Chapter 96 - Republic Caravan (Patreon)

Note : Chapters 97 and 98 have been written and added to the queue.

Chapter 96

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Outer defenses of the City of Rebirth.

"So, I heard we had visitors?"

Anders and knight commander Philia turned around as Allya walked into the tower, Pyn and their bodyguards in tow. The defenses around the town were far from completed, but rudimentary fortified redoubts were finally taking form, with a tower in the middle serving as a makeshift keep, surrounded by a fairly sturdy, if low stone wall, with an abatis to function as a third layer of defense.

"You heard correctly milady." Said Anders as he gestured at the firing slit, where a cloud of dust could be seen in the distance. "A caravan is approaching, from the Republic's direction."

"Any chance that it is from an independent or Asarian trading house?"

"Ah, no, unfortunately. The Sakura reported in a minute ago, and confirms some of the wagons bear the flag of the Republic."

Allya grimaced. If there was a simple example to illustrate quite how full of itself the Republic's senate was, it was that every merchant house or enterprise from the Republic had to have all of their ventures marked with the Republic's coat of arms. That made sense for naval or airborne ships, but wagons? Hell, even river barges and horseback couriers! It was a pure exercise in megalomania and ego stroking.

Which…accurately described most of the Republic's actions, even the attempt to steal Crystal's core.

"Very well then. Go send a runner to warn Crystal will you? I'd rather not have her thing we're under attack and start a fight we don't need. And rouse the garrison, let's give our guests a warm -and firm-, welcome." Allya smiled. "After all, the wasteland is a dangerous place, as the previous caravan that left our fine city demonstrated. I think a heavy military escort is in order, both without and within the city."

Both officers smiled back.

"I'm sure we can arrange that milady." Said Anders, before turning towards Philia. "If I can borrow some of your knights?"

"It would be my outmost pleasure commander."

"Excellent. I'll send a column to escort them in, and guide them to a…special spot. It's between three of the defensive redoubts, if that is to your liking milady?."

"It most certainly is." Allya looked at the firing slit, and nodded. "Keep me appraised, and once they are properly…settled in, do send the caravan master to my office. And make sure to impress upon him that refusing that meeting would be, ah, unwise."

"Of course milady."

"Perfect, now if you'll excuse us?"

Both officers saluted, and Allya returned the courtesy, her fist slamming her against her left shoulder, before turning around and leaving. She didn't have much time, and she needed to make some preparations.

*****

"Well, they certainly don't look very welcome." Said Emilia as she looked at the screen, with the caravan entering the town, surrounded by soldiers…and the vast mass of grim faced or cat calling adventurers waiting beyond the military cordon.

"Not exactly surprising, given that mercs paid by their nation almost leveled this place." Alexandra looked up from her prototype at the screen, and bared her teeth. "Honestly I'd be half tempted to take them all prisoner and damn the consequences. After all, under the rules of engagement, civilian or not any commerce traffic is a legitimate prize."

"True, but it isn't officially war yet."

"I don't give a shit about what piece of paperwork has or hasn't been signed, it was war the second their first team stepped in with the intention of kidnapping us." Alexandra sighed. "But I understand that the baroness wants to be play it cool for now."

When she'd heard that a convoy bearing the Republic's flag had arrived, her first reflex had been to put her entire dungeon on maximum alert, with entire platoons of golems preparing for a surface sortie. After the message from the baroness had arrived she'd relaxed that…a bit.

The golems weren't gearing up for a surface expedition anymore. But she'd moved something around three full batallions into the defensive structure around her core, and diverted all of her experimental artillery and munitions there as well. And she would only stand them down once those bastards were over the horizon. There was no way she was taking any risks now.

It did make moving around a bit cumbersome, especially for Emilia, who had an infantry platoon with RPGs and a literal twelve pounder field gun following her around like oversized, highly explosive puppies, but if that was the price of keeping the vampire girl safe, then Alexandra would gladly pay it.

Emilia turned from the screen to Alexandra and her prototype.

"So, is it ready? And how likely is it to blow up?"

Alexandra felt a twinge of anger and exasperation, and repressed it firmly. The vampire girl's teasing could get on her nerves, but that was no reason to snap at her.

