Chapter 91 - War Cometh (Patreon)

Chapter 91

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth.

"Well, it has been a pleasure meeting with you, forge master." Said Allya as she accompanied the dwarf to the entrance of her administration building. Not that she should call it that anymore, it was very quickly turning into a very respectable noble manor. And once the knights and their engineers were done with the defenses…a superb castle. "There remains a lot to still be hammered out, but I'm sure that will be no issue."

"The pleasure was all mine milady, and might I say-"

Allya's eyebrows rose as the door slammed open and a soldier surged through it, almost colliding with them. Fortunately he managed to avoid the collision in extremis…which given how fast Éclair had drawn her gunblade had almost certainly saved his life. She made a note to talk to her bodyguards and have them relax a bit. Having them this much on edge wasn't healthy for anyone.

"Trooper?"

"Oh, milady! I'm very sorry! I bear an urgent message from commander Anders!"

"Ah? What kind of message?" Said Allya in her best command voice to get the soldier to calm down a bit.

The soldier saluted, a bit belatedly.

"The commander's compliments ma'am, I mean milady. He says that the dungeon's boss has arrived and that Crystal is asking for a few minutes of your time. Says it has to do with a new mini floor, and the return of deposits of iron ore in the dungeon."

Allya's eyebrows rose, and she shared a look with Imrak. The dwarf smiled and shook his head.

"Are you always this lucky?"

"If I wasn't I wouldn't be here I suppose." She chuckled, and turned back towards the soldier. "Alright, tell the good dungeon to come in. And I suppose our meeting isn't quite over forgemaster! Oh, and trooper?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Could you be so good to fetch Pyn Windwrath as well?"

"Of course milady, right away!"

And the soldier took off at a run, although this time he opened the door far more sedately.

"Well, this conversation took something of a turn." Allya sighed. "So much for breakfast I suppose."

"I'm sure you can have something delivered while we speak."

Allya hesitated. That wasn't exactly polite but…better than having her stomach grumble.

"I'll send one of my guards." Which reminded her she really needed to acquire some staff, and a few servants. Hell, even the dungeon core had maids! "Now, I believe you've never had the pleasure of meeting our resident dungeon core. Just know that she can be…direct. Very direct."

"Well, it shouldn't be that much of a change from our meeting then."

Allya thought back to the dungeon outright threatening to kill her…and decided to keep her peace.

After all, she had threatened to kick the dwarf out at sword point.

*****

Alexandra sighed as she stepped into the main entrance and exited CQ's body, giving her daughter a mental headpat as she blinked awake. This had been an…interesting discussion, to say the least. She hadn't expected to meet a metallurgist.

If nothing else, it at least had highlighted just how little she knew about, well…anything in this field. When she'd been in field logistics she'd been dealing with mostly higher level stuff. Raw material refining and procurement had never been her division. She just got a list of materials, components, ect, alongside whatever the hell the navy wanted to have, roughly. Engineering new pieces of technology? Piece of cake. Refining and mass producing base materials? Eh. Most of the stuff she'd known came from documentaries and roleplaying games. It was part of why being a dungeon core was both a blessing and a curse, she could make anything she absorbed through her special abilities, but the cost would be massively inflated compared to doing it the old fashioned way, especially for mass production.

So when talking about ore type, concentration and what particular types of impurity their contained, she'd been completely stumped. Although thankfully according to the dwarf, who basked in the title of 'forge master', dungeon created ore was usually as pure as it got. He was just being thorough.

Still, at least it meant that industry was coming to the surface town, and with it hopefully the fox eared twins would be able to fulfil their end of the bargain. Alexandra had made sure to reintroduce some of the alchemical ingredients they'd wanted in the labyrinth, and by the time she was done with the loot table for the treasure chests they'd all be present. So they had better keep their end of the deal, although given the general chaos, she couldn't blame them if they were a bit late.

