Vice Captain Sellar had admitted to creating Unit Six to disrupt the balance of power within the division, but that didn’t mean that Sebastian had any leverage in the negotiations.
His unit had to start small. In total, there were 15 members of the unit, himself excluded. Of those, roughly half were new recruits.
What he did manage to secure in the negotiations were three enchanted tents and a couple of draft beasts.
The unit moved into their tents. Two barracks, the same type of tent which they spent the first night in, and one command tent which was a smaller version of the central tent. It had a simple office, which doubled as a meeting room, and Sebastian’s private quarters.
The division stayed camped outside Celder for another night, a courtesy to the new recruits so they could say their goodbyes. They set off the next day, headed farther west. There were two towns left on their recruitment tour.
Sebastian used the travel time to familiarize himself with both the rules and regulations of the Wandering Wolves Corps as well as his own new responsibilities, and also with his new unit. Together with a few of the other new recruits within the unit, Sebastian had decided on a name for the unit, the Valyan Claw. It was a combination of some wolf reference, as seemed to be the norm in the company, and the historic name of Celder, which these days only remained attached to the river that ran through the town, Valya.
The Valyan Claw, in addition to the three enchanted tents, were also provided two carriages for travel.
They packed everything up and departed along with the rest of the division. They traveled west. Their destination was Dondresan, a town about half the size of Celder.
Their two carriages, like most in the large caravan, were pulled by the same rhinoceros-like monsters as the train back in Lumeria—apparently called cornuptres—only smaller. They were either younger or just a lower level. Most likely both. Even though they were smaller, the weight they had to pull was a fraction of the train so they could move quite quickly.
Sebastian had been given one beast tamer in charge of the draft beasts pulling the carriages. The beast tamer drove one carriage and one of the support mages drove the other. Sebastian sat up in the box seat with the support mage, Víctor Ollés, as they traveled across the countryside.
Víctor, like most people in the Calindor Federation, had olive skin and dark hair. Sebastian had felt that people in the Kingdom of Lumeria generally had a vaguely European appearance. If they vaguely resembled French, German, or British people, then the people of Calindor—again, vaguely—reminded Sebastian of people from the Mediterranean, Spain, and other places in southern Europe. Although the resemblances weren’t one-to-one, Sebastian couldn’t help but find the similarities to his old world fascinating.
“Hey, so I was wondering,” Sebastian said to the mage next to him.
“What’s up, boss?” Víctor answered as he raised an eyebrow.
“You’re a support mage, right? I’ve never actually seen a mage focused on combat. Since we have some time, I figured I might as well ask why?”
Víctor chuckled. “Yeah, well, just about every young mage dreams of becoming a battle mage, but very few actually succeed.” He shook his head, as if reminiscing about his own youth, before continuing. “Most mages only level through achievements, you see. That’s because ‘hunting’ for mages means hunting as part of a team. A lot of spells take a long time to prepare, after all, and monsters tend not to wait for you to finish. Not only that, but they usually affect the environment around the monster rather than the monster itself which means they don’t get as much experience as melee fighters. To level through achievements means gaining a ton of spells and such.” He noticed Sebastian’s questioning look and explained, “Spells is the word we mages use for dedicated Magical Skills,” to answer the silent question. “It’s just natural that when you go for quantity over quality, you tend to end up in a support role. We have so many useful little tricks that we just sort of fall into this position.”
“Huh, that makes sense. Never really thought it about it like that. The few times I’ve fought with a mage on the team, he did do more to the surroundings than to the monster itself, like you said. He opened the ground and trapped its foot, for example.”
“Exactly. Very useful, very helpful, but not very effective when you want to level up yourself. The [System] can be surprisingly stingy with things like that.”
The White Fang Division arrived in Dondresan two days later. It was similar in a lot of ways to Celder but smaller, cozier. Main street, which ran down the entirety of the town, was lined with beautiful trees. A thriving boulevard which set the standard for the rest of the town.
They set up camp just outside the town itself, much like they did in Celder.
