Chapter 271: Encountering Company

“Is this incoming company friendly?” the Duchess asked, not appearing to be stressed in the slightest.

“It would appear that it is guided by the squad you sent to the northern reaches, the bulk of their numbers comprised of the villagers they went to support,” the Ranger reported. “However, there is a faint signature of abnormal contract magic among those coming, so the decision was made to come and give warning before any unfortunate surprises revealed themselves.”

“What exactly do you mean by a signature of contract magic?” Astrid demanded. “If there are prisoners, wouldn’t there be contract magic with them anyways?”

“I can explain that particular point some other time,” the Duchess said, raising a hand and forcefully ending any other questions. “Actually, there’s no reason not to explain now. This is a warning that there is an unexpected presence, as if the one who had influenced or created some form of contract magic is nearby. Occasionally, spies have been snuck in among squads like this, though infiltrations like this are relatively easily found out. With our current impressive surveillance, it would have to be an attempted infiltration by somebody of at least level 120 to get past the original perimeter. At that point, they would certainly be found out within the boundaries of the city, well before they were able to accomplish their designs. As such, these efforts have died off in the past months.”

“Then, is this something different, though perhaps similar to that?” Astrid clarified. When the Ranger nodded in confirmation, she asked, “Then what’s the difference?”

“He would tell us if we knew,” the Duchess cut off Astrid’s questions, glancing at her with a slight twitch of her eyebrow. Astrid felt, under her helmet, a faint flush crawling up her neck. Of course she didn’t know what was going on here, she’d been given a position as a guest, and now she was abusing it. She nodded her apology as the Duchess turned back to the Ranger. “Is there any additional news you can give us before we have further contact?”

“No, your Grace,” he saluted. “Casualties seem to have been reported at a minimum, though we have no information regarding what enemies we came in contact with.”

“Thank you for your service,” the Duchess waved her hand in dismissal. “Please make sure to take a break and get a meal before you return to your post.”

He blushed so brightly, it crawled all the way to his ears and down his neck, bowing his head. The thick knit cowl covered his face, but when he sat up, his face, blushing and beaming, caught the light again.

“Yes, your Grace. Thank you.”

At that, he turned and led the way out.

“Sorry,” Astrid said, dismissing her armor with a thought. “I’m not used to being in a situation like this. I’m just supposed to sit in the back and be quiet.”

“No apology necessary. Yes, you weren’t a professional guard, but I certainly don’t expect you to be.”

Astrid smiled and nodded, then turned her attention to the world outside of the room.

“Go, see what’s happening,” Ruth said, smiling and waving Astrid off. “The Golden Fist is still around, so I’m plenty safe. I know you won’t be able to rest until you can see what’s happening out there. Let me know what you find out when you can.”

Astrid smiled, nodding as she waved goodbye to the Duchess. She walked out of the room with a smile, though she mentally cursed herself for not wearing her usual clothes. Since she hadn’t anticipated wearing her equipment at all today, she was wearing a comfortable pair of long pants tucked into her boots, a flowy, linen shirt, and that was about it. Her hair was not at all ready to have been under the helmet, forcing her to keep her head still when she’d been a guard. She’d simply tied the top half back to keep it out of her face, and if she was potentially going into a fight, she didn’t want to rip half of her hair out in the process. It was fine to put her armor on over it, but if she was going to be potentially getting into a fight, she wanted to wear her usual.

Instead of rushing forward without a second thought, Astrid took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and then went to the room that she and the rest of the Wanderers had been staying in. There, she changed into her much sturdier clothes that she wore under her armor, all of it much tighter. Especially, she wrapped her breasts tight, which had gotten pinched in her armor during her brief stationing as a guard.

“I’m in a war,” she grumbled to herself as she finished wrapping her breasts and started braiding her hair. “Maybe I should start acting like it.”

Fortunately, Astrid had spent years learning how to get ready to get to battle quickly, and it was only the work of less than two minutes before she was fully changed, ready, and then in her equipment. Jogging out of the once-Viscount’s mansion, Astrid quickly found the same Ranger who had come and reported to the Duchess. He was standing outside one of the supply tents, speaking relatively casually with the quartermaster there.

