Chương 64: Governor Naytor

Naytor was on the roof of his manor, overseeing the defense of the city, when he was approached by his adjutant, Lieutenant Marsh.

"Sir, there's a party of adventurers asking to meet with you. They're new arrivals." He didn't have time for this.

"Just give them an assignment and tell them to come back at dawn."

"They bear a letter of recommendation from Lord Wanderbilt of Ardark. They also report muck sightings both inside the peninsula and on the mainland coast." This got his attention.

"Are their reports credible?"

"There's a Lieutenant McRory who vouches for them. She was present at one of the sightings."

"I'll see them at once." When Marsh left to invite the adventurers up, Naytor went over to one of his the knights helping him monitor the battle from the rooftop.

"Captain Fields, I need you to assemble a scouting party. There's been a possible muck sighting inland." Fields looked shocked.

"A muck got past the perimeter?"

"I'll have more details in a moment," he replied. While waiting for his adjutant to return, Naytor spared a glance out toward the ghost fleet menacing his shores. When they'd first appeared, there had been only half a dozen vessels. Now there were hundreds, spreading their poisonous magic into the water. The governor's manor sat well atop a hill with a broad view of the entire bayside area. From here, a soldier with a spyglass could follow most of the battles taking place in the city below.

This allowed weak points in the perimeter to be identified in real time. Other similar command bases were set up across the peninsula, all along the shore. He turned around when he heard Marsh's voice from the doorway. Behind her were an elf mage, a woman younger than his daughter, and a lizardkin teenager cradling a cat in her arms. They were accompanied by a knight, whom he presumed was McRory. The lieutenant carried herself like a proper knight. Of the adventurers, only the elf inspired confidence.

Yet he was a mere bronze-rank while the other two were somehow silver. Something definitely wasn't right about this picture. Marsh escorted them over, and everyone introduced themselves, after which Havlo handed him the letter from Lord Wanderbilt. The letter was definitely authentic. The seal, the handwriting, and the tendency to go off on unnecessary tangents were all hard to fake.

But it was unusually vague when it came to important details, claiming only that the man before him had performed a great service for the city of Ardark and should be afforded every confidence. Naytor was a man who liked to judge everything for himself. Other people, in his experience, tended to have questionable judgment. Even nobles with grand lineages like Lord Wanderbilt weren't immune to being taken for fools. In fact, they were in many ways even more susceptible.

Regardless, these were able-bodied adventurers, and he needed all the help he could get.

"What are your skills?" he asked as he handed the letter back.

"I'm a mage, Tier 3," Havlo said.

"I'm a mage, Tier 2," Maelle said.

"I'm a mage," Amberlin said. He glanced over at Marsh, who looked as bewildered as he was, and then at McRory, who seemed mildly concerned.

"I'm sorry," he said slowly.

"You're a party of three mages?"

"And a cat." Amberlin pointed at the feline in her companion's arms.

"Okay," he said, deciding to refocus on what mattered most.

"Let's hear about these muck sightings." They described an encounter at a fishing village to the north, and a second one at the waystation.

"The bunkhouse was destroyed?" He directed the question at McRory.

"Along with the muck, sir!" she replied.

"And the fact that they're washing up on the mainland is very troubling," he said.

"I'll have to send a messenger to warn the regency council."

"Why not also ask them to send in the royal army?" Havlo asked.

"How much longer can you really hold out like this?"

"That decision is up to the council," he replied. The elf regarded him sternly.

"They do know how dire the situation is, don't they?"

"You don't speak to the governor like that," Marsh cut in. He held up his hand.

"It's all right, lieutenant. I can see that our friend here cares deeply about the safety of the bay. And we really need to redirect our attention to that. There will be time for questions in the morning, when the mucks are gone." While every sector along the defensive perimeter was under increasing strain, there was one in particular that needed reinforcing—the Eechipay District. He sent the adventurers there, along with Lieutenant McRory, who requested to be assigned with them.

