Valkyrie's Shadow

Winter's Crown: Act 3, Chapter 15

Winter's Crown: Act 3, Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Lord Mare descended to a lower altitude and, with map in one hand; staff held out in the other, floated forward. Below, the soil rippled and flowed like a river current over the terrain. The terraces started to take shape, exactly how they appeared on the plans.

“What do I do with all of these boulders?” Lord Mare asked.

“I’d like to put them aside to be used for masonry if possible, my lord,” Ludmila answered.

Huge boulders floated to the surface of the soil like chips of wood. The waves of earth deposited them on the side of the old road. Lord Mare continued on his way, shaping the land before him. She could only shake her head silently as she followed, trying to figure out how much time her labourers would require to accomplish what was done in a single wave of his staff. According to Clara, Corelyn Harbour’s foundations were laid in the same fashion, saving even her tremendous labour force years of time.

After a few hours of flying back and forth over the land, Lord Mare stopped at a stretch of exposed granite.

“Hmm…”

“My Lord?”

Lord Mare looked down at the map.

“This is pretty near to where the village is supposed to be,” he told her, pointing down towards the site with his staff. “There’s bedrock close to the surface here. I’m not sure how wide of an area it covers…”

“How will this affect your work?”

“I can use it to build up the village foundation, then any excess I can draw out along the roads. We’re going to have to find soil somewhere to make up for it if it turns out that the entire area is like this.”

“I’m barely keeping up with what you’re saying, my lord, but let me know if there’s a shortfall that needs to be addressed.”

“A-alright.”

They flew over to the nearby site of the future village, where Lord Mare moved massive volumes of earth aside, exposing the bedrock just below. Now that she understood what he was referring to, Ludmila started to consider the problem.

“Do you have any suggestions for where we could take soil from nearby?” She asked.

“The valley floor should be the most obvious place to find soil,” he answered. “The river carries dirt along with it from upstream, depositing it in the marshes here during the flood season. We’ll also get some from levelling out the terraces…hmm, that gives me an idea…”

Ludmila followed Lord Mare back to where he had started, and he pushed the soil aside to expose the bedrock beneath. Starting from the upper terrace, he shaped a length of it into a great stone trough, then filled it with soil.

“H-how does that look?” He asked.

“Is this how you made the training area, my lord?”

“The upper levels, yes,” he nodded, “I used Earth Surge to move the soil out of the way, then Shape Stone to roughly fashion the passages before covering it all up again. Deeper underground, I have to use different methods.”

“I think I understand what you’ll be doing,” she said. “Does this also mean excess rains will be directed into the forests dividing the village plots?”

“Un,” he nodded. “Then the runoff will flow down to the floodplain from there. That way, your terraces won’t erode as quickly. Actually, if the soil builds up enough from all of the enriched growth, you won’t see much change at all.”

“In that case, I believe it’s an excellent idea, Lord Mare.”

“Okay.”

He continued working, shaping the improved terraces as they flew along. The excess stone was collected into the village’s raised foundations, as well as a wide stone pathway where the old road once was. After a few more hours, the landscaping was mostly done – save for the bottom terraces, where they had run out of topsoil.

“Um…I need more dirt now.”

Having had time to think on what to do, Ludmila ended up with something she hadn’t considered before.

“Lord Cocytus said that some of the lake species need deeper water,” she said. “Do you think it would be possible to take soil from the northern third of the floodplain in preparation for that? It doesn’t have to be all at once – just any time we need soil for the rest of the development along this strip.”

“A-are there any rare plants there?” Lord Mare asked.

“Not that I know of,” Ludmila replied. “The plants that grow in the floodplain can be found in any part of it…to be sure, how about we bring soil over from the next clearing for now? The Lizardmen sent over by Lord Cocytus are surveying the area, so they should have a full report by the time the last couple of village plots are ready to be landscaped. That way, we’ll know for certain.”

They flew over to the north end of the clearing, and Lord Mare channelled soil through the space in the next forest strip where the old road was. He finished filling the terraces, and they then flew over to the village foundations. He rubbed his chin in thought before asking another question.

“Did you find any problems with the way the last village turned out?”

“So far, I haven’t discovered any sort of perfect defence,” she said. “Evocation and other spells that deliver energy-typed damage are not a problem at that tier, but physical assaults and certain summoned beings can still do tremendous damage. From what I’ve studied of magic so far, I’m afraid that all I can do in terms of passive measures is make it as difficult as possible to destroy the village. My only active ones at present are to remove casters from the field before they come within range, or have our own casters ready to counter them.”

