Right now I am sitting in the commander's office. His room reminds me of Trevor's room. A table and two chairs, with nothing else in the room. All the walls in the room are of the same color. Well, there is a map behind the chair I am sitting in, so there is that at least. The room is pretty depressing with not even one window in the place. It would be an assassin's nightmare too. To be honest that is the case anyways. The commander is one of the strongest people that I have ever seen.
That is why such a plain room is something pretty unexpected. With the man's might even a grand throne room might be inadequate. That is why I am left wondering what exactly the man needs me for. I don't think I will be able to do anything for the man and whatever it is going to be is nothing easy. I still won't be able to refuse the man even if it is beyond me.
The hexmountain treaty is one of the founding stones of the black mountain. The treaty at its core is quite simple. No force in the continent except those affiliated with the scholars is allowed to conduct any research into magical ruins. This research is naturally not done for free. In return for access to magical ruins, the black mountain will grant a favor to the power that grants them access to the ruin.
Most of the time these favors take the form of magical spells and knowledge that might solve a problem for these local powers. Sometimes though, in times of war, we have to get involved in their war too providing aid where it is possible. We do this only for allies that are particularly important to us though.
That is another reason that scholars are not safe. After all, if the enemy manages to get rid of the scholars then the black mountain will not need to get involved in a fight. Well, my perspective of this treaty comes from the legion rather than the guard corps. The legion is one of the many enforcers of the treaty whose job it is to ensure that no non-scholar will mess with magical ruins.
The legion does not need to do much work on this. Most people who mess with magical ruins end up falling victim to the same ruin. Still, in the rare instances that they need to act, the legion leaves such a violent and bloody trail that nobody dares.
Anyway, I have deviated from the topic enough. At the moment, we need to fulfill the Hexmountain treaty. The black mountain owes a favor to the snowwind empire and the leading member of the guard corps in the area must fulfill this favor. At the present location that is me so the person who has to accept any request will have to be me.
Normally, with the power of a normal captain, such a favor would be worthless. After all, I am sure that just this fort has at least a thousand beings at my level of power. Anything that I can fight, the commander can have somebody else fight. Instead, it is my knowledge as a formation mage that is more useful to the snowwinders.
They might not have too many formations, but they certainly need somebody to repair the few that they have. The problem will start if they commission me to build a new formation. That is going to be a very tight rope to walk. I cannot give them too much or our other allies in the region will get pissed off.
I can't give them too little or the Snowwind empire will stop being our ally. How the fuck am I supposed to figure out that balance. Another thing to worry about is working with formations would mean that I have to stay back at the frozen peak. Meanwhile, the soldiers have to go with the scholars to the ruin. Jacob and Andrew are relatively good fighters and the snowwinders are not folk who like to mess with the scholars. They like to screw with the guards, but they rarely mess with the scholars. That is true to a degree in most parts of the continent. Still, the snowwind empire is abnormally careful with the scholars.
Even after the Seven Temples incident, when things had ended up on the verge of war. Even then the snowwind empire returned the surviving scholars without causing any incident. Any other force would have executed them. All the guards were executed naturally. So yeah, I at the very least need not worry about the scholars too much. I only have to worry about myself right now.
(After almost an hour.)
I have sat in this room for about an hour, waiting for the commander. The commander appears in my mana sense like a ghost. His appearance in my mana sense is more like him declaring his presence than me sensing it on my own. I wonder just how easily the man would kill me if he wanted to.
Well, I get up quickly to greet the man. The snowwinders are the ultimate sticklers for rules. Any perceived slights on their honor won't end well for me. The commander still can be considered to be one of the more reasonable ones. It is the nobles that are the true nightmares, I have heard. Not that I have gotten to meet them yet.
Anyway, the door opens as I bow to the man.
"You really should focus more, kid. Such a sloppy greeting would be considered an insult. Better to act arrogant than do such a sloppy greeting. It would insult them more, but you will look stronger to them.", he speaks. "Anyway, we are too busy to waste our time on this. I am sure that you know why you have been summoned here."
"Well, it would be wrong to say that I have a concrete idea. All I can tell you is that it has something to do with the hexmountain treaty, commander", I reply.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
"Well, you would be partially correct. I am going to be cashing in my favor acquired through the hexmountain treaty but that comes for later.", he speaks. "Instead right now, it is your skill as a formation mage that I require at this moment."
Well, the only thing I can do after this is sigh in relief. This headache has been postponed until tomorrow.
"...Now, if you would be kind enough to go to the map behind you." I realize that I had been ignoring the man as he concludes.