While Marsh showed the adventurers out, Naytor briefed Fields on the muck sighting at the waystation and ordered a scouting team be sent out that very night. He couldn't risk his supply lines being cut off. Next he arranged a messenger to the regency council in the capital. It wasn't long into the night that he received the first report of an outer perimeter zone being overrun. There would be many more such incidents before the night was over.

As long as all the ground crews were able to withdraw in time and the inner perimeter wasn't breached, they could still claim success. The problem was just how early it happened this time. He could see on the faces of his staff that they all had the same thought he was. Could tonight be the night? They discussed urgent plans to reinforce the sector. The problem was where to pull those troops from—every other sector was under strain. At least the arrival of those new adventurers was fortuitous.

The breach happened in the Eechipay District, where they'd been assigned. He hoped their presence could make a difference. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"I think that went well, don't you?" Amberlin said cheerily. They got to meet the big boss and scored an exciting new mission. And it was all thanks to Havlo having the foresight to get a letter from someone important in Ardark. Otherwise she didn't think the governor would have made time for nobodies like them. They were following Dory back to her place so that they could drop Boots off before beginning their assignment.

Amberlin didn't know if these mucks hated cats as much as they hated people, but she wasn't taking any chances.

"I don't think the governor liked us," Maelle said.

"Nah, he's just under a lot of pressure," she replied.

"His city's about to be overrun with toothy ocean monsters, and there's this big honking ghost fleet parked off his coast. He has the right to be a bit stressed out."

"What's the deal with that, anyway?" Maelle said.

"I wanted to ask, but it didn't seem like the right time."

"Maybe Dory can tell us all about it," she said. Dory shook her head.

"I'd been assigned to the forward garrison, remember. That fleet was much smaller when I left, and I'd never actually seen it do anything."

"What do you think, Havlo?" she said. The mention of his name caused Havlo to jolt his head.

"Huh? Sorry, Lady Amberlin. My mind was elsewhere."

"It's been a long day, hasn't it?" Since she no longer felt the burden of hunger and fatigue, she had to make a conscious effort to remember how much it affected the others.

"It isn't that." But he didn't elaborate, and soon they had stopped outside a townhouse in a pleasant neighborhood called the Enixay Block. The rows of townhouses here were painted in vibrant colors, and the streets were lined with fruit trees. When Dory's father answered the door, it looked like she wanted to stay and catch up with him. But the knight settled for a quick hug, saying that they were on an important mission for the governor.

Dory's reaction to seeing her family again made Amberlin think of her own brother, and she remained quiet even as they began making their way to the Eechipay District. Everything in this world was Tashido's creation, and when she thought about it like that, she didn't want this bayside city to fall. But how could she save it, now that it had gotten to this state? She was pulled out of her thoughts by Havlo.

"Lady Amberlin, there's some other business I have to take care of first. Could I join you guys later?" He looked apologetic, like he was asking for permission to shirk his duty. But she knew he wasn't that sort of person.

"Is it something that might save the city?" she asked. He hesitated.

"It could be related to what's happening here, but at the moment it's only a theory. I don't feel comfortable saying more about it at this stage." While she hadn't encountered this muck invasion in her brother's game, she couldn't say for sure that it wasn't in there. Ygg Latten Bay was one of the first cities the player saw, being accessible immediately after Lorelark, and she knew that there was a keystone site somewhere off the coast.

But without the ability to breathe underwater, there was no way to get to it in the early game. It was one of those places that you had to revisit later. And since she never got that far, she didn't know if an event like this was supposed to trigger on the player's return. Which also meant that she was completely clueless on how to stop this crisis. If this were still a game, she could just roam around until the solution fell into her lap. But how did you even begin solving a mystery like this in real life?

Her goal, she decided, would be to hold back the mucks while letting the smarter people figure it out.

"Havlo, do what you must to stop this invasion," she said.

"Maelle and I will keep the city safe."

"Wait, what?" Maelle said. Havlo smiled.

"I'll do my best, Lady Amberlin." As he ran off, Maelle turned to Amberlin.

"Why can't I be helping Havlo?" She stared down her apprentice's apprentice.

"Maelle, I've watched you train." The girl shrank back.

"O-okay?"

"All you do is shoot fire until you get bored." She pointed up toward a watchtower.