At least Allya had looked very much pleased when Alexandra had told her the iron step was ready. And very intrigued at her upcoming 'surprise', as well as a little afraid. She couldn't really blame the girl, her 'surprises' tended to be explosive and fairly lethal in nature. Well not this time! Okay, mostly not. She had some sections with mines in the labyrinth, of course, some of them themed after her second floor, as a form of easter egg and warning, but not that many of them.

The new dungeon sections being opened should help them both tremendously. Allya with her town's income and keeping her adventurers in check, and Alexandra could really use the mana income. Especially because as much as she believed the surface dwellers when they said their kingdom has fiercely denounced the attack and more reinforcements were on their way, she didn't believe for a single second that it would deter the idiots on the other side. If that kind of thing would have, then they'd have never braved the UDC's fearsome, if seemingly vastly overinflated, at least to her eyes, reputation.

Alexandra plunged back into her avatar, and looked around the command center. Empty, as she expected. Emilia was currently with her maids in the infirmary, and Jared was on his way from the resurrection room, where he had to settle some unruly adventurers. Apparently some of the adventuring groups had already developed some seriously bad blood between them, and they'd tried to kill each other. That was…interesting. Maybe they thought that since it happened in the dungeon nothing would be able to be proven? She'd have to make a note about establishing a liaison with whatever passed for cops in the town.

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

Alexandra chuckled at the pop up, and made her way towards the workshop. She could wait until Emilia was done with her maids to put the finishing touches on the Labyrinth. And she could put that time to good use. Now that she had gunpowder, her horizons had vastly expanded.

She smiled as she entered the prototype cluttered room, and made a beeline for a table covered in safety warnings, and patted the long cylinder on it. Her thumpers were good, but they still had a lot of downsides, and truth be told she used the design with the new warheads simply because it was quicker to simply put them into production that way rather than try to design a new launcher.

But for this? Oh she'd take the time. And the next invader to try to attack the town was going to regret ever making the attempt.

She sat down, and began working on what someone from Earth might have recognized as a crude, but effective, katyusha style artillery rocket.

*****

"This is an outrage! How dare the kingdom profess these…these lies and accusations against our Republic!"

Charles Veumen, senator of the Elkis Republic, kept a neutral, if vaguely outraged expression as his fellow senator delivered her fiery speech. Nothing of his expression would have clued in anyone that he'd been the one to write that speech…or bribed that senator into delivering it.

Everyone would know, or at least guess it of course. At least anyone that hadn't gotten their seat by pure inheritance of nepotism, and not through any hint of competence, which unfortunately was altogether too many members of the senate nowadays.

But this time they wouldn't care. Because far too many of them would agree with the senator's fiery speech, albeit for a host of reasons. The more clueless would be genuinely outraged, and the others….the others realized that if this 'affront' went unpunished, then not only would the Republic's guilt be assumed by some, but their own citizens would get…unsettled. Especially the more rebellious elements of the outer provinces, who would see it as a sign of weakness and a chance to leave for greener pastures like, say, the Tark Hegemony.

And that was something they couldn't risk. Not when the Hegemony had been taking bites out of the Republic's western flank for the past century and a half.

They needed a show of force…and that meant attacking the kingdom.

Which meant supporting him, as he'd been the only one publicly and privately advocating for a conflict with the kingdom, as well as making preparations to do so.

He smiled internally at how masterfully he'd turned his own enemies into begrudging allies, before squashing the sense of pride. Yes, it was smartly done, but he was now riding the damned dragon. Because now that his fellows were about to throw in behind his efforts, the only thing that would keep him at the top would be to deliver results, otherwise he'd be discarded for 'incompetence' or 'cowardice', if he wasn't simply victim of an 'unfortunate accident'.

Or committed suicide by shooting himself thirty times in the back with five different calibers.

