Chapter 7

The Baron looked up into the sky. His eyes were blurred and unfocused. It took everything he had to not pass out immediately. He tried to lift his head, but it wouldn't budge. The Baron tried experimentally flexing his fingers and toes, and was glad at the revelation that he hadn't lost feeling in anything. Now that he knew he could move somewhat, he had to focus on getting to safety. The Baron was still surrounded by enemies, and they might just finish him off if he let them. After trying again, he just barely managed to raise his head through sheer force of will. He touched the back of his head and felt a sticky liquid come away with his fingers. It wasn't a lot of blood, but he definitely cracked his skull. 

The blurriness was gone, and it felt like he could move again, somewhat. He slowly got to his feet and looked over at Seamus's corpse, taking in the immensity of his body. It was a miracle he didn't outwrite kill him with that punch, even though he was a simple graze. Seamus could probably bend steel with his bare hands on a bad day, and while the Baron was certainly stronger than the average person, Seamus was on a different level. The Baron walked over and picked up his saber. It took a monumental force of will to walk steadily, he wanted to show no signs of weakness in front of the crowd. Now that he looked at it, the crowd had grown, possibly the whole militia was forming up in the square, but, he noted with a hint of fear, none of his men had made it yet. A couple of the enemy knights had found their way here, and he was in no shape to fight. He walked over and picked up Seamus's head by the hair. He lifted it up and raised his sword at the crowd.

"Your commander is dead, if you do not surrender, you will be too."

They all stared at him in complete silence. One of the knights raised his sword to get all eyes on him.

"He's outnumbered! Get him!"

Oh of course. That's exactly what I wanted to happen.

He dropped Seamus's head and they all began to draw their weapons and inch their way towards the Baron.

"Now how do I get out of this one..." He whispered to himself. Suddenly, he remembered he still had a flashbomb left. He sheathed his saber and grabbed it, pulling the tab on top which made the men around him flinch. He eyed his surroundings. To his left the roof was too far away to get to in a timely manner. To his right the roof was too high. In front of him the crowd was too thick, he would never get through. Behind him, however, the roof was high, but there were boxes and carts strewn about that he could use to get up. It would be hard to do with how beat up he was, but it was definitely doable. Probably. He drew his pistol and shot the knight in front of him, the bullet pinged off his helmet, not killing him, but it drew many people's attention. He simultaneously threw his flash bomb behind him. It exploded in a blinding light, even from where he was standing it hurt his ears. He holstered his pistol and made a break for the box closest to the roof. He drew his saber as he ran, slicing the throat of one of a disoriented knight in the same motion. He quickly closed the distance and bound up the boxes left behind by whatever merchants had had to leave town quickly, using it to spring onto the roof. He managed to grab the edge with one hand and almost lost his grip as pain flared up in his sides. Seamus had probably broken a rib or two when he tackled him. And he shouldn't have drawn his sword, it made climbing up harder than it needed to be. He slid his saber up onto the roof and pulled his way up, rolling onto the roof and continuing laying down for a moment, panting hard.

"That was much harder than it needed to be."

He hadn't really had time to think before, but he was starting to come to the conclusion that challenging Seamus was a bad idea. In his prime the fight would have been over quickly, but he had been shot through the eye not even a day earlier and was still dealing with the consequences. He slowly stood up and watched a hand grab onto the ledge. He was being chased. He stomped on the hand until the knight fell and began to run away. He was in much worse shape than he thought, running was extremely hard, and keeping steady took monumental effort. He was coming on a gap that he would have to jump and he wasn't entirely sure he could make it in his current state. But, in the end he had no choice. He turned his head and saw that one of the knights had made his way up and was chasing him, and gaining ground quickly. The Baron jumped at the edge and felt the horrible drop as he started falling long before his body made it over the gap. He grabbed the ledge with his fingertips and it felt like it would rip his arms out of their sockets.

