The Army Of Lira

“So I’m practically a master swordsman now?” Sato asked smugly as a small camp city was coming into view.

“Give it a decade.” Idalec huffed,

“Oh! We're almost here.” Prix pointed out the camp to everyone with glee. “Let’s hurry!” Prix broke out into a jog, her dress dancing as the breeze blew it sideways.

‘She really is so alike to my great-granddaughter.’ Idalec smiled to himself as he kept walking at his normal pace. The camp consisted of just shy of a thousand soldiers. ‘This must be the scouting force.’ Idalec nodded, looking around. A couple hundred non-combat personnel were also running around, servants, blacksmiths, grooms, and the like.

Prix walked through camp waving and greeting people who waved back to her with surprised looks. “Ok. I need you all to act properly.” Prix whispered ostensibly to everyone while holding eye contact with Sato, “Do you remember General Ofstein? You should have met him when you were first summoned.” Prix reminded Sato after he looked like he had no idea who she was talking about.

“Yeah, I remember he was balding.” Sato nodded confidently,

“That was my dad.” Prix hissed before spinning around, “Just be polite.” Prix then pulled open the tent door. This tent was nothing like the spindly little thing that the heroes slept in; the inside was spacious enough for a table, with six people to sit around and another dozen to watch on.

“Princess Maria?” a man with auburn hair said, surprised, with a freshly opened letter in his hand, “Read of the devil.” He laughed, standing up to bow on one knee to Prix.

“It’s good to see you, General Ofstein,” Prix said, giving him a curtsy. Ofstein stood up,

“It’s good to see you as well. So this party of seven.” Ofstein regarded everyone,

“It’s-” Sato wanted to interrupt, stopping after Idalec put a hand on his shoulder.

Ofstein paused before he asked politely, “I didn’t catch that, Hero Sato.”

“I actually wanted to say it-it’s nice to meet you again, G.” Sato smiled,

“Well, it’s a pleasure meeting you again,” Ofstein said, giving him a bow that was not as expressive as the one for Prix. “Let’s sit down,” Ofstein suggested, pulling out a chair for Prix before retaking his seat. Idalec took one of the remaining four seats, Luna took one, and Sato followed her, leaving only one spare seat between Garia, Miki and Carrot.

“If you two wouldn’t mind, I would greatly appreciate taking this seat, Carrot and Miki.” Garia snapped closed her book and sat down on the chair, creaking. The other two were not protesting.

“I actually just started reading your letter, Princess Maria.” Ofstein laughed, tapping the letter.

“I guess the mail is slow in coming.” Prix laughed along in a controlled manner. “Since we have the heavenly hero with us, we should be ready to march on Sigfire Castle.” Prix faded out her laugh.

“Well…” Ofstein tapped the table,

“Is something the matter?” Prix asked,

“I can’t just move our whole army on a whim,” Ofstein said cautiously,

“I understand. But we have to get moving now, or else the Calamity will grow stronger.” Prix said considerately,

“Mmm.” Ofstein hummed, looking between Prix and the letter, “I have good reason that whatever you saw is not the Calamity-” Ofstein slowly turned his head at everyone else present, “I’ve heard rumors that only four of the five Candidates are moving towards Sigfire Castle, with one missing. So unless this fifth Candidate is hiding in Sigfire Castle, the Calamity hasn’t been chosen by all five yet.”

“I believe we should start moving this scouting force out before the kingdom’s main army can strike," Idalec said,

“The problem is that it would be hard to get a couple of horsemen to find anything useful,” Ofstein said, deep in thought,

“We should move this whole scouting camp towards Sigfire Castle before the main force arrives.” Idalec clarified, which got a look from Ofstein,

“What do you mean by scouting camp?”

“Like this camp-” Idalec motioned his hands around. “Of scouts to move closer to Sigfire Castle before the main force arrives. If you lose a couple hundred men?” Idalec shrugged. Ofstein gave Idalec the most dead stare. ‘How is this man even a general when he can’t see something so obvious? These men aren’t even rounding errors.’

“This is the main force.” Ofstein said slowly, “This is everyone- more than everyone that we could gather- King Lira hired some mercenaries to bolster our numbers.”

‘What?’ Idalec was looking into Ofstein’s very serious expression. ‘Why can’t they just raise another million men? It can’t possibly be that hard?’ Idalec leaned back in his seat. ‘I guess that would explain why the demon army only had some fifty men in Letin and a hundred holding down Rome. And why that battlefield we passed only had a couple hundred men strewn about.’

“Isn’t this even more reason to move? Those mercenaries can’t be cheap.” Prix said,

“We paid them for two months of service up front, so it doesn't hurt to move slowly.” Ofstein explained, “Can I get your names?” Ofstein sat up straighter in his chair to look over at the other five heroes. “My name is Max Ofstein.”

“Luna.” Luna kicked up her paws onto the table,

“Captain, put down your legs,” Idalec said dryly,

“But they feel so good up here~” Luna laughed, rocking in her chair, a bit before begrudgingly putting them down.

“Name's Idalec Yeve,” Idalec grumbled to Ofstein, who nodded, looking over at Garia,

“That’s Garia, the rabbit folk is Carrot, and the girl is Miki,” Prix said quickly before Garia opened her mouth,

“Yeah, this is my slave harem,” Sato informed Ofstein smugly, who wasn’t looking one bit amused,

“I see.”

“And this is my virago,” Luna said, slapping Sato with so much force to the back of the head that his forehead smashed into the table.

“AHHHH!” Sato yelled out, “What the hell?” Sato lifted his split forehead, which was dribbling blood for a second before it started to heal when Sato cast Simple Heal. Ofstein bolted up, hand on his sword. “It’s ok, Luna is just madly in lo-” Sato started, only to get his nape slapped again, his head slamming back into the table,

“You couldn’t even get someone you owned to love you.” Luna giggled,

“Princess Maria, who is this criminal cat and why is she traveling with you?” Ofstein drew his sword,

“I’m Idalec’s slave~” Luna pointed at Idalec, “He told me to do that~.”

“Whatever.” Sato lifted from the table again, his slightly deformed nose healing back,

“Idalec, do something about her,” Ofstein demanded,

“I think we should hold a tournament to see who’s the most powerful one here- new’s flash it’s m-” Sato started arrogantly, looking at Luna, who tried to hit him across the temple,

“No need,” Idalec said, putting up a shield a millimeter off from Sato’s head since that blow could very well have killed him.

“Ha!” Sato laughed as Luna's paw recoiled in pain. “Shadowpus-” Luna started, gathering a fireball that started licking the walls of the tent because of its size.

“I think we should stop bickering,” Idalec suggested, putting on Luna’s fireball and pressing down on her with magic, causing the chair she was sitting on to immediately buckle, but she stayed mostly upright.

“F-fine.” Luna managed under the force.

“Yeah, I guess I can accept peace.” Sato pouted; General Ofstein had moved to protect Prix, who didn’t even look one bit fazed. “Anyway, big G, do you think we could have a magic tournament so I can flex on everyone?” Sato jumped around in his chair to face him.

“I could find some people,” Ofstein said, motioning everyone to leave with his eyes.

“Ok I’ll be waiting to show you’ll up.” Sato stood up smugly, falling in with everyone.

“Princess Maria, those roughans seem like trouble,” Ofstein advised Prix as she was leaving with them.

“They are…” Prix looked after them longingly. “But they’re good fighters.” Prix then left the tent with a sorrowful expression, leaving General Ofstein with five chairs now.