Valkyrie's Shadow

Winter's Crown: Act 3, Chapter 6

Winter's Crown: Act 3, Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Their work stretched late into the evening, and Lord Mare was yawning widely by the time he and Ludmila made their way out of the manor. Both of her Death Knight footmen manned the gate during the night hours, allowing her Human footmen time to rest. One of them stirred from its post, wordlessly joining Aemilia in escorting them through the central district.

“T-there was a lot more than I thought there would be,” Lord Mare remarked as they walked towards the villa gardens.

“It was what came to mind for the time being, my lord,” Ludmila said. “If I think of anything to add, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

“I told the others that it’d only take two weeks for this training expedition,” he said, “so it probably can’t cover everything that we went over. D-do you think Adventurers should be doing all of this?”

“Well, it certainly does sap the ‘adventure’ out of Adventuring,” she admitted. “A survey of this quality would usually only be commissioned by a lord that has the wealth to spare and is looking to develop their holdings. A Frontier Noble would probably do this sort of thing themselves. If we’re talking about just this duchy, however, there won’t be much opportunity for it – the regular nobles don’t have the right to independently expand beyond their de jure holdings.”

“But you can, right?” Lord Mare asked, “Shalltear said you just did something like that…”

“I can, yes,” Ludmila nodded in reply, “and I did, my lord. That part of my duties has carried over from Re-Estize law just like the rest.”

They entered the softly-lit gardens, approaching the gazebo. Lord Mare slowed his steps and looked up at her.

“T-then…why don’t you just extend your control over the area around your territory?”

Ludmila furrowed her brow at his words. Technically, she could…

“I suppose I’ve never seriously considered it, my lord.”

“If it was my job,” Lord Mare told her, “I’d be getting as much as I could for Lord Ainz.”

As far as she knew, there was no mandate for expansion set forth by the Royal Court. Everyone was still slowly adopting all of the new systems to their respective fiefs, so most of the administration’s attention was focused inward. The recent expansion of her territory into unmanaged lands was for the sole purpose of accommodating the Krkonoše’s need for an alpine habitat.

“Unless it’s an immediate security concern,” she said, “I just feel that I shouldn’t take any more than I need.”

“T-that’s another reason why I think you should…”

The sound of her boots over the cobblestones ceased, and she looked at Lord Mare curiously. He stepped up onto the floor of the gazebo and turned in place, the panels of his skirt fluttering in the night breeze.

“I-it’s because you understand what you don’t need,” he explained. “If other Humans were given the land, they would turn it into land for more Humans. The forests and meadows would be destroyed: replaced with farms and lumber mills and towns and things. Lord Ainz wants the Sorcerous Kingdom to be a place where everyone can live in happiness, b-but how can we do that if most of the land is turned into space for Humans? Even E-Rantel is like that – the majority of the city is built for Humans. I’m trying to do the best that I can with the new Demihuman Quarter, but the difference in living space is plain for all to see.”

She looked back at Lord Mare, pondering the recent trend in other people’s perception that she was somehow a good candidate for managing other races.

“Forgive me for my confusion, my lord,” she said, “but why is it that members of the Royal Court seem to believe I’m suited for managing Demihumans? Recently, Lord Cocytus, now you…I’ve been raised for all my life to defend against frontier threats – many of whom are Demihuman tribes.”

“That is the reason why?” He tilted his head slightly, “I-it’s just in how you look at it, I guess? Druids and Rangers have a strong understanding of natural balance, as well as empathy for natural things, but Rangers extend that even further into what they specialize in interacting with. Big sis is a Ranger who specializes in magical beasts. It’s not just her being able to track, intimidate and fight them, but also to communicate with, understand and raise them as well. It should be the same for you – that’s just how Rangers are.”

Ludmila furrowed her brow. Was that really the case? The Sorcerous Kingdom’s upper echelons were possessed of a wealth of knowledge that she wasn’t even remotely aware of before they came, and she didn’t believe that Lord Mare had any reason to mislead her. He was generally friendly and helpful in his interactions.

“Mmh…okay, how about this,” Lord Mare said. “Has your family ever f-failed at defending your Area?”

“No, my lord,” her response was immediate.

“What about the other nobles that used to defend the southwest border?”

“They didn’t fall because of intruders, my lord. It was because they couldn’t remain economically viable, and the Provosts sent to E-Rantel apparently had no real interest in supporting us.”

“Uh…really?” A puzzled expression appeared over Lord Mare’s features, “That doesn’t make sense – a-aren’t you supposed to pay maintenance for your defences?”