I turn to see the map behind me light up. I cannot feel any fluctuations in the mana. This more than anything else causes a chill in my spine. Not many things can escape my mana sense. Forcing myself to swallow the surge of panic I feel, I look at the map in front of me. It is presently glowing in two colors. One side is green and the other side is red.
The red I have to assume is the territory of the snowwinders and the green is the territory of the snowlords. If that is the case, the snowwinders have quite a bit to worry about. Almost two-thirds of the map is green.
"Well, the map you see in front of you is a record of just how deep the snowlords penetrated our territory in the last season.", speaks the commander. "As you can see, we have not been particularly successful in holding back the snowlords. The strategies that we have been using until now have been a failure."
The commander gets up from his chair walking to the map. This is vital information. Information that is not meant for a mere captain like me. It isn't meant for somebody higher up in the guard corps. My log is just a means to communicate with them.
"Well, the reason that I have shown you this map in the first place is simply to explain our present situation.", the commander speaks. "With the way that things are going, it is clear that we need a new strategy."
"I don't understand why you are saying this to me.", I reply. "It is not like I have experience related to this."
"Well, the reason that I am telling this to you is to give me a perspective related to a question that I have.", he speaks. "You see, one of the ideas I have rolling around in my head is a formation wall in this area roughly."
As he speaks a line appears in the map cutting the map in two parts. If the map is scaled correctly, that would be a massive problem.
"Commander, building such a massive formation wall will be quite impossible for you If I have to put it frankly.", I reply. "The formation walls that you see at the bone pits or the rhune kingdom are the work of generations of formation mages. What you are proposing is as large an undertaking as theirs. It might even end up being larger. Each section of that wall is class four or five at the very least. Only these formations will be large enough to even cover the entirety of the wall. It is wise not to build such a thing amid an active battlefield. Making a mistake with a class five formation will be disastrous."
"Well, wasn't the wall at the bone pit created after the undead calamity?", replies the commander.
"That is true, but they did it that way because they had no option and even then they had to do it in sections.", I reply. "the undead from the bone pits by then were dumb and stupid creatures. They did not actively mess with the wall's construction. Do you think that your enemies will grant such leeway to you?"
"Well, they certainly won't. The snowlords realize the threat that they would face if they were to allow us to build any more forts here.", speaks the commander.
"Well, you can attempt a fort chain commander" I reply. "Rather than try to build a formation wall directly, you can try to build it in three phases. First, you build a set of forts, acting as nodes for your wall."
"Well, do you think that building a fort in the middle of an active battlefield is any easier?", replies the commander.
"I would assume that it would still be easier than building a formation wall. It is your field of experience, commander if what I have learned from the records is true", I reply. "Weren't you the one that led the initial expedition to this place? The group that ended up creating the frozen peak."
"Well, that is true. Continue your explanation.", he replies.
"Well, as for the second step that would be building walls in segments, connecting one fort to the other.", I reply. "The last step would be to connect these formations to form a chain."
"A formation chain, though. Aren't they supposed to be very weak.", asks the commander.
"Compared to a traditional formation, a chain is much weaker. But a well-made formation chain will be able to show at least three-quarters of strength in half the resources.", I reply. "It also will put less requirements on the capabilities of your formation mages. The defensive wall at the hexmountain has been created similarly."
"Well, suppose that I were to follow this strategy, how many forts would I need and what are the challenges we will be facing?", he asks.
"Well, I will start with the latter question. What I know about fort chains is purely theoretical. Firstly, the hardest phase will be the first phase. Multiple forts will have to be constructed and formations will have to be built for each fort." I speak.
"Overall, the wall will require much simpler formations. Class seven or class eight formations will be enough for each node.....
(After about a couple of hours.)
I have spent the last couple of hours explaining to the man everything that I know about the fort chains. It is all the rage down south, to the point that even my master has been studying it. Finally, I have reached the end of my explanation.
I have spoken so much that my head is buzzing. We ended up back at the table sometime in the middle of this discussion. Right now he is quietly pondering on the feasibility of this idea.
"You have given me much to consider, young captain.", he suddenly speaks. "I will have to ask that you return to the guest room. I shall speak to you in a few days."
"Commander, I would have to request that we be allowed out of our rooms. As you have mentioned about our ship, it needs extensive repairs.", I ask the man, taking a bit of a risk. This action might just lead to me getting imprisoned as well.
"Well, you will have to negotiate with the nobles on that. They have charge of your security." The commander replies "I could give you the permission that you want but it will be too costly for me. I would offend the nobles too much. Instead, what I can do is arrange a meeting with one of the nobles. You can negotiate this with him. Do you need anything else? If not, then you should leave."
Listening to the man, it is clear that this is a command. Well, before he gets to enforce that command of his, I leave the room.