“We have the same problem in E-Rantel,” Lord Mare frowned down at the bare stone below. “The local materials are just too weak, so our solution is basically the same as yours. Demiurge says that projection is key, and enemies that teleport in will just have to be intercepted as quickly as possible – it takes too much mana to constantly maintain defensive magics over anything but the most important parts of the city.”

“I see…I’ll continue exploring the problem as time passes but, for the time being, there are no other issues with the first village that I can think of, my lord.”

“O-okay. Did you want the improved sewer system?”

“Improved?”

“Un,” he nodded. “I fixed some things up and made better placements for traps and monsters.”

“Do you mean to say that the sewers under the first village are the same ones that started appearing in the Training Area shortly after?”

“Y-yes? It was a good opportunity to figure out what a realistic sewer system would be like. My only example before that was the old ones under E-Rantel. It has a bunch of problems, but I didn’t think that it was a good idea to mess with it.”

No wonder he took two days. Ludmila hoped that none of the Adventurers would blame her for that if they found out about it. Lord Mare continued to look at her, awaiting an answer.

“…just to be certain,” Ludmila asked, “there aren’t any Giant Crocodiles under the first village, are there?”

“The ones in the Training Area are just summons,” Lord Mare answered. “If you want some of your own, you’ll have to tame them from somewhere.”

She looked down at the bare layout of the area, thinking of ways by which she might be able to improve the design of the village. Considering that there was probably no immediate solution to hardening the village to powerful magical attacks…

“Is it possible to incorporate some sort of shelter for the villagers if they’re being bombarded with magic? It can be placed under the market square and villagers would be able to access it from their homes by going into the sewers. In the event that it isn’t enough, the sewer outlet can be widened so that they can follow it down to the floodplain. Some of those one-way passages that are in the Training Area would be ideal to keep intruders from getting in through that route.”

“I can do that, yes…do you think that sort of design would be useful elsewhere?”

“If you mean for the towns and villages around the duchy, it might be. With sufficient warning, the citizens can get to safety in time. The way that the escape route works would depend on where the settlement is.”

“I guess I can show Demiurge later and see what he thinks about it. Since suitable defences can’t be built with local materials, he’s trying to figure out how to preserve productive capacity just in case something manages to get past the regular patrols.”

“It’s a difficult problem,” Ludmila said. “Before the Sorcerous Kingdom, I felt that having fortified positions capable of withstanding an extended siege would be sufficient. After I started to learn about magic, however, I don’t understand how towns and cities aren’t reduced to ashes by their enemies on a regular basis. There seems to be little in the way of an answer beyond matching strength with strength, and praying that your own lands don’t suffer too harshly.”

“Well, as far as we know, there aren’t many nations in the area that are capable of that. Not on the scale that you’re describing, anyways.”

“That’s a relief, I suppose,” Ludmila said. “Even a single, disgruntled magic caster capable of third tier magic could quickly lay waste to any one of the lowland villages, however. The consequences for Re-Estize’s lack of investment in magic casters leaves me wondering how they’ve survived for so long, now that my understanding has reached this point.”

Not only was it disturbing in hindsight; it also left the duchy in a remarkably pitiful state when it came to common knowledge and the development of spells and items: something she resolved to remedy once she had the means. As Mare went about fashioning the sewers below the village, she continued to ponder the problem of defending against enemy spellcasters.

“How would you attack a village like this, my lord?” She asked.

“Um…if someone was careless enough to leave the stone unworked, I could just reshape it.”

“I guess that’s why you advised me to have that taken care of after you finished raising the first village…”

“T-that’s right,” Lord Mare nodded. “The way you’ve designed these villages is pretty clever – most area spells directly affect a limited radius, and things are spread out here that I’d only be able to get a few at a time with a single cast. These buildings are made out of big stone blocks and aren’t built too tall, so it’ll take a lot to shake them down. If someone attacks with enough power to destroy anything here, everyone elsewhere will hear it and escape.”

That was the hope, at least. During her studies of magic, it appeared that many spells that could affect an area were, in reality, quite small. As long as buildings were durable, spread out nicely, and not prone to collapsing or catching on fire, it became next to impossible for an attacking magic caster to cause extensive damage before her stationed defences could respond.

“How long would that take?”

Lord Mare clutched his staff closely as he looked down at the empty foundation.

