Valkyrie's Shadow

Empire in Chains: Act 3, Chapter 4

Empire in Chains: Act 3, Chapter 4

Chapter 4

There aren’t any here…

Ilyshn’ish leaned forward slightly with a hand on her hip, lips turned out in a pout. Her finger traced over the commission board as she went from posting to posting, searching for any propositions that tickled her fancy.

Investigate…investigate…investigate…why are they all ‘investigate’?

People always wanted her to ‘investigate’ things. Lady Shalltear; Lady Zahradnik; the Adventurer Guild – first, the one in E-Rantel and now this one in Oestestadt. ‘Investigate’ was so vague and everyone who demanded investigations somehow always expected a tangible result when they didn’t even know what was there.

Where was the ‘terrorise’, ‘pillage’, and ‘exterminate’? Even ‘Kill Five Goblins’ or ‘Fetch me a Cow’ would have been fine. That was what these Adventurers did, didn’t they?

She leaned further forward as she scanned down the board. The Adventurers watching her leaned forward too. Ilyshn’ish’s lips turned up in a slight smile: in many things, Humans were so ridiculously simple.

This simplicity was what she had come to exploit, except the desired avenue of exploitation did not appear to exist. Lady Zahradnik mentioned something about the Empire’s Adventurer Guilds only having Platinum-rank commissions or higher due to the efforts of the Imperial Army. Lady Wagner told her that the area around The Blister and the Golden Strand was the most productive region of the Empire, so any commission should be suitably lucrative.

Local interests invested a portion of their riches to ensure the continued generation of more riches. Unlike powerful apex predators, Humans tended to pay no mind to the effect that they had on the world around them. They just grew. Grew and expanded and consumed. Everything they could take advantage of was a resource. Anything that interfered with industry was a ‘threat to society’ or a ‘dangerous creature’. If they could kill winter so they could have another growing season, they probably would.

The commissions in front of her all involved forays that sent Adventurers deeper into the Green Dragon’s domain. Before she departed Engelfurt, Lady Zahradnik informed her that she would be acting as a ‘liaison’ in the area to help conduct an operation to oust the region’s current overlord. She had asked Ilyshn’ish to be aware of what was going on in the area, so all of these commissions were probably something that followed a similar vein. They needed to get a lay of the land before going on the offensive.

Ilyshn’ish slowly straightened to stand. A sigh rose from the tables nearby. Human simplicity…if that was the case, this was a twist on that very same nature. Merchants positioned their inventories in such a way that what they wanted to sell received prospective clients’ attention. The Adventurer Guild might be making sure that these commissions were being taken first in the same way. While the ones posted before her were probably easy enough to complete, encroaching on another Dragon’s territory in such a manner was just plain rude.

That being said, while the impending operation demanded investigation, it didn’t mean everything else Humans saw as inconveniences to their civilisation conveniently vanished. Their ‘inventory’ of regular commissions was probably piling up somewhere…

She scanned the guildhall through her Blindsight, but there weren’t any other boards around. Would the receptionists know? Ishpen and Wina answered questions in the E-Rantel Adventurer Guild, so it was probably the same here. She examined the two women at the counter. They were young and possessed the pleasing qualities that Humans seemed to favour when interacting with others. Both wore an outfit similar to receptionists from the two other Adventurer Guilds she had seen.

Ilyshn’ish settled her nerves, thankful for the mental reinforcement that she received from her new bond with Lady Zahradnik. She wouldn’t have been able to enter the building so boldly without it. Normally, if she was allowed to have things her way, Ilyshn’ish would have stalked around a location for days before deciding she knew enough about it to enter.

A part of her told her that doing so was for good reason, while another part reasoned that it was unreasonable in her current circumstances. The former would have won out if not for Lady Zahradnik’s influence.

The two receptionists turned extra attentive as she approached the counter.

“Good evening,” Ilyshn’ish smiled. “I was wondering if you had any regular commissions available – I feel it unwise to be participating in the current…event.”

The receptionists stared across the counter at her, expressions changing as comprehension seemed to slowly dawn upon them.

“Ah, of course,” one of them nodded respectfully. “Just one moment please.”

As the receptionist turned away to enter the back office, the other looked up at Ilyshn’ish with excitement in her eyes.

“Um…if you don’t mind, may I examine your identity plate?”

“My identity plate…? Oh, you mean this.”

Ilyshn’ish unfastened the chain of her Adventurer Guild tag, placing it on the counter between them. The receptionist reverently retrieved the adamantite plate.

“Shiver…” Her eyes widened as she continued reading, “E-E-E-Rantel?! You’re…you’re an Adventurer from the Sorcerous Kingdom?”

“That’s right,” Ilyshn’ish replied.

See? There’s nothing wrong with ‘Shiver’. I come up with perfectly good names.