“That’s how I understand it, my lord. Apparently, they didn’t see things the same way.”

Lord Mare blinked slowly several times at her reply.

“A-anyways, where was I…oh, uh, if your family could have built a giant wall across the frontier, would you have done it?”

“That would be unwise if I were to put it nicely.”

“Why?”

“It would be a massive drain on resources,” Ludmila explained, “and holding it would be a permanent burden. Building such a monumental structure is tantamount to challenging the wilderness tribes – rather than keeping them out, you’d just be attracting swarms of them. The way we do it, all that would be required are a few outposts so we can maintain territorial boundaries in a more sane manner.”

“Did you know that the Holy Kingdom on the western end of the wilderness built a giant wall across their whole border?”

“If what you say about Rangers is true, my lord, surely an entire Kingdom has many to advise them against this?”

“I’m not sure about what Rangers they have, but their country is run by the nobility and the temples. They get attacked all the time like you say, too. It doesn’t even really help them – the Demihumans could overrun their whole Kingdom if they really wanted to.”

Ludmila pondered the monumentally wasteful move. Could a nation really be so ignorant of its neighbours? Even if someone did step up and inform them at this point, the damage had already been done and no one would believe them.

“Considering that the nobility and the temples govern the nation,” she said after some thought, “I can roughly understand what’s going on. They built the wall thinking that it would ensure the well-being of their nation, under the impression that everyone thinks as they do. What happened instead is that it invited attacks by all of the wilderness tribes in the region, and now they’ve been driven to believe that the wall is their best defence.

“If they had never built that wall, they could have essentially become just another ‘tribe’ – simply considered a part of the greater balance of power in the wilderness and worth no special consideration beyond occasional skirmishes as tests of strength. As long as it was understood that they were not easy prey, things would not advance beyond minor attempts to raid where weakness was perceived. This is essentially what House Zahradnik did – there would still be losses, but nowhere close to what they probably experience now, with far less in the way of maintenance.”

“Do you think that the other nobles in E-Rantel would come up with the same answer?”

“Not unless they were Rangers or Druids, or at least heeded the ones that they had,” Ludmila smirked. “They’d probably be building stupidly expensive walls instead. I will consider your words, my lord. Thank you.”

“It’s something that I think would be for the best as well,” Lord Mare said. “I’ll see you…hm…I guess in about a week, actually?”

“Yes, that’s right,” she replied. “We have an appointment to landscape the next section of the farming strip. I’ll give the training expedition further thought and, if there’s anything you’d like to review, we can speak about it then.”

Lord Mare was silent for a moment, tapping his chin with a finger in thought.

“A-actually,” the finger stopped, “have you changed anything in your schedule, yet?”

“Not yet, my lord,” Ludmila replied. “I’ll need to see how I can reorganize around my time with this sudden change. Was there something in particular you needed me for?”

“No – I mean, yes,” Lord Mare quickly corrected himself. “Mister Ainzach wanted to put the training on hold, but Momon said that we should continue training while he figures things out. That way, everyone will be stronger and have more endurance to learn Martial Arts with.”

“In that case, should I leave things unchanged, my lord?”

“Um…actually, I saw that you’ll be back in your Area–er, fief for a while, so I wanted to make sure you were caught back up before then…”

Lord Mare’s voice trailed off, his gaze turning inwards.

“Six times,” he said.

“Six times, my lord?”

“Un,” he nodded. “Six training sessions per day. Two in the morning, two in the afternoon and two in the evening.”

Each training session took roughly three hours. When would she have the time to do anything else? Also, what would she smell like after all that?

“N-no good?” Lord Mare frowned worriedly, looking up at her with big, watery eyes.

“I was just trying to figure out how to make your proposal work, my lord,” Ludmila said hurriedly. “I still need to work…and eat…and sleep. A bath would be nice too. Three, at least.”

“Oh. Uh…”

Lord Mare reached into his inventory. He withdrew a clutched hand and opened it before her: in his palm were a variety of rings that softly gleamed in the garden’s lighting.

“Pick any one you like,” he told her.

Ludmila examined each in turn: they were bands that looked to be of the same, silvery metal, fashioned in vaguely similar designs.

“Is there any difference between these?” She asked.

“They’re all Rings of Sustenance,” he answered. “When you wear it, you’ll only need about two hours of sleep a week. Food and drink won’t be a problem, either.”

“Are there any downsides?”

