Chương 104: 38 – Raise the Banner

From Neogon's Strategy skill, you have gained 22 free points! While Berkenem's craft had been anything but mundane, the General's was surprisingly tame. He seemed a good man, and he liked me immediately, but that clearly had more to do with my mother than any impression I'd made so far. It was the only thing that explained such relatively low requirements. The craft still had accompanying lights, and even I was surprised by what I managed to make this time.

"A… banner?" he asked dubiously.

"All that for a banner? One I already have hundreds of?" I nodded.

"Sorry. I don't really choose what my talent makes. This one does have a few effects, though." It showed a small image of a town on a map. The banner was brown and had little decoration. Across the top it read "Pemolar's Hill." War Banner Effect 1: Reflects the alignment and nation of the bearer. Effect 2: Improves the bearer's Strategy skill by ten percent. Effect 3: Provides battlefield awareness of all similar banners. Effect 4: Orders created by the bearer of this banner may be imprinted on any similar banner.

The moment the general touched the pole, the flag began to morph. The brown map, picturing just the small town that held my loyalty evaporated, replaced with the Red and Silver of Tacuria. His eyes widened.

"May… I test this?"

"It's yours," I said.

"Sorry I can't give you anything better."

"Better!? If this works like it says it does… girl do you know how valuable immediate communication on a battlefield can be? Even the man ten paces to your right needs a runner to find out your new orders! With this…?" He trailed off, gazing in wonder at the banner.

"I would've thought there was another solution to that already. Sound magic? Something like that?" He shook his head.

"I've never heard of sound magic. As best I know, there's no such thing." That was odd. Freyna had certainly used sound to attack us at the battle south of Mitoras. I couldn't reveal that to Neogon without letting him know I'd been at that battle, and I still didn't trust him enough to reveal Mom's secret yet. If it wasn't sound magic Freyna had used, then could it have actually been my initial thought? A Public Speaking skill so high it could damage eardrums?

I was personally underwhelmed with the banner, but the general was looking at it like it was a gift from the heavens. The man strode out of my house, cradling the flag to make sure it didn't hit the doorframe.

"Vovel! I need you to fetch me a banner!"

"A banner, sir?" the sergeant asked.

"Yes. Any of them will do. Just go get one," he said. I stepped out behind him, looking up at the banner. Tacuria's flag was a red background with a silver rectangular border. There was a red rim around the outside. An off-center cross of silver ran between the square border; each bar was meant to honor the two advisors to the founder. In the middle was a silver crown representing Tacuran Warrior himself. The king's ancestor who had a legendary talent.

'Just like me,' I thought a little fearfully. Upon the red flag, black dots and lines were appearing. They weren't text in any language I knew, but I vaguely recognized them as something the higher-ranked officers carried around in small notebooks, or carved onto slate tablets. They represented battle plans and orders, but the enlisted ranks weren't taught to understand them. Uncle Marnakus had one, but he'd never shown it to me.

"How do you normally deliver orders?" I asked.

"Paper. Magical flare occasionally, but enemy commanders usually figure those out fast. Paper is precious too, so we use tiny strips with coded messages. Usually simple things like "Retreat," "Advance," or "Flank Left." Occasionally I'll take a spare bit of ruined or bloody cloth. A bloody bandage. Anything really. Each message has to be run to each officer individually, and I have to hope the orders I send out are still relevant by the time they arrive." Vovel returned, holding another banner of his own.

This one was torn and old, but on its edge, I could clearly see the same dots and lines depicted on the banner I'd made.

"By the gods," Vovel whispered as he glanced between the two flags. The dots changed on one, and then almost immediately, began to move and change on the other. I still wasn't all that impressed, but I'd also seen cell phones from April's world.

"I don't really understand how this will prevent us all from dying in the next few days. Should… should we begin to evacuate?"

"We're not going to find any place more defensible than here. With this many soldiers, and your town as well fed as you seem to be, we can get a lot more of the wall built, but it won't stop them from flanking us. The north and west will be their entry points. As for evacuating? Definitely. The high road to Tacuria, or flee south west to… what was the name of the little town that way?"

"Potato Gully?" I asked.

"Yes. Hah. Famous for its carrots, right? Good shoemaker there, too. The pair I bought lasted me for nearly two years," the general said. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"He's here now, but he's working round the clock to get something on everyone's feet. After walking here, many of our people don't have shoes that are good enough for the winter," I said. He eyed me curiously.

"You just… know that?" he asked.

"Off the top of your head?" I shrugged.

"I talked to him a few days ago. Couldn't build his need. Don't know him well enough yet, but I was able to get spare thread to him so he could mend old shoes, and set up a deal between him and the hunters so he'd have more leather than he could handle. The shoes won't be comfy, but they'll get us through… assuming we aren't all dead soon."

"I wish I could promise that. I can't, but this will help immensely. No matter how good our battlefield messaging or our weapons, they've still sent more than triple our number at us, townsfolk included. Fresh reinforcements, and they're well trained. If only I had a fortress… ah but I might as well wish for the army to just go away." I wasn't sure how to feel. Today had been a whirlwind.

I'd come down so quickly from the high of winning what I'd thought was a great victory, only to be told we were about to face an army forty times larger? You should take as many of the townfolk as you can and get out of here, Elmerina."