With her promotion came a brainstorming session for her moniker as an Adamantite Adventurer. Guildmaster Ainzach came up with ‘Dancing Dragon’, while Ishpen and Wina put forward ‘Graceful Muse’. Lady Aura wanted ‘White Death’. Momon suggested ‘Wintergewitter’, whatever that meant. For some reason, Lady Wagner liked that one too when she told her about it.

In the end, they ran out of time and she stuck with ‘Shiver’, much to her relief.

“What are these bars beside your name?” The receptionist asked.

“The Sorcerous Kingdom’s Adventurer Guild has different Adamantite Ranks,” Ilyshn’ish explained. “One bar is for entry-level Adamantites, two is for someone in the Realm of Heroes. A third bar was added recently, but only Momon and Nabe of Darkness occupy that rank.”

“H-how many Adamantite-rank Adventurers does the Sorcerous Kingdom have?”

“If you’re referring to those within our Adventurer Guild, not many. Beings equivalent to Adamantite-rank Adventurers, however, are quite plentiful.”

The first receptionist returned to the counter, cradling a box in her arms. She slowed upon crossing the divider from the hall, peering out past Ilyshn’ish.

“What’s going on here?”

“People are coming closer to listen,” Ilyshn’ish shrugged. “Is that not permitted?”

Two dozen or so Adventurers had slowly crept closer while she was speaking to the second receptionist. Ilyshn’ish patiently waited while the receptionists sorted through the commissions stored in the box.

“If there are so many powerful beings in the Sorcerous Kingdom,” someone asked, “then what’s the point in having an Adventurer Guild?”

“While we employ the same progression of ranks,” Ilyshn’ish answered, “our Adventurer Guild is a fundamentally different organisation. If I’ve heard correctly, His Majesty the Sorcerer King made a related announcement last spring?”

Ilyshn’ish reached out and went through the first stack of commissions laid on the counter. The assortment was primarily Orichalcum and Mithril-rated requests.

“There were rumours about something like that happening in the capital,” a woman spoke up, “after the Sorcerer King beat the Martial Lord in the Grand Arena. Exploring the unknown and understanding the world…”

“Understanding depends on the individual,” Ilyshn’ish said. “As for exploration, there is plenty of that. For instance, the Azerlisia Expedition started late this summer and is still in progress.”

“Expedition?” A burly man mouthed the term as if it was unfamiliar, “That sounds like what the army is doing with the Sixth Legion. Last I heard, they were training up to conquer some part of the frontier.”

“As the gentleman from before has already noted,” Ilyshn’ish replied, “there is no need for that sort of work with how powerful the Sorcerous Kingdom’s forces are. Our Adventurer Guild Expeditions are essentially exploratory activities within a designated region. Expeditionary camps consist of thirty Adventurers Gold-ranked and above, divided into five parties of six. Those parties work together to achieve the goals of their particular leg of the expedition.”

She continued reading through the commissions, then stopped at one that was strangely marked. Separating it from the stack, she flipped it around and held it up in front of the receptionists.

“What are all these markings for?” Ilyshn’ish asked.

“Oh, that’s a cancelled commission,” the first receptionist reached out to take the page from her. “It must have snuck into the pile somehow.”

“Was the job no longer necessary?”

“Essentially, yes. During the summer, the Imperial Army rescinded all requests for assistance in the forests and foothills west of the border. It was roughly half the work of our branch here in Oestestadt.”

“Wasn’t just army work. Army doesn’t want us going out into the Azerlisia wilderness period. Commissions for rare materials are harder to fill now and the price for the goods that use ‘em have gone up.”

Ilyshn’ish turned at the resentful voice. A tall man of perhaps thirty years stood on the right side of the semicircle gathered around her. He had a lean, well-muscled look to him, and his arms were crossed over a suit of enchanted brigandine. A Mithril plate hung from his neck. By his overall appearance, he appeared to be a Ranger.

“That’s probably because they don’t want their Adventurers poaching,” Ilyshn’ish said.

“Poaching?”

“The ‘wilderness’ you’re referring to is home to many. Not only is the kingdom of the Mountain Dwarves to the west experiencing a resurgence, but the entire Azerlisia Mountain range and its surrounding forests from the Duchy of E-Rantel to the northern coast have become territories of the Sorcerous Kingdom. The residents of those territories hold the land rights; trespassing to hunt, forage and extract resources without their permission is illegal.”

“So what they say about Demihumans and Heteromorphs becoming subjects of the Sorcerous Kingdom is true.”

Ilyshn’ish nodded, and a dull murmur rose as the gathered Adventurers discussed amongst themselves. By the sounds of it, it appeared to be new information, though why the Imperial Administration hadn’t notified them was a mystery. The exchange with her new minion brought to mind a question of her own.

