Esstrey sat calmly on the rooftop of the barracks, watching the troops do drills. Her tasks were finished for now, the duchies experience with heretical practices exposed now forces the hand of the nobles to fall in line or get chopped up and served in cans to the new guard. The military adapted the fastest so far, showing full compliance with the new allies, most likely due to the new equipment being handed out ensuring they aren''t at risk of being replaced. Esstrey reinforced this by making it clear only the guard consisting of civilized races would be training with guns. The guard, which is now being split into four separate divisions, and merged fully with other military institutions. The Malencian liquidators, the division in charge of everything gun-related, and as such all former guards fall under this category as a standard. Malencian Surveillance, which consists of everything that specializes in speed and stealth. It mostly consists of small and medium-sized demons, small Beyond creatures, and some civil specialists. Malencian Devastators, who are too strong to use in situations where collateral is a concern. These mostly consist of the large demons, higher-tier Beyond creatures, and some powerful mages from the keep. The idea is that everyone''s capabilities are cataloged, and subsequently given a place in one of these divisions, even if not actually active combatants. This would make militia''s more effective eventually, and refusing cataloging is completely allowed, even if incentivized.


    Currently, Esstrey is classified as a devastator, along with Sofia. Cathy and Zha''klos are part of surveillance, while Crendell and Jake count as liquidators. Jake is no doubt currently helping his mother with the fallout, and trying to keep nobles as far away from Esstrey as possible, while Zha''klos is probably out doing her best to keep her kin in check when it comes to civilians.


    "Dammit Bartosz! Move those legs, you will never outrun anything like that! Pestrowe, it''s aim and shoot! Not aim and aim and aim! Lazal! Quit looking at the pretty ladies AND CLIMB LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!" The drill sergeant below is doing his best to ignore the mermaid that classifies as a general as they are doing drills, mistakes are always made when the generalship is watching after all. It doesn''t help that they are now testing their drills in new specialized suits. The biggest threat posed by new-world threats aren''t in their physical attacks, but in biohazards. Anyone that has spent more than five minutes patrolling the walls will be intimately familiar with what happens to the weak and dying, dragged into the corrupted forest to the west. It''s great to know the duchy cares for its mortal men, less great that said suits are practically thick insulated raincoats that don''t feel great during any weather that isn''t winter.


    Esstrey isn''t too interested in the actual performance of the troops herself, she''s mainly just watching as a form of entertainment. She knows that in the end, a human would do anything to survive, a trait that is suiting Esstrey just fine when it comes to the pacification of the riots. Munching on a piece of mealroot, she plots her next move. There are already plans in set to convict the nobles who are most likely to raise concern, anyone that favored working with Faerune or getting donations from the church being on that list. It''s impressive so far how the military has cooperated with Esstrey''s antics, but investigations by Katerina show a mutual contempt between the nobles of Malencia and the average trooper, and despite general censorship being enforced, somehow news of the successful revolution of Rila did reach the lower rung people of Malencia... ''somehow''.


    Esstrey grins at the thought, is this how imperialists felt? Pitting populations against each other, and then favor one side heavily to break the stalemate? She probably won''t fully overthrow the duchess, as every resource should be used, the more compliant the better. The duchess herself might plot against her power-hungry doctor in return, but she''s welcome to try. Esstrey will make it clear that the price of attempting it won''t end at her neck alone. It helps that Esstrey is actually planning the best for the duchy, and not just selling the entire thing to foreign interests. That Faerune is now classified as a foreign interest is hardly her concern.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    A spatial tear opens up, and Cathy crawls out of it. She spares a few eyes watching her surroundings, but most eyes are focused on Esstrey as she chews while staring off into the distance. Without saying anything, Cathy starts retrieving a set of cups, some hot water, some tealeaves, and begins to prepare tea on the roof. She hands one cup to Esstrey, who takes it without looking.


    "This one reports the heart of the lady''s [army/force/war machine] to be functional at acceptable levels, the biggest worry is the lack of wood provided for the carpenters." Esstrey sips cautiously at the tea, in order to not get scalded. The faceplate of her helmet isn''t lifted all the way in order to stay safe in a situation where disgruntled people are likely to take a shot at her.


    "The trees out west are really fascinating you know, some sort of magical infection has completely hijacked everything in that area, and the trees are a victim of it much like anyone unfortunate enough to step in there." Cathy watches silently as she imitates Esstrey''s cautious drinking of tea, waiting for her to continue.


    "It wouldn''t be appropriate to just say anything in that land gets mutated into some fleshy horror, that completely dismisses the plant life becoming flesh-like, while that should be a much more complicated process. The very cells of the plants themselves use their own cell-walls to fuel the transformation to the cells of creatures, while somehow maintaining trace amounts of DNA from the plants. This infection doesn''t just mutate the living, it turns it all into a crude imitation of animal-based life. As such, the trees are actually large enough to have quite a bit of bone in them, can you believe it? Bones in trees, and every time I think there isn''t anything that can surprise me, something like this appears. I will now forever have to specify regular trees as ''boneless trees''." Esstrey chuckles a bit at the thought.


    "Wood has historically always been a great material for building and crafting quaint little things, but mainly so because of its availability. Wood doesn''t run or attack back, wood comes in a large base form, allowing easy manipulation. Now we have been granted a goldmine in front of our noses, a chance for crafters who put aside silly things like personal preferences. Bone is a far stronger material than wood, and the only issues with it currently are the danger in getting it, and getting slightly less of it due to the whole fleshplant thing, but we CAN get bone in large quantities now. Tell Crendell when he returns to organize woodcutter expeditions to cut down trees en masse. The forest will yield its bounty by gunpoint if need be." Esstrey thinks to her last statement, it would be much better if the forest itself cooperated with her. Anything is possible with magic after all, but who could make something like that happen?


    "Say Cathy, do you think you can open a spatial portal to the meeting place of the PMC? I don''t think they would invite me after I nearly crushed the neck of an important official, but they certainly still have stuff I could use. I also don''t believe for a second that those hags wouldn''t resist holding constant meetings in this situation."


    "As the Lady commands, this one is happy to be of [help/service/aid]." Cathy bows, and already starts prodding Esstrey''s body for traces of other spatial magic used on her in the past. It would technically be better if she went to the place where the spatial mage who transported her at the time came and went from, but Cathy much prefers this way.