The knight jumped the ledge and landed on the other side easily. He looked down on the Baron and laughed heartily. The Baron heard the sound of fighting behind him and quietly prayed someone would come help him. The knight slowly unsheathed his sword. It seemed that he was enjoying dominating this powerhouse who killed his leader. He raised his sword agonizingly slowly, trying to prolong it as long as he could. As soon as he got the sword to its apex, an arrow pierced his throat. He dropped the sword behind him and turned around slowly. Suddenly he was flying through the air and the Baron heard the sound of metal impacting the tiles. He looked over and saw Udo laying on his back next to him. He had done a flying jump kick and flung the knight into the other building. Udo scrambled to his knees, grabbed the Baron's forearm and pulled him up onto the roof, laying him down on the tile.

"Damn Baron, you're looking pretty rough. Uh, sorry, but I don't know any sort of medicine stuff." The Baron moaned weakly.

"Seamus was...a lot tougher than I thought he would be. Call a medic...any...one that can treat my broken ribs."

"Don't worry Baron, the town's basically in our hands already." He gestured toward the town square. The militia was being surrounded by the Baron's men.

"They'll probably finish up soon. I'll call that magician to fix your wounds, you'll be better within the hour, or whenever he gets here from camp."

The Baron's eyes shot open in surprise.

"A...magician?" He didn't think that magic existed in this world. He figured that if magic existed he would've heard about it by now.

"Yeah Baron, don't you remember? You hired him just before we left for Holenstadt. You said they're pretty expensive, but they're worth the cost. You'll probably be in fighting shape in, say, a day."

The last thoughts the Baron had before blacking out were confused and annoyed. How could I not have remembered the magic? That seems like...a pretty important thing to remember...

Suddenly, the Baron's eyes shot open, he ripped his blanket off and reached for his saber. The Baron's hands groped around where it should have been and found nothing, causing a not insignificant amount of panic to flare up in his heart before he remembered where he was. He looked over and saw a man in long flowing robes, his eyes were glowing a pale pink and he was in a standard unarmed fighting stance. The Baron sat back down on the bed and sighed.

"Sorry to startle you, I thought I was still in battle." The mage lowered his arms and the glow receded.

"It is no problem Baron, happens all the time. And I was never in any real danger. In your weakened state I could put you to sleep anytime I wanted." His eyes glowed again and he made a hand signal. Suddenly the Baron began feeling drowsy, and immediately knew he had no chance of fighting it. He almost passed out into his pillow when the mage stopped his spell, lifting the drowsiness from him immediately.

"Ah...nice trick, my friend." The Baron noticed the room was very cold, the lantern sitting on his bedside table had a very weak flame, and there was a braiser next to his bed filled with small embers that suggested there was once a roaring fire inside.

"It is no mere trick, Baron, it is magic. You are quite the magician yourself, you should know better! Fire, and gravity magic, if I'm not mistaken. And I heard you were beginning to dabble in earth magic." What!? I can use magic?!

"Sorry to disappoint, but I have not been able to cast anything since my eye was taken."

"Shame, I hear you were one of the most prolific mages in the Empire. I am sure you will learn to cast again when you regain the rest of your memories."

"Let us hope so." The Baron took a long drink from the glass on the table next to his bed.

"Anyways, how long was I out? And how long should I refrain from engaging in warfare and it's accompanying evils?"

"You were only unconscious for about 30 minutes. One of your commanders rushed you here as soon as you passed out, and another rushed me here as soon as I arrived with Ludwin. I was quite surprised by your state, six of your ribs were broken, as well as your left ankle and right shoulder. Your right arm was also ripped out of its socket and you had cuts and bruises all over your body. I heard your duel was intense, but this was far beyond what I was expecting. I've mended your broken bones and healed your cuts and bruises, there should be no scarring with the exception of your nose. It was split completely down the middle and cut into the bone of your skull. I have no idea how you fought on with those injuries. Your nose was cut too deeply to heal without scarring, but I'm sure you won't mind. You know, the thing which surprised me the most was finding you here, let alone in the state you were brought to me in. I declared you dead just earlier today."

