59th of Spring 5860

  Karabush, State of Karabush

  “A bit up… that’s it, there you go, leave it there.”

  Five stars. The blue-white-green once again flew over Karabush, hanging on a pole that had been set right next to the old mayor’s office.

  Casamonu, Zon’guldac, Karabush, Bolipoli and Changra.

  With the grand coalition defeated at the Battle of Karabush, the Republic could now securely claim to span five states. Changra had yet to be taken, but… it was a border county, with its army having been recently defeated. One regiment led by General Tubman had been sent to secure the town, accompanied by a dozen pencil-pushers to actually establish the presence of the Republic in the area.

  Ayomide slid down the pole, returning to the ground where Shinasi was waiting for her. He caught her before she made contact with the ground, briefly taking her in his arms before she was gently set down back on the ground. “Phew, you’re heavier than I imagined for your size.”

  “…any other lady would kill you over that.” Ayomide, however, sufficed by giving him a flick on the nose “Consider yourself lucky that I have mercy.”

  “Ow- Is this mercy?” Shinasi rubbed his poor nose.

  “You are still alive, no? It very much is. Lese majesty would usually get you the death sentence.” Ayomide turned around, and gave him a smack on the legs with her tail. “Come now, don’t just stand there.”

  “Aye aye, Lady Orange.” He had no choice but to follow, falling besides her as usual. “Where to?”

  “Back to the old man, of course. He told us to be back after lunch.” They dissolved into the crowd of the town, who were back out for their usual business. A few days ago, they had been driven to nigh-starvation. Today, Ayomide was passing by people who were standing besides stalls and casually doing their grocery shopping. “It’s unbelievable how quickly people can go back to normal, huh.”

  “Ain’t that good. Hopefully we’ll be able go back to normal before we become as old as the captain.” Shinasi was itching to laze around in the village, at least for a few months before setting off to do adventure.

  “I’d rather not return to my normal,” replied Ayomide simply.

  “Ah, I mean- I mean, you know, like, a new normal. Otherwise, of course, it’s quite a waste if we’re back to the old normal.” Shinasi gave a defeated sigh. Of course, he’d rather not return to that normal.

  “Heh. For a second there I thought you were an Imperial.” Ayomide gave him an approving pat on the cheek.

  “If I was, I would be running away from the scary lady with a sword, I feel like.”

  “Oh, I’m not that scary, am I?”

  Such idle chatter continued as they headed down the street, and out of the walls where the army of the Republic had stationed itself for now. The camp was still where it was before the battle, with carts running between the camp and Karabush supplying the troops and the town. It had actually taken a few days before the first troops even made their way inside the walls; Brown had ordered the city be relieved first with food, and for the army to not burden its starving population any further by staying inside its walls.

  Thus, the tent town stayed in its place. Most of the soldiers had gone down into Karabush at this time of day, doubtlessly to find some rest and entertainment in this brief moment of respite. One tended to miss civilized life after being deprived of it for a couple of days. The ones who stayed in the camp gave greetings to the captains while they passed by. There wasn’t any requirement to salute anyone in the Republic’s army, but the privates still tended to respect their captains enough to stop and wave hello at least if they were not busy. The few who had chosen to stay in the camp were having lunch by a campfire, their palette a bit more varied thanks to purchases made from traders passing by. Like vultures the men of commerce had descended upon the siege being broken, to make bank on the desperate people of the town who would really like some salt to go along with the grain that the Republic had distributed.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Shinasi and Ayomide had already had lunch in the town however, a lovely luncheon the local adventurer’s guild, so they moved on to their business. The business being at a tent that didn’t look too different to all the other tents. Usually, the commander of an army would be at the center, with a grand tent befitting his post. The only thing that distinguished it was the stars-and-stripes, which the people of Gemeinplatz understood as being Brown’s personal banner. Of course, he had tried to tell them that it was supposed to be the flag of “the United States”, but that was a harder concept to get people to understand. The concept of a nation was yet far away for the people of Gemeinplatz.

  Entering the tent, they were greeted by the usual: John Brown crawling on the floor, chalk in hand, staring at a map laid before him. Accompanying him was Priest Vaiz, who was standing a bit away, staring down at the old man. It was the same map all the way back from Mount Curry, acquired in the copper mine owned by that one Satō-Wang. It still served him well, though it was littered with annotations and comments by now. “Welcome, welcome.” He greeted his guests, getting up from the floor.

  “Good morning old man, young lady and young man at your service.” Ayomide added a brisk wave of her hands at the end.

  “I will require your service, yes.” Brown looked at Vaiz, then back to his guests “I had a brief talk with Mister Vaiz here, along with a few of the freemen from Ancoire. The verdict is clear: a direct counterattack towards Ancoire would be a mistake.”

  This was followed up by an obvious question from Ayomide: “Why?”

  “Ancoire is a big city. How many people did you say it had again, Vaiz?” The tip of a well-used block of chalk pointed towards the priest in question.

  “In the upper two hundred thousands sir, according to the last census I had taken part in. It might be at three hundred thousand now. The census in Ancoire is done every ten years, and I had left before the last one.”

  “So, let’s say, three hundred thousand in urban Ancoire. How much do we have in the Republic, in total?”

  Vaiz had to pause for a second, searching for the numbers. He had many numbers in his head, way too many of them to count. “Twenty-nine thousand, according to the last census conducted by Doctor Rabanowicz. We know from the dwarves that their last census of Zon’guldac counted thirty thousand. So, we have around sixty thousand people in the Republic.”

  Brown nodded. “So, sixty thousand people are administered by our Republic. With great difficulty, may I remind you. Half of this number, the dwarves in Zon’guldac, practically administer themselves. If we took Ancoire, we’d suddenly have to administer five times the people. If we fail, we’ll be failing thirty hundred thousand people, and only the Lord knows what the consequences of that would be.”

  Neither Ayomide or Shinasi had seen Ancoire, or any other settlement that large, so they could only imagine… and fail to do so. Shinasi could imagine one thing though, “Wouldn’t such a large city be able to defend itself? That’s a whole lot of people behind some walls.”

  “That too is true young man, their head priest clearly didn’t commit all of his forces. A clever decision, considering they already outnumbered us greatly with what they sent. I am not sure if we even currently have enough men to surround and besiege the city, and an outright attack would not end well to say the least, weakened as they may be by their recent defeat.”

  “So, we just go somewhere else?” Ayomide shrugged.

  “We could, young lady. To our neighbors in Agrilon, or Altstadt, which are way less populated. Or back to Periligoul, to focus on the elves… though, as they stand, they act as a useful buffer between us and the Imperial core. It’s better to leave the elves be for now. Wherever we go though, we’d have to split our resources, to defend against any potential attacks from Ancoire while moving forward. We’re already wading through a swamp, and Ancoire would only serve as a ball and chain attached to our legs that’d slow us down. Thus!” Brown suddenly raised his voice, and declared “We are going to Ancoire.”

  Ayomide raised her hand “…wait, you did just say it would be a mistake to go there.”

  “I only said a direct counterattack was a mistake, young lady! Just as it would have been a mistake for us to go to Casamonu while we had a dozen people on a mountain. Not going to Ancoire would be a mistake in fact, to sit by and go for small victories while the much larger Empire prepares to inevitably strike us down. Our Republic is still only crawling around, like an infant, stuck only to the borderlands of the Empire. Just as Casamonu was our birth, Ancoire will be our rebirth.” Thusly, Brown tosses aside the chalk, letting it land on the ground. His hands are free now that theorizing over. Now is time to begin action.

  “First order of business is to get the army out of Karabush. Then we shall see what Providence has prepared for us.”