ã€ŠDeals &amp; Destinyã€‹


 Chapter 1. Void

    Hello everyone and welcome to the first chapter of ¡°Deals & Destiny¡±, I hope you find it entertaining and of good quality. For those of you wanting a more detail description of the story; an OC from our world gets summoned by Louise instead of Saito, makes a deal and get abilities, then makes other deals, and then using his abilities and knowledge of the ZNT anime, redoes the entire ZNT series and ends up killing a lot of nobles. This story will also contain sexually adult situations and content; you know the ones I mean. Warnings will be provided as needed. Enjoy!

    Disclaimer: I own nothing, suing me is not even worth the court costs!

    <u>Chapter 1</u>

    A walk, a simple and peaceful walk along a lonely road in rural America, something any 25 year old guy should be able to do; in fact that is exactly what this ordinary guy is doing. It¡¯s a nice sunny day as he moves along at a leisurely pace letting his mind wander and doing his favorite past time of daydreaming, specifically today he was thinking about the ¡®Familiar of Zero¡¯ anime show that he and a friend had been watching earlier today; he was mainly griping about how much of a pansy-assed little masochist Saito had been and how much of a sadistic pink-haired bitch Louise was.

    ¡®I know it¡¯s a slap-stick comedy, but come on, there is a point where you gotta stop taking it and say: ¡°Fuck this, fuck you, and fuck off I¡¯m out of here.¡± Or at least take the wand and whip away.¡¯ His mental tirade continued for a few minutes until something caught his attention.

    ¡°The hell, is that a floating green sphere?¡± He asked aloud to no one as he took a few steps closer to examine it more thoroughly. ¡°Holy shite it is, there it a green-fucking-sphere floating in front of me.¡± He paused in thought at that as something occurred to him.

    ¡®Wait a minute, floating green sphere, just like¡­¡¯ His eyes went wide at the realization. ¡°Uh-oh.¡±

    The sphere scooted forward a foot and he took a step back. ¡°No.¡±

    It slowly started approaching. ¡°Nonono.¡± He took off running away from it and the sphere suddenly shot off after him.

    ¡°NononoNO OH FUUUUUUCK¡­¡± He yelled as the sphere easily caught him and then disappeared.

    He fell, through time and space he fell for what seemed like ages; in fact he had long stopped screaming and just watched the strangeness pass him by. He noticed that at first he fell through a blinding white tunnel, then it seemed to distort slightly and now it was a black tunnel with pin-points of light streaking by. As time went on he gradually began to slow until he finally came to a stop, only problem was that he seemed to be floating in space; all around him was the endless expanse of star scape and while it was incredible to behold, he was still in the middle of no-where space and that understandably caused him to panic a bit.

    He looked around and tried to focus, tried to keep his panic uncheck, and tried to get his breathing under control. ¡®Wait a minute, breathing?¡¯ He took a deep breath and realized he had no problems doing so. ¡°How am I able to breath in space?¡± The question actually caused him to focus on the pure strangeness of his situation, which calmed him.

    ¡°Because I will it.¡± The abrupt answer to his spoken question in a deep and ominous voice startled him out of his calming musings and made him whip around to face what had answered only to find a hooded and cloaked figure standing several feet from him. The figure was easily six feet tall and completely enshrouded in its black cloak which seemed to nullify any light that touched it while its face, which it was doubtful there was one, was un-seeable and instead only unfathomable darkness within its hood that, unlike the cloak which cancelled light, consumed light instead.

    ¡°W-what do you mean you will it, who are you, what are you?¡± His throat felt dry and the presence of this¡­ being¡­ was overwhelming.

    ¡°I¡­ am the Avatar of the Void.¡±

    ¡°¡¯Avatar of the Void¡¯? Do you mean the Void as in ¡®Void Magic¡¯, and why did you bring me here?¡±

    ¡°What you see before you is a representative of me and my power, the Void between and beyond the stars which exists in all universes, all time. The vast infinite blackness that awaits and greets the material universe no matter how far it expands; that is how infinite I am, how much my will encompasses, and it is by my will that I have brought you here to fulfill a purpose.¡±

    ¡°What purpose?¡± Nervousness was quickly turning into curiosity.

    ¡°As you have no doubt concluded, you are being summoned to Halkeginia be the familiar of a young mage who possesses the ability to utilize what has been dubbed ¡®Void Magic¡¯, this was to be your fate; however I have intercepted you to offer you a deal to change this as well as to fix the mistake of another that I had dealings with there, millennia ago, the one known as Brimir.¡±

    ¡°You made a deal with the Halkeginian version of Jesus?¡± It was almost funny, though the Avatar displayed no amusement.

    ¡°When I chose him Brimir was but a starving peasant child, the offer was simple; in exchange for an infinitesimal wisp of my power he would use it to bring order to the chaos which reined at the time. He succeeded, and from the warring barbaric tribes forged the various kingdoms which now exist and established a system which made the mages the protectors of the ordinary people.¡±

    ¡°Okay, it seems like the standard story consistent with the religion of the founder; he established the kingdoms and the aristocracy just as everyone knows, where¡¯s the mistake?¡± It was quite possible that the faceless entity in front of him scowled.

    ¡°Brimir did not establish the aristocracy, the mages themselves did so after his death, and that was his mistake, he failed to plan for after his end. Now, six millennia later the nobility rules as a corrupt and abusive force over those they call commoners, all in Brimir¡¯s name and in doing so suppress the common man¡¯s creativity and ingenuity resulting in near total stagnation in all forms of advancement except for magic, and even then there has been hardly any development there either.¡±

    ¡°So, what do you want me to do?¡±

    ¡°If you accept my offer you will be granted not only the power of the Gandalfr, but also an upgraded mind and body as well as a special gift to further your power. In exchange you are to use these gifts to end Halkeginia¡¯s stagnation and free the people from the heel of the nobility.¡±

    ¡°Just how do you expect me to do that, conquer their world?¡± By this point he was slack jawed at his new role.

    ¡°If that is what it takes then yes, you have seen the¡­ show, you know the lore and have even read the works of others which have detailed possible methods to deal with this problem, add to that what I offer and only a fool could fail.¡±

    The Void was right, only an absolute idiot could mess it up, but a question still remained.

    ¡°If you are so powerful, then why do you need me, couldn¡¯t you fix everything yourself instantly.¡±

    ¡°Indeed I could, in fact in some realities I have done just that, however in this realty I have chosen this method of solving the problem, just as in others I have and will use other means, little matters but what I will. Here and now I give you the choice because I can, now, will you accept the deal?¡±

    ¡°You have explained what happens if I do, what if I refuse?¡±

    ¡°If you refuse then the summoning will continue as normal and you will become a familiar just like Saito and will experience all of the events similar to how he did.¡±

    That did it, no more hesitation; with eyes wide and pupils narrowed from the thought of going through what that dumbass went through he accepted wholeheartedly.

    ¡°I ACCEPT THE DEAL!¡± Upon hearing this, the Avatar revealed and extended its hand which appeared to be made of space itself to include stars and nebulae.

    ¡°Excellent, then take my hand and seal the Deal.¡±

    With that and only slight hesitation he reached out and grasped the cosmic hand, and as soon as he did tendrils of pure darkness erupted from the appendage traveled up his arm and enveloped him, his last thoughts as it was happening were; ¡®I really hope I didn¡¯t just sell my soul, because if I did then I am going to be so embarrassed when I get to hell for being fooled so easily.¡¯

    Tristan Magic Academy: POV (Louise)

    The spring time familiar summon was an important time of the year for the students of the Tristan Magical Academy as it was the time when they finally got to call forth their familiars and come one step closer to not only graduating, but also becoming full-fledged mages worthy of nobility. This particular year has been a resounding success so far as all manner of creatures have been summoned from salamanders to frogs and even a dragon; now it was time for the last individual to summon her familiar. Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere was her name and she had been looking forward to this day for weeks and had spent much time studying the ritual, the spell words, and anything else to insure that she would succeed and not only get a wonderful familiar but also finally get undeniable proof that she was a mage, that she wasn¡¯t a ¡®Zero¡¯, wasn¡¯t a failure, her hopes have been high.

    A third explosion rocked the courtyard, this one the biggest yet; when her turn came Louise had been extremely confident, then the first explosion happened, just like any other attempt at anything involving spell casting and the reason she was called the ¡®Zero¡¯, zero success at magic. She ended up trying the summon again, and got the same result, her hopes were essentially crushed and as the other students jeered she partially snapped and basically said to hell with it and went a third time, pouring everything she had into the spell and getting the biggest explosion of her life.

    ¡°Damn it Louise you worthless Zero.¡± One of the students yelled.

    ¡°Are you insane, are trying to kill us all?¡± Another one shouted.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you just quit this school and spare all of us real mages your catastrophic failures?¡± That last student¡¯s remark really hurt.

    ¡®[Sob] Why? I was sure this time it would work.¡¯ Her eyes were just barely holding back the tears. ¡®This explosion was the biggest yet, oh by the Founder there is even lightning¡­ wait, lightning?¡¯

    Indeed, aside from the enormous cloud of dust and smoke, black arcs of lightning were seen all throughout the cloud appearing and disappearing from seemingly nothing. After a minute they started forming at a faster and faster rate until suddenly over a dozen all struck a point a couple of feet off the ground and seemed to swirl and then expand rapidly and as it did it began sucking up all the dust, dirt, and smoke around it quickly clearing it, though it didn¡¯t stop and Louise and the students had to brace themselves from the strong vacuum that tried to inhale them.

    ¡°Zero what did you do?!¡± One of the students screamed over the sound of the rushing wind.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± Louise yelled back.

    The vortex of wind didn¡¯t last long and when it finally ended Louise looked up and was stunned at what she saw. Floating less than an inch from the ground was a portal, and within that portal appeared to be the night sky, an endless expanse of stars, she found it breath taking. After a few moments of staring slack-jawed, she then noticed something strange moving in the star-scape, it slowly got bigger as it approached and she realized that it was the silhouette of a person, however it had no distinguishing features.

    It took a few minutes but the form made it to the portal and took its first step through; first came its foot which reveal strange looking black boots, then its leg was shown to be covered in sturdy looking black pants of unknown material, then the body came and displayed a black greatcoat left open exposing a black belt and some kind of shirt also black and seemed to contain plates of unidentifiable metal. The last to be revealed was the face; the figure was now seen as a young man in his mid-twenties who seemed, at least to Louise, to be fairly handsome, he had a kind face and neat and short silver hair and sky-blue eyes. The man also stood just over six feet tall, far taller than she was.

    As the man emerged full from the portal he took a quick look around and seemingly satisfied, proceeded to walk towards were Louise was standing, when he got within about two feet of her he stopped and spoke.

    ¡°Greetings, it is nice to meet you, Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere.¡± At this Louise¡¯s eyes went wide and she sputtered out a response.

    ¡°W-wa, who are you, and how do you know my name?!¡± The man gave a gentle smile and answered.

    ¡°My name is Michael, and I know what I need to know, for example; I know that you desperately seek to summon a familiar to prove that you are a really a mage and not a ¡®Zero¡¯ as they say.¡± The man, now known as Michael said, to which Louise silently simmered in shame and rage, Michael however, did not give her time to retort as he continued. ¡°I will also tell you that binding me or any other creature as a familiar will not convince your peers nor will it fix your magic.¡± This statement caused Louise to sink further into shame and misery, however what remained of her pride refused to accept his words.

    ¡®How dare he say that, there is no way a commoner like him could know that!¡¯ Her anger and denial were strong as she desperately clung to any reason for him to be wrong, even dismissing him as a commoner due to his clothing not being regal enough to be nobility, which she was right of course, Michael wasn¡¯t a noble and though his clothing could be something a noble would ware if it had gold or gems, the fact it did not meant no noble would ware it. Louise was about to yell at him when he spoke further.

    ¡°However, I can offer you the proof you need, the proof that would convince everyone that you are without a doubt a true mage.¡± This stalled any tirade Louise might have had.

    ¡°What proof?¡±

    ¡°Why, the only absolutely undeniable means there is for proving one is a mage, the ability to cast spells.¡± Louise¡¯s eyes widened once more. ¡°If you accept the deal I offer you then you will be granted the capability to successfully cast any spell from all four magical elements with equal proficiency limited only by your own knowledge and will.¡±

    She couldn¡¯t believe it; this man was offering her what she has always wanted, in fact, she didn¡¯t believe it, a fact she voiced.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you, no one can do that, give someone magic, it¡¯s impossible!¡± While a part of her desperately wanted to hope it was true, her own logic got in the way along with her growing pessimism, Michael however just continued to smile unfazed at her denial.

    ¡°Louise, what do you have to lose at this point, all you have to do is agree to the deal and you can have the one thing you have always wanted.¡± He was right, what did she have to lose; she has never managed to cast a spell without it blowing up in her face.

    ¡®Maybe I should accept, even if it turns out to be fake it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll end up in any worse of a situation, if anything I¡¯ll just punish him for lying to me.¡± At that she almost told him yes, but then something occurred to her.

    ¡°Wait a minute, you have only explained one side to this ¡®Deal¡¯, what are you getting out of this?¡± Michaels face suddenly went completely serious.

    ¡°How perceptive, you are right to question this; if you accept this deal you will gain magical ability as I said, I on the other hand will get to keep my freedom since the cost you must pay is that you will not be allowed to bind me nor anything else as your familiar, in fact if you much as ever even attempt to cast the familiar summoning again then you will lose¡­ everything, you will be stripped of all your magic, you won¡¯t even have your explosions, you will truly be a commoner.¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    Louise considered this; on the one hand she¡¯d never get a familiar, but that really didn¡¯t matter much, after all a lot of mages didn¡¯t have familiars, having to give up having one wasn¡¯t so bad, especially considering what she could gain. After several minutes she finally decided.

    ¡°I, Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere accept your deal Michael.¡± With that Michael extended his hand towards her in a handshake gesture.

    ¡°Very well Louise, just take my hand and grasp your destiny.¡± Taking a deep breath she reached out and firmly gripped his hand, and as she did Michael smiled a shark grin and ¡®it¡¯ happened.

    When Louise gripped his hand Michael tightly gripped hers and as he did black tendrils burst out of her body and went into his and immediately after that silver tendrils came out of him and entered her and after it was done Michael released Louise¡¯s hand and she backpedaled a few steps with a panicked look on her face.

    ¡°WHAT IN BRIMIR¡¯S NAME WAS THAT?!¡± Her outburst caused him to chuckle a bit.

    ¡°That was ¡®Deal¡¯ being sealed between us.¡± At her incredulous look he laughed again. ¡°Go on, cast a spell, any spell, except the familiar summoning spell or in my case the familiar binding spell, don¡¯t ever forget that.¡±

    Nervously, she took out her wand and pointed it at rock on the ground next to her, then she reviewed everything she knew about the levitation spell and casted it and¡­ the rock slowly floated up to her wand. Her face took on an ecstatic smile as she moved her wand around and the floating rock obeyed her commands, numerous astonished gasps and exclamations of disbelief came from the surrounding students, even the balding teacher had a look of amazement on his face at the sight of the supposed ¡®Zero¡¯ successfully casting a magical spell, without an explosion.

    Louise wasn¡¯t paying them any attention as she laughed in pure joy at her first truly successful spell. ¡®It¡¯s working, it¡¯s working; I am really using magic with no explosions!¡¯

    POV (Michael)

    Michael was extremely pleased with how that went; in almost no time at all he had gotten Louise to accept his first ¡®Deal¡¯. The ¡®Deal¡¯ was the special gift that the Avatar of the Void had given him, it allowed him to make magically binding deals with anyone, its primary purpose was to let him take the void mages void magic and add it to his own power which until he made the deal with Louise had just been the powers of the Gandalfr which the Void made sure he had even if he didn¡¯t become Louise¡¯s familiar. The ¡®Deal¡¯ wasn¡¯t all the Void had done for him; it had altered his physical appearance to what it is now as well as maxed out the physical capabilities of his body and gave him an incredible memory, not quite total recall but close. The last thing the Void gave Michael was his outfit, while all back wasn¡¯t really his style, the fact that the ensemble had high magic resistance and was completely bullet proof for anything below an armor piercing 50 cal. sabot rounds allowed him to overlook the strange fashion.

    With the completion of the first ¡®Deal¡¯, Michael had now gained Louise¡¯s void magic and with its acquisition changed the fate of this world completely, he also got a new ability to his Gandalfr powers; the Gandalfr power allows the user to know anything and everything there is to know about any weapon or tool of war and combat as well as use it with absolute mastery simply by touching said objects, the user is also granted slightly enhanced strength and greatly enhanced speed. The new power Michael got from Louise¡¯s void magic now permits him to manifest any weapons or tools of war and combat using his own will power, however unless he puts a lot of power into the object, then said object is only temporary, and the larger and/or complex it is, the more power it takes to make it permanent.

    Watching Louise attempt to cast every dot class spell she knew all-the-while laughing in absolute happiness filled Michael with a mildly warm and fuzzy feeling at making someone so happy.

    ¡°Well done Louise.¡± He praised and then went over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder and presented her to her classmates and announced. ¡°From now on you are no long ¡®Louise the Zero¡¯; from hence forth you are now ¡®Louise the Elemental¡¯!¡± Everyone was speechless, and then Michael was nearly bowled over as Louise embraced him in a great big hug.

    ¡°Thank you Michael, thank you so much, I¡¯ll never forget this!¡± He just chuckled and patted her on the head.

    ¡°You are very welcome Louise; enjoy your new life to its fullest.¡± She released him from the hug and stepped back with a huge smile on her face.

    [Ehem] They look to their side and saw the balding teacher standing there. ¡°While I hate to interrupt I am afraid that Miss Valliere still needs to finish the ritual.¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately Professor Colbert, doing so would render her powerless.¡± Michael¡¯s statement shocked the Colbert, not only due to the knowledge that gaining a familiar would cause Louise to cease being a mage, but also that the young man knew who he was.

    ¡°What, how is that possible?¡±

    ¡°Quite simple sir, it is part of the terms of our deal. However now that this is settled, it might be best to send your students on their way, after all no point in having them loiter around out here for no reason.¡± Colbert just sort of nodded numbly and dismissed his class for the day. As they left many casted levitate on themselves, Louise included and with a final happy wave good bye she floated away. When the students were all gone the professor turned to the young man and began to question him.

    ¡°Well now sir, since you obviously know me I think it¡¯s time for you to explain who you are and what happened to young Miss Valliere.¡± Colbert¡¯s voice was firm and a bit insistent.

    ¡°My name is Michael professor, and as to what happened to Louise, well I made her a deal, and now she is no longer a failed mage, in fact I can safely predict that soon she will be one of the youngest square class mages is history, however the cost of this is that she can never have a familiar or else she will lose all capability to use magic of any kind.¡±

    ¡°I see, well I do applaud you for help the girl, I must ask what are you going to do now, since you were summoned to be a familiar by someone who can now no longer have one?¡±

    ¡°Well as you can see¡­¡± Michael said as he gestured to the portal that just finished closing right as he pointed to it. ¡°I am now stuck here with no way to return home, so I think that I shall stay at the academy for a little while.¡±

    ¡°While I sympathize with you sir, I do not think that it would be appropriate for you to remain here since this is a magic academy and that the only non-mages here are part of the work staff, however it might be possible if you were a mage, you did do something to Miss Valliere, are you a mage?¡± Colbert was slightly confused at this point, as despite what happened, the young man before him didn¡¯t really seem like a normal mage.

    ¡°Technically¡­ yes I am, because I can indeed use magic, however, it is limited to conjuration, specifically weapons.¡± To emphasize this he created a small dagger and then allowed it to dissipate. ¡°I can also make magically binding deals, such as the one I made with Louise, so as you can see I am a mage due to a technicality.¡±

    ¡°That is very strange, I have never heard of a mage only being able to conjure weapons and do nothing else, but as you say you can use magic and therefore are a mage, this place still is a school however, meant for teachers and students but I do not think that letting you stay for a short period of time will be much trouble, especially considering the circumstances of your arrival.¡±

    ¡°I do agree that my magic is strange mister Colbert but that is just the way it is. As to me staying here, I don¡¯t intend to stay long, just long enough to establish a means of supporting myself, and while here I do not intend to cause any problems if I can help it.¡± Colbert nodded in understanding.

    ¡°While I would like to speak with you more on your capabilities, it has gotten late and I have other business to attend to, unless you have any questions for me then I must bid you a goodnight.¡± Michael shook his head at the query.

    ¡°No professor I do not, and bid you a goodnight as well, I¡¯ll be seeing you around.¡± They waved to each other as they went their separate ways with Michael pleased with how all this went and Colbert with many questions about the mysterious summoned man with the strange magic abilities.

    For most of the evening Michael had occupied himself by exploring the academy grounds and was intrigued at how much bigger it was than the anime had depicted. Another thing he found odd was the fact that he was actually in an anime, not that he was in a place/world that was portrayed in one, no, but he was actually seeing everything as though it actually was an anime. Vibrant colors, slightly off physics, and unrealistic perfectness were just some of the examples; the only difference from the ZNT show was that the ¡®art style¡¯ was of a much higher quality, as though it was a CG anime. The phrase ¡®skin blemish¡¯ didn¡¯t apply here unless it was caused by an outside force, i.e. scars, or burns; also facial expressions were just as easy to read as they were in anime, because, well, it is one.

    All this gave Michael a huge advantage when it came to social interaction, as well as getting laid, case in point, the three pairs of students getting it on in secluded areas as well as another five pairs of the work staff. Those instances gave him proof that he was either in a ¡®borderline hentai¡¯ anime, or an actual hentai anime version of ZNT, either that or there was a lot of stuff the show never illustrated that was happening in the background.

    Walking through the halls he eventually came across the maid Siesta, doing her usual duties of dusting, in this case a large and overly gaudy vase, and based on the perverted look on her face along with intense blush, she was clearly lost in one of her erotic fantasies brought upon by her raunchy novels. This of course made any attempt to go over and talk to her inevitably end in her being startled and knocking over the overpriced vase. Realizing this Michael took preventative measures by prepositioning himself to catch the vase before it hit the ground, and despite the fact it put him less than three feet away from her, she was so lost in fantasy that she was completely oblivious to his presence until he started speaking.

    ¡°Hello there Siesta.¡± He said in a slightly louder than necessary voice; this brought her out of her naughty musings and caused her scream, jump, and flail her arms about knocking the vase over in a comically funny way only possible in an anime world, luckily Michael was in position to catch that vase. ¡°Whoa there, you almost broke something excessively expensive.¡± He spoke in a calm friendly manner, but as soon as she looked at him and the processed what he said she went into a panic attack and bowed hastily while apologizing profusely in one part panic, two parts embarrassment, and five parts dejected terror.

    ¡°Oh I am so sorry milord please forgive me I¡¯m so very sorry I didn¡¯t mean to it won¡¯t happen again I¡¯m terribly sorry please don¡¯t punish me milord I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± Her tirade would have gone on even longer if Michael hadn¡¯t interjected.

    ¡°Please relax Siesta, everything¡¯s fine, and I¡¯m not a noble.¡± This caused her to calm a bit and look up at him, though she still was somewhat freaked out. ¡°My name is Michael, and it is very nice to meet you.¡± His friendly smile and voice apparently had the effect he wanted because Siesta finally stood up straight again as she calmed down. Realization then took hold on her though as she remembered something.

    ¡°Y-you¡¯re the one that madam Valliere summoned this afternoon but never bound?¡± Michael nodded. ¡°The one who fixed her magic.¡± He nodded again. ¡°B-but that would have taken nothing less than magic to accomplish, and that would make you a mage!¡± She was starting to panic again.

    ¡°That¡¯s true Siesta, it did take magic and I am a mage.¡± She was fidgeting nervously now like a child caught red-handed doing something bad and waiting for punishment. ¡°However, as I said, I¡¯m not a noble.¡±

    ¡°B-but sir, you just said that you are a mage.¡± Panic and confusion were mixing now.

    ¡°Yes, but you are forgetting a very important fact Siesta.¡± Her panic had been full replaced by confusion now as she wondered what she could have forgotten. ¡°Not all mages are nobles.¡± She looked like she wanted to smack herself for not remembering something so well known. ¡°Besides, I¡¯m not a very good mage; all I can do is conjure weapons.¡± To emphasize his point he made a very fancy dagger and sheath, it was very gaudy with many gemstones and a lot of gold. Siesta looked at the item that she would probably never be able to afford with awe, when he handed it to her she held it as though she were afraid she might break it, she looked at it some more before attempting to hand it back, but Michael just shook his head.

    ¡°Please, keep it Siesta, a little gift for you.¡± Her eyes widened in astonishment.

    ¡°But sir, I couldn¡¯t keep something so valuable, this is probably worth more than I make in a month!¡±

    ¡°I insist you accept, besides, you will most likely find better use for it than I would, even if you only sell it. It¡¯s a pretty gift for a pretty girl.¡± She blushed and stammered at the comment.

    ¡°I¡¯m just a commoner maid sir; I¡¯m n-not really p-pretty.¡± Her voice was shy and meek, but Michael was undeterred and even one-upped it.

    ¡°Nonsense, you are very pretty, and very cute even.¡± If there is one word that can make any anime girl bush and fumble it was the word ¡®cute¡¯, calling any anime girl cute will definitely have an effect, only super hardened bitches can brush off such a complement.

    ¡°C-c-cute!¡± Her faced blushed so hard that steam burst out from the sides in a very anime way. She brought her hands to her face in embarrassment and appeared to get launched into one of her more intense fantasies and she mumbled to herself and shook and wiggled in interesting and humorous ways.

    ¡®This is amazing, a few more comments like that followed by some confident and aggressive physical actions and I could have her bent over hands on the wall or on her knees in barely ten minutes, it so fucking easy.¡¯ It took some serious effort for Michael not to laugh at this situation and while he could easily take advantage he chose not to because he had other plans. So instead he started talking more to her and helping her out with some of the cleaning all the while listening to her talk about herself and her life, occasionally he would slip in a comment to keep her blushing slightly and by the end he had made a good friend out of the maid and even got to meet a few other maids that they came across, all of them were of course attractive, most likely thanks to the headmaster¡¯s hiring policies, Michael thought there wasn¡¯t a single un-cute female worker in the entire academy.

    ¡°Well, I must say talking with you has been a real pleasure, but it seems to have gotten very late.¡± Siesta nodded at this.

    ¡°Yes, I should probably get back to the dorms and get some rest for tomorrow, I hope to see you again Michael.¡±

    ¡°Oh yes, I¡¯ll be around for a while, I¡¯ll see you tomorrow Siesta, goodnight.¡± With that he headed off to find a place to sleep for the night, all the while smiling to himself.

    ¡®Well, that went very well for a first day, and I didn¡¯t get embarrassed, humiliated, or yelled at even once, and I still made friends with the maid, take that Saito.¡¯

    The day after the familiar summoning was set aside for the students to get to know their new familiars, since Louise couldn¡¯t have one she spent most of her free time practicing her now usable magic, totally happy with the world for the first time in her life, and it was all thanks to Michael and the ¡®Deal¡¯. As for Michael, since he was summoned but didn¡¯t get bound into a familiar had just been moseying around not doing much at all. He woke up not too long ago and ate breakfast with some of the staff were he conversed and chatted being as friendly as possible; amazingly none of the ones he met yesterday were there. After he ate he wandered around some more and eventually came to an outside area were the students were having what he guessed was morning tea time. It seemed that nearly all the students were at the tables; however one was off by her lonesome leaning on a stone wall.

    It was the very petite blue hair mage Tabitha, off on her own reading one of her many books totally uncaring of the rest of the world, and surprisingly not with her busty red-headed germanian friend. Seeing her, Michael decided to walk on over and even when he was right in front of her she still didn¡¯t look up from her book, so he just leaned up against the wall along with her.

    ¡°Tabitha de Norfatul, it is nice to meet you, my name is Michael.¡± That got her to look up and over at him, after a moment she just nodded to him and returned to her book. Michael smiled at this and decided to try to get a more interesting reaction out of her.

    ¡°Not much for conversation eh? Hmm, perhaps I should address you as Charlotte Helene de Orleans instead?¡± That got a reaction, faster than one would expect she was in front of him with her staff pointed just inches front his face, a surprisingly serious expression donned her normally stoic face.

    ¡°How?¡± One word sentence, but it¡¯s all she needs.

    ¡°How do I know, well I know what I need to know, for example; I know that you are a princess of Gallia, your uncle usurped the throne by murdering your father then tried poisoning you but instead got your mother and now her mind is broken, in attempts to kill you he sends you on suicide missions which you consistently survive and complete, he also controls you by threatening your mother. I believe that is all the important parts.¡± Tabitha¡¯s eyes were huge now as he basically explained her life¡¯s story to her.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± Michael smiled softly.

    ¡°To help.¡± Her staff lowered mostly.

    ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°I have a method to cure your mother, but to accomplish it I need time, and resources, and you as a very talented Chevalier would be a very good resource.¡± She had a look of disbelief on her face now.

    ¡°What method?¡± Oh she was interested now.

    ¡°It¡¯s complicated, but suffices to say having your loyalty would help me greatly to succeed.¡± She seemed to be mulling it over a bit. ¡°I¡¯d like to make you a deal, in exchange for your absolute loyalty I vow to have your mother completely cured within a decade.¡±

    For Tabitha it seemed to be too good to be real, so far she had no way to restore her mother and now out of the blue this mysterious man comes up and gives her what she most desperately wants. In truth she doesn¡¯t really believe him, and a decade of servitude for a possible cure is a bit of a risk.

    ¡°I see you are unsure, how about I improve the deal, I¡¯ll also swear to rescue your mother from your uncle¡¯s grasp and place her somewhere totally safe from his reach, all within five years, and if I fail to up hold any of the conditions then the deal becomes null and you will be free to extract any punishment or vengeance you deem fit.¡±

    Now this was a much better deal for Tabitha, if he is lying then she could get revenge on him, also it has the benefit of reducing the possible term of service, plus if he even held up the first half of the bargain then she would at least be free from her uncle, and this deal was the only lead to a cure she had. After a few minutes of consideration she took a knee and lowered her head, it may have been a risk, but it was the only hope she had.

    ¡°Am I to understand that you accept?¡± She gave a firm nod without looking up and so he held out his hand. ¡°Then take my hand and seal the ¡°Deal¡¯.¡± She looked up and did so and as soon as she did he gripped her hand and the power of the ¡®Deal¡¯ sped up her arm and into her eyes and swirled around her pupils before vanishing. With that he released her hand, she was now his.

    ¡°Now then, it will take time to gather the resources that I need before I am ready to begin anything, so for now continue as you have been until I say otherwise but also keep an ear out for anything of interest.¡± She nodded at his commands and then retook her position on the wall and continued her book.

    With Tabitha under his command he had a very capable ally and one possible threat totally dealt with, plus with her he essentially had Kirche as well, or at least he¡¯d have an easier time getting her. As he walked over to where the other students were sitting he remembered something.

    ¡®It¡¯s about time for dumb-ass err, I mean Guiche to get caught two-timing, and then fight the Gandalfr.¡¯ He had a smile on his face that many would call pure deranged evil. ¡®Oh, I¡¯m going to enjoy this far more then I should.¡¯

    Chapter End.

    Well there it is, the first chapter of my new story. Please tell me what you liked, hated, or think should happen.

    Please read & review, Thank You.

 Chapter 2. Duel & Death

    <u>Chapter 2</u>

    Tristan Magic Academy: POV (Siesta)

    This morning had been a very nice one for the young maid Siesta, she had awoken full of energy despite getting to sleep later than normal last night. Part of the reason for that was a peaceful nights rest with several nice dreams about the nice man she met yesterday evening named Michael. He was so polite and charming as well as a pleasure to talk to, which was a rarity here at the academy, since the only males that were around that were her age were mostly aristocrats, and they were just so snobby and stuck-up that there was no way she could even think anything about them, plus being a commoner herself, it was very dangerous for her to associate with them on any level other than as a simple maid.

    Anyway, he had left quite the impression and Siesta was hoping to talk with him even more today, however right now she was dreadfully busy with serving the students their midmorning tea and cake. Dreadful because she had to endure constant fondling and other things done mostly to backside by the various hormonal and overly spoiled ¡®noble¡¯ boys which she ended up passing by as she delivered the various pastries and teas. ¡®Oh, how I wish I could spend time with Michael, he wouldn¡¯t act so immature, he would treat me right, and gently, and¡­ ohh!¡¯

    Siesta¡¯s thoughts quickly went into a more¡­ mature, place as she lost herself in various fantasies inspired by her collection of novels as well as some of last night¡¯s dreams of Michael. Her thoughts continued like this for a little bit as she went about her chore until she was brought back to reality by someone speaking to her.

    ¡°Excuse me maid, but could you possibly point out were Sir Guiche is?¡± It was one of the first years, Katie, if Siesta remembered correctly.

    ¡°Yes milady, he is sitting right over there.¡± Siesta pointed over to where the blonde pretty-boy was sitting, admiring his large mole familiar sprit. Thanking her, Katie ran over to him carrying a basket of some kind.

    With that taken care of, Siesta continued with her duty and her mind drifted partially back into fantasy mode, which was why she still had the presence of mind to spot a bottle of some kind laying on the ground. Curious, she picked it up and realized that it was a perfume bottle most likely dropped by the young lady she just spoke to.

    ¡®I wish Sir Michael would gift me with a present like this.¡¯ It was obviously a bottle only an aristocrat could afford. Her mind still somewhat off, Siesta walked over to return the dropped bottle like a good little maid.

    ¡°Pardon me milady, but it seems you dropped this.¡± Katie looked from the object of her affection to the proffered item and instantly recognized it.

    ¡°Oh yes, thank you.¡± She instantly snatched the bottle from the maid¡¯s hands. ¡°This was the gift Sir Guiche gave me last night.¡± Everything seemed to be going nicely, and Siesta was silently happy to be thanked for once and was about to move on when the calm atmosphere was shattered by an angry yell of¡­

    ¡°WHAT!¡± Everyone, including Siesta and a now very nervous looking Guiche turned to the origin of the shout to see a very angry looking curly-haired blond girl marching up to both Katie and Guiche. ¡°Guiche, what does she mean by ¡®gift from you¡¯, that was a gift from me to you, that is one of my personally made perfumes!¡± Guiche looked ashen and Katie looked confused and slightly hurt.

    ¡°M-m-my dearest Montmorency the fragrance.¡± He started out all nervous and waving around his rose of a wand and trying to look charming but instead looking guiltier by the second. ¡°I assure you, this all a mistake.¡± He didn¡¯t get any further than that in his explanation before he was cut-off.

    ¡°How is it a mistake, she is holding it and claiming you gave it to her!?¡± Montmorency yelled.

    ¡°That¡¯s because he did give it to me!¡± Katie fired back and Guiche was even more distraught.

    ¡°L-ladies please, let¡¯s not fight, this can all be explained.¡±

    It couldn¡¯t, for the next several minutes a heated argument was loudly carried out as Guiche futilely tried to cover-up his two-timing. A crowd had gathered and was being amused by watching Guiche get bitched at by two furious females and all the while Siesta was gradually getting a worrisome feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her that she had inadvertently done something very jeopardizing to her future health. That feeling worsened significantly when two loud smacks echoed throughout the court yard signaling a bad end to a pair of relationships.

    The gathered crowd erupted into laughter at the fate of the young fop sitting there on the ground bewildered with a red hand print decorating each of his cheeks, various comments were flying around all about his screw up and cheating which was quickly angering him. With that anger quickly overflowing Guiche shot to his feet and pointed his rose-wand at what he truly believed was the starting point to this stain on his honor and he declared.

    ¡°This is all your fault, maid!¡± The horrible feeling inside Siesta suddenly exploded into all out horror.

    ¡°M-milord?¡±

    ¡°Because of your grossly incompetent actions two noble ladies have had their honor sullied!¡± She fell to her knees in abject terror; a commoner being accused of dishonoring a noble is as good as a death sentence. She tried to defend herself, but Guiche would hear none of it as he continued.

    ¡°I shall punish you for this disgrace!¡± He raised his foci to strike and Siesta raised her arms in fright, but when nothing happened she took a tentative look and saw something which filled her with joy.

    ¡°Sir Michael!¡± Siesta shouted in relief, her knight had come.

    <hr>

    Minutes earlier¡­ POV (Michael)

    Michael had been walking over to the collection of students, having previously made his deal with Tabitha, with the intent on getting himself some snacks and to relax a bit while waiting for the incident in which Guiche gets caught when he instead spotted Siesta pushing a cart around all the while with her head in pervy-lala-land. Deciding that talking to her while helping her out with her duties might prove to be a better time he altered his course and strolled on over. He got just over half way to her when he saw her get addressed by who he recognized as Katie, after what appeared to be a simple question he watched as Siesta pointed off to a particular table that happened to contain the little shit that Michael was keen on seeing humiliated. As Katie hurried on over Michael witnessed Siesta reach down and pick up what he recognized as a perfume bottle and immediately realized that it was time, and Siesta would be the victim.

    ¡®Well, looks like it¡¯s about time to play hero.¡¯ He thought to himself as he hurried over as well, not wanting to miss any of the entertainment. He wasn¡¯t to be disappointed, the entire thing was far better than the anime was by a huge margin, the dual slaps at the end along with the look on Guiche¡¯s were priceless and Michael couldn¡¯t contain his laughter and joined the crowd in displaying his amusement. ¡®Holy fuck that just made my day ha ha ha¡­ oops, looks like it¡¯s time for my part.¡¯ He thought as Guiche had his tantrum at poor Siesta and was about to strike when Michael reached out and caught Guiche¡¯s wand arm.

    The entire crowd gaped in shock as they witnessed Michael holding Guiche¡¯s arm, here was Michael, who was supposedly a plebian, restraining Guiche, who was a noble, even the relived outburst of Siesta¡¯s ¡®Sir Michael¡¯ comment didn¡¯t snap them out of their surprise at this¡­ atrocity.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough Guiche!¡± Michael¡¯s words however was enough to snap Guiche out of his astonishment, yanking his arm free, which Michael let him, he then let lose his wrath at the offending peasant.

    ¡°How dare you lay a hand on a noble when he is dispensing justice!?¡± The blond idiot actually said that, and then he pointed his rose-wand at Michael and said even more stupid things. ¡°You filthy commoners should know how to treat your betters!¡±

    ¡°¡¯Dispensing justice¡¯¡±? Michael said incredulously. ¡°You are standing there blaming your own stupidity on a helpless young woman, accusing her of dishonoring two other young women when it was you who is the guilty one!¡± Everyone was speechless at how Michael was dressing-down Guiche, well, everyone except Guiche, though he wasn¡¯t much better.

    ¡°H-how dare you¡­¡± Was as far as he got before Michael went on.

    ¡°How dare I, no, how dare you? You have the audacity to play with the hearts of two young maidens, you have the stupidity to then get caught, and then instead of having the integrity of manning up and accepting your fuck-ups you go right ahead and blame yet another young girl for your failings!¡± Guiche was more wide-eyed than ever, as was the crowd. ¡°But that wasn¡¯t enough for you was it?¡± Michael voice had lowered to a deathly level. ¡°You dare to then strike at her, Guiche de Gramont, you not only lack personal integrity or honor, but you don¡¯t even have the right to call yourself a man!¡± The crowd was gaping, Guiche was fuming, Kirche was quite possibly creaming, and Siesta couldn¡¯t decide if she should be in awe at how much Michael was defending her, or worried sick at what was most likely going to happen to him for speaking to an aristocrat in such a manner.

    ¡°THAT IS IT!¡± Guiche screamed as his rage broke. ¡°I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS; I WILL NOT BE INSULTED BY SUCH A LOW CLASS WRETCH!¡± He, once again, pointed his homo-wand at Michael and declared. ¡°I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL!¡± Michael may have raised an eyebrow at this on the outside, but on the inside he was thinking.

    ¡®Yes! Perfect!¡¯ ¡°A ¡®duel¡¯ you say?¡± Guiche¡¯s face had taken on a fiendish smile, no doubt thinking how he was going to destroy this peasant filth.

    ¡°That is correct, you have insulted me far too much, and so I challenge you to a duel of honor to disprove your foolish accusations.¡±

    ¡®This moron¡¯s snapped, there is no way he can believe that a duel will prove anything. Oh well, not like his reasons matter.¡¯ ¡°Okay then, a duel it is, Vesty Court in ten minutes good for you?¡± Guiche¡¯s grin was savage.

    ¡°Yes, that will do perfectly!¡± He then walked off, taking most of the still stunned gathering with him. Michael was about to head off to when he suddenly found himself with an arm full of soft and supple maid, but before he could enjoy the feeling he noticed she was crying hysterically.

    ¡°Sir Michael what have you done, you can¡¯t fight Sir Guiche, he¡¯s a noble, and a mage and also he¡¯s so angry that he¡¯ll probably kill you!¡± She was so incredibly worried and Michael just tried to calm her by wrapping her up in his arms and patting her head.

    ¡°Hey, hey clam down Siesta, it¡¯ll be fine.¡± She didn¡¯t clam down at all, so he took her by the shoulders, pushed back a bit and then tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. ¡°Siesta, you forget that I too am technically a mage, if only by a technicality, I am also a skilled fighter and have a means to fight him and any other mages that he has never even conceived of. Trust me, I will be fine.¡± The surety of his words seemed to have an effect as she nodded and ceased her sobbing, giving a nod of satisfaction Michael then went off to the agreed upon dueling area.

    During the short walk over, Michael took the time to use his power to manifest himself a weapon and holster at his waist in under his greatcoat. It was a six-shooter pistol, more precisely, the ¡®Samaritan¡¯, which is the pistol, used by Hellboy in the Hellboy movies. It was more or less the same weapon, only it was altered slightly to have less recoil and was semi-automatic, also instead of using specialized ammunition meant for killing demons and other hell spawn, it now just used regular ¡®really big bullets¡¯. On one side of the grip the word ¡®Samaritan¡¯ was embroider while the other side had the words ¡®Red Right Hand¡¯. One thing of note about Michael¡¯s powers when using firearms that was really neat, was that he technically had unlimited ammo since bullets fell under the requisites for manifesting.

    The courtyard, like the rest of the academy, was larger than the anime depicted, and as Michael entered he saw that the distance from him and the blond nitwit was going to be greater than he had thought. As with the anime the crowd had encircled the combatants and had actually grown to include students from all the years and event some of the staff had come to watch. Expressions were mixed, some of the students looked as if they were about to see a petulant child get disciplined whiles others just had a look of curiosity about them, Tabitha was one of those as she looked on with an unusual amount of interest. The staff had the expressions of people watching someone walking to their execution, perhaps the most interesting look Michael was getting was from Kirche who was eyeing him like a piece of prime meat.