But as long as he kept at the helm and at least giving the illusion of control and power to the populace, he'd be relatively secure. After all his untimely death while seeming like the face of the Republic's strength rather than weakness would only bring about the very problems this offensive was supposed to quell! And more importantly, once he had taken over Rebirth and executed that pesky baroness and her knight, he could take over the town as his personal domain, and distribute the spoils of the campaign as he saw fit, which would bring his dynasty back into its rightful position of power. With a bit of luck, they might even take Darthar, although even he knew that was more wishful thinking than anything. Their armies were mighty, and the kingdom was fractured yes, but Darthar's mighty energy shields made any kind of siege using artillery effectively useless, and only a direct assault would succeed, which would be a blood bath, to say the least.

Still, if the odds were good enough, it might be worth a try.

As long as he covered his back thoroughly enough to avoid losing his head should the attempt fail. What had happened to his siblings after the Far Reach campaign had made it very clear to him that failure was best avoided as long as you didn't have thorough failsafes in place.

Although, if they were even in a position to attack Darthar, it would mean he would have conquered the dungeon town, and that might be enough credit to cover such a defeat to begin with…

A thought for later, definitely, and he rose to clap in a standing ovation with the rest of his fellows as the other senator finished her speech and stepped away from the enchanted voice amplifier at the front of her alcove.

"The chair recognizes the honorable senator Loranbor." Announced the lonely senator seated at the center of the room, gesturing at one of the uppermost boxes.

Charles schooled his features as he sat back down, and the senate fell into total silence as the head of the single most powerful dynasty in the Republic bowed towards the senate's chair, and activated the magical voice amplifiers.

"Fellow brothers and sisters of the Republic. I cannot dispute any of the points, or even an ounce of the righteous outrage brought my lady Valorkin. Indeed, I can only second them. Make no mistake my brothers and sisters, these brazen accusations by the kingdom are nothing less than a deliberate attempt to destabilize our country, and to make our dutiful citizens lose faith in our Republic and its institutions! And it is our duty in these dark times to reassure and guide them, but most importantly to protect them. And if the kingdom is so brazen as to launch these accusations, and deploy entire battalions -battalions my brothers and sisters!- of royal knights to our shared border, then I have little doubt that they are preparing to attack the Republic itself in a more direct manner, if not now, then soon."

The silence got even more profound, if that was even possible. Oh nobody with even the beginning of a brain would recognize anything coming out of the senator's mouth had even the slightest resemblance with reality. The kingdom, attack the Republic? They were so busy fighting off the Saphire Kingdom and trying to hold their vast territory together it would be a miracle if they'd even be able to mass the troops before they imploded from the effort! But everyone recognized that this was a direct, unequivocal call for war by the most powerful among them, and effectively a show of support by the most powerful faction within the senate.

"To this end-" Continued Loranbor. "-I would like to have senator Veumen address the senate as to the state of our troops at the trading town of Erakis, as he has been responsible for the buildup there to counter piracy and bandit operations in the region, and how those troops could be repurposed to best counter the Kingdom's blatant aggression."

The chair nodded, and gestured towards Charles' box.

"The chair recognizes senator Veumen."

Charles discreetly swallowed, and got up, before standing at the rail of his box, facing the entire senate.

"My fellow senators -my brothers and sisters-, I am as surprised and appalled as you are by the kingdom's rash and unjustified accusations against our magnificent Republic as you are. Had I anticipated this, I would have no doubt further pushed for a larger force to be stationed at Erakis. However, thankfully in a bid to relieve one of our most important trade route of the scum that would pillage it, I have advocated for -and deployed- a large military presence, which I have been monitoring and advising directly." Of course that was all bullshit. You didn't need siege artillery to fight off pirates and bandits, and 'advising' in this case meant giving direct orders to the commanding officer. "While I am sure that some further redeployments and reinforcements will be needed, I am confident that the units currently deployed at Erakis would be able to undertake a…pre-emptive strike on the so called 'city' of Rebirth, in order to disrupt the kingdom's military building in the region, and prevent an invasion."

He stepped back, and the silence continued for a few seconds. Then Loranbor rose up once more, and the chair recognized him again.

"I think, my brothers and sisters, that such a course of action calls for a vote."

No one even voted against.