"And go where? Plenty of the people here came from Potato Gully, rather than face the trolls and goblins," I said bitterly.

"I… gods. Nowhere is safe, but nearly every man, woman and child can hold a crossbow together if we stay here."

"Aye, and shoot themselves in the foot. How many self-inflicted injuries did you have in that fight?" I winced.

"More than none," I admitted, still wondering about Negirot and the unfortunate boy he'd killed.

"Still, that doesn't mean they couldn't help. We could've handed twice again the number of trolls and goblins coming at us, and now you've doubled our numbers! Are things really so hopeless?"

"No," he said.

"No, not hopeless. We'll bleed them well. Were it up to me, I'd send your entire town down up the Highroad toward Tacuria. If you're lucky, you might meet General Pormot's army on the way here, though It's much more likely they make for Denarla." The idea was tempting. I'd been in a fight where the numbers on both sides were roughly even, and that had been terrifying enough. Twenty thousand soldiers, trying to kill us? The only problem was that I didn't think there was anywhere I could go that would be safer.

Either we stayed here and fought, or died in small parties on the road, picked off by trolls, goblins, kerlunka, winged ones, or even dragons. Besides, I wouldn't leave the people here behind. I cared too much about them, and now we had an army, and a general to direct us. If I worked hard, we might have one of my new weapons, too. This should feel like a win, and yet I could only see the potential losses ahead. I'd wait two days, and then I'd break Mom's beacon.

If she thought the cause was hopeless, we'd flee to the West, and Tacuria. Till then… I'd organize the evacuation for anyone who didn't want to fight.

"I'll get everything organized for the evacuation with the Mayor," I told him.

"There are surely going to be plenty of people who want to get out of here, and I'll make sure those who want to go can."

"But you'll not be going with them," He surmised. I shook my head.

"Maybe… maybe it's stupid, but I don't think those odds are so terrible. We've got a general that I actually trust, more crossbow bolts than I care to even think about, and soldiers who know what they're doing. This place might not be a fortress, but it is a hill. We can see any enemy coming from hundreds of meters away. If they do try to kill us, we'll do to them what we did to the war trolls."

"It is stupid," he said, with a sigh.

"But I'll not turn down the help you can give. It's not like the odds weren't worse for us when Eschal first attacked."

"In that case, get your men to help Travmetis build the wall. If we work hard, we can build it all the way to the river."

"The wall is fantastic against rift spawn. Men just go 'round," He said.

"Why am I the only one coming up with ideas, here?" I snapped, irritated at his pessimism.

"Are you a general or aren't you!? Find a way to kill these bastards and protect my people!" He frowned, eyes narrowing. I didn't back down. Eventually, he did.

"Being backtalked by a damn toddler," he muttered. Before I could retort, he interrupted himself.

"Fine. Fine, you've the right of it. Just because the situation's fucked, doesn't mean there's nothing to be done. How much lumber do you have?"

"Tons and tons," I said.

"That whole bloody clearing out there? It was a forest three months ago. It's not limitless, but there's more than enough to finish the wall, and the carpenters are making crossbows faster than you'd believe. Lumber isn't the limiting factor. Labor is, and you've solved that nicely. Do you have any woodworkers? Travis's arms are probably going to fall off soon."

"I don't know. My sergeants will, though," he said.

"Get them to work. Until the army gets here, your soldiers need to become tradesmen, and they need to do it fast." The general looked at me for a long moment. The silence stretched out so far that I began to grow uncomfortable.

"What?" I asked.

"I… don't know. I knew Atrinaska well. She was a good sort. A spoiled girl with her eyes fastened to the treasury, but a good sort. You aren't like her." I wasn't sure how to take that.

"So… I'm not a good sort?" He snickered.

"You aren't what I expected. Even after what Berkenem told me of you, and how important the town finds you." I rolled my eyes.

"The town finds me important due to your coin."

"It's more than that," he said.

"The way people talk to you… The way the Mayor stood up for you. It… reminds me of someone else."

"Who?"

"Someone long dead. One who was worthy of following." I blinked, feeling oddly flattered.

"Well, if all it takes to earn your respect is ordering you around a bit, allow me to continue!" I said.

"Come on. I'll show you to the bar. We're wasting daylight, and the corpses are starting to stink. I've got an evacuation to plan, and you've got more orders to issue than I can imagine, I'm sure."

"I do, at that," he replied. I sighed as we left my house, wondering if I'd ever get to just go to my lab and tinker with things again. Soldiers were everywhere, pitching tents on the land my dad had harvested what felt like years ago. I missed Reid. I missed Dad. Mom. Hadra. Maybe Hadra I missed most of all. I was overwhelmed, and for some reason, I had a general talking fucking strategy with me, like I had any idea what we were supposed to do. Why had the Mayor kept me involved in that conversation?

What was going on with the townsfolk shouting my name after the fight? What…? What was happening to me? Less than ten steps down the road, I slipped in the mud. I splashed gracelessly, straight into the frozen muck, cursing, absolutely determined to add more points to Footwork as soon as I got cleaned. Neogon lowered a hand to help me up, laughing the whole while as he leaned the banner against his bandaged arm.

'Someone worthy of following, huh?' I thought, as we walked through the busy street, me covered in mud.

'Yeah, right.'