Chương 562: Day Five Hundred And Sixty

Dear Diary, At some point I need to come out of the closet. Like, I know how that sounds, especially as regards my current relationship status and living accommodations. Seriously, I'm openly married to one woman and we're both gonna be getting married to another one. We're all living in a big semi-communal mansion where the bulk of the inhabitants that we're not actively sleeping with are pretty firmly on team 'men are bad, m'kay'.

Me and maybe two or three others in the house are a decided minority in that we actively need and seek out the occasional thorough dicking down on a regular basis. My very openly public lifestyle is clearly 'Sapphic and Poly'.

I suppose if anything I might wind up in the David Bowie situation, where I need to stress that I am, technically, Pan rather than 'properly' Sapphic, but given that the only purely Sapphic person I know seems to have zero problem with me receiving hot beef injections, I somehow think that's not as big of an issue here and now. Nah, I'm talking about the whole Isekai and Mimic things. Right now I've kept both pretty close to my vest.

Yesterday I took the biggest step away from my Isekai nature being a family secret that I've taken in a long while. Of course, given how I did it, and how I used Blend for it, it's moving from 'family secret' to 'state secret', but I am in fact aware of the whole 'three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead' maxim.

Thing is, for the longest I think I've conflated 'being isekaied' with 'being Mimic', and while the two do seem to be kind of related in my case, there's no saying nobody's ever been isekaied before. It's pretty obvious to me now that if they were, they didn't have the same kind of impact I have.

Even if I'm the only actual person isekaied to this particular world, or timeline, or whatever, the general reaction of everyone I've told has been with one big exception the sort of mild surprise and interest I'd expect telling someone I'm from a country they'd never heard of. A sort of 'oh, what's the food like there, and do you have any interesting cultural practices'. The exception being Saffron, of course.

We've talked about it quite a bit, which may have been caused by her inherent nerd curiosity or her inexplicable Tabitha geekery. That makes her reaction mostly a her thing, not a me thing, Which means me being from another world isn't likely to cause some kind of 'burn the witch' reaction at this point. Frankly, given that most people see me as a Hero, either in the 'she saved us' sense I'm familiar with, or the here and now 'she's a military, political, and social force to be reckoned with' sense.

Like, even Citron, once he realized that I wasn't just some random bullshit TA stepping in for duBois, has acknowledged that I am, in fact, a certified badass, not to mention being able to make or break his career without a whole lot of effort on my part. Shit, I'm pretty sure I could do it accidentally, which means I need to pay attention to my reports on the men and women in my class. That just leaves the elephant in the M-Space. Her Dark Fatassness Herself. Mimic. Who is me.

Or she's a part of me, or maybe I'm a part of her. I guess I've taken the first steps on this, what with telling Saffron to officially post 'beware the tentacle beast, her fatassness does not impede her ability to wreck your shit, eat you, sleep with your wife and slash or husband, or do all of the above while forcing you to sit in that single chair in the hotel room and watch' signs. Come to think of it, that might be a little much to put on a sign. Unless I were German. Then it'd all be one big frankenword.

Still might make for a bit of a big sign, though. Which would defeat the purpose, since I'm not sure the locals read, let alone reading modern where I'm from German. Shit, that was less flippant than I wish it was. Kitten? Yes, love? If we put up big 'beware the Mimic' signs, make sure they have easy to understand pictographs for illiterate Gods. A sigh filled my brain. Yes, love. If we must. Hey, Kitten. Redemption. Key to you being the darkest bedroom toy ever when we retire, remember?

I swear that woman had some kind of freaky ability to filter exactly what she wanted through our mental link. My whole back ached in absolutely the right way to remind me of the best parts of other night as she whispered, such a convincing argument. Not quite sure how I did it, but I reached a tentacle out wherever she was and ran it down her back. But are you convinced? The humor in her voice did not detract from her sincerity one little bit. Convinced. Absolutely convinced.

May I never taste Marie's pie again if I'm less than completely honest about this. Which one? Yes. So after yesterday's success, and given how hard the Cadets worked to master all the poses of Marshall duBois' off brand Tai Chi, I decided not to get to crazy with Combat Training class today. I had some ideas about that, something akin to replacing Squadball with Basketball for Physical Training, but I had to work with the Academy's smiths and maybe the Maids before I could make it happen.

When they all lined up, I called out, "Good Morning, Cadets!" This morning I got a decent response on the first repetition, showing that eventually even arrogant knuckleheads that take after my own self can learn.

"This afternoon you get to play some more Squadball." That got the expected mix of cheers and groans. I think maybe they were supposed to stay completely quiet, but fuck it, I live for the feedback.

"This morning, on the other hand, we're going to work on formations. What they are, how to move in them, and hopefully how to train them." I paused to let that sink in, then asked, "any questions?" This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Citron's hand shot up.

"Why would Heroes need to know formation fighting? Please, I understand the need for team tactics like we've been training with our games, but..." He trailed off, but I'd gotten his meaning. I also appreciated that he wasn't entirely ignorant of the fact that other people existed, and working with them could achieve more than any talented person could do alone.

"Fair question. Brave question, since you're displaying some ignorance with your knowledge there." He choked down his bristling, but not his slight blush.

"Nothing to be ashamed about. We all start out ignorant. The only ones who get past it are the ones who admit to it and try to learn shit." I gave him a second, not just to see the wisdom, but to appreciate that I had, in fact, given him a compliment.

