Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 73: Army at the gates
There were a total of nearly fifty thousand men in the army Callane raised.
A might capable of easily threatening the capital were she to let them loose and direct them to march towards the king’s seat of power.
Yet, despite raising an army capable of breaking the kingdom apart, resisting foreign invasion, or creating all sorts of other potential troubles… she opted to bring them all the way to the edge of the outlands instead.
A move that puzzled all the house heads as the reports from their agents poured in… but still, a move that allowed them to lower their guard, saving on the insane costs that came with raising armies on their own.
"She’s mad in love," some rumors said, claiming she wanted to lay siege to the unbreakable barrier of the gate.
"There were some weird movements on the northern border, so she went ahead to give her troops an exercise they desperately need," others, those more aware of the state of house Perell’s military power, claimed.
"She’s just posturing," some dismissed, taking Callane’s act as nothing more than a stupid bid to make a show of herself to boost her popularity in the capital’s social circles… conveniently forgetting the fact that, save for dealing with some matters, she rarely even visited the place ever since she graduated from the royal academy.
Whatever all of those people said, what Callane was doing right now was sitting down in her saddle, overlooking the long stretch of her army marching down south, to where the lands of men came to an end, meeting with the lands of all the monsters and beasts their ancestors drove away from the lands they claimed.
A feat that, to this day, left the contemporary scholars baffled.
After all, if their ancestors had the power and ability to drive those freakishly strong and dangerous monsters away, why wouldn’t they eradicate them in the first place?
This question, however, would remain without an answer, just like the question of just who constructed the gate of mankind that stood on the border between civilization and the outlands.
"All is working as it should," Callane muttered to herself as she looked ahead, to where the front guard of her army already moved off the road and started to mark out the zone where their semi-permanent camp would be set.
Now, just an hour’s ride away from the gate, she had to resist the desire to just pick her elites up and ride off for the gate, ready to cross it with the help of the guild-provided criminal currently riding in a prison coach smack-dab in the middle of her entire army.
"My lady," one of the front-guard officers rode up to the side of the road, against the general flow of the men, before making his horse quickly climb up the small hill Callane paused on.
"Speak."
"The sweepers have secured the approach," the man reported with haste. "We are done deploying the watch."
’Finally.’
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Callane had to resist the smirk of satisfaction that nearly made its way to her face.
"Good," she nodded her head to show appreciation for the man’s efforts. "Now, go get some food and some rest, you’ve more than deserved it."
The officer, just like the great majority of the army, was a follower of Callane’s house rather than Callane herself. As such, while he was perfect for the tasks that fell in line with the official purpose of raising this entire army—a war game designed to make their troops a little bit more ready for the wars to come—
Now that he had done his job, however, Callane had to make sure he wouldn’t be there to witness when she and the elite of the elites of the army would go off to do things her parents would absolutely never approve of.
"Thank you, my lady!"
With a bow of his head, the man pulled on his horse’s reins, turning it around as he then trotted down the hill, eager to enjoy the break Callane just ordered him to take.
"I will ask you again, are you absolutely sure that’s what you want to do?" Standing down on his own two feet just a few steps behind Callane’s horse, Osman asked in a slightly hushed voice.
Callane, however, didn’t even blink.
"It’s not about what I want to do, but what I absolutely have to do," she stated, her eyes firmly locked on the massive gate already visible in the distance. "Without Theo, Evilbane house won’t move. And it wouldn’t be fair for him to shoulder all the blame for what we are all guilty of."
The killing of his own brother…
It was a crime so great, it was a rarity in the kingdom as a whole throughout its entire history. All the more so when the victim was selected as the "chosen one" of the generation, set to grow into a hero and spearhead the kingdom towards a new era of prosperity and peace.
That was only the official version, however. And what many didn’t know, Theodore’s crime was the only thing that stopped that supposed "chosen one" from plunging first his entire house into oblivion, only to then drag the rest of the kingdom down with it.
Callane, as the one promised to that abhorrent chosen one, bore an even bigger share of the guilt than all the others who gave Theo’s brother free rein in doing whatever he wanted. She, who was supposed to be the closest one to him, had the most opportunities, most chances, most means of putting a stop to his acts, regardless of how she felt about the man in question.
And yet… when the push came to shove, Theodore took the weight of doing what was absolutely necessary all on himself. A move that screwed around with the plans several other noble houses already made, banking on Theo’s brother making an even bigger mess than he did before his death.
For the crime of messing up their plans, those high nobles pushed Theodore’s sentencing to be one of the quickest in the kingdom’s whole history, sending him off beyond the limits of the land of men before Callane, or anyone else for that matter, could stop it.
And now…?
Now, Callane was finally ready to rectify all of her mistakes, to put a stop to the ongoing injustice, and, if the worst were to happen, to put Theo’s corpse on her banner and bring fire and death upon all those who decided such was his fate.
"That’s not what I asked about," Osman muttered, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smile when he saw the fierce look in Callane’s eyes.
’If only those idiots in the capital saw her right now…’ he thought, shaking his head. ’Love and reason be damned, she’s going to pull this out even if it means plunging the whole kingdom into the abyss not even that vile fucker could hope to do.’
"I don’t really care what you asked about," Callane rebuked the man.
Since when was the noble employer obliged to answer the questions of the lowly mercenary in her employ?
"What I care about is if you yourself are ready," she turned Osman’s question around, sending him an intense stare while she gathered her horse’s reins in her hand.
"Ready to keep this place off-limits for all those stupid enough to try to go through?" Osman smiled as he looked down at where the front of Callane’s marching column was already dispersing into the limits of their new camp, chopping down trees and uprooting the bushes to make room for the tents while the engineers already moved to use the freshly obtained materials to secure the camp’s perimeter.
Osman then shook his head.
"With the army you are leaving me, I would lose all of my reputation if I dared to fail!"
For a moment, Callane stared the mercenary down before slightly nodding her head.
"I will leave this task to you then. And don’t forget, if you do well…"
"Then I’m going to become a lesser noble," Osman nodded his head with a bright smile adorning his lips. "Trust me, I’m the last person that would forget about your promise."
This was the ultimate price of Osman’s services, a reward that came at the cost of the hand of one of Callane’s cousins.
Yet, given the man’s track record and both alleged and proven abilities… not that big of a price to pay for his loyalty.
"I’m off then," Callane stated, only to then squeeze her knees a bit, giving her trusty mount a signal it was eagerly waiting for. "If all goes well, we shall meet again soon."