"From up there, you can do what you always do, and be saving lives while you're doing it." She was ready for Maelle to protest, but received a nod instead. And so they continued on their way to their assignment. Along the way, Dory told them about her brother, Remore, whose name had three syllables.

"He's such a talented bard. He plays the gittar. You mentioned you play an instrument too, Amberlin? I'm sure the two of you will get along great. I can't wait for you to meet him in the morning. Maybe you can even play a song together!" They had to pass through two other controlled zones. At both, a team of knights guarded the only way forward. They were stopped and questioned, but with Dory there, the process was smooth and simple.

Each zone also had its own tower, and the sound of soft music drifted down when they passed near. This made Amberlin happy, and she hoped there was a musician at the tower they'd been assigned to. When they got to the last zone, there was music on the ground too. But the accompaniment here came in the form of yelling and shouting.

"Red Cloaks, to me!"

"Fire Eaters, hold the line!"

"There's one on the roof! Knock it down!" There was a process at the watchtower where they had to wait for a rope ladder to be thrown down. Apparently this was meant to stop the mucks from being able to climb up if the zone was overrun. Now that she was looking out for it, the tower did taper toward the top, with the platform jutting out like the brim of a hat. She also noticed that the wooden beams were all encased in smooth stone up to the point they were out of reach. They had Maelle climb up first.

Amberlin wanted Dory to go next, but the knight refused.

"I'd be useless up there. I don't have any magic, and I'm no good with a bow."

"But what will you do if the mucks break through the barricades?" she asked.

"The same as the rest of the ground crew. Retreat to the second zone."

"So you'll be okay, right?" Dory grinned.

"I'll have you guys covering me, won't I?" Amberlin joined Maelle up in the tower, which turned out to be unexpectedly crowded. It looked like they'd overstaffed so that the mages could rotate out to recover their mana. There were also two gittar players, and only one was playing right now, a heroic battle theme. The center of the platform was used to store supplies.

There was water, stacks and stacks of arrows, a small selection of potions, a couple of pots of oil, rolls of cloth, two buckets, and some chamberpots. Amberlin shuffled her way along the guardrail, sneaking behind the mages firing off spells, to get a better understanding of what was happening below. From this vantage point, she saw something that wasn't apparent from the ground, nor from the distant governor's manor.

She'd been under the impression that the watchtowers had been scattered about haphazardly, with new ones being put up as parts of the city were abandoned as indefensible. But now she actually got to see the layout of the streets and observe the towers from up close. Besides the towers in the two zones that she'd passed on the way here, there was another one a couple of streets over, in a completely abandoned zone—yet the tower was manned.

Mucks were trying to climb up and failing, and they weren't smart enough to tear at the supports to bring the structure down. Moreover, the streets below had clearly been modified. Buildings had been boarded up and walls erected to block off alleyways and sometimes even entire intersections. If she followed the line of mucks that were currently assaulting this zone, it was just that—a line snaking back toward the shore, but taking a long, winding path in doing so.

And this path, by no coincidence, brought the mucks through lanes where the towers concentrated their fire. It wasn't perfect, of course. Nothing in the real world ever was. In places where the mucks piled particularly densely, their own bodies inadvertently formed a ramp giving others access to the rooftops that then bypassed this lethal gauntlet.

In other places the mucks had refused to follow the path set out for them and, through relentless effort, had knocked down the barriers in their way, as seen by the half-crumbled walls. Yet, despite all these problems, the defenders had managed to make it work.

"Who came up with this defensive strategy?" she asked aloud. One of the mages who was resting off to the side said, "None other than the governor himself."

"The governor? Really?"

"Before the governor became the governor, he was the greatest military mind the kingdom had ever seen. It's only thanks to him that Ygg Latten Bay has held out this long." Amberlin found herself growing excited. She'd been worried that her role in this struggle would be too limited to make much of a difference. Even if she could throw out a lot of fire, she could only be in one place at a time. But now she saw the potential to do so much more. But that would have to wait until later.

For now she had some mucks to fry. She settled in next to a line of mages, pointed at the muck-filled street below, and started blasting.