    ¡®That¡¯s right, it was after this fight that Kirche suddenly develops feelings for Saito, only instead of Saito it¡¯ll be me.¡¯ As his eye¡¯s met hers she gave him a sultry wink that promised many interesting things. ¡®Damn, bitch be horny, guess I¡¯m doing something right.¡¯ His thoughts turned to how he could tap that tight bronze ass without it coming back to bite his ass but before he could really get into that line of thought he was brought out of his musings by a very annoying noise, in the form of Guiche talking.

    ¡°So, you had the courage to show up eh, peasant?¡± He seemed to have reverted to his overtly smug pretty boy persona.

    ¡®God¡­ it¡¯s like he exists solely to piss me off.¡¯ Guiche flourished his rose in a showy way as he continued.

    ¡°I give you this one last chance to save yourself; if you kneel and apologize earnestly enough for your horrid insults then I shall graciously let you off with a light beating.¡±

    ¡®How about I just beat you instead and then get off in your former girlfriend(s), yeah, that sounds like a much better deal to me.¡¯ That¡¯s what Michael thought, but instead he said. ¡°I shall give you one last opportunity to show that you have any sense of integrity and own up to your mistakes and apologize to the ones whose honor you have spat upon.¡± It was obvious that Guiche didn¡¯t like that as his face contorted into a sneer.

    ¡°It seems that you indeed need to be taught your place you ungrateful peasant.¡± He waved his rose-wand and a petal fell to the ground which then brought forth one of his bronze Valkyries, complete with clothing for some reason. The Valkyrie looked similar to the one in the anime but was slightly bigger and more solid than the anime version; it seems that everything was turning out to be larger than the show. ¡°I am Guiche the bronze and this bronze Valkyrie shall be your opponent.¡± Michael had drawn his weapon and was holding it at his side during Guiche¡¯s little intro.

    ¡°I am Michael, and I shall be your instructor¡­ in life, personnel morality, and PAIN!¡± The way he said ¡®pain¡¯ sent waves of fear through the assemble audience and for a few students it was too much and they just fell to their knees and wept. Guiche on the other hand seemed to be oblivious to it and took it as an insult.

    ¡°Go my Valkyrie, teach this cur his place!¡± The construct charged Michael, lance ready to skewer him alive. *BANG* The loud noise startled everyone, including Guiche, but what resulted of the noise really shocked them, the entire head and upper chest of the golem just seemed to cease to be there. Guiche looked on in disbelief as the remains of his Valkyrie disintegrated to nothing.

    ¡°W-hat¡­h-how did¡­¡± He never bothered to finish that sentence as he noticed Michael approaching him as an easy pace. His face turned into a maniac snarl as he made two more Valkyries, these ones even bigger than the last one and looked far more battle oriented. With a gesture they too took off after Michael, but another pair of head shots stopped them, however their heads remained and they did not fall, only stumble slightly with mere dents in their faces. Guiche had been prepared this time for the loud noise from the unknown weapon in his opponent¡¯s hand and also made the golems stronger, the survival of his constructs made his maniac snarl turn into a maniac grin.

    Michael was not as caught off guard as one might think, in fact as soon as he saw that the golems had withstood the shots he just turned his attention towards Guiche, and saw his opportunity. Raising the ¡®Samaritan¡¯ he aimed at Guiche¡¯s wand hand and fired. The hand exploded, cover the blond boy in his own gore, the shock left him speechless for a second before the pain struck him causing him to cry out and fall to his back clutching the bloody stump. Michael kept approaching as the Valkyries collapsed into dust and when Guiche saw him he tried to scoot away, however Michael was already at spitting distance and decided to ¡®cap him to prevent Guiche from running, the bullet destroyed Guiche¡¯s knee and took off everything below it causing the sobbing noble to wail even louder. Grinning is own savage grin, Michael reached Guiche and placed his boot on his chest and pointed the ¡®Samaritan¡¯ at his face.

    ¡°Well Guiche I can¡¯t say it hasn¡¯t been fun, in fact I find myself in desperate need of baggy pants.¡± He said simply and then cocked the hammer for effect. ¡°Goodbye Guiche.¡± As he was squeezing the trigger a yell brought him to a pause.

    ¡°STOP!¡± His head whipped around expecting to see Louise or even Siesta, but instead saw the crying forms Montmorency and Katie, it was Montmorency who spoke. ¡°Please, don¡¯t kill him!¡±The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Why, why shouldn¡¯t I kill this pitiful excuse of a man, after he not only toyed with your hearts, but I bet he wouldn¡¯t have even spared me if our positions were reversed.¡± He spoke simply, as if he was stating the weather and their replies were just more sobs, or that could have been Guiche, hard to tell. Seeing that they weren¡¯t going to say anything he continued.

    ¡°I wonder if you really want me to spare him, can you forgive him for all that he has done, can you redeem this farce of a man and¡­ noble?¡± He said that last part with disdain.

    ¡°Yes we can!¡± Answered Montmorency with a rapidly nodding Katie. ¡°I swear we can and will!¡± Michael just smiled a shark grin as he withdrew his weapon and removed his foot from the fop¡¯s chest and gestured to him.

    ¡°Well then, you¡¯d best get over here and save his life then, and I¡¯d be quick about it if I were you, he¡¯s losing an awful lot of blood.¡± The two noble girls rushed over to were Guiche laid, bone white from blood loss and tried to save him. ¡°I¡¯d suggest one of you go get a nurse or something.¡± Michael said patronizingly. He then gestured the entire crowd and spoke to them in a powerful voice.

    ¡°As for the rest of you, I want you all to remember this, I want you to remember his cries and wailing agony, I want you to remember the blood, bone, and flesh, and I want you to remember that this will be the fate of any who dare challenge me!¡± With that said Michael holstered his weapon and walked through the crowd which easily parted for him. He heard mumbling amongst many but paid it no mind, though the shouted comment of ¡®I think I¡¯m in love¡¯, from no doubt Kirche managed to raise a chuckle out of him. He walked on over to Siesta and was quickly glopped in a big hug.

    ¡°Sir Michael that was amazing, I can¡¯t believe how easily you defeated an aristocrat!¡± She exclaimed in sheer joy and relief. Michael only chuckled as he responded.

    ¡°I told you it wouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡± Then his voice took on a somber tone. ¡°Alas, this is not all good; I¡¯m going to leave the academy for a little while.¡± Siesta took on a look of confusion at this.

    ¡°But why, you won?¡±

    ¡°Yes, and that is exactly why I need to leave for a little while, just until things settle down. I¡¯m not going far though, just to the capitol and the surrounding countryside.¡± Siesta¡¯s mood saddened at the thought of him leaving.

    ¡°You will come back though right?¡± Michael nodded his affirmation.

    ¡°Yes, I promise that we will see each other again.¡± Before she could say anything else he caught her lips in a toe-curling kiss that left her breathless when he let up. ¡°So long Siesta.¡± With that Michael smiled to her and then went to find Tabitha to give her some instructions for while he was gone. In truth that whole bit he told to Siesta was complete bullshit, he couldn¡¯t care less about any tensions brought about from his little spat with Guiche, he just needed to leave so he could carry out certain parts of his grand plan. A loud ¡®kya¡¯ sound behind him caused him to look and see a heavily blushing Siesta insanely deep in fantasy land, he couldn¡¯t help but to laugh. ¡®What a perverted girl, I can¡¯t wait till I get back.¡¯

    Eventually he did manage to relocate the blunette; she was sequestered in yet another peaceful spot away from others and a perfect place to read her books. He informed her of his plans, at least of more truthful version, and also gave her a more specific task.

    ¡°Aside from keeping an ear open for anything of significant importance, I want you to keep watch on Siesta and make sure she doesn¡¯t suffer any backlash because of this incident.¡± Tabitha nodded her assent as Michael continued. ¡°You know where I¡¯ll be if you need to inform me of anything, so with that, see you later.¡± Thus, he set off towards the stables in an effort to barter for a horse.

    <hr>

    Three days later¡­ Outskirts of Tristania (Capital of Tristan): POV (Michael)

    It took an incredibly gaudy long sword in order to get the horse that Michael was currently riding on, but it also came with everything one would need for several days on the road. The Tristan capitol of Tristania was fairly close to the academy, only about four to five hours by horse and was actually a fairly big city for the level of technology available to Halkeginian society, from what Michael was able to learn this city alone had nearly three million people, which was quite a bit for a medieval city, it must be mentioned however that Tristania was in the top five in terms of population, so cities this size were not common.

    Something else that Michael found interesting was the mage to commoner ratio was something like 1:10 in favor of commoners, meaning that mages were not as rare as one would think. That got Michael thinking about how so many nobles could divvy up the common folk and still have enough to consider themselves aristocrats. The answer had been surprisingly simple; it was a combination of roughly a quarter of all mages being disgraced or outlaw nobles and therefore no longer considered aristocrats, and the fact that the nobles themselves had their own class system, thus you get high or lower born nobles which determines how much they rule and how great their influence was.

    Michael had learned this more in-depth system during his stay in the capitol as well as his traveling around it. He ended up exploring most of the main roads which always lead to one noble mansion or another, one of them being Count Mott¡¯s, which was something he needed to know for his future plans. Also, he saw the royal palace and was fairly impressed by its grandeur, but less so by its overall size, it was big, but he¡¯s seen bigger.

    One thing that annoyed Michael more than he thought it would were the nobles, they were just infuriating assholes. Not only did they dress like retarded clowns with no sense of humor, but they literally expected anyone who was not another noble to just drop whatever they were doing at the time and do whatever selfish thing that noble wanted them to do, and if said commoner refused they were called ungrateful and either beaten by the noble¡¯s entourage of guards or arrested. It was insane, and the craziest part was that, according to what Michael had been able to glean, things had actually gotten better due to some of the reforms that Princess Henrietta has put into place; Michael didn¡¯t even want to think about what it was like before she came along.

    So here he was now, a few miles from the city on horseback on the open road headed to whatever town or village it leads to. Around midday he noticed a figure in the sky rapidly getting closer, at first he thought it was coming to attack him but on closer look it was the familiar blue dragon that is Tabitha¡¯s¡­ familiar. Upon landing the blunette dismounted and headed on over to where Michael had dismounted as well and was standing there waiting.

    ¡°Hello Tabitha, how have you been, got something important to tell me?¡± He said it all cheerful like, but it didn¡¯t seem to have any effect on Tabitha except for her to nod once.

    ¡°Siesta¡¯s been taken by Count Mott.¡± Quick and efficient, just like always. The statement caused Michael¡¯s smile to fade.

    ¡®So it¡¯s time to take down Mott is it? Excellent, I¡¯ve been itching to fuck up a noble, and he¡¯ll do nicely.¡¯ He thought to himself with no small amount of joy. ¡°Very well then, thank you for informing me of this, I¡¯ll take care of it, anything else?¡± She shakes her head ¡®no¡¯. ¡°Then I¡¯ll see you later.¡± With that Tabitha turned and hopped on her dragon to leave, but Michael wasn¡¯t about to let her leave without getting some kind of real reaction from her, so before they took off he shouted. ¡°Oh, and good luck on the familiar exhibition, I¡¯m sure that you and Illococoo will no doubt come in first!¡±

    That got a reaction, almost as big as when he revealed that he knew her true identity, he actually laughed a bit at how big her eyes got, even her mouth dropped open somewhat. Illococoo, or Sylpeed as she is mainly known as, even got somewhat defensive as she growled at Michael, which snapped Tabitha back to reality to calm her and ask the obvious question.

    ¡°How?¡± Michael just put on a knowing grin.

    ¡°I¡¯ve told you already, I know what I need to know. Now run along you two and when you get back tell Louise I said hi and tell Kirche that I¡¯ll be seeing her real soon.¡± Tabitha just stared at him for a moment before getting her familiar to take off.

    With that taken care of Michael headed off in a gallop towards an area that was said to be plagued by bandits, he had plans but those plans require personnel, minions. Now while bandits and outlaws were not the best choice for to get man power, they were at least disposable if it came down to it.

    It took just over a day to both reach an area with bandits and find a group suitable to his needs, specifically individuals that didn¡¯t kill for the fun of it. Michael ended up watching this group for about two days after he found them, during that time he had learned that there was five mages and thirteen peasant bandits with them, they only robbed people and didn¡¯t get violent unless it was necessary, the mages were in charge of coarse but more specifically the actual boss was one of the earth mages. With these things determined Michael boldly walked right into their camp leading his horse beside him, the sheer nerve he showed let him just stroll right up to the leader.

    ¡°Greetings gentlemen, my name is Michael, and I have something that will change your lives forever,¡± The entire camp of eighteen just looked at him speechless at his announcement. It was a couple of minutes before the earth mage in charge spoke up.

    ¡°What could you possibly have that would change our lives?¡± He asked skeptically.

    ¡°Why¡­ power¡­ of course, power that I¡¯d be willing to share if I chose to.¡± Michael stated that like it was the most obvious thing in the world, something that unnerved those around him.

    ¡°What kind of power, some sort of magic?¡± The bandit leader was at least a little bit curious now. Michael just shook his head and simply smiled.

    ¡°Nope, technology.¡± One of the other mages just scoffed at that,

    ¡°Technology, you mean that stuff commoners use? It may be interesting at times but magic still trumps it in terms of power any day.¡± Everyone was nodding their heads in agreement, but Michael wasn¡¯t done.

    ¡°Oh trust me; what I¡¯ve got is more than a match for magic in terms of power. In fact, I¡¯d be willing to make a bet on it.¡± The leader raised an eyebrow at that.

    ¡°Just what kind of bet are we talking about?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s very simple.¡± He took out a clay figurine from his pocket, it was of a knight in a battle pose and it was the size of his hand, he set it on a stump that was being used as a seat and then turned to the mages. ¡°All of you mages use your best spells and other magic to protect this figurine from me for five minutes, if you can you win and if you can¡¯t I win.¡± The mages looked at each other, it was simple.

    ¡°What are the stakes?¡± One of them asked. Michael had a shark grin on his face.

    ¡°Again, simple, if I can take out that figurine then I become you guy¡¯s new leader.¡± Most of the camp busted out laughing.

    ¡°I assume you have something of equal value that¡¯s worth that risk?¡± The leader said, one of the few not laughing. Michael just patted a sack on his horse with a cocky smile on his face.

    ¡°How about a thousand new gold?¡± The camp let out a collected gasp at that. A thousand new gold was no small amount, a fact that Michael had learned during his time in the capitol, it took a lot of bartering with expensive looking bladed weapons as well as harvested gems from others in order to accumulate that amount of wealth.

    The mages and the leader seemed to be in deep thought about this wager, doing calculations and risk assessments until Michael decided to help them along a bit.

    ¡°How about this?¡± He pulled out bronze bowl from a saddle bag that he had gotten along with the clay figurine just for this occasion. He then proceeded to cover said figurine with the bowl. ¡°Now it¡¯s even harder for me, and easier for you, now what do ya say?¡± They took another second before they all finally nodded in agreement. ¡°Alright then, so the deal is that if I win the bet then I become all of you guys uncontested leader, but if I lose then you all get my gold right?¡± Again they nodded. ¡°Then let¡¯s seal the deal.¡±

    Michael offered his hand to the mages who all one by one took it and bound themselves to Michael¡¯s power of the ¡®Deal¡¯, then he went on to shake the hand of everyone else in the camp, a very awkward ordeal. When he was done he and the five mages positioned themselves to start the contest. The mages readying their wands and Michael taking out the weapon that he would be using, which was not the ¡®Samaritan¡¯, instead it was another pistol; it was a Colt M1911A1 using .45 caliber armor piercing (AP) rounds. It was one of several he had made along with rifles that he was going to arm his little troop with.

    ¡°So, everyone ready, remember, five minutes.¡± The mages all nodded and one of the other commoner guys signaled the start and immediately Michael lined up the pistol with the bronze bowl where the figurine was and fired. The loud ¡®bang¡¯ and a ¡®ping¡¯ stunned the camp and Michael just smile cheekily and lowered the pistol. ¡°I win.¡± He said simply.

    The bowl had a hole in it now and the stump was damaged, one of the mages lifted the bowl and found the remains of the figurine and simply looked at Michael with disbelief before asking.

    ¡°What the hell was that?¡±

    ¡°A gun.¡± He stated. ¡°To be more precise, a pistol, and these¡­¡± He pulled out one of the rifles to reveal a M1 Garand Variant, it was modified to have a magazine instead of an "en bloc" clip system, and also it has a butt stock contained cleaning kit. The rifle uses .30-06 AP rounds, equip able with the Rifle Grenade Launcher system, and could have a bayonet. ¡°¡­ are rifles. I am going to teach you to use them, and then we are going after a big score.¡±

    The next couple of days were spent teaching these guys the proper use of firearms; they practiced at a make shift shooting range, learned basic weapon maintenance, and the mages learned how to make gun power and bullets. The mages were equipped with pistols as were six of the other guys, while the rest had rifles with two magazines of twenty rounds each, which meant that Michael had seven men with rifles and eleven with pistols.

    When Michael finally thought they were good enough to at least hit their marks he announced his plan for the assault on Mott¡¯s estate, some were understandably nervous, while others were excited, however, all of them would follow their new leader Michael.

    Count Mott¡¯s mansion: POV (Brian) One of the riflemen.

    ¡®I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re doing this.¡¯ Brian thought to himself for the umpteenth time as he aimed at a sentry guard stationed on the wall surrounding the noble¡¯s home. When he first saw Michael come into his camp one day and made that bet Brian honestly thought he was nuts, but then he won and now Michael was the new boss. Then he handed out the new weapons which he called ¡®rifles¡¯ and trained Brian and his buddies how to use them and now Brian was a rifleman in Michael¡¯s¡­ gang? Army? Some kind of force.

    After a couple of days firing ridiculous numbers of rounds Michael then told everyone that were going to pillage a noble¡¯s place, and now here he was waiting for Michael¡¯s signal, they were all wearing cloaks with face masks to protect their identities, even Michael.

    Brian saw Michael walk up to the front gate seemingly without a care in the world holding his own personal pistol, which was just a bigger one that fired bigger bullets. Brian had seen Michael use it once, the result was scary. As Michael got to within a few yards of the gate Brian saw him get challenged by the gate guards. After exchanging a few words Michael just raised his weapon and shot the first guard and then barley a second later shot the other one, both in the head which was a gory sight.

    ¡®That¡¯s the signal!¡¯ He realized and then shot the guard he had been tracking, the guard was hit and a bloody mist sprayed out from his back as he was hit center of mass, the force of the bullet launched him off the wall to fall inside the perimeter. Elsewhere other riflemen hit their targets, then like Brian immediately got up and ran for the gate. When Brian got to were Michael was just inside the wall he saw him gun down two more guards, Brian the saw a group of other sentries come around a corner brandishing pikes and swords. Brian raised his rifle and started shooting, the semi-automatic weapon allowing him to make quick work of the eight men in armor.

    After that, the others showed up, some went off in search of other foes and Brian quickly heard more gunshots, however he and three other riflemen and two mages stayed with Michael and together they entered the manor. They made quick progress through the halls and while they encountered many more guards, they were all killed with little fuss. They had come across a couple of maids, all of whom were dressed in such a way that accented their figures; they were rounded up by the mages as per Michael¡¯s orders as well as any other staff.

    Finally they came to the final set of doors which no doubt had the count behind them.

    ¡°Alright, this is it.¡± Michael said to those with him and Brian readied himself for what lay beyond as the doors were flung open.

    POV change (Michael)

    As the doors opened Michael and the others waltzed right in, Michael carrying the ¡®Samaritan¡¯ in one hand and his face still masked laid eyes upon the one he was here for; standing there in front of his throne dressed in clothes that would make anyone back home laugh their asses off and question the man¡¯s sexuality, was Count Mott, looking quite livid at what was happening if his goofy face was any indication.

    ¡°Who are you, how dare you intrude into my property?¡± Michael, standing there with his face hidden just looked up at the aristocrat and declared in an authoritative voice.

    ¡°Count Mott, I have but one question for you.¡± This caught the count so off guard that he actually obliged.

    ¡°W-what would that be?¡±

    ¡°Die.¡± That seemed to send the count into a fit.

    ¡°How dare you speak to me in such a way I¡­¡± He never got to finish his diatribe ¡®cause Michael just raised the ¡®Samaritan¡¯ and shot him in the chest, the round exploding out from behind him and throwing him into his throne chair. The sight brought a smile to his face.

    ¡°Um¡­ sir, I don¡¯t mean to sound out of place but¡­¡± Michael looked to the man who was trying to asking a question, it was the one who had taken out an entire squad by himself. Michael just gestured him to go on. ¡°Well, it¡¯s just that what you said to the count wasn¡¯t a question.¡± Michael just looked right at the man and decreed.

    ¡°That¡¯s because I don¡¯t do requests.¡± The rifleman just stared at him in bewilderment. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s wrap this up; you all know what to do.¡±

    Everyone nodded and went off, the mages were responsible for rounding up all the staff members and taking them to a place near the main road and make sure that stayed put until dawn, everyone else was to drag all the dead bodies and place them inside the mansion and then grab anything valuable that they could sell for more money, since Michael knew they would need more since he planned on expanding his little force and that would cost money to support. Michael meanwhile was going to raid the counts study for anything important that he could use to further his goals.

    Eventually all the looters had their bags full of shiny stuff and so when the mages returned they began setting everything on fire to burn all evidence of what happened here and to make it look like this was the work of rouge mages. When the estate was completely ablaze they headed back.

    Back at the camp¡­

    ¡°So, what¡¯d I tell ya, total success and now we¡¯re rich.¡± Everyone was cheering at their success. ¡°However, as many of you know this wealth won¡¯t last long, especially when the nobles find out you have it, they will use any excuse they can to tax it from you, and then you will be right back here again.¡± A somber mood descended on the camp as they all realized that Michael was right, they were rich now, but they were still peasants, the nobles would eventually make them poor again. Michael continued speaking though.

    ¡°But what if this wasn¡¯t the case?¡± Heads turned to him. ¡°What if there was a place where that never would happen, a place without nobles, wouldn¡¯t you like to go there?¡± Murmuring of affirmatives rose from the men. ¡°If such a place existed, would you do anything to be there?¡± More yeses. ¡°Would you fight to be there!?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± The collective voice said.

    ¡°Would you follow me there!?¡±

    ¡°YES!¡± They all shouted.

    ¡°Then I shall take you there, but it will be a long journey, a hard journey, and will take much preparation before we can even start. But I promise you that if you are willing to fight and willing to follow me, then I will lead you. The only question I have left for you is: ARE YOU WITH ME!?¡±

    ¡°YES!!!¡± The affirmation was thunderous despite there only being eighteen of them but it was all that was needed.

    ¡°Okay then, here is what needs to happen.¡± Michael began laying out instructions to his now ferociously loyal army.

    He had his mages learn how to make all the parts of the pistols and rifles, which they would then synthesize and/or basically summon, kind of like Guiche¡¯s Valkyries, which would be easiest for the earth mages, however since they were making individual metal and wood pieces instead of animated golems, any mage could technically do it. Once they could make every piece to exact specifications they would then make as many sets as possible for some of the non-mages to assemble into completed weapons, this was in addition to the mages making as many bullets as they could as fast as they could.

    While this was happening half of the remaining men would go to surrounding towns and villages and kidnap people that no one would miss with their sudden disappearance, such as drunkards or the homeless and bring them back to the camp were some of the others would convince them to join the cause or kill them and then get them trained to use the new weapons. Anyone else who wasn¡¯t doing anything was to go and purchase supplies and food to turn the place into a proper training camp able to support hundreds.

    With basic instructions given Michael then informed everyone that he was going back to the academy and would return in a few days, this of course raised a few questions to which he responded that he had some business to take care of, it didn¡¯t satisfy everyone completely but in the end they accepted his reasons so he bid them a goodbye and set off towards the main road in direction of the academy.

    Along the way his evil smile returned to his face as he thought¡­

    ¡®It begins.¡¯

    <hr>

    Chapter End

 Chapter 3. Maid & Ardent

    <u>Chapter 3</u>

    Road to Tristan Magic Academy: POV (Michael)

    It was late afternoon, and Michael was travelling down the main road heading to the academy, the reasons for going back there that he had given to his men back at the camp were not entire true, while he had business, it was not exactly with the academy per say, it just involved someone at the academy, not the academy its self. In fact, the person he had business with was not at or of the academy anymore, they didn¡¯t even know Michael had business with them.

    ¡®Speak of the devil, there she is right now.¡¯ He was thinking about the one walking down the side of the road ahead of him, it was Siesta. During the attack on Count Mott¡¯s place, Michael had tasked his mages with rounding up all of the staff and maids and then lead them to a place in the woods slightly off the main roads and have them wait there till dawn. Siesta was of course part of that group, and now she was here most likely trying to get back to the academy. The odd part, was that she was currently alone, odd because there was easily over a hundred people that were with her when she was led away.

    Seeing this Michael couldn¡¯t help but smile at the luck of finding her alone and quickly rode up on her as he called out.

    ¡°Hey Siesta!¡± The sudden shout out to her startled her and she fearfully turned to the one calling her, when she saw who it was her expression turned to a happy and very relieved look.

    ¡°Sir Michael!¡± She exclaimed and ran to him as he dismounted then practically tackled him in a desperate hug and then proceeded to sob uncontrollably into his chest.

    ¡°Whoa there, calm down Siesta, everything¡¯s going to be alright.¡± He spent the next several minutes trying to calm the hysterical girl, all the while feigning ignorance as to what was going on. When she finally calmed down a bit he asked in a more direct way. ¡°Siesta what¡¯s going on, why are you out here?¡± Taking a step back she managed to explain.

    ¡°Oh Sir Michael, the last few days since you left have been horrible; first Count Mott purchased my contract from the academy forcing me into his service, then some outlaw mages came last night and kill the Count and his guards, rounded us up and led us to a place in the woods and threatened us not to move until dawn, we all watched the Count¡¯s estate burn from where we were. I was so scared that I was going to die or never see you again.¡± She almost worked herself into another sobbing fit so Michael had to calm her again before asking.

    ¡°Okay, that explains the blaze I saw last night as well, but what are you doing out here by yourself?¡±

    ¡°Well, once dawn came we all went to the main road, everyone but I had some place nearby they could go but it was in the direction of the capitol, the only place I could go was back to the academy and hope to get my old job back. However, I fear that since my contract has been sold and now likely destroyed, they may not hire me back, especially with the Count¡¯s death.¡± She had a very distraught look to her now.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t see why any of that would make them not rehire you, but if you really think it will be that much of an issue, how about I hire you?¡± That brought her up short.

    ¡°W-what?¡± Michael smiled his kind smile as he explained.

    ¡°I¡¯ll hire you and make up a new contract, you will then become my maid, and I¡¯ll even increase your salary from whatever it was when you worked at the academy.¡± Siesta had stunned look to her as she couldn¡¯t believe what Michael had just offered her.

    ¡°You¡¯d really hire me Sir Michael?¡¯ He nodded. ¡°B-but how could you afford to pay me an ever greater wage then the academy, the salary I was making there was already quite generous for a maid to begin with, it was the main reason I took that job in the first place.¡± Michael just chuckled at her monetary concerns.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, I¡¯ve made some very lucrative business deals over the past few days, paying you will not be difficult.¡± Hearing that eased her concerns but as she thought about it some more she suddenly blushed as she realized something.

    ¡°Wait if you become my contract holder t-then you¡¯d also be my¡­m-my¡­m-m-master!¡± He nodded and she blushed even more.

    ¡°Yes Siesta that¡¯s true, do have a problem with that?¡± She fidgeted and looked around a bit before shyly shaking her head. ¡°Then there is no issue with you becoming my maid. So, the deal is such, you agree to be my maid and in exchange your salary shall be greater than what it was previously, do you accept?¡± She appeared slightly unsure but then finally gave a meek nod. Michael then held out his hand. ¡°Then take my hand, and seal the Deal.¡± She daintily reached out and clasped his hand triggering Michael¡¯s power of the ¡®Deal¡¯. After that he smiled and tossed her a small pouch which she clumsily caught. ¡°Great, here¡¯s your first payment.¡±

    She opened the pouch and examined its contents, her eyes then bugged out upon seeing how many coins there were. ¡°S-sir, this is easily more than what I made in a month!¡± Michael laughed at that.

    ¡°Really? I guess you had better work hard for me then, ¡®cause that¡¯s your salary now.¡± She blushed at that. ¡°Plus, if anything else, you can use the extra to replace any of the items and/or clothing you lost when the Count¡¯s mansion burned.¡±

    ¡°Y-yes¡­master.¡± She was barely audible as she said that last part. Michael just smiled and got on his horse and offered her his hand.

    ¡°Now Siesta, despite our new arrangement I am still your friend, nothing¡¯s going to change that, now come on, I want to get to the academy before dark.¡± Heartened by that, she herself smiled and let him pull her up onto the horse, but that last part raised a question.

    ¡°Um, M-master¡­¡± She was still a little embarrassed at calling him that, what with him being her current love interest and it was sending her fantasies into overdrive. ¡°Why are we going to the academy?¡±

    ¡°Well, even though I¡¯ve got a fair bit of wealth, I still don¡¯t have anyplace to call my own and thus I technically have no use for a maid, so I thought I¡¯d go and see if I could get the headmaster to let you live and work at the academy until I could better utilize your services myself.¡± He explained aloud, in his head he thought. ¡®Also, having a cute maid amongst an army of revolutionaries probably isn¡¯t a good idea.¡¯ Siesta frowned at this.

    ¡°Does this mean we will be apart for some time before you gain a use for me as a maid?¡± Michael gave a sad smile as he answered.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid so, but don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t take as long as you think.¡± Siesta felt a bit of melancholy at the thought of being away from Michael again, but at the same time she felt somewhat secured by the fact that he was her master now and that an incident like the one with Count Mott wouldn¡¯t happen again along with the fact that as soon as he got a home or an estate of his own then she could properly serve him as she should. It may take a little time, but she was confident in him. The rest of the trip went mostly in silence with only an occasional remark or question from one of them.

    That evening¡­ Tristan Magic Academy: POV (Michael)

    Once Michael and Siesta arrived at the academy they immediately noticed the mess left over from Fouquet¡¯s attempted robbery of the academies vault via her gigantic golem; attempted because according to a passing staff worker Fouquet failed to breach the vault¡¯s wall before she had to retreat.

    ¡®Looks like without Louise¡¯s void powered explosions the vault was just too strong for Fouquet¡¯s golem to smash through.¡¯ Thought Michael at the news of Fouquet¡¯s failure. After getting their little update on current events, the two proceeded to the headmaster¡¯s office where they were greeted by none other than Ms. Longueville herself, aka Fouquet, which was surprising to Michael, since her attack failed he thought she give up the charade and leave.

    Once inside Michael explained to Osmond about Siesta¡¯s situation and what he wanted to arrange with the academy as well as a few reasons why Osmond should let Siesta rejoin the work staff.

    ¡°Well young Michael I must say you do raise some fair points; young Siesta was indeed a fine worker and it was a shame we had to give her up to the Count and under normal circumstances I would be delighted to take her back on, but with the Count¡¯s violent death I¡¯m afraid there would be a bit of a stigma surrounding the young miss that may affect the academy negatively.¡± The old headmaster explained to the two.

    ¡°I understand that perfectly well old Osmond, but as I have said Siesta is under contract with me, therefore I am the one who is paying her salary, all I am asking for is that you allow her to reside here as she was in exchange for room and board. This way you get a quality worker that you yourself said claimed to be as such and you¡¯d get her for a fraction of the cost of a regular maid. As for the stigma, you don¡¯t even need to record her presence here, no one of importance even knows who she is or what she looks like, you lose nothing.¡±

    Osmond stroked his beard as he considered these points, the young man standing in front of him was right, he did lose nothing and the before mentioned stigma was almost a moot point.

    ¡°You are right, on all points, plus we are short staffed because of Fouquet¡¯s attack and Siesta already knows the grounds and how to do her job well enough. Very well, I will allow the young miss to stay here as a maid; she may even use her previous room.¡± He then looked at Siesta. ¡°Welcome back, you may begin first thing tomorrow.¡±

    With that agreed on they finished hashing out some of the finer details before going through the final formalities, said their goodbyes, and parted ways. As Michael and Siesta exited the main tower they ran into Tabitha, Michael gave a quick explanation that Siesta was now under his employment and that the two should work together. That finished, Siesta then invited Michael to her room.

    ¡°Alright Siesta, I have wondered about where you actually live around here, lead the way.¡± She did, and after a short trip to the servant¡¯s quarters they found themselves in Siesta¡¯s old room.

    Michael looked around, it was a nice and homely place, had basic furnishings and was surprisingly warm, and there was even some sort of bathroom. ¡®The benefits of living in a magic school I suppose, even the servants get plumbing.¡¯ He thought and was about to comment as such, but before he could utter a word, Siesta was on him. Lip-locked the two began a full blown make out session, or at least tried; Siesta was frantic and fumbled around with Michael¡¯s clothes all the while trembling with so much nervousness and excitement that Michael had to grasp her shoulders to hold her still and take control.

    ¡°Siesta, slow down girl.¡± She was blushing hard with embarrassment and was practically vibrating with nervousness.

    ¡°I-I-I¡¯m sorry m-master, I didn¡¯t mean to over step my bounds, I just couldn¡¯t help myself a-and just¡­¡± She would have continued but Michael silenced her with a kiss of his own that left her seeing stars.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay Siesta; do you really want to do this?¡± She gave a blissful nod. ¡°Alright then.¡±

    With that he resumed the lip-lock and undid a few things on her dress causing it to fall from her shoulders and pool on the floor at her feet. Now standing there exposed wearing nothing but a pair of panties, Siesta fidgeted under Michael¡¯s gaze trying futilely not to cover up. Her outfit that was given to her by Count Mott didn¡¯t come with a bra so now Michael was pleased to see her perky C-cups and most of the rest of her.

    ¡°You¡¯re very pretty Siesta.¡± He complemented which caused her blush to deepen. He kissed her some more and gently grasped one of the soft orbs and started to tweak its nipple making Siesta break the kiss and let out a gasp that became a moan. Michael just continued to kiss and nibble around the crook of her neck while maneuvering his other hand to slide into her now moist panties to begin fingering her wet pussy and start playing with her hard clit.

    ¡°Oh master!¡± She exclaimed as his actions caused her to wrap her arms around him and forced out a heavy moan as her legs became wobbly as they started to lose strength under his ministrations.

    After a few minutes of this she started to climax and as soon as Michael felt this he jammed his thumb down hard on her clit making her hands cling to him hard as her head lifted up and her mouth opened into a silent scream as she was rocked into orgasm after orgasm. As she finally came down she gasped for air and slumped against him, burying her face in his shoulder, her body still quivering from the aftershocks she felt.

    Now boneless, Michael had to carry her and deposit her gently onto the bed to let her recover from what was probably her first multi-orgasm ever. He stepped back and took of his greatcoat and shirt then undid his pants to release his now painfully hard erection. This caught Siesta¡¯s attention and as soon as she saw his throbbing member her eyes lit up in a combination of fear, awe, and lust. Finding strength, she moved to her knees and went to the edge of the bed where he now stood and moved her shaky hands to grasp his hardness.

    Remembering what she had read in some of her novels, Siesta tentatively began licking the shaft before she took what she could into her mouth, going as deep as possible before letting out a gag and then began sucking in earnest doing everything she could think of to make her master feel good.

    Michael was a bit surprised at how well Siesta was at giving head, she was far from an expert, but she more than made up for it in enthusiasm and he let his approval show by letting out a groan and then a compliment.

    ¡°That¡¯s good Siesta.¡± His praise seemed to spur her on and before long he let out a grunt. ¡°I¡¯m cumming Siesta.¡± Hearing that she sucked as hard as she could and he erupted in her mouth with several large spurts which she did her best to gulp down. Siesta actually did manage to swallow it all and when it was all done she sat back, dazed by what had just happened.

    ¡°That was very good Siesta.¡± Michael said while shedding his pants and boots. ¡°But now it¡¯s time for the main event.¡± His words brought her back to reality and she sheepishly nodded and scooted back to lie on the bed. Michael moved on to the bed and removed her now sodden panties revealing her womanhood covered in a thin layer of fuzz. He positioned himself at her entrance and as he touched her she let out a little squeak and quickly said.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°P-please be gentle m-master it, it¡¯s my first time.¡± She looked so innocent and vulnerable as she told him that and it aroused Michael to no end. He leaned over her and gave his gentlest smile and a chastised kiss.

    ¡°I¡¯ll try to be as gentle as I can, now hold on to me.¡± She did and Michael entered her in one steady thrust tearing through her maidenhood making her cry out as he claimed her virginity and she tighten her grip on him. Once he was in he paused, letting her get used to the feeling of being so full. After a few minutes he felt her start to squirm under him prompting him to start moving.

    He began with a light rocking which soon worked up to trusting, after a few minutes Siesta started to meet his thrusts then she quickened the tempo. Soon Michael began sliding further and further out before slamming it home deeper and deeper eventually fucking her full tilt bringing Siesta to her first orgasm. Michael didn¡¯t stop when Siesta¡¯s first climax started, instead he just started to thrust in as far as he could, bottoming out with each entry, and this caused Siesta to orgasm again before the first one even started to subside.

    When her third major climax ripped through her, Michael decided to pull out and flipped her over onto her knees in a classic doggy style before resuming their coupling. This position allowed Michael to reach Siesta¡¯s cervix every time he thrust in causing her to start a series of multi-orgasms that seemingly had no end and resulting in her arms collapsing from under her as the last of her strength left her, forcing Michael to hold her up by her hips as he continued to pound into from behind.

    The feeling of Siesta¡¯s velvety insides convulsing, squirming, and gripping him in incredible ways finally caused him to let out a primal roar as he release his load in to her. The feeling of the explosion of warmth within her sent Siesta into one last mind blowing climax that left her gasping and shivering in bliss and joy.

    When he was finished, Michael laid down beside her pulled the covers over the both of them; he then gave her one last deep kiss before he just held her in his arms. She practically molded herself to him and they stayed that way as they both drifted off to sleep.

    Michael awoke the next morning to a very pleasant sensation, he opened his eyes and spotted a large lump under the covers, he pulled them away to reveal Siesta, with her breasts around his cock and her head bobbing and sucking on what was sticking out. ¡®Little minx seems to have gained some confidence since last night.¡¯ He thought to himself, a bit surprised by her boldness, but he didn¡¯t say anything as he just laid back and enjoyed her attentions. Eventually he reached his climax and she once again drank all he had to offer.

    ¡°Not that I¡¯m complaining, but what brought this on?¡± Michael inquired after she was finished sucking the last bits of his spunk out of him. She gave a surprisingly lustful smile as she slid up on to his chest and explained herself.

    ¡°Well, I thought I¡¯d give you a ¡®thank you¡¯ for such a wonderful night master.¡± Michael smiled at her explanation, especially the master comment; it was surprising turn on for him.

    ¡°I must say your thanks are much appreciated, but the fact remains that you have gone down on me twice, I think it¡¯s about time I return the favor.¡± He said as he flipped her over onto to her back and started to trail a line of kisses down her body, ignoring her protests.

    As he reached her breasts he paused there to give some attention to the wondrous globes, electing soft moans and gasps from her which turned to giggles as he moved lower. He quickly made it to her pussy and was pleasantly surprised not to not see any evidence of last night¡¯s exploits, meaning that she had cleaned herself up before giving him his surprise wakeup. Michael didn¡¯t dwell on this though as he immediately dived right in; using his tongue and fingers he attacked anything he could reach with as much intensity as he could muster and using techniques that have probably never been seen in this world. The sensation of all this caused Siesta to cry out.

    ¡°Oh Master!¡± She was quickly brought to the cusp of climax, but Michael easily caught this and stopped right as she was on the edge, causing her to give a pitiful whimper in protest. After a few seconds he started right back up, only to again stop just before she could finish just so he could start again. He did this several more times and before long she was writhing in maddening lust and pleasure that became too much for her as she finally begged. ¡°Please master, please let me cum!¡± The desperation in her voice made him smile.

    ¡°Okay then, cum for me Siesta.¡± He commanded and then latched on to her clitoris with his mouth and gently took the little nub in between his teeth and started flicking his tongue rapidly back and forth while at the same time his fingers attacked her g-spot with a vengeance.

    The effect was near instant; her hands viciously latched onto the bedding and her eyes and mouth shot open as Michael¡¯s ferocious assault on her sensitive parts combined with the buildup from the delayed orgasms sent her hurling into a climax far beyond her comprehension that just kept going on and on. Michael actually had to hold her down as her back arched up and her hold body tried to jerk away, he kept up his actions for a solid minute before he pulled away, however even when he did her orgasms didn¡¯t stop, instead she just started shaking and shivering in ecstasy as she continued to experience multiple orgasms for nearly five minutes.

    Eventually, it finally stopped and Siesta just lay there limply, tears running down the corners of her eyes, her body still giving the occasional twitch, and her eyes coming in and out of focus as her mind tried to recover from what had just happened. Michael just sat on the edge of the bed with a pleased look on his face waiting for her to come to. It took another ten minutes before she was able to think coherently, the first thing she did was sit up and look at Michael; the look she gave him contained something akin to reverence and awe normally reserved for one¡¯s deity. After a moment she moved into his arms, shivering at his touch and he wrapped her in his embrace.

    ¡°I love you master.¡± Siesta said with complete honesty.

    ¡°You too Siesta.¡± Michael replayed with a smile.

    They stayed like that for a few minutes before eventually separating; they then got cleaned up, got dressed during which Michael gave Siesta a vile which contained a birth control potion, one of several that he had picked up while he was at the capitol, after she took it they then headed out. Once outside, Michael gave Siesta one last hug and kiss before saying his goodbye.

    ¡°You take care of yourself now Siesta and I¡¯ll come visit you as soon as I can.¡± Siesta smiled at that, she had a look of assurance, of someone who had no worries about anything, a look of begin at peace.

    ¡°I will master, I hope to see you soon as well.¡± With that she turned to start her day, completely content with the world and her place in it.

    Michael then turned to head towards the stables with the intent of returning to his troop¡¯s camp. He got about half way there before a shout of ¡®darling¡¯ followed by a tackling mass of red hair and bronze softness nearly knocked him off his feet.