"Really? I didn't think my injuries were so extensive, sure didn't feel like it at the time." The Baron decided to ignore the mentioning of his death. It seemed easier to just not explain it.

"Well, adrenaline will do that to a man. And you seem to be tougher than the average person, even for a gifted one, so I'm not surprised those injuries didn't slow you down too much. They would knock me on my ass, that is for sure."

A what? What is a gifted one? Is that why the knights and Udo and I had such an easy time against the militia and my men? Because we are these so-called 'gifted ones?' There is a lot I need to learn about this world. Or, I guess, remember about this world.

"But really, you healed all of that within 30 minutes? That is quite the feat."

"Well, I am a healing mage. You would be amazed to learn what you could do using my school of magic, I sure was! Oh also, the actual healing process was closer to 20 minutes."

"So, how long until I can enter combat again?"

"I would advise you to wait for at least a full day before you duel again. Your leg itself wasn't broken, the fibula, tibia, and femur were intact, so there is no chance of the bone warping. So long as you are not clambering onto roofs or sprinting as fast as possible, you could possibly be in even better shape than you were when you woke up today."

"Only a day? That is fantastic! I will definitely keep you on payroll, Herr..."

"Geidpfeld, Luther Geidpfeld. Happy to be of service, Baron." He bowed deeply, maintaining eye contact with the Baron on the way down, smirking slightly.

"I just hope my expertise will be needed often in the future, my services do not come cheap, best to make full use of me while you can."

"Thank you, Herr Geidpfeld, am I cleared to leave this room and talk to my men?" He nodded and left the room, yawning loudly.

"Healing you took a lot of energy Baron, an entire Brazier worth of energy in fact, and all the reserves I had stored up doing push ups. I need to curl up next to a roaring fire for at least like 12 hours." He left the room and the Baron followed. Luther went into the room across the hall and the Baron left the building to go find Udo and his men. When he reached the square he found the militia had surrendered. His men had taken the square and it looked like the loss of life was kept to a minimum. He looked over at Udo who was arguing with someone wearing the colors of a different mercenary company. He walked over and Udo noticed him, immediately hailing the Baron over to them.

"Baron! This fucking ungrateful idiot is complaining that we took the town for ourselves!"

"You should have waited until we got here before assaulting the town! It would have lessened the strain on your men, and the militia may have surrendered outright because of our numerical advantage!" The Baron walked over to them and patted Udo's shoulder.

"Udo, you're relieved. Go get some rest, I'll handle everything from here." Udo saluted and immediately ran off toward the inn that the Baron came from.

"Now then, Herr..."

"Garber, Johan Garber."

"Herr Garber, I apologize for stealing your glory, but you will simply have to deal with it. What's done is done. But, if you would like, you can help us establish peace in the town and I will put a good word in with the Empress."

"Hmm, I don't like that one bit...but, it's better than nothing." Johan grumbled, quickly composing himself soon after. He sighed audibly and put put his hands on his hips.

"You have full ownership of the town right now, we have no right to do anything without your say. What do you want me to do?"

"Well, for the moment I want you to stand by. I am going to decide what to do with the surrendered militia. If I decide they can be trusted to continue their militia work then I will leave their organization to you, and if not then we will both work together."

"Fine. I will go tell the men to stand by. Can we enter the town now? Your subordinate wouldn't let us through the gate until you woke up."

"Oh, Yes of course, send them right in. Tell my men at the gate that your company is cleared to enter the town now." Johan nodded his head in thanks and turned to walk away.

"Wait, Johan, one more thing." He stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"Remember, this is not an occupation, we are peacekeepers until whoever becomes the new Baron von Holenstadt can assign a new governor." Johan waved his hand dismissively as he walked away.

"Yeah, Yeah."

The Baron headed to the town square where his men had taken the militia captive. There were a handful of knights left who were tied up with them. He walked over to one of his men, who saluted as soon as he saw him approaching.

