Episode 7

Knight Commander Charlie Wildingmonte stared out the window of his office and fumed, not that anyone walking in would have been able to tell. even with this being one of the rare occasions he was not wearing full armor and oni mask his face was still schooled in an impassive frown that concealed just as much of his thoughts as anything he could physically place on his face.

This whole trip had been a long aggravation he, Charlie Wildingmonte youngest knight captain in the history of the Holy Kingdom and heir to bloodline that had produced legendary feats of military might every generation since before the saint, was supposed to be the kingdom's savior. 
He had broken bones and spilled blood training to be the rising star to lead the nation's defense against the encroaching darkness, to give the people hope he had made speeches and public displays. 
Then they summoned him, Charlie sneered at the very thought of Shiro the summoned hero destined to be handed by fate everything Charlie had worked his whole life for.
Now the little twerp who could barely tell which end of a weapon was which, and had the bruises from Charlie's own hand to prove it, had in a display of legendary magic become what everyone wanted. From a distance at least.
The whole situation pissed Charlie right off.

A crashing sound drew his attention back to the view outside the window, cheers went up as the last of the wood was cleared from the western  portcullis, meaning it was time to get the convoy back on the road.

A soft rap at the door and the Commander whipped his mask back on before clearing the visitor to enter. The visitor was a mage in the night blue robes embroidered with silver birds denoting communication corp handed over an enchanted paper sent through arcane means bearing the seal of the council of nobles:

To Knight Commander Wildingmonte,

In light of the summoned hero's victory over the elven forces massed against Fortress Dawnwall and other sources of intelligence the cultist's defenses are now severely weakened around the seal in the elf holdings.
It is the orders of this body to deploy the Summoned hero and a small strike squad to take advantage of this opportunity to quickly eliminate the Demoness sealed in Elvish territory.

May the Saint light your way

Royal war council

Wildingmonte looked at the letter dumbfounded for a long moment. They had to know that the victory at the fortress had been a fluke right? Pretty much every officer and several of rank and file were a reporting back to nobles who they owed favors or were connected though blood, sometimes even loyalty. So they had to know that by every metric this was going to be a suicide mission. The "hero" had gotten lucky, there was no way he would not get batted aside like a gnat in any other combat scenario, that was all there was to it. Charlie pulled  the fortress' personnel files and began composing a task force. Should he give the outsider, Charlie could not bear thinking of him as the "Hero," the best squad possible to compensate for inexperience and thusly give the mission at hand the best chance at success? 
Or should he look to the future of the kingdom and set up an incompetent task force in hopes of the outsider dying on the way to the seal and this saving the nation from an embarrassment down the line.
Charlie's sense of self preservation shied away from the second option, as secrets like that tend to come out at the least convenient moments and would make him into the villain regardless of overall outcome. The first option ran the risk of the outsider surviving only due to the skills of those around him and then failing when called upon to single handled save a city or something.
If Charlie put himself on the squad.....
He called for his secretary and started making arrangements.

A few days later

Lily had been surprised at the change in itinerary. It did not make sense with everything she knew about the upper workings of the Holy Kingdom because to her all the policy makers were spineless show boats who would do nothing they could trot out a parade at the end of. She did not realize that as a woman she had never been privy to the direct parts of the Kingdom's military doctrine.
For Ezma it was bordering on a miracle and she went to slip away as the crowd in the market thickened, hardly noticing that Commander Wildingmonte marked her passing.
Shiro was enthralled to the spectacle they were walking through. The Commander had taken him aside to brief him on the mission, get in destroy the demoness and failing that restore the seal, then get out. The squad would be meeting with agents of the kingdom in the village of Abigar to be quipped for discretion. 
With the city being farther west into what Shiro had been told was elf lands he had been expecting some sort of mixed human and elf trading post, walking into a mid sized village of cow demi-humans was not even close.
Not to say it was an unpleasant surprise, the houses reminded him of a brochure his sister had once picked up for a vacation somewhere in Europe. All the denizens of Abigar had horns of some size and shape or another, with the smells of clean hay mingling with baking bread and the occasional block of cheese being displayed. 'Maybe' Shiro thought to himself 'If I cannot get back home at the end off this evil defeating I could retire here.'
He had not left the palace except for when the trip to Dawnwall had started and so had only see the main road very early in the morning before he could get a good sense of the capital city. The battalion had also avoided, or sent a small squad to get news and supplies, all the settlements in the kingdom en-route.
After Shiro fell behind the third time to take an offered cheese sample, it tasted like a barrel aged cheddar all sharp tangy notes but melted in the mouth like a Havarti with an after taste of citrus, the commander assigned one of the other military men to help Shiro keep up. This man was named Harold Quarrysafe, if what Shiro had gleaned around the campfire was true he was considered barely noble by those around him as his family had started out as quarry inspectors who eventually became owners of enough mines that they were granted titles due to service to the kingdom. Harold was every clearly here for his muscle, standing a head and a half taller than Shiro his shaved head glistening in the sunlight. Supposedly he had more to offer the group than just brute strength but it had not come up and no one seemed keen on filling in that gap.
The other two assigned to the party were Francis Bladeburn, every inch of gear and manners oozed "back alley knife fights for fun," and Leopold, just Leopold. No visible weapons, no markers in name or cloth to say what his role would be but the Commander had made several comments about this whole squad being hand picked and so he must have some skill that was useful under that average face and average height that could almost be forgotten as soon as you looked away. Actually the Commander had made such a point of how hand picked this squad was that he had tried to get Lily left at Dawnwall, something Shiro had fought tooth and nail. There was no telling what would happen to her in a mostly male military base with a title like "the defiler."
Eventually the the Commander had yielded and even invited Ezma along to help avert suspicion. Shiro frowned, as they approached a stone building with a small tower and some crude stain glass of symbols he had come to associate with the religion of the Saint, where was Ezma anyway?
The party entered through a side door into the dim sanctuary, it was no where near as grand and sweeping as the cathedral that services for the court took place in, but it was clearly made of local materials and thus had a homespun feel about it that made one more at ease.
A portly priest bustled over to them, past several bovine worshipers, his glasses, collar and short stature making lending him a vole like appearance.
He bobbed at the Commander "Greetings travelers' he said with a slight bow 'I am father Goodwell, caretaker of this humble place of faith." The commander bowed before responding "In the humble places the angels find faith enough stand when kings would be laid low." The priest clapped in delight "A fellow believer and well read, we simply musts have tea.' He turns and waves down a young man who appears to be Abigar local turned priest in training, 'Beauregard, I am going to take these travelers for tea, can you mind the sanctuary and see that we are not interrupted?" The lad, who was a bit shaggy in a manner reminiscent of a highland cow nodded "Yes Father."
With that they were bustled into a small study. On the threshold Father Goodwell paused and whispered something to Lily, who while clearly not pleased about what she heard, nodded and took a place on the pew nearest the door. Once inside the priest latched his door with no less than three locks before triggering a secret latch and gesturing the group to follow into the hidden door that now stood in place of a bookcase.
"This way gentlemen and we will get you what you need."
As the others disappeared without question, Shiro hesitated, then stepped into another unknown.