    ¡°Hello Kirche, how are you this morning?¡± He asked with an almost amused voice. She just pressed herself onto him harder as she declared.

    ¡°Oh darling, I was worried that you would never return, I have completely fallen for you, ever since your incredible duel with what¡¯s his name my thoughts have been filled with nothing but you! Please darling, I must be with you¡­ tonight!¡± She sounded quite sincere, but Michael knew all about Kirche, plus he didn¡¯t want to wait around that long.

    ¡°That¡¯s quite a shame, because I was on my way to the stables in preparation to depart the academy.¡± This answer brought a pout to her lips and she whined piteously.

    ¡°But darling, I just can¡¯t go on without you, please stay.¡± Michael¡¯s face took on a predatory grin at that.

    ¡°Well then,¡± He began as he slipped a hand under her skirt and gripped her bronze, panty clad ass. ¡°If that¡¯s the case then how about we head on up to your room right now, unless, you have something more important you need to do?¡± His words and his action actually brought a blush to her face; he was definitely bolder than anyone she had ever been with. She thought about his question; she of course had classes in a few minutes, but she really wanted to be with him before he left, it was a difficult choice, one made easier when he gave her ass another squeeze.

    ¡®To hell with class, I must have him NOW!¡¯ She thought before answering. ¡°Of course I have nothing more important than you darling, this way!¡± She linked arms with him and led him to her bedroom, during the entire walk there Michael had his hand on her ass giving it an occasional squeeze as well as running a finger along the slit of her pussy through her panties, driving her nuts and sending shivers through her body.

    By the time they reached her room Kirche¡¯s panties were soaked and she was really worked up, but she managed to keep her composure as she led Michael in, she discarded her cloak and he tossed his greatcoat onto a chair as she began.

    ¡°Well here we are darling, what do¡­¡± She never got to finish her question as Michael caught her in a kiss that quickly had her seeing spots, when they separated for air she exclaimed. ¡°Oh my darling, that was¡­ahh!¡± Michael didn¡¯t give her a chance to do or say anything as he continued his offensive by pulling open her already almost open blouse letting her large DD-cups to spill out. He took one in one hand groping it and teasing the nipple, and he took the other nipple in his mouth and sucked it before lightly tugging on it with his teeth. She brought her hands to his head and moaned and mewled in rapt approval.

    While that was happening, Michael¡¯s other hand went to work by first undoing Kirche¡¯s skirt letting it fall to the floor before slipping his hand into her wet panties and going to work on her pussy. Her eyes shot open as she felt that hand start to do things she has never felt before as it hooked two fingers inside her and stroked her sensitive spots while the thumb teased her nub. All this, combined with his actions on the way there quickly sent her way over the edge.

    ¡°AHH darling, I¡¯m go¡­ g-going to¡­ AHHHH!¡± She erupted in a torrent of juices drenching his hand and nearly collapsing as her knees buckled forcing Michael to basically catch her and then letting fall to the bed. She just laid there shaking and panting as the aftershocks of her climax subsided. ¡®By the Founder, I¡¯ve never came that hard in my life, darling is definitely a real man no question.¡¯ As she got her breathing under control she sat up and discovered that Michael had finished undressing himself. ¡°Oh my, darling¡¯s magnificent, none of my other boys can even compare!¡± Kirche stared transfixed at Michael¡¯s throbbing hardness causing him to smirk.

    ¡°Well now Kirche, I hope you¡¯re ready for the real thing?¡± Her eyes widened in both fear and excitement as he climbed onto the bed and pulled of her sodden panties while she quickly tossed away her top. She then looked surprised when he bent down to between her legs and started trailing kisses up her thy until he reached her quim and started licking.

    ¡®Oh my, I¡¯ve never had a man do this before; usually they just want to get to the fun part or are too clueless.¡¯ She was quickly absorbed by Michael ministrations as he did yet more amazing things that swiftly left her a quivering mess as she was brought to another mind numbing orgasm. Before Kirche could even finish cumming, Michael quickly lifted her legs to hang over his shoulders, lined up his cock with her cunt, and went balls deep in one solid thrust.

    The size of his member combined with her still ongoing orgasm and his rapid entry of her resulted in Kirche experiencing a rapid succession of multi-orgasms that came in seemingly unending waves that had her twisting and thrashing in earthshattering ecstasy the like of which she had never experienced before. Michael tried to continue, but found that fucking her like that was just plan unrealistic, so he stopped and waited for her to finish cumming which took a surprising amount of time. ¡®Geez, the guys at this academy must be complete morons when it comes to sex; it¡¯s taking practically nothing to get her off.¡¯ Michael mused to himself.

    When her orgasms finally subsided, Michael finally got to fucking her in earnest; however she had become incredibly sensitive and was soon sent into another wave of multi-orgasms. By this point Kirche was a complete mess, the constant climaxes had made her a gasping, sobbing, and moaning wreak, she couldn¡¯t even move anymore, she was nearly completely limp with her only real movement being her full body orgasmic tremors while all her energy went towards breathing. Michael wasn¡¯t even trying anymore, he just thrust away enjoying the sensations of Kirche¡¯s excessively convulsing pussy and let his climax occur when it will.

    After he finally got off, he pulled out of Kirche¡¯s overstimulated pussy and just waited for her to recover. When she finally did she looked up to him with pure love and joy in her eyes.

    ¡°Oh darling, that was the best I¡¯ve ever had by far, I didn¡¯t think anything could feel that amazing, you are definitely the man I¡¯ve always dreamt of.¡± His predatory grin returned at that.

    ¡°Well I¡¯m glad you liked it, ¡®cause I¡¯m not satisfied yet.¡± Kirche suddenly had a worried look on her face.

    ¡°Darling, I don¡¯t think I can survive another bout like that so soon.¡± She tried to keep the lingering fear out of her voice as much as possible, but some got through.

    ¡°Well don¡¯t worry.¡± He began as he flipped her onto her hands and knees. ¡°This won¡¯t be like the first time.¡± Kirche was really getting nervous now.

    ¡°D-darling, what are you¡­¡± She cut herself off as she felt the head of his dick poke her back entrance. ¡°W-wait, I¡¯ve never done that before, please no I¡­ AIE!¡± She screamed as he pushed into her little rosebud, pushing in until he bottomed out.

    ¡®Oh yeah, nice and tight.¡¯ He thought as he enjoyed the way her bronze ass gripped his penis in its warm hold. Kirche on the other hand was groaning and moaning in not only pain, but also in growing pleasure as she felt the new sensation that was anal sex.

    ¡°Oh by the Founder, darling please slow down, I-I¡¯m starting to feel weird, I¡¯m scared.¡± She pleaded with him as her ass continued to get pounded.

    ¡°Now Kirche, the fun is just starting.¡± He responded as he lifted her up so that her back was against his chest so he could start teasing her breasts and nipples while he continued to fuck her tight little hole. She clenched her teeth as she felt him pinch and tug her tits, pulling them and twisting, but despite it hurting, despite her giving out little shrieks, Michael could tell she was enjoying it immensely. This became especially clear when he felt her ass tighten up as she finally came.

    ¡°Oh Founder, my ass is cumming, I¡¯m cumming from my ass!¡± She shouted as she trembled in lust and humiliation.

    ¡®Damn, I didn¡¯t think Kirche had such a masochistic streak in her¡­ oh who am I kidding, this is an anime, and now thanks to me it¡¯s a hentai anime, so of course the labeled slut character has a masochistic side to her.¡¯ His inner monologue was interrupted by yet another climax for Kirche and his own need to finish. Deciding to end it big he quickly reached around and took hold of her engorged clit and then whispered into her ear. ¡°Cum with me Kirche.¡± He then shot his load up her gorgeous bronze ass while roughly pinching her clit. The result was that Kirche grit her teeth, her entire body went ridged, and her pussy let loose an eruption of Michael¡¯s remaining semen and her love juice that totally drenched her bed.

    When Michael had finished letting out his load, he let her fall off his cock and onto her now soaked bed. Not feeling quite done with her, he got off the bed, walked around to where her head was, and lifted her head up by her hair to his dick.

    ¡°You¡¯re not done here sweetie, lick me clean.¡± His cock was still covered by remnants of his own jizz and her juices, but she was too dazed to care and just did as she was told and clumsily sucked him clean. After that he turned away and spoke again. ¡°Well I must say, that was a fun one time fling.¡± His statement seemed to bring her back to reality.

    ¡°Wait, darling, what do you mean ¡®one time¡¯; you can¡¯t mean that this was the only time we will ever do this, I can¡¯t live without you now!¡± She had a desperate look to her as she pleaded.

    ¡°Well I¡¯m sorry Kirche, but that is just how it is, but I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be alright, after all you have your little following of boy-toys, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be alright.¡± He said it so casually that her heart felt like it could break.

    ¡°No please darling, those other boys don¡¯t mean anything to me they¡¯re nothing compared to you, you are all I need, please don¡¯t make this the only time we make love!¡± She was in tears now.

    ¡®As if you could call what just happened ¡°making love¡±, ha!¡¯ ¡°Well, I suppose I could make you a deal.¡± He got her full attention; his face got a shark grin. ¡°If you swear to be completely and utterly mine and mine alone then I will promise to have more fun with you like this on occasion.¡± Her eyes lit up with happiness at the thought of being his and nodded so rapidly it was amazing she didn¡¯t hurt herself. He then extended his hand. ¡°Then take my hand, and seal the ¡®Deal¡¯.¡± She grasped it with both of her hands.

    ¡°I promise darling, I promise I¡¯ll be yours one and only!¡± With that she was his, so he turned and moved so that his dick was right in front of her face.

    ¡°Now that that¡¯s done, your cleaning blowjob left me hard.¡± He reached out and grabbed one of her tits eliciting a gasp and then a moan as he teased her nipple. ¡°So why don¡¯t you use these and your mouth to fix that?¡± At that she smiled and wrapped his erection with her impressive assets and started sucking him off like the pro she is.

    After the titjob in which he pretty much came down her throat, he gave her one of the birth control potions and then proceed to fuck her comatose in both her front and back holes, then cleaned himself up in her bathroom, got dressed, and then headed to the stables. Along the way he talked to Tabitha who was going to lunch, that Kirche was now a part of their group, to which he received a look that asked ¡®really¡¯, he then congratulated her on her winning the familiar exhibition, even though he had already predicted the outcome, and then said his goodbyes to her and got his horse and left the academy, again, for his budding army.

    Along the way he merrily thought to himself. ¡®Well, these past twenty-four hours have been great, not only did I get two hot girls as my newest thralls, but I also fucked them into basically worshiping me, and the best part, this is still only the beginning!¡¯  He started laughing evilly as his evil smile returned in full force.

    Oh how he was enjoying all this¡­

    Chapter End

 Chapter 4. Preparations

    <u>Chapter 4

    </u>

    Michael¡¯s Camp: POV (Quinten) One of the commoners.

    Once Michael had left the camp after giving out his extremely simplified orders, his men had took to carrying them out with gusto, however about a day later it was discovered that the logistics of forming a camp to Michael¡¯s expectations would take a bit more precise management than previously thought. Someone was needed who could keep track of the incoming supplies and personnel, and take up a sort of secondary leadership to ensure that Michael¡¯s instructions would be carried out efficiently; enter Quinten, he was one of the commoners that was with the original bandit camp, when it was determined that better management was need, he took it upon himself to take charge and organize it into something that at least appeared professional.

    Originally Quinten was the financial accountant to one of the more moderate nobles in Gallia; he was very good at his job and helped his previous lord to grow his wealth enough to advance through the aristocratic hierarchy to become moderately well known, quite an achievement for a ¡®lowly commoner¡¯¡­ but of course, something had to happen. His lord¡¯s daughter had taken a liking to him and tried to seduce him, but being the loyal servant he was Quinten ignored and declined all the advances and offers heaped upon him. This obviously wasn¡¯t well received by the young noble girl, so she went and complained to daddy about how the nasty old commoner had tried to force himself on her and threatened her as well as other lies, daddy of course believed his daughter and did what any concerned father would do, he condemned Quinten to death by whipping, after castration.

    Not even given the chance to defend himself and shocked at how quickly his lord could and would dismiss him, Quinten fled and managed to escape to Tristan were he eventually got picked up by an outlaw earth mage and wound up as a bandit robbing passing travelers. It was like that for nearly two years before Michael came and wowed him and his fellows with his new and powerful weapons, taught him how to use them, and successfully pillage a noble as well as kill said noble. So now here he was essentially the manager, bookkeeper, and overall unofficial second in command of Michael¡¯s budding army. Under Quinten¡¯s supervision the camp was larger, better organized, and steadily growing as people and goods trickled it.

    It was mid-afternoon on the third day since Michael left when Quinten heard the shout from one of the camp¡¯s sentries that there was a rider approaching. Quinten was currently updating their inventory, adding some recently purchased food supplies delivered by wagon, so when he heard the alert all he had to do was turn toward the camp entrance. What, or rather whom he saw, was their leader and inspiration for all that they were doing.

    ¡°It¡¯s Michael!¡± Quinten yelled with a broad smile on his face. That announcement drew the attention of everyone in the camp, even those who were in the tents rushed out to see their beloved leader¡¯s return, and the newbies all looked to see the mysterious figure responsible for their new found lease on life. Michael rode up to and dismounted in front of Quinten, wearing his trademark friendly smile.

    ¡°Good afternoon gents, Quinten, I see you¡¯ve been the one to take charge of our endeavor.¡± Quinten was visually amazed at the fact Michael had remembered his name, after only a few seconds of being stupefied he abruptly straighten and did his best to give a professional report on the current state of affairs in a form befitting one under Michael¡¯s command.

    ¡°A-ah, yes sir, well, *ahem*, s-someone had to take charge of the logistics in getting this camp in order and with my background as a noble¡¯s accountant it was felt that I would be the most apt choice¡­¡± He was speaking rapidly with clear nervousness in his voice, something that Michael had to help him with.

    ¡°Quinten, buddy, I need you to slow down and calm yourself. I am very happy that someone took initiative to get this setup in order; the fact that it was one with your employment history only makes it better. Now, give me an update on the current affairs, I can already see that our numbers have grown and the camp¡¯s expanded.¡± His voice was calm and encouraging, it steadied Quinten¡¯s nerves. Taking a deep breath Quinten began calmly informing Michael of the major changes which have taken place since his absences.

    ¡°Well sir, as you have pointed out we have added new members to our ranks using the methods you instructed us to use, so far we have added a total of thirty-two fighters and three mages to the cause.¡± Quinten stated promptly and without hesitation this time. Michael let out a whistle at the numbers, a bit impressed.

    ¡°Thirty-two? Added to our already existing forces means that we have nearly tripled in size and three more mages, how¡¯d you manage that?¡± Quinten gestured Michael to walk with him as he explained.

    ¡°It¡¯s mostly thanks to Lewis sir, the day after you left he led nearly half our riflemen to another nearby bandit camp, one of our former ¡®competitors¡¯ if you will, hours later he returned with the mages and about a dozen more men eager to join up.¡± Quinten explained as they arrived at the area that the mages had setup shop at to produce weapons and ammo. From the looks of things, they had at least temporarily exceeded demand for weapons as evidence of a good dozen rifles and about half that in pistols and were currently focused on ammo production.

    The aforementioned Lewis was one of the earth mages and the former leader of the bandit camp that Michael had taken charge of, so it only made sense to Michael that he was the one to lead the little outing to the other bandit camp. He actually was a good leader, which also explained why he was effectively the leader of the other mages.

    Once they were in the production area, Michael spoke to the earth mage.

    ¡°Lewis, how goes production?¡± Startled out of his concentration, Lewis looked up to see who had addressed him and upon seeing Michael immediately stood up with a bright smile on his face.

    ¡°Michael, welcome back, well as you can see we¡¯re currently ahead of demand for weapons. As for bullets, well we technically have more than needed, but as you explained, we¡¯ll always need more. That¡¯s something that we¡¯ve learned quite well these past few days, getting these new guys up to par is proving a mighty challenge.¡± Both Michael and Quinten nodded at this, the former adding a bit of a chuckle while the latter had a more annoyed feeling.

    ¡°Indeed,¡± said Quinten. ¡°Most of these men have never even held a bow much less one of your rifles Michael; add to that many were hard drunkards. Getting them capable of shooting strait has been nothing but an awful headache.¡± Michael sighed at this, he knew training medieval peasants into a semi-modern fighting force was going to be time consuming, but luckily he also knew some effective training methods.

    ¡°I figured as much,¡± Michael began. ¡°Later on after I¡¯ve met the newbies, I¡¯m going to teach everyone some basic rifle marksmanship fundamentals along with other battle drills which take advantage of the new style of combat that these new weapons bring to the fold.¡± As he explained, the other two¡¯s eyes widened in interest. Lewis was the first to speak this time.

    ¡°Well sir I must say that sounds great, anything that you can teach us could only be a boon, and as for meeting the newcomers, well allow me to introduce you to them.¡± Michael just nodded and gestured him to lead on.

    First to be introduced were the mages, they were two wind and one earth mage, all were line mages and all were lower born nobles until something happened to force them into becoming outlaws, now they work for Michael. After a welcoming talk, Michael managed to bind them to himself with his ¡®Deal¡¯ ability by a very cleverly worded speech. Once that was done Michael addressed Lewis again, this time holding up what to everyone else assembled looked to be a metal rock.

    ¡°Okay now Lewis, I know that you and that other mages are a little over booked in terms of manufacturing capacity, but I want to add something to your production queue.¡± Lewis and Quinten looked at the new object in confusion.

    ¡°What is it, it looks like a rock or an egg.¡± Michael smiled at this.

    ¡°This is known as a fragmentation grenade, it is an explosive which sends out deadly pieces of metal shrapnel. All you do is pull this pin, and then throw it at an enemy or group of enemies, and it blows them up. I¡¯ll give a demonstration later.¡± They both were a bit skeptical, but they were also skeptical at Michael¡¯s other weapons and were proven wrong.

    Despite their skepticism, Lewis was adamant that he and the other mages could handle the added workload with no problems seeing as the grenades were only slightly more difficult to create than bullets. Insured by that, Michael bid farewell to Lewis and had Quinten guide him to the other new recruits whom were busy with target practice. Introductions were quick and Michael had managed to bind them all via the ¡®Deal¡¯ by disguising it as a group speech and then shaking the hand of every one of them.

    That done, Michael then began his demonstration of the fragmentation grenade; by having his earth mages summon up several clay statues arranged in a standard medieval infantry line in the middle of a field, he then told the assembled audience to plug their ears, and then he pulled the ping and tossed the explosive object at the test dummies. The results shocked the onlookers, aside from the loud sound produced by the blast; most of the dummy line was destroyed with the rest of the statues sporting damage that could be fatal on a real soldier.

    Now ensured of the lethality of the new weapon, the mages eagerly learned how to produce them, they along with Quinten were surprised at how simple a grenade actually was to make and got started immediately. It was then Quinten¡¯s turn to be addressed by Michael.

    ¡°Alright then Quinten, I¡¯ve got some new instructions that need to be incorporated into camp management, so prepare to copy.¡± Quinten was; because of his role he had started to carry around a sort of notebook, which Michael approved of wholeheartedly.

    For the next couple hours Quinten paid apt attention as Michael explained to him what he wanted his soldiers to be taught; from basic rifle marksmanship (BRM) to marching in rank and file to a simplified form of U.S army combatives, Quinten made sure he recorded it all. A few things confused him and had to be further explained, but by the end Quinten was determined to carryout Michael¡¯s instructions and make sure that the soldiers of the revolution would be well taught, he wouldn¡¯t disappoint, the ¡®Deal¡¯ would make certain of that.

    Six weeks later¡­ POV change (Michael)

    As the weeks progressed Michael¡¯s army grew to over two hundred fighters and thirty mages, it could have been more, however a good portion of those numbers had come from other bandit camps and some of them had individuals that just refused to join up and so were gunned down, others were part of gangs that just wouldn¡¯t mesh with the ideals of the revolution, these groups were basically murderers and rapists and thus were killed outright. Michael was convinced that he had acquired every rouge mage within several hundred miles that could be acquired, many were happy to join up, but a few just refused to lower themselves to the service of commoners and had to be put down.

    Personnel issues aside Michael was pleased at how well his army was shaping up; the camp, despite not having any permeant structures, resembled a pseudo boot camp with very dedicated soldiers learning everything Michael had instructed them to learn with those who picked up on each subject taking on the role of drill instructors. Thanks to the fundamentals of marksmanship, accuracy was up considerably, discipline was improving thanks to a standardized physical training regime as well as marching practice, and they were even learning modern urban warfare to some degree of success. Everyone now had some training in using grenades, though because of noise issues they mostly just practiced with rocks. In terms of hand to hand fighting they only learned enough to be more skilled brawlers, simple tricks to make them more likely to win if it came to hand to hand.

    Another improvement was the standardization of uniforms and equipment; utilizing the stolen gold from Count Mott, Michael had paid several clothiers for the discreet production of a distinctive new uniform for his army. From the ground up first are the combat boots designed to not only look good but are also water proof, comfortable on long marches, and had a specially made winter insert that could be added during cold seasons; this of course made the boots even more comfortable which resulted in the soldiers using the inserts all the time forcing Michael to warn them against using the them during hot days, while understood, it wasn¡¯t completely heeded. The boots also came with several pairs of knee high dark green socks and a lesson on foot care.

    Next were the pants; slightly baggy with numerous pockets and came with kneepads, there was also a matching belt. The fabric was easily washed, sturdy, and breathed fairly well allowing the wearer to keep cool even in punishing heat along with the ability to dry rapidly. After the pants of course came the jacket like top; worn over a tough t-shirt that was surprisingly comfortable to the wearers and thus the t-shirt came in sets of six, the jacket was button up because zippers were a bit beyond the clothiers of Tristan, the jacket went on the same principles as the pants to include several pockets, the same material, and even came with elbow pads. Gloves were also included, soft yet sturdy leather gloves that wouldn¡¯t interfere with weapon operation. The head piece was the last part of the uniform, there were two pieces; first was the patrol cap similar to the U.S army¡¯s, or an armored helmet designed to give full protection without hampering hearing or sight.

    The entire uniform was colored in dark blues and black in order to give the wearer an inconspicuous appearance in nearly any combat environment. The uniform also had areas on the shoulders for patches; the left shoulder had a patch consisting of cross-rifles over an ¡®Aquila¡¯ or eagle while the right shoulder was meant to have the new nation¡¯s symbol once one was made and under that had the soldier¡¯s rank.

    For equipment the soldiers were given a pseudo rucksack which contained spare uniforms and clothing, a sleeping bag, a collapsible shovel (entrenching tool), and a primitive first aid kit. Those were just the standard items however; the individuals could also have other things like personal effects. They also had their own tent strapped to the outside of their packs which was water proof and slightly insulated, just like the sleeping bag. The final and arguable most important piece of equipment was the newly developed battle armor created as a joint project between Michael and his mages.

    The armor was basically a series of overlapping metal plates covered by the same material as the uniform; covering only the torso, it was meant to stop simple arrows and protect against swords and hopefully spears, it wouldn¡¯t do much against magical attacks, but it was better than nothing, not to mention that it was easier to move in than ordinary plate armor. One other thing that made the armor useful was the inclusion of magazine and grenade holders strapped to the front and in easy reach along with the fact that putting on and taking off the armor was fairly easy since all the wearer had to do was undo the buckles located on either side and slip it on or off.

    Michael sighed as he set down the latest logistics report from Quinten, ¡®You really couldn¡¯t comprehend the difficulty of building and maintaining an army until you¡¯re actually doing it.¡¯ He thought wearily to himself; sure he had successfully managed to commission the uniforms and equipment discreetly and even in bulk, inventory shows that he had five thousand units, which means he could supply five thousand more soldiers with uniforms, equipment, and weapons. However, the suppliers were mages since only mages could make things in bulk in any reasonable amount of time in this medieval land, and because they were mages who had a business they were nobles, lower class nobles, but still nobles, and that made it a challenge to get what he needed since he was technically a plebian.

    Luckily, the fact that they were lower class allowed him to succeed, because they were lower class they were more interested in money and thus all Michael had to do was supply more gold and they would make anything he asked and would be happy to make as much as Michael wanted, because the more he wanted the more gold they got.

    Suddenly an attention grabbing ringing disrupts Michael¡¯s musings causing him to reach over and pick up the source of the sound; it was a small rectangular object the size of a flip phone, mainly because that is technically what it was meant to be. It was a project he had gotten his mages to work on, it hadn¡¯t been as difficult to make as he had first thought. Once he had introduced the concept of radio waves as well as a general idea of how they worked and what they could be used for, the mages were able to concoct a magical method to utilize them. After that it was a simple process to design an apparatus to act as a simple communications device; which was great since he really would need one sooner rather than later.

    Flipping the little machine open revealed the number pad on the bottom half which had the same function as any other phone; which is to dial other phones. It was yet another concept Michael introduced due to the fact that original design made by the mages would have limited the new phones to essentially working like two way radios, meaning that they would only work in pairs creating the need for someone requiring one phone for every person they would want to communicate with, a real cluster fuck. Thanks to the idea of the number pad, every phone had its own number, and all anyone had to do was dial the sequence of numbers pertaining to the person¡¯s phone that they wanted to contact, just like a real phone¡­ real handy.

    Now, just like an ordinary flip phone, the top half had a screen, but unlike ordinary ones, this screen showed the person on the other end, meaning that this phone was in actuality a vid-phone. The person currently calling Michael was one of only two people outside his army to have been given a vid-phone, one was Siesta, the other, whom was currently displayed, was a familiar little blunette mageling.

    ¡°Tabitha! How are you?! What do I owe to this rare occasion in receiving a call from you?¡± Occasion was right; this was the only other time Tabitha has used her vid-phone to contact him, the other time was the test to ensure it worked and that she knew how to use it. Any other time it was him calling her to request an update on specific affairs or on goings, the only one who actually calls him with any real regularity was Siesta. He had originally planned to give one to Kirche too, but during his visit to distribute them to his people in the academy she proved that to be an idiotic idea. As soon as she saw him she latched onto him and proceeded to ramble on and on about what was quite frankly a disturbing infatuation with him, in the end he had to fuck her comatose again in order to get away from her and as a precautionary measure he down right ordered Tabitha to keep the existence of the vid-phone a secret from Kirche, an order she agreed unequivocally with.

    ¡°I have received an order from my uncle, a water spirit has been causing trouble on the Tristan-Gallian boarder, I have been commanded to stop it, and I am notifying you because it is a task that I may not survive.¡± Her expression held its normal stoic attribute, as did her voice, however Michael was able to pick up on the underlining traces of fear, depression, and¡­ pleading? She was in reality calling out to him for help, something he was actually counting on.

    ¡°I suppose you¡¯re talking about the spirit at Lagdorian Lake?¡± Her expression took on noticeable surprise as she nodded the affirmative. ¡°Oh don¡¯t look so surprised, you should know better than anyone that I have info I couldn¡¯t possibly have. Anyway, it should only take me about a day to get to the academy, I have a method for dealing with the water spirit and will accompany you, await my arrival.¡± Her expression changed from barely noticeable surprise to barely noticeable relief and even gratitude as she nodded her assent and Michael close his vid-phone.

    With that he started gathering up some things he might need before heading out to inform Quinten.

    ¡°Hey Quinten!¡± Said individual turned to face him. ¡°Something important has just come up so I¡¯m heading out, shouldn¡¯t be more than a few days.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s going on sir?¡± Quinten asked bewildered. Michael answered the query while mounting his horse.

    ¡°I need to go deal with a pissed off water spirit who had its most valuable possession stolen from it.¡± His answer only left everyone in earshot slack jawed in disbelief as Michael rode off with a cheeky smile on his face.

    A day or so later¡­ Tristan Magic Academy: POV (Michael)

    It was a little after noon when Michael arrived, however there were hardly any students currently at the academy due to the fact that most had returned home because it was currently their version of summer break. Despite this there was one person that Michael knew that was sitting at one of the outdoor tables normally used for tea time. It was Louise, sitting there by herself reading a large book most likely about magic. During the past month and a half Michael had only visited as scant few times, during which he had noticed a remarkable difference in Louise¡¯s attitude compared to canon. She was far happier, though she was still a bit of a loner, she just seemed like all was right with her world since she had made her deal with Michael.

    However, this didn¡¯t mean that her old attitude was simply gone, hell no. In fact her old temper had resurfaced briefly when she had learned that Siesta was now Michael¡¯s maid, Louise nearly lost it the first time she heard Siesta referred to Michael as ¡®Master¡¯. Thankfully she managed to retain control enough to hear Michael¡¯s description of how he had obtained Siesta¡¯s employment which ended up calming her down. The whole visit ended with Siesta as Louise¡¯s personal retainer when Michael was not at the academy and Siesta was.

    Louise did however explode when she learned that Michael was the reason that Kirche had ceased being the school¡¯s number one harlot and had reputably broken off every single relationship she had spawned with the male student body population. At first Louise thought that her longtime nemesis had turned over a new leaf, but then she heard Kirche¡¯s declaration of unabashed love for her ¡®darling¡¯ Michael. Needless to say the resulting mess hadn¡¯t been seen since Louise¡¯s days as a zero. Despite that little episode Louise still considered Michael a very close friend, possibly her only true friend other than the princess; after all thanks to him, she was no longer a zero, it was something that she could never repay him for. It¡¯s just that her hatred for anything Zerbst still gets to her.

    Walking over to Louise, Michael took the seat across from her while simultaneously saying¡­

    ¡°Afternoon Louise, how¡¯s life treating you?¡± Startled, Louise practically jumped before calming down and brightly smiled upon seeing who it was.

    ¡°Michael! It¡¯s great to see you; I¡¯m doing fairly well, just studying up on some advanced fire magic. What brings you here?¡± She gestured the book as she explained what she was doing, all the while her happy expression never left her face. Talking to the one who basically righted the primary and practically only problem in her life was definitely a reason to be cheerful.

    ¡°I just stopped by to say ¡®hi¡¯ and chat with friends. Advanced fire magic eh, trying to one-up Kirche are we?¡± Michael smiled a fiendish smile as he said that last part and Louise smiled right back the same way.

    ¡°Now why would I want to do something like that?¡± They both chuckled at that.

    ¡°Master, when did you get here?¡± Both Michael and Louise turned to see Siesta walk up to their table pushing a cart carrying tea and snacks.

    ¡°Ah, Siesta, I just arrived, hope you¡¯re doing well.¡± As he spoke Siesta started distributing tea before taking a place standing beside Louise.

    ¡°Oh yes master I¡¯m doing quite well, will you be staying long this time?¡± She asked with a hopeful undertone. Michael just shook his head and explained to both Louise and Siesta that he would only be at the academy for a short period of time, much to their disappointment.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    They continued to converse about different subjects, mostly about Louise¡¯s progress in her magical development, Michael was right when he predicted that Louise was going to develop into a powerful mage, she had already advanced to the top of her class in all branches of magical study and application. Their conversations would have continued if not for a shout of ¡®darling¡¯ and a red blur resulting in Michael¡¯s world being smothered in bronze cleavage.

    ¡°Oh darling I¡¯ve missed you so much, it¡¯s been so lonely without you here, are you going to stay longer this time please say yes¡­¡± Kirche continued like that for several minutes and would¡¯ve kept going, but Louise had been growing in anger the whole time and even Siesta was sporting an impressive tick-mark and her smile was anything but genuine. Finally Louise could take no more.

    ¡°DAMNIT ZERBST, WOULD YOU SHUT UP ALREADY!!!¡± Louise was red with rage at her families¡¯ archrival lewdly rubbing her body all over Michael. Kirche just looked at Louise with a haughty smile.

    ¡°Why Louise, I was just expressing to darling here about how much I¡¯ve lamented his absence.¡± She said it so innocently that even Michael felt a hint of irritation; Louise on the other hand was still fuming.

    ¡°What you¡¯re doing is nothing but shameful and unbecoming of a noble!¡± Kirche¡¯s smirk never faltered, however Michael knew where this was heading and before Kirche could retort Louise¡¯s statement, Michael pried the amorous redhead off of him and spoke to defuse the situation.

    ¡°All right that¡¯s enough you two. Louise for the sake of civility please try to put your distaste for Kirche aside. After all, I¡¯m sure that Kirche can behave herself, right Kirche?¡± As Michael said that his hand dipped beneath the bronze girls skirt to rest on her panty clad ass and began gently stroking the sensitive contents within. This brought a blush to Kirche¡¯s face and she settled to stand close to his side with just her arm draped over his shoulders and just resolved herself to simply enjoying her love interest¡¯s ministrations.

    ¡°Why yes of course darling, I¡¯ll gladly behave for you.¡± She said with a little strain in her voice at the effort it took to talk without moaning. Luckily for Michael, the table was at the right height and the others were positioned in such a way that his naughty hand was out of view, thought based on the level of intensity that Tabitha was staring at him from over her book, it was apparent to Michael that she more than likely knew what he was doing. What he couldn¡¯t determine was the emotions going through her head, every so often he thought he saw jealousy, but that couldn¡¯t be right¡­ could it?

    ¡°Well¡­ I suppose in the interest of civility I can put aside past grudges, if only for a little while.¡± Louise managed to make it sound like an impressive achievement. Michael just smiled kindly.

    ¡°Well now, that¡¯s good.¡± With that they all continued conversing with each other, though much of the conversation was Louise and Kirche exchanging poorly concealed jibes at one another. During the entire time Michael never let up on his teasing of Kirche¡¯s naught bits. Kirche just got redder and her breathing got more labored until it looked like she could hardly stand, before anyone got a chance to address it Michael finally called it night, much to Kirche¡¯s relief, she immediately offered her room to sleep in and practically dragged him off. Louise almost attacked her, but before she could Siesta beat her to it and went after them spouting at how much better she could facilitate Michael¡¯s sleeping arrangements.

    Louise was left alone at her table, silently fuming at the maid and her rival leading Michael off in an attempt to what she thought was to secretly spend more time with him, little did she know it wasn¡¯t quite that innocent. Eventually Louise left the table in search of something to distract her from her troubles, or at least someone to vent to.

    Later that evening¡­ POV (Montmorency)

    It was a romantic evening; the moons were out in all their wonder, there was a candle lit dinner all set up under said moons and starry sky, and it was just the two of them. So it was a perfect time for Montmorency to enact her plan to get her boyfriend, Guiche, to become completely faithful to her once and for all.

    ¡°My dearest love Montmorency, in the face of your beauty, even those two moons would be ashamed.¡± Guiche declared as he gazed at said moons.

    ¡®I¡¯m sure that you¡¯ve said that same thing too many girls¡¯ Montmorency thought with irritation. Guiche then put his arm around her to bring her in for a kiss but she stopped him and grabbed one of the wine glasses that she had specially prepared for this occasion. One was ordinary and was hers, while the other contained a love potion that she brewed for her cheating boyfriend. ¡°Oh Guiche, before all that lets have a toast.¡± She explained as she lifted her glass and Guiche lifted his. He was about to drink but then he noticed something.

    ¡°Hey isn¡¯t that Louise?¡± He asked and pointed to the angrily muttering pinkette. Montmorency looked over and indeed saw her.

    ¡°I suppose so, but who cares? Now, our toast?¡± Again they were about to drink but were interrupted.

    ¡°Hey, what are you two up to?¡± Louise had apparently thought talking to them was interesting enough to distract herself from whatever was irritating her and walked on over.

    ¡°Oh, just a lovely evening together, just the two of us.¡± Montmorency said in a way that tried to hint that Louise should leave. She apparently got the signal, but before she turned to leave she swiped Guiche¡¯s glass and downed its contents in one go. This of course brought a shocked look to Montmorency¡¯s face and she even stood in surprise.

    ¡°Well then, sorry for disturbing your evening¡­ what¡¯s wrong with you?¡± Louise asked as she observed the curly haired girl¡¯s strange behavior.

    ¡°Whoa¡­ um¡­ n-nothing!¡± She said hurriedly. ¡®Oh no oh no, this is not good!¡¯ Montmorency thought as she desperately tried to remain calm.

    ¡°Hey guys, what¡¯s up, a moonlight dinner?¡± She about jumped as she turned and saw Michael approaching. Ever since the duel she and Guiche had done their best to keep away him, but every so often they ran into him, he had been surprisingly courteous and polite, but they were still uneasy around him and the current situation wasn¡¯t helping at all for her.

    ¡°Y-yeah, that¡¯s what¡¯s going on.¡± Her calm was slowly breaking as time went on, then she took a quick glance at Louise and went deathly white. Louise was standing there, staring at Michael; her face beat red with a dreamy look. Michael noticed this and inquired if there was something wrong, Louise¡¯s response was to throw herself on to Michael and her response made Montmorency blackout for a split second in fear.

    ¡°Michael, why won¡¯t you pay attention to me? You always shower Kirche and the maid with affection, but none for me even though I¡¯m the one who loves you the most?¡± Michael just looked at her bewildered and disbelieving look, and so Montmorency took this opportunity to turn and flee. She got one step before a powerful hand reached out and grabbed her by the collar and turned her around while lifting her up to eye level with the angriest expression she had ever seen in her life. She trembled in abject terror and based on the growing warm wetness between her legs she figured that she had just pissed herself.

    POV change: (Michael)

    After Michael left with Kirche and Siesta they found themselves in Kirche¡¯s room where then Michael had proceed to do extremely hentai things to them that eventually left them in a very wet and sticky mess on the bed, both dead to the world. He then proceed to clean himself up and headed on out to the kitchens in an attempt to get a late dinner. However before he could get to the kitchens he noticed a strangely familiar sight in the form of Montmorency, Guiche, and Louise at a table with several glasses. Louise looked a bit peeved and had just swiped Guiche¡¯s glass and downed its contents, his curiosity getting the better of him, Michael then went over to see what was going on. Montmorency seemed like she was nervous about something even though she acknowledged that Michael was right in his guess as to what was happening.

    Then he turned his attention to Louise and saw that she was flushed and had a faraway look about her. When he asked what was wrong the answer he got was her latching on to him and proclaiming her love for him. It took him a moment but it finally clicked; the love potion. His head snapped up and noticed Montmorency trying to make a break for it, but he caught her and brought her up to eye level. His face was one of pure rage while hers was clear unabashed and trembling terror, not to mention the fact that he could tell that she pissed herself. Truth be told Michael¡¯s anger wasn¡¯t solely because of Montmorency¡¯s fuck up but was mainly because of the fact that he had totally forgotten about the whole love potion incident, he just completely focused on the water spirit, but that didn¡¯t stop him from using his anger to intimidate Montmorency.

    ¡°Fix this, now.¡± Michael said to the terrified blondie whilst pointing to his new pink haired tumor, aka Louise. Montmorency started stuttering as she tried to answer.

    ¡°Well¡­I¡­don¡¯t¡­ah¡­¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t even thing about trying to deny this, I know exactly what you were planning to do here tonight, and now you are going to provide the antidote to the potion that Louise is now afflicted by.¡± Michael said it calmly but his face never changed from its absolute ¡®I¡¯m going to kill you if you don¡¯t cooperate¡¯ look that it¡¯s been showcasing.

    ¡°B-but I don¡¯t have all of the ingredients need to make an anti-potion!¡± She blurted out, and Michael just nonchalantly replied.

    ¡°Then we¡¯ll just have to get more now wont we, money will not be in issue.¡± Montmorency was panicking more than ever now as she then explained the main problem.

    ¡°W-we can¡¯t, there was only one dealer that sold the water spirit¡¯s tear and I bought all he had left and used it all already.¡± She was practically sobbing now but Michael wasn¡¯t deterred.

    ¡°Then it¡¯s a good thing that your family is contracted to a water spirit.¡± He said as he unceremoniously dropped Montmorency on to her tiny ass. ¡°Pack your shit, we leave at first light, and so help me if I have to come and get you¡­ you¡¯re going to wish that all I had done to you was what I had done to Guiche during our duel, have a pleasant goodnight.¡± With that Michael turned and left, leaving a whimpering Montmorency and a useless blond idiot to get ready for an early morning commute.

    The next morning¡­

    Michael, Louise, Tabitha, Kirche, Montmorency, and Guiche were all riding along in a topless cart with Guiche as the driver and Michael in the back with the girls. Louise and Kirche were molded to either side of him while Tabitha and Montmorency sat across from him. Under threat of pain from Michael everyone sat in silence, and were all going to be silent for that whole trip that was only to stop for bathroom breaks in order to cut travel time by as much as possible since despite leaving at dawn, they wouldn¡¯t arrive at Lagdorian Lake until dark due to the method of travel they were using.

    The estimated time of arrival was unfortunately all to correct, upon arrival they all saw how much the lake had risen and Montmorency had started to plead with Michael to abandon his pursuit for an anti-potion and just wait for Louise¡¯s condition to clear up on its own.

    ¡°Please Michael, the water spirit is obviously angry, requesting something from it now may put all our lives in jeopardy.¡± Montmorency all but begged Michael, but he wasn¡¯t going to hear any of it.

    ¡°You should have thought of such things before you decided to make an illegal potion because of your stupid schoolgirl jealousy, now shut up and help get the camp set up. Kirche, you¡¯re with me, we¡¯ll be getting fire wood.¡± Michael declared as Kirche jumped at the chance to do something with her darling while the others let out groans at the prospect of actual work. Well, actually only Montmorency and Guiche complained, Louise was sleeping and Tabitha didn¡¯t say anything and just nodded.

    Michael and Kirche went deep into the surrounding woods and started picking up dead tree limbs for fire wood; this went on for several minutes before Kirche couldn¡¯t take it anymore. Dropping her collected kindling she then practically tackled Michael and started frantically kissing him and only stopped went she needed to breathe.

    ¡°Oh darling, I can¡¯t take it anymore, you¡¯ve been stoking my amorous fire the whole trip here, and I desperately need you now.¡± Michael just gave a predatory smile and tossed his collected fire wood into a pile near them. He had indeed been teasing her the entire time they had been traveling as a means to stifle his boredom, and now it looks as if his efforts have paid off. Reaching up with his hand he unclasped her cape, letting it fall. Then he used that same hand to gently stroke her cheek while his other hand undid the few buttons keeping her overly stretched blouse together, letting her large breasts spill out and them cupping one and pinching the nipple drawing a lustful moan from her.

