North of Lornhaven, an ancient hunting trail wound into the forested hills.
The road was thick with mud after the rain. General Walton Giles rode a snow-white warhorse, followed by more than one hundred armored riders. Their banner, embroidered with a black lion, hung limp and sodden.
Shouts occasionally rang out from the woods ahead, where his infantry were hunting down rebellious serfs.
Walton paid them little mind.
Peasant uprisings were like autumn plagues. One broke out every few years. Hang a few ringleaders, burn down a village or two, and the rest would obediently return to their lords' fields.
What truly troubled him was the king.
Ever since his family had been accused at a court banquet three years ago of involvement in a failed succession plot, House Giles had lost the king's trust.
His elder brother had been stripped of his title. Two ancestral estates had been bestowed upon the queen's relatives. Walton himself had been packed off to this port, where the stink of fish lingered all year round.
Lornhaven's soil was poor, and its tax revenues were nothing to boast about. The merchants here were infuriatingly shrewd. Even imposing an additional harbor levy meant spending half the day arguing with guild elders.
Was he doomed to spend the rest of his life in this wretched place?
Walton frowned. Then, suddenly, he thought of Esenna.
The young countess of Esenna had only just inherited her father's lands. She had yet to secure the allegiance of all her retainers, and she had few knights at her command.
What would happen if the rebellious serfs fled into her territory? What if they burned estates, plundered villages, and even threatened Esenna itself?
The king would have no choice but to order a military response.
Then Walton could lead his knights to crush the rebels and return to court with their leader's head.
As his reward, perhaps he could ask for his family's lost estates. Perhaps even more.
His mind made up, General Walton ordered his troops to turn back and await further orders in the city. He leisurely wheeled his horse around, as relaxed as if he were out on a spring excursion.
Thud!
A figure dressed in black dropped from the sky, landing directly in front of his white charger. The normally steady, well-bred horse reared in fright.
"Who are you?!" General Walton hauled on the reins and drew the gleaming longsword at his waist. His loyal men quickly closed around him.
"You're the commander of this force, I take it?" EeDechi asked casually. "Justice Value: -163. You really are quite the scumbag."
"Looking to get yourself killed?" General Walton's face flushed with anger as he slashed at her.
"I have a few questions for you."
EeDechi caught his sword wrist, pushed off the ground, and shot into the sky, carrying him off as though he weighed no more than a chick.
"General!"
"General!"
The cavalrymen shouted in alarm.
Whoosh!
An arrow buried itself in one rider's eye.
"Look out!"
"Enemy attack! It's an ambush!"
More arrows hissed through the air. Infantrymen and riders fell one after another.
"Watch your aim," Commander of the Magic Bow and Crossbow Battalion, reminded his men as he nocked an arrow. "Don't go killing our cavalry brothers' horses."
After a volley of arrows, the heavy infantry charged out, crashing down like a landslide and cutting through the enemy until the entire force was overwhelmed.
Their first engagement ended in victory. They captured a small quantity of supplies and more than seventy horses. Most importantly, they had taken the enemy commander, General Walton Giles.
There was no need to torture him. Walton bullied the weak but cowered before the strong, and he readily divulged everything he knew about the enemy's troop deployments.
EeDechi ordered the scumbag hanged immediately. His Justice Value was -163.
A makeshift gallows was soon erected.
Even after his capture, Walton Giles had maintained his arrogant bearing. Only when the noose slipped around his neck did he begin to scream in terror.
"Are you mad? I'm a noble! You can't kill me! My family can pay five thousand gold coins for my ransom! Do you want more? My family can pay—"
A burly soldier of the Eight Greed Kings hauled on the rope with one hand. Walton Giles's feet left the ground, and his neck snapped.
The watching soldiers broke into cheers and applause.
Barrett frowned.
"I know you want justice for the commoners they've oppressed," he told EeDechi, "but once the other nobles learn that you execute prisoners, they'll fight to the bitter end."
"If they fight to the bitter end, I'll show them even less mercy." EeDechi's eyes were cold.
"All right." Barrett sighed.
Morden's rulers were still lost in their pleasant dreams, utterly unaware that an army from five hundred years ago had descended from the sky, ready to sweep their kingdom away in a tide of war.
The opening blow had been struck. There was no turning back now.
EeDechi met with her generals to discuss their strategy. Their troops were elite, but their small numbers left them stretched thin. They had to seize a base of operations, then bring in a steady stream of reinforcements from the End of the World.
EeDechi was their strongest combatant, but she could not afford to draw too much attention. If word of her involvement reached the Sorcerer Kingdom, all their efforts could come to nothing.
She therefore decided on decapitation strikes. She would act in secret, eliminating enemy leaders and destroying their command centers.
The Magic Bow and Crossbow Battalion and the Cavalry Brigade would depart immediately, seize Lornhaven, and establish defensive lines outside the fishing port.
A number of crude magic-powered boats had already been built. The Mage Battalion and Infantry Regiment would take them upstream to attack Esenna.
Meanwhile, EeDechi would use the skyship and the Aetherial Secret Coffer to insert the Elite Combined Brigade into Esenna. Together with Cheeko's undead legion, they would coordinate with the troops attacking from outside.
Once those two cities had fallen, the Artillery Regiment would move out, concentrate their forces, and advance on the capital.
If all went well, they would surround the capital—but not storm it immediately. Instead, they would use the siege to draw in enemy reinforcements.
Sorsen and Fort Harth were certain to send aid. By the time those troops completed the long march to the capital, EeDechi's rested forces would be waiting to strike them.
