Chapter CXXXII – For, behold, I create a new campaign and a new war.

1st of Spring 5860
Outskirts of Mount Curry, State of Casamonu

The year of Our Divine, 5860.

Nobody exactly knew what that number meant, what the year 0 was. Some theorized that it was when the Empire of Gemeinplatz was first founded, some thought that maybe it was when the Divine was first prophesized, some thought that it was just a random number that somebody had made up at some point. No matter the original meaning of the year however, time had passed, it was the 1st day of Spring, and snowfall around Libertycave was getting thinner and thinner. The snow on the ground was still thick, and it would remain atop Mount Curry for a while longer, but the lowlands of Gemeinplatz looked all alive and green even from all the way up here.

“Ah, the great artist up above has painted us a great scene. Look at all that beautiful green.” Brown was on his horse, accompanied in front by the captains of the Federal Republic. Following them, in single file due to the narrow mountain path, were around three thousand troops and several hundred auxiliaries. Three regiments in total: the first made out of veterans from the League of Gileadites, the second made out of recruits from the State of Casamonu, and the third made out of the cavalrymen of the Casamonu Host. The auxiliaries were comprised of the National Guards of Casamonu and Libertycave, they mostly carried around the old copper spears handed down by the regular units and were mostly there to guard/carry the supplies of the main army, work on clearing any obstacles on the road and scout ahead to make sure no enemy armies were to notice their comrades-in-arms. Some of the National Guard had been left behind in Libertycave, enough to repel an unexpected attack and protect against monsters. Following the soldiers was an uncounted number of camp followers from Libertycave: spouses of soldiers, craftsmen looking for work, sutlers looking to peddle their goods to the soldiery etc. Such a following of civilians accompanying armies was normal for any army in Gemeinplatz, or any pre-modern army for that matter.

“I think the shiny grey between us is even more beautiful” replied Ayomide, a line of pikes behind her. The copper spears of old were no more – now the infantrymen of the first regiment were equipped with pikes that were perhaps long enough to pierce the heavens themselves. A thousand pikes packed together in a tight formation certainly was terrifying, though it had taken Brown and co. a lot of headaches to make sure that they moved together in a coherent manner. All they could hope was that these pikemen could hold formation when the cavalry came knocking, or that they could mount an effective counterattack when the time came. There was also a small team of flintlock-armed infantrymen, a hundred of them, who were to be protected by these pikemen when a cavalry charge came. Other than the pikes, the infantry of the Republic had no defense – the only armor they had on was a thick gambeson, which could protect against a stray arrow shot or an unsharpened sword at best, accompanied by copper helmets which looked way too ancient for the 59th century. Basically, nothing had changed on the armor front since the League left Mount Curry to first besiege Casamonu, outside of a few bits of looted armor from enemy soldiers finding their way to the infantrymen.

“Maybe you’ll get to appreciate the beauty of nature a bit more once we’re down there ourselves, young lady.” Brown took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. That’s one thing he’d miss for a while “Take in the sights, since we’ll be seeing some new ones.”

“Yeah, I was getting bored of Mount Curry. All white, all day, like my old patrons.” Ayomide looked back at Mount Curry. It was still snow-white. “Well, at least the mountain is more tolerable than the café.” Ayomide looked back down. It was going to be a long journey…

2nd of Spring 5860
Casamonu, County of Casamonu

Mayor Azvaran woke up, in his temporary residence over at Casamonu Castle. It had been how long… he had started to lose time as he constantly commuted back to Karabush and then back again to Casamonu, putting down rebellions, calming down anxious lords, doing whatever the Chancellor asked so that he could keep his position in the new order.

Now, with the new year, it was time for old anxiety to come back. The fugitives of Mount Curry would attack any day now, unless they were planning to starve themselves out. Azvaran was however clever enough to not underestimate these fugitives, and he was expecting them to try a brave last charge at the city. He had his troops stationed around Mount Curry, checking every exit to Casamonu, to make sure that they wouldn’t catch him by surprise. The mercenaries of Captain Habdank were still stationed in the city, ready to assist the army of Karabush in the defense. He had time. He could wait. The fugitives couldn’t.