    ¡°Well I suppose you have been a good girl today; however we are still fairly close to the others, so we need to take special precautions that we aren¡¯t heard.¡± As he said that he reached into his greatcoat and pulled out an item that Kirche had only read about but never actually seen, but it was clear as to what it was, a ball gag. Despite knowing what it was and what it was used for, she made no attempts to resist him when he put it on her, her deep seated masochism had once more been brought to the surface and was causing her to become extremely excited at being treated in such a manor, that excitement intensified even more at the sight of the next object he pulled out, padded wrist cuffs.

    After getting her hands restrained behind her back, Kirche was then subjected to Michael¡¯s unrestrained ministrations. Kirche¡¯s breasts, cunt, and ass were all massaged and teased thoroughly bringing her close but delaying her climax numerous times and causing her to moan and whimper loudly, lewdly, and desperately. It wasn¡¯t long before she was sobbing and trying her hardest to plead for orgasmic release through her gag.

    ¡°Poor girl, do you want to cum?¡± Michael asked as he tenderly caressed her cheek and wiping away her tears while at the same time discreetly freeing his excessive erection. Her response was a tearful and pitiful nod. ¡°Well then, CUM!¡± He ordered as in one fluid motion he moved aside her panties and buried his length. The sensation of being filled so instantly and so fully combined with being so close to climaxing caused Kirche to explode in a violent orgasm making her shriek through her ball gag and viciously tremble in long delayed release.

    All throughout Kirche¡¯s orgasm Michael kept thrusting his cock and tormenting her nipples, drawing out her climax to near maddening lengths. When it looked like she was about to pass out from pleasure overload Michael pulled out and lowered her to the ground to let her recover and catch her breath. When she did Michael then reinserted himself and set a firm and steady rhythm which saw Kirche through another orgasm, when that one started he quickly pulled out and flipped her over on to her knees with her face to the ground and before she finish climaxing he realigned himself with her tight little backdoor and pressed into it.

    The feeling of her ass being penetrated by Michael¡¯s hard member sent Kirche into another wave of screaming orgasmic bliss that had no end in sight as he started to mercilessly pound her from behind whilst grabbing a hand full of her long red locks and pulled sending even more incredible sensations through her masochistic mind. Eventually Michael¡¯s own release started to build so he let go of her hair and bent down and reached around to grab ahold of both of Kirche¡¯s breasts and began to roughly maul them. Then, minutes later he finally came and poured his seed into her luscious bronze ass and as he did he pinched and pulled roughly on her nipples, these two sensations caused Kirche to have a whole new mind-blowing orgasm that eclipsed the one she had been enraptured in for the last few minutes and brought out yet another wide eyed shriek from her gagged mouth.

    Once he finished dumping his load in her ass Michael pulled out and allowed Kirche to fall into an exhausted and trembling heap, then he undid her ball gag and pulled her by her hair to her knees and presented his cum coated cock, with no other prompting she began a cleanup blowjob that eventually led to him releasing another load down her throat. After that Michael put his softening cock away and released Kirche from her cuffs, he then assisted her in getting presentable before gathering up the discarded fire wood and heading back to camp.

    Michael ended up getting back first and saw that there was a fire going with some stew ready for eating curtesy of Siesta who prepared their food before everyone left so all that had to be done was heating it up over a fire. When everyone saw Michael return they were treated to a look that demanded that no one question anything. He sat the gathered wood near the fire, got himself a bowl of stew, and rested by the fire. Minutes later Kirche also showed up with her load of wood and she too walked over, though her legs were a bit wobbly and her face had somewhat of a blank look, nobody said anything. Adding her wood to the pile and getting some food she plopped down next to Michael and snuggled close and ate with him in silence.

    Eventually everyone called it a night, Montmorency and Guiche decided to sleep in the cart, while Tabitha curled up on the opposite side of the fire as Michael, Kirche, and Louise who all slept together. Tomorrow was going to be a long day since according to Montmorency the water spirit wouldn¡¯t come out until sunset for some reason.

    Morning¡­

    Michael came to that morning to a delightful and familiar feeling between his legs in the form of a wake-up blowjob; as his mind registered that fact a wave of panic over took him at the thought that it might be Louise. However the feeling dissipated when he opened his eyes to see that Louise was still cuddled to his side asleep. Sighing in relief he lifted the blanket, careful not to disturb the pinkette at his side and saw the familiar bronze redhead bobbing on his morning wood.

    ¡°Well aren¡¯t you the naughty girl?¡± He said in a whisper with a cocky grin. Kirche¡¯s reply came with a sultry smile.

    ¡°Only for you darling.¡± She then went back to pleasuring him.

    It didn¡¯t take long for him to spew his thick and hot load in her eager mouth as he didn¡¯t feel the need nor thought that it was a good idea to draw out this surprise wake up with Louise of all people at his side and three other individuals nearby. This one act seemed to be a prelude of what this day had in store, since they had all day to kill, Michael and Kirche spent it playing fuck-fuck games.

    Sunset eventually did come and when it did Montmorency did the whole send out her pet frog to find the spirit, it showed up and Montmorency asked it to communicate in an understandable way which caused it to take an the appearance of an unnecessarily detailed water copy of a nude Montmorency, complete with carpet. Montmorency was about to say more but Michael interrupted her.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take it from here.¡± He said as he placed his hand on her shoulder and moved her back ignoring her protests; he then looked to the water spirit. ¡°Spirit, do you recognize me?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Yes, we recognize the Gandalfr and remember the past dealings we had.¡± Everyone looked at Michael in confusion and astonishment, but he ignored them.

    ¡°That is good; tell me, why have you risen the water level of the lake, what has angered you?¡±

    ¡°Our treasure which we have guarded for an eternity has been stolen from us, we can only travel by water, so we will flood everywhere so that we can find and retrieve our treasure.¡± The news was dire to the assembled mages, but Michael already knew all this and was just acting the part for convenience sake, no point in looking suspicious to an immortal creature when you don¡¯t need to.

    ¡°This action would cause great distress to the land dwellers, instead I would ask you to entrust me with the recovery of your treasure. In return I would request only two things.¡± The water spirit paused for a moment as it thought before accepting.

    ¡°Very well, the Gandalfr can be trusted, what do you ask?¡± Again the mages were astounded.

    ¡°First I would ask you to return the lake to its previous level, and second, I ask you for a part of yourself so that I may cure a friend of mine of an ailment.¡± The water spirit¡¯s avatar nodded.

    ¡°Your terms are acceptable.¡± It then showed a water representation of its treasure. ¡°This is what was taken, Andvari¡¯s ring.¡±

    ¡°I shall not fail water spirit.¡± With that a small vile floated from the avatar and was caught by Montmorency, the avatar then dissipated.

    The events that followed were fairly straightforward; Tabitha offered to take everyone back to her manor to brew the anti-potion, once there they all learned about her sad past which Michael already knew. Louise was cured and had a tantrum over the embarrassment of what she had done while under its effect. Michael then said that he had to leave; he said his goodbyes and took the horse that pulled the cart that they had been using and set out to return to his army¡¯s camp.

    After a four hour ride he pulled out his vid-phone and dialed up Quinten who answered fairly quickly.

    ¡°Quinten, I¡¯m on my way back, I should be there in a day and a half or so. In the meantime have everyone pack up their stuff and strike camp, ¡®cause when I get back were all going to march to the nearest port to Albion, it¡¯s time.¡± Quinten was stunned; nearly two months of nothing but training and preparation and now finally they were going to head out and start the revolution in earnest. He quickly saluted Michael and spoke proudly.

    ¡°Yes sir, we shall be ready move out as you have ordered!¡± Michael smiled and nodded.

    ¡°Good man, see you soon.¡± With that he closed the device and set out at a steady gallop. His reason for suddenly wanting to get things rolling was simple; with the episode with the love potion and water spirit now past it was only a matter of time before Princess Henrietta tasks Louise to retrieve that letter from Wales and he wants to already have a slice of territory when she arrives, plus he was itching to get to the real action.

    A week later, road to the coast: POV (Sergeant Briek Evron)

    For Rifleman Briek Evron the feeling of pride at being one of the first sergeants in the great Michael¡¯s army was still there. He was nothing but a homeless drunk in a no name town near the capitol before he found himself knocked unconscious and then waking up in the revolution¡¯s training camp being told all about what Michael was trying to do, saw the weapons that were going to be used and signed up then and there. Now he was a sergeant and was fanatically loyal to Michael and all he stood for, just like most of the others.

    Currently the entirety of the near three hundred members of the revolution were marching down the dirt road on their way some port city he had never been to. They were marching in a long five man wide columns, organized into five ¡®platoons¡¯ which were each composed of five squads. Each squad had nine riflemen and was led by a sergeant; platoons were also led by sergeants, but those sergeants were actually higher ranking sergeants, Briek was one of them, he was in charge of one of the platoons, the front platoon to be precise, which was lucky since Michael was at the front of the whole formation, leading it.

    The formation was organized as thus; two platoons were in front, and then came the wagons that carried all of their extra equipment, weapons, supplies, and the thirty worker mages that made everything. That fact made Briek giddy, mages weren¡¯t for war anymore, they were for labor. Following the wagons were the other three platoons with the last one acting as what Michael called ¡®rear guard¡¯.

    So far the army had been marching for about a week; they would march all day and camp at night. During the day they would stop and take a short rest every four hours, as of yet nothing had cause them to stop ahead of schedule, since no one would stand in the way of the three hundred man uniformed fighting force. So it was a surprise when suddenly the column was called to a halt; instantly Briek and every other platoon sergeant rushed to the front to receive commands from Michael as per current protocol.

    ¡°Sir, what¡¯s going on?¡± Briek asked as he saw Michael having a heated discussion with Quinten, who was Michael¡¯s second in command and was the first and so far only one with the rank of lieutenant. He, Briek, and every other of the sergeants all carried pistols displayed plainly on their hips as another way to distinguish rank, however for the sergeants it was only a secondary weapon.

    ¡°Well sergeant, as you can see we have literally come to a crossroads. The path to our front leads into what Quinten here tells me is orc territory and has advised me to take the path to the right to avoid the danger. The problem with that path is that it leads around a mountain and would add nearly two extra weeks to our march, something that I am not keen on doing.¡± Michael explained; Briek and the other assembled sergeants nodded in understanding, orcs were big, ugly, and mean, any reason to avoid them was advisable. However a longer march wasn¡¯t something anyone would look forward to.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right¡­¡± The lieutenant began. ¡°Orcs are very dangerous and tend to be in groups the size of small armies, not to mention that they¡¯re bigger and stronger then humans. It¡¯s best to just avoid them.¡±

    ¡°However as I explained, our men are well armed and well trained, we should be able to handle any orc attack that comes our way, plus it would be good combat experience, I have complete faith in all of us.¡± Michael said firmly, causing everyone in earshot to stand straighter as pride swelled up in their chests at his proclamation; even Quinten felt it and nodded his head in agreement.

    ¡°I agree with you sir, no pathetic gathering of orcs could defeat us, I think I speak for all of us when I say let us at them.¡± Briek said with certainty in his voice and the other sergeants nodding enthusiastically. Michael smiled at their determination.

    ¡°Alright then, back to your platoons, inform your squad leaders that everyone is to march with their weapons at the low ready and to be on the lookout for any sign of an orc attack.¡±

    ¡°YES SIR!¡± They shouted and ran back to give out the orders. Soon they were on the march again; it was to take two, maybe three days to get through the orc infested land.

    For the first day since entering orc territory everything went as per usual as no attack came, nor did one happen at night when they made camp, though they still posted double the number of guards. It ended up being the afternoon of the second day when it happened. They were marching through a narrow valley when a bestial roar was heard from either side of the column. Instantly the call to halt was given and Michael started to shout orders that reverberated back along the formation.

    ¡°Form outward firing lines, 3<sup>rd</sup> platoon, cover the wagons, 1<sup>st</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup> platoons, watch the flanks!¡± Briek quickly formed his platoon up and everyone began scanning the hill sides.

    At some unseen signal the hills on either side of the road suddenly erupted with hundreds of orcs charging the intruding humans. They ran full tilt roaring madly and brandishing wicked looking blades. They got to about two hundred meters when the order was shouted.

    ¡°OPEN FIRE!¡± In that instant the wall of rifles unleashed their fury and a veritable wall of lead lashed out at the charging beasts; dozens fell as fist size holes were blown in them and limbs were severed. That was the first second, after the order to fire was given every soldier started shooting as fast as they could sight in a target and their fingers could pull the trigger. Thousands of rounds were being sent at the orcs per minute and soon orc corpses littered the ground in droves.

    Briek was taking his time however and was careful to sight in headshots, each time he fired his rife an orc would lose a good portion of its skull, dropping it quickly. He scanned the rushing enemy; they were falling rapidly and couldn¡¯t quite seem to get closer than that two hundred meter mark before getting shot to pieces. Every so often an explosion would erupt amongst a particularly large orc cluster signaling that someone had lobbed a grenade, which sent limbs and gore everywhere. The attack went on for nearly a half hour as the orcs came in the hundreds; they were unorganized and seemingly mindless in their assault, apparently headless or uncaring of their dropping comrades.

    Eventually the orcs stopped coming and the attack ended, both hill sides covered in orc dead. It was a massacre, the orcs had no way to reach the human army and thus the humans lost no one nor did anyone get injured; a completely one-sided battle. After waiting an hour to ensure that no more orcs were coming, the army reloaded, reformed, and continued on. They had no other encounters as the made their way out of the orc territory.

    Finally after several more days of marching they reached their destination, the port city of Dunkerque. They ended up stopping just outside the moderate sized port city so that Michael and Quinten could tell them exactly what they were to do.

    ¡°Listen up, we are about to enter this port and book passage to Albion as you know, you will be entering by platoons. Once a ship had been chartered you will proceed in an orderly fashion to that vessel and will situate yourselves by squad. You will not cause any problems nor will you interact with anyone not required to carry out these orders. Am I understood!?¡± Michael¡¯s voice was loud and commanding as he issued his orders.

    ¡°YES SIR!¡± With that Briek and his platoon followed Michael, shortly after the next platoon came, and then the next. They ended up purchasing the use of an entire cargo ship for their short voyage and they loaded on and set off on the relatively short trip across the channel towards that floating island.

    Next stop, Albion, and their destiny¡­

    Chapter End

 Chapter 5. A Good Start

    <u>Chapter 5</u>

    Albion port city of Norwich: POV (Michael)

    The battle for Norwich city went far smoother than Michael could have ever anticipated; he simply overestimated the resistance that the city could actually mount, but in truth he didn¡¯t really know what to expect, which was the main reason he trained his men so intensely back at their former camp. While it was nonetheless a good investment, he still thought it funny how well his men performed; he ended up liking it to a comparison between Special Forces and cub scouts, no real challenge.

    Upon arriving at the port, Michael and friends offloaded themselves and their equipment and staged it all in an unused warehouse. His men then dropped their packs, formed up into their platoons, and then got their orders from Michael. The mages stayed behind to watch the equipment and the soldiers then set out to basically strong-arm the city out from under the noble¡¯s hold and into Michael¡¯s welcoming arms. The plan was simple; two platoons were to encircle the city by traveling along opposite sides all the while crushing any resistance, a third platoon was tasked to do the same thing except it was to go up the middle, while this was happening a fourth platoon was to capture the cities garrison headquarters and if possible the noble who was most likely commanding it. Meanwhile Michael took the final platoon, which ironically was 1<sup>st</sup> platoon, and set out to capture the small governors¡¯ palace which also acted as the cities¡¯ administration building as well as the governor¡¯s actual home.

    The endeavor turned out to be pitifully easy; Michael had expect the city defenders to at least be the equivalent of a national guard, instead they ended up being a hastily recruited militia force who were only a part of said force for the same reason someone would be a garbage man, because it was a paying job. Morale was so low for the defenders that in over ninety percent of instances as soon as they saw the groups of well-coordinated uniformed men come at them yelling to drop their weapons whilst pointing what appeared to be muskets at them, that they just automatically obeyed, and when they did the unknown soldiers just told them to go home, which the militia men gladly did. There were a rare few instances in which the city guards actually tried to do their jobs, but a quick demonstration of how badly outclassed they were in terms of weaponry resulting in one of their own being killed easily fixed that.

    The reason for this lack of morale was as simple as it was obvious, the civil war; Norwich was the last port city that the royalists still possessed on the east coast, it and the small province it was located in, to include Newcastle, was in fact all the territory they still had in the south, the rest, and majority, of the royalists were all up in the mountainous northern region of Albion slowly being overwhelmed and pushed back by the Reconquista. At the time of Michael¡¯s incursion the royalists had pulled all their forces, to include the cities actual trained defenders, up to the provincial boarder in a last ditch attempt to hold the Reconquista a bay, leaving the city to be run and protected by a few token nobles and a bunch of scraped together commoners who were given left over weapons and uniforms and told to maintain order. Hell, there wasn¡¯t even a full garrison, not enough weapons available to equip them.

    So as one can see, it was understandable why Michael was so surprised at how easily the city was subdued, the only actual threat it would turnout, were the inhabiting aristocrats that were encountered. As the platoons made their way through the city they occasionally ran into the local nobility, since the city guardsmen turned out to be a joke the riflemen quickly shifted their attention to hunting mages. For the most part it was simple shock and awe; Michael¡¯s men would shout for the nobles not to move and quickly rush them while they were stunned by the sheer audacity of the manner in which they were addressed, then they were all manhandled as anything that could be used as a wand was ¡®confiscated¡¯, their hands bound behind their backs, and their mouths gagged. They were then smacked up a bit and told that if they didn¡¯t cooperate they would suffer harsh consequences.

    Once restrained, the nobles were then grouped together and once enough of them were gathered they were led by one of the platoon¡¯s squads back to the warehouse headquarters to be offloaded to the waiting revolution mages to be processed. The thought behind this was that the nobles would be slightly more cooperative if they were being handled by other mages instead of simple commoners, it was somewhat successful. After the squad had dropped off their charges it would then rush back to its platoon and the process would start all over again. This of course slowed the progress of the various platoons, but it insured that nothing got past the ¡®net¡¯.

    There were of course instances of conflict with the aristocrats; a small number of them managed not to be stupefied and actually drew their wands and unleashed a spell at the insolent commoner whom dared to address them with such blatant disrespect, or they were the ridiculously few who managed to see the uniformed men for the threat they were and simply attacked in self-defense like a normal person. Regardless of the reason, those who resisted didn¡¯t put up enough of a fight to save themselves for all the same reason; they thought that a simple display of their magical ability would be enough to cow the threatening plebeians, and thus were unprepared for when those who weren¡¯t caught in the spell¡¯s attack raised their musket looking weapons and gunned them down or wounded them to the point of not being able to resist instead of simply running away or groveling.

    In the end the Revolutionary forces managed to clear the entire city in an afternoon, with the only noteworthy battle taking place at the governor¡¯s palace. Michael led his platoon straight to the palace easily scattering the paltry few guardsmen along the way and rounding up the random nobles in his way. When he got within throwing distance of the palace outer walls he had one of his squads take the captured aristocrats back to the warehouse, when that squad returned they all attacked. It would turnout that the only real soldiers in the city were the governor¡¯s own bodyguards which numbered around thirty. When Michael¡¯s attack came it appeared that the governor had heard of the incursion of strange uniformed men filtering through the city and capturing it because around ten of his men were stationed at the defense wall directing the other palace guards.

    Armed with bows and a few throwing spears, the wall defenders were unable to stop Michael¡¯s rifle armed men who had superior range and accuracy and soon his men were blowing the gates wide open with grenades after picking off all the defenders. Once inside, Michael had all his men switch to using their pistol side arms which also used armor piercing bullets to combat the palace guards and governor bodyguards. The whole battle played out like a slightly larger scaled version of the Count Mott manor assault; the staff would run while all the opposing guards would be quickly gunned down, it almost seemed to be a total repeat. Then they got to the governor¡¯s pseudo throne room; this noble was a fire mage and was ready for the intruders.

    As soon as Michael and his men burst through the doors they found themselves entering a reception hall, and standing at the other end was the governor and his remaining ten bodyguards. His expression was one of enragement and chubbiness which combined to give the appearance of a fat child who was getting ready to through a temper tantrum because he was told ¡®no desert¡¯. Michael strode forth with his men flanking him with a defiant smile on his face; this was clearly the last straw as the governor roared and lifted his staff and shot a powerful flamethrower at the revolutionaries forcing them to all take cover behind the numerous support columns throughout the large room. As the governor let out his attack he also spouted all manner of self-righteous rhetoric and derogatory insults all aimed at commoners and how pathetic they were, the insults were so bad and specific that they actually managed to sound racist somehow.

    While the governor was spitting invectives and trying to burn Michael¡¯s men, his bodyguards decided to use the opportunity to cut down the offending intruders, however, they never got the chance; as soon as they got close they were gunned down. Seven bodyguards were shot, three by Michael himself, before the rest took cover, cowering behind pillars of their own. Upon seeing his men hiding, the governor turned purple in rage and was about to threaten and chastise, but he never got to utter a word; a final and resounding ¡®bang¡¯ cut him off before he even could open his mouth, he fell with a hole in his temple, put their not by Michael this time, but by Sergeant Briek.

    With the governor dead the last three bodyguards surrendered and the palace secured; hours later Michael began getting calls from the platoon sergeants reporting that they had completed their circuits with the platoon sent to capture the garrison headquarters reporting first, apparently the leader of the city garrison was one of the now former governor¡¯s bodyguards. All city militia men had surrendered and gone home, or were killed and all the aristocrats had been apprehended or had likewise been shot and were currently being held by Michael¡¯s own mages. Now with the city his Michael and Quinten began issuing orders to set up their administration in the palace and move the caught mages into proper holding cells for processing and then after that his mages were to set out installing large view screens similar to the ones used in the vid-phones only much bigger throughout the city in preparation for Michael¡¯s first large scale broadcast.

    The broadcast occurred the following afternoon; at first the people didn¡¯t know what to think of the large moving images of the unknown individual who was claiming to be their liberator, but as the speech went on they soon began to agree with him, and by the end the entire city was taken by the revolutionary fervor. After the airing Michael was swamped by volunteers eager to join his army, he easily had far more than enough recruits to unload his five thousand premade units of equipment and weapons. Those who were able to be supplied were sent off to be given a two week training course in how to use them, as well as the absolute minimum combat training to go along with it. For the remaining trainees, of which there were seventy-five hundred, they were all divided up into twenty-five hundred man battalions and were to be given similar training until equipment production could catchup with demand.

    By the second day after the takeover, Michael was able to get a better understanding of his holdings; the city had approximately thirty thousand inhabitants, of which he got around twelve thousand five hundred recruits to be organized into six battalions of twenty-five hundred. The city also had about three thousand nobles of varying rank, however nearly an eighth were killed in the overthrow leaving him with just under twenty-five hundred mages that need to be processed. These were of course not exact numbers, but Michael liked rounded numbers, also the number of captured nobles was going to drop during processing.

    Processing of the mages was another thing that happened by the second day; sorted into five-hundred person and/or family groups, the now former nobles would have any records available be scrutinized and then every single adult noble would be labeled as either kill or fake kill. Then they would be marched out to the city square and put on ¡®trial¡¯, and then found guilty of various things that all basically said that being an aristocrat was evil and those who were labeled as kill would be beheaded, shot, or drawn and quartered. Those who were labeled as fake kill were hanged by the neck until they passed out and then cut down and quickly spirited away. As for the children however, that was left up to the audience, they would all live, it¡¯s just that those who the people said to kill were just hanged like the others and then taken away and revived. For the rest, they would be reunited with any family they still had and then sent to re-education schools and taught why the revolution was a good thing.

    After two weeks, Michael at last had soldiers to deploy thanks to the initial five thousand recruits completing their quickened training; on top of that his new mage work force, which is comprised of the falsely killed nobles who he managed to convince to work for him under threat of a real death, was finally able to catchup with the demand for equipment and weapons. This means that by the third week the rest of Norwich¡¯s recruits could be added to his numbers, and this wasn¡¯t counting the future recruits that will be coming in from the surrounding villages, towns, and other cities that were also located in the province. In fact, it was estimated that even with the royalists levying the population for more troops that the province had between seventy and eighty thousand inhabitance. Now that Michael had five thousand troops heading out in two-hundred fifty man companies to spread the word of the revolution and to roundup the province¡¯s remaining nobility, Michael expects a steady influx of fresh recruits and new mages for his production lines, which currently stands at nearly fifteen-hundred.

    It is now the middle of the third week since Norwich was ¡®liberated¡¯ as people were now calling it; the last of the city¡¯s trainees had finished their preparation and thus five-thousand had been sent out to join the first five-thousand already out there to assist in recruiting and the hunt for more nobles. The rest had been divvied up and sent out to other cities and larger towns to be both a garrison force and to train their volunteers. Noble processing still continued as various companies briefly returned to deposit their captured aristocrats as well as to rearm and resupply. In fact, this is what Michael was currently observing; the day¡¯s executions were finishing up and he was watching them from his office¡¯s window while waiting for the last of the day¡¯s fake kill nobles to be brought in. A knock on the door brings Michael out of his musings.

    ¡°Enter!¡± He calls out as he retakes his seat at his work desk. Two riflemen guards drag in a man and a woman wearing chains on their wrists and once fancy clothing now marred by filth accumulated from their overnight stay in a prison holding cell that all ¡®fake kill¡¯ individuals get after their hanging. They both looked terrified and confused as well as mentally exhausted. Michael meanwhile had an official looking file in front of him containing what little information acquired on the two former nobles sitting across from of him. Flipping open the folder Michael started reading what little was recorded about them but was interrupted in his reading by a weak stuttering.

    ¡°Um¡­ are we¡­ ah¡­¡± Michael just sighed, ¡®Still weak from their stay in the cells, for Christ¡¯s sake I told those guys to keep the prisoners hydrated.¡¯ He thought to himself as he poured two glasses of water and then answered the usual question.

    ¡°No Mr. Wolver you and your wife are not dead, you were both just hung until you passed out; if you were meant to be killed I would have had you executed via one of the other more bloody methods.¡± Michael explained as they drank their water. As he finished explaining Mr. Wolver got an angry look to his face.

    ¡°So you are the once leading those brutes.¡± Michael just laughed at that; this was a common thing, as soon as they learned he was in charge they usually reverted back to their self-righteous attitudes and started complaining and bitching about how he couldn¡¯t do this and that to them, and on the rare occasion some even tried to attack him.

    ¡°Yes I am their leader, and I also saved your lives.¡± This caused them both to blink. ¡°Think about it; right now there are thousands of enraged commoners out there armed with mage killing weaponry pining for blood, if I wasn¡¯t the one in charge then all of you would have simply been killed. I on the other hand am a better man and would be happy to let you all live modestly yet comfortably if you would simply accept my offer of a deal.¡± They looked at him a little weary as he said this, but inquired nonetheless.

    ¡°What kind of deal?¡± Michael smiled as disarmingly as he could as he laid it all out.

    ¡°It¡¯s quite simple, as I¡¯ve said right now the people are all out for noble blood and are armed with the weapons to get it, and I may be the leader and am trying to keep them under control but there are those who are simply out there literally hunting rouge nobles like animals.¡± They paled at this info. ¡°However despite all this I can still keep you safe if you agree to join and work for me by doing a fairly simple job.¡±

    ¡°What kind of job?¡± Wolver asked, apparently he was the decision maker of the two.

    ¡°It¡¯s very simple; using your magic you just shape various bit of metal and/or wood and then pass them down a line.¡± They seemed to consider this; the work sounded easy and right now it was the only way to guaranty their safety, so it was a fairly obvious choice.

    ¡°Alright then, deal.¡± With that Michael shook hands with both of them binding them with his power of the ¡®Deal¡¯ and securing two more worker mages.

    ¡°Splendid,¡± He began as closed their folder and stamped it. ¡°You will have a 9am to 5pm work schedule with an hour long lunch break half way through the work day and after your day is finished then you are free to do what you want until 9am the next day, on top of that one out of every seven days will be a free day.¡± This brought a surprised look to both the mage¡¯s faces; what Michael was describing was an extremely easy day for a medieval society. ¡°Please hand this to the man working at the table with the big sign over it that says ¡®Final Processing¡¯ and he with take care of getting you both setup and ready to start your new lives, have a nice day.¡± He handed the folder to Mr. Wolver and gestured for the guards to escort them out.

    ¡®Well then, now that that¡¯s done I can finish up the rest of today¡¯s paperwork and take an early night.¡¯ Michael thought to himself as he read over one of the few remaining reports on his desk. ¡®Speaking of night, I really wish Siesta was here, it¡¯s been weeks since I¡¯ve had any female companionship at night and I¡¯ve been too damn busy to find any new girls to add to my¡­ harem?... Yes, I suppose it is a harem, even if it currently only has two members and they are both in a different country.¡¯ While not really that much of an insight since it was obvious it still made him pause in thought, then he scowled as he realized something else. ¡®This damn war is cock-blocking me! Well, looks like I have yet another reason to win this war as quickly and as brutally as possible¡­ fuckin¡¯ nobles.¡¯ His thoughts then took on a more sinister turn as he considered sequestering a few ¡®kill¡¯ nobles to take out his frustration on; however his musings were interrupted by his vid-phone. Flipping it open he saw that it was Quinten calling him; so with a smile on his face Michael happily greeted him like the courteous leader he was.

    ¡°Quinten, how are you doing, what do ya need?¡± Quinten smiled back at his boss¡¯s open demeanor.

    ¡°I¡¯m doing fine sir, however I have called to inform you of an error that you need to know about.¡± This got Michael¡¯s attention, errors and problems were a normal occurrence in life, especially when running a nation, even one a small as what he currently has. For Quentin to call him about one must mean that it is one hell of an error.

    ¡°What sort of error are we talking about?¡±

    ¡°One that involves a noble,¡± Michael just raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°It appears that one of them has been overlooked and has had an extended stay in the holding cells.¡±

    ¡°How long of an extended stay?¡± Michael asked; normally the nobles only stay a day, maybe two, in the holding cells before being brought before Michael to be interviewed for final processing.

    ¡°She¡¯s been in holding for over a week sir.¡± That surprised Michael; how do you over look someone for over a week?

    ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me?¡± Quinten just shook his head. ¡°How the hell did that happen?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know sir, no one seems to know; I¡¯ve already sent her file to you, in fact you should be receiving it shortly.¡± As if on cue a knock on Michael¡¯s door was heard, seconds later a guard entered, handed over the folder, and then left. ¡°Well there you have it sir, the noble in question is already on her way and should arrive in about ten minutes, will that been enough time for you to look over the file?¡± Michael just sighed as he answered.

    ¡°Given how little there normally is in these things ten minutes should be fine.¡± Quinten just nodded before saying his goodbyes.

    ¡°Understood sir, have a pleasant evening.¡± He hung up after that.

    Michael then spent the next ten minutes looking over the limited information contained in the file; it was mainly general info such as name, height, eye & hair color, and anything else that can be learned through simply looking at and questioning a person. Usually the aristocratic prisoners only gave their names and what their duties in serving the royalty included, anything else was just insults and threats. This person, or should it be said woman, seemed to be very cooperative and actually supplied useful personal information, giving the file some actual use. As he looked over the file Michael began wondering how the impending interview is going to go, then the expected knock on the door was heard.

    ¡°Come in!¡± The door opened and the usual guard came in escorting a young woman whose file listed as being twenty-two years old; her hair was a surprisingly bright lime green despite being slightly matted and dirty from her extended stay in the cells. Her eyes despite being filled with fear and uncertainty were a lovely shade of bright purple that when added to her hair color further proved to Michael that he was in an anime and that hair and eye color can truly be anything imaginable. The outfit that she was wearing, despite being torn and disheveled, was unusually functional and even had a hint of utilitarian feel to it; however it was obvious that no commoner could have afforded to wear it based on the type of fabric it was made from. When the guard placed her in the usual chair Michael then spoke to the guard. ¡°Those chains won¡¯t be necessary, take them off.¡± The guard looked surprised at this comment/command.

    ¡°Sir, are you sure?¡± Indeed, this was the first time that Michael had asked for the chains to be removed from a noble before the interview was completed.

    ¡°Yes I¡¯m sure; I don¡¯t think she will be a problem.¡± He then looked at the girl in question. ¡°Will you?¡± She quickly shook her head in the negative, she was much more frightened then any of the previous nobles Michael had spoken to. The guard just nodded and did what he was told before exiting the room. ¡°Now that he¡¯s gone we can begin; your name is Axelle Millau correct?¡±

    ¡°Y-yes, that is my name sir.¡± Her answer was as full of fear as her eyes were and her voice was small. She nodded her head rapidly as she spoke.

    ¡°Well Axelle, it says her that you are a native of Gallia, what are you doing in Albion during the middle of a civil war and also sneaking into a city controlled by revolutionaries¡¯ hell bent on destroying the aristocracy, especially when you yourself are an aristocrat?¡± That last part was what really drew Michael¡¯s curiosity; she had been apprehended whilst trying to sneak in to the city, normally they were caught trying to get out, and they didn¡¯t really sneak. Axelle began fidgeting in what Michael was assuming to be embarrassment as she answered.

    ¡°I was in Albion because I was doing research in the Lundonium royal library. When the civil war began I immediately fled the capitol and made my way south in an attempt to get to one of the cities that had a port with ships that went to Tristan.¡± She paused in her explanation to drink the glass of water that Michael had poured her. During that pause Michael took the time to examine her figure a bit more; according to her file she was 160cm tall (5¡¯3¡±), a fairly pale complexion in accordance with someone who spent a lot of time indoors doing research, and her breasts seemed to be on par or perhaps slightly larger than Kirche¡¯s, which made them look even larger on her small frame. Michael had little doubt that she was popular in school, though he also assumed that she tried to hide her figure since her clothing was a little on thick side, so much in fact that the only reason that he could judge her figure was because of how damaged her outfit had become.

    ¡°What was your reason for trying to go to Tristan?¡± Michael finally asked when it looked like she wasn¡¯t going to continue speaking as he had thought. To her credit she blushed a little when she realized that she had gotten a bit too interested in drinking her water.

    ¡°U-um¡­ I wanted to go to the Tristan magic academy and continue my studies under the tutorship of Professor Colbert, it was why I ended up trying to go through Norwich; it was not only one of the smaller ports open to Tristan, but at the time it was controlled by the royalists and thus not quite as regulated as the others. Imagine my surprise when I learned it had a new owner.¡± She finished with a faint smile, one that Michael returned, and with a chuckle, but he also asked another question.

    ¡°Professor Colbert, as in Jean Colbert, the Flame Snake, the teacher that has a greater interest in technology then any mage to date?¡± Axelle¡¯s eyes widened greatly at Michael¡¯s casual description of the balding teacher before nodding excitedly and confirming his inquiry.

    ¡°Y-yes, Professor Colbert was my favorite teacher when I was in the academy and spawned my interest in the machines used by commoners, which is the reason I was at the royal library, to search for any references to other past mages who had similar interests.¡± Axelle was now no longer nervous or fearful, now she was excited and clearly in her comfort zone as she rambled on about her interest. ¡°The professor and I have even been keeping correspondence concerning our studies into technology; I was actually hoping to help him in his development of the ¡®engine¡¯ that he has been trying to build.¡± Michael all the while had a polite smile on his face as he listened to the excited girl¡¯s rambling, but mentally he was laughing.

    ¡®Oh my god, this is just too good to be true!¡¯ When Axelle finally stopped talking and took another drink of water, Michael managed to comment. ¡°Well my dear I must say that I find your interest in machines to be quite wonderful.¡± He began, earning him a surprised look from Axelle. ¡°In fact, I¡¯d like to encourage such an interest, and even facilitate you.¡±

    ¡°You would, why; no one else other than Professor Colbert seems to believe my field of study is anything other than a waste of time.¡± To answer this Michael simply took out a spare pistol that his men use and placed on the desk between them, upon seeing it Axelle eyes grew in nervousness.

    ¡°No doubt you¡¯ve seen this and the other weapons and equipment that my forces have been using?¡± Axelle said nothing but nodded stiffly, her eyes never leaving the object in front of her. ¡°Well, this and the others are all purely technological in origin, these weapons hold absolutely no magical properties what so ever, despite the fact that mages have been manufacturing them in bulk, they just do it because it is currently the fastest method available.¡± Her jaw dropped at his explanation as she now looked at the deadly weapon in front of her with awe and a little wonder.

    ¡°Y-you must be joking, this thing is technological?¡± She asked aghast, at his nod she went on. ¡°But it kills mages, how could something like that be technological?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s quite simple.¡± He began as he disassembled the pistol. ¡°Various sciences went into creating this marvel from metallurgy to chemistry, but in truth the overall level of tech involved of relatively low.¡± He showed her the various components and even explained how the pistol in actuality a collection of springs and moving parts. Axelle was mesmerized at his explanation of how a pistol and bullets work together to function and then tried to fathom how other even more advanced tech could exist. ¡°As you can see, this is just a small sample of the potential of science and technology; in fact with the right tech anything that magic can do, can be replicated by those called commoners.¡±

    ¡°This is amazing.¡± Axelle said in wonderment. ¡°I never would have guessed that technology had this kind of capacity.¡±

    ¡°Indeed, however this is nothing compared to what I have in mind.¡± This further got her attention. ¡°My main goal is the harmonization of magic and technology to create things far superior to anything that can be made or done by either alone.¡± He then pulled out his vid-phone. ¡°This is an example, a device made from a technological concept and powered by magic to make a method of communication that while possible by both, is much simpler together.¡± He explained as he demonstrated the phone¡¯s function. Axelle had never been so transfixed before and had never seen nor heard anything so amazing in her life. In fact, now that she thought about it, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder.

    ¡°Why are you showing me all this, I mean, it¡¯s all so amazing but it seems as though you know everything you need in order to achieve any goals you have yourself?¡± It was true; Michael didn¡¯t really need to share with her all the wonders of technology and magic/tech hybrid that he had access to, but there was an underlying reason.

    ¡°Simple really; right now I am using mainly technological devices and means to power the revolution that I have started and will continue to do so for some time to come, but eventually I want to create hybrid devices as I have said. Now, while I could do this myself, I am not really a mage in the normal sense so I would need to differ to actual mages in order to facilitate this goal, and those mages wouldn¡¯t be as¡­ enthusiastic about it as say¡­ someone like you.¡± Axelle listened closely to Michael¡¯s explanation and the more she heard the more it began to dawn on her as to what he was getting at.

    ¡°Y-you mean t-that you w-want¡­¡± She was practically vibrating at the prospect of what she was hearing. Michael just smiled.

    ¡°I¡¯d like to make a deal with you; in exchange for working for me and following my commands, I¡¯ll impart to you the various scientific concepts, theorems, and ideas that I know to help further your own research and understanding of technology as well as supply you with the manpower and resources necessary to complete various projects I may give that will also expand your knowledge of the physical universe.¡± Axelle couldn¡¯t believe it, here she was, sitting across from a man that clearly had far greater understand of technology than either her or her idolized professor and he was offering to share all he knew with her. She was trembling in excitement, her heart was beating so fast that she thought it would explode and she was pretty sure that she was even aroused. When Michael extended his hand it took her only seconds before she practically leaped across the desk and grasped it with both of her hands.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ¡°I accept, oh god yes I accept!¡± She basically screamed as she grasped his hand tightly, tears streaming down her face as everything she could have wanted was more or less handed to her. Michael on the other hand was grinning maniacally and was glad that Axelle was too busy weeping to notice.

    ¡®Oh score! I can¡¯t believe that I got a mage who loves technology, this is going to make things so much easier, and to top it off, she cute too.¡¯ ¡°Fantastic Axelle.¡± He said as he let go of her hand after mentally confirming that his power of the ¡®Deal¡¯ had taken hold. He then opened her file and scribbled a few things in it before stamping the paper, closing the folder, and handing it to her and then getting up and leading her to the door. ¡°Take this and give it to the man working at the table with the big sign over it that says ¡®Final Processing¡¯ and he with take care of getting you set up with everything you need to get started. It¡¯s going to be a few days before everything is ready for you to get to work, but when it is I¡¯ll be there to help you begin as well as give you your first project and any personnel you may need to assist you.¡± Axelle was practically bouncing with giddiness at the prospect of getting to work, and as they got to the door she jumped him a big hug.

    ¡°Oh thank you thank you thank you, you have no idea how much this means to me, I won¡¯t let you down sir!¡± Michael smiled fondly at her display of thanks and affection before wishing her good luck and sending her out.

    ¡®With that I can now start up a few projects I¡¯ve been working on; aside from weapons I need to get my territory industrialized, with Axelle¡¯s help I should be one or even several steps closer to this goal.¡¯ He thought to himself as he sat back at his desk to finish off the day¡¯s work. ¡®Yep, the coming weeks are going to be progressive.¡¯

    Several weeks later¡­

    It would turnout, that putting Axelle in charge of his new R&D department could quite possibly be the smartest decision that Michael could have ever done, indeed it was no doubt the smartest decision anyone has ever made in this world. The girl was a latent genius when it came to the realm of technology, she was already a triangle-class earth mage bordering on square-class, but her real expertise as it turned out would be science. Barely a week after stepping out of Michael¡¯s office, Axelle was setup with a converted warehouse and was given, by Michael, a crash course into the wonderful worlds of electricity, magnetism, and chemistry, not alchemy. She was then given two-weeks to study these concepts before Michael gave her the first of his pet projects; developing rockets and a handheld method of launching them.

    Five days later Michael and what few military officers he had were treated to the first ever firing of the shoulder mounted rocket launcher, which Michael then promptly dubbed the ¡®Bazooka¡¯. When asked why he was quoted as saying; ¡®because reasons, that¡¯s why.¡¯ Axelle had managed to develop this weapon thanks to her new found understanding of electricity and propulsion physics as well as a few timely hints and suggestions from Michael, such as the use of electrical wires made from copper and the concept of a device for storing electrical energy, i.e. a battery. The actual rocket itself was entirely her own design.

    The actual function of the new Bazooka variant was fairly simple; first was that tube with the trigger, then came the little box that acted as the battery that provided the electricity need to activate the rocket. The battery was in reality a box enchanted to store a charge of electrical energy and would use said energy when the trigger on the launcher was squeezed and completed the circuit. Thanks to magic the battery could store enough energy for three dozen triggers before it needed to be replaced. The design of the Bazooka was made to be user friendly and was simple to load, operate, and maintain as well as produce, in fact the hardest part to make was the battery, but thanks to how it works there were definitely going to be many applications for it.