Wait…when was the last time she'd been angry at her advisor? She couldn't remember.

She shook her head, and dismissed the thought…just as the program, which should have overwritten her anger shut down, persuaded of having accomplished its mission, and never having realized that all of its edits had been done to nothing more than a decoy, a mirage, carefully crafted by an advanced EWAR program, and rendered completely null and void.

"It's not going to blow up. Probably. Maybe." She smiled. "No promises though."

"Of course not." Emilia pulled out her grimoire, and a barrier of energy materialized between them and the newly built blast furnace. "Ready?"

"I always am. Starting prototype blast furnace test number one…now."

The room filled with a soft hum as the furnace powered up. Carefully etched runes thrummed with power as mana poured through them…and the furnace lit up as the coal began burning.

Alexandra looked at the crystal screen by her side, monitoring the various processes going on. Temperature was climbing steadily, and she mentally pressed a button. Suddenly the humming intensified, as pure oxygen began being injected into the furnace, and the process began.

Alexandra wasn't quite positive what was going on inside the furnace right now. Oh, she'd read the instructions, but she didn't truly understand most of it. She knew that the oxygen being injected was supposed bond with whatever impurities were contained inside the metal, as well as most of the excess carbon, and would create some kind of purified pig iron, which could then be turned into proper steel. But that was about it.

She also lacked the purified coal, 'coke', although she was well on her way to building the ovens for that as well. There was far more going into primitive steel production than she'd imagined.

"Alright, looks stable. Putting everything at full power."

The furnace began outright roaring as the temperature just exploded upwards, and a veritable stream of oxygen was pumped in. Alexandra laughed and looked at Emilia.

"Well, this looks like a successful test! Let's have it run for a full cycle then-"

That was, of course, the precise moment the damned thing chose to explode.

*****

"Hello, caravan master."

"Greetings milady." Said the man, before grabbing her proffered hand and laying a kiss upon it. The baroness' eyebrows rose, and the caravan master chuckled. "Just because I hail from the Republic milady does not mean I cannot be polite. Besides, I do trade with the Kingdom, it would be very uncouth of me not to learn its habits and customs."

Allya nodded, mentally noting that however uncouth that would have been, most Republic merchants wouldn't have cared a single bit. A great deal of the people in the Republic, at least those in the upper echelons, seemed to think the Republic was the greatest thing to ever happen to the whole continent, and everyone else was uncouth barbarians. Well, rigid, militaristic and paranoid maniacs in the case of the Gorromar, which to be fair was a pretty accurate description.

"I see. Well, I hope you will not be offended if I cut through some of those customs, and get straight to business?"

"Of course not! Time is money after all. And I am sure you have far more productive endeavors than spending your time with me."

"That latter part remains to be seen, especially once I have an idea of what your cargo is." Allya smiled. "This is a growing dungeon town after all, and that means we need a lot of supplies, some of them very exotic…and have the cashflow to buy them."

"A point well taken milady, and I will endeavor to have you forwarded a…fully checked copy of our manifest."

Allya nodded pleasantly, as if the caravan master hadn't essentially admitted the manifest his quartermasters were this moment giving to her guards was redacted, and there probably was a fair amount of smuggled goods in his convoy.

"Thank you. And as I said, straight to business. I'm sure you realize why I have called you here."

"Given the current, ah, tensions shall we say? It was not a very hard guess. You're worried about me transporting Republic spies and soldiers."

"Yes, indeed."

"Well, I could tell you that there is no way in hell that would happen, and I vouch for every single one of the people in my caravan with my life. I suppose if I was a Republic agent I'd be pretty vehement about saying it to. As it is, while I am a dutiful citizen of the Republic, that does not mean I cannot be honest. Thus let me say that a dozen…interesting individuals have added themselves to my caravan before departure. They came in one at a time, from different areas, and would never have come to my attention if some of their travel papers had not been so rushed."

"Rushed?"

