Micchi Versus the New World - Chapter 111 (Patreon)

Alt link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZMLlYFceFW8v2NDcZT1ubyJFgGV14o8ewRhcoC9K35Y/edit?usp=sharing

Chapter 111

What happened next was nothing short of therapy. The Amarinthian outpost sounded the horns, and every soldier and their grandmas jumped out of their tents for a fight. They threw magic spells, fired arrows, and stabbed at me with swords and spears, but none of them did jack shit. Either I'd grown strong enough to withstand them, or they were just weak.

Even though I had azure viper's venom running through my veins at the time, Kaoru's Jinwan crack soldiers put up a better fight.

"Stop her! Bring her down!" Byron screamed like a pansy, pushing soldiers to me and running deeper into the encampment.

"Alright, Kawa. I'm going in, so you catch the stragglers." I cracked my knuckles.

The wolf barked with approval, then snarled at the incoming attackers.

Amarinth was a kingdom comprised of mostly dark elves and beastlings who had the constitution to live in such a harsh, scalding landscape. Few humans or fair-skinned elves lived there, and it was typically for temporary stay while doing business or meeting with people they knew.

Like myself, the inhabitants were forced to adapt to the unfriendly environment. However, that's where our similarities ended. The good life made them weak. They hadn't seen war in ages. Me, I was fighting for my life since I popped out of my mom. Meanwhile, these guys were only acting cool.

So as a small army of soldiers formed a defensive line, slowly approaching with their spears raised and shields together, I knew just one small crack was all it took to break them.

"You all probably know who I am, but just in case— Nice to meet ya. I'm the new commander of Garrison Arackus, and since we're officially at war, consider this as me casting the first stone!" I stomped so hard my foot plunged into the ground, creating fissures that put a pause on their advance. With the dirt and rock loosened, I reached down to lift a giant rock and chucked it towards them. They all dove out of the way, not wanting to get crushed.

Dark elven mages took to the skies and unleashed a volley of fireballs together. The spells crashed all around, many of them missing and kicking up a cloud of dust.

I heard one of them asking, "Did we get her?"

With a wave of my hand, the dust cleared away from a small gust.

"Nope," I answered for them instead, brushing the dirt from my shoulders.

They all gulped simultaneously.

"Tell ya what," I began, taking a crack at playing politics and offering them choice. "Bring me that bleached prick Byron, and I'll you all go back home without so much as a black eye. You're gonna be leaving all your shit here for me to take though. It's war, so winner takes all, right?"

"A-As if we're going to listen to a damn thing you say! Get her! If any of you disobey, it's to the gallows with you! Sultan Yusef will have all of your heads!" a dark elf, dressed in plate armor decorated with medals and ribbons on his chest, barked at his army from the very back.

Too bad for him, they were hesitating.

"New condition: you give me your captain, too. I need a prisoner to send back to Cynderace. Gotta keep up airs, you know?" I sneered.

"Foolish! They will never listen to— Stop! Unhand me!"

The dark elven officer was pulled off his mount and dragged right up to me alongside Byron, whose face was full of snot and tears. Both were forced on their knees, terrified out of their minds.

"Watch and learn, bitch face. You're gonna be next." I lifted the dark elf to his knees by the gaps in the chestplate, then placed him on the other side of me.

It wasn't until I punched dark elf miles across the desert did Byron realize I was talking to him. He gasped so deeply, I thought he was going to swallow his own tongue and pass out right there.

"Sultan Yusef paid me a fortune to feed strategic information such as troop movements, logistics concerning resources, and to stall any worthwhile attempts to invade Amarinth! I've been doing this for years! But I have never put any of Scoth's soldiers in harm's way. I swear!" Byron confessed to everything as he sniveled.

I stepped past him, causing the Amarinthi soldiers to take one step back out of fear.

"Get outta my sight," I told them. "If I see any of you still here in the morning, you're getting a one on one lesson with me about yankee diplomacy."

The army tucked tail and stampede off, leaving behind everything between horses, livestock, weapons, equipment, and their tents.

"Uhm… What about me…?" Byron hesitantly asked.

I went over to one of the round tents and ripped a piece of rope that anchored it to a stake on the ground. With it, I tied Byron up by his ankles and hopped onto Kawa while holding the other end.

"We're heading back to the garrison," I said. "Get a move on Kawa."

"Eh, but— aaaahhhhh!"

As Kawa took off running, Byron was dragged by his legs and smacked into every rock on the way back. Upon returning, the soldiers at the gate were like headless chickens, seeing their former commander treated like that.

"We dealt with the Amarinth camp over there. Grab the night watch, hitch the horses onto some wagons, and go bring their shit back here," I ordered.

"Oh, uh— Right away, Commander!" Four of them raced into the garrison to start rounding people up.

Inside, two guards were scratching their heads over the dark elf I had punted, whose ass and legs were in the air, and half his body was embedded into the stone road.