“Um…not that I know of…”

Ludmila picked out the most plain-looking band, examining it briefly before placing it on her right middle finger. Aside from the brief, cool sensation of the metal on her skin, she didn’t really feel anything.

“How do I know if it’s working?”

“You won’t get hungry or tired, I guess?”

“I see,” she looked up from her hand. “With this, would it be possible to move the morning sessions to the nighttime hours? Most of the regular business I conduct is before noon.”

“Night sessions, hm…” Lord Mare gazed out in thought for a moment, then nodded, “That sounds like a good idea, actually. We’ve only been training during the day, but there’s time for another two sessions at night…I-I’m not sure if we can get more people on such notice, but we can still try out some stuff together if there aren’t.”

Ludmila suppressed a sigh of relief. Everything was still managing to barely work out somehow. Lord Mare reached into his inventory again.

“Um…this, too.”

She looked down at his hand. There was a large, black collar. The links of a dull, metal chain dangled off of it. Ludmila quickly glanced around at the shadows of the garden before hesitantly reaching out to receive it.

“…do I need to put it on right now?” She asked in a low voice.

“You should only wear it for certain types of training,” Lord Mare told her. “It enhances your rate of growth, but it weakens you when it’s equipped. Maybe try it when you’re doing something safe…like paperwork? W-we can try it during the night sessions as well – I wanted to experiment on how they could work in combat exercises. So far, they’ve only been used safely in drills.”

“I’ll give it a try, my lord,” Ludmila slipped the collar into her Infinite Haversack. “Will there be anything else?”

“No, not really,” he said. “I’m happy that you agreed to do all this, though. You always come up with even more stuff that helps me improve the Training Area. The other Adventurers aren’t as willing to test out my new ideas, either.”

“It’s a pleasure to be of service,” Ludmila lowered her head. “I’ll see you tomorrow after lunch, then?”

“Sounds good,” he nodded. “Bye.”

“Have a good night, my lord.”

Halfway into Ludmila’s curtsey, Lord Mare jumped into one of the pillars of the gazebo.

“D-did he just jump into that pillar?” Aemilia breathed from behind her.

“Lord Mare uses plants to get around,” Ludmila told her. “There are vines creeping up the columns of the gazebo. He brought a potted tree to Warden’s Vale the last time he came by for the same reason – he can just pop in whenever he likes now.”

“I see. I wonder if there’s some handy spell like that I can learn…”

They started making their way back to the manor, with the Death Knight following after them.

“Maybe you should add it to the list of spells you’ve marked for learning so far.”

“I did ask about the ones Lady Shalltear used, actually,” Aemilia replied. “Even the ones that they knew about require an extraordinarily powerful divine caster – adherents of the god of air gain access to a few.”

Though unable to cast anything so far, her lady’s maid had come up with a short list of spells she wanted to learn. There were some spells of healing, but most were not really what one would associate with a divine caster. The Clean spell was at the top of her list, followed by ones that could conjure paper, spices, water and various other useful components of daily life. Other spells that would assist with her duties as a maid followed those, while Message and some additional spells of the second tierwere on her list of more distant goals.

“Speaking of which,” Ludmila said, “which of the gods do you favour?”

“Not any one in particular, my lady. Though I suppose that now I’m in the service of a noble, it would be Surshana?”

“There’s no actual rule about that,” Ludmila told her. “I might be an adherent of Surshana, but that doesn’t mean you have to be.”

With judgement and justice as part of the god of death’s portfolio, Surshana was the deity commonly favoured by the nobility who worshipped the Six Great Gods, and House Zahradnik was no exception. Being polytheistic in nature, however, every god was respected for their place in a Human’s journey through life. The nuances of one’s faith were not something to be imposed – it was a deeply personal part of spiritual life.

“The people at the cathedral say that, my lady,” Aemilia said. “That there’s no rush, and it’s something that should come naturally…but, at the same time, I’d like to be useful to you as soon as possible.”

“I was like that too,” Ludmila said. “Well, sort of. I’ll admit that I was probably more excited at the prospect of just being able to cast spells at the time.”

“Okay, that too,” Aemilia blushed slightly. “Maybe I should be more serious about this – just the idea of learning divine magic to become a better maid feels a bit irreverent.”

“I don’t see a problem with it,” she told Aemilia. “The tenets of our faith encourage everyone to pursue their vocations earnestly: you are following the teachings of the gods, so why would you be censured for it?”

