The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

84 - The March - Part 2

The sun has finally set and we have made camp for the night. Of course everyone is exhausted. Those who aren't all-rounders will find this the worst part of their work, the battles aside of course. Many of them are going to start being irritable towards the end of the day, but thankfully it helps when we set up camp.

The knights have gathered in little circles near the fires and pull out dice to play games or start chatting and joking around. Since they're all tired it is a calm and still pretty happy atmosphere, with a few exceptions.

A few of the more scout-like knights appear to withdraw lightly from the conversations.

—-*—-

"Peony!" Vitis calls out cheerfully to the other third year Eric has been talking to earlier today. Vitis walk straight up to him and over-familiarly puts an arm around Peony's shoulder.

"We're playing charades and I need the best partner there is," Vitis says with a broad and warm smile.

"Which is not me, go find someone else Vitis," Peony says and tries to peel Vitis' arm off of his shoulder.

"What?! You're the best partner I could wish for! You always get me right!" Vitis looks somewhat sullen at Peony.

Peony looks as though he is debating the best course of action.

"There is no point," Peony finally concludes. Vitis looks undaunted.

"It helps teamwork, which is your weakness." Vitis' grin widened as though he's won a prize. I make a note that Vitis is all guts.

"You're pushy." I can't tell if Peony gives in or tries to cut the conversation short again, but Vitis just smiles back brightly.

"Of course! I want you to be friends with everyone so that they'll cover your back even if I'm not there. Now come on charades it is!"

Peony got pulled off.

—-*—-

I turn my attention back to the map in front of me. The original plan is to follow in the heels of the Tepet Knights and arrive at the Twilram pass. It's a pass made entirely from artificial mountains, and as such they're shaped somewhat oddly. Very cleanly. Unlike the mountains in the west and north they are incredibly sleek and has a lot of vertical cliffs that even have an outward angle at places. It is hostile towards any mammal inhabitants and doesn't provide opportunities for food other than a few bird species... from what I hear... I haven't actually seen these mountains before.

I've made artificial ponds and rivers, but never mountains. I'm curious, but there is another reason I am curious about the mountains. The magic in this world is much more efficient at destroying structures. When I found out about the artificial mountains I wondered why explosives were needed for the walls of Castle Celeste, and apparently it's because of an application of earth magic.

Remember how Alstair's shirt was sewn with thread of fire? It was protection, but the same could be done on large scale structures with enough time. Though every stone would have to be blessed... imagine the rebuilding nightmare we went through after the siege.

That aside, the artificial mountains are too large to be blessed the same way. This also means that people can dig their way through the mountains with magic. This would make it too easy for the Headal army to flank the Tepet army.

At least the area south of the pass is noted to be swamp area. One of the worst areas to get an army through. If they use fire the forest will burn too and ruin the surprise attack. They could use earth magic to make a little path over the water by drawing up the earth, but they might need a water mage to dry it out? It could work for them.