“We have a saying where I am from- “Nothing is as expensive as ‘Free.’” That being said, exchanging favors and making friends are two of my very favorite things.”

  That was a goddamn SSS Tier Six Star Ultra Gold-Foil lie right there, but my gangster Anime watching was a lot more Yakuza than Gambino. I’d have to rely on Baccano here, and the bits of the Godfather that I heard other people quoting.

  Mr. Bocciati chuckled at that. He probably wasn't much over fifty, but to use an SAT word, he had the air of one who had experienced endless vicissitudes.

  “A sensible approach. Come sit.” He patted the spot next to him on the bench. “It’s like this. Some friends of mine move goods around discreetly. Nothing that shocks the conscience, I can assure you. Simply goods that lack a bit of government paperwork.”

  I nodded. Let he who has not failed to declare thirty five kilos of imported hentai cast the first stone, and all that.

  “Now, quite a lot of these goods are being stored in a farmhouse in the area you are to evacuate. Quite a lot. The fortune of a good family, in fact. Normally I would see to it that my good friend’s goods came into the city, even if it meant losing forty percent in fees-”

  FORTY PERCENT! FORTY PERCENT DUTY! They have gone insane. Insane!

  “But it is simply too late for that. There is just too much, and slow wagons heavy with the products of generations of labor would be dangling meat in front of starving Hosk dogs.”

  “You want us to defend a particular farm?”

  “Only once. And make sure that the raiders see the price of their greed.”

  Ah. Going to the farmhouse would, no doubt, trigger a decent sized raid by the Hosk Raiders. Which… we could turn to our advantage, actually.

  “Don- Mr. Bocciati, do you have a rough sense of the numbers of raiders we might expect?”

  “At least twenty, in my experience, but more than that and they start running into problems splitting the loot.”

  Expect at least forty in two-plus waves, with bonus unpleasant surprises like thrown firebombs. Got it.

  “Alright. Give me the directions. I’ll scout the area. Do you have a rough sense of when the raiders will get there?”

  “Soon. I have heard their troopers have passed a few times now. It won’t be long before they come to steal.”

  I grunted. No time to scout then. And that means I would be paying up front and out of pocket for my troops. Deep joy.

  I nodded politely at legitimate-businessman Mr. Bocciati. “Sir, you have a deal. I will hire some mercenaries and head over. If you can have someone guide us there, that would be best.”

  He smiled broadly. You had to look quite closely to see that his eyes were ice cold. “Wonderful. I look forward to our growing friendship.”

  “You want how much?”

  “I want millions, and a nice safe estate to enjoy them in,” Truso snarled. “Genuda requires that her Pavise Crossbows are hired for twenty runed bones each, per night-”

  “Which makes the death benefit, per soldier, two thousand Runed Bones-”

  “Wonderful to see you can multiply by a hundred. A bargain for a life. Pikes are a comparative bargain at ten Runed Bones a night, and you can have all the Three Handers you want for forty a piece.”

  “You just told me, repeatedly, how rubbish Three Handers are.”

  “Yeah, but they are equipped with real armor, have an expensive sword, and cost a fair bit to train. Besides, they look impressive, which is worth a premium all on its own.”

  “You don’t actually believe that.”

  “I do not.” Truso agreed. “But since the people hiring them out to you do believe it, guess what they cost to hire?”

  “Forty Runed Bones per night?”

  “Correct. Oh, before you ask, you can’t hire my scout troopers yet. Bring back who you are hiring now in one piece, and I’ll trust you with them.”

  I, once again, reminded myself that in any kind of fight, Truso would leave me a bloody smear on the pavement. I would have to step sharply behind Versai and let her vent my rage. Safety first.

  “Othai, if you were going to defend a farmhouse against forty raiders-”

  “I would suggest three to one numerical superiority, as well as building as many barricades as you can.” She cut in. I tried not to swear. One hundred and twenty troops was completely outside of my budget, never mind the death indemnity for even a single soldier.

  “I was thinking closer to ten pikes and twenty crossbows.”

  “I’d reverse those numbers, My Lord, if that really is the limit of what we can afford. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that the fewer troops we field, the more likely it is that someone will die, not less.” Othai was polite, but her voice was granite and her eyes were flint.

  I thought it through. Damn me but she was right. I ground my teeth. I had a thousand Rune Bones and a bit on hand, and a steady income from the waves and Gradden March. Since I was doing missions and quests here in Verton, I could expect some income here too. Still, the death indemnity was MASSIVE, and I had to figure that, at the very least, I would lose the right to hire new troops until it was paid off.

  “Fine! Thirty pikes, twenty crossbows and one Three Hander. It’s not three-to-one, but when the Awakened are included, I’d say our odds are pretty bloody good.”

  I slapped the cash down on the barrelhead. Truso checked every bone, weighed them, examined them again, then grudgingly agreed that they were all present and correct. The troops marched out. They weren’t Doras and Mikas, but… they kind of were, too.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  My guts twisted up. I understand Truso better now. Looking at the troops marching out of the barracks. They didn’t move in lockstep, their eyes kept roving around, there were idiosyncrasies in how they dressed. Wouldn’t pass muster in a modern army. But their faces. The hard eyes. These were killers, yes, and killers who had seen too much.