Knock, knock. “Come in.”

“Good morning, Sir Azvaran.” It was his steward, a man of utmost unnoticeability. “We had a few families from Karabush who have agreed to settle in Casamonu. Now that the winter is over and the roads are clear, we should think about arranging a caravan to help them get here.”

“Right, right. You can take whatever you need from our treasury to arrange that. Make sure to hire a few guards for them too, things are rough out there. Remind the Chancellor too that he promised to send people over from the Capital.” With that, the steward bowed and left. Azvaran had been quite troubled by the fact that he had essentially inherited a ghost city, save for the traitors that he had jailed. Thankfully nothing had crumbled down in a season, he still had a useable city and he wanted to keep it that way. Casamonu could be brought back to its former glory in a few years, with the right people, and finding capable people willing to receive housing and land in exchange for labor and loyalty wasn’t hard. A lot of soldiers over from Karabush had already settled down in Casamonu, bringing their spouses and children over, so he already had a capable militia to defend the city if need be. Perhaps Casamonu being abandoned was a blessing in disguise, as Azvaran now got to resettle it with loyal people rather than having to deal with bickering urbanites and lords.

Knock, knock! “Come in!” Why did people have to interrupt his city-building fantasies constantly…

“Sir!” It was Evelyn-something-or-another de Habdank, entering the room with an excited salute. “Our scouts, they were ambushed by what must have been a group of fugitives. The skirmish happened on the half-built mountain highway, close to the city, where our men had some javelins thrown at them. We’ve yet to locate where the fugitive army is, they’re probably trying to bypass our defenses by going through lesser-known paths, but they’ll soon arrive in Casamonu judging from where the ambush happened.”

“Oh, great!” Azvaran excitedly jumped up, before immediately returning to his seat. Both of the men were excited to get their business with the fugitives done so that they could move on to other things, but being excited about it openly would be uncouth. “Ahem, I mean, yes. Yes, your men are already ready, no?”

“We are, sir. We’re ready to meet them when they come.”

6th of Spring 5860
Casamonu, County of Casamonu

Mayor Azvaran woke up, in his temporary residence over at Casamonu Castle. It had been how long… he had started to lose time as he was waiting for the attack of the fugitives. He stormed out of his room in anger, not even bothering to dress up for the day “Four days!” Again, he had woken up to nothing.

Right outside his room was Habdank who, in anticipation of the attack, had taken residence at the castle so that he could coordinate quickly with his employer. “Four days…” He looked sullen more than angry, or perhaps bored he was simply bored out of his mind.

“Didn’t that ambush happen right next to us? Then another, and a third one. How have your men not found a fugitive army marching towards us? They should’ve come here, tried a siege, and gotten defeated in all this time!” Azvaran was furiously pacing around the room, trying to find an explanation.

“Maybe they are somehow finding food for thousands of people on those desolate mountains? Maybe they have a magician capable of conjuring up food? No other way that they’re planning on feeding such a large population otherwise. Or maybe they’ve given up on attacking us, or they’re fools who think that we can provoked into an attack.” Habdank was close to shrugging it off and leaving the city at this point.

“Or maybe we’re lunatics and there are no fugitives up on that mountain.” Azvaran stayed silent after that. Maybe he was seriously contemplating whether or not he was a lunatic. For a while, nobody dared speak.

Knock, knock… “Come in, damn you!”

It was the steward. He was back, running up a sweat. “S-Sir!”

Azvaran swore that he was going to punch the man if he was about to talk about the budget or anything similarly banal “What is it, Bernard? Spit it out, you can’t make things much worse.”

“Our caravan, sir! We set off there, and when we were there… when…” The steward was wide-eyed, he was shaking, and he stuttered a bit more before he finally let it out “When… they! They were there!”

“Who, Bernard, your bloody in-laws?!”

“N-no! An army, the fugitives, sieging Karabush, with a massive force!”

Turns out that Bernard could make things much worse.