"Men! The Baron has come! Stand at attention!" All of the men guarding the militia snapped to attention and saluted the Baron.

"At ease men." They all fell into parade rest. The Baron walked over to a knight slumped against a lamp post.

"Herr Knight, how are you?" He looked up at the Baron with tired eyes.

"Oh, just peachy sir. Never better." The man guarding him looked like he wanted to hack the knight's head off and was just waiting for the order.. The Baron lifted a hand toward the man to calm him down.

"He is just tired and cranky because he lost, don't give him too much grief. I would be if our roles were reversed. My apologies, Herr Knight, that was the wrong question to ask. Say, how would you like to represent your fellow knights, as well as the militia men? You! Cut his bonds!" 

The guard looked at the Baron, eyes wide with surprise, but quickly pulled out his dagger and cut the ropes around the knight's wrists. The knight stood up and felt his wrists, they were probably sore from an hour of being tied to a lamp post. The knight looked at the rope on the ground then at the Baron, confused.

"A sign of goodwill. We are not interested in killing you all. We do not enjoy killing fellow men of the Empire. I doubt you men are hardcore loyalists to the rebellious former Baron, you just hadn't learned of his defeat yet, and were therefore just following orders, yes?" The knight looked into the Baron's eyes and slowly nodded, understanding the meaning behind his words.

"Oh...yes of course...we hadn't received news of his failure yet. If we had known...we...uh...would have...uh...cooperated."

"Perfect! Then, since you are all upstanding members of the community, and attached enough to the town to be part of the militia, then I can trust you to continue doing your militia work without attacking my men, right?" The knight's eyes widened his eyes in surprise.

"Sir...are you serious? You will let the militia go back to working? No punishments?"

"Of course! This is not a military occupation! Think of us as a transition team, making sure things go smoothly. So long as they cooperate with us and the Schneebedekt Berg Mercenary Company then they can continue their work."

"Well, I can assure you the militia would be happy to cooperate, but what use have you for us knights? What are you planning to do with us?"

"Well, we will have to speak to each of you individually. We will treat you well, and either hire you to work for my company, if you wish or ransom you off to your families. Do not worry about that either, we will be reasonable, the ransom we request for you will be well within your family or employer's means to pay."

"I suppose those are the best terms we could ask for. So, are us knights relieved of our duty for now? Will you feed and house us during the meantime?"

"Yes, of course. We like to treat people well. It helps our reputation, and it is nice to be owed a favor, no?"

"Yes, of course sir. It may not mean much coming from a lordless knight, but I owe you a favor for for treating us so well. And I am sure the rest of us will feel the same."

"Good, just know that I will be cashing in on that favor someday. I will look forward to working with you in the future. Inform your men of the situation, I will introduce them to who will take on organizing their work. Ask your fellow knights to hand in their weapons and armor for safe keeping, and those who comply will be allowed to walk freely around town." The knight thanked the Baron again and turned around to tell the militia and his fellow knights the terms the Baron laid out. The Baron left the square to find the law house. He had paperwork to do and people to organize.

When the Baron reached the Courthouse, he saw Ludwin waiting outside the front door.

"Ludwin! It is good to see you. I assume your fighting went well?" Ludwin looked up and smiled brightly.

"It is good to see you too Baron. The men fought well, our enemies stood no chance. I worked out a deal with Der Bande Der Wolfe to treat the wounded. Their leader was thankful for our help and offered to take them off our hands until they fully recovered. He also promised to write us a letter of introduction should we ever deal with the Orcs."

The Baron could barely hide his surprise, he didn't think there were Orcs in this world. Though with the existence of magic and Elves he should have guessed it. If there are Orcs, then there are probably Dwarves and other fantasy beings. Maybe I'll even get to fight a dragon or something.

"That is fantastic Ludwin! I will be sure to remember that. Now, how many did we lose?"