  The longer I looked the less I saw. I was wrong. Those eyes weren’t hard, they were dead. They didn’t care about anything enough to despise it.

  “Something I’m not clear about- Everyone I have met from Genuda has been intensely loyal. Strong on defense to the point of almost suicidal obsession. So… why this? Why all the mercenary work?” I asked Truso.

  “Because we were betrayed. Betrayed so comprehensively and completely that we are barely a shell of who we once were. But we still have enough military power to decide things locally. For now. So long as the resources keep flowing.”

  I thought quickly. It didn’t really make sense to me. The dots didn’t connect. I desperately tried to think of some kind of analogy and came up with… nothing. Or at least, nothing really on point. Sort of like the Adventurers Guild from Hell. “Hire us for your adventuring needs. And if you don’t, your adventurers are going to have an adventure all their own. Incidentally, and completely unrelated, you didn’t insure these warehouses with us, right?”

  But that didn’t square with what I saw in the Mikas. They were desperate. They were fighting a losing battle, and the enemy hordes weren’t coming- they were there. On top of them and slaughtering them. Every step back was the monster's claws tightening around the necks of their families. They wouldn’t fight that hard for some allied state, no matter how strategically vital.

  I had visited two other relic sites- Hidden Moon Mountain and Gradden March. Ignore Hidden Moon Mountain, that was some industry collab. Gradden March… the final flare of resistance before the city was slaughtered. Or at least the poor parts of the city were slaughtered, but I had a feeling that the Marchioness had sabotaged the inner city as much as the outer city.

  The last flare of resistance. The final moment when they staked it all and lost. And it wasn’t like I had done it how they should have- there is no way the monsters would have politely allowed themselves to be funneled down a single street to be slaughtered. They would have gone through the buildings, over them, blown them up and burned them down, or just plain gone around the blockades and attacked them from the rear. Gradden March was a mobile game dream of a successful defense.

  Was this…? It had to be. I looked over at Othai. She shook her head. Apparently I’m easy to read. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  This was it. The final moment everything collapsed and the monsters started pressing in hard. Their client states were unsupported, rebellious, or just plain picked off one by one. Their troops, hardened by years of mercenary work, now spent the coin of their lives to buy a few hours or days for the people behind them.

  I shuddered. The Mikas were my Day One’s. They were the first line of defense. They were, literally, the wall I hid behind before I really had walls. I owed them everything.

  I may be trash, but I’m not ungrateful trash. I would save Verton. And hopefully, with it, a piece of Genuda.

  Truso didn’t have any caltrops. It was a pity, but such is life, or whatever approximates it. Our local guide met us at the gate. My first instinct was that the poor girl suffered from a birth defect, or some kind of terrible illness that ruined her face and body. Then I mentally slapped myself. Normal. She looked normal. Literally plain. I was the weirdo traveling with dozens of mercenaries and a squad of earth shattering beauties.

  The attention the locals paid to my Awakened was inconsistent. There was some degree of awareness. Truso certainly noticed Othai, and it looked like they knew each other. At the very least, he recognized that she was from Genuda. Others seemed to tune them out unless they had a reason to notice them. That merchant noticed Versai, but only when it looked like a fight might break out.

  Odd. Very odd. And my Awakened practically never butted into a conversation either.

  Oh. Oh for Goddess’ sake.

  I’m the MC. Of course the game is keeping the camera on me. We can’t have people distracted unless it’s a cutscene or something.

  It took roughly an hour to get to the farm. It was a big place to my city boy sensibilities. There was a courtyard with a wooden rail fence running alongside the road. One side of the courtyard was the stone farmhouse. The other side was a big stone barn, and the back wall was plastered brick or stone. Nine feet tall, if it was an inch.

  “Let’s search the place. I want to know if anything or anyone is hiding around here and about to bite us.”

  “Does that include the barn?” Othai asked.

  “Mr. Bocciati didn’t say we couldn’t find out what was piled up in there- he just wants it kept intact. If it happens to be filled with gunpowder and grapeshot, I need to know that now rather than later. Also, let's find some buckets and fill them full of sand and dirt. These guys like flaming oil. Water won’t cut it.”

  There was a small dilemma over how to defend the yard, but only a small one The wall at the back was high enough to make clambering over a little too exciting in the middle of a fight, and the big double doors in it had a proportionally big wooden bar holding them shut. I had a tree cut down (off the property, just in case,) and had it split into thick poles. They were jammed below the crossbar and buried in the dirt. That door wasn’t going to open for anything less than a tank.

  The house and the barn made up the two long sides of the courtyard. The house was easy- it had small exterior windows facing both the road outside and the courtyard inside. No glass, just heavy wooden shutters covering holes in the wall. Stick some crossbows in there and between the walls and their shields, they would be damn near bulletproof. Literally and metaphorically.

