I am sitting in one of the many meeting rooms of this fort that has somehow survived the chaos. It is basically the same as the last meeting room that I found myself in. Only here, the table has no formations on it and there is no window in here. The entire place has a rundown feeling to it. I am sure that nobody has used the room before me nor is anybody going to ever use it again.
The only reason that I am even here is that it would be prudent that I remain near the formation core. I guess I should explain why I am here with all of my injuries. The three nobles that came here have formally asked me for a meeting. If it was normal meeting, I still could have not attended it using some excuse.
A formally called meeting here means that a noble is using the might of his family to call on me. If it were a commoner, they would have to go anywhere the noble tells them to, even on their death bed. As a representative of the Black Mountain, I can at least choose the meeting spot. Still, even I cannot refuse this meeting. (Unless I want to start a fight between our organisations.)
Their purpose for the meeting should be the same as yesterday. They want the formation designs. I can refuse them in a normal situation, but it gets tricky with a formal meeting.
Whatever it is, I am sure that I will manage it eventually. It can even be considered to be an opportunity, if I am honest. Meeting the young nobles of the Snowwind Empire is always a rare occurrence.
It is a principle of the Snowwind Empire that most of our interaction with them are through the commoners. (The kind that are the farthest from any kind of real decision making.) That is why records on the nobles are few and far between. We have passable records on the many noble families of the Empire and their leaders. We absolutely do not have any record of the young elite of these families.
Now it is true that all of our "allies" have always been guarded about their knowledge around us. That fear naturally includes making sure that we never meet their unexperienced youngsters. The protectiveness of the Snowwinders is a level beyond even this fear. They hide their young elite from us like we plan to murder them the moment we meet them.
That is why I am sure that the Head Office is going to be very interested in this meeting. I am sure that the Scholars must already be poring over every detail that I am sending them.
It is time that I focus. Meeting with a noble is never an easy task in any part of the continent. It is going to be even more difficult here. The egos of the Snowwinders are legendary to anybody in this part of the continent. It doesn't help that each one of these guys has the power to kill me. The three together might be able to defeat me even with the formation.
That is one reason that I am presently here in this very meeting room. I will be able to activate the formation quickly here, in case any one of them so much as twitches in my direction.
You see, they would have sent so many powerful people only if there was a need for it. The only enemy that requires so much firepower is me at the moment. (The giant and the lady are not really a threat to these three.) I am not even being paranoid at this moment. If you know to look there are signs everywhere that I am not welcome here.
All the vital functions of this fort have been taken over by them. Every important location has their soldiers patrolling it. All of the soldiers that have been assigned to me have been slowly relieved of any work that might be of importance. They did this with a silence that truly worries me. They were trying to catch me off-guard. (And they almost did succeed.)
Also the number of soldiers that have been affected by the chill is suspicious to put it politely. Every couple of days has a new soldier joining me down there. They are also too armed and alert to be recovering soldiers. All of this is enough to make me very nervous.
All three nobles come from the Starfall family and we know next to nothing about their family. The little that we know, I am recording here. (Most of which comes from Shamon.)
They are a family that have become nobles in only the last couple of generations. (Which is naturally not a lot of history for these guys.) The little we know about them tells us that the Starfalls are a merchant family. They are supposed to have brought their way into nobility. That should normally have made them easier to handle than the older noble families with stronger armies.
The problem is that these guys are something of an exception to that rule. They are strong enough that even the Sworn have taken note of them. Considering that they make the Draken Vale their home, this much strength must be required of them to even survive the yearly assaults. (They face the brunt of the Ice Beasts that end up escaping through the Frozen Peak and its borders.)
A family like the Starfall's would normally have been the perfect kind of ally for us. They are weak enough that they have no real way of doing anything to us. At the same time they are strong enough to be able to play a role in the Empire. The problem is that I know that they are clearly going to be hostile. You see, I am considered to be an ally of the Commander.
It won't be wrong to say that Starfalls and the Commander are enemies. The best description I can think of for them is that they are two rabid dogs bound in a cage with a starving bear. They want to bite each others throat off, but if they do that the bear will come for the both of them. That is why they have decided to work together, at least until the bear (in this case, the Ice Beasts) is dead. Then they will promptly get back to ripping each other throats.
