Chapter 361: Accidental Strategist

After returning from the prisons, Darion finally got some time to sit down and process everything he had seen.

He headed back into the castle and was served lunch by the servants. He sat at a proper table, with food brought out in several dishes. The meal was simple but filling: bread, cheese, roasted meat, and a bowl of thick soup. Darion ate while his mind kept returning to the day’s inspection.

For once, he wasn’t thinking about fighting, chasing someone, or giving commands. He was simply sitting there and thinking.

He thought back over everything he saw during the tour. Before today, Vrethka had mostly been a place he associated with Dross. Warriors. The attack on Percvale. The battle. The hundreds of people he killed. But after actually walking through the territory, he realized he had underestimated just how established Vrethka was.

They had a massive treasury. Large livestock holdings. Skilled blacksmiths and huge quantities of weapons. Large grain stores. Productive farmland. Villages and civilian settlements. Hundreds of trained warriors. Prisoners. Workers and craftsmen. Horses and other resources. Enough infrastructure to support prolonged warfare.

Darion paused while eating. This wasn’t some random warrior settlement. Vrethka had been building itself for a long time.

What caught Darion’s attention most wasn’t even the gold. It was the manpower. Vrethka had a large population capable of supporting its military. The warriors he fought weren’t the entirety of Vrethka’s potential strength. There were farmers. Workers. Blacksmiths. Hunters. Guards. Men capable of becoming soldiers if necessary.

Darion realized that the warriors he fought were only the force Vrethka had immediately available. And that thought made him stop eating for a moment.

He started thinking about what could have happened if he hadn’t attacked when he did. He had discovered their plan before they were ready. They hadn’t yet obtained the Kulidii’s protection. Their forces hadn’t fully mobilized. Darion had caught them before they could execute their larger strategy.

But what if he had simply left Vrethka after infiltrating it? Dross could have gathered everyone. Vrethka could have finished preparing.

They could have sent messengers to their allied settlements. Warriors from surrounding villages could have been gathered. More supplies could have been brought in. More weapons could have been produced. And eventually, Vrethka might have marched against Percvale with a force vastly larger than the one Darion fought.

Darion leaned back slightly. Maybe thousands. Not necessarily because Vrethka itself had thousands of warriors standing inside its walls, but because Vrethka clearly had influence over other settlements.

If those settlements were connected to Vrethka through alliances, tribute, or military agreements, Dross could have called on them. Darion realized the original plan might have been much more dangerous than he initially understood.

He considered the most uncomfortable possibility. What if Vrethka had gathered thousands of warriors and simply overwhelmed him? His undead were powerful, but they weren’t invincible.

Numbers still mattered. A large enough force could surround him. They could attack from multiple directions. They could force his undead to fight continuously. They could target him directly. And if they somehow managed to obtain the Kulidii’s ability to neutralize his Necromancy...

Darion grimaced. Yeah. That would have been a problem.

He realized his decision to strike Vrethka immediately wasn’t simply reckless aggression. It had accidentally been the correct strategic choice. He had removed the threat before it had the opportunity to become something much larger.

Another thought occurred to him. How many villages did Vrethka actually control? Darion realized he never asked. He had spent the entire day inspecting the most obvious parts of Vrethka itself: wealth, food, military equipment, farmland, housing, prisons.

But he hadn’t properly investigated the territory beyond the main settlement. There could be numerous villages scattered throughout the surrounding land. Some could be small farming communities.

Others could specialize in livestock. Some might have hunters, miners, craftsmen, or soldiers. Some might owe taxes or military service to Vrethka. Others might simply have recognized Dross’s authority because they had no choice.

Darion realized that the settlement he conquered might only be the center of something much larger.

He almost laughed at himself. He had been walking around Vrethka all day asking about practically everything, yet somehow he had never asked the simplest question: "How many villages do you control?"

Then again, he hadn’t been particularly curious about it at the time. He had been more interested in understanding what Vrethka actually possessed before worrying about the wider territory. Now, however, the question suddenly seemed extremely important.