  The barn was trickier. It did not have windows, and while most of the goods were stored in barrels and crates, there was also a decent amount of hay still in the loft. I waffled a bit, but ultimately decided not to stick anyone up there. It would be Kim all over again if I did.

  “Othai, how do you usually deploy pikes and crossbows together? Crossbows on either end of the pike formation?”

  “It depends. The pike formation is largely about mobility and momentum.” She explained. “That being said, once you have enough pikes braced in the dirt, any cavalry with delusions of heroism learns that momentum is not their special friend.”

  “So?”

  “So there is no particular reason you couldn’t line up pavise crossbows directly in front of the pikes and fire from a kneeling position as the pikes will stretch fifteen feet out in front of them, protecting them from getting rushed.”

  “Oooh, nasty!”

  “Yep.” Othai nodded sagely. “On defense the crossbow is basically a very long pike, stabbing the enemy in the face from dozens or even a hundred paces away.”

  I nodded. “Othai, you can manage ten Awakened. How many of these locals can you manage?”

  She hesitated. Her eyebrow raised, and a slow look of wonder crept across her face. “The largest unit I commanded in the field was four thousand eight hundred souls, camp followers not included. I… don’t see any reason I couldn’t do so again.”

  I chuckled. It really was the Gradden March scenario- if you can pull the Six Star ahead of visiting the Relic Site, they can provide benefits and bonus interactions. Versai and Sebastian for one, which led to my getting the knife riding at my hip. Not to mention all the new information we pried out of Jim.

  Verton is a scenario where there will be a lot of troops… and two theaters. And I have a Six Star capable of independent command.

  “MoohooHAAHAHAHAHA!”

  Ahem.

  Everyone was looking at me. I must be remarkably handsome.

  Moving on.

  “Alright, Othai, I’m giving you command of the locally recruited soldiers. Soldiers of Genuda! Rest assured that your officer is one of you.” I leaned in and spoke in a lower voice. “Other than putting some spotters up on the house, I’m leaving the deployment to you. I’d put at least a few crossbows in the house and behind some windows, but that’s your call. I’m keeping the Three Hander with me.”

  Deep breath, then I pressed on.

  “The Awakened I’m keeping with me. We will be around back a-ways, hidden and ready to attack their rear once they are locked in, or raid their ranged units. The old hammer and anvil tactics. I’ll send Rache and Rikka out to scout, which hopefully won’t count as a separate order. Can you think of anything I am missing?”

  “That’s up to you, My Lord.”

  Guess there was a limit on what could be done with the delegation power.

  “Alright, let's get to it. RACHE, RIKKA!”

  Step one was finding a decent hiding spot, which wasn’t as simple as I thought. It turns out that farmland… is reasonably flat, and free of major obstacles. Yes, I, too, was shocked. But there was a decent supply of stone walls around, and a few groves of trees. Lots and lots of ditches too. We could make something work. The real question was this: Do we hide around the back of the farmhouse, where the enemy would be, at most, trying to throw bombs over the back wall? Or do we hide around the front to catch any ranged units once the infantry got stuck in?

  There was really only one angle to shoot from, if they did have archers. And while there might be bomb throwers, there wouldn’t be too many of them.

  “Rikka, set traps all along the back wall, then hide nearby. If people come to attack from that direction, start picking them off and driving them away. Of course your survival is the biggest priority, so come back if it looks like you are in danger. Rache, let us know who is coming, in what numbers and in what direction. Versai, Mrs. Hungry, we are going to be hiding in this lovely ditch here.”

  I looked around. We were further than I would have liked from the entrance to the courtyard, but, conversely, if I was an archer I’d stand way the hell back. And I was absolutely, mortally certain there would be archers, because if horses were expensive for a full blown multi-city alliance, bandits wouldn’t have many either. Bows and crossbows could be looted, and slings were just string and leather. So there would be pikemen, or axe and shield men or something similar, and they would be supported by archers.

  And my pikes were just… hanging out. With no armor, though they all had helmets, thank the Goddess. No wonder pikes always got deployed with supports. They would be a free lunch for archers otherwise. I shook my head. The battlefield was as close to ideal as I could hope for. Time to settle down and dig in.

  The raiders kept me waiting exactly long enough to get completely sick of lying in a ditch. Rache came zipping in. “Sixty men, twenty with swords and shields, twenty with pikes, and twenty with crossbows. No cavalry, Boss, they’re coming on foot.” She said the last bit like it was a dreadful moral failing. Rache was really born to ride.

  I looked over at Versai and Mrs. Hungry. “When they make contact, there will be a few minutes where they will get organized, yap back and forth, all that. We don’t move during that time. We wait. I only want you moving in when they commit their infantry. Both sides have crossbows, but our side will have more cover, the fence out front, and the farm house to shoot from. So we wait. Got it?”

  “And what about you, Tower Master? Are you really going to stand out in the open by yourself?”

  I grinned at Versai. “Well, that’s why I have this large sword carrying gentleman with me. But rather than wear him out, you will just have to make a big enough mess that nobody comes looking for me.”

  She sighed and looked to the heavens for guidance. Then grinned. “Yes, Tower Master. I’ll do just that.”