Sebastian, along with a couple of other lieutenants, remained in the camp to organize things while Vice Captain Sellar and the rest went into town to meet with the mayor and other high-ups.
Setting up the camp for the whole division was more complicated than Sebastian had expected, in spite of the fact that they did so on a semi-regular basis. There were rivalries which arose between various members and units.
The mercenaries of the Wandering Wolves Corps were strong. With that strength came pride. That, in turn, led to conflicts.
Rather than actually working on setting things up, Sebastian’s job was more like baby-sitting. Making sure that nobody got killed when the half the leadership was gone. It was easy work but tiring.
After an hour of running around the camp, putting out metaphorical fires—and a few literal ones—Sebastian returned to his own unit’s tents.
An elderly woman stood alone in front of a group of four, three men and a woman. She held one of the men by his wrist at an awkward angle as he was on his knees, begging her to let go.
“Marion, is everything alright?” Sebastian asked.
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The other three ran off at the sight of him, leaving their friend at the old woman’s mercy. She glanced over. “Peachy, sir,” she said. Her face held a serious expression, the same one she’d had since Sebastian first met her.
“What’d he do—“ Sebastian asked but was interrupted by a message through his lieutenant’s badge.
Marion noticed and released the poor bully who ran off as quickly as he could. “Just the usual stupidity. What’s the news, sir?”
Sebastian read the message and said, “The vice captain is back, apparently he wants to see me right away. You can handle things here, I presume?”
She nodded. “Of course, sir.”
It didn’t take long for Sebastian to make his way to the vice captain’s tent. Unlike last time, he now entered directly and immediately stepped into Vice Captain Sellar’s office. He knock as he entered though.
“You wanted to see me?”
The vice captain’s mustache jiggled as he tore his attention away from his papers. “Sebastian, excellent. Yes, I have an assignment for you. Your unit’s first contract. Sit, please.” He gestured toward the chair. “We usually avoid contracts during our recruitment tours, to allow for a smoother restructuring period, but we had to make an exception this time. The mayor generously offered to waive some substantial fees during our recruitment. Both pitch fees for the camp and the reservation fee for the trials,” he said with glee. “In exchange, he’s asked us to send some men to escort a delegation to Catresan, a few days south of here. They’re undermanned after a monster encounter and were quite desperate. You, and your Valyan Claw, drew the short straw, I’m afraid.”
“I wasn’t aware that I had even drawn a straw in the first place,” Sebastian said.
“Hah, there’s a life lesson in there somewhere.” Vice Captain Sellar laughed, his mustache dancing as he did. “You leave in the morning. Escort them safely to Catresan and make your way directly to Torrun from there. You’ll meet up with us there for the last stop of the tour. The delegation has escorts back from the local guards so it’s just the one way, but they’re working on some deal which is apparently quite time sensitive.”
***
Sebastian called a meeting for the whole unit.
They couldn’t all fit inside his office so they met in the shared space in one of the barracks.
He sat against the right hand wall with the members of the Valyan Claw in front on him. Some, like Safi and Gawen, sat on the couches while others stood behind them and a few more were up on the interior balcony. Marion, Sebastian’s second-in-command, stood next to him.
It was difficult to tell just by looking at her how old she actually was. Her face was mostly that of someone in their seventies, with grey hair and wrinkles, yet she had the physique of someone much younger. She wore a black, long sleeved, crop top that revealed what could only be described as a chiseled 10-pack and dark green pants reminiscent of cargo pants. Since the first moment Sebastian met her, she had a permanent scowl on her face. In spite of that, she had been mostly nice, sweet even, whenever they talked.
“We’re all here then?” Sebastian asked rhetorically as he looked around the room. “Good, let’s begin. We’ve been given our first contract. The town is sending a delegation to Catresan, and we’re been tasked with escorting them there safely. Should be quick and easy.”
They went over the plans for the contract. Not that there was anything major to plan around, but they coordinated the logistics of travel as they had never traveled as a unit before. Sebastian was only given two support mages for the unit. Víctor and his fellow mage would have to handle compressing and setting up the tents whenever they made camp, so they all agreed not to leave too much in storage within the tents to make it easier on them.