"We lost about 24 during the initial battle, and we lost 45 during the fighting in the city. We had extremely light losses, almost all swordsmen, though I believe a couple of musketiers got injured by archers, and one of the swordsmen will lose his arm. But, aside from that all of our wounded had non-life threatening wounds which we could take care of fairly easily. Also, we received a message from the Empress's Spymaster. Arrived just before you came here." Ludwin took a letter out of his cuirass and handed it to the Baron.

"Ah, thank you Ludwin, I will read this at my earliest convenience. In the meantime I suggest you get some rest. Udo is already carousing around the taverns."

"Are you sure Baron? I didn't personally do much fighting, so I could help you with paperwork if you want. I heard you were gravely injured during the fighting so I assumed you would want some help."

The Baron scruffed his beard in thought.

"I will take you up on that offer, I appreciate the help. But you may leave any time you want, just tell me before you do so." They headed inside and talked to the bureaucrats sitting inside. They set them up in the headmaster's office and gave them what they needed. The Baron sat down and opened the letter. It was stamped with the seal of the Imperial Spymaster, the symbol was profile of a man holding a spyglass to his eye.

Dear Johan Bleichroder Bickenstadt,

I am writing to you on the behalf of Empress Reikspal, who has given me authority to speak on her behalf. Everything that is written here should be considered the Empress's own words. We are requesting the presence of the Klarwasser Mercenary Company within the ranks of the Grand Imperial Army. The Empress is preparing to siege the capital city of Leibenstadt in order to capture the head of this rebellion, her brother Prince Reikspal. Should you choose to accept our request, we will double the compensation promised for your expedition to Holenstadt, and the Empress will personally reward the men of your inner circle in any way you see fit. Within reason of course.

Should you choose to assist us, we request you make your way here as soon as physically possible, we will wait 3 days for your response. Should we get a response within the proper time frame, we will wait for your company to come before assaulting Leibensburg. We will wait up to a week for your company to arrive after we have received the letter. Any extra compensation beyond what has already been declared within this letter will be decided on a case by case basis. The Empress also wishes to speak to you personally after the siege is finished, she has some special business to discuss with you that will be of interest. Additionally, should you join us for the siege, you will be considered part of Imperial supply lines and thus will not have to pay for the food and lodging of your men, just as an extra incentive.

Regards, Spymaster Brusilov.

"Brusilov..." The Baron muttered to himself. So far he could remember a handful of different countries in this world, and none of them sounded Russian to him. He could remember the swampy islands and bogs of the Orkney Isles, which seemed to be a mix of Scottish and Icelandic, generally a Nordic and British Isles-esque style. There were the beautiful woodlands and rugged mountains of La République Elfique, which he didn't really remember anything about, but he could wager a guess that it was French. There are the great plains and light forests in the bestial lands of Caprae Loco, which felt Roman to him. The dense and lush jungle of Der Dschungel, which he remembered wasn't quite a country, but more a territory of which a Chinese-esque people dwelled within, though during his last expedition there he remembered some of the tribes beginning to combine their powers into larger clans. And then There was the frozen tundras of Orcland, which he couldn't quite put his finger on the culture of, as he never really visited it during his travels. He was sure there were other countries around he couldn't remember yet, so maybe one of those or Orcland were Russian. He would just have to find out at a later date.

"Ludwin." He looked up from the paper he was reading.

"Yes Baron?"

"Our presence is requested by the Empress for her siege at Leibensburg. If we want to answer her call we will have to move out immediately."

"Oh, like, she, personally requested us?"

"Yes, and I plan to assist her. We were promised she would double the pay for our fighting here, and she will give me and my lieutenants whatever we request. And apparently she wishes to discuss something with me personally."

"Well...we just got set up here, but that does sound like a rather tempting offer."

"I agree. So, we will leave this town in the hands of the Schneebedekt berg company, gather up the men, and then march down to Liebenstadt. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great Baron, but first I would like to apologize to the bureaucrats, they got this room set up all nice and clean for us, and we're already leaving."