    The effectiveness of the Bazooka was also apparent; with an effective range of five hundred meters and a rocket able to penetrate two to two and a half inches of solid steel, it was no doubt going to be a very valuable weapon. Michael had already requested the development of an armor piercing variant capable of twice the penetrating power of the current version. Production of the Bazooka was started later that afternoon and within a week soldiers were learning how to use them, enthusiasm was high.

    Aside from the rocket launcher, Michael had also gathered a team of mages and blacksmiths to figure out how to replicate a large weapon that he had used his own powers of conjure up, a 155mm howitzer artillery cannon. While Axelle was busy with her thing, this team was painstakingly disassembling and analyzing the new and impressive instrument of war with an eye for detail that would make a watch maker proud. The end result was perfect, as it should be with such dedicated individuals. Nearly three weeks of meticulous work and an exact copy of the howitzer was test fired, the only complaint was the firing rate, four per minute, it would be another few days before alterations were made to make the artillery piece quicker and easier to load and unload. Now the howitzer and its ammunition was in production, unfortunately thanks to its complexity the build time was painfully slow, so for now only about a dozen are in service.

    Other than adding to his armory, Michael had also managed to secure ninety-nine percent of the province, thus increasing his army¡¯s size by a whopping forty thousand, which adding to what he already had from Norwich brought his army size to over fifty thousand fully equipped, trained, and armed combat troops ready to crush the nobility. The last one percent of the province was were the remaining royalist forces were located, a fact that Michael was literally just learning and is what he was discussing right now.

    ¡°So that¡¯s where they have been all this time?¡± Michael asked the man whose picture he was speaking to in his phone, an informant, one of several he had out there trying to keep tabs on the nobles around him and his forces.

    ¡°Yes sir, apparently the royalists and the Reconquista have been battling it out around this area for the past few months, but recently the royalists were pushed back and are now under siege and trapped in these four fortresses.¡± The informant explained to Michael; the fortresses that were the subject of discussion were part of what Michael had likened to a miniature version of a Maginot Line due to the fact that according to provincial history those castles were built long before Albion was a united country and this province was one of dozens of smaller kingdoms, now they were being used by the last of the royalist forces in the area as a final standing point. Aside from those forces, the only other royalist forces in the southern part of the country were those of the prince located at Newcastle, but even they were being closed in on.

    ¡°Have you been able to get an idea on troop counts?¡± Michael asked.

    ¡°Initial estimates put the Reconquista numbers at approx. sixty five to seventy thousand and the royalists at less than half that, all divided amongst the four fortresses. Personally sir I don¡¯t see the royalists lasting much longer, in fact the only reason they are still alive is a combination of the fact that the Reconquista don¡¯t have any of their ships present and the royalists own stubbornness.¡± Michael nodded grimly.

    ¡°Yes, no truer words can be said, well good job; I will need a full report as soon as possible, that¡¯s all.¡± With that the informant nodded and hung-up. Later Michael would receive that report.

    As it stood the Reconquista had about fifteen thousand troops besieging the three castles named; Exeter Castle, Newbury Castle, and Alton Castle, while around twenty thousand were at Reigate Castle. On the flip side, the royalists had approx. seven thousand at the first three and ten thousand at Reigate. Because of these numbers, Michael was going to need nearly his entire army to not only break the sieges but also take all four of the castles in the process. Still, fifty thousand versus two separate forces with a combined strength of nearly double that, not an easy task; luckily the weaponry Michael¡¯s army has access to should even things up, that and the element of surprise.

    Several days later, road to Reigate Castle: POV (Major Briek Evron)

    Newly promoted Major Briek was at the head of two Regiments of ten thousand revolutionary soldiers on their way to the first true battle of the war. He was extremely proud of his current assignment; after all he was among only a hand full of individuals with the rank of Major which was currently the highest military rank in Michael¡¯s army. The reason for this according to Michael was that they didn¡¯t have enough numbers to warrant the use of higher ranks, but Michael also said that will quickly change once the ¡®Castle Quartet¡¯, as they were being called, was brought under revolutionary control. This news made Briek and the other Majors even more determined to win their next battles since it meant they would prove themselves worthy to hold the future rank of General.

    However that was for later, Briek and the other three Majors needed to focus on not only breaking the sieges at their assigned Castles, but also capture said Castles. Briek knew that it wouldn¡¯t be easy since he only had ten thousand troops while his opponent had that and more, plus he had the challenge of taking Reigate, the larger and more heavily garrisoned of the fortresses; ten thousand against twice that in Reconquista forces plus another ten thousand garrisoned royalists. Luckily there would be two extra Regiments of five thousand each held in reserve, so it wasn¡¯t as bad as it could be. There were also these new howitzers that each attacking force was given, while there weren¡¯t that many, they were sure to at least help in breaching the Castle walls.

    After several more hours of marching a call to halt was given and one of Briek¡¯s Lieutenants reported to him.

    ¡°Sir, we have arrived at our staging area.¡± Briek looked around and was able to catch a glimpse of the Castle in the distance and nodded.

    ¡°Very good Lieutenant, begin setting up camp and deploy the howitzers as we planned.¡± The Lieutenant promptly nodded and saluted.

    ¡°Yes sir!¡± He then set off and began issuing orders and Briek pulled out his vid-phone and dialed up Michael who quickly answered.

    ¡°Major, how goes the march?¡± Michael asked in his usual friendly way.

    ¡°Sir, we have just arrived at our staging area just under 10km from Reigate as ordered.¡± Michael nodded in understanding and took on a look of seriousness.

    ¡°Well done Major, I have recently received a report that suggests that the Reconquista forces have lost their patience in besieging the Castle Quartet, they are currently readying themselves to break the fortresses once and for all. Because of this development we need to move our attack date forward; the new attack time will be tomorrow no later than 0900hrs.¡± Briek was stunned; originally the attack date was to be at least three days from now in order to better situate themselves for a higher chance of success, nevertheless, neither he nor any other would fail in their orders from Michael.

    ¡°I understand sir, I and my forces will be ready on schedule.¡± Michael looked very pleased to hear this.

    ¡°Excellent; Majors Samuel and Nathen are already in position and Major Ruben reports that he will be ready by the evening, so unless you are notified of something different, proceed as instructed.¡± Briek nodded and saluted smartly, Michael saluted back and hung-up.

    ¡®Just a few more hours,¡¯ He thought. ¡®A few more hours and we will finally be known to our enemies¡­ and we will destroy them.¡¯

    The next morning¡­ Exeter Castle: POV change (Count Elliston) Reconquista

    ¡®Todays the day.¡¯ Count Elliston gleefully thought to himself. ¡®This is day that we finally break this farce of an army and at last rid ourselves of the last of the royalist holdouts in the south of our glorious nation. Not only that, but victory here will definitely earn me favor in the Reconquista upper echelons.¡¯ The Count was indeed in a good mood, he was going to be promoted once he took this fortress. ¡°Capitan, I want these holdouts destroyed promptly today, no more waiting, understand?¡± He asked his second in command.

    ¡°Yes milord, this Castle will be ours by the end of the day.¡± The Capitan confirmed confidently, after all, what could stop them?

    ¡°Splendid, begin the attack.¡± The Capitan nodded and relayed the orders, numerous horn calls bellowed out signaling the order to advance.

    Fifteen thousand men, both mages and trained commoners, were spread out and surrounding the Castle, all of them began what was hoped to be the final attack to take Exeter Castle. As the minutes passed it looked to the Count that the battle would be routine; then the explosions happened. First one, then nearly a dozen more, all along the right flank of army in accordance with his viewpoint; large gashes in his line formed as hundreds of groups of tightly clustered men were blown to pieces.

    ¡°What in Founder¡¯s name was that?!¡± The Count yelled out; there was no way that was a mage¡¯s spell, he could feel the tremors from his position overlooking the battle field. Before any of his command staff could answer a thunderous roar was heard and out of the tree line closest to where his forces were hit strangely garbed men came running out in rough line formations, all of them screaming battle cries and heading for the damaged segment of his army. ¡°Are those¡­ commoners?¡± He asked bewildered. He then started to purple with rage as it occurred to him what was happening; commoners were attacking his glorious army! ¡°These filthy peasants dare to attack my army, Capitan, don¡¯t just sit there on your horse bewildered like a fool, signal our men to crush them!¡± The Capitan was startled to awareness as he quickly acknowledged his lord.

    ¡°Y-yes milord, at once!¡± He sent out signals and commands causing the Reconquista forces to sift position and move against the oncoming plebeians.

    Elliston watched with satisfaction as his army began firing off fireballs, ice spears, and wind blades as well as arrows from the commoners; the various spells and arrows quickly reaped a heavy toll on the attacking rabble, felling hundreds. There were even several attacks coming from the castle, apparently the royalists wanted in on the action too. Large earth golems soon came up from the ground and began lumbering towards the still advancing foe, they too would have crushed the rowdy peasants, however before they could several of them were consumed by the same explosions from before. The wave of blasts consumed most of the golems causing them to collapse in to the earth they were made of; others simply disintegrated on their own as their summoners were no doubt killed by other explosions that occurred elsewhere.

    After the failure of the golems, which stunned the Count and his staff, the two sides came to within two hundred meters; the Count¡¯s previously faltering confidence reached new heights as he saw the spearmen, pikemen, swordsmen, and even dismounted knights of his army about to slaughter the foolish commoners. However, just as his forces got to less than a hundred meters seconds later, the peasants suddenly slowed to a near stop and leveled what appeared to be some kind of muskets and fired off a wall of lead, dropping entire companies of infantrymen of all kinds. Undeterred since the Count knew that muskets could only fire one shot at a time before needing a lengthy reloading time, he simply let out a humph at the losses he just suffered and dismissed them as a lucky strike by the rabble.

    Thus, it came as an enormous shock when instead of running or attempting to reload; the plebian army simply fired another volley, then another, and another, never stopping as they kept shooting round after round off in rapid succession, cutting his men down like wheat. More explosions occurred, this time most hit the Castle, but still his army suffered huge losses. As if all this wasn¡¯t enough, then came pairs of commoners carrying an odd looking¡­ rod, on their shoulders, one carried it while the other had a large pack. The pairs would aim the rod and suddenly it would spout fire and a slightly smaller explosion would occur where ever they were pointing it.

    The Count witnessed the effects personally as he observed a column of cavalry charging the commoners, the rod was simply pointed at the charging horsemen, then it spewed fire and the front of the column blew up, sending bits of horse, man, and metal all over, stopping the charge completely. The survivors were then gunned down by the nearest musket wielding enemies. It wasn¡¯t just his forces that suffered, the royalists who fired from the Castle walls and towers were also targets of the fire shooting rods, whole sections were brought down when a fireball or spray of ice spears were launched out.

    It didn¡¯t take long for the Count¡¯s army to start routing; explosions, muskets that could fire continuously, and commoners armed with weapons that could spout fire and make even more explosions. All this became too much for the soldiers under his command. Thus, the Count was filled with rage and humiliation at this uncouth gathering of what he viewed as inferior people killing his men.

    ¡°CAPITAN, GET THOSE COWERDS BACK IN LINE AND RUN THOSE INSOLENT BASTEREDS FROM THE FIELD!¡± The Count no longer had hold of his temper and therefore began taking it out on anyone around him. The Capitan was desperately trying to get the situation back under control.

    ¡°Yes milord, were trying to¡­¡± He was interrupted by one of the explosions going off practically right next to him and the rest of the command staff, in fact several of the staff members were on the ground moaning in pain and bleeding, it was only divine luck that he and the Count were unharmed. The Count was rattled but otherwise just as angry.

    ¡°By the founder Capitan I swear that if you don¡¯t¡­¡± He too got interrupted, but instead of an explosion it was one of his Lieutenants getting knocked of his horse with a gaping hole in his torso with blood gushing out. The Count looked over and saw that some the enemy musket men were firing at him, however what really got his attention was the commoner aiming one of the rods at him, which now he saw was actually a tube. Seeing this, he pulled out his sword-wand in an attempt to slay the offending peasant, but before he could even utter a word the man fired.

    All he could hear was ringing, all he could see was the sky, and he was on his back he realized. ¡®Why am I laying here?¡¯ He thought to himself. ¡®Ah yes, that commoner fired that strange tube-rod at me, but what happened afterward?¡¯ The Count wondered, he also realized that he couldn¡¯t move. ¡®This is strange, I can¡¯t get up, oh well, I¡¯m tired anyway, perhaps if I take a nap I¡¯ll have the energy to get up, and then¡­ then I can win this battle and earn more prestige in the Reconquista, yes¡­ but first that nap¡­ so tired.¡¯ With that the Count closed his eyes, and never opened them again.

    POV change (Major Nathen)

    With no small amount of satisfaction Major Nathen watched the leader of the Reconquista forces attacking Exeter Castle along with his command staff get blown to pieces by a Bazooka team, finishing them off after the artillery strike he had called in failed hit close enough to kill them all. When Nathen had been promoted to Major and given the task of taking Exeter he was thrilled, after all it was one of the first ever pitched battles of the revolution. Nathen chose to be in on the action and thus he and his personal squad had charged in right behind the front most companies and he himself had called in nearly half the artillery strikes, especially the ones that took out the golems. He had also gunned down his fair share enemy troops.

    Now, with the death of their leading officers the Reconquista forces were in full retreat, now all that was left was to blow a hole in the fortress wall, charge in, and kill anyone who was dumb enough to resist. He also needed to do it quickly, his forces had already suffered many casualties and the royalists were now launching spells like crazy at them.

    ¡°Alright sergeant, call up those artillery guys, tell ¡®em to bring down that wall as fast as they can, also spread the word to any Bazooka team you can to pitch in!¡± He told the squad sergeant with the vid-phone who seconds later called the strike in.

    Less than a minute later the Castle wall in front of them got hammered by a full barrage of howitzer shells and about a dozen rockets. At first when the dust clear it looked like the wall would stay standing, but seconds later chunks of stone began falling and impacting the ground hard. A couple of minutes later a second wave of shells hit, completely demolishing the wall. There was a calm, like the one before a storm as the revolutionaries stared at the now destroyed Castle wall, the calm lasted for what could have been seconds or minutes before it was broken by Major Nathen¡¯s yell.

    ¡°THE WALL HAS BEEN BREACHED, COME ON YOU BASTARDS AND WHORESONS, WE¡¯VE GOT A BATTLE TO WIN!¡± A great cheer rose up from the revolutionary army as it charge through the opening, Major Nathen and his squad at the front. Several spells flew out to meet them adding to the death toll, but this did nothing to deter them and just caused the riflemen to fire their weapons back at the offending mages.

    Once inside it became a whole new battlefield, as the royalists tried to rally against the invading commoners. What few spear and swordsmen there were tried to get up close, but the training of the revolutionary men combined with their bayonets, grenades, and secondary pistol weapons allowed them to be effective even in close quarters. The mages attempted to keep their distance and use their spells, but that just left them open the enemy rifles which fired much more often than simple muskets. The royalists managed to put up a valiant fight, however when it became clear that even the mages couldn¡¯t stop these strange men with advanced muskets the commoner soldiers amongst the royalist forces began surrendering, and once it was apparent that surrenders were being taken, more and more began laying down their arms.

    It would take nearly an hour for the revolutionaries to clear the large fortress, but their training in clearing rooms and buildings combined with the ever increasing numbers of surrendering enemy soldiers¡¯ ensured victory for the attackers.

    What happened at Exeter Castle was to be closely repeated at both Newbury and Alton Castles as the Majors in charge of those forces managed to use surprise and their weapons to their advantage to first route the Reconquista forces and then breach the Castle walls and then clear said Castles. As for Reigate, well¡­

    Reigate Castle: POV change (Marquis Arthur Huxley) Reconquista

    To say that Marquis Arthur was flabbergasted would not due his shock justice; the reason for his amazement was simple; his army of twenty thousand was being routed by peasants, something that should not be possible. At first all was well, he was leading the largest group of Reconquista forces to finally end the royalist¡¯s control of this province by taking the four Castles that defended said province, and in fact he was personally leading the attack on the largest of the defending Castles, Reigate. However then out of nowhere sections of his army were wiped out by large earth shaking explosions, and then out of the tree line thousands of uniformed commoners of unknown affiliation came charging at his forces.

    The Marquis had acted calmly and appropriately to this unexpected incident and ordered his army to shift focus and attack them. Unlike most nobles who got angry when things didn¡¯t go according to plan, Marquis Arthur always managed to keep his cool and tries to calmly adjust and adapt to meet any new challenge. This however was more than a simple new challenge; these strange plebeians were armed with advanced new muskets that could fire many times before needing to be reloaded, had what must have been some kind of powerful new artillery, and they even had odd shoulder mounted weapons that could cause aimed explosions. All this meant that his army was suffering horrendous losses caused by what has been traditionally an inferior force, one made entirely of commoners.

    Still, things had been going well; thanks to his army¡¯s large complement of mages his forces were able to inflict nearly even losses amongst the commoners, not only that but the royalists were even sending out attacks of their own against these unknowns. But it wouldn¡¯t last; the explosions were just too precise and seemed to be targeting his mages, some with those commoners carrying the tubes that caused explosion of their own. However the final nail in the coffin was the arrival of another wave of enemy soldiers. It was too much, and as the bodies of his men kept piling up his army¡¯s ranks began braking and routing. At first he tried to rally his men, but then the messengers began arriving and he too lost heart.

    ¡°Capitan, sound the retreat.¡± His second in command along with the rest of his staff looked at him in disbelief.

    ¡°Milord, retreat, but we can¡¯t, we mustn¡¯t, we can still win this.¡± One of his lieutenants tried to plead, but the Marquis just scoffed at him.

    ¡°I admire your spirit lieutenant, but our army is being slaughtered and is routing as we speak, add to that our forces at Exeter, Newbury, and Alton have been broken and completely routed. We. Have. Lost. Now sound the retreat!¡± He ordered firmly. The Capitan and others just looked on glumly and the orders were given and the horns sounded. They all watched as their forces scrambled in a desperate race to escape the enemy that was massacring them. As the Marquis turned and left the field he had to wonder. ¡®Who were those men?¡¯

    Two days later¡­ Reigate Castle: POV (Michael)

    Michael was currently standing in the main study room looking out one of the windows that showed one of the courtyards of Reigate Castle. The fight for this Castle would turn out to be every bit as challenging as predicted; even after routing the Reconquista besiegers and breaching the wall the defenders fought much harder than at the other three Castles. Even when his men had made it into the Castle, strikes from the howitzers were still called in and there was liberal use of Bazookas, the result had been serious structural damage done to the Castle. Thankfully it was nothing that his earth mages couldn¡¯t fix, it would be a couple of weeks but soon Reigate would be his new base of operations.

    What his real problem was though were the losses he sustained in taking the Castle Quartet. Reigate was of course the worst; even with the original attacking force of ten thousand and the reserve force sent in consisting of another ten thousand Michael¡¯s forces lost approx. nine thousand men taking this damn Castle. His losses at the other three were more manageable but still frustrating; Exeter and Alton suffered about three thousand while Newbury was closer to four thousand. Thus out of fifty thousand men, Michael¡¯s attacking army was now down to roughly thirty thousand, heart breaking.

    ¡®Fucking magic.¡¯ He had seen the results of the use of the noble¡¯s magic himself; groups of men immolated, skewered, cut to pieces, or just plain crushed to a bloody pulp. He need better methods to fight large groups of mages at range, while artillery, rockets, and riles worked well, he need more or else he was going continue to suffer high casualties and eventually morale was going to start plummeting. Sadly though at the moment he didn¡¯t have the time to do this, reports from the battles had indicated that while most of the Reconquista commanders and their staff had been killed, the commanders at Reigate had all managed to survive and would no doubt inform whoever was above them about his little rebellion and how it kicked their asses.

    With that in mind he needed more men, thus he had dispatched numerous companies of men out to the countryside to recruit the various towns and small cities to their cause and start training volunteers to start bolstering his army. Initial estimates predicted that at the very least he could replenish his losses and then some. Michael was hoping that he could double or even triple his original numbers and then take the coastal city of Anglia which is currently controlled by the Reconquista. Anglia was the second largest port city in the south and was thus one of Albion¡¯s most important ports to Gallia, there were others of course, but losing Anglia would definitely be a major blow the Reconquista¡¯s trading with Gallia. While Norwich was a port to Tristan, in the grand scheme of things it was actually only a moderate port.

    Aside from his new short term goal of capturing Anglia, Michael still needed to capture more territory for the simple reason of creating a buffer between his new base and whatever large armies that the Reconquista were going to send after him once the main bosses, especially Cromwell, learned of a commoner rebellion able to defeat a mage led army. What he really wanted to do was to fight his way up the coast line straight to Lundonium, and to do that he would need to make other defensive lines against the other large cities and their aristocratic rulers with their large armies, thus a static territorial buffer defense line.

    His goals now more fleshed out, at least in his mind, Michael then turned to the other reports at his desk; first was one from Axelle, she was currently working on ways to combine magic and technology in a way to boost the production ability of his new territory. Speaking of production, another report was about his mages work force; it appears that they were actually enjoying working, apparently going from having everything handed to you to having to work for a living was giving them a sense of accomplishment that they usually only got from waging war for dumb reasons and acting like bastards. The report indicated that production of rifles, Bazookas, ammunition, and howitzers was meeting demand, nothing special.

    All in all it seemed like things were going smoothly, the only thing he had to worry about was when Louise would show up with Wardes to see prince Wales.

    City of Carlow: POV (Duke Louis Lefroy) Reconquista

    Duke Louis was the noble appointed to govern the large city of Carlow, he was also the one given the responsibility of eliminating the last of the royalist forces in the south, a task that he had then reassigned to Marquis Arthur and given over sixty thousand men to accomplish with. The Duke had great confidence in the Marquis¡¯s ability to succeed and thus paid absolutely no attention to the progress of the campaign. This was why currently the Duke was having a dinner party and had invited many distinguished nobles from his province.

    ¡°Tell me milord Duke, how goes the fight against the royalist holdouts that you have been tasked with removing?¡± Asked one of the many Counts under Duke Louis.

    ¡°Well my good Count, Marquis Arthur is currently besieging them in the last of their fortresses and will no doubt be returning within the week to report success.¡± Answered the Duke with the up most certainty. The Count was about to say something else when a messenger hurried up to the Duke and whispered something to him that the Count couldn¡¯t hear, though whatever it was seemed to amaze the Duke. ¡°Are you sure?¡± He asked the messenger, at his nod the Duke sighed. ¡°Very well, please excuse me Count something important just came up.¡± With that the Duke left, following the messenger.

    The Duke was led to one of the many meeting rooms located throughout his palace; inside he was greeted by the presence of the subject of his latest discussion, Marquis Arthur.

    ¡°Marquis, I was not expecting you for nearly a week, last I heard you had the royalist trapped and besieged in their own strongholds, don¡¯t tell me they just surrendered?¡± Asked the Duke, though truthfully he wouldn¡¯t mind if that was the case, it would definitely look good in his report to the capitol.

    ¡°Milord Duke Louis, I wish that were the case, however I regret to inform you that all four sieges have been broken.¡± At this the Duke¡¯s eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

    ¡°What! How is that possible, there is no way those royalist pigs could have mustered the strength to break their sieges.¡± The Marquis just shook his head.

    ¡°This you are right, it wasn¡¯t the royalists who broke the sieges it was a different force.¡± Again the Duke was surprised, then concerned.

    ¡°A different force, don¡¯t tell me that one of the other kingdoms have invaded, which one?¡± At this the Marquis sighed, he was not looking forward to admitting this.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid milord that it wasn¡¯t one of the mainland kingdoms, it was an army of commoners.¡± This caused the Duke to pause for a minute to process what he had heard, at first he was certain that he had heard wrong, but the look in the Marquis¡¯s eyes said he hadn¡¯t; confusion turn to anger and then into outrage.

    ¡°WHAT, IMPOSSIBLE, there is no way a rabble of farmers and peasants could have defeated a force of mages in open warfare, much less FOUR SEPARATE FORCES!¡± The Duke was red with rage at this humiliation, if anyone learned of this defeat, even though it hadn¡¯t been him personally to have been defeated but one of his underlings, then he would be a laughing stock.

    ¡°Forgive me milord but these were no ordinary commoners, they were well trained, equipped, and armed with new advanced muskets and powerful artillery as well as some other new weapon that I have never seen before.¡± The Marquis tried to reason with the Duke and explain how this in fact was possible, but the Duke wouldn¡¯t hear it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care what they were armed with, they were still peasants, there is no excuse, losing a battle against commoners with the forces you had at your disposal is an unimaginable humiliation, I should have you executed for incompetence!¡± The Duke was still seeing red; he would no doubt carryout his threat if the Marquis didn¡¯t say something quick to appease him.

    ¡°Milord please, I can right this wrong, I just need more troops and I can not only put down this new rebellion but also crush what¡¯s left of the royalists.¡± The Marquis was getting desperate now; he knew that the rebels had already destroyed the royalists so if he can just get another army and beat them, then as far as Duke would be concerned he would have accomplished both tasks. Hearing the Marquis plea the Duke settled down a bit and thought about it; the Marquis past war record was excellent, aside from this latest fiasco, it was the reason the Duke had chosen him to finish off the royalists in his name. After a few more minutes of considering it the Duke relented.

    ¡°Very well, you will be given a second chance to fulfil your mission, however if you fail again then you will be executed.¡± Warned the Duke.

    ¡°Thank you milord, I promise I will succeed or die.¡± Declared the Marquis.

    With that the Duke and Marquis discussed what forces were going to be need by the Marquis to both crush the rebellion and destroy the remaining royalists; the Marquis didn¡¯t inform the Duke that the commoner army already wiped them out in order to increase the number of soldiers the Duke would give him. The Marquis need all that he could get; even though he had managed to order a successful retreat from Reigate he still lost nearly ten thousand men there alone, add to that the complete route suffered at the other Castles he had only been able to recover roughly twenty thousand troops from a total of forty-five thousand sent against the other three Castles. Thus out of sixty five thousand soldiers he only had barely thirty thousand after the losses suffered in battle and from the route.

    In the end the Marquis had managed to requisition nearly one hundred fifty thousand soldiers gathered from both Carlow¡¯s garrison and the Duke¡¯s other garrisons in the surrounding towns and smaller cities. So with a new army numbering around one hundred eighty thousand, Marquis Arthur set out to repair his sullied honor and crush the newest commoner rebellion or die trying.

    ¡®I don¡¯t know who these rebels are or who leads them, but mark my words I will find him and personally end him after I slaughter every last one of his men, so help me Brimir.¡¯ Thought the Marquis with a murderous gleam in his eyes.

    One way or another he was going to redeem himself, either through a glorious victory or an honorable death.

 Chapter 6. The War Rages On

    <u>Chapter 6</u>

    Royal Palace of Tristania (Capital of Tristan): POV (Louise)

    About a week ago, Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere, also known as ¡®Louise the Elemental¡¯ thanks to Michael¡¯s decree, received a summons from Princess Henrietta De Tristan asking her to appear before her at the Royal palace to discuss a matter of great importance. The date for the appearance was today and so Louise along with her personal maid Siesta, (who was technically Michael¡¯s maid; he was just letting Louise use her because he currently didn¡¯t have need for a maid at this time), were being escorted through the vast halls of the palace to the princess by Agn¨¨s Chevalier de Milan whom was in charge of Henrietta¡¯s personal guard known as the musketeer corps.

    Normally Louise would be ecstatic to receive an invitation from her longtime friend and childhood playmate, however this time she couldn¡¯t help but wonder what could be so important that the princess would go out of her way to send an official summons instead of a friendly request for a visit. Add to that, when Louise arrived she was able to sense an air of urgency, or perhaps it was unrest, which permeated the whole of the palace and gave Louise a feeling of unease. Agn¨¨s especially seemed to be on edge and when Louise inquired as to if anything was wrong she was met with silence and then told to follow quickly; what followed was a slightly awkward walk towards the throne room were Princess Henrietta was no doubt taking care of affairs of state in place of her mother the queen whom was still grieving over the death of the king some time ago.

    Upon arrival the trio was greeted by the sight of the Princess¡¯s personal adviser Cardinal Mazarin as he finished reporting one of the no doubt many issues which would either need to be addressed by the princess, or at the very least needed to be informed about. When Louise finally saw her longtime friend, she of course felt a surge of joy, however she knew that despite past history she still needed to maintain decorum and so simply proceeded to approach the throne and the kneel along with Agn¨¨s and Siesta and wait to be addressed. While she waited however she couldn¡¯t help but to listen to what the Cardinal was speaking to the princess about.

    ¡°¡­they then proceed to book passage on a large cargo ship headed to Albion and then boarded in an orderly and disciplined manner, after that the ship left.¡± Finished the Cardinal and Louise could only wonder why some commoners going to Albion should warrant the attention of Her Highness.

    ¡°I must admit Cardinal that three hundred uniformly garbed men all armed with strange muskets purchasing tickets to Albion is indeed strange, however the fact that they did so without causing any disturbance means that they were ultimately no threat to the peace, add to that the fact that I was not even informed of their passing until two months later and the whole issue becomes irrelevant.¡± Replies Henrietta, but this response does not satisfy the Cardinal.

    ¡°A fair point your Majesty, however the fact remains that these men simply appeared out of nowhere and from various accounts the muskets that they were armed with looked to be more advanced than even those of your own musketeer corps.¡± Louise noted that when the Cardinal made that statement Agn¨¨s nearly jumped up in denial, but the princess ended up voicing Agn¨¨s¡¯ disbelief for her.

    ¡°With all due respect Cardinal I find that claim to be unlikely, the muskets used by my guard are the finest in all of Halkeginia, and not even those produced in Germania can match the quality of the ones used by my musketeers.¡± Several of the other advisers in the room nodded their agreement and even Agn¨¨s gave a barely perceptible nod.

    ¡°I must agree with Her Highness, it is more than likely that these men had purchased and/or stole muskets from either Germania or Gallia and then altered the appearance of the muskets in an attempt to disguise them, after all based on the report, these men were mainly commoners and lacked any other weapons such as swords or spears.¡± Spoke one of the advisers earning many nods and murmurs of agreement, even from the princess. ¡°No doubt these commoners were a mercenary force, likely hired by the Albion Royalists since the port that the cargo ship was sailing to was listed as being under Royalist control, but as Her Highness said they came and went without incident and on top of that this event occurred two months ago, not only that but they are currently in Albion and thus their problem, not ours.¡± There was practically a round of applause for these comments and Henrietta was smiling broadly while the Cardinal had a troubled frown on his face.

    ¡°There you have it Cardinal, now if there is nothing else of note I have other business to attend to.¡± At the unsaid command the advisers and the Cardinal vacated the throne room to do whatever it was they did when not advising, leaving the young ruler with the still kneeling trio. ¡°Well now, Captain Agn¨¨s I thank you for your prompt arrival with Louise, you may go now.¡± With that the Captain rose to her feet and instantly brought her arm across her chest in salute.

    ¡°Yes your Highness!¡± Agn¨¨s then did an about-face and marched out. As soon as the doors to the throne room closed Princess Henrietta quickly rose from her throne and nearly ran as she went to embrace her longtime friend.

    ¡°Oh my dear Louise how I¡¯ve missed you, you as well Siesta, please both of you rise, there is no need for my friends to kneel to me.¡± Louise and Siesta both stood up after the princess released her hug with Louise and Siesta gave a kind smile and a polite nod of her head. During the few times that Henrietta visited Louise at the academy after Siesta became Louise¡¯s retainer, both her and the princess had become friends thanks to their mutual acquaintance with the pinkette.

    ¡°P-princess, it is good to see you as well, when I received your summons I immediately prepared so as to arrive when instructed. Please tell me what it is that you need of your servant.¡± Despite being a personal friend of the princess Louise always acted as though she were no more than another subject under Henrietta¡¯s rule, much to the young rulers chagrin and amusement. Normally Henrietta would dissuade such talk from Louise, but this time her friendly smile lowered to a more somber expression.

    ¡°Alas¡­ my dear friend I am afraid that I have to ask you to undertake a mission that I cannot entrust to any other, one that I wish I didn¡¯t have to ask.¡± Seeing the princesses distraught face made Louise take Henrietta¡¯s hand into hers before declaring.

    ¡°Your Highness please, I would be honored to take on any mission for your sake, ask and I shall obey.¡± At hearing that declaration Henrietta smiled lightly.

    ¡°You are indeed a good friend Louise Francoise, please follow me.¡± The trio then exited the throne room and headed to the princesses personal suite, once inside they headed towards her bedroom, but before they entered Henrietta stopped and addressed Siesta. ¡°Siesta if you would please wait in the main room, what I must discuss with Louise is very personal and sensitive.¡± Siesta immediately bowed her head.

    ¡°Of course your Majesty, I shall await here.¡± With that Louise and Henrietta entered the bedroom. Once inside and the door closed Louise quickly spoke.

    ¡°Princess, what is it you need of me?¡± Henrietta didn¡¯t speak right away but instead went to over to an ornate box and withdrew something, she examined it briefly before smiling and then turned to Louise.

    ¡°To put it simply Louise, I need you to go to Albion¡­¡±

    POV change: (Siesta)

    Once the door closed Siesta immediately went to the opposite side of the suite from the bedroom and took out the vid-phone she had gotten from Michael, her master. Ever since she had received it she had made it a point to call him as often as she felt appropriate, which meant nearly every day. This time however she decided it was important to call and notify her master of the current activities of her young charge since a mission from the princess could have some impact on herself, Louise, or possibly even Michael, plus her master had given her instructions to inform him of any noteworthy interactions between Louise and the princess, and this definitely counted as noteworthy. Now while it might be prudent to wait to learn what the mission is before reporting, she felt she couldn¡¯t wait until her next opportunity to contact Michael, or run the risk that Louise my not share the information with her since she was a maid.

    She quickly dialed up the number to Michael¡¯s phone and waited anxiously for him to answer, nervous that someone might walk in on her or that the conversation in the next room might abruptly end. Soon enough though the image of her master appeared and her nervousness quickly evaporated into joy at see his smiling face.

    ¡°Siesta, good to see you, how¡¯ve you been?¡± He said cheerfully causing Siesta¡¯s own smile to brighten.

    ¡°I¡¯m doing well master; I have actually called to report something that I believe to be important. Princess Henrietta has summoned Miss Louise and has asked her to go on an important mission for her.¡± Hearing this Michael¡¯s expression became serious.

    ¡°A mission, what kind of mission?¡± Siesta gently shook her head at the question.

    ¡°I apologize master but they are currently discussing it behind closed doors, I have called you because I didn¡¯t know if I would get another chance to tell you in time to matter, or if Miss Louise would even tell me what the mission would be.¡± At this Michael nodded in understanding, it was hard to predict what the pinkette would do, especially for Siesta.

    ¡°More than likely it¡¯ll be a mission to Albion, if I¡¯m right then when Louise exits that room she will be in possession of a new ring and a letter from the princess to someone in Albion that you don¡¯t need to know about.¡± Michael said, much to the confusion of the maid. ¡°Listen closely Siesta, if Louise ends up taking you along then I need you to convince her to get Tabitha¡¯s assistance and to book passage from whatever port you guys end up debarking from to the Albion port of Norwich, which is the city where I¡¯ll be at.¡± Hearing this Siesta¡¯s eyes lit up, happy at the prospect of seeing her master again and mentally praying that Louise chooses to bring her along.

    ¡°Understood master, if she takes me along I¡¯ll ensure she acquires Miss Tabitha¡¯s help and travels to Norwich. But what if I am not allowed to accompany her?¡± It was a worrying thought, but one that needed to be addressed.

    ¡°If that happens then gather what info you can and contact me.¡± She nods her affirmative.

    ¡°Very well master.¡±

    ¡°Anything else Siesta?¡± She considers the question for a moment and while she would love to talk more, it couldn¡¯t be risked.

    ¡°No master.¡± Michael then smiles gently and says.

    ¡°Then I hope to see you soon, goodbye Siesta.¡± At that he closes the line.

    A little while later Louise and the princess exit from the bedroom, both are sporting grim and serious expressions and Louise also has a new ring on her finger, just like Michael had predicted. ¡®How dose master do that?¡¯ Siesta thought to herself at seeing the ring. Her thoughts then quickly turned to praying that Louise decided to bring her along so that she could visit her master. After saying their goodbyes Louise and by extension Siesta began their journey out of the palace and eventually out of the city proper. Eventually Siesta thought it the right time to ask what had been discussed and thus if she would need to start packing when they got back to the academy.

    ¡°Um¡­ Miss Louise, if I may ask what mission did Her Highness give you?¡± At that Louise looked at the maid as she seemed to consider something before answering.

    ¡°We will be needing to travel to Albion to retrieve something important and return it to the princess. Her Highness has also arranged for an escort to ensure we safely arrive and return.¡± At the mention of ¡®we¡¯ Siesta¡¯s heart soared.

    ¡°¡¯We¡¯, Ma¡¯am, does this mean that I will be accompanying you?¡± She asked hopefully.

    ¡°Yes Siesta, you are my retainer and servant, not to mention my friend.¡± Siesta smiled at that, and then quickly remembered what her master had told her to do.

    ¡°Well then, when we get back to the academy I shall begin preparations for our departure. Also Miss Louise if I may I¡¯d like to suggest that you enlist Miss Tabitha¡¯s assistance in this mission.¡± Louise¡¯s eyebrows furrowed at the sudden suggestion.

    ¡°Tabitha, why?¡±

    ¡°Well the journey is going to be a long and possibly dangerous one, and even with the escort sent by the princess some extra protection would be helpful, not to mention Miss Tabitha is a Chevalier and a strong fighter, she would be a great help.¡± Louise took on a thoughtful expression at Siesta¡¯s reasoning.

    ¡°Well, I suppose so; the princess did suggest that I enlist some extra help to make the trip easier, I guess it couldn¡¯t hurt to ask.¡± Siesta mentally patted herself on the back for succeeding in the first part of her orders, now of the second part.

    ¡°Also, I¡¯d like to suggest that we charter passage to the Albion port city of Norwich.¡± That got Louise¡¯s attention.

    ¡°That¡¯s quite specific, why Norwich?¡± Siesta actually felt slightly panicked on the inside, afraid that she might be caught trying to manipulate Louise on Michael¡¯s orders, luckily she thought fast and disguised her feeling of guilt with embarrassment instead.

    ¡°W-well¡­ um¡­ Norwich is the city were master is at and I thought that if we went there we could meet up with him, I-I mean he is a good fighter and he might be able to help us complete the mission.¡± That surprised Louise a bit.

    ¡°You mean Michael; I didn¡¯t even know he was in Albion, that¡¯s where he¡¯s been this whole time?¡± Siesta nodded her head quickly and explained.

    ¡°Yes, master and I have been corresponding with each other and his latest letter said that he was in Norwich.¡± It wasn¡¯t completely a lie.

    ¡°I suppose getting Michael¡¯s help couldn¡¯t hurt and Norwich is fairly close to where we need to go in Albion, plus it would be nice to see him again.¡± Siesta was feeling ecstatic; not only for succeeding in completing her tasks but also at the fact that she was going to get to see her master again soon.

    ¡°Great, I¡¯m sure master would be delighted to see us as well, once we get to the academy I¡¯ll begin packing right away.¡± That said they continued along the road to the academy with little more in the way of conversation, Siesta doing all she could to keep from humming in happiness at getting to visit Michael.

    Reigate Castle (Albion): POV (Michael)

    After talking with Siesta Michael had immediately called Tabitha and informed her of what was more than likely going to happen. Once he had instructed her about what to do, which didn¡¯t take long since Tabitha wasn¡¯t much for conversation, he had hung up and was now leaning back in his chair deep in thought. ¡®So, the episode with Wardes and Wales was about to begin. Depending on their travel method and when they leave they could arrive in as little as two weeks, or in a month.¡¯ Indeed, the biggest issue was timing; not only did he have to continue with his campaign, but he also needed to be in Norwich when they arrived and a possible two week margin of error for travel time was certainly irritating.

    ¡®Of course, this is all assuming Siesta manages to convince Louise to come to Norwich, if she can¡¯t, or if she isn¡¯t even allowed to tag along then this whole thing becomes much more difficult.¡¯ This particular event is quite the important one, if Michael isn¡¯t there when Wardes and Louise meet up with prince Wales, then some heavy shit will go down. Tristan will essentially be fucked, and Louise will end up either married to Wardes, or much more likely, could be killed since she¡¯s not a void mage anymore. ¡®I¡¯m fairly sure that Louise will take Siesta along, after all based on what Siesta has told me they have been getting along pretty well and since she doesn¡¯t have me or Saito with her she¡¯ll want a friendly face around that¡¯s not someone she¡¯s betrothed to, the fact that Siesta is another female should help tremendously with the decision.¡¯

    Feeling a bit more confident that things will happen slightly more according to plan, Michael turned his attention to other more immediate issues, ¡®After all, if worst comes to worst I could always strong arm the situation by stationing forces at the location where they meet, have them kill Wardes after he assassinates Wales and then capture Louise and lock her up in a holding cell until I can make my appearance, explain and/or make some threats, and then send her back to Henrietta with my condolences. But that¡¯s an absolute last resort kind of plan.¡¯ With those thoughts and plans made he picked up one of the many reports that lay scattered across his desk.

    It had been a little over a week since he had moved to Reigate and repairs for the most part had been completed thanks to the large number of earth mages he had brought in; the walls were all repaired as well as any other stone structure. However, now that he had taken up residence here he had decided to do some remodeling. The fortresses of the Castle Quartet are going to be repurposed into large weapon production facilities with Reigate taking up the additional role of experimental weapon producer. There was already several production facilities finished and were currently making ammunition, grenades, and bazookas while awaiting orders to begin manufacturing new weapons that Michael was currently finalizing.

    Aside from that however the only other differences to the original fortress design was that the towers are now sporting howitzers while the walls now had pseudo pillboxes interspaced along their tops. Add to that a series of trenches and obstacles and you¡¯ve got yourself a real nightmare of a fortress to assault if you¡¯re medieval infantry. The garrison however was not as large as it should be though, since Michael needed his troops for scouring the countryside for new recruits and nobles while wiping out any Reconquista garrisons in the small towns and villages located beyond the Castle Quartet, thus capturing (read: liberating) them. His forces were also assisting in training his new recruits therefore adding to his army in preparation for his next target city, Anglia.

