The next few days were spent by me almost entirely in the command center, arranging everything from food for soldiers to reimbursement for villagers around. When I'm not there, I hold many trials for the surrounding communities, single-handedly delivering hundreds of executions for crimes committed during the occupation. Restoring order to these lands after years of neglect and exploitation wasn't an easy task. It was only after Agravain arrived here to establish a new base that I was able to return to my other duties.
First, I reorganized my army, leaving most of them to perform various tasks here before gathering for the siege of Valley Pass fortress in two months. By then, Gaheris should also be done with his siege and will join me. To prepare for that, I took my 100 Mageknights along with 200 soldiers and traveled toward where the Valley Pass fortress was, setting up camp twenty kilometers away from it.
I continued to train my Mageknights, and in the meantime, scouted the surrounding mountains and forests, looking for any advantage I could use. This fortress was much better prepared for defense, especially against magic, as they used special runic wards to prevent magic from working around the castle. Seeing the runes of the Angles tribes for the first time surprised me, as I believed that they had forsaken their druidic and shamanic roots.
Luckily for me, Scáthach taught me her Primordial Runes, which were the origin of all current runic magic; thus, I was able to detect them to stop our group before we had accidentally entered a minefield. I spent a week deciphering all the runes I came across, finally creating counter spells to disable them effectively.
But hidden runes weren't the main issue in the upcoming battle. The anti-magic barrier will stop us from employing powerful attacks to destroy fortifications, so I needed to prepare an alternative tactic. My first idea was to use some miracle, but after testing it, the Angles' wards were able to weaken even them, so this plan failed. This left me in a situation where I needed to prepare traditional siege weapons, at least traditional for me.
I ordered 200 soldiers I brought to start cutting down trees and to begin constructing trebuchets, while Mageknights created a barrier of our own to hide from the enemy's eyes. I personally took care of making ammunition for them, introducing Lands Between's pots into this world. Using magic and special materials I received from Morgan, I was able to create pots similar to Hefty Fire Pots that I knew.
After I prepared enough of them, I turned my attention to other plans I was thinking about. Some of them failed, such as seeking or creating a mountain pass to cut off the fortress from the other side, but there were also ones that succeeded. One of them was finding a weak spot in the fortress's defenses, which I was able to do thanks to my new affinity for nature.
During one of my walks along the tree line to observe the fortress's defenses, I found some wild animals. With Gaia's blessing, animals would often approach me and open their hearts to me, which allowed my Empathy to understand them. They found a monster nearby, which was strong enough that many knights from the fortress died while they tried to subdue it. I followed them only to find a small squirrel-like animal.
When I approached, it turned to me, and at that moment, I felt as if death itself looked at me. Not even a second later, this feeling disappeared, and the monster walked to me and started to nudge my leg with its head. I stood there frozen for a moment before finally moving and picking this thing up, keeping it in front of me.
-"Little guy, what are you?"
-"Fou!"-It tilted its head and answered me, wanting to convey that it was itself.
-"I know that you are you... Do you have a name? A guardian or family?"-I asked more precisely.
-"Fou?"-This time, the answer was a little unsure, but I understood that it was alone and had no name.
-"Then how should I..."
-"Fou!"
-"Fou it is then. I'm Eno. What are you doing here, Fou?"
-"Fou."-Fou conveyed that they were wandering around, and some people started to attack them, so he killed them.
-"Understandable. What do you plan to do now?"
-"Fou!"-They planned to follow me as I 'smelled' nice and understood it.
-"Then would you mind helping me?"
-"Fou."-Fou nodded and 'asked' what they could do for me.
-"Those knights that attacked you, I want to capture their home. Can you enter their fortress silently and help me from inside?"
-"Fou..."-They were unsure how much they could do as they smelled a disgusting smell from inside, but they could try.
-"Disgusting smell? Same as this?"-I pointed to a rune hidden nearby.
-"Fou!"-Fou nodded.
-"To think that they left a Shaman inside the fortress. This changes things. Little guy, I will ask you later to bring some things and bury them in some spots later."
