Chapter 41: Chapter 36 – On the March

“I am sorry, Karine. I am not used to walking this much.”

Avilia had tired herself out already, and we’d only been walking for a couple of hours. It makes sense, though. She’d been living all alone in that facility where all her needs were catered to by an AI for what, fifteen years? She hadn’t had to walk this much in her life.

Now, thankfully, I’m 100% fine. I’m not wasting any of my resources anymore. They just use ambient magic particles to function for now. Or mana, as it were. I really should keep calling them “magic particles,” though. Sounds more official to my ear. Mana sounds like something you’d have in a game. Like those roleplaying games my brother used to play.

And this isn’t a game. Doesn’t seem like a common way of thinking among “summoned heroes.”

“No need to apologize. It was my mistake. I didn’t stop to think how athletic you are.”

Once Avilia had started to stumble a bit, I carried her and decided to talk to Karine. I embarrassed her for sure! I hadn’t managed to do that in a while. I feel accomplished again!

And now Avilia’s riding something that resembles a pony. It honestly is, for all intents and purposes, a pony, but… Something about it doesn’t look quite right. Just like with all the other animals I’ve encountered so far. It’s strange how all of them look similar to what I find in the database, but aren’t quite that.

“It would be so much easier if I could just use magic…”

“Now, now,” I say, “You know we can’t do that. They’d…”

“They would know we are here,” she says with a slightly annoyed tone, interrupting me, “I am well aware. I am just stating it would be easier!”

As it turns out, even though you can fool the eyes of their scouts and their magical scrying with our own magic, you can’t fool magic detection when you get within a certain range of the capital. Apparently, that’s why we chose that camp location. Just far enough to not be detected, just close enough to not make the march take very long.

Weeks we don’t have. They would’ve noticed something’s up once their punitive force runs into a rebel army! It’s better to go around them than walk straight into them. Sure, it’s not large enough to fight us, but if even one of them got away…

Thankfully, that magic detection stuff isn’t attuned to detecting the use of magic tools. They’re so popular that they’d cause thousands of false positives. No risk of them finding us because of my limbs!

I turn to Karine who’s still with us. “You know, the camp was a lot smaller than I thought it’d be. A few thousand people at most?

“Our army is split in a bunch of smaller camps.”

“Why?”

“Because we’ll have an easier time encircling the city, of course!”

“But if we’re found out, won’t they have an easier time wiping us out if we’re in smaller groups?”

“Yes, but they won’t have the time!”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because if plan A fails, we have other plans in place,” she says with extreme confidence, “There’s no need to worry so much!”

Avilia suddenly shows interest in our conversation. “Why do we not know what the other plans are, anyway?”

Karine gasps. Is that a flicker of embarrassment?

“Because…”

“Because?”

“… I originally thought it’s not important for you to know and forgot.”

Great. Not only did she get us in this situation, but she’s also been holding back important information? Because she thought we didn’t need to know what to do?

Fantastic.

“So,” Avilia continues without skipping a beat, “What are they?”

“Um, well. To make a really long story shorter. You know the primary plan of attack, right? Where we shut down their transporters, besiege the capital before they know what’s going on, infiltrate the capital, take the royal family and so on and so on?”

“Yes, of course. It requires a lot of things to come together just right.”

Saying that is an understatement. For any of this to work, we have to assume that the kingdom won’t have time to bring almost anyone to the defense of its capital from the frontier. All they need is a skeleton crew to man the battlements and we’d be in a lot of trouble. Are they really that overconfident?

Okay, based on everything I’ve read and heard, sure, they just might be. They think this entire rebellion is just a couple of angry peasants in the periphery. A peasant uprising of no import that’s been quashed years ago. That’s why they’re concentrating more on the beast folk, apparently. But in truth, they left the embers to smolder, just.waiting for fuel to become a blazing inferno. They’ve completely underestimated the popularity of the rebellion.

They should have all this information if they wanted it, too. News travel as fast as the people, and people travel from place to place in seconds! They should know the people hate them, right?

“Well, if they happen to notice us ahead of time, we’d have to alter our strategy accordingly, right? Start using magic, help the people being attacked and so on. There’d be no point hiding our numbers at that point!“

Avilia nods, glancing at me. “Right. So we are hoping for the best but prepared for the worst. That is good to know.”

“Exactly! So there’s no need to worry.”

Okay, now’s my turn.

“There’s one thing I’m worried about.”

Karine turns to me. “What?”

“What if that summoned hero manages to come to the capital? Isn’t he supposed to be almost indestructible?”

“Um, yes, he is,” Karine responds, hesitantly, “But according to all our intelligence, he should be deep in beastfolk territory. He shouldn’t be able to get here in time.”

“Shouldn’t be,” I say, sighing, “That’s not the same as won’t be.”

“I can’t guarantee it. He’s the one wildcard. But we have plans for him, too.”

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You don’t sound too sure about yourself, Karine!

“… I hope your plans don’t involve me.”

Karine goes silent.

“They don’t involve me, right?”

She mumbles something. Even with my enhanced hearing, I have no idea what she said!

“What was that?”

“… I can’t guarantee they don’t involve you in some capacity,” she mutters quietly.

I distinctly remember she said I should be able to stay out of the fight. That others would do the fighting. That them seeing me fail at it might even risk morale. Since “summoned heroes” are supposed to be natural fighters.

I’m not surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised.

“You promised.”

“I know! If he shows up we’ll try to keep him away from you, but there’s no guarantee it’ll work! We might need you to distract him somehow!”

This isn’t filling me with massive amounts of confidence, Karine! Jeez! What’s with this “we’ll deal with it when it happens” attitude? Isn’t this literally the plot of a whole bunch of trashy books?!

Well, at least Vaqelin said he’d help. I wonder how he’s doing, anyway? I haven’t seen him much lately.

“Where’s Vaqelin, by the way?”

“Oh, him? With one of the other groups. Why?”

“Just idle interest.”

“Hm. Right. He is something of a genius when it comes to magic, it’s good to have him on our side.”

Seems like she bought it! She doesn’t know about Vaqelin being a reincarnation. That honestly should put him close to the level of a summoned hero, even if he doesn’t have the combat experience.

I can’t put all my hopes on this whole “possibly being blessed by something” thing, after all. There’s no way of knowing if it’s anywhere near their level.

“Oh, Karine,” I continue. “Don’t the people on our side look, I don’t know, a bit ill-equipped?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, when they came to the village? The guards had more armor. And flashier weapons.”

Avilia perks up. “That is true!”

“That is easy enough to explain.”

“It’s because…”

“Because…?”

“Take a look at that soldier ahead of us.”

The two of us turn to look ahead. There’s a man mounted on a horse.

“What about him?”

“Look what he’s carrying on his back.”

“Something cylindrical covered by cloth?”

Karine nods. “Yes, exactly. What do you think it is?”

Avilia cocks her head. “It is not a sword of some kind?”

Karine giggles. “No, it’s not. It’s a musket, based on designs from the Central Empire! Our entire army is equipped with them!“

Avilia looks surprised. But so am I!

“Are those not illegal to import to the Kingdom?”

“Isn’t rebelling illegal?”

“How did you get your hands on so many of them?”

“Oh, we’re not in cahoots with the Empire if that’s what you’re wondering, Avilia. But it’s a cosmopolitan world. People have connections all over. Things move around and fall through the cracks. With enough time and determination, anything’s possible.”

“I won’t pretend they won’t be elated about our exploits regardless,” Karine continues, “They really can’t lose no matter who wins this war.”

She looks at the sky for a moment.

“All we can do is try to lessen its impact.”

Just how long have you been amassing these guns, Karine?!

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