“Hello,” Astrid said, interrupting. “I’m going to verify what we can about this approaching contingent in the north. Other than north, which direction should I go?”

“When I left, they were moving at a steady clip, maybe fifteen kilometers an hour,” he reported immediately, snapping a salute. “By now, they’ll be about a hundred kilometers due north-northwest, coming between the Sawtooth Mountains. There’s a valley between two of the peaks that they were coming towards, and I would assume that that is where they’re going to be by now.”

“Thank you,” Astrid saluted back before turning to look in the direction he said. Though she wasn’t familiar with the Sawtooth Mountains, that was a specific enough set of directions that she felt pretty confident in following, regardless of her generally mediocre sense of direction. Without another word, she turned and started running away.

Because she wasn’t traveling at even nearly a full sprint, Astrid heard as the Ranger and his companion, friend, or simply acquaintance, couldn’t help but make a comment.

“What level is she? That’s faster than I can go, and I’m high Steel,” the Ranger gasped.

“Isn’t she the one who can smash through a mountain? The one who showed off her Skill?”

Knowing that they hadn’t seen her at even half of what she was capable of, Astrid chuckled and continued out. Her boots, still Steel tier, couldn’t quite give her the same percentage boost that they had before, since their intrinsic mana content was too limited. Even so, they could give her a 40% increase in her Alacrity, and with the sun still high in the sky, Astrid had no need to do anything other than continue moving as fast as she could.

With an effective Alacrity of about 2,000, Astrid sprinted forward, jumping between hilltops instead of running between them. She had to take care not to leave massive depressions at the peak of each of the loamy landmarks, and over the course of only a few minutes, she was making progress fast enough that she could see the peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains some fifty kilometers away. Nearly halfway there, and it had only been about ten minutes.

The terrain continued to change as she drew closer, but it was nowhere near enough to even be notable to Astrid. She had one goal in mind, and seeing soft hills become rocky ones was nowhere in her consideration.

Drawing closer, Astrid saw the valley that the Ranger whose name she hadn’t learned spoke of. The mountains, in general, would be difficult to traverse for anybody, even Iron tiers. Brighid had spoken about how they were a choke point for trade, but Astrid hadn’t ever really cared about that except to hear about how there were more bandits to be found there. As the largest, nearest settlement, Stahlstadt had been responsible for maintaining somewhat regular patrols in that area, but that was all that Astrid knew about them. Seeing them now, she understood why trade caravans, especially those who couldn’t rely on large portions of spatial pouches, would have to use this passage.

Even thinking about how much Astrid herself could carry in her spatial pouches, she could tell how, all by herself, she could outperform any Merchant caravan she had ever heard of. Then again, there were supposedly Mithril tier Merchants, however few of them there were.

Astrid shook her head, refocusing on the fact that she had found where she needed to be. Surprisingly, there were no people anywhere near the mouth of the pass, so she was forced instead to rush forward, looking for any sign of their passage. Glancing back and forth, Astrid could see that there were no tracks that would mean such a large group had come through, so she rushed through, the several-kilometer valley being an easy path to run through.

Before long, she reached the final mountain, and as she turned around it, she saw what she was looking for.

A large camp of people, several hundred strong, was spread out over the mouth of the valley pass. They scrambled around, trying to prepare to spend the night there, and, combined with the people that were obviously prisoners, Muti and Benedict’s victory was obvious. At least, it would be as soon as Astrid could see either of her two party members. While she drew closer, at the last second, she felt a presence darting towards her from her left. She spun to raise her shield against it, but then Muti flickered with shadow and reappeared behind Astrid once more.

For a brief second, they exchanged a flurry of blows, but once a stalemate was established, Muti jumped back and dismissed her helmet. Her sharp teeth were bared in a vicious smile, and she spread her arms wide. With a smile of her own, Astrid dismissed her helmet and spoke.