"Okay then, a couple reasons. To give you some real world, like yesterday with the scars, during the recent war New Amsterdam's Levies were stupidly ineffective compared to Phileo's Volunteers." A couple somebodies laughed at that, and after a quick glance showed me they all had Norfolk nametags, I added, "they were still way more effective, troop for troop, than Norfolk's Karls." One of the formerly amused Norfolk Cadets raised their hand.

"But our Karls didn't face you in combat!" I nodded.

"You're right. But I saw them during the Calverton campaign, and again, body for body, Norfolk's former Thralls, with no training, managed to be more effective at their tasks than Norfolk's Karls." Every Norfolk tag I saw winced, and Hildegarde radiated savage vindication.

"That's not to say they were super effective, but not only did they give everything they had to whatever they were doing, they listened. They watched the Volunteers and the Soldiers, and if they didn't have the kind of training to really do what either of those groups did, they asked questions and tried their best to work as units rather than as groups of individuals." I gave them a little bit, then nodded toward Vickerson.

"If I had to judge, I'd say that an individual Calverton Soldier probably is a better fighter than an individual Phileo Volunteer." She smiled, but only tentatively, because she's not a stupid woman.

"At the same time, a Phileo Unit would probably take apart a Calverton Squad, and not just because ours have trained more with their Crossbows. Training as units acts as a force multiplier. That means that each Volunteer in the unit is more effective than a single Soldier or Levy, no matter how skilled those individual Levies are. That was true even before Crossbows, and now that we've got them, it's not even close." Vickerson's hand shot up, and I nodded.

"Does that mean our individual Cities' non-Heroic traditions will be as subsumed by Phileo's as our Heroic ones are being?" Hoo. That put some real shit right out there. Still, good to get the question in the air. I shrugged.

"I dunno. I don't make policy." At the disbelieving stares, I smiled and said, "no, seriously, I break shit and train Cadets." I tapped my temple.

"I got no head for logistics, or administration, or any of that. I can do it if I have to, and I absolutely will come up with unfortunate consequences for a certain Headmaster if he tries to get me to teach duBois' Strategy and Logistics class, but it's really not my thing. Fortunately, Imperator Sexypaws Aetos-Diaz Is great with head. I mean, she's got a great head. For logistics and administration." I'd taken them from their initial vague discontent, to shock, to humor, so now I answered the question.

"Thing is, the Phileo units were more effective. Camden Yards and Newark both intend to train their Troops Phileo style. When you're poor, you don't have time to fuck around with shit that might not work if you can afford the thing you've seen that does. Also, for what it's worth, other than the Crossbows the Volunteer gear is cheaper than Levy or Soldier gear, which lets us make it uniform." I paused, let that sink in, then said, "With that in mind?

We're probably keeping some Troops active year round from here on out. If nothing else, having a core of Veterans available speeds of training and retraining of the rest. But beyond that, Volunteer Units are trained to work with Heroes, not just near them. A formation of Volunteers not only adds their weight of fire to a Hero, they also let Heroes concentrate entirely on offense.

That's not as big a deal for melee focused Heroes, but as you've no doubt realized, Phileo-style Heroes are fully capable of ranged combat, whether that's using Crossbows, traditional bows, or Shaping. Which means those force multipliers that make Volunteers more effective than Soldiers or Levies also apply to Heroes working with Volunteer Units as well." I looked at Citron.

"Would you rather face Vickerson with a Unit of Volunteers or Hildegarde in a one on one fight?" By now the class all pretty much agreed that when it came to applied violence, Hildegarde was the best in the class. Citron was no slouch; he'd been trained for it his whole life, and if the whole 'good breeding' thing didn't mean as much as rich folks thought, when you bred for faster, stronger, tougher, you got faster, harder, and tougher.

But Hildegarde, for all that she was a head shorter than him, went absolute beast mode each and every time she went in. So I didn't snicker even a little as he looked back and forth between Vickerson, who other than her prior training and service wasn't all that great at the whole 'do unto others' thing, and Hildegarde, who just stared at him doing the dead eyed shark thing. After a solid sixty seconds, while the class first giggled, then went quiet, Citron just looked back and forth.

Finally he said, "Cadet Hildegarde. I don't think I could reliably defend against fifteen combatants alongside Cadet Vickerson." I nodded.

"So that's why we study formation fighting. Both because you need to know how to work with formations of Troops and because you'll need to train those same formations if they're needed. That said, while I'm gonna teach you Phileo style Volunteer Unit formations, I absolutely do not know how the Imperator intends to incorporate the better aspects of other Cities' traditions into the Alliance military."

"Really?" Citron asked without raising his hand. I smirked at him.

"Yeah, our pillow talk generally doesn't lean that way. Mostly I talk about her pillows. They're real, and they're amazing. But seriously, Calverton and New Amsterdam both have some things they did better than Phileo. Calverton outfitted its Soldiers better, and managed to outfit all of them. Levies... I'm not sure, but I think they might have had better morale as singletons than Volunteers did when their formations broke.

Which doesn't happen often, but if something takes out enough of the Volunteers, the Unit kind of falls apart." I looked around until I'd convinced myself that none of the Cadets would do anything stupid for 'City Pride' reasons, then called out, "okay then. Every one of you needs a shield, a bow of some kind, and a spear from the equipment sheds. Get 'em and get back here!" Sometimes I'm smart. Sometimes I'm innovative.

Other times I'm an idiot who fails to pay attention to why my predecessors did something the way they did. First casualties of the day were from too many people trying to get weapons out of the equipment sheds at once. At least Siobhan wasn't mad at me this time.