A/N: Enjoy the perspectives of Assistant #7 and Commander #4 for this chapter.

-x-X-x-

He wasn’t anyone important. Which was probably why he was still alive and this whole awful headache was his fault. He was the assistant to a minor functionary in Ocreatha’s new government after Foss Sangrey disbanded the Council of Lords and took over as Supreme King. Only, that minor functionary had been dragged from his office and drawn and quartered when all of the sudden the undead soldiers who were keeping the peace had gone feral and started attacking everyone.

All across Ocreatha, people had risen up. They’d killed the feral undead and then they’d gone ahead and overthrown the Supreme King in Absentia. Seeing as the man was nowhere to be found and his undead shock troops had been destroyed one and all, the people of Ocreatha had decided to take their Kingdom back.

He, of course, wasn’t involved in any of that, including the drawing and quartering of his superior. But when the dust had settled, he’d found himself as one of the only remaining pieces of a no longer functioning government that still knew how to do the paperwork. And someone always had to do the paperwork.

Still, it wasn’t like he had any power, he just did as he was told by the scary fellows with armor and swords. The old City Guard, who had been disbanded and forced to lay down their arms and armor back when the Supreme King took power, had pulled those dusty armaments and cuirasses back out and had taken to the streets of the Capital while the undead were rampaging. They’d killed every last one and then overseen the punishments of those who had most benefited from Foss Sangrey’s tyranny.

But not him. Him, they’d stuck in a room and kept working. And then they’d pulled him from that room a day ago and had him doing this.

“Please… just tell me what happened.”

Sitting across from him, a young woman fidgets nervously but after a moment she finds her nerve, swallowing thickly and nodding.

“R-Right. W-Well… I died. The Supreme King killed me. And my ma. And my pa. And then… t-then I was back. And there were knights and massive monsters and… and…”

Before she can shut down completely, he plasters a comforting smile on his face and catches her eye.

“It’s okay. You’re okay. Tell me… who brought you and the others to the Capital?”

Blinking, she has to think for a moment.

“Well… there were four of them. One was a Knight of the Rose. One was a half-orc. One dressed all in black… and the fourth was the only man.”

Humming, he slowly nods as he records her words. She’s not the first person he’s talked to, of course. By now, the refugees from Alether have painted an… astounding picture. One that he wouldn’t even remotely believe if it wasn’t for the fact that the hundreds he’d interviewed so far had all said pretty much the exact same thing.

The City of Alether… was dead. And not because of their so-called enemies in the Zuverian Empire, but because of their very own Supreme King. Foss Sangrey had turned the entire population of Alether into undead. Truly, the most heinous of crimes.

But joy of joys, he was dead now. Slain by the same people who escorted the refugees to the Capital, if said refugees are to be believed and didn’t just have some mass shared hallucination. It made sense, to be fair. In fact, the Supreme King’s purported death lined up perfectly with the moment that his soldiers had gone feral and mad not just in the Capital but across every inch of Ocreatha, reportedly.

Still… one would think that if a group of people had helped end Foss Sangrey’s tyranny, they would have stuck around to at least claim their reward or something. Instead…

“Do you know where those four people are now?”

He keeps his tone as gentle as possible, of course. He doesn’t want to spook the poor woman sat across from him. As impossible as it sounds that she was not only killed and raised as undead, but then cured of her undeath… that she and her fellow refugees had gone through something truly traumatic was not in question.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t get anything more from her than he did from the previous interviewees. Eyes wide, she shakes her head.

“N-No. I… I remember when we reached the Capital and the Captain at the Front Gate demanded to speak to our leaders… I looked around for them. They’d led us all the way h-here after all, protecting us and k-keeping us safe and well fed. But… when I looked, they were already g-gone. Nowhere to be s-seen.”

Same story as the last hundred times or so. These four… heroes, if you will, had gone out of their way to make sure the last thousand survivors from Alether made it to the Capital. And then they’d just up and vanished. How absolutely vexing, to say the least.

