I follow behind the soldiers within the thicket, making a small trail as we move. I now understand why Arria has such a large and intensive road network. Natural barriers are common within it and travel is rather limited. It seems rivers and roads are the most important methods of travel and trade. 

I am beginning to grow tired of this. The region we left was far better than this. I try my best to get the horse to move along this small trail. While I would prefer even ground I do not have a choice. This is just cruel to the horses. 

One must treat them with care. 

“We are not going to get access to the roads unless we take each city.” William breaks me from my thoughts. He is not wrong. I feel that each city was built with the specific purpose to make traveling inside of Arria with an army difficult. To ensure the quickest and easiest method of travel one needs to take the walled cities and forts along the way. 

“We have beaten so many armies and yet they keep sending more.” 

“Each province is required to send a certain amount of soldiers based on censuses. It originates from Monza and came to Arria through Ante.” I laugh at William describing the audacity of the Arrians. Stole something and try to call it their own. “Don’t think that they just stole it. They made a few improvements to it.” 

“Is that so?” 

William merely nods his head and continues following behind the soldiers creating a small trail. I look back down at our maps. We should be getting past the hard area soon. After this should be a fairly level plain for us to move around on. 

I hope. 

I noticed sometimes flat to these Arrians isn’t necessarily flat. “We might want to make our way onto a road and force march some distance to get away from where we were.” 

“It would reveal our position.” 

“The Arrians already know where we are and where we are going. Might as well put some distance between us.” William explains his thought process. I don’t necessarily agree. They might know where we are but not the exact location. 

Bloody hell. I don’t even know our exact location. 

“We would still be better served by hiding our exact location and having the ability to choose our own battles.” Distance over initiative. That is what we are currently deciding between. We are under a time constraint. We can’t take our time getting to where we need to be but if we take one decisive loss it will be much worse than having simply taken our time. 

“They have not once managed to put up a decent fight against us. I seriously doubt that even if they did choose a more advantageous battle that they would be able to seriously beat us.” His words make sense to me. It isn’t an absurd idea to think that they won’t be able to beat us. It has been a long time since Arria fought against a country of equal military strength and it seems their generals have grown soft. 

“Then we should find a place to cross the Alle river. Otherwise our trip will be cut short rather quickly.” These rivers are large enough to traverse with boats and we will not be able to wade across them if we can’t find a bridge. “There has to be an unprotected bridge. If only we could find one.” 

“We should send out some scouts.” 

“I shall instruct them on likely areas.” I motion for some scouts to come closer. I then point in a couple of directions and instruct them on what I am looking for and important things to report back. 

I look up at the sky. It seems to be cloudy and I would not be surprised if a storm was brewing over the horizon. At least we aren’t wasting away under the sun. It isn’t long before we reach the river. 

“I must say, I am not impressed. The Tonsid river is far more impressive than this.” Though there are a lot of rivers in close proximity and this one isn’t all the small either. Just that... nothing compares to the Tonsid river. 

“There is a saying among the Alton nations. The person who controls the Tonsid river controls the Alton people. You will not find any saying like that here.” William knows a lot about history and nations. He even knows about nations I would never have thought to learn about. 

It has probably served him well. 

“Have you ever missed Arria since returning to Allonia?” 

“Do I miss Arria? I don’t know if I would say that. I guess I am jealous of their emperor. To have the ultimate authority. To not have to please the nobles in order to secure the throne. But I am rather afraid to speak publicly.” I break out into laughter upon hearing the last bit. I cannot imagine William being afraid to speak on a stage. He is always so confident. 

“Does that not make him a tyrant?” 

“What is a tyrant?” 

“A ruler who uses his authority to cruel or oppressive ends.” 

“Then if he has all the power but ensures the safety and benefit of his people, is he a tyrant?” I look down at the ground. But what is there to say that he cannot abuse that power. What measure to prevent that is there? 

“What prevents him from abusing that power?” 

“What way can one truly prevent somebody from abusing power? The only way is to set up an equal and opposite power. The problem with that is that it fractures one’s society and divides them into two groups. No longer is it Allonia united. It is Traditionalists and Loyalists.” I think back to the nobles that refused to help us. The Traditionalist who used the treaty of Merey as an excuse to do nothing. Allonia has major problems at the heart of its institutions and they need to be changed. 

A/N: Long day. I will keep it short: William and Michael shall meet rather soon. In about three more chapters. I am excited for their first battle. To see how it goes.

As always, thank you for reading.