“You’ve come to me, victorious. What new scars do you bear?”

Muti’s grin cracked, emotion breaking her excitement. Then, with an obvious choke to her voice, she replied, “There were none capable of scarring me. Though I’ve gained history, my own tapestry remains unchanged.”

“A victory indeed,” Astrid continued, quoting the same greeting her father had given Muti. “Now, let us eat, and when the time is come, go forth and find glory once again.”

“Yes,” Muti bounced in excitement, the feeling seemingly more in response to Astrid’s careful repetition of the greeting. “I have found victory in combat over three enemies of my same tier, killing one and incapacitating the other before they were even aware of my existence. The final was unable to measure up to my strength in direct conflict.”

“You’ll have to tell me all about it,” Astrid smiled, walking forward. “We were starting to get a little nervous since we’d heard nothing.”

“You would doubt me?”

“You don’t need to growl at me,” Astrid scowled. “It was just surprising that neither you nor Benedict made an appearance, though, now that I hear you have two prisoners of Mithril tier, it makes sense why you would be limited in how much you can do. Why did you end up killing one of them?”

“He was the same type as the traitor in Kznietch. Perhaps the traitor’s teacher? Or perhaps one who followed in his path. Regardless, I killed him to weaken the contract held on the previously captured civilians.”

Astrid nodded in understanding, though she pretty firmly disbelieved Muti’s statement that her reason for killing was strictly because she was trying to help civilians.

“Benedict will tell my story,” Muti said, running back in the direction of the camp. Astrid followed suit, listening as Muti bragged, “I have listened to his rehearsal. He is approaching a complete retelling of my magnificence.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Astrid chuckled. By that time, they had arrived effectively outside of the camp, and Muti didn’t wait to announce herself or anything, simply hurrying into the center of the camp. There, Benedict stood, attempting to appear unconcerned. However, Astrid knew him more than well enough to see the nervousness in the set of his shoulders. Seeing Muti and Astrid appear, he relaxed, an easy smile breaking out over his face once again.

“Thank you for coming to help us out, now that we’ve done all the hard work,” he joked, reaching a hand out to Astrid. She took him into an embrace with a chuckle of her own, looking at the two prisoners directly at his feet.

“I hear you’ve got a story of Muti’s to tell,” Astrid said, as she stepped back and looked at the two prisoners. One looked to be a Warrior of some sort, the other, a Mage or Wizard.

“Yes, I do,” he nodded, looking at the prisoners all around. Astrid knew that the squad they’d gone to support was Steel tier, and that they were fifteen of them. Counting, she could see that there were fourteen people without manacles who generally looked like they weren’t too bad off. All of their armor bore threads of inky darkness, seeming to have etched themselves into the metal there. She had no idea what that was, but she simply turned her attention to the prisoners. There were the two who were obviously the Mithril tiers, then an additional nineteen Steel tiers with manacles on their wrists and ankles. They didn’t seem to be too upset with their current position, instead looking around themselves with foggy, confused expressions.

“So then this ‘approaching powerful presence’ is one known to you two?” A woman’s voice interrupted the conversation. When Astrid looked at her, she saw a Mage, a robe threaded with Dungeon Gold being her primary piece of equipment, along with a staff about a meter and a half long.

“Yes, this is our party leader Astrid Warrior,” Benedict introduced. “Astrid, this is the leader of the expedition, Eliana Mage.”

“I’ve heard some stories about you,” Eliana said as she stepped forward and extended a hand to shake. Astrid took it as the Mage continued, “You’re the one who used that Skill that shook the entire training ground, right?”

“I think that rumor has gotten a little out of hand, but yes. Pleasure to meet you.”

“We’re just glad to have you. Having somebody else who can take care of these two will be very helpful. It’s been stressful to have to keep them from activating any Skills or casting any spells for so long, especially since we have so many Bronze tiers along.”

“I’m not surprised,” Astrid agreed as she looked at the hundreds of villagers. “Why did they end up coming along instead of staying home?”