“Well then, enjoy tonight. Just don’t enjoy yourselves too much, we set off at dawn,” Sebastian said to end the meeting.
The rest of the unit went off to experience everything Dondresan had to offer. Sebastian retreated to his personal quarters. While being a mercenary would hopefully allow him to push himself and engage in true combat, it made it difficult to find time to cultivate. He had to take hold of every opportunity he could find.
When the sun rose above the horizon, the Valyan Claw were up and packing while the rest of the division were still resting after a rowdy night.
The mages compressed the tents as the others packed as much as they could onto their carriages. They were fairly large with room for both passengers and supplies. Two cornuptreses, pulling what looked like train cars, left the camp.
Soon after, they arrived at a gate on the southwestern side of the town.
Dondresan was more colorful than Celder. Most of the buildings were made of the same limestone as in Celder but the houses were painted in all kinds of vibrant colors, especially the roofs. Contrasted by the healthy green of the surrounding nature lit by the rising sun made for a beautiful morning.
The town had a small wall around it, much like Blackoak back in Lumeria, but the gate stood between two gate houses. The gate opened, like massive double doors, and a gaudy carriage drawn by large horse exited the town.
It stopped next to the Valyan Claw’s two carriages and an old man stepped out. Sebastian jumped down to meet him.
“Lieutenant Moore,” the old man said with a bow. “Gonzalo Rowse, valet of Lord Tillich. On behalf of his lordship, I thank you for your aid. His lordship has asked that I impress upon you that it is of vital importance we reach Catresan as quickly as possible.”
Sebastian considered offering the man his hand but got the distinct impression that handshakes were not something he’d be interested in. “Mr. Rowse, good to meet you. No worries. We’ll depart immediately, and we won’t stop until nightfall.”
They set off toward Catresan moments later.
The lord’s carriage was positioned in the middle of the caravan, with the two carriages of the Valyan Claw in the front and rear. Sebastian once again sat up front with Víctor.
Honoring their word, the caravan only made the occasional rest stop as it sped through the Calindorian landscape.
At this point, Sebastian had lived in this world for a long time. His sense of longing for earth had faded over the years. Sitting up front, a bowl of some curry-like dish in hand wafting a homey scent with every bite, watching the wind ripple across a lake in the distance as they traveled along the side of a hill got his nostalgia going.
His family had only gone camping in the woods once or twice in his youth. It didn’t go well. They learned from their mistakes, however, and made something of a tradition after that in renting a cabin for a few weeks each summer. The drive up passed by a lake, much like this one.
After his parents passed, Sebastian only went back once. A couple of years later. It didn’t feel right, just sad.
Now, after all this time, however, he relished in the nostalgic feelings. No sadness prevented him from truly appreciating the beauty. Even with all of its various flaws, this world was nothing if not beautiful.
A few hours later, the sun approached the early stages of setting for the day so the caravan found a decent place to set up camp. It was a flat piece of land with a handful of copses of bushy trees strewn about.
For some added security, from the elements if nothing else, they arranged the carriages and the tents to form something of a courtyard and set up camp in the middle. Second-in-command Macias, Marion, took charge immediately. The beast tamer took care of the two rhino-beasts, and helped the driver of the lord’s carriage with their horse, while the two mages set up tents and some conveniences, like a fire-pit.
The door of the grand carriage opened and Valet Rowse stepped out. He made a cursory inspection of the campground before signaling to his lord that it was alright to step out.
Sebastian had refrained from invading their privacy during the trip but seeing the lord step out, his curiosity got the better of him. He activated his [Mind’s Eye] to get a better look, and to see if there was more to the man than social status.
His eyes widened.
Without hesitation, Sebastian activated [Quickstep].
He reached the carriage in the blink of an eye and reached out his hand. He caught the arrow just as its tip broke through the outer layer of skin of Lord Tillich’s temple.
Sebastian called out to his unit, “Ambush!”
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