Swiss Arms 71 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 71

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

[Commander] LvL.29
Center, hold steady. Both flanks, curve in. Trap and slaughter them. Victory is soon ours.
*+1% Man-At-Arms/Soldier Effectiveness per LvL
*-0.25% Friendly Casualties in battle per LvL
*+0.1% likelihood of being able to trap, counter, or outmaneuver enemy commander

[Rulership] LvL.31
Change the rules as how you see fit with your power.
*+0.5% additional law/rule change acceptance with vassals per LvL
*+0.1 opinion per LvL

[Chemistry LvL.22
You are nature’s lawyer.
*Increase chemical reaction output by 0.025% per LvL.
*Limited to chemical reactions personally performed.]

[Delegate] LvL 59
Divide and conquer… that work.
*Improves work efficiency of workers, employees, soldiers, and subordinates by 0.05% per lvl.
*Output = (Work.Efficiency)*(Work.Proficiency)
-Work Proficiency is determined by a skill user’s level and supplemental skills.

On average, I saw an increase of twenty levels across most skills I had, and in the upcoming war, I had a feeling that more than any other skills, these four skills would have the greatest impact.

Hell, Chemistry was already having an impact with how many barrels of shit I had to oversee personally. That was part of the reason why I had been adamant about personally doing the work, not only because I possessed the strength and endurance to do thirty men’s work by myself but also because it helped improve my skills.

In war, there were six aspects that one needed to manage: finance, supply, supply line, war diplomacy, military movement, and battle tactics. The first four could fall under the blanket term of strategy, but I didn’t because of how each of the four aforementioned skills applied to each part of the overall strategy. It’s an easy trap to condense and categorize these aspects of war into a generalized category and call it a day. However, 21st-century militaries employed officers specific to each and trained even more specialized officers for subcategories for a reason.

It was one of the reasons why, once I ascertained Isabella’s trustworthiness, I delegated some of the work to her. When I first did that, my Delegate had been level 43, which gave her a 2% increase in productivity. Or at least I assumed that was the case because I didn’t know how well she did before she met me. I also didn’t have time to compare her output with anything because she didn’t take up any hobbies or personal projects that I could measure objectively.

It was this delegation skill that also impacted my soldiers and rangers as they followed my directions.

“Get those barrels tucked in tightly! I don’t want them juggling around in the cart when we’re rolling down the valley!” I shouted.

“Yes, milord!”

I watched a hundred-plus men and some women working to move the supplies that I had prepared over the last six months. I was noticing how much faster it was when people were directly receiving orders from me. There was, however, no secondary chain of effect; only those taking orders from me seemed to benefit from my Delegate’s effect. Isabella, for example, was doing great over where she was overseeing another supply convoy being loaded up but the speed of my workers made it seem like those under her were lagging behind.

She noticed that, too, and saw me. She flushed, looked away, and began to yell out more orders.

I hoped that she didn’t think I might think less of her for not being able to catch up with me.

After staring at her for a minute more (during which my eyes mysteriously drifted down to her shapely rear), I quickly turned back to focus on my share of the convoy but from the knowing glances my people sent my way, everyone saw it anyways.

Ugh.

-VB-

Leon of Fluelaberg

He took a deep breath, held it, and pulled up.

He kept his back straight, feeling almost curved inward but actually not, and used his legs to lift. His thighs burned at the load he was pulling up, but it was also a load that he couldn’t possibly do it by himself! After all, he never lifted three hundred pound barrel before.

But he was now. Maybe it was because he was feeling great? Wait, why was he feeling better here instead of the mines?

… Maybe because he was doing something to protect himself, his wife, his newborn daughter, and his town. He was there in the castle hall when the baron gave a speech about the bavarians and their wicked ways. How they have been responsible for bandits! Knights dressing up bandits!

It was unthinkable but it had happened. He had proof, even if Leon himself didn’t know the sigils, insignias, and house colors. He thought it was weird. If he were to do something illegal, then he wouldn’t leave something like that around him. That might make trouble for his wife.

But then he wasn’t a lord, a baron, a knight, or even a man-at-arms.

He was a miner, a mine manager, and now a soldier for the upcoming war.

It was… He didn’t want to go to war but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let some plainsfolk, who knew nothing about how hard mountain life was, come up these hills and tell them what to do!

“Oi, Leon!”

He looked around and saw James, one of the more opportunistic Davos folks who shacked up early with this whole town. He was one of the richer commoners around.

“What is it?” he asked.

“The lord is calling for you.”

“Me?”

“Yes,” he replied as he adjusted his pristine brigandine. “I think he wants to make you a squad captain or something like that.”

Leon gulped. Most of the able bodied men in Fluelaberg trained in one way or another. “Squad” was a formation that their lord drilled into them. It was a formation of five men. Being a squad leader wasn’t all that bad, but he wasn’t sure if he was the one for the job. He didn’t know much about fighting.

He nodded and walked up to the cart that their lord was standing on top of, using it as a makeshift platform from which he gave out his orders.

“Milord, you called for me?” he asked nervously.

The younger man turned to look at him. He had a bit of a stubble growing out now, compared to the clean face that he usually kept.

“Yes. Leon, I want you to be the platoon leader for Platoon Seven.”

… Platoon leader? Not a squad leader?

“I-”

“You’ve been showing good leadership as the mine manager,” he said with a smile. “I think I can trust you with a platoon.”

A platoon was composed for three to five squads, which meant that he would be responsible for up to twenty-five men. Twenty-five lives.

But did he dare object to his lord? Baron von Fluelaberg was a great lord but he was also a merciless killer when it came to the battlefield. He heard about how he killed dozens of men-at-arms on his first battlefield, hunted down landed nobles, and butchered hundreds!

“I- I am not sure if I am fit for such a role, milord,” he stuttered out. He wasn’t objecting! He was … Oh God, was he questioning his lord?

The baron shook his head. “Don’t think I’m ignorant of what’s happening in my own town, Leon. I’ve been hearing too many good things about you to just let you languish as a common soldier. Who knows, maybe you’ll even get an accomplishment in this war to become something more, eh?” he said as he handed him a blue brigandine, much like the one that James had worn.

On its back, he saw a heraldry stitched onto the upper right chest of the brigandine: a black tri-tipped mountain.

-VB-

A/N: Commander and Rulership were introduced in Chapter 31, and Chemistry was introduced in Chapter 38