-"Fou!"
I put Fou down, and they jumped on my left shoulder, but feeling it was hard, Fou decided to ride in my hood. I let them be, especially as I could still feel that Fou isn't a simple being; it's better to have an annoying friend than a polite enemy. Fou quickly adapted to living with me, becoming the mascot for everyone around.
Work continued without much excitement, and the training and trying out various plans turned into a routine. But as everything was happening around me, I noticed something strange was going on inside me.
I wasn't a person who had a regular sleep schedule; I barely slept at all, but when I did, I would always dream about lush forests filled with plants and animals that were unfamiliar to me. I would see people that I couldn't associate with any race I'm familiar with, hear language I had never heard, and yet I could understand it. What always shook me the most was the intense feeling I would feel when seeing a few of those people.
I knew myself well, while not unfeeling, I was a rather stoic person, I had to be to retain my sanity under the influence of my strengthened Empathy. To feel such a strong feeling, those people had to be important to me, but I couldn't remember them at all. All this left me bewildered. Sometimes, I would find myself remembering some funny or strange situations while doing other work, the same familiar strangers in all of them.
But all those dreams weren't all useless, very quickly I noticed that many elements in them I was able to repeat in reality. First, I tried using a bow as I saw myself using it in the dream. Not only was I able to shoot accurately, but my mastery with it was not worse than with a sword or spear. Next, I tried magic, and it worked, allowing me to use new spells from a school of magic unknown to me. Lastly, I tried something I never studied before, Druidism. This time, I needed much more time to use it, but I still ended up able to manipulate plants and even command beasts.
There was only one aspect of dreams I didn't attempt to copy: the miracles that I seem to use with ease there. I had an inkling that all of this must be connected to my hidden Patron. At first, I assumed those were false memories akin to those I created with Merlin for Artoria, but as more time passed, I became less assured. That's why I approached the matter of that Patron with care and scrutiny; being similar to an Outer God was not something I wished to touch carelessly.
The new abilities weren't the only influence the dreams had on me, as even my 'self' started to change according to them. My whole being seemed to slowly become more refined, all the impurities being cleansed. I become more and more like a Nature Spirit, becoming a pure being in the eyes of all around. Fou approaching me was the first to show this, but now even the rough soldiers would subconsciously be polite and civil around me. When asked, they said that they feel that doing anything unbecoming around me would make them feel shameful, as if they tarnished something holy.
I wrote to Morgan about this, and she theorizes that this should be because of synergy between Gaia's blessing and my Empathy. The sense that would normally allow only me to feel is creating a feedback, sending this feeling of purity and holiness to others. Having no better explanation, I decided to accept this theory for now, leaving more testing for the future.
Not long ago, a messenger from Agravain arrived, informing us that the main army led jointly by Gaheris, Gawain, and Irish appointed commander Fionn mac Cumhaill. After their arrival, I will be appointed as commander-in-chief, taking charge of this siege. Their expected arrival time was a week from now, so I moved to make the final preparations.
Fou has already buried many small pots filled with explosive materials under one part of the fortress walls, and soldiers under my command constructed a total of twelve functioning trebuchets. Mageknights transported them into positions and concealed everything with illusions. After two months of training, the Mageknights were now able to utilize easy spells in combat, along with supportive magic for armies, such as illusions and strengthening.
Now I ordered ammo to be transported, and to clear a passage through the forest. I knew that while hiding 300 people was possible, concealing an army of 8,000, 1,000 knights and 5,000 soldiers from Morgan's side and 300 knights and 1,700 soldiers from the Irish side was impossible, so my plan was to focus on safety and not speed and surprise.
The Shaman in the fortress would regularly check the state of the runes in the forest, so as not to alert them, so I never cleared all of them, only disabled them temporarily. But now, with our hide and seek coming to an end, the said Shaman became the high-value target. His usual patrol would take place today, so I took five Mageknights and ten soldiers to lay an ambush.