    Anglia, unlike Norwich, was a true major port city; while Norwich was a indeed a port city, it was in truth a small city when compared to Anglia which was one of two major port cities in the south, both of which catered mainly to Gallia, so capturing one of them would seriously hurt the Reconquista and supply a large recruitment pool since Anglia¡¯s population was roughly two hundred fifty thousand, add to that several thousand more in the surrounding countryside and you¡¯ve got yourself a sizable potential army that would allow Michael to deal with any pesky army that the Reconquista could send his way from the western side of the country while he moves the rest of his force up along the eastern coast straight towards the capitol, the largest and most populous city in the country, once he took that city then he¡¯d have all the troops he¡¯d need to finish conquering (read: uniting/freeing) the rest of the island nation.

    ¡®Ah, so much to do, I wonder if I should just conjure up a few robot-girls and send them after Cromwell, it¡¯d certainly take care of the problem.¡¯ His musings were thankfully interrupted by a knock on the door.

    ¡°Come!¡± The door opened to reveal Quinten.

    ¡°Quinten, buddy, welcome to Reigate. Did you just get here?¡± Michael asked in his usual friendly manner causing a smile to appear in Quinten¡¯s face.

    ¡°Yes sir I did, I came just as soon as I could wrap up everything in Norwich.¡± Ever since Michael departed Norwich to go to Reigate in an attempt to stay closer to the frontlines, Quinten had been governing the port city and trying to get the various levels of administration setup that Michael had said he wanted developed. Not only that but Quinten had also been tasked with setting up a special institution dedicated to teaching others how to govern the way that Michael described he wanted his cities and towns governed. These individuals that studied at that institute would become the new governors, mayors, and other officials once Michael¡¯s army started adding new territory to his slowly growing nation.

    ¡°I take it that everything is going according to plan then?¡±

    ¡°Indeed sir.¡± Quinten then took out some files. ¡°At last check all training facilities are full to capacity, factories are at maximum output, and before I left the first of the new 50cal machineguns were completed. I brought thirty of them with me from the production lines in Norwich.¡± Michael¡¯s face took on a wide smile at that; the 50cals were based on the M2A1 Browning 50cal heavy machine gun and of course would fire AP rounds. Currently they would be used in a more defensive role since 50cal MGs are far too heavy to charge into battle with, so for now until combat vehicles are created to mount the MGs on the use of 50cals are going to be limited.

    ¡°Excellent, the MGs will be a perfect addition to the castles pillboxes, not to mention MG nests, especially concealed MG nests, will be a horrendous experience for any attacking force. I¡¯ll also get the facilities here started on producing more 50cals so that we can get the rest of the Castle Quartet equipped with them, once that¡¯s done we¡¯ll start sending them out to the various Regiments we got.¡± Nodding once more Quinten made some notes before saying.

    ¡°Understood sir I¡¯ll get the MGs distributed and in production here as soon as we conclude this meeting. Also the newest batch of recruits will be deploying shortly and Briek has been promoted to Colonel as per your orders.¡±

    ¡°Good, I want him to lead the army that we¡¯ll be sending north once it¡¯s assembled and ready to move, reports say that a large Reconquista army has been seen gathered and recently departed from Carlow, we¡¯ll need to act fast if we hope to intercept it before it reaches the Quartet.¡± Quinten once more nodded but Michael continued before he could comment. ¡°Also, how goes project reaper?¡± Quinten grinned at the question before answering.

    ¡°The first five teams departed for Anglia shortly before I left Norwich.¡± Michael chuckled at the fiendish gleam in Quinten¡¯s eyes, after all the ¡®reapers¡¯ as Michael calls them were his version of Special Forces, meant to fulfill the roles of infiltration, assassination, sabotage, counter-terrorism, counter-espionage, and black-ops the reapers were to be the forces under Michael¡¯s command that every foreign nation¡¯s leaders were to fear, once they learn about them. The reapers were also labeled as to officially not exist. The first teams of reapers were being sent to Anglia in order to prepare the city for the arrival of the revolutionary forces by sowing as much chaos as possible to make the Reconquista forces holding the city easier to dislodge. ¡°Also sir if Colonel Briek is not going to be leading our forces to take Anglia, then who will be?¡± Michael just looked at Quinten and said in a manner-of-fact way.

    ¡°I will, but I¡¯ll also be taking Majors Jayden and Ruben with me. Once we have secured the territory between there and Norwich, trained the recruits we end up getting, and then consolidating the resulting army near Anglia¡¯s city limits, the infiltrated reapers will be given the order and will soften up the city defenders for us about a day or so before the attack, leaving them demoralized and afraid.¡± Over all it was a good plan, one even Quinten could understand, however it didn¡¯t mean it was going to be easy, after all Michael¡¯s army was currently only around thirty thousand men, not enough to take a major city like Anglia and despite the newest batch of troops out of Norwich, those men weren¡¯t meant for Anglia.

    ¡°Well sir I agree that it is a sound plan in principle, I must ask if it¡¯s really a good idea to attack Anglia so soon since there is a large force heading here from Carlow. We don¡¯t have enough forces to take Anglia and then head off the other army. Wouldn¡¯t it be better to take everything we have and destroy the advancing enemy army first, take Carlow, and then Anglia?¡± Michael just sighed at that, he had been expecting that question.

    ¡°It may seem like that would be the smarter thing to do, however if we do it that way it would present us with an overall harder campaign. Reason being is that currently the nobles think us as nothing more than rebellious peasants that got lucky once and thus whoever is in charge of Carlow is content to basically ignore us. However, if we did do it your way and sent are forces to destroy the approaching Reconquista army and then went on to take Carlow then the entire Reconquista will recognize that we are a legitimate threat and will then begin levying more troops, fortifying their cities, and assembling numerous large armies to crush us. Thus once we take Carlow we¡¯d need to immediately move on to capture the rest of the larger cities between there and the capitol as quickly as possible pausing only in order gather, train, and arm new troops in order to limit the amount of time the Reconquista has to arm-up.

    While all that is happening, the other cities in the south and south-west are doing the same thing and therefore we would have to worry about that front as well. That is the reason I want to take Anglia first; it would give us a head start in securing that flank letting us either hold off any armies sent against us from the south-west, or destroying them and slowly and carefully advancing further in that direction. Not to mention that when we take Anglia there would be a much greater delay in the time it would take for the Reconquista catch wind of what happened because at that time Anglia would be almost entirely surrounded, letting us first build up our forces from the resulting recruitment pool, creating a buffer between Anglia and the cities west of it, and then sending even more of our forces towards Carlow and its army.¡± Quinten¡¯s eyes were wide and his jaw was wide open as he heard Michael¡¯s reasoning and then realized just how far ahead his leader had thought.

    ¡°B-but what about the advancing army? We don¡¯t have enough time to take Anglia and train the recruits we¡¯d get from it before it arrives; I know you said that you¡¯d be sending Colonel Briek but even if we sent him with the new recruits from Norwich they¡¯d be heavily outnumbered, there¡¯d be no way they could win.¡± Michael nodded grimly at this as he further explained his plan.

    ¡°That is true; currently we can only send the Colonel with roughly twenty thousand troops, thirty at the most if we¡¯re lucky. For this reason Colonel Briek¡¯s objective is not to defeat the encroaching army but instead to halt its progress.¡± Understanding shown in Quinten¡¯s eyes as he realized what Michael was saying. ¡°It¡¯s simple; Briek will be given as many howitzers, mortars, bazookas, and the new 50cals as can be spared, then he is to advance as close to Carlow as he can as fast as he can, and then he is to dig in and hold his position until enough forces can be gathered and sent to reinforce his position and destroy the opposing army and then move on to take Carlow.¡±

    ¡°A solid plan sir, but still, is there no other option for dealing with the Reconquista army?¡± Michael shook his head and explained.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not Quinten; the only thing we could do would be to destroy it first and then turn around and take Anglia second before Carlow. It would let us secure our flank, but it would be just like taking Carlow before Anglia only this time Carlow would be among the cities that get the extra time to fortify because once we kill that army those in Carlow will hear about it while we move on to Anglia and they will spread the word and then everyone else will get even more time to build their defenses making the overall campaign harder and bloodier for us.¡± Quinten, at this point could only sigh as he conceded that Michael was in the right. He then took out his notebook.

    ¡°Very well sir, I suppose the next order of business is to dispatch the Colonel and his forces after getting them equipped with all the extra weapons from the Castle Quartet?¡± At Michael¡¯s nod he continued. ¡°What about you sir, when are you going to leave to join up with your army?¡± This time Michael took out several new files from his desk.

    ¡°In a few more days; first I need to wait until the other new weapons I have commissioned here at Reigate begin production, I want my army equipped with them before I attack Anglia. Also I want to wait at least until they finish taking all the territory around Anglia; I¡¯m hoping to get at least another sixty thousand more soldiers before the assault which shouldn¡¯t be a problem, after all the area around Anglia hasn¡¯t been as heavily conscripted as the province that Norwich is in, add to that Anglia is only garrisoned by its normal city garrison and its defense army that it would normally assemble during war time is currently dispersed in the surrounding territory, territory my forces are busy taking. This means that the garrison should only be around twenty five thousand, I want to attack with overwhelming force to make the battle as quick as possible and to suffer as few casualties as possible.¡± Quinten understood where Michael was going with this train of thought. If he attacks with such a large army then afterwards he¡¯ll be able to send many of them to reinforce Colonel Briek while still having enough forces to secure not only the city but also extra territory for his intended buffer between Anglia and the other Reconquista cities all while the new recruits gathered from the city are trained.

    ¡°Understood sir.¡± Quinten then checks some other notes and then speaks up again. ¡°Something else sir, Axelle reports that progress on most of her projects are proceeding well and hopes to be ready for a visit in a few weeks.¡± Michael nodded at this and chuckled silently. He had assigned several things for her to work on, not all of them military. She was a very eager worker and had already managed to produce a working lightbulb.

    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear, but any visit will have to wait at least until after Anglia is taken.¡± Quinten nodded as he made several notes. ¡°Also make sure she is ready to relocate her lab, I intend for her to eventually be stationed in the capitol, however I want her to first move to Carlow when we ¡®liberate¡¯ it.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir, well that seems to be everything that currently needs to be discussed, unless you have anything else?¡± Michael just shook his head. ¡°Well then, I will get to work, have a good day sir.¡± With that Quinten went to leave, however as soon as he went to open the door he paused for a moment as if remembering something, and then considered something before turning around and asked Michael. ¡°Sir¡­ I have been wonder about something, why didn¡¯t you let the Reconquista and the Royalists fight each other during the battle of the Castle Quartet instead of having us fight both at once?¡± The question caused Michael to stand up and walk to the window that dominated one of the walls in has office, after staring out it and thinking he turned toward and answered Quinten.

    ¡°I was wondering when someone was going to question that choice, it makes sense that it would be you.¡± Quinten just looked confused but Michael continued. ¡°It¡¯s true that normally you¡¯d let to opposing forces fight each other before attacking the surviving and now weaker winner, but I did have a reason to forego that strategy. To put it simply, it was a test, a test to see how we measured up in a real fight.¡± Quinten¡¯s eyes went wide at that. ¡°Think about it; until that day we had never been in a real battle, and what we ended up fighting was similar to a fortress and defending field army, something that we are more than likely going to be fighting against numerous times during this venture. It was the perfect test for our forces, and we won, but still suffered huge casualties.

    We had the element of surprise, was facing two uncoordinated forces, and both of those forces knew nothing about us and constantly underestimated us¡­ and we still suffered such casualties. Now imagine that in future battles we won¡¯t have those advantages, the enemy will know who we are and what we can do. Luckily that battle showed us some of our weaknesses, weaknesses that we can fix thanks to the fact that we didn¡¯t fight a single weakened force, now in those future battles our losses will be less.¡± Quinten was deep in contemplation as he thought about Michaels reasoning for that battle, but eventually he just nodded in acceptance.

    ¡°Thank you sir, for explaining it.¡± Michael just smiled and waved him goodbye.

    ¡°Your welcome Quinten, see you later.¡± At that Quinten left, leaving Michael alone in his office.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Several days later¡­ Anglia: POV (Lieutenant Brian O¡¯Neill) Remember him?

    For the past couple of days LT. Brian and the other four men in his team have been scouting out the port city of Anglia in order to gather intelligence for the approaching revolutionary forces. Brian, like the rest of his team as well as the other teams in the city, were the first trained and deployed ¡®reapers¡¯, the new Special Forces of the revolution. Months ago when Brian had heard the call for volunteers for a special new and secret training program, he had instantly signed up and was thrust forth into some of the most hellish training he had ever conceived of. Learning things that he could never imagine all in preparation to do things he would never have believed, and more than once he thought he was going to die, but he had held on, and now he could safely say that he was ready for anything.

    The training had started even before the battle for the Castle Quartet, and now here he was, paving the way for the revolution to come to Anglia. Currently he and his team were mapping out the locations of the various garrison buildings, from the headquarters to the barracks. Later they were going to plant specially made explosive devises, ones currently only available to the reapers. These explosives were developed to be able to be detonated by dialing a certain number on their vid-phones, it was an ingenious thing thought up by Michael and when Brian had learned about it he was once again amazed by the shear brilliance of his leader.

    It wasn¡¯t just remote explosives (as head had learned they were called) but they also managed to sneak in several bazookas with plenty of rounds each as well as pistols and rifles, including a specially modified version of the rifles they used, a ¡®sniper¡¯ variant. It was basically one of their normal rifles but it had a scope mounted on it that was accurate and let them see over three hundred meters up close, and the barrel was specially made to be completely silent thanks to the use of a painstakingly created wind magic enchantment. Brian had heard that it was the first custom made enchantment developed by Michael¡¯s research and development (R&D) department, specifically by the same mage that Michael himself had put in charge.

    Truthfully Brian and the others couldn¡¯t wait to start causing havoc and living up to their namesake, after all ever since they had snuck in disguised as merchants they had done nothing but walk around pretending to be tourists from Gallia. Since the port city did most of its business with said country, pretending to be from there was the easiest. But they would all do their jobs and wait patiently, at least they all found good sniping positions, gave them a clear line of sight into the governor¡¯s palace.

    Wrotham Forest: POV (Colonel Briek Evron)

    Nervous, that¡¯s how one would describe Colonel Briek right now. Why? Because he was leading an army of approx. twenty eight thousand to purposefully get in the way of another army of nearly one hundred eighty thousand. His orders, block them and do not move. Personally Briek thought that Michael had finally lost it. At the moment he and his army had advanced to within nearly 40km of Carlow, he was honestly surprised that he had gotten so close and still hadn¡¯t encountered the enemy army. So far they had been advancing and claiming any town or village that they had come across. Briek was then broken from his musings by the sound of his vid-phone telling him he had a call, opening it up he saw that it was one of the scout teams that he had sent ahead.

    ¡°Sergeant, you got something for me?¡± He asked to which he got a nod.

    ¡°Yes sir, we have spotted the enemy army approx. twelve km from your position.¡± Briek¡¯s eyes widened before turning to one of his Lieutenants.

    ¡°Call a halt, have the men start setting up a defense line, get the artillery deployed and ready the MG nests.¡± The LT nodded and then set out giving orders while the Colonel turned back to the Sergeant. ¡°Sergeant what is the enemy doing right now?¡±

    ¡°Well sir they appear to be setting up camp for the night, I¡¯m seeing a lot of tents.¡±

    ¡°Very good Sergeant, scout out what you can of the enemy camp and then report back in four hours.¡± The Sergeant nod and hung up. The Colonel sighed; he had located the enemy, now he had to keep them here, luckily he had a plan.

    Later that night¡­

    The enemy camp as it turned out was situated in a huge open field surrounded by woodland with a stream nearby. The tents were arranged in proper and long rows, with the mage¡¯s tents located in the center of the camp formation with the supply wagons located in groups that dotted the camp. Since it was just after midnight the majority of the Reconquista army was asleep with only a few hundred sentries on guard duty patrolling the perimeter and amongst the camp itself.

    Currently Colonel Briek was observing the enemy camp from a small hill near the camp using another one of the new devices to come out of Michael¡¯s R&D department, binoculars; Briek thought that they were the next logical step from telescopes, these particular binoculars were also enchanted to allow someone to see clearly even in the dead of night, which coined the term ¡®night vision¡¯, Briek had heard that eventually there were going to be specially made goggles solely for seeing at night, but that was supposed to be some time from now, he didn¡¯t understand why though.

    While he was observing there are also nearly five hundred of his own men down there in the enemy camp sneaking around and carefully slitting the throats of any guard unlucky enough to be seen, not only that but his men were also assassinating as many officers in their sleep as they can find while at the same time taking note of any special targets that they come across. All this was in preparation for a surprise artillery and rocket strike that was to commence in a few more minutes, he was just waiting for the last of the infiltration teams to return and report any extra coordinates to the howitzer crews.

    ¡°Sir the last of the teams are back and all coordinates have been given, also all rocket teams report ready.¡± Said his accompanying Captain. Briek just nodded before giving a shark grin as he gave the order, this was going to be good.

    ¡°Commence the attack.¡± The Captain gave no reply, instead he spoke into the radio; another of the more logical inventions that came out of the R&D department, this one strait from Reigate meaning that its development was personally over seen by Michael. Working on similar principles as the vid-phone, while it doesn¡¯t have picture, it does allow someone to communicate anyone else that also has a radio provided that they are all on the same ¡®frequency¡¯, making it so that you only need one radio to talk to multiple sources simultaneously instead of many vid-phones. Something that Briek had also learned was that the radio was so new that when his forces passed through Reigate to get their extra weapons, they were actually given every single radio in existence at the time. Thus the Colonel was very grateful for the prioritization given to his forces, especially for how fast the attack actually started once the word was broadcasted.

    Less than a minute; that is how long until the enemy camp was rocked by dozens of howitzer strikes, all of which were targeting the middle of the camp in an effort to kill as many mages as possible. Seconds later the bazooka teams fired and rockets streamed into the camps, some hitting tents thought to be housing mages that had survived the artillery strike, whilst the majority hitting the various supply depots placed throughout the camp. Shortly after that another wave of shells impacted targets all around the camp, by this time the alarm had gone on throughout the camp as surviving officers attempted to organize their troops in an attempt to fight off the attack from an enemy they couldn¡¯t even see. The chaos was intense due to the large number of soldiers who¡¯s commanding officers were currently dead in their beds causing wide spread panic which was further added to when rockets would hit any concentration of troops that could be seen, especially if there was an officer.

    After the third artillery barrage, which had targeted the area of the camp in which the cavalry had set up their makeshift stables which resulted in pulverized horse meat being sent everywhere, a planned five minute pause occurred to allow the Reconquista forces to organize troop formations. Once the five minutes were up those same formations were pounded by shells and rockets, further adding to the death toll and panic. After that last strike Briek turned to the Captain.

    ¡°That¡¯s that, make sure the assigned scout teams are well hidden and give the order for the rest of our men to head on back to the defense line, we¡¯re done for the night.¡± The captain gave the affirmative before issuing orders on his radio, the strikes would halt for now, but every five hours another barrage would be hurled at the enemy camp to keep them on edge or until they moved. The Colonel knew he could keep hitting them, and maybe even cripple the enemy army, but his orders were to keep them from advancing, not to attempt to defeat them. He would do just that, but he was still nervous about the next few weeks.

    POV change: (Marquis Arthur Huxley) Reconquista

    It would take two days before the Marquis would be able to get a full report on his losses from the surprise night attack from the rebels, during that time he had been forced to withdraw his army 10km back towards Carlow in order to escape the range of the rebel artillery which had proceeded to attack in increments of five hours which added to his losses. After he had gotten his army settled the reports had flooded to him, and he became furious at those damn peasants. It had been discovered that dozens of his officers had been killed in their sleep and hundreds of sentry guards were found dead with their throats sliced open, add to that the bombardments had seemed to focus on hitting his supply wagons and the mage¡¯s sleeping area resulting in the deaths of over three thousand of his mages along with the loss of two thirds of his armies provisions, making it so he couldn¡¯t advance his army until resupply caravans could be gathered and sent to him from Carlow and its surrounding territory.

    Yet all this was on top of the troop losses he had taken; thanks to the bombardments of clustered formations, the fires that had been started by them that had swept parts of the camp, and the follow up barrages combined with a rash of desertions brought on by the fear and confusion of the attack and seemingly ghostly slaughtering of sentries and officers had brought the total number of casualties to nearly forty thousand men and mages and the near crippling of his cavalry thanks to the hits to his stables.

    Because of how long it was going to take for provisions to arrive due to the fact that before he left Arthur had requisitioned all extra available supplies in preparation for his renewed campaign, which as it were the reason that his army had departed as late as it did, it was estimated to be at least a week for the caravans to be gathered and arrive. Thus now all he could do was sit there and send out scouts in an attempt to locate the rebels, problem was that in the days since he had started sending them out barley a fifth had returned, and none of them had managed to find the enemy.

    So here he was, still days from being able to move out, he had thought about informing the Duke Louis but had thought better of it; while the night attack had been effective it was still cowardly and an embarrassment for the Marquis since it had stopped him in his tracks. He was angry, but was then broken out of his thoughts by an attendant.

    ¡°Milord, one of the scouts has reported back and says that he had located the rebels!¡± The attendant was breathing hard as he held the scout¡¯s report which the Marquis quickly snatched upon hearing what its contents were. The attendant quickly bowed his head and left as Arthur examined the report. The rebels had established a defensive line just under 25km from the Marquis¡¯s own position. He grinned savagely as he spoke aloud.

    ¡°So that¡¯s where you are? Heh, just a few more days, and then I will crush you wretched commoners.¡± He was seeing red now; soon his humiliation will be avenged.

    Near Anglia¡­ POV (Michael)

    Sitting inside his command tent Michael was reviewing the past week since he had joined up with the army he was going to use to take Anglia; currently the city was surrounded, meaning that all nearby towns and villages were his. The army had grown as well, thanks to freshly trained recruits arriving from other towns and villages, already troop numbers had reached eighty thousand, and would soon surpass his initial hopes by toping one hundred thousand by the week¡¯s end. The latest reports from his reaper teams indicate that they are ready whenever he is; they had planted explosives all over military targets inside the city and had spread dozens of rumors in an effort to demoralize the city garrison.

    ¡°Sir?¡± Michael looked up from the reports to see Majors Jayden and Ruben entering.

    ¡°Majors, welcome, I trust everything is in order?¡± They both nodded and Jayden spoke.

    ¡°Yes sir, our forces are all set for the planned attack, also new estimates put our numbers at one hundred twenty thousand by the time we attack.¡± Michael smiled.

    ¡°Excellent, I¡¯m guessing that some of those towns were larger than we expected then?¡± This time it was Ruben who answered.

    ¡°Indeed, not only that but more signed up than we thought would, it was a pleasant surprise.¡± Michael chuckled at that.

    ¡°I bet¡­ how are the men progressing in their training on the new weapons?¡±

    ¡°The MGLs (Multiple Grenade Launcher), they are coming along nicely.¡± Answered Ruben. The MGLs were commissioned by Michael at Reigate in order to give his men more explosive potential in urban combat without having to rely on bazookas all the time. The concept was fairly simple, since grenade launchers were fairly easy to make, at least as easy as bazookas, all that was required was to make a six-shooter variant that would rotate after each grenade fired. Now his forces could fire directed grenades during combat, and in greater numbers.

    ¡°That¡¯s great; with MGLs taking this city or any other city will be a whole lot easier. Any word from Colonel Briek?¡±

    ¡°The Colonel reports that he¡¯s holding but request that we hurry up.¡± Answered Jayden with a laugh which caused both Michael and Ruben to laugh too.

    ¡°I understand how he feels, he¡¯s trying to hold off a much larger force and isn¡¯t allowed to make any decisive blows, he must be frustrated as all hell at the number of chances that he has been forced to pass up. Thankfully this should be the only time that any of us will need to do something like this.¡± The Majors both nodded at Michael¡¯s words; they too were frustrated that this one city was preventing one of their own from advancing.

    ¡°Well sir, just a few more days and we can begin.¡±

    ¡°True enough Major, true enough.¡± With that the Majors saluted and exited Michael¡¯s tent, once again leaving him alone with his thoughts. ¡®This city is yet another test, let¡¯s see how we do.¡¯

    Inside Anglia¡­The night before the attack¡­ POV change: (LT Brian)

    It was time for them to strike; all five of the reaper teams had been given the order to commence their operation of softening up the city defenders in preparation for tomorrow¡¯s assault. Currently two men from each team were located in a position to give them a clear line of sight of the mage barracks to allow them to fire their bazookas at it. The city guard barracks for the commoner soldiers had been rigged with explosives, at least the largest one had been. The city actually had several barracks for its guards and the reaper teams simply didn¡¯t have enough explosives for each one, so they had decided to just hit the largest one, since it would have the most officers in it.

    ¡°All reaper teams this is team one, report in.¡± Ordered Brian on the new radios that had recently been smuggled in for them.

    ¡°This is team two, ready.¡±

    ¡°This is team three, in position.¡±

    ¡°This is team four, all set.¡±

    ¡°This is team five, we¡¯re a go.¡± Brian smiled, this was it.

    ¡°All teams, on my mark; three¡­ two¡­ one.¡± He didn¡¯t say anything else; he didn¡¯t have to for as soon as he said one, five rockets sped out from five different places and impacted the fancy looking barracks were the privileged aristocratic part time city defenders all slept peacefully. After that all the teams reloaded their launchers and fired again; each team was to fire three time before regrouping, however after the first shot the other members of the reaper teams all detonated their remote explosives destroying not only the largest city guard barracks, but also many of the watch towers that surrounded the city which were now flaming ruins. Other explosives went off at the more luxurious inns that catered exclusively to rich nobles, killing many in their sleep. Finally, various explosions went off at the base of the wall towers that protected the governor¡¯s palace causing several to collapse.

    Brian smiled in delight at the destruction that was caused and when the last of the rockets hit, he and his teammate quickly moved to where the rest of his team was waiting and when he arrived he immediately picked up the radio.

    ¡°Alright reaper teams, time to go to work.¡± What followed was three hours of pure murder as the five teams of specially trained men called reapers made all efforts to live up to their namesake. They all essentially ran around killing nobles and city guards all the while leaving threats mainly addressed to the aristocracy as well as prophetic messages to the city defenders as to the futility of surviving against the coming attack. By the time they called it a night the city was in a chaotic panic as tens of thousands of people awoke in fright at the sounds of explosions and screams and the guards were all freaking out at the destruction and death that came from seemingly nowhere, by dawn the whole city was in a frightened daze, and when they saw the approaching army a wave of dread swept through the hearts of the defenders.

    Back at the inn that Brian¡¯s team was using as a base of operations he reached for the radio and switched to a new frequency before speaking.

    ¡°Reaper team one to Angel King, mission complete, they are ready to receive the good word.¡± He waited a few seconds before he got a reply.

    ¡°Copy that reaper¡­ Hallelujah.¡± Brian¡¯s laughter seemed to echo throughout the panicking city.

    Outside the city¡­ POV change: (Michael)

    Gazing out upon the lines smoke from last night¡¯s ¡®incident¡¯ Michael was marching at the head of one of the many battalions in his largest army to date as it slowly advances towards the city. One hundred twenty thousand men of the Albion revolutionary movement against Anglia¡¯s poultry city guard force of severely demoralized twenty five thousand, however it gets better, thanks to the attack last night that force is actually been reduced to less than twenty thousand due to the largest barracks being destroyed, the mages barracks, and the various towers destroyed, the reapers rampage, and the deserters that resulted from the fear campaign. Now seeing the force arrayed against them their flimsy courage was quickly breaking causing hundreds to abandon their posts.

    Michael used his binoculars to observe the city wall he was marching towards and noticed that many of the city defenders had assembled on it and he couldn¡¯t help but chuckle, ¡®This is going to be a slaughter.¡¯ He then turned to address the two Majors who were flanking him on horses.

    ¡°This is it gentlemen, take your positions.¡± They both nodded and rode off.

    As the army came to within 600m of the wall it suddenly came under heavy bombardment by the dozens of howitzers at his army¡¯s rear as the wall was hammered and soon whole section were reduced to rubble. At 400m the bombardment ceased and as it did Michael drew a sword he had acquired for this battle and thrust it into the air while he pulled out the Samaritan.

    ¡°TO OUR DESTINY, CHARGE!!!¡± At that he and thousands of others in his army raced towards the blasted ruins that were once the city¡¯s wall. As they reached it one could see that it wasn¡¯t only rubble that littered the ground but also blood and gore as it would later be learned that nearly half of the remaining garrison had gathered at the wall only to be obliterated by the artillery strike along with it. Thus once past the wall only stunned token resistance was encountered allowing the revolutionaries to pour into the city unchallenged.

    The first thing that Michael did when he got past the ruins of the wall was point his weapon at a man in fancy clothes holding a sword-wand and blow his head off, and then fired two more rounds at the mages bodyguards killing two and causing the rest to flee only to be gunned down by the battalion of men behind Michael. Advancing through the city was painfully easy for Michael as he simple followed one of the main roads towards the governor¡¯s palace; it seemed that once Michael¡¯s forces began filtering though the city nearly all resistance broke as reports from other front line units are constantly saying that the city guards are literally throwing down their weapons and scattering, only in rare cases were they had mages with them did they try to fight back, but thanks to the reaper teams, there weren¡¯t many mages left.

    About three fourths of the way to the palace was when Michael finally encountered something that actually impeded his progress. Several squads of men looked to be pinned down in some buildings and were taking some serious spell fire. Working his way to one of them he asked.

    ¡°What¡¯s the hold up here Sergeant?¡± Said NCO turned to look at him before answering.

    ¡°Sir, a group of mages and guards have erected an earthen wall and are keeping us pinned with lots of spells, we can¡¯t attack without getting cut to pieces or burned alive, those guards also seem to have muskets.¡± Michael peaked around the cover he and the Sergeant were hiding behind and saw a rock wall made of the very street they were walking on. He also saw at least a dozen men in gaudy clothes with various foci at the ready and other men in armor with muskets ready to fire.

    ¡°Have you tried calling in artillery?¡± He asked only to receive a shake of the head.

    ¡°Can¡¯t do that sir, too many civvies around and in the buildings, we also can¡¯t use bazookas because they can¡¯t get a clear shot without getting hit by the enemy.¡± Michael just looked over the area before smiling.

    ¡°Just leave this to me and my boys, ready your guy¡¯s bazookas to fire when I give the command.¡± The Sergeant just nodded before Michael addressed a few of the officers he brought with him. ¡°Okay ready, alright COVERING FIRE!¡± At the order everyone started mass firing at the enemy position and as soon as they took cover behind the wall Michael shouted. ¡°MGLs, NOW!¡± Several of his men that had the grenade launchers fired several rounds each at or over the wall and as soon as they went off he gave another order. ¡°NOW SERGEANT¡± The Sergeant gave a shout and four bazooka wielding soldiers burst from cover and fired, blowing huge holes in the rock wall. Seeing this, the Sergeant gave another shout.

    ¡°ATTACK!¡± Dozens of formally pinned down men suddenly bum rushed the former enemy position and quickly over took it, capturing or killing what few surviving Reconquista troops that were left.

    After that little delay Michael had reached the palace wall with no other issue; when he arrived he saw that hundreds of his men had gathered and were taking pot shots at the defenders.

    ¡°Captain, what¡¯s the hold up, why haven¡¯t we beached yet?¡± The Captain turned to see who had addressed him before answering as soon as he saw who it was.

    ¡°Just waiting for more troops to arrive before we storm it sir.¡± Michael nodded but also said.

    ¡°Well we have enough now, call in a strike, it¡¯s time to finish this.¡± The Captain nodded smartly before signaling his radioman, seconds later a barrage of howitzer shells slammed into the wall, blowing holes and blasting defenders. When it was over Michael then shouted another order. ¡°Bazooka teams blast the gate!¡± At his command several rockets demolished the wood and metal gate. ¡°Alright boys lets end this!¡± With that hundreds of troops charged through the wrecked gate and any holes in the wall. As Michael reached the gate he addressed one of his men. ¡°Lieutenant, take some men and secure the gatehouse!¡± Said officer nodded and got to work, then the same Captain from before reported to Michael.

    ¡°Sir¡­ just heard that Major Jayden has also breached the palace and is already nearing the throne room.¡± Michael just laughed before saying.

    ¡°Well then, we had better get moving before we miss out on all the fun.¡± The resulting journey towards the throne room was surprisingly dull, while there was evidence of fighting along the way; they encountered no resistance by the time they arrived. When Michael entered the throne room he was treated to the sight of several pompously dress men and their heavily armored guards on their knees with their hands on their heads all with looks of fear, shame, and in the case of one porky fellow, outrage. Standing over these individuals was Major Jayden and a company worth of men, Jayden also had a cocky grin on his face.

    ¡°Looks like I one won sir.¡± Michael just laughed at that.

    ¡°I guess so Major you lucky bastard you.¡± They both had a good laugh, and then Michael turned to look at the one Reconquista goon with the angry look on his face. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you are the governor person?¡± The stupidly dress piglet somehow turned plum purple as he began to rage at Michael.

    ¡°YOU INGNORANT, UNGREATFUL, WORTHLESS PEASANT, WHEN THE REST OF THE RECONQUISTA HEARS ABOUT THIS YOU WILL BE SKINNED ALIVE, I WILL¡­¡± He never finished as Michael pistol-whipped the loud mouthed grease ball. Then he whispered to one of his Lieutenants.

    ¡°Take this asshole outside, force him to dig a deep hole, and then shoot him and bury him in said hole.¡± The LT grinned fiendishly and then carried out his orders with glee. Then he gestured for the rest to be taken away before speaking to those left. ¡°I must say good job everyone, now let¡¯s wrap this up.¡± Everyone then saluted and dispersed to do their jobs. Michael then walked over to lookout one of the windows; the fighting was pretty much over and as he watched the various Reconquista standards and banners get torn down he suddenly had a thought.

    ¡®We really need a flag.¡¯

    Several days later¡­ Wrotham Forest: POV (Marquis Arthur Huxley) Reconquista

    To say that Marquis Arthur was frustrated would be like saying that nobles liked gold; it just doesn¡¯t grasp the intensity of the emotion. Several reasons can be attributed to his current state of unrest, and it all relates to those rebels in the woods. When the Marquis finally got his resupply caravan the first thing he did was to send a small vanguard force of about twenty thousand to determine the effective range of then enemy¡¯s accursed artillery, after getting themselves blasted all to hell and thus losing nearly eight thousand men, Arthur was able to relocate his forces to just outside the enemy artillery range at 15km from the rebel defense line. Further scouting efforts also gave him a rough estimate of enemy troop strength at nearly forty thousand, which resulted in him ordering seventy five thousand of soldiers to launch what he hoped to be a rapid but decisive battle as his forces more or less rushed the enemy line hoping that if they could move fast enough they could minimize the losses they¡¯d suffer due to the artillery.

    It was a disaster; barely thirty six thousand demoralized troops managed to make it back. Battle reports indicated that despite their rapid advance they still suffered intense casualties, however the true devastation came when they got to the enemy line; the bombardments only intensified and the troops ended up taking insane levels of incoming musket fire that wiped out whole companies in seconds, over all the battle lasted about fifteen minutes before the commanders were sounding the retreat.

    That was a week ago, since that mockery of a battle the Marquis had suffered even more losses in the form of mass desertions by soldiers desperately trying to get away before they are forced to face that demonic army again. As a result he was left with just over eighty thousand men, less than five thousand are mages. Over the last few days he has had the camp converted into a pseudo fortress by having his mages summon up stone walls while his troops build wooden palisades and towers in preparation for a counter attack that he knows should have happened days ago.

    ¡°Damn it!¡± The Marquis shouted as he slammed his fists on the table. ¡°Just what are those bastards waiting for!?¡± As if in response to is question the camp was suddenly rocked by earth shaking explosions. Running outside he saw tents and what few structures that they had erected get blown apart along with sections of the wall and palisades. Towers too erupted in flames as they were hit from the sides rather than above and parts of the wall blew inward. The attack lasted for only a few minutes and thankfully wasn¡¯t as damaging as it was last time due to extra spacing between tents and structures, but it still cost them. When it was over Arthur just looked around at the damage and couldn¡¯t help but feel a combination of both anger and confusion.

    ¡®They moved their founder-accursed artillery forward, but then why this sudden random attack, they have been silent all this time.¡¯ His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden shout.

    ¡°ENEMY ATTACK!¡± Before it was silenced by renewed shelling. Comprehension finally came to the Marquis, ¡®This is it!¡¯

    ¡°Everyone ready yourselves it¡¯s the main rebel attack!¡± He then looked towards one of the openings in the wall and saw just how big the attack was; thousands of blue uniformed men were charging out of the forest just like at Reigate. As he saw the numbers he realized what the rebels had been waiting for all this time, reinforcements. As he observed the enemy he noticed several get immolated and saw that some of his mages had taken to manning the walls and were launching spells, then with horror he noticed a few of the rebel soldiers hefting those tube-rods on to their shoulders. ¡°GET OFF THE WALLS!¡± He yelled but it was too late and those same mages were consumed in fire.

    All around him his camp was being obliterated by explosions as the rebels¡¯ advanced from all sides and soon they began pouring through the breached wall and began shooting his men. He moved to draw his sword-wand to start firing spells but as he did his command lodge, one of the few wooden structures built, suddenly exploded sending him flying. When he regained his wits about himself and attempted to get up he felt a horrendous pain in his chest, looking down he saw a large chunk of wood in his chest. Looking around he saw as his vision darkened his men get shot down and blown up with little effort; as his sight left him his last thoughts were, ¡®Who are these men?¡¯ Thus Marquis Arthur Huxley passes.

    POV change: (Colonel Briek Evron)

    Staring down at the body of the now deceased Reconquista commander, thoughts of what had transpired to lead him here to this ruined and corpse littered former enemy camp. For weeks Colonel Briek had held his position in the Wrotham forest prepared to weather any attack with only thirty thousand troops. But as the days past all that happened after that first night attack conducted by his forces was numerous scouting parties, one probing force which he easily dealt with, and one other actual attack that he managed to repel with heavy use of artillery and machinegun fire. By the time of that attack his forces had grown to just over forty thousand from newly trained recruits from the various towns and villages that had been taken weeks before hand. After that attack the Reconquista forces just sat where they were and just fortified themselves.

    Then just the other day the long awaited reinforcements from Anglia had finally arrived after traveling strait from their overwhelming victory. By the time they had arrived Briek¡¯s army had grown to sixty thousand, Michael had generously sent him ninety thousand, so his new army had increased to one hundred fifty thousand troops, more than enough to finish off the estimated eighty thousand left in the encampment. So the next morning his forces had picked up everything and then advanced the 15km distance to finally attack the enemy. The first thing they did was position the howitzers, then the mortars, and finally maneuvered to surround the Reconquista camp.

    After an opening barrage to soften them up and blow holes in their fortifications Briek then gave the order for a full on attack under the cover of bombardment. With the enemy defenses in shambles, their moral low from past losses and shelling, and any attempt at organizing themselves constantly disrupted the whole battle lasted less than an hour before all Reconquista forces were either dead or had surrendered. Speaking of surrendering enemies, they had taken over thirty thousand prisoners from this later battle, once their leaders and mages were seen as dead the commoner soldiers began losing heart and throwing down their weapons by the hundreds. In the end they had only lost around twenty five thousand men. Add to that another five thousand to escort their thousands of prisoners and Colonel Briek was left with one hundred twenty thousand soldiers to take Carlow, coincidently the same number of troops used to take Anglia, what are the odds?

    ¡°Sir?¡± Briek looked over at one of his Lieutenants. ¡°Sir the regiment assigned to escort the prisoners has just departed.¡± Briek nodded at this and then said.

    ¡°Alright then, have the rest of our forces form up and start moving on out to Carlow, we have nearly 30km to march and I want to get as far as we can today before we need to stop for the night.¡± The Lieutenant gave an affirmative before saluting smartly and heading off to complete his orders. The Colonel watched as his men formed up and thought to himself. ¡®This little ordeal is almost over with, time to wrap things up.¡¯

    Two days later¡­ City of Carlow: POV (Duke Louis Lefroy) Reconquista

    He couldn¡¯t believe what was happening, it shouldn¡¯t be happening, it couldn¡¯t, but it was. His city, his beautiful, his wonderful city was being invaded nay, sacked, plundered, by¡­ by¡­ rabble, peasants, commoners. These strangely garbed plebeians armed with odd looking muskets were rampaging all throughout his glorious city and Duke Louis just didn¡¯t want to believe it. It happened so fast too; they appeared suddenly at dawn on the hills overlooking Carlow and then proceeded to surround the city. Within a few hours they had completed their encirclement, and that¡¯s when it began; powerful artillery started raining destruction upon the city, hitting the defense walls, the garrison buildings, some even hitting his beautiful palace.

    They had begun their advance on the city even while their bombardment continued and by noon they were inside the now ruined city walls and started clashing with and routing his city guards. Even the cities defending mages couldn¡¯t stop them and as the battle continued the Duke began to more and more regret giving the Marquis Arthur so many of his troops. Because of that blasted fool his cities defenders were down to a mere sixty thousand, less than half of what it should be, all thanks to him foolishly lending his forces to the Marquis.

    More explosions rocked the palace and dozens of his guards and numerous noble underlings had congregated here in his throne room with him. Another one of his men, this one a Captain, ran into the room and had several of his accompanying men close and seal the large double doors.

    ¡°Milord the enemy have breached the palace walls and are quickly advancing, they will be here within moments.¡± The Duke¡¯s men had formed a defensive wall in front of their lord and were readying themselves. At hearing they were almost upon him the Duke raged.

    ¡°Brimir damn them commoners, who are these men?!¡± The Captain could only guess.

    ¡°I do not know Milord, but based on what has been seen they appear to be the rebels that the Marquis Arthur described.¡± The Duke¡¯s eyes widened in disbelief.

    ¡°Impossible, I gave him over one hundred thousand men to crush that rabble, how can they be here attacking me in my OWN HOME!¡± The Duke yelled in frustration, the Captain tried to say something to calm his lord but before he could the doors to the throne room exploded inwards knocking several guards off their feet. Before the fire from the blast even receded shots from the enemy¡¯s strange muskets were already impacting the defenders killing many of the guards. Return fire came in the form of spells and from the screams it sounded like some of the invaders were hit, but it didn¡¯t deter them as they rush in still firing their weapons and ducking behind pillars for cover.

    Now slightly fearful for his life the Duke used his ornate staff foci and fired off some ice spears and actually killed one of the barbarians, however his victory was short lived as his staff wielding arm was blown off. He fell to the floor screaming and clutching his bloody stump of a shoulder. Looking around the Duke saw the Captain he talked to on the ground missing most of his head, the vast majority of his guard were dead or face down on the ground with their hands on their heads. There were others like himself that were wounded, but he then noticed the fighting had stopped.