That was her interpretation, at least. Being an administrator who could appreciate how her tenants wove the fabric of her demesne together, she saw the tenets of the faith as a practical and grounded set of teachings – a guide on how to conduct one’s life. As they continued making their way back over the cobblestone streets, Ludmila pondered another set of tenets that might be the cause of friction in the future.

The faith of The Six was a Human faith, and thus promoted Human agendas. Not only did it encourage the orderly advancement of their species in domestic matters, but had a decidedly active role in how the faithful generally perceived non-Humans. Lord Mare’s encouragement to expand her borders in order to preserve the natural state of the southern frontier meant that she would also be holding lands ideal for non-Humans and, like with the Lizardmen, more and more of those races would probably come under her charge.

She and Clara both agreed that creating a place in the Sorcerous Kingdom where humanity could thrive was their divine mandate as nobles who worshipped The Six, but Clara had a significantly easier time of it. Corelyn County was entirely populated by Humans, consisting of long-developed territories of Re-Estize. There was a very real risk of friction in her own demesne if her Human subjects were forced to live alongside other races.

At first, Ludmila thought that, as different races had their own ideal habitats, the natural separation between them would keep the peace. The Krkonoše dwelled around lofty peaks and alpine meadows, the Lizardmen lived in the wetlands, while Humans lived in their farming villages and the harbour town. The Demihumans that came to dwell in the wildlands of the frontier could also be left to their own devices, far away from other peoples. There was a place for everyone, and everyone would be able to take their place in her demesne peacefully.

Yet, the more she thought about it, the more this idea presented an ever-increasing pile of troubling flaws. It was the will of the Sorcerer King that all of his subjects would live in security and harmony, and all peoples be able to pursue their own prosperity. Her original plan instead sounded like dumping different people into their respective pens and thinking they could get by in that manner. The powerful Undead forces of the Sorcerous Kingdom would certainly afford them security, but they did not create harmony or prosperity on their own.

While the Krkonoše were more than happy to live their lives intertwined with nature, the same could not be said for everyone under her protection. Humans tended to develop and build until great cities and nations were raised, and she had no idea what a Lizardman’s idea of happiness was. Other Demihumans would probably not be content to simply subsist in undeveloped lands either – the Agrande Confederation was rumoured to be an advanced and powerful nation with a myriad of species living together there. The lands of Karnassus beyond the Baharuth Empire had Humans as only one of the many peoples that made it their home.

Then there was Smith Kovalev’s account of the Empire of the Tiger Beastmen, far beyond the little corner of the world that she lived in. A nation that was so advanced in its craft and artifice that it made Human civilization appear primitive by comparison. Rather than resting safely behind the protection of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s armies, shouldn’t they be instead worried about just how far behind they actually were as a society compared to the rest of the world?

As Liane Wagner often so bluntly put it, Re-Estize was a backwater of a backwater – the furthest from what could be called a prosperous and advanced nation, and the Duchy of E-Rantel was still very much in that condition. If the Sorcerous Kingdom was to be a beacon of prosperity to the rest of the world, they couldn’t very well do so in their shoddy state: viewed as poorly as Humans themselves viewed feral Demihuman tribes…or perhaps worse.

Ludmila needed to piece together a new plan for her demesne, yet she knew too little. How could she nurture her people and provide them with happy lives? What was considered prosperity for the various races that she might end up being responsible for? How could she create harmony between so many different people and with nature itself? Many of the goals she had set for the future dissipated, replaced by new ones catapulted so far out of view that she had no real idea how to go about achieving them.

The Death Knight footman assumed its place at the manor gate, and Ludmila made her way directly to her solar. After dressing down, she seated herself behind her simple, wooden desk and started working through her long backlog of administrative tasks. Aemilia came up from the letter room, placing a small stack of new messages scribed from Warden’s Vale at the bottom of her inbox.

After she was certain that her maid had retired for the night, Ludmila gingerly put on the strange, black collar. Seated at the desk as she was, she didn’t feel debilitated in any tangible way, so, after a moment’s discomfort over the idea of what she was wearing, she started her work.

Several hours later, she reached the bottom of her inbox and furrowed her brow at a line amongst many, underlined in bold.

The first two members of Zurrernorn would be arriving just before the harvest.

Ludmila placed her elbows on the desk, folding her hands together. Her thumbs pressed against her lips as she absently looked down at the notification. With the Ring of Sustenance, it appeared that she could free up a substantial amount of time by reducing how much of it was dedicated to sleep and meals. The world, however, seemed more than happy to take it up.