After picking a good spot, I made the soldiers take positions on nearby trees, as I picked ten of them, especially due to their skills with bows, while Mageknights concealed themselves. I also jumped up onto a solid branch, creating a crystal bow while waiting for the Shaman to appear. We didn't have to wait for long, as not even an hour later, a group of ten people and a few hounds appeared in my vision.
Having already expected hounds, I covered our smells with magic, so they posed little danger for us. Aside from the Shaman, their team consisted of two knights, while the rest were common soldiers. I quickly used a radar-like spell to check the surroundings and found a strange magical reaction, most likely a contracted beast of another Shaman.
This gave me a slight pause, as I didn't expect that there was more than one Shaman. This also made me quickly change plans from elimination to preventing the discovery of our cleaning actions. The week of time is enough for forces in the fortress to find and destroy my preparations, so I needed them to be unaware of our actions before the main army is closer.
I motioned to the Mageknights to stun and not kill our targets while I used my druidic magic to control hounds, as well as used illusion to mislead the contracted beast. Under my quick actions, the enemy didn't have any chance to respond, and in the blink of an eye, all ten of them were lying unconscious. I ordered soldiers to run to the camp and bring some empty wine jars, and made Mageknights responsible for keeping the illusion on the contracted beast.
With them running my errands, I focused on the unconscious people, using what I learned from Merlin to create false memories. I weaved a story of how they made a quick patrol and found a quiet place to drink after sending the contracted beast back. They will wake up at night, 'hungover' and return like nothing happened.
Moments later, soldiers returned with jars, so we moved the unconscious enemies into a nearby cave and scattered all jars around, even forcing some to drink what remained of alcohol to make everything more believable. In ten minutes, we made everything look like a party in the forest; we even lit a bonfire and made simple straw beds. After that, we returned to camp and focused on preparations.
That week passed as quickly as the ones before, and soon I stood in the command tent looking at five men who led the army here. I know three of them: Gawain, whom I met before, Gaheris, with whom I spoke through messages, and Cú Chulainn, also met before. The last two introduced themselves to me as it was our first meeting.
-"It's an honor to meet the famed Angelic Knight. I'm Fionn mac Cumhaill, leader of the Knights of Fianna, serving the High Lord of Ireland. We responded to the call of the Queen Scáthach, coming here to assist our brothers and sisters against the invaders."-A tall blond man extended his hand to me.
-"The honor is mine. I'm Eno, a Knight serving Crown Prince Arthur and Her Highness Princess Morgan."-I introduced myself as such to show unity between the two British factions.
-"This is my friend and most loyal knight, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne."-Fionn introduced after our handshake.-"His prowess with a spear impressed even Cú present here."
-"Right, he is a nice sparring partner."-Cú Chulainn nodded with his usual smile.
-"Then I'll definitely have to test your skills myself after we are done here."-I nodded to Diarmuid.-"Gawain, Gaheris, do you have some messages from Agravain?"
-"Nothing new."-Gawain shook his head.
-"Then we can only work with what we have now. How long do your people need?"
-"Minimum three days of rest."-Fionn spoke after some thinking.
-"We'll give them four so they are in the best state before the battle. Here are my notes on everything that I have done here, as well as the data about the fortress and the personnel inside."-I handed them papers to read later.-"Let's have a meeting tomorrow to talk about everything."
-"Sure, I'm quite tired from the ride."-Cú Chulainn stretched.-"But after all the talking, you have to fight me once again, man."
-"Sure, though I'd prefer that we fight after the siege."
-"Then how about rather than fighting, we compete with that siege?"-Gawain asked.
-"Oh? Sounds funny, then let's all compete on how much impact we have during the siege, one with the least will pay for our party someday."-Cú Chulainn instantly proposed a bet.
-"Sure."-Fionn nodded.
Gawain and Gaheris also agreed.
-"Then it's decided."-I smiled.-"I hope you have deep pockets."
We all smiled, already gloating at the loser who will emerge from among us. Even Fou seemed interested, rising their paw in the air to cheer.