    ¡°Alright, all surviving mages drop your foci and surrender, NOW!¡± The Duke looked towards the door where the commanding voice had come from to see another of the uniformed plebeians walk in holding nothing but some kind of pistol flanked by two others, he walked right up to the Duke and spoke further. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that you are Duke Louis?¡± He asked with heavy impudence, much to the ire of the Duke. Gritting against the pain he was feeling he answered.

    ¡°Yes I am you ungrateful commoner, and you will show respect to your betters!¡± The Duke¡¯s yelling did nothing to the strange commoner, instead he calmly spoke.

    ¡°I will, when I am in the presence of any that meet that description.¡± A small smirk formed on the man¡¯s face as he said that, further enraging the Duke, but continued before he could berate the commoner. ¡°My name is Colonel Briek Evron of the Albion revolutionary movement, and as of now the city of Carlow now belongs to us, do you surrender?¡± That set the Duke off.

    ¡°I WOULD NEVER SURRENDER TO A FOUNDER DAMNED PEASANT, I WOULD SOONER DIE THAN DO SUCH A DISHONORABLE THING!¡± The infuriating plebian just smirked and brought up his pistol and aimed it at the Duke¡¯s head.

    ¡°Wish granted.¡± The second to last thing that went through the Duke¡¯s head was of just how much he would make this commoner suffer, the last thing that went through his head was the bullet.

    City of Norwich: POV (Michael)

    ¡°So that¡¯s what happened?¡± Asked Michael as he talked to Colonel Briek over his vid-phone. For the past few minutes he was getting the preliminary report about the battle of Carlow.

    ¡°Yes sir, the city is ours and the ruling lords are all either dead or captured. Estimates put our losses at nearly forty thousand casualties.¡± Michael nodded grimly at the numbers, unlike Anglia, Carlow had most of their mage garrison plus their city guardsmen were far better trained, numerous, and their moral wasn¡¯t in the gutter.

    ¡°Well in any case good work taking the city, I¡¯ve currently some important business to take care of in and around Norwich that¡¯ll take several days, so I¡¯m going to leave the consolidation of the city to you as well as the recruiting. If you need anything just give Quinten a call, he¡¯ll help you out.¡± Briek nodded and replied back.

    ¡°Understood sir, if there¡¯s nothing else I¡¯d like to get to work.¡± Michael just shook his head.

    ¡°No that¡¯s all, I¡¯ll contact you later.¡± With that he hung up.

    Reason being that Michael is in Norwich is that shortly after the capture (again read: liberation) of Anglia he got a call from Tabitha informing him that they were at the port city of Dunkerque, the same city that he and his forces had used during their crossing to Albion three months ago. Apparently they too were going to use that same port to come to Norwich. So upon hearing that Michael had high-tailed it back to Norwich leaving Major Jayden in charge of Anglia and sending most of his forces over to Colonel Briek. Now here Michael was, sitting in his old office in the former governor¡¯s palace waiting for Louise and friends to show up.

    ¡®Oh well, at least once I finish up with the Wales and Wardes story arc I¡¯ll finally be able focus all my attention on the revolution¡­ just a little longer.¡¯

    Chapter End

 Chapter 7. The Mission and The Reveal

    <u>Chapter 7</u>

    Airship to Norwich: POV (Tabitha)

    The wind was silent yet steady and the night sky was clear giving full view of the stars, perfect weather for sailing. Of course all this was irrelevant to Tabitha as she stood on deck waiting away the final few hours till they made port. Albion had been spotted in the distance a short time ago and she had little interest in sleeping right now despite nearly everyone else on this little cargo vessel that she found herself on. Now, normally Tabitha would have her face buried in a book, engrossed in the pages of the story to both pass the time as well as to block out all the mundane ramblings of the people around her, both friend and stranger, which she had little to no interest in most of the time. However, the journey had been a long one and Tabitha had the misfortune of exhausting her current supply of books, extensive as it may have been, and thus she found herself once more bored and inadvertently recounting the, in her opinion, needlessly long trip between the academy and Albion.

    At the insistence of the Princess the small party of Tabitha, Louise, Kirche, Siesta, and Wardes went on their trip via horseback instead of using both Wardes¡¯ and her own flight capable familiars in order to ¡®remain inconspicuous¡¯; a notion that Tabitha believed to be asinine and a waste of time. One part, however, that had slightly amused her was that at one point before they all left the academy it seemed that they would have to suffer the presence of Guiche; thankfully though, once it was made known that they would be meeting up with Michael, he quickly found an excuse to be unable to accompany them. The way he said it made it seem like such an unfortunate loss for the entire group, though Tabitha was far more thankful then she let on that he wasn¡¯t tagging along with them; yet something else to be grateful to Michael for.

    Over all, the journey was fairly calm and for the most part boring aside from a small number of mentionable events. First and foremost was when they had decided to take a shortcut through what was known to be orc infested territory in order to shave off a few weeks of travel. All throughout the detour they were constantly on the lookout for orc attackers, ones that never came; this is not to say they never found any orcs, quite the contrary, for as they were passing through a small valley they came to a rather shocking sight. On each side of the road they traveled were mirrored fields of massacred orcs, hundreds of them, all rotting and still being picked over by carrion eaters. The gruesome sight brought a chill to each of them and at first there seemed to be no clue as to what caused the carnage until Louise spotted a small piece of brass half buried in the road, this first find lead to a few more. All the pieces were there same; hollow cylinders with one end sealed, Tabitha recognized instantly that they were what Michael called ¡®bullet casings¡¯. She felt a wave of awe at the sight of what Michael¡¯s small force had managed to do to a numerically superior force of orcs and suffer what appeared to be no casualties.

    Other than the orc graveyard the only other ¡®major event¡¯ to occur, aside from a few bandit attacks, was an ambush from Fouquet of all people. It was just under two days from Dunkerque when the ground suddenly shook and a monstrous earth golem rose from the ground with Fouquet herself standing on its shoulder laughing maniacally and spouting threats about how it was the end of the road for them. Of course the attack failed; between the four mages in the group Fouquet¡¯s golem lasted a spectacular six minutes before it collapsed into a pile of dirt and Fouquet disappeared into the surrounding forest. That was the last bit of real excitement for the weeks long trip that they had been forced to endure.

    One last bit of interest, at least to Louise and Wardes, was once the party had arrived at Dunkerque. They all had been walking around the docks looking for a ship to charter when they began to overhear conversations between dock workers and shipmen about how Norwich had been lost by the Royals; this itself wouldn¡¯t have been more than a bit of bad news considering it was surrounded by the Reconquista, but then a similar discussion spoke of the nearby port city of Anglia also falling to the same group that took Norwich, a group that had been described as a rebel army. This information had set Louise off in a worrisome rant at Wardes whom intern proceeded to down play what they had overheard as baseless and absurd rumor. It had calmed Louise somewhat, at least enough so that they could finally get a ship to take them to Norwich, not an easy task considering most everyone of the ship captains worried enough about the rumors that they didn¡¯t want to risk a run in with a rebel group who could capture entire cities.

    Tabitha of course had a better idea of what was really going on and so hadn¡¯t shown any worry about anything, not that she would have in any case, Kirche hadn¡¯t paid any attention, her thoughts had been fixated on seeing Michael again, Siesta also didn¡¯t seem to have any worry either and just continued to show her contented smile and fully satisfied that they were going to be meeting her Master fairly soon. Speaking of Siesta¡­

    ¡°Ah, hello there Ms. Tabitha, I suppose you couldn¡¯t sleep either?¡± Asked the young maid as she approached the petite blunette. Tabitha, in her usual way just shook her head in the negative and wore her usual expressionless mask. ¡°Hmm, I see¡­ just enjoying the quiet night then?¡± Another soundless answer, this time in the affirmative.

    ¡°Thinking.¡± She supplied this time.

    ¡°About?¡± Queried the maid.

    ¡°The mission.¡± Simple answers and yet, said more than enough.

    ¡°Yes, I suppose that it has been quite a task, though one could argue that it hasn¡¯t really begun yet, we¡¯ve only now just about reached our relative destination.¡± She leaned against the railing on her arms as Tabitha nodded slowly and continued to stare at the slowly growing land mass in front of her. ¡°It¡¯s been such a slow journey, though I for one think it has been well worth it if only to see Master again, do you suppose he will allow me to stay with him this time?¡± She asked with a slight dreamy under tone to her voice.

    ¡®Such a one track mind.¡¯ Tabitha thought to herself before answering. ¡°Possibly.¡± Siesta though didn¡¯t seem to hear as she went off into her own little world as she stared out into the horizon no doubt fantasizing about all the things she and Michael could and most likely would do together. Eventually the turned back to Tabitha and said.

    ¡°Well Ms. Tabitha, I believe that I should get at least some rest tonight, I must also let Master know that we are hours away from port, goodnight.¡± Tabitha merely nodded once more as the maid left.

    ¡®Yes, we¡¯re almost there.¡¯ She thought to herself as she just went back to quietly waiting.

    Elsewhere on the ship¡­

    ¡°That little mage girl freaks me the fuck out.¡± One of the crew members standing watch said to his fellow shipmen who just nodded as they both watched the blunette stand there stock still staring at the slowly approaching land for the past few hours. When she turned to stare at them the both jumped and started looking busy. Tabitha smiled slightly.

    Port City of Norwich (Albion): POV (Michael)

    Sitting at his desk waiting for Louise and friends to show up Michael was keeping himself occupied by going over reports of the city¡¯s urban modernization progress. Aside from the numerous mage driven factories churning out weapons and ammunition the city was also in the process of having a brand new sewage system installed as well as water mains and pipelines laid in order to eventually grant the entire city with indoor plumbing. The whole process was actually proceeding much faster than it ought to given the level of technology available all thanks to the city¡¯s mages. With the steady influx of new mages from surrounding territory and the burden of arms manufacturing being eased by the acquisition of Anglia and other small cities and larger towns, a small percentage of mages, mainly earth mages, were reassigned to work on the new city wide project.

    The procedure was fairly simple; the mages would unearth a section of street, then they would form first stone pipes of certain sizes, and then said pipes would be transmuted into copper, the next best thing since PVC pipe was currently beyond anyone. The last step was to then rebury the section uncovered and then move on. Truthfully all this is just prep work since there are no pumping stations to actually supply the water to the pipes because they are still being built and the special spells that will power them are still in development. Not to mention that the factories producing toilets, sinks, and bathtubs are still working on meeting their orders to supply every building with at least one of each, plus they still need to be installed and hooked up to the water system. Current estimates put the city¡¯s plumbing at several months from completion.

    One bit of better news was that the electric grid is nearing completion and outlets are present in nearly all buildings and streetlamps have become a common site, the power plants are also nearly completed and once Axelle finalizes the new electricity generation spells/enchantments they will supply the entire city with free power. Michael was excited when he read the report that Axelle had sent him on the new spells that he had suggested she try to make a reality, the reports said that she was putting the final touches on them and that they would be ready within the month. These spells weren¡¯t just for the power plants but also had application in so much more, especially for one particularly classified project.

    Aside from basic utilities being installed there were also emergency services being implemented; police, fire, and medical facilities were begin built and staffed throughout the city as well as schools, libraries, and eventually commercial businesses were being established. The whole city was being used as a test bed by Michael to modernize his soon to be new nation; as kinks and snags were being discovered and solved the lessons learned would be used to modernize the rest of the population centers on the island and make the whole progression proceed far more smoothly.

    The final report that really caught Michael¡¯s attention was the one on Prince Wales; basically Michael had always known the Prince¡¯s location at the church like building and had the location surrounded and cordoned off, but recently Wales and a few of his remaining knights had abandoned this area and moved into the surrounding hills due to an unexpected attack by Reconquista assassins that had somehow gotten through Michael¡¯s guards and attempted to off the young Prince. The attack failed but apparently spooked him enough to move to a more hidden local. Michael still knew where he was so it wasn¡¯t a problem, but he ordered security beefed up all throughout his territory to stop any more attacks as well as possible spies and saboteurs.

    Leaning back in his seat Michael began to contemplate how he was going to handle the interaction between himself, Louise, and the Prince. ¡®Obviously both are going to be ruffled at the fact that I and basically conquering Albion and overthrowing the aristocracy and destroying their very society. Louise especially is going to blow a gasket when she finds out; frankly I can¡¯t decide whether to consider the idea frightening or hilarious, hmm¡­ I guess it shall all depend on the face she makes, and also whether I can get her wand away from her in time.¡¯ Michael¡¯s musings were cut short by a swift knock at the door. ¡°Yes?!¡± The head of one of his guards poked in and answered.

    ¡°A Ms. Valliere and company to see you.¡± Michael smiled broadly at the news that they were finally here.

    ¡°Excellent, show them in immediately.¡± Nodding the guard left and minutes later the door opened again, and from it a shout and a blur.

    ¡°DARLING!¡± Kirche exploded into the room and literally pounced onto Michael wrapping both her arms and legs around him forcing him to grab onto her panty clad ass to hold her up. She then proceeded to smash her lips against his and he ended up stumbling back to lie on the desk.

    ¡°Hmmph¡­¡± Michael¡¯s wide eyed surprise and muffled voice quickly turned into one of mirth as he reciprocated the kiss and purposefully groped Kirche¡¯s tight arse. Unfortunately the happy reunion was cut tragically short by an impressive shriek.

    ¡°KIRCHE, WHAT THE HELL?!¡± Louise¡¯s uproar snapped the others out of their stupefaction as Wardes snapped his attention to Louise in surprise for her outburst whilst Siesta had one hell of a ticked mark on her head and an incredible forced smile as her patience was tested in unbelievable ways as she rushed in.

    ¡°M-Ms. Kirche please let go of Master!¡± Siesta was giving an amazing amount of effort to remain respectful but anyone looking could see her nearing a breaking point. Hearing the outburst from Louise and the request from the obviously irritated maid, Kirche released Michael¡¯s lips with a gasp and turned her head to address the others, specifically Louise.

    ¡°Now, now Louise can¡¯t you see that I am expressing how much I have missed darling these long months?¡± Even while out of breathe she still managed to sound teasing and it made Louise all the more livid.

    ¡°I DON¡¯T GIVE A DAMN, LET MICHAEL GO RIGHT NOW YOU DAMNED HARLOT!!!¡± Louise was visibly steaming right now and the whole scene caused a ¡®sweat drop moment¡¯ for Wardes and Tabitha who are watching the whole back and forth.

    ¡°I agree with Ms. Louise, please get off of Master!¡± Siesta was starting to fret as she desperately tried to think of a way to dislodge the red head from her Master. Instead of complying to the two other women however, Kirche instead proceeded to press her body against Michael¡¯s even harder and even started rubbing against him a bit all the while pouting.

    ¡°Oh come on you two, I¡¯m just so happy to finally get to hold my darling after all this time, can¡¯t you all just give us some time to ourselves, maybe an hour or two?¡± The question was asked so innocently but all it did was inspire so much more anger.

    ¡°NO!!!¡± They both shouted and by that time even Michael started to get nervous, quickly clearing his throat he addressed the clearly horny girl dry humping him.

    ¡°Ehem, ah Kirche, I think we should save this for a different time, after all you are all clearly here for some important business.¡± Kirche looked back at Michael and re-doubled her pout.

    ¡°B-but darling¡­¡± she began but was cut off by Michael.

    ¡°No buts Kirche, off, now.¡± Reluctantly and slowly she got off of him and when she stood up she had a look that one might think someone had butchered her favorite puppy and then told her that her favorite kitten was next. Seeing the look on her face Michael leaned in close and whispered. ¡°If you are a good girl I might do something extra special before you have to go back to the academy.¡± Hearing this Kirche suddenly brightened and all but skipped back over to stand with Tabitha. Smiling, Michael then approached Siesta with his arms out. ¡°Siesta, it¡¯s good to see you again.¡± He said as his arms circled around his maid and as he did this she cuddled into the hug and rested her head against his shoulder.

    ¡°*Sigh* It¡¯s so good to see you to Master.¡± She said contently, her previous anger forgotten. After a few seconds of this Michael let go and walked over to Tabitha, much to Siesta¡¯s great loss.

    ¡°Tabitha, I must say you no doubt had a rough trip with those two loud individuals, way to tough it out.¡± He gestured Louise and Kirche who both humph¡¯d. As he did this he then patted the blunette on the head earning a blush. Praise and affection, not something Tabitha has ever really gotten since she lost her mother, and getting it now, even though there was nothing really praiseworthy, it nearly brought her to tears and she had to force herself not to tremble. When he stopped and moved on to Louise it took everything she had not to whimper at the lost contact but she quick reasserted her self-control and reapplied her stoic mask.

    As he approached Louise with his big friendly smile, she couldn¡¯t help but breakout in a smile herself as she said. ¡°Hello Michael it¡¯s ni¡­*EEP*.¡± She squeaked as instead of letting her finish he proceeded to wrap her in a bear hug and lifted her up like she was a stuffed toy. ¡°You brute, put me down, down I say!¡± Though it was said loudly there wasn¡¯t a hint of anger or malice and she was almost giggling as she said it. Chuckling Michael set the little mageling down.

    ¡°Oh Louise, like I could resist giving a big hug to my favorite summoner.¡± They both gave a bit of a laugh at that.

    ¡°As if you had any other summoners.¡± Big grin on her face as she said that.

    ¡°HA! Like I need any others.¡± Again the both laughed.

    ¡°Still, it is not proper to greet a noble like that.¡± Michael gave an even bigger laugh at that.

    ¡°As if I would let that stop me.¡± With that he turned to look at the only other male in the room, Wardes, who looked like he couldn¡¯t decide whether to be confused or amused. ¡°Louise, I believe that it¡¯s time you introduced me to this¡­ individual here.¡± This cause Louise to blush slightly as she had to introduce two of her favorite people.

    ¡°Um, Michael this is Sir Wardes, he is my f-fianc¨¦, and Wardes this is Michael.¡± Louise looked cutely embarrassed but Wardes came to her rescue and introduced himself more properly.

    ¡°Greetings Michael, I am Viscount Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes, captain of her Majesties griffon knights.¡± He said it like he was important and Michael nearly laughed his head off and started to spill the beans about who Wards really was, but kept himself in check and instead ¡®properly¡¯ introduced himself.

    ¡°Greetings to you as well Wardes, I am Michael, leader of the Albion revolutionary movement.¡± He said with his shark grin on his face. Hearing this both Louise and Wardes gave a startled gasp.

    ¡°Michael, you mean to tell me that you are the leader of those commoner brutes out there!?¡± Louise nearly shrieked the question.

    ¡°Now Louise, that¡¯s not very nice, those men are my soldiers, and this is my city, and also yes.¡± He relied, still all smiles much to the shock of the pinkette.

    ¡°B-but, WHY!¡± She let burst out. Michael went to and sat on his chair like it was a throne as he explained.

    ¡°It¡¯s simple Louise; the aristocracy is far too corrupt to allow it to continue to abuse the common man, and the common man has live for too long under such mistreatment, they have had enough and thus they have chosen to cast off their shackles and fight for their freedom and I have given them the power and leadership to do so.¡± Louise was speechless; here was Michael, perhaps greatest thing to have ever happened to her, the one who gave her back her proof of nobility, her magic. This person was now leading a movement meant to bring down her society, a society put in place by her version of Jesus. This revelation nearly brought her to her knees. Sensing this Michael tried to move things along. ¡°However, enough about that, what brings you to Albion?¡± He asked pretending not to already know everything. Wardes quickly answered.

    ¡°We are currently on a mission from the Princess to both deliver and retrieve something of great importance from Prince Wales.¡± Michael feigned surprise at this.

    ¡°Prince Wales, is that who you need to find?¡± At Wardes¡¯ nod he continued. ¡°Well it¡¯s a good thing you came to me first, I know the general area where he can be found.¡± This surprised both Louise and Wardes.

    ¡°You do, how?¡± Asked Wardes.

    ¡°Because one of the first things I did when I took this city was to send out scouts around the city to learn of anything of interest, low and behold one of the things they had learned was that the Prince was hiding a few miles north-east of here in some forested hills, since then I have kept tabs on the Prince¡¯s movements, it¡¯s a good thing you got here so early in the morning, if all goes well we should be able to get to him by mid-afternoon.¡± Wardes was all business now and despite Louise¡¯s shock over Michael¡¯s revelation wanted to get moving right away.

    ¡°I see, than we should set out at once.¡± Michael just nodded and hopped up and grabbed his greatcoat.

    ¡°Okay then let¡¯s go!¡± Michael then set out the door closely followed by everyone else, a quick stop by the front desk to explain that he was leaving for the day he then led everyone out to the stables where the saddled up and set off towards the hills where Wales was last reported. It was a quick and silent ride as the mood took a down ward spiral after Michael¡¯s admittance to being what was considered essentially a rebel leader. Eventually after hours of riding they turned off the main road onto a trail that no one but Michael even noticed and continued for nearly another mile before they came upon a downed tree with a trio of hooded men behind it.

    ¡°Whoever you are you do not belong here, turn back now and you will not be harmed.¡± The one in the middle shouted while simultaneously pulling out his sword-wand. Seeing this Michael turned to Louise and Wardes.

    ¡°I believe this is where you two come in.¡± Wardes nodded and nudged Louise, she startled before realizing she was up. Drawing upon her noble self-entitlement she addressed the three.

    ¡°We are envoys of her highness Princess Henrietta De Tristan on a diplomatic mission to Prince Wales of Albion.¡± The trio looked slightly startled at this announcement; nonetheless the apparent leader was still standoffish.

    ¡°What proof of this do you have that you are who you say you are and not assassins sent by the Reconquista?¡± Louise looked highly insulted by the implied accusation.

    ¡°I am no such thing; I have with me as proof the Princess¡¯s royal ring.¡± She held up her hand showing the water ruby ring causing the leader to climb over the fallen tree and approach Louise whilst removing a glove and revealing a ring of his own and holding it up to Louise.

    ¡°Hold your ring up to mine.¡± With slight hesitation Louise complied, as the rings met a spark of light flashed between the two rings and became a rainbow of color. ¡°Air and water form to make a rainbow, this proves us both.¡± With that the leader lowered his hood and showed them all his young face and blonde hair, causing Louise to stutter.

    ¡°P-Prince Wales, my apologies h-had I known¡­¡± Louise was freaking out much to Wales¡¯ amusement, but he took pity on her and tried to calm her fears.

    ¡°If you had known then I would be in serious trouble, in fact the fact that you even knew I was around here worries me greatly, how did you know of my whereabouts?¡± At that Michael raised his hand.

    ¡°That would be me Prince; I have been keeping track of you for months.¡± Wales looked unsure of himself at this information.

    ¡°I see, well we can address that later, for now, I must know what my dearest cousin would find so important as to send such young envoys on a mission to find me.¡± At this Louise took out the letter from Henrietta and handed it to Wales.

    ¡°The Princess told me to give this letter to you and to retrieve another that she gave you in the past.¡± Wales took the letter with obvious enthusiasm while at the same time looked confused about the whole thing.

    ¡°Letters, all this for a pair of letters? Well, I know of the one she speaks of, but it is back at my camp, if you would follow us we could arrive quickly.¡± At this Wales pocketed the letter he got from Louise and he and his guards retrieved some hidden horses and together everyone went around the fallen tree and made their way to Wales¡¯ camp were the rest of his surviving knights awaited. There were only about half a dozen of them, but each one looked strong and loyal to their Prince. ¡°Welcome to our camp, it¡¯s not much but for now its home.¡± Said the Prince as they all entered the camp and dismounted their horses. ¡°The letter you seek is in my tent, please wait here while I retrieve it.¡± With that he went into his tent.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that the Prince is forced to live in the middle of the woods like common bandits now, all because of those treacherous Reconquista!¡± Blurted Louise as she observed the campsite and its minimal accommodations.

    ¡°Oh Louise, it is not as bad as you are making it sound.¡± Said the Prince as he exited his tent, Louise blushed at being over heard by the young royal. ¡°I have found the letter you seek, but I¡¯d like a minute to read the newest letter my cousin has sent me.¡± Louise just nodded shyly as Wales opened his letter and began reading, after a few minutes he just sighed and kissed the letter before folding it back up and pocketing it. ¡°Well, it seems that your mission is far more vital to the Princess than I had believed; very well, here is what you seek.¡± Said Wales as he took out a very worn-out envelope and held it out, before Louise could even think to move Wardes moved quickly; closing the distance between him and Wales faster than even Michael could believe.

    In one smooth motion Wardes grabbed the letter in Wales¡¯ out stretched hand while simultaneously drawing his sword-wand and skewering the Prince¡¯s heart. Then, before anyone could do more than look surprised Wardes quickly withdrew his weapon and spun, rattling off a spell and unleashing a wave of wind-blades at Wales¡¯ collected knights slicing them to blood chunks. This was not the end of his attack however, as he completed his twirl he brought up his fist that was clutching the letter and pointed it at his original group, and all suddenly froze mid movement. A fiendish and triumphant smile showed on his face as he saw how the others were paralyzed.

    Louise had never moved more than enough to convey her utter shock and horror at Wardes¡¯ actions, same as Siesta. Tabitha was actually in the middle of chanting a spell and was only a syllable and a gesture from completion while Kirche was still in the process of reaching for her wand. As for Michael, he was trying to raise his Samaritan but only got it a quarter of the way up and even now was gritting his teeth in struggle trying do desperately move to shoot this bastard. Everyone was confused as to what was happening, at least until they noticed a soft glow coming from Wardes¡¯ gloved hand; see as they noticed it Wardes calmly pocketed the letter and then removed his glove revealing what could only be the ring of Andvari.

    ¡®Fuck, Fuck, FUCK! Why the fuck does he have that, Cromwell was supposed to have the ring NOT Wardes, when did he even get it!?¡¯ Michael was¡­ slightly nervous that Wardes had ended up with the damned water spirits treasure, however his opinion on the matter was nowhere near as strong as Louise¡¯s.

    ¡°WARDES! W-what is all this!? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!!!?¡± Even when fully paralyzed Louise can still scream out anything, but in this case it just made Wardes chuckle.

    ¡°Why¡­ I am completing my mission.¡± He said nonchalantly and confusing Louise even more. ¡°*Sigh* Allow me to elaborate; my mission had three objectives, first was to acquire this.¡± He began as he patted the pocket with the letter. ¡°The damning letter that Princess Henrietta wrote to Prince Wales, the contents of which would doom the Princess engagement to the Germanian Emperor and thus destroying any chance at an alliance between Tristan and Germania. The second objective was to kill said Prince, speaking of the Prince.¡± In one swift motion he turned towards the Prince who was on his knees and still alive, Wardes had actually missed Wales¡¯ heart thanks to a reflexive movement by the young Prince and had only gotten a lung, but he was still frozen by the ring. The Prince just looked on defiantly as Wardes pointed his weapon at his face, smiled and then spoke a quick spell and sent a javelin of wind in to Wales¡¯ face, leaving a large hole in his head.

    ¡°NOOO!!!¡± Louise could only scream as the Prince¡¯s now thoroughly dead body fell backwards from the force of the attack. Chuckling once again he turned back to Louise.

    ¡°Well, now that that is taken care of my next objective would have been you.¡± He said much to the young pinkette¡¯s bafflement. ¡°However as I have discovered over the past few weeks it seems as though you have been rendered useless to me, such a shame.¡± The sting of being called useless by the one she had admired for years was probably the greatest wound she had suffered today and now she was sobbing as she desperately tried to understand.

    ¡°W-why¡­ *SOB* Whyyy¡­? *SOB*.¡± Tears were streaming down her face, and finally Michael was able at say something through clenched teeth.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you get it Louise, this damn pedo is Reconquista?¡± The realization was like a smack to the head for her. But Michael¡¯s words had drawn Wardes¡¯ attention as he stalked over to him.

    ¡°Quite astute of you to realize it Mr. Rebel Leader. However from what I have learned you are the one responsible for making Louise useless to both me and my employers.¡± With that he uttered a spell, waved his sword-wand and sent an air-hammer at Michael, sending him flying into a nearby tree. Michael¡¯s enchanted greatcoat the only thing saving him from broken bones, though he did get the wind knock out of him. See him still alive, Wardes walked to where Michael landed and pointed his weapon at him intending to finish him off like Wales. ¡°Humph, seems you are tougher than you look, fitting for someone who has been such a nuisance for the Reconquista. Since I cannot complete my third objective I¡¯ll have to make up for it by killing the one responsible for ruining the descendant of the void and the instigator of the damned rebellion which will no doubt fall apart without it¡¯s leader.¡±

    Michael could only look defiant as Wardes opened his mouth to speak the spell that would end him. A thunderous *BANG* however was heard instead followed by the sight of the side of Wardes¡¯ head exploding outwards in a mess of bone fragments and grey matter. A fraction of a second latter his head jerked to the same side with a barely audible snap signifying his neck breaking, this also forced the rest of his body to fall the in the same direction. The expression on his face never changed from the one of pure assurance of victory even as he hit the ground.

    With Wardes¡¯ death the power of the ring of Andvari ceased to function and everyone found themselves able to move and the first thing they did was snap their attention to the now former Viscount and then to a ruffling bunch of foliage to see five individual exiting and approaching Michael as he got to his feet.

    ¡°Damn Lieutenant, could you have cut it any closer?¡± Michael said to the head hooded guy as he step up and revealed his smiling face, showing it to be Lt. Brian and his reaper team.

    ¡°Sorry Sir, had some heavy assed undergrowth to work our way through, and that was after the stop we had to make at Reigate in order to pick up our new sniper rifles, one of which just saved your head¡­ Sir.¡± He commented as he hefted said weapon.

    It was a very new addition to his military; resembling the Barrett M82, the SR-Mk.1, or just SR-1, is the first true sniper rifle in Michael¡¯s army. Like all weapons in his fledgling military, the SR-1 is designed modularly and to be very easy to maintain and repair. This is where the slight changes from the M82 come in, so slight that the changes would only be apparent to real weapon experts and only if they disassembled the rifle, since that is the only real change, the way the parts are designed to be more modular, aside from that it is almost an exact copy. The only notable thing about this weapon is the use of special enchantments made to significantly reduce the noise of each gunshot as well as to reduce the overall weight of the weapon. Lastly, unlike the M82, which uses a 10 round magazine, the SR-1 uses a 15 round magazine.

    ¡°Well, I guess I¡¯ve heard worse excuses to almost be late.¡± Michael replied with a chuckle, then looked at Wardes¡¯ corpse and crouched down, retrieved the letter from his pocket and took the ring of Andvari from his finger and putting it into his own pocket before stand back up. ¡°So ends Viscount Wardes, local chapter leader of NAMBLA and Reconquista lackey.¡± His statement wasn¡¯t really understood by anyone but it brought a smirk to his face. He then went over to Wales¡¯ body and took his royal ring and the other letter from his pocket and turned to Brian. ¡°Lt., have you and your men give the Prince a good burial and then clean up this campsite, after that head on over to Carlow and await further orders, gather up the rest of the teams along the way.¡±

    ¡°YES SIR!¡± He acknowledged with a salute and then signaled his men to get to work. Michael then turned to Kirche.

    ¡°Kirche, be a sweetheart and torch the other corpse please?¡± The amorous redhead just nodded gently with a light smile and took out her wand and set to work. Michael¡¯s next task was the miserable looking Louise, walking over to her he took a knee and placed his hands on her reluctant shoulders. ¡°Louise, I know there¡¯s nothing I can really say to make this situation any better, but for what it¡¯s worth I¡¯m sorry that Wardes turned out to be what he was, and I want you to know that despite how it may seem you aren¡¯t alone, no matter what I¡¯ll always be here for you.¡± He said as sincerely as he could. Louise, despite learning that Michael was a rebel leader, suddenly broke down and jumped into his arms and just sobbed her heart out, letting out all her pain at being betrayed by the one she was supposed to be betrothed to. All Michael could do was hold her and try to whisper comforting words into her ear.

    Once Louise had finished her sob fest, the girls and Michael all saddled up and started their trip back to Norwich. The journey took until just after dark and like the ride out had been a quiet one and a bit more somber. When they got back to Michael¡¯s place, which was basically a royal hotel suite in a fancy hotel, Siesta took the now exhausted Louise to one of the bedrooms and set to getting her to sleep while Kirche and Tabitha went to ready themselves for bed too. Sometime later Michael found himself back in his office reading more reports and other such paperwork when his door suddenly opened and both Siesta and Kirche walked in, both dressed in light sleepwear, where they got it from is anyone¡¯s guess.

    ¡°Well Master, Ms. Louise is now fast asleep.¡± Started Siesta, to which Michael nodded as he got up and walk around to the front of his desk were he crossed his arms and leaned against it.

    ¡°Yes, she has had a tying day, what with me, Wardes, and the Prince, both of whom ended up dead, I doubt she was awake more than a couple minutes after her head hit her pillow.¡± Siesta merely nodded as well before Kirche began.

    ¡°Tabitha has secluded herself to her room with an arm full of new books she found from somewhere.¡± She informed with a musing smile. Michael just smirked at that.

    ¡°Heh, yea if there are books nearby and Tabitha is in need of reading material, you can bet she¡¯ll find them.¡± They all laughed at that and Michael could¡¯ve sworn he heard someone sneeze. ¡°But I suppose we should all get some sleep no-oomph¡­¡± Once more Michael found himself being lip locked by an over enamored redheaded bronze busty teen. The make out session lasted until Siesta finally got over her shock at the boldness of the Germanian girl to sputter out a sentence.

    ¡°M-M-Ms. Kirche p-please release Master!¡± Kirche managed pull her face from Michael¡¯s and just looked at Siesta with an amused smirk.

    ¡°I have a better idea dear, why don¡¯t you come and join us, I know I have missed darling dearly and I have little doubt you have missed him too.¡± Her voice was inviting, seductive, and teasing all at once. Poor Siesta suddenly found herself squirming with conflicted desire as a part of her felt she had to hold back and didn¡¯t know why while the other part of her desperately wanted to be with her Master. Michael solved this internal struggle by holding out an inviting arm and saying the words she needed to hear.

    ¡°Get over here and join the love.¡± That¡¯s all it took as she launched herself into that arm.

    ¡°MASTER!¡± Thus a three-way make out started as Siesta did her best to match Kirche¡¯s lip lock while Kirche kept on trying to up the ante. Both their hands were roaming all over him and his hands were doing the same; fondling, groping, and teasing enough to make them all worked up.

    ¡°Um, girls, I think we should really get to bed.¡± While it was a suggestion, it held a lot of promises so they did go to Michael¡¯s bedroom, eventually. Though the door was only across the room, neither one of the girls wanted to stop the make out session and it is very awkward trying to walk three people at the same time. But once they got into the room the clothes started flying off at impressive speeds and soon they were all naked atop his bed with Michael on his back with the other two on top in a make shift sixty-nine position. He had two sets of hands and lips working his steel rod trying to coax out what he had been saving up for quite some time, all the while he had two luscious backsides in his face, one for each hand. He put two fingers in each girl¡¯s quim and a thumb for the clit, as he set himself to work teasing the two beauties in front of him.

    This continued on for some time as one of them would have most of his length in their mouth while the other would work his sack, every so often one would take her mouth off him and let out a deep groan or breathy whimper as her body shuddered from his fingers. Eventually he felt the telltale signs of his long awaited release.

    ¡°Ohh girls I¡¯m about to cum, augh.¡± With that his three month dry spell ended and he let out spirt after spirt on the two as they never let up on their work one bit. After what felt like hours but what was really just over a minute or two he finally relaxed and looked at his work. Both had gotten their faced fairly covered while also taking a good amount in their mouths, when they saw that he was done shooting they started cleaning off each other¡¯s face and sucking out any left in his shaft, all while only using their tongues. As they were doing this they were also taking ample amounts of time kissing and sharing and by the time all three were clean Michael had been licked back to full hardness. Seeing this both smiled vivaciously and Siesta asked the question on both their minds.

    ¡°So Master, which one of us gets to have this first.¡± To accent the query she teased the head a bit with a finger. Michael gave his own naughty smile.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve got an idea.¡± With that he got up and in a short couple of minutes he had them on the bed in a proper sixty-nine position with Kirche on top and Siesta underneath with him looking on from his seated position on a nearby plush chair. ¡°Okay, rules are simple, first one to get the other to cum first, gets to play with me first, go!¡± They both hesitated for a second before Siesta surprisingly struck first by plunging her tongue into the bronze hot box on top of her eliciting a breathy moan from the redhead. This motivated Kirche into action as she too muff-dived into the maid under her drawing out a squeak of a whimper as the two finally got into the pleasurable competition.

    As Michael sat back and enjoyed the erotic act of girl-on-girl pleasuring he began to notice the differences in technique the two were using. Kirche lived up to her ardent personality and applied the philosophy she lived by to what she was currently doing and was going at it feverishly and passionately; licking, sucking, and nipping at everything she could see doing all she could to build up an amorous fire before letting explode out in a roaring inferno to give the greatest pleasure she could.

    Siesta on the other hand, was going at it with a gentle assertiveness, working any sensitive spot she could locate to bring out a firm and efficient climax. She had Kirche panting and gushing quite nicely and she must have thought to finish her off with a surprise because she inserted her fingers into Kirche¡¯s little backdoor, however while it definitely upped the redhead¡¯s excitement it wasn¡¯t enough to finish it since Kirche has done extensive anal play with Michael before so it didn¡¯t have the effect Siesta was hoping for. It did however give Kirche the idea for she too drove a finger in to maid¡¯s tight rosebud and quickly found an intense spot, while at the same time working all the other sensitive parts furiously. That was it, Siesta¡¯s eyes shot open, her hips buckled, and her scream was loud though muffled as her long stoked up climax exploded out of her, it was so intense that a geyser of juice erupted from her pussy and splashed into Kirche¡¯s face and neck, soaking her. Kirche¡¯s smirk of triumph was short lived however, as the vibrations from Siesta¡¯s scream and the excitement of making her orgasm set off Kirche¡¯s own climax, as her eyes shut tight and her mouth opened in a silent scream.

    The orgasmic scene lasted for some minutes as the two held each other tight as they trembled in ecstasy. When they finally calmed down, they both just laid there in a sweaty and gasping mess though it was clear that Siesta was the most worn out from the ordeal and Kirche was looking at him expectantly, Michael¡¯s shark-smirk was on full display.

    ¡°Well, while it¡¯s obvious that you both enjoyed that, the winner was Kirche; now bring that bronze ass over here.¡± With much eagerness Kirche got up to her feet and did her best to sashay over to Michael on her quite shaky legs. When she got to him she got up onto the chair with him and without any preamble lined him up and plunged it all in. As her ass met his lap she let out a shivering sigh at finally being so full again, Michael meanwhile quickly had a hand on her hip and another latched on a breast with fingers teasing and tormenting its nipple. This treatment had Kirche riding him for all she was worth in seconds and their lips were lock again. After a few minutes Kirche slammed herself down, raised head to look at the sealing and screamed out.

    ¡°Oh Darling YES!!!¡± Her orgasm had her violently shaking, jerking, and thrashing wildly. Michael didn¡¯t stop though, and instead stood up causing Kirche to wrap her arms and legs around him as he then proceeded to pin her against the nearest wall and thrust into her as fast as he could. Poor Kirche¡¯s pussy was frothing in seconds and the orgasm that had taken her before was now being followed up by dozens more as all she could do was weakly hold on for dear life as Michael kept driving into her, seeking his own release. After nearly ten minutes of this he finally gave one last hard thrust and blasted everything he could in the well fuck cunt he was buried in. As he came back down he took a look at his handy work and was pleased to see that Kirche¡¯s eyes were glazed over, signifying that she was very well and truly fucked.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    That done he turned and went to deposit Kirche to the bed where Siesta laid, watching the two rut and was diligently playing with herself, she was quite worked up now and looked at Michael with a pleading needy look.

    ¡°Master, is it my turn now?¡± Michael just smiled and nodded. Siesta then made to get up and go to him, but instead Michael shook his head, confusing her.

    ¡°Just lay down.¡± So she got on her back and Michael proceeded to do her in the missionary position.

    He entered her and then bent down to press his whole body against hers and began kissing her passionately as his hands explored her. Slowly Michael worked his way in and out, gently massaging her breasts and rolling her nipples between his fingers as he coaxed a quiet but long orgasm out of her that left her weak and gasping for breath. As he lifted himself off of her and gripped her hips in preparation for a harder fucking she stopped him.

    ¡°Wait Master, I¡¯d like to do it a different way, please?¡± He looked at her curiously before nodding and pulling out. She smile and then maneuvered herself on to her stomach before raising herself onto her hands and knees then lowering her head to the mattress and reaching around with her hands to grip and spread her butt cheeks. Looking back with a bit of nervousness she asked in a quiet voice. ¡°Master, I¡¯d like you to take me here now.¡± That really surprised him.

    ¡°You sure Siesta?¡± A quiet ¡®yes Master¡¯ was the answer he got. So he thrust into her pussy once more to lube up his cock before placing himself at her puckered entrance and pushing. He quickly got past her sphincter and moved in deeper slowly but steadily.

    ¡°Ah Master, so big ah!¡± When he finally bottomed out he waited for a minute for her to adjust before pulling almost all the way out and pushing back home. He did this for a few minute before she started meeting his thrusts and soon he was going faster and faster. ¡°Oh Master, it feels so good!¡± He was ramming her pretty fast now and she was rubbing her sex fairly fast too. Before he knew it she tensed up and her ass squeezed him almost painfully as she came, hard. For the second time tonight her pussy gushed a steady spray and when her climax let up enough for him to start moving again Michael gripped both of her ass cheeks and started slamming her ass hard and after a few minutes he came deep in her well-toned ass causing her to have another orgasm from the feel of it.

    After he pulled out, which caused Siesta to fall over, he set about rearranging both girls so that their heads were both on the pillows and then he laid between them. When he did both of them cuddle up to him, they didn¡¯t even say good night they all fell asleep instantly.

    The next morning¡­

    When Michael woke up he discovered that he had boob in each hand and a girl at each side. ¡®Now this is how a man is supposed to wake up!¡¯ Taking a nipple from each he tweaked and teased until they both stirred and awoke; they were both still tired but were all smiles anyway.