Darion thought about Garren. Once Garren arrived, they could properly investigate the territory. Garren was much better suited for administration, records, taxation, logistics, and organizing resources than Darion was. Darion could conquer territory. He could inspect it. He could fight. But someone needed to actually manage everything.

They would need to determine how many villages belonged to Vrethka. How many people lived in them. What each village produced. How much food they could provide. How much livestock they had. How many warriors each settlement could supply.

What resources existed outside the main settlement. Which settlements were loyal to Vrethka. Which ones might resist Darion. Which ones had important strategic value. How the roads connected everything. What taxes Dross collected. How much manpower could realistically be recruited.

Darion took another bite of food. He realized that today’s inspection had only given him the first layer of information.

He looked around the dining hall. Servants moved quietly around him. Vrethka was still settling down after the battle. Outside, hundreds of warriors who once served Dross now belonged to a completely different order.

Darion finished his lunch and looked down at the empty plate. He had one final thought: once Garren got here, they were going to have a lot of work to do.

————

Seren rode away from Vrethka toward Percvale, her horse’s hooves pounding against the forest path. The animal was fast, much faster than the ordinary horses she was accustomed to, and its stride was smooth, eating up the distance with effortless grace.

She had chosen it from Vrethka’s stables herself, a dark bay with strong legs and a steady temperament. Behind her sat Ghet Ulg, the undead knight Darion had assigned to accompany her.

Ghet Ulg was completely silent. He didn’t speak. He barely moved. He simply sat behind her like a corpse that happened to be riding a horse. His armor made small metallic sounds whenever the horse shifted, but otherwise, nothing. No breathing. No shifting. No signs of life. It was... motionless... the cold, still presence of something that should not exist technically.

Seren was initially focused on the road ahead. The path stretched before her, winding through the trees, disappearing into the shadows. She kept her eyes on the trail, her hands steady on the reins, her mind focused on the journey. But after some time, her thoughts inevitably returned to the undead sitting directly behind her.

She occasionally glanced over her shoulder. Ghet Ulg’s undead face was exactly as lifeless as ever. His eye sockets were empty, dark holes that seemed to swallow the light. His jaw was slack, his skull bare, his armor rusted but intact. He looked like something that had crawled out of a grave, which, technically, he had.

Seren found the silence unsettling. She started wondering what would happen if undead suddenly developed consciousness. What if Ghet Ulg suddenly decided he didn’t like her? What if Darion’s command somehow stopped working? What if he suddenly became intelligent enough to think for himself?

She imagined the worst possible scenario. She was riding peacefully through the forest, the wind in her hair, the sun on her face. Then Ghet Ulg suddenly wrapped his enormous undead hands around her neck. She imagined herself struggling, her breath cutting off, her vision darkening. She imagined herself screaming, "Darion!" But Darion wasn’t there. He was back in Vrethka. He couldn’t help her.

She mentally shook her head. Why am I thinking about this? Ghet Ulg had never shown any sign of disobeying Darion. He had protected her several times. Darion had specifically ordered the undead to protect her at all costs. Still... having an undead knight sitting directly behind her for hours wasn’t exactly comforting.

Her thoughts naturally shifted from Ghet Ulg to Darion. She remembered watching him fight in Vrethka.

The sheer number of undead he summoned: knights, wolves, snakes, bats, Rops. The way the warriors’ confidence disappeared when they realized what they were facing. The way Darion had fought alongside them instead of simply standing back and commanding. He had been magnificent, a force of nature, a leader who inspired both fear and loyalty.

She smiled slightly. Then she remembered how casually he had ordered her to leave with Ghet Ulg. "Take her to Percvale. Protect her with your life." He had trusted her with an important task. More importantly, he trusted Ghet Ulg to keep her alive.

Seren glanced back at the undead again. Well... I suppose he did choose a good bodyguard. She immediately remembered her previous thought. Still creepy.

Seren returned her attention to the journey. The normal road between Vrethka and Percvale would take considerably longer. If they stayed on the main road, they risked reaching Percvale very late at night. Darion had already told her the message was important, and she wanted to get there as quickly as possible.

So Seren chose a forest route.