"Evening, Commander! I'm not sure how to explain it, but uh… a captain of the Amarinthian army dropped into the garrison courtyard a little while ago. Did you… have anything to do with it?" a soldier asked.

"That so, huh? Toss him and this sorry waste of oxygen into the dungeons. If he likes chumming up with Amarinth, then they can share the same prison." I yanked the rope, pulling a dazed Byron up to them.

"At once!" they shouted.

The next morning, Loraine and I were heading to the dungeons when one of my soldiers stopped me. It was the cat-eared beastling. She was similar to Frey only because of the ears and tail, but her hair was black and white.

"You're Nadia, right?" What's up?" I asked.

"Y-You know my name? I mean— Commander, we have merchants arriving from the neighboring villages that request your presence outside!" Nadia reported.

"What's that gotta do with me?"

"You're the commander of Garrison Arackus! Our line of supplies rely on your decisions! Without them, we could starve within days, trying to feed as many people as we are," she said.

I wanted to get a word in with the prisoners, but fine.

We followed Nadia out of the keep to a caravan of merchants. Their wagons and carriages were full of fresh fruits, meats, and vegetables. All probably harvested very recently. For whatever reason, they were humans, but  didn't look like your typical farmers and seemed more well-off than they should be.

"Oh, what happened to Lord Byron?" one of the farmers asked.

"You're looking at the new honcho in town. Let's get this over with. How much are these costing me?" I asked.

They traded uneasy glances.

The one that had spoken first handed me an invoice, listing the total price of all the goods they carried on each vehicle. It looked wrong. It just cost too much money. Having lived here long enough, I knew for damn sure that an apple didn't cost five gold coins.

"Nadia, is this right?" I handed the paper to her.

Unfortunately, she couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"Commander Byron is normally the one who handles this sort of thing. We have no idea," Nadia said.

"Ain't no way I'm shelling out that much money." I snatched the paper and tossed it back at them.

As I turned around, however, the lead of their caravan cleared his throat.

"You can't just leave after we came all this way! Bring Lord Byron here this instant!" he demanded.

I stopped walking, then reached into my pants pockets to pull out one of the pieces of papers Byron was gathering up last night before leaving. Among the letters were names of people with some important titles, and ledgers of trades and the transfers of large chunks of gold. Three names were listed as farmers, having signed off massive amounts of money to purchase their cargo.

"You three happen to be Harriet, Dago, and Ming, would you?" I asked them.

"That's right, and we represent the towns we came from. It is your garrison that ordered all this from us, and we demand to be paid!" Dago, an older man with long sideburns, shouted from the seat of his carriage.

I twirled a finger in the air.

"Arrest these fuckers, confiscate their goods!" I ordered.

"But commander—" Nadia tried to protest until I glared at her, then she and the other soldiers moved in to apprehend the 'farmers'.

"You can't do this!" Harriet growled.

"Nadia, grab a couple of people and ride out to the villages these three came from. Pay 'em all directly to the villagers. The three we got right here, I know snakes when I hear 'em hiss. Ya been keeping all the gold to yourselves and paying shit to your village, huh?" I asked, throwing Harriet down from his horse.

"Preposterous! Y-Your accusations are baseless!" he cried.

"We'll see about that."

We dragged them down to the dungeons underneath the keep where Byron and the dark elven captain were being held in a cell. Four guards who were playing cards jumped to their feet and tried to hide the cards in their pants. The struggling farmers were thrown to the cold hard floor next to the iron bars, behind which Byron sat upright in surprise. They gawked at each other, coming to the same conclusion that the jig was up.

"Why the fuck were you paying them a fortune for fruits and vegetables? Sure as hell wasn't to shove a ten gold eggplant up your ass." I tossed the purple fruit into the cell.

When no one answered, I pulled out my new bat and ignited the length of it in fire.

"Wait, wait! It's because—" Before he could answer, Byron was knocked to the ground by his dark elf cellmate, who had both hands wrapped around his neck.

"Get the door open!" I yelled.

The guards fumbled over the keys. They were taking too long, so I pried open the bars with my bare hands and went in to separate them myself. Byron gasped for air, and I lifted the dark elf high up to the ceiling by the collar of his tattered shirt.

"See." I glanced over my shoulder to Byron. "Loyalty don't buy you shit from these guys. You wanna try again with someone else?"

"We… were… supplying arms… to insurrectionists and… undercover operatives to attack Fort Allo…" Byron answered between breaths.

Fort Allo was supposed to be Anya's turf. No way was she going to get messed up that easily, but it might be worth checking out.

I tossed the elf to the ground, picked up Byron and threw him out, dragged the three farmers into the cell, and then closed up the iron bars.

"You heard 'em! Mount up! We're riding to Fort Allo!" I shouted.

The soldiers who had come down gave me a resounding, "Yes, Commander!"