“They figured that staying there just meant that there would be another army that came along pretty soon, and that one wouldn’t be stopped,” Eliana shrugged. “I think they probably got the right of it. But I’ll let you get back to your conversation.”

“Actually,” Astrid said, looking at the leader of the expedition as well as her two friends, “do either of these two have Skills that they could use to escape my grasp? If they don’t have anything too overwhelming, I could take one or both of them to the camp and then be back in less than an hour.”

“You could take Merrick without any issue,” Benedict said, looking at Muti for confirmation. She nodded as he continued, “He’s pretty focused on being a physical fighter with a group buffing aura and Skills. You’d be able to take him on easy. As for the other one, she’d be an issue. What was her name again?”

“So far as I know, it’s Adilene,” Eliana answered with a shrug. “And, since she’s a Summoner, I can’t say that we’ve seen exactly what her limits are as a caster.”

“Can you shut her down?” Astrid asked Muti.

“I took care of her too quickly to see the full breadth of her Skills when she is fully conscious,” Muti boasted. “Ever since then, whenever she has regained consciousness, it has taken her at least a full second to channel any Skill or spell. That is the longest she has been uninterrupted before being subjugated once again, so I can take care of her easily.”

Astrid shot a glance at Benedict, confirming what she said. He nodded, and so Astrid shrugged and looked at Eliana. “We could take them off your hands, then still come back and make sure that you have people on hand tonight. Plus, we can send news back to headquarters and maybe get some supplies back here, for whatever you need.”

“Just as much as we need to get these two out of here, we need more food,” Eliana nodded. “We filled up as much as we could to make sure we could feed this many people, but a forced march with Bronze tiers, and even unClassed people is never going to be easy.”

“Then we’ll take care of it.” Astrid nodded, reaching down and grabbing the man, Merrick, by his belt. Throwing him over her shoulder, she shrugged once, looked at Muti, and asked, “Are you ready?”

***

The journey back, along with delivering their report and filling Astrid’s spatial pouches with food, took slightly longer than expected, but Astrid and Muti still returned to the Steel tier squad in about an hour and a half. When they got back, bearing plenty of food, especially fresh fruit and vegetables, for the refugees, Astrid went from a stranger to a hero, and she revelled in the glory and the opportunity to help.

“How long do you think it’ll take you to get everybody to Stahlstadt?” Astrid asked that night, conferring with Eliana.

“Two, three days, if we’re lucky?” Eliana shrugged. “With Benedict’s Skills, these people can go a lot harder and longer than they should, but they still need a lot of rest. We don’t have wagons or anything to load the children in, and it’s just not safe to push people any harder.”

“Which is why I brought along a little surprise,” Astrid smiled. When the leader of the campaign narrowed her eyes at the Warrior, Astrid shrugged. “I had a fair amount of room left in my spatial pouch, on top of that food. Especially since we won’t need as much as you said.”

Instead of waiting for any question from the other woman, Astrid simply stepped away and pulled three wagons out of her largest spatial pouch.

“Muti, Benedict, and I are all a whole lot stronger than an ox,” Astrid shrugged. “A lot faster too.”

“And you’re smart enough to know better than just how to hit something hard,” Eliana shook her head. “Again, and perhaps more honestly, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Glad to have been able to impress you,” Astrid chuckled.

When the morning came, though they needed to be packed in tight, everybody under level 10 was put into one of the covered wagons, and although Benedict ended up getting replaced by a pair of the Steel tier melee fighters, it wasn’t long before they were ready to go. Then, with Benedict’s song accompanying them, the Wanderers and the refugees started on their hurried path towards camp.

Over the course of a few hours, they made great time, maintaining a good speed of somewhere north of twenty-five kilometers an hour. That was the best speed they could hold without permanently damaging the wagons, even though they were remarkably well constructed. 

As they drew close to the camp outside of town, though, Muti was the first to hear an unusual panic. Astrid, however, wasn’t too far behind hearing hundreds of voices worrying and calling out for battle preparations.