“Out of curiosity, have there been any raids on imperial lands by the tribes to the west since summer?”

The Adventurers exchanged glances with one another. A portly man in a brown robe shook his head.

“I haven’t seen a job involving that sort of thing since about then, no.”

“The caravans to the Dwarf Kingdom don’t look for escorts, either,” another Adventurer added. “They actually hire escorts going into the Empire. Seemed ass-backwards, but they pay fairly and on time so I didn’t think much about it…guess we know why that is now.”

“Isn’t the Imperial Army supposed to be responsible for domestic security?” Ilyshn’ish asked, “That’s why lower-rank Adventurers don’t work here, yes?”

“Yep. Adventurers Platinum and over exist because the Imperial Army can only deal with things up to around there. Frontier’s full of things they can’t handle.”

That was about to change. The first contingents of Death-series servitors were already being delivered in the south. Eventually, they would be employed here as well. Work that involved raw, martial strength was about to vanish for these Adventurers.

Ilyshn’ish turned back to the pile of commissions – she wanted to snap up as many of them as possible before the Empire’s integration of Undead forces was complete. She didn’t get very far before she was interrupted again.

“Why is the Sorcerous Kingdom sending these ‘expeditions’ into the Azerlisia Mountains if they’ve already claimed ‘em?”

“Because expeditions are for exploration and discovery,” she looked over her shoulder, “as His Majesty has advertised. Even a range as small as the Azerlisia Mountains takes a long time to investigate. I imagine they’ll be working their way through the peaks and valleys for a while yet.”

“What kind of stuff have they done so far?”

“Let’s see…during the midsummer, they blazed a trail from the Duchy of E-Rantel to Feoh Raizo, doing survey work for the Ministry of Transportation. It was mostly uneventful, aside from getting attacked by Frost Giants on two occasions.”

The crowd grew more animated at her mention of the Demihumans, and they shifted forward as if to press her for details. Why did Humans get excited about things that could hurt them? It felt like a collective deviancy that they were born with as a species.

“What happened?” Someone asked, “Were you there?”

“The first time,” Ilyshn’ish answered, “they ran into a large scouting party in the foothills. The Frost Giants were using Winter Wolves as well. I was delivering something to the expedition camp at the time and ended up helping out a bit.”

“Helping out…how many did you kill?”

“About a third of the total number, so five. At least that’s what they said they started out with.”

Roughly half of the Humans frowned at her statement.

“Wait – didn’t you say an ‘expedition’ is thirty members?” One of them said, “They were fighting fifteen Frost Giants…what rank were the Adventurers?”

“Three parties were composed of Gold-ranked members, two were Platinum-ranked parties, and one was Mithril-ranked. The Mithril party had an Orichalcum-ranked Ranger. I think she whittled them down by three or four while they were still coming in.”

“That’s…is that possible? Gold-ranks can’t stand up to Frost Giants like that.”

“She said they use parties of six,” another Adventurer offered, “so it might be.”

“The scouting party was mostly composed of younger Frost Giants looking to prove themselves,” Ilyshn’ish told them. “Our Guild’s Adventurers also train on a daily basis, so their combat proficiency and other vocational skills are highly refined. The second time the expedition encountered Frost Giants was far worse: they were ambushed by an experienced warband in the middle of a snowstorm. Fortunately, they were able to hold out long enough for my party to drop in on them.”

A number of the Adventurers looked up as if they were attempting to picture the scene. They probably had it wrong.

“How often do people die on these expeditions?” Someone asked.

“The survey I described was probably out of the ordinary,” Ilyshn’ish answered. “It’s extremely rare to find anything as powerful as Frost Giants in the lowlands. They explored the ruins of Feoh Teiwaz over the autumn with no fatalities to speak of. I suppose people die in training accidents as well, but we haven’t yet lost an Adventurer permanently.”

“Permanently?”

“Yes, we have access to resurrection magic, so the most they need to do is undergo retraining to gain their strength back.”

Ilyshn’ish turned her attention back to the commissions before they could offer a reaction. She hoped that they wouldn’t ask any more questions.

The Sorcerous Kingdom’s Adventurer Guild had asked her to spread awareness of their organisation, but Lady Wagner once told her that people were more likely to believe information that they had to work for, and talking too much was usually a bad thing. Ilyshn’ish agreed with the Human Noble: it could be interpreted as a sign of desperation.

Lady Zahradnik tended to speak sparingly when possible, as she believed that those who spoke more than they needed tended to have little substance to them. Something about the emptiest containers making the most noise. The guild branch might also get mad at Ilyshn’ish if they thought she was trying to steal their members.

Settling on three jobs she thought she could complete before she needed to help Zu Chiru at his stall, Ilyshn’ish had the receptionist mark their locations on her map. They all involved murdering people, so it would be simple enough.