Their numbers were limited for now, but Franco could take Cheeko into almost any location and unleash the undead legion there. That gave them a surprise force no enemy could withstand.
Once they captured enough horses to mount the Cavalry Brigade, it too would become a powerful fighting force.
With the plan settled, they went straight into action. The generals were deeply impressed by EeDechi's grasp of strategy.
Even Barrett could not help marveling. EeDechi was displaying a talent he had never seen in her before. Her strategic insight and grasp of the bigger picture were beyond anything he could match.
…
The war had begun.
EeDechi, Franco, and Cheeko—two people and a cat—slipped into Lornhaven ahead of the army. Once the Magic Bow and Crossbow Battalion and the Cavalry Brigade reached the outskirts, they launched a coordinated attack from within and without.
Lornhaven fell in less than half a day. At the sight of the ghastly undead legion, the defending soldiers simply lost the will to fight. More than twenty thousand prisoners and 322 warhorses were taken in the battle.
Lornhaven's port governor, tax collector, and several municipal officials all became prisoners.
EeDechi checked their Justice Values and picked out everyone below -50.
Desperate to save their lives, some invoked the noble privileges granted to them by the king. Others offered their estates and every last scrap of wealth in exchange for their freedom.
EeDechi merely ordered them all hanged from the masts.
With Lornhaven's armories and granaries open to them, her army's supply problems finally began to ease.
By then, the craftsmen had completed another two troop transports, bringing their fleet to three troopships and one cargo vessel.
EeDechi made another trip to the End of the World, resurrected a large group of soldiers who had died five hundred years earlier, and gathered weapons and equipment to reinforce her army.
Naturally, news of the war had spread. EeDechi simply did not have enough people to suppress it. However foolish Morden's rulers might be, they would still mobilize troops to strike back.
War required money. Fortunately, the adventurer team known as the Last Defender of the Way possessed wealth to rival a nation's.
To transport her troops, EeDechi summoned the elders of the Shipowners' Guild and offered to pay handsomely to hire their vessels.
Faced with this army that had appeared out of nowhere, the shipowners looked uneasy and tried to refuse. Their sailing charters, they explained, had been granted by the royal family. Only the king had the authority to requisition their ships.
EeDechi set a chest of gleaming gold coins on the ground. She promised triple the usual hire and ten years of tax exemption for the guild after the war.
"What authority do you have to promise us ten years without taxes?" one elder demanded.
"Because in three months, I will rule this kingdom."
The elders looked at the bodies hanging from the masts, then at the chest of gold. After a brief, muttered discussion, they agreed.
Her soldiers hailed EeDechi as the Virtuous King. Even so, many soldiers and officers struggled to grow accustomed to her methods. The armies of the Eight Greed Kings had always taken what they wanted, a far cry from EeDechi's approach. In their day, ships would simply have been requisitioned at swordpoint.
The craftsmen quickly converted fishing vessels into crude magic-powered boats, each with a propulsion system good for only a single use.
The Mage Battalion and Infantry Regiment boarded the vessels and set off on the long journey upstream to launch a surprise attack.
They departed at noon. Concealed by fog conjured by the mages, they arrived outside Esenna's gates late that night without alerting the enemy.
EeDechi shattered the gate with a single kick, and the soldiers surged into the city. With the undead legion clearing the way, they swept through Esenna in one unstoppable rush. The city fell before the defenders could mount any real resistance.
After the city fell, a general named Stedwell Varen approached EeDechi. Citing the customs of warfare five hundred years ago, he requested permission for the troops to plunder the city for three days as their reward for victory.
EeDechi refused without hesitation.
"Your Majesty," Stedwell Varen asked in bewilderment, "are the soldiers not even allowed to claim their rightful spoils?"
EeDechi glanced at his Justice Value and frowned. "These people are my subjects now."
Stedwell seemed even more confused. "Precisely, Your Majesty. Their lives and property already belong to you."
An elderly mage walked over and patted him on the shoulder, signaling for him to withdraw.
"The reign of our former emperors is over. This is the age of the Virtuous King."
Two days later, one heavy cavalry unit, two light cavalry units, and an infantry regiment from Morden assembled on the outskirts of Esenna. They hoped to retake the city before EeDechi's army could establish a firm foothold.
Meanwhile, the large number of prisoners inside the city were growing restless. They had been disarmed when the city fell, before they even understood what was happening. Now that they realized how few troops EeDechi had, they began looking for a chance to fight back.
The infantry commander proposed following the Eight Greed Kings' tradition and slaughtering all the prisoners. EeDechi refused.
She was forced to deploy three constructs, assigning the stone golem Guardian Smile to hold Esenna.
The iron golem Savior Titan led the assault, while the mechanical golem Artillery Shieldguard provided fire support. Together with the Mage Battalion, Infantry Regiment, and undead legion, they annihilated the enemy force.
To keep the Sorcerer Kingdom from learning the extent of her power, EeDechi could not afford to reveal too much of her strength. She rarely appeared in public and did not even deploy the war golem Lord of the Stars.
Some soldiers grumbled about her. The Eight Greed Kings of old had been bloodthirsty and warlike, always charging at the front and cutting down enemies in droves.
Whatever their complaints, after two days of hard fighting, Esenna and the surrounding towns were firmly under EeDechi's control.
With more territory, sufficient food, and room to house her troops, she resurrected group after group of soldiers who had fallen five hundred years ago, steadily swelling her ranks.
Among them were many vicious, bloodthirsty men with extremely low Justice Values—some as low as -200. The sight made EeDechi frown deeply, but with the war at such a critical stage, she could not press her objections too strongly for now.