    ¡°Good morning girls.¡± They smiled and responded with a ¡®good morning ¡®Master¡¯ ¡®darling¡¯¡¯ respectively. ¡°Well now, I don¡¯t know about you two but I could use a bath.¡± They both smiled and nodded and then got up and followed him to his large private bath that had heating and cleanliness enchantments keeping the water both wonderfully warm and clean permanently. Though the purpose was to wash each other they did a wonderful job of getting dirty over and over again, but they eventually got cleaned, dried, and dressed then went on down to the breakfast area where Louise and Tabitha were already eating.

    ¡°Well, look who finally decided to show up, what took you three so long?¡± Michael, Siesta, and Kirche just looked to each other before giggling, and Michael answered playfully.

    ¡°We were just having a¡­ enthusiastic conversation, weren¡¯t we?¡± Siesta managed to get herself under control long enough to contribute.

    ¡°Oh yes Master, quite the¡­ enthusiastic conversation, most enthusiastic indeed.¡± Louise just looked sort of confused while Tabitha just had a ¡®really¡¯ look, but it was Louise that still asked.

    ¡°A conversation, about what?¡± Michael chuckled a bit.

    ¡°Oh, nothing you¡¯d be interested in I assure you.¡± Louise just looked skeptical but surprisingly didn¡¯t press the issue.

    ¡°*Sigh* Well, if you say so.¡± She then got up and started towards the door. ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter though, we need to hurry back to the Princess and deliver the news about Wardes and Prince Wales.¡± As she left Michael managed to pull the other three girls aside for a quick conversation of their own.

    ¡°Okay listen you three; I¡¯ve got some important things I need you each to do. Siesta, you are going to be staying with me from now on.¡± The young maid¡¯s eyes brightened at this as she asked excitedly.

    ¡°Really Master, I finally get to actually be your maid?!¡± Michael just nodded before continuing.

    ¡°Yes I finally have a reason to actually have a maid around, but you still need to understand that I still won¡¯t be around that often and I still don¡¯t have a central residence yet.¡± Siesta didn¡¯t look deterred one bit.

    ¡°That is fine Master; just being in the same country as you is still a massive improvement, plus at least I¡¯ll get to see you a lot more often right?¡± Smiling, Michael answered.

    ¡°Yes that¡¯s true. Now, on to you two; I need you both to accompany Louise and basically be her friends and companions, after the diabolical with Wardes she desperately needs friends.¡± Tabitha just nodded in understanding, while Kirche had mixed feelings.

    ¡°Darling that¡¯s so like you; caring for other and trying to help, though I must say I am quite jealous of the maid for getting to stay with you, I do agree with your assessment of the Valliere, I¡¯ll gladly try to be her friend, if only to make you happy darling.¡± She said that last bit with a smile and immediately set off after Louise. Michael however quickly looked to Tabitha.

    ¡°Tabitha, I also need you to pay attention and report anything interesting that happens around the Princess, since Henrietta is such close friends with Louise she will no doubt keep her close for at least moral support, and as Louise¡¯s friend you should be able to be close as well.¡± Tabitha just nodded that she understood. ¡°Excellent, I knew I could count on you, give me a call when you get back to the capitol and don¡¯t waste your time with horses, use Sylpeed instead.¡± Once more nodding she turned to leave; however before she left Michael couldn¡¯t resist one last parting remark. ¡°Oh, and Tabitha¡­¡± She turned back around. ¡°Next time we visit one another, perhaps you and I could have an ¡®enthusiastic conversation¡¯ of our own.¡± He finished his statement with a wink and had Tabitha quickly turning and leaving sporting a huge blush, unlike Louise, she got the meaning behind that.

    Once outside everyone but Michael and Siesta got on board Tabitha¡¯s familiar and waved goodbye, though Tabitha still had a bit of a blush on her face. Once they were away Siesta turned to Michael.

    ¡°Well Master, it looks like it¡¯s just you and me now.¡± Nodding he just looked at her.

    ¡°Yes, well come on, we need to pack up and get our happy asses to Carlow, I¡¯ve got a battle to plan and to lead.¡± He didn¡¯t even give her a chance to express her confusion; he just turned and went to get started. Shaking herself out of her bafflement she just ran after her Master.

    Around that time¡­ Grampian Plains: POV (Sergeant Jake Sander)

    The Grampian Plains was a large stretch of grass land in southwest Albion somewhere half way between Anglia and Montrose and for the past few weeks Michael¡¯s forces have been having a few small skirmishes with the Reconquista forces. It was never anything impressive, just small units, normally nothing bigger than platoon or company strength as each side sent out forces to gage the other¡¯s response. The Reconquista had mostly stopped sending out larger forces after their repeated failures to break the revolutionary¡¯s lines and when they had learned that Carlow had fallen. Since then the city of Montrose, the last large port city that traded directly with Gallia, had spent it¡¯s time and man power shoring up its defenses and bolstering it garrison.

    Despite the Reconquista more or less abandoning the Plains, Michael¡¯s forces were advancing at a snail¡¯s pace since he wanted to consolidate every town and village liberated by his forces before moving on. However, Sgt. Sander had it on good authority that Michael is about to order a rapid advancement on Montrose and the rest of the deep Albion south once the cities of Armagh and Torquay were finally taken, and since Armagh was next in line this reality was quickly approaching. Because of this and a little bit of prompting by Michael himself, the sergeant and about a dozen others were about to attempt a new type of raiding strategy, one that involved 50cals.

    ¡°Okay boys, looks like we have another group of scouts, lock and load.¡± Sanders put up his vid-phone and signaled his driver. Currently he was sitting in a four horse open carriage with four others, a driver, two bazooka men, and one rifleman. There was another carriage like his hidden in another stand of trees, one of many that dotted the plains, that was also waiting for him to start the attack on the two hundred or so mounted scouts that were coming close to his team¡¯s location. As the enemy reached about three hundred meters Sanders gave the signal to his driver and with a snap of the reins they were off and not a minute later the other team exploded out of their grove.

    When the Reconquista men saw the two carriages come out of the patches of trees they didn¡¯t know what to think, some just stared while others just laughed. None though, thought they were a threat, big mistake. As soon as the carriages got to within one hundred and fifty meters the cloth covers were thrown away and reviled a damning sight for those who recognized what they were seeing. In the back of each carriage was a single 50cal bolted to the floor and two of the dreaded bazookas. Before the leader of the cavalry could give out any orders four missiles were shot at them, two hitting the front of the column and two hitting the back, turning dozens of men and horses into bloody pieces of meat. As the rest of the men realized they were truly under attack, there was nothing that could be done.

    The mage-knights in the group couldn¡¯t get off any spells because the column had been forced to cluster because of the frightened horses and inexperienced men, though quite frankly it wouldn¡¯t have done them any good anyway since not a minute after the bazookas fired the machine guns opened up, spraying high caliber death on the on the horsemen. Since the bullets were armor piercing and none of the men were wearing heavy armor, each round tended to go through two or sometimes even three men, and with two 50cals cutting them up the two hundred man scouting party didn¡¯t last more than five minutes. As the last horseman fell Sgt. Sander waved the other team over.

    ¡°Alright boys, great work, these bastards had no clue what hit¡¯em, lets head back to HQ and report and rearm and get out there for another hunt.¡± A resounding cheer rose up from that and they headed back to the nearest command base.

    Over the next few days scenes like this one played out all up and down the plains, soon the Reconquista were not sending anyone out beyond the immediate area outside their cities, the revolutionary forces have unofficial control of the south.

    A week after the fall of Carlow¡­ Lundonium: POV (Cromwell)

    The leader of the Reconquista, Lord Cromwell, was not a very happy man right now, after all how could he be, he just learned that over an eighth of his kingdom had fallen into the hands of rebels and his army had suffered huge losses. No one could tell him how these rebels had gained so much power or how they had taken so much territory before he had even heard of them.

    ¡°This is unacceptable, how could so many cities and nobles be captured or killed by commoners!¡± He about screamed at one of his lackeys.

    ¡°I h-have no idea milord, they just appeared out of now where, and we can¡¯t explain how they are doing it.¡± The sniveling underling stammered out.

    ¡°Humph, I bet I can guess, they no doubt caught the local lords by surprise, yes that¡¯s it, they were obviously fools and incompetents, it¡¯s the only way that a plebian army could have defeated an army led by nobles.¡± He was utterly convinced that was the reason. ¡°While I would like to send an army with capable commanders to destroy them, I am afraid that with the fall of Carlow the rebels have most likely grown too numerous and to dug in to defeat with the forces we currently have, so we must wait until our forces in the far north finish off the last of the royalist and return back down here to bolster our numbers, then with all our force along with our navy we will drive them from our shore.¡± All the other lackeys were applauding the seemingly logical decision on what to do about the rabble in the south. ¡°Tell me, what cites are left between us and them?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ Armagh and Torquey milord.¡± Said his main underling.

    ¡°Well then, our path is clear, Armagh is of no real use to us, have all but the city¡¯s guardsmen withdraw to reinforce Torquey, we shall send an additional one hundred thousand men and thirty warships as well. We will let the rebels have Armagh while we fortify Torquey, which will keep the rebels at bay until our forces are finished in the north.¡± The underling didn¡¯t look so sure though.

    ¡°Milord, are you sure that it is wise to simple give the rebels more territory?¡± Cromwell looked at the man as if he were a moron.

    ¡°Of course I think it¡¯s wise, do not question my tactical brilliance!¡± The lackey trembled at the raised voice of his lord.

    ¡°F-forgive me milord, I meant no disrespect, I shall dispatch your order immediately.¡± Cromwell just waved him away and turned to look out over his great capitol city.

    ¡®Why can¡¯t any of these fools see my genius, it¡¯s so obvious to anyone with a brain.¡¯ He just shook his head as he mused on the stupidity of those around him.

    Carlow: POV (Michael)

    Much had changed in the past few weeks since the capture of Carlow; a side from the massive repair effort to fix all the damage from the assault, all over the city various improvements that have been implemented in Norwich and other cities have sprung up. Factories, schools, emergency services, and other infrastructure now dotted the cityscape while the people all generally looked much happier and healthier. All this however is not what has Michael¡¯s current attention, no, that was reserved for the new weapon that was currently resting on the table in front of him. The weapon was the first SIMPAR, or Standard Issue Multi-Purpose Assault Rifle. This specific one was called the AR-Mk.1 a.k.a AR-1.

    The AR-1 resembles the Heckler & Koch G3, however it''s shorter, only about thirty-two inches (81.2cm) long. The AR is also matte black in color and sports a number of features not normally found on the G3 such as; an accessory rail system allowing the attachment of special equipment, a vertical grip under the barrel that can be detached and replaced with a bipod or even a grenade launcher, also it has the attachments for a sling and comes with a standard cleaning kit. The cleaning kit can be stored in the buttstock, or if the buttstock is replaced with either the folding or collapsible buttstock, the kit can be stored with the soldiers other equipment.

    The rife is designed to be totally ambidextrous, ergonomic, as simple to clean and maintain as a M16, and utilizes a fully modular design making it capable of being disassembled and reassembled quickly and easily by anyone with minimal training so as to be easily repaired by simply swapping out any damaged pieces, and give the user some customization options. That, in Michael''s opinion, is what makes this weapon so appealing, not only is it the first weapon truly developed by his nation, but it is also the first SIMPAR. A ''Standard Issue Multi-Purpose Assault Rifle''. For the AR-1 that means that with a few add-ons this rifle could serve as a designated marksman rifle by simply equipping a magnifying scope via the rail system and attaching the bipod or the weapon could allow a soldier to act as a grenadier by attaching the grenade launcher.

    Lastly, the AR-1 uses the same 7.62 AP rounds as the M1 variant has been using, but unlike that rifle the AR-1, depending on user preferences, can utilize newly developed ammunition such as anti-dragon rounds or incendiary rounds, all made possible thanks to newly created magical enchantments. All rounds are loaded into 20 or 40 round magazines and there is even the option of a 100 round drum, made available thanks to the selective fire switch allowing for single-fire, three round burst, or full auto.

    This weapon was currently taking priority for the cities manufacturing capacity, his goal was to rearm his entire army eventually, however for now he was focused on just getting the forces that were going to attack Armagh supplied with them. Armed with this weapon estimated casualties were expected to be far fewer than without. As he was about to review the current attack plan a knock on the door resounded.

    ¡°Enter!¡± One of his aids stepped in and handed him a report. ¡°Thank you.¡± The man nodded and left, as the door closed he read the report and as he did his eyes widened and he quickly left to find Quinten. He quickly found him in another office like area and thrusted the report at him. ¡°Is this report accurate?¡± Taking the paper Quinten quickly looked it over.

    ¡°As far as we can tell yes, Armagh has had all its forces accept its standard city garrison withdrawn to Torquey.¡± Michael couldn¡¯t believe it; with that one move the Reconquista had just allowed Michael to advance his plans by several weeks at least.

    ¡°How many men do we currently have ready to attack?¡± Quinten looked surprised by the question but just looked at his notes before answering.

    ¡°Well Sir, we were originally going to send about two hundred and fifty thousand to take the city after they were rearmed with the new AR-1s, but so far we have about eighty percent of the men gathered and trained, however only about twenty thousand are armed with the AR-1.¡± Michael nodded but then asked a follow-up question.

    ¡°Okay and what is the estimated size of Armagh¡¯s garrison?¡± Again Quinten looked at his notes.

    ¡°About thirty thousand guardsmen and roughly ten thousand mages.¡± Michael smiled fiendishly at this and Quinten suddenly understood what Michael was getting at. ¡°Sir, you can¡¯t be thinking about attacking now?¡±

    ¡°Why not; with twenty thousand men armed with the AR-1s and accompanied by howitzer support plus over one hundred thousand more troops in reserve the battle will be a short laugh, after all the only real threat is the cities mages, the guardsmen were practically worthless against us before the AR-1s now they¡¯re practically a nonfactor.¡± Quinten saw the logic but was still unsure.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know Sir, sending so few could cause unnecessary casualties.¡± Michael¡¯s confidence never faltered.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it will be that bad, hell, have Briek lead them, he seems more than capable of handling situations involving him being out numbered, look what happened in Wrotham, and he was being held back.¡± Quinten just sighed.

    ¡°Well Sir if you think it¡¯s a good idea¡­¡± Michael just clapped him on the back.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry old buddy, you know I¡¯d never take a risk I didn¡¯t think was going to pay off.¡± Quinten just smiled, Michael was right, he was always right.

    Armagh: The day of the attack¡­ POV (Colonel Briek Evron)

    ¡®I don¡¯t know whether to feel complemented or fucked.¡¯ That¡¯s what Col. Briek was currently trying to decide as he looked out over Armagh as he tried his earthly best to capture this mildly worthwhile city, and do it with only twenty thousand men. It wasn¡¯t the enemy garrison of thirty thousand guardsmen which outnumbered his forces, oh on that was practically irrelevant against his AR-1 equipped soldiers; no what got him nervous were the ten thousand mage defenders that were also arrayed against him that was the real issue. Sighing to himself he thought; ¡®I suppose I should feel flattered that Michael thinks that I am so capable.¡¯ The sound of his vid-phone pulled him out of his musings; opening it up he saw the face of Major Samuel whom he had brought with him as his second-in-command and also directly in charge of the artillery.

    ¡°Sir, the howitzers are in place and our men are ready to advance.¡±

    ¡°Good, commence the bombardment of the city wall and once it¡¯s down order the charge, you know the drill.¡± The Major nodded smartly as Briek continued. ¡°Do we have any idea on enemy force deployment inside the city?¡±

    ¡°According to our intel Sir, there is about half the guardsmen on the wall with maybe a third of the mages just waiting for us to just blindly throw ourselves at the wall like good ignorant peasants¡­¡± Both the Major and Colonel chuckled at that. ¡°¡­the rest of the guardsmen are spread out in the city with some at the palace, most of the rest of the mages have positioned themselves to defend said palace.¡± Briek nodded at that last part.

    ¡°Probably didn¡¯t want to stray too far into the commoner slums.¡± He said offhandedly.

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t put the thought past them Sir.¡± With another nod Briek gave the final order.

    ¡°Well, handout my orders Major, we¡¯ve got another city to ¡®liberate¡¯.¡± The Major saluted before hanging up. Looking out at the city wall again Briek got to witness the first dozen or so rounds slam into it; through the smoke and debris he saw men get blasted in every direction in many states of dismemberment, as well as his forces beginning to slowly march towards the walls.

    ¡®Well, here we go again.¡¯

    Hours later inside Armagh¡­ POV (Private Geffrey Hodgkin)

    The battle for Armagh had been going on for the better part of the day now; as usual getting inside the city had been easy, the dumb nobles never seemed to learn that well garrisoned and defended walls didn¡¯t make a formidable defense, it just made it a juicy target for the artillery guys. Now however, the hard part, clearing out the enemy from the city itself; this had as usual, degenerated into street by street, block by block, and often building by building fighting as the revolutionary forces tried their damnedest to weed out those pesky mages. Speaking of mages¡­

    Hodgkin calmly raised his AR at the trio of mages that were leading about forty guardsmen armed with pikes and a few muskets, flipped hit selector switch to full-auto, and let it spray, specifically at the mages and when they were down he just aimed at the densest group of clustered enemies. In seconds his thirty-round mag was emptied, the mages were dead, and nearly half the guardsmen were dead or wounded. As he finished unloading, the rest of his platoon made themselves known by gunning down any enemy that still looked ready for a fight and within a minute the surviving guardsmen had either fled or were on the ground begging for their lives. One of the squads in his platoon was on prisoner duty and rounded them up and was already escorting them to the holding area near the city¡¯s now destroyed wall.

    Scenes like this had been playing themselves out all day as one to three mages had been roaming around with up to platoon sized elements trying to drive out the invaders. At first it looked like they were attempting to establish a battle line through the city, however the idea seemed to have been abandoned and now it was nothing more than hundreds of scattered skirmishes. These skirmished however were more or less between the mages and rebel forces since it was only the mages who seemed to actually be of any effectiveness against the invaders.

    Hodgkin had seen it all before though; he had been in a couple of battles, mainly in Wrotham forest and at Carlow. In those battles he and other veterans had learned that the outcome of most fights between riflemen and mages came down to who was faster; the rifleman¡¯s draw of his weapon or the mage¡¯s casting speed. A quick drawing soldier could easily gun down a mage and any backup he brought, but a fast casting mage or one that had the element of surprise could takeout whole squads or even platoons of soldiers with one spell, this has been the main reason for most of the revolutionaries¡¯ casualties in this war, the damned mages. Hodgkin¡¯s contemplation on this ended as he neared his platoon sergeant and heard him speaking to his radio to what must have been an officer.

    ¡°¡­yes Sir¡­ Yes we are¡­ Right away Sir!¡± He put his radio away and turned to his collected troops. ¡°Alright listen up, I just got word from Captain Viktor that resistance in the city proper has been reduced to near nothing, nearly the entire city guardsmen are now killed or have surrendered while the remain mages in the city have fallen back to the palace and are now fanatically defending it¡­ guess where we are going?¡± A collection of groans and sighs swept through the experienced soldiers; a large group of well entrenched and battle crazy mages¡­ fuck. Any soldier who had been in one real battle can tell you that that kind of situation is a real meat grinder, those locations are what cause the real casualties in a battle. ¡°Well, come on let¡¯s get this meat to the magical grinder.¡± More groans.

    When they got to where Capt. Viktor was at the front line established near the front palace wall, it was clear that things had bogged down to ¡®who can get the luckiest hit¡¯. Soldiers were trying to snipe at exposed mages and mages were trying to get spells off at the insolent rebels without getting their heads blown off. Already it seemed that some of the men had resorted to bazookas given the large number of destroyed towers and blown out windows, and the mages had gotten some pretty good shots in too based on the skewered, immolated, crushed, and/or eviscerated bodies of Hodgkin¡¯s fellow soldiers. As the captain saw them he turned to the sergeant.

    ¡°Hey there sergeant, glad you could make it, as you can see, we¡¯re all having a party.¡± As if to accentuate his point, another of the palace towers exploded. ¡°From what we can tell, nearly half of the city¡¯s defending mages are here and¡­¡± He got interrupted by a loud ¡®look out¡¯ and was knocked to the ground as a wave of dense wind blew through and sliced up any unlucky soul that couldn¡¯t get down fast enough, one fellow who dropped next to Hodgkin had the top third of his head cut clean off. Seeing this seemed to have finally snapped something in the Captain. ¡°Fucking hell, that¡¯s it; I have lost too may damn men to those fuckers! Give me that!¡± He yanked the radio from its carrier and started yelling in it. ¡°This is Captain Viktor; I want every piece of artillery to start hammering the palace right fucking NOW!¡±

    Not two minutes passed before the first shell hit and before long a near continuous rain of death started blanketing the palace and its grounds. It was an hour before the captain called off the bombardment, by that time the walls were rubble, the palace was rubble, hell everything was rubble. As Hodgkin and his fellows started combing for survivors and assisting in securing the area his sergeant came up next to him. ¡°Hell of a day eh private?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, hell of a day sergeant.¡± They both nodded and the sergeant said something that brought Hodgkin a little worry.

    ¡°The next city, Torquey I think it is, is going to be even better, after all they got all of this city¡¯s defending army, what we fought was only the standing garrison.¡± Hodgkin merely nodded grimy.

    With this Armagh was ¡®liberated¡¯.

    Days after the fall of Carlow¡­ Romalia: POV (Pope Vittorio Serevare)

    Deep within the Halkeginian version of the Vatican, the Pope of Romalia and the highest standing cardinals of the Brimiric faith were having an intense meeting on what to do about a serious piece of information that Pope Vittorio has acquired.

    ¡°Your holiness, tell us is it true, has a rebel group seized a large portion of Albion?¡± One of the cardinals asked to which the Pope just nodded solemnly.

    ¡°Yes cardinal, I am afraid it is true, according to my source they have recently taken the city of Carlow.¡± This caused uproar amongst the assembled holy men. Unknown to them however was that Vittorio¡¯s information was supplied to him by Sheffield, the familiar of King Joseph of Gallia. Because of Sheffield¡¯s status as being the familiar of a void mage, she gets a special ability, specifically that of Myoznitnirn, the Mind of God. This lets her use any magical item, and one of the ones she has allows her to teleport, perfect for being a massager, and with Joseph¡¯s penchant for playing games it was inevitable for him to want to mess with someone like Michael by reporting him to the Pope.

    ¡°How is this possible, your grace, how can an army of commoners best one of nobles?¡± The same one asked.

    ¡°Does it matter, they are all blasphemers and their leader is a heretic, they are trying to destroy the mandate of the founder by going against their noble betters, they must be destroyed.¡± Another said causing a round of fanatical agreement mixed with more shouts. Vittorio simply raised his hand causing the assembled cardinals to quiet.

    ¡°You are quite right cardinal, this new rebel group must be stopped to protect the founder¡¯s ideals; though it is not idyllic, the Reconquista who has nearly finish replacing the royal family as leaders of Albion, is much more preferable to commoners. Thus, I have dispatched a special group of agents to dispose of the rebel leader; once he is gone his followers will no doubt fall into disorganization and either be destroyed by the Reconquista or scatter to the wind. After that we can then deal with Reconquista as needed.¡± This made many of the cardinals feel a lot better and mutterings of approval swept the chamber. What the Pope didn¡¯t tell them was that these ¡®special agents¡¯ were nothing more than a team of assassin mages, ones that have been doing the church¡¯s wet work for years.

    ¡°Well, it seems as if the situation is well in hand your holiness.¡± All assembled nodded in agreement and the young Pope gently smiled.

    ¡°Thankyou cardinal, now on to other matters, specifically the upcoming marital alliance between the Princess of Tristan and the Emperor of Germania¡­¡±

    Three weeks after the fall of Armagh¡­ City of Torquey: POV (Duke Edmund Walterus)

    He couldn¡¯t believe what he was seeing; an army of what must have been three hundred thousand plebeians was marching towards the city that he has been entrusted to defend by the Holy Lord Cromwell. He wasn¡¯t worried though, no there was no need for worry, after all Lord Cromwell was very generous with his forces, granting him nearly four hundred thousand soldiers and nearly fifty thousand mages and even thirty warships, Duke Walterus had no doubt he had all he needed to defeat this foolish gathering of peasants. His disbelief was simply that, disbelief, he didn¡¯t think that those rebels were this foolhardy.

    ¡°Look at those plebs, they can¡¯t honestly think they can defeat the defenses of this city?¡± He gloated to one of the lesser lords beside him.

    ¡°They are most foolish indeed milord, to think they can best a larger force supported by airships and as large a mage force as you have. Look, there is even a storm coming in behind them, they pick a poor time to attack as well as a foolish target, though that storm may cause problems for the fleet.¡± The Duke looked at the fairly intense storm rapidly coming up on the rear of the rebel army but had different thoughts of it.

    ¡°While I agree with your assessment on the intelligence of our foe, I feel that that storm may prove to be in our benefit; I think that our more experienced wind and perhaps even water mages could use such weather to our advantage.¡± He began to chuckle mirthfully at his words and the other noble quickly joined him and added.

    ¡°Most indeed milord, I see what you a thinking, *chuckles* no doubt our mages could¡­ what in Brimir¡¯s name?!¡± He suddenly blurted out as his eyes widened in shock. The Duke quickly turned to look at what his subordinate found so shocking and he too then gawked. What they saw was that the storm had reached the rebel rear and had seemed to have exploded into activity as it broiled and churned while bolts of lightning began to crisscross it with alarming speed and as it looked to have reached a climax the front of the storm seemed to burst and out of it came a warship, a metal warship. As the ship emerged from the storm clouds it seemed to give off a primordial roar that challenged all who gazed upon it.

    Ship was totally unfamiliar to the Duke; for one it bore no sails, had a fairly wide deck which boasted numerous long barreled cannons, and seemed to be made of dark gleaming steel. The Duke had no explanation for what he was seeing, and it was frightening to him.

    ¡°What in founder¡¯s name is that ship?¡±

    Onboard the Revolutionary Warship Dreadnaught: POV (Michael)

    Michael was incredibly excited for the unveiling of one of his greatest projects, Halkeginia¡¯s first steel airship designed and built by humans. Michael had been working towards this moment ever since Reigate had been taken and had put Axelle and her department on getting the necessary components designed and manufactured. Once Carlow had been taken he hadn¡¯t wasted any time in ordering Axelle and most of her staff along with over a hundred mages, mostly earth and fire, to move there in order to start construction. Making the hull was fairly simple; the mages more or less grew it out of earth and rock and then transmuted it into the desired metal, in this case a high grade steel.

    The real hard parts were what Michael had Axelle working on; first was a way to keep it in the air, common wind stones just wouldn¡¯t cut it without a shit ton of them and levitation spells would require nearly a dozen mages constantly recasting. So a solution had to be developed, and that solution was thought up by Michael and made a reality by Axelle. Basically an enhanced permanent levitation spell; now normally a spell like that would be exhausted within minutes trying to keep up a multi-ton warship, that is why a brand-new type of spell was invented at Michael¡¯s request.

    It was a type of magical circle like spell that was meant to intake the massive amount of ambient magic that permeated and saturated the world and use it to empower whatever spell it was hooked up to, in this case the levitation spell and the ship¡¯s new propulsion spell. This took the appearance of a wind tunnel like tube structure that ran the length of the ship¡¯s underside; call the ¡®wind-magic propulsion system¡¯ or WMP system it too is a permanently casted spell powered by the magic intake spell, only this one is a spell that blows wind and provide thrust similar to a rocket engine. Using the special wind tunnel housing along with a special valve and rudder devise allowing for controlled speed and turning giving it a projected max speed of 35kts, thanks in part to not having to plow through the water.

    The magic intake spell which provided the power for the other two main spells worked like how it sounded, by inhaling magic and then converting into the required type power necessary to not only maintain the levitation and propulsion spells, but it could also convert the magic into electricity, powering anything else that was plugged into it. The magic intake spell really worked just like a power generator that almost literally ran off the air or at least the magic in the air and special intake vents were dotted all about the underside of the warship and if someone would look closely they could just barely see the magic being sucked into the vents. Michael had taken to calling the whole thing simply the MIE (Magic Intake Engine).

    Aside from the new propulsion system, levitation system, and power plant, which is all planned to be miniaturized and used for other things, the Dreadnaught also had some impressive armaments. Sporting three twin-barreled 10in main guns, twenty repurposed ball turret howitzer broadside guns, and ten-underside deployable 8in precision surface bombardment cannons; this 600ft long metal beast can take on anything the kingdoms of Halkeginia can throw at it. This also includes dragons thanks to over thirty 50cals spread throughout the ship in both double and quadruple linked barrel turrets.

    As he thought all this Michael¡¯s smile never faltered as he sat on his command chair in the bridge tower located towards the rear of the ship behind the two forward main cannons, the third behind the command tower. Standing next to him, was Siesta with a trolley of snacks and refreshments; she looked for all the world, the good attending maid, even if her outfit was a bit skimpy with the extra frills, high skirt, and tight top that showed plenty of cleavage. It didn¡¯t seem to bother her though as she wore a smile as well, her Master¡¯s enthusiasm was infectious.

    Axelle was also there, though she was as excited as a schoolgirl on crack as she jumped from station to station keeping track of how well her greatest achievement was performing, she was practically bouncing, and she eventually made it over to Michael.

    ¡°Oh I can¡¯t believe how well it¡¯s going, this is all so incredible!¡± Michael just laughed at her excitement as he stood up.

    ¡°Well, none of this would be possible without you my dear, you should be proud of yourself.¡± Her smile brightened even more at that.

    ¡°Oh you are as much to thank for this as me, if it weren¡¯t for you I¡¯d have never even thought of any of the things I have achieved, without you I¡¯d have been stuck in a library wasting my life away on theories, without you¡­¡± She had been talking more and more excitedly, more frantically and before any of them knew it she launched herself at him and desperately kissed him, it only lasted a few seconds but once she realized what she was doing, she shot back as if burned. ¡°O-oh my I-I¡¯m s-so sorry I-I don¡¯t know what¡­¡± Her blushing and frantic apology was cut off as Michael took hold of her chin and guided it up to his lips and gave her a real world-shattering kiss that left her in a daze.

    ¡°Perhaps we can continue this later; after all we have a battle to win.¡± She just nodded her head and slowly, shakily walked off to continue her monitoring of the ship internals, she eventually got her giddiness back but the blush never completely went away. After a quick chuckle Michael returned his attention to the ten window panes that showed him the outside, the panes also each had a special magnification enchantment on them, letting the observer get a close up of specific areas of the battlefield. ¡°Well now, I think it¡¯s finally time we ¡®show the flag,¡¯ lieutenant?¡± The man at one of the stations simply nodded and hit a button.

    Outside, the ship could easily be heard sounding a deep bone rattling horn; this was a signal to the army below, and once they heard it hundreds of banners and flags were unfurled displaying for the first time the Albion revolutionary movement¡¯s flag for all to see.

    The main background was a midnight blue dominated by a white five pointed star, over this was a double-headed Aquila similar to the one used by the Imperium of Man from the Warhammer 40k universe, only this one had its wings extended out and pointed upwards. On the body of the Aquila rests a single teardrop of blood representing the blood that has been shed and the blood that will be shed in defending the nation. Above Aquila is a large shattered chain that creates a half circle around the Aquila, while under the Aquila is a ribbon which makes the other half of the circle around the Aquila and on it reads in Latin; ''Liberum Aeternum'' or "Eternally Free".

    This is the new symbol of Michael¡¯s army, and as he saw it he felt his shark grin return with a vengeance, ¡®Now our enemies have something more to attribute their fear to.¡¯ He then turned to a table in the middle of the room, this one contained a map of the surrounding area, however this was no ordinary map; it was a battle map that displayed real-time tactical data. On it he saw the symbols representing the three divisions of one hundred thousand each that were being led by his newly promoted generals, Briek was of course one of them. This map display was made possible thanks to Axelle and her people; it was actually an advanced scrying spell, Michael hoped to get it refined enough to be more detailed and be sort of like a 3d hologram, but for now he was happy with the simple 2d map.

    ¡°Okay people, let¡¯s begin, gunners have main cannons target the two closest enemy airships, communication, give the order for our forces to attack as soon as the first enemy ships are down.¡± A flurry of activity suddenly started as the bridge crew carried out his orders. The two front main cannon turrets suddenly came to life as they maneuvered to aim at their respective targets, a thunderous blast erupted from each as the twin barrels of each turret as they fired their very first shots in anger. The result, two Reconquista warships suddenly seemed to half disintegrate while the other half burst into flames. All of Torquey and every Reconquista soldier and mage could only watch in astonishment as two fireballs that were once frigates suddenly descended onto the ground.

    The Dreadnought however did not give much time for them to be in shock as its guns sounded again and two more ships died, this seemed to have broken the spell for suddenly the remaining twenty six Reconquista warships, seventeen other frigates, six fast cruisers, and three ships of the line (battleships), all went full sail and began a desperate race to close the distance. As if mocking them the Dreadnought¡¯s guns ended two more frigates.

    On the ground meanwhile, Michael¡¯s forces had charged the Reconquista lines and were already taking a horrifying toll; even when the mages got their act together they suddenly found themselves victims of sniper fire and artillery strikes. It seemed as though every time one of them tried to cast a major spell they instead got themselves and those around them blown to meaty bits. This however was no coincidence; this was the work of Michael¡¯s new air-battleship, one of the other features of his battle map was that it could show the locations of heavy spell usage, using that information the various communications people were able to send coordinates to artillery crews on the ground.

    Michael was seeing all this and as he watched he noticed that casualties were beginning to mount despite his ship¡¯s efforts.

    ¡°Okay our boys could use a little more help, get our bombardment cannons deployed.¡± He then looked outside as the main guns boomed and this time it was a frigate and one of the cruisers that exploded, the cruiser even ended up falling onto the city¡¯s wall. ¡°Also, get our secondary guns firing; I want those enemy ships dead!¡± On each side of the ship were ten broadside guns, only five though were actually position like typical broadsides, that is to say in the hull. The other five on each side were typical single barreled turrets on raised and/or extended platforms, allowing three to point forward or backwards without blocking another¡¯s field of fire. These guns quickly picked their targets and in an instant half a dozen ships died.

    ¡°Sir, our forces have broken through the enemy lines and our artillery has destroyed the city wall, our forces will be entering the city shortly. Also we are getting reports of mass surrendering among enemy units, the Reconquista field army is collapsing!¡± One of the aides commented causing Michael to smile viciously.

    ¡°Excellent, reposition us in over the city to provide precision fire support.¡± The Dreadnaught began moving forward and in doing so further closed the distance between the remaining enemy ships, which at this time consisted of only four cruisers and two battleships, the third battleship now a burning wreck on the rear of what was the Reconquista field army. As Michael¡¯s ship got closer the remaining ships suddenly turned to ready for a broadside salvo thinking that they finally get to kill this monster, Michael saw this and had a monster of an idea. ¡°Hold fire on the remaining enemy ships; let them get in a salvo, it¡¯s only fair.¡± Most of those who heard him chuckled at that, they knew what would come next.

    The Reconquista ships finally unleashed their retribution; hundreds of cannon ball sped towards the offending ship, some actually missing, but the ones that hit though merely bounced off the thick steel armor with loud metallic ¡®ting¡¯ sounds. Seeing their attacks being so easily brushed off, the crews of the Reconquista ships felt their spirits plummet in despair and as they saw the long guns on the unstoppable enemy vessel realign on them, they silently cursed their foolish Masters for sending them to their deaths.

    Michael watched in satisfaction as the last enemy ships fell and turned to see how his forces were progressing through the city and saw that they were making great time thanks to his ship¡¯s support. While resistance was heavy thanks to the radical devotion of the mages, the common soldiers were surrendering by the hundreds, this had really picked up after they witnessed their fleet totally annihilated by only one opposing vessel, even the mages had started to crack after they saw the Dreadnaught take a full broadside from six warships and basically ignore it.

    It would be five more hours before Michael¡¯s forces would secure the city and its palace, by the end he had suffered about twenty thousand casualties from the mage¡¯s stiff defense, far better than what he was expecting actually. Even more surprising was that his forces had taken nearly ten thousand mages prisoner along with over half of the defending army.

    ¡°Sir we are getting word from General Briek, he has captured the local lord, a Duke, and his command staff, the Duke however is requesting to surrender to you personally.¡± Michael tilted his head in thought for a minute, on the one hand he could just say fuck¡¯em, but this is the first time that the noble in charge of a city has actually agreed to surrender, he was actually curious to see this.

    ¡°Alright, tell him I¡¯ll be there shortly.¡± He then went out to one of the new longboats that were made with the same flight techno-magic as the Dreadnaught; it could hold twenty passengers along with pilot and a gunner for the 50cal that was positioned at front, it made a good troop carrier for small units like squads. It took him about five minutes to fly to the palace, disembark with about ten bodyguards, and make it to the throne room; luckily it had a large balcony. When he arrived he saw the General, about a hundred of his men, and a dozen or so fancy dressed men on their knees, the only man in actual armor was out in front.

    ¡°General Briek, I heard that the former ruler of this city actually wants to surrender?¡± Briek turned to look at Michael, slightly amused as he replied.

    ¡°Yes Sir, apparently when our men blew the doors open they found him and his staff with their hands up and their foci all in a pile in front of them, after that the Duke over there ask surprisingly politely to have the honor of surrendering to our leader, I sent the word up and now you¡¯re here.¡± Michael looked between Briek and the Duke for a second before shrugging and walking over to the former city lord.

    ¡°So I heard that you wanted to surrender to me personally, is that right?¡± The Duke looked up at him before nodding and speaking.

    ¡°Indeed, I am Duke Edmund Walterus, appointed the defender of the city of Torquey by the Lord Cromwell, are you the leader of this¡­ movement?¡± You could tell that he was doing everything he could to not say anything insulting. To this Michael nodded proudly.

    ¡°Leader and founder, I am Michael.¡± The Duke also nodded his head, but in understanding.

    ¡°Ah¡­ I see¡­¡± He then looked down for a second before suddenly raising his arm up and out towards Michael, in a split second he had a small foci in his outstretched hand that was hidden in his sleeve now pointed dead center at Michael¡¯s chest, he only needed to say one word, but Michael was faster, the gesture of looking away had alerted him that the Duke was going to try something. In one swift and smooth movement he side stepped and with one hand grabbed the Duke¡¯s wrist and painfully wrenched it causing him drop his mini wand, at the same time Michael brought up one of his knees while dropping his other elbow on the Duke¡¯s out stretched arm, completely shattering it. The Duke got one scream of pain before Michael delivered a hard punch to his throat, crushing his wind pipe. The Duke fell back, clutching his trachea with his good hand while Michael just stood there for a moment, listening to the resulting wet gurgles of his handy work before turning away and picking up the dropped foci and walking over to his stunned men.

    ¡°Really guys? None of you thought to check them over for hidden foci or other weapons?¡± None of them responded but they all had the decency to look sheepish. Michael just shook his head. ¡°Come on boys get it together you¡¯re all smarter than this.¡± He then handed the foci to Briek before heading on out to the large balcony he arrive on, leaning in the railing he gazed out on the battle-scarred city below him and then looked up to admire his flagship making a slow lazy circle around the city.

    ¡®A pretty good day¡­¡¯

    Two days after the fall of Torquey¡­ Lundonium: POV (Cromwell)

    Cromwell was a very angry man right now, no, not just angry but completely and absolutely livid, pissed-off doesn¡¯t even scratch the surface of his unabashed rage. Why is he so mad? He just learned that the last city between his throne city and the infuriating commoner rebels has just recently fallen to those same rebels. Cromwell was about to bust some shit right quick, but first he needed to deal with what he believed (somehow) to be at least partially responsible, a certain kneeling woman in front of him.

    ¡°I¡¯m not pleased with you Fouquet, not one bit, not only have you failed in your attempt in acquiring the legendary ¡®staff of destruction,¡¯ but you also failed in your task to assist the Viscount Wards!¡± Fouquet a.k.a Matilda of Sachsen-Gotha, trembled slightly at her employer¡¯s palpable anger, she had originally came here to report on the fate of the Viscount, but the bad news coupled with a report he had just gotten seemed to have set the man off in an insane anger. Now she was on one knee, without a wand, surrounded by his personal guards, and the current focus of his ire.

    ¡°Milord, please forgive me, I know I failed in getting the staff, but I did manage to deliver the ring of Andvari like I was commanded.¡± She said pleading; however he was not in a forgiving mood.

    ¡°Yes you did deliver the ring, however when Wardes was killed you admitted that you made no effort to retrieve it, and now those FOUNDER DAMNED REBELS HAVE IT!¡± She flinched as he shouted that last part.

    ¡°Milord please, if I had tried to attack them I would hav¡­AHHH¡­¡± She was cut off as Cromwell had snapped his fingers and one of his guards, an earth mage, had pulled out his sword wand and cast a spell causing the floor to engulf Fouquet up to her neck, her face suddenly in terror as Cromwell sneered at her as he got up and stomped over to her.

    ¡°I DON¡¯T CARE FOR YOUR PITIFUL FEARS YOU WORTHLESS THIEF; YOU HAVE FAILED ME FAR TOO MOMENTOUSLY FOR ME TO EVEN THINK OF FORGIVENESS!!!¡± Cromwell¡¯s face was beet red from the anger and shouting, taking a second he managed to calm himself slightly to look at Fouquet impassively before continuing. ¡°Goodbye Fouquet, perhaps you can find forgiveness for your failures in the eyes of our holy found Brimir.¡± She didn¡¯t even have time to scream as the earth enveloped her head and then suddenly all compressed several sizes smaller, crushing and palping her before sinking down into the floor, adding her remains to others that have disappointed Cromwell to such a degree.

    With that done Cromwell retook his seat on his plush throne and called for his advisers/aids. After filing into the room he began to issue out his orders.

    ¡°I want every available fighting man that can be found brought here to reinforce the city¡¯s defenses, every single one, call in the garrisons from all the surrounding towns and villages. Also, have our forces at Rathluirc Castle ready to send its garrison in the event of a siege, and call in every ship as well, even those patrolling the coast. I want absolutely everything we have that is not fighting the royals here as fast as possible to help defend against THOSE BLASTED REBELS, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!!!¡± Rapid fire head nodding was seen all around. ¡°WELL THEN GET TO WORK!!!¡± A mad dash to the doors and Cromwell was alone in his throne room except for his guards. Bringing his hand to his face he used his fingers to massage the bridge of his nose as he thought.

    ¡°By the grace of Brimir, how could things have gone so wrong because of some uncouth peasants?¡¯

    Chapter End