hordes of tens of thousands. What kind of massive armies did the Great Emperor face? How the hell had he managed to survive to become the Great Unifier?
"If you'll excuse me, sir... I'll go tell my men that we can slow down. We better give the image of being calm," Murat said as he stood up. With some luck, Rose wouldn't kill the cat girl.
Rose grunted, "You're lucky I've grown fond of you," before simply collapsing. If the problem wasn't that serious, he would let them come when they had to. If necessary, he himself would massacre them all. Until then, he would dedicate himself to rebuilding the houses for the winter.
End of Chapter.