Still, both the factions have not stopped sizing each other up even with this understanding. The consequence of that is allies like us are caught in the crossfire. That is why I am surprised the Commander sent the Starfall's to the fort in the first place. I would not be surprised if things do end up in a fight in this meeting. Things are tense enough between us for that. The Seven temples incident certainly doesn't help calm things.
The only thing that is working in my favour is the fact that I control the formation. It will take all three of them together to kill me. That is not going to be the case very long, though. After all, why in the hells would they allow an outsider like me to take control of such an important formation? I am surprised that they have not already commanded me to leave.
I don't actually plan to go against this order when it comes. To do so will certainly lead to a fight that neither side can afford. On top of that, I think the soldiers have already suffered enough. I think the last week is the most rest that my soldiers had in all their time here.
Right now, my only task is to ensure that this transfer of power happens as smoothly as possible. The Snowwinders are not gentle people by any means. The Starfall's have a reputation of viciousness even among them. This is not something that I am able to ignore.
They are the kind to kill to make their work easier. If they feel that I am a threat, there is a pretty significant chance that it might get violent. I must be ready for that.
Other than a possible fight, another thing that I need to worry about is the fact that the Starfall family has one of the most capable set of formation mages in this part of the continent. They are one of three noble families that might be able to reverse engineer my formation. If I am not careful with them, things won't be pretty.
Personally, I feel that it is pretty unlikely. Developing a formation is hard work. It is not something that even formation mages like me can do easily. Even I would need support that is not easy to get in this land. Still, this is something that the Head Office is very worried about.
I can't really blame them as well. Formations like this can shift the fragile balance that has formed at the southern borders of this empire. Thankfully, I had prepared for this eventuality. I am just not sure that it will be enough to handle the Starfall's, though.
Firstly, this formation of mine is more oriented towards defense than offense. Even if they manage to study the formation to a degree that they can mass produce it, the Ironskin takes too long to be effective in such a volatile battlefield. Having it is about the same as not having it with these guys.
I am sure that there could have been better alternatives to my ring of water, but I also had to fight a Snowlord. I couldn't exactly do that with weak formations. Anyway, it will be much harder for them to do the modifications that I have done to make it so deadly. So that is also not something that I am too worried about.
The only thing left to worry about is the ballista. By its nature, the ballista is not a complex design. It is also not that hard to mass produce. On top of that it also has a decent amount of power. This might lead to a bit of a problem. Whatever, I am sure that they must have similar weapons with them already. (There are still folks that are willing to trade formations with the Snowwind Empire even with the ban, I am sure.)
As for the formation itself, I am not too worried about it. The only thing that they can do with the fort is to make it a permanent outpost. I don't think it will last till next winter, though. I am actually not sure if the fort will even survive this very winter. To be able to defeat a group of Snowlords makes this place a threat. They won't allow another Frozen Peak to rise in this land. Even now they must be gathering an army to attack this place.
That reminds me that I have to tell somebody to keep cultivating in this place. You see, the druids used these formations to extract mana from the elemental nodes non-destructively. Right now, this extracted mana is disappearing into the wind. (The iron bubble works to hold a bit of it in, but it is not perfect by any means.)
Maybe the wastage is not as much as opening the formation base would have been. It will still be a significant amount in the long run. The only way to make use of this mana would be to absorb it and use it for cultivation. It is a virtuous cycle as the vital mana you expel naturally then strengthens the barrier. Granted, just like with everything related to the druids, it is a slow and steady process.
All in all, meeting these people means my time in this fort will be coming to an end soon. I will be honest, I wanted a bit more time with the formation. After all, I might have built the formation, but it is still a class eight formation. I have never gotten to use many of them before. The weakest formation my master has is of the sixth class. For me to even run them is impossible.
Leaving that, I hope that I will be sent to the magical ruin after here. That way, I can focus on protecting the Scholars, and not get involved in the politics of this place. Sadly, I don't think that is an option. I will still try, but the Snowwinders are the ones who control the caravans, not me. They are not stupid to waste a formation mage like me.
There they are finally. It is about time that the damn assholes showed their faces here. It is not like I have the entire day to waste here. (I still have to work on the formation, you see.) They are still not going to be entering this room now. I don't know a lot of their rituals, but it is not so simple for a noble to meet a commander of a fort. (Which is what I am.)
I don't know any of these rituals, but I am not too worried about it. Even now, Shamon is making his way to my present location. That man should know everything that I need.