“Hmm…with my class skills and the right metamagics, it would take me dozens of casts to flatten the surface of this village – that’s if you’re building it like the first one. Storm of Vengeance has about five times the radius of Earthquake, but these buildings aren’t flimsy like the ones Shalltear destroyed in Fassett Town. The drainage is really good as well, so the acid would just get flushed out…did you design it this way on purpose? I could destroy an army on the field for a fraction of the mana it would take to destroy this place.”

“After figuring that there was no apparent way to have a perfectly defensible village,” Ludmila explained, “I opted to design it in the most annoying way possible against prospective attackers. As a side benefit, it makes for a nice and spacious village with plenty of green spaces.”

“D-does anyone else make villages like this?” He asked.

“Not that I know of,” Ludmila replied. “I wouldn’t even have considered designing something like this before learning about magic, and without our systems of labour, it would be exorbitantly expensive to build even if there was a source of materials nearby. What you commonly see in the lowlands should be the standard for Re-Estize.”

“I see,” Lord Mare frowned down at the village plan. “Hopefully other people don’t do it this way, or it would be troublesome.”

“Troublesome, my lord?”

“I’m supposed to be the one that’s good at area attacks, but towns and cities built this way would be a real pain to destroy. I should figure out how to do things better, but it’s not like there’s an easy way to practice…h-hopefully I can ask Lord Ainz before I need to do something like that for real.”

“What threats would you consider when attacking?”

“I guess the best way to explain it would be that every settlement should have zones of defence. A caster has to pass the outer zone, which consists of long-range patrols. The next zone would be the coverage from long-range physical attackers, like Rangers. After that is the zone where enemy casters come into range – if you can cast at them, they can cast at you. Many spells have direct counters, but there’s more than enough that don’t so I could just use those instead. The final layers of defence are protective magics and the structures themselves.”

“How far could Lady Aura effectively attack an incoming mage?”

“With direct fire? Maybe around two kilometres…her accuracy might suffer at that range without using certain skills, but she has her pets that she can coordinate along with her attacks as well.”

Two kilometres with direct fire? Ludmila could only manage around a tenth of that, at most. What sort of ridiculous bow did Lady Aura have? More to the point, how strong did one have to be to draw a bow that could power direct fire against targets two kilometres away? All sorts of questions started to pop up in her mind, and she filed them away for when she could ask her later.

“I suppose I’ll have to figure out how to organize my defences using that concept,” Ludmila said. “The security forces leased out by the central administration are excellent when it comes to direct and open warfare, but I’m starting to see all sorts of holes that can be exploited due to their other shortfalls.”

Lord Mare stopped his work, turning to look at her for a few moments before speaking.

“S-so you noticed…”

“The Royal Court is aware of this, my lord?”

“Hmm…how do I say this…a-all else being equal, if you put a summon up against a person, the person should be stronger – a summon is just a summon, after all. They might have comparable stats to their opponent, but they lack the variety of skills, spells, abilities and Martial Arts that a real person has, and they also don’t have the same extensive experience. The Training Area has generated a lot of data to make these comparisons.”

“Were there any conclusions made?”

“It’s something that we knew all along,” Lord Mare said, “but there are just so many differences around here that we aren’t exactly sure how to gauge strength between the nations in the region. There’s little worry when it comes to open war: as a whole, the region’s equipment quality is poor, and there aren’t many individuals who can match Death Knights and Soul Eaters, never mind fighting anything stronger. The main concern is that parts of the Sorcerous Kingdom might suffer damage once in a while because of the ‘holes’ that you noticed since the bulk of our coverage is made up of those types of summons.”

“Have there been any good solutions so far?”

“Demiurge is doing some research on that right now – he’s been studying how groups of Demihumans raid and wage war. Cocytus wants to raise a formal army to train out some of the weaknesses in the summons’ behaviours.”

“I suppose if a Death Warrior can learn how to captain a ship, you can have them function in all sorts of ways…”

“T-that’s the idea, I think.”

Lord Mare returned to his work. The sewers took another hour to complete, including the shelter and the outlet that could serve as an escape passage. They flew back over to the village foundation from the floodplain, looking down on it and the surrounding fields. Lord Mare had the maps out again, comparing them to the result.

“Did you notice something, my lord?” Ludmila asked.

“N-no,” Lord Mare answered. “I was just thinking about what to do for the next time. Also…is your territory okay? We changed the weather to make sure the harvest comes in on time in the lowlands, but it means you don’t get your usual weather here.”

“To be honest,” she said, “it’s something that I’m becoming very worried about. The effects on the land are quite telling.”

“I thought so,” Lord Mare frowned. “The entire southwest is kind of drying out, but Albedo wants the first harvest to turn out the best results possible.”