"Forged, milady." He chuckled. "A lifetime ago, I worked in the Republic's anti-forgery division. Part of how I gained enough, ah, favors to have my current trading license, and tax exemption. Regardless, despite some…arrangements, I was still very, very good at my job, and I insist to personally check the papers of anyone who joins my caravan. And theirs were wrong. Subtly, mind you, but clearly rush jobs, especially as some of their other papers wouldn't have drawn my attentions. After closer -very close, in fact- examination, I realized most, if not all of them were forged to some level or another." He waved his hand. "Oh, most of it was fairly minor, name modification, birth place, that sort of things. But those were clearly documents made to create a fake persona to infiltrate my caravan. Now usually I wouldn't have cared, but given the current…tensions, I thought best to keep an eye on them. A discreet one, you understand."

"Of course. And?"

"And nothing. No abnormal behavior, nothing. Perfectly standard travelers. Too standard travelers, if you catch my drift. So I took the precaution of drawing a list of their current identities."

The caravan master leaned forward, and under Rogard's eagle eyes, handed over a small sheet of paper, which Allya perused. Generic names, all of them, from a variety of nationalities. Name made specifically to blend in damned near anywhere, and not link to one another in any way. In fact, they were to artistically random for it to be a coincidence.

"I see…"

Spies, then, thought Allya as she looked at the list again. Or Assassins. Gods know I had some missions like this, with a group of 'random strangers' part of the sect.

"Well, I thank you for the information, caravan master. If you have nothing else to bring to my attention?" The caravan master shook his head, and Allya smiled. "Well, in that case I wish you a good return to your caravan. And please, do forward your inventory as soon as possible, so business can be conducted briskly. We are still drawing up our newest budget-" What with the steps and the labyrinth having effectively tripled her town's income, they were in dire need of new budget arrangements. Even the one drawn up after the iron step's opening with Melia just weren't up to date anymore. If she wasn't sure the dungeon core wouldn't even understand the gesture -or her advisor burn her soul to a crisp with her spirit fire- she would kiss Crystal. "-and I am sure we could fit some of your cargo in said budget."

"Of course milady. I'll have it sent to you tomorrow morning, if that is acceptable?"

"Perfectly so."

"Excellent then. Have a nice day, milady!"

"And a nice day to you too, caravan master."

Allya looked as the man left, waiting for the door to close and the sound proofing enchantment to turn back on, before looking quizzically at Rogard.

"So, what do you think?"

The old elf shrugged.

"Seemed honest enough. But if you don't mind me saying milady, his job is to look honest enough so he can fleece people."

"Agreed. But I think now he wants to fleece us with his merchandise, not other means. After all, he is early enough that he could become one of the town's trusted suppliers, and Gods know how profitable that has turned out for some caravan owners!" In fact, it was usually what laid the foundations for large trading conglomerates or trading houses!

"If you say so milady." Answered Rogard, a hint of skepticism in his voice, and Allya smiled.

"I do say so. By the way, would you be so kind to have one of the knights replace you for a few minutes? I want you to find Anders and personally tell him about those mystery individuals. Make sure to tell him to double the guard as well, as a precaution."

"Of course milady, right away!"

Alexandra smiled as the bodyguard left, a knight in heavy armor replacing him a few seconds later, before sighing and looking down at her desk. One day it wouldn't be crumbling under the weight of paperwork. One day…

*****

Allya whistled softly as she started picking through her clothes. Pyn had gotten delayed thanks to an issue with one of the new aqueducts, and she had at least half an hour until the elf came back. She was determined to use that time to set the stage for what she hoped was a very enjoyable night, and she was fairly sure she had the skimpy gown the elf liked so much somewhere in th-

She couldn't have said what ticked her off. Maybe the air, flowing not quite right, or a minuscule sound, but she was already unsheathing her daggers and turning around when the knife pressed against her throat and she froze.

Allya looked at the empty space, where the assassin cloaked in the invisibility spell was hiding, bracing herself for what was coming….

"You really need better security my dear."

Allya's eyes flew wide as she recognized the voice, and a smile split her face as the invisibility spell wavered, and disappeared, revealing the familiar face of Trira, her old assassin sect's leader, who withdrew her knife and sheathed it in a single, smooth movement.

"Trira!" Exclaimed the baroness as she hugged the older woman, who chuckled.

"Hello Allya. It's been a while."