"How kind of you, Ludwin. Sure, we have time. Apologize, then go to the camp and inform the rest of my lieutenants of what we're doing. I doubt they will like it, we just wasted all of their hard work in gathering supplies for the town, but I am sure they would enjoy taking part in a siege." Both men left the room, Ludwin headed down the hall to apologies to the bureaucrats for wasting their time and the Baron heading right out the front door. The Baron first headed to the Inn the other mercenary company got set up in. He sat down at the Bar that Johan was drinking at.

"Baron? Why are you visiting me here? Do you need something?"

"Yes actually, I am giving you control of the town."

Johan spit out his drink.

"You-...you're gonna...give us the town?"

"Yup! Our presence is required elsewhere. Your responsibilities have just increased, but so has your glory, in a way. I will put in a good word for you, make sure the Empress understands that you are reliable and all that. Good for repeat business."

"Oh. Uh. Thank...thank you, Baron. Uh...I guess I owe you one then. You'll really tell the Empress I'm trustworthy?"

"Oh yes, especially if you handle peacekeeping well. I'll make sure to mention you by name."

"I, uh, wow. That's really nice of you Baron. I thought you would be more cutthroat like the rest of the mercenary captains."

"Well, I prefer to do things with a lighter hand. Making people indebted to you tends to be a much better long term strategy in my experience. Should I need help in battle in the future, I will call on you. In return for this, I will put in a good word for you. A good deal, no?"

"Yeah it's a great deal! No worries Baron! I will protect this place with my life!" The Baron downed the rest of the ale that Johan had been drinking.

"No problem, my friend. I hope we meet again in the future. My men will be leaving as soon as possible, so ready your men and round up the city militia to inform them of the situation."

"May the gods smile upon you, friend. May your steel contain Ulrich's taint."

''Farewell, may Alrich be with your spirit." He had no idea what that meant, it just felt right to say. He left to go find Udo, when out of the corner of his eye he saw a longsword with a guard that looked like vines coiled around a pole, Udo's sword. He looked over and saw Udo slumped in his chair, snoring loudly. The Baron walked over to him and slammed his fist on the table, causing Udo to fall out of his chair and grab the nearest thing he could find, which happened to be a fish. A second later he looked up and saw the Baron grinning down at him.

"Hey Baron."

"Hello Udo. We have work to do. Put down the fish and let's get going." Udo looked at his improvised weapon and smiled.

"Can I keep the fish? I'm kinda hungry."

"Do as you please, just gather up the men and tell them to head back to camp, we're marching south towards Leibenstadt. The Empress is preparing for the Coup de grace, and if we assist we will get paid extra, and me and my lieutenants will get to make a personal request of the Empress."

Udo took a bite of the fish tail and turned to leave the Inn.

"Sounds great Baron! I'll get on that then!"

The Baron grabbed a mug of beer and downed it in a single gulp.

"Bleh, never really was one for beer."

He turned to leave the building, going to a stable and "expropriating" a horse from the owner and rode back to camp to inform everyone of the new plan.

"But Baron...I...I bought these rations at a premium! Do you have any idea how uppity the merchants have been lately!? Even Ludwin's family's company wasn't giving me good prices!"

"I understand that Hans, but the Empress is offering us more pay, as well as personal favors for all of us." Fergus raised an eyebrow at that.

"Personal favor? Like... like she'll just...give us somethin'?"

"The letter from Spymaster Brusilov was not very clear, it just said she would give us each a personal favor, within reason of course."

"'S not very specific...but it do sound inticin'!"

"Exactly. We simply cannot pass up this opportunity. Plus, this means that you will get to fight sooner rather than later. So, begin packing up your tents and get ready for the march. And tell the men they get extra rations for a while, because of the hard work of Herr Volkner." Hans seemed satisfied with this. Everyone quickly departed to pack up what needed to be packed up and load it into wagons.