“Is there a way to satisfy her directives without sacrificing the land like this?”

“Maybe, but the best way would just not be to meddle with the weather at all. Hmm…”

Lord Mare flew upwards, motioning for her to follow. They ascended for several minutes, rising higher than the peaks of the southern border ranges. Ludmila pivoted as they rose, taking in the scenery around them. She could see the city of E-Rantel peeking out from behind the forested slopes to the northeast, with the peaks of the Azerlisia Mountains looming in the background. To the west, Re-Estize and the spine of the southern border ranges stretched on, disappearing beyond the horizon.

As she continued to gaze down over the land, the air grew colder, wind whipping at her dress and stealing her warmth away.

“?Protection Energy – Ice?.”

The chill subsided.

“Thank you, my lord.”

“N-no problem. Mmh…that’s something we have to think about for the Azerlisia expedition as well. It’s cold enough to inflict environmental damage without protection.”

“Will that be difficult to address?”

“We have mountaineering gear available, but I think we should see what everyone around here uses first. A-anyways,” Lord Mare gestured over the landscape below with his staff, “the small river that joins the Katze River in the north of your territory: if we divert it into the floodplain, the marshes won’t dry out.”

“Won’t the water still flow out the northern end even if we did that?”

“I can fix that. We can raise the sandbar and the bedrock below it, so the new diversion flowing in will raise the water level until it starts flowing out where the river used to flow in.”

“The river drops about ten metres from the beginning of the Vale to the end…we’re going to end up with a lake instead.”

“I can adjust the terrain before we flood it,” he told her. “We can move earth from the northern third since you wanted to anyway. In the end, it will be deep enough for the people that need it, while everything south of that should be like how it is during the flood season. We can transplant rare plants from the north before that if we find any.”

“Would it be possible to dam the southern end around where the bridge is?”

“I guess…but why?”

“Since such drastic changes are being proposed,” Ludmila said, “we may as well make use of everything. The water level could be raised to about twenty metres higher than where it is right now, and the dam at the end can house a large mill that makes use of the water leaving the marsh. To keep the water from rising above a certain level during the rainy season, we can create an outlet for flood control where the water exits currently.”

“So you’ll retain the plans for the harbour area, just set at a higher elevation?"

“Yes, my lord. These changes should help address issues with the drying climate in the Vale, as well as take advantage of said changes. It should also make the harbour area more defensible. All that remains is making sure there’s enough water from the diverted river – it’s currently dry due to the changes in the weather.”

“Y-your vassals can take care of that, can’t they?”

“They can?”

Lord Mare pointed towards the ranges on the other side of the Katze River, shrouded by clouds that she hadn’t noticed from below.

“There are some people changing the weather over there to respond to the changes in climate – they’re using the same spell that I am.” He pivoted and swept his staff over to the lands west of Warden’s Vale. “The watershed for that river covers all of the land over there. If you send them out to make it rain all around there, the southwestern border will get the rain it’s supposed to, and the river will return to normal. That way, you can benefit from the sunny weather in the Vale while keeping everything else from drying up.”

The Krkonoše did say that they would do anything she asked, but it still felt like an imposition. Or maybe not, as they saw her as the one charged with maintaining the natural balance of the area. This would certainly fall under that consideration.

“I’ll see what they have to say about it, my lord.”

“Alright, I’ll come by and make those changes some other day: I need to make sure my mana stays above a certain level in case I’m needed for something.”

“Apologies for the inconvenience, my lord,” she lowered her head. “Will you be staying for a meal?”

Lord Mare shook his head.

“I have to get back to the training area,” he said. “Mister Ainzach is still working on that program for Martial Arts, so we’re still raising Adventurer levels while we wait. They should be needing new practice enemies soon.”

“Were there any updates to the upcoming training expedition, by the way?”

“Um…Merry says that there’s no way we can fit everything you’ve outlined in two weeks. We’re going to be splitting up our expeditions into a few types: we’ll start with basic exploration, then conduct focused studies on areas of interest that we find at a later date. The training expeditions will be reflecting those differences.”

“I understand, my lord. In that case, shall I carry on with preparations for additional training expeditions in the area?”

“Yes, make sure you have a few ready. We’ll still be training for all the other stuff – just not right away.”

“Very well,” Ludmila nodded. “I shouldn't be taking up any more of your precious time. Thank you once again for your invaluable assistance, Lord Mare.”

She curtseyed respectfully and stood with her hands folded over her lap, awaiting his departure. He simply stood before her, staring back.

“My lord?”

“Um…we should land first.”

‘Oh.”