But then, it wasn’t his problem. He’d let whoever decided they were in charge next figure out what to do about… any of this. He just did the paperwork. He knew his lane and he stayed in it, no matter what.

Still, for as much as they’d given him quite the headache without ever meeting him, the man wished those four the best. If they’d done even half the things that the people he’d been interviewing claimed they had, then they’d saved Ocreatha beyond a shadow of a doubt.

What came next… well, that was for Ocreatha to decide.

-x-X-x-

“Commander! We have a situation!”

Looking up from his maps within his tent, a nameless commander on the frontlines of the border between Zuveria and the Savage Lands narrows his eyes.

“A situation? What kind of situation?”

The equally nameless foot soldier who’s stepped halfway into the tent swallows thickly.

“Four dangerous unknowns have entered camp, sir!”

“What?! How?!”

“Well sir… they came in from Zuveria, sir!”

Pushing off the table, the Commander growls as he grabs the map he was looking over and rolls it up before storming out of the tent. The messenger barely having the time to get out of his way to avoid being bowled over. But to be fair, he really didn’t have time for this. The Zuverian Border with the Savage Lands was as hotly contested as ever. And to top it all off, the latest reports from the Empire were downright insane.

The Imperial Family assassinated? The Kingdom of Ocreatha had declared war only for the war to end in a few short weeks? The Imperial Senate claimed to have found a successor to the throne already?

It was all ridiculous… and quite frankly, it was way above the Commander’s paygrade. His job as a Commander in the Zuverian Empire’s military was to hold this particular stretch of land from the orcs and other monsters who sought to invade from the Savage Lands. And damn it all, he did his job well!

He didn’t need complications. He didn’t like surprises. And he certainly didn’t want dangerous ‘unknowns’ to be parading around his camp, no matter where they came from! Fortunately, it doesn’t take him long to find the four. Though when he sees them, the Zuverian Commander does stop short for a second and just stare. They aren’t… quite what he was expecting.

One of them isn’t even wearing armor! The shortest of the group is dressed in all black with her raven-black hair done up in a tight ponytail. She has on a thick leather apron and a pair of leather gloves along with a pair of big round goggles that cover her eyes. She looks like a mad woman, to be quite frank.

Another is very clearly a half-orc based on the way she’s carrying herself. The bulging muscles and skimpy armor along with the battle-axe hefted over her shoulder are all par for the course for a female orc… but the fact that she’s not going into a rage or demanding that someone fight her make it clear that she’s only half orcish. So do her sharp knife-like ears… most orcs have rounded ears, after all.

Then there’s what would be the oddest of them all if not for the fourth. A Knight of the Rose stands with the other three, resplendent in the Order’s signature golden armor from head to toe. With her features covered, the Commander has no way of knowing who she might be… especially since the Knight of the Rose is foregoing any sort of identification in the form of house heraldry or anything like that. Her armor is unadorned in a way most Knights of the Rose would never abide by.

But setting her aside, the most eye-catching of an already eye-catching group has to be the last of the four. Dressed in a hulking suit of armor that puts him at broader and taller in stature than even the Knight of the Rose, the Commander would mark the fourth as a male orc or something if it weren’t for the fact that he had his helmet off and under his arm, revealing a charming brown-haired man with a wide grin.

That wasn’t all though. His armor was black… except for where it was glowing with lines of teal energy that threaded his four limbs and spread outwards from the center of his chest where there was a circle of the glow almost blinding in its intensity. And to top it all off, his eyes were glowing that same teal energy, making it clear that he was some sort of… wizard-knight from the look of things.

Taking all of this in, the Zuverian Commander just huffs as he gathers his bearings and heads on over. Just from the carefree smile on the fourth one’s face, he decides they aren’t necessarily a threat… yet. Clearing his throat, he draws their attention as he comes to a stop a few yards away and crosses his arms over his chest.

“I am the Commander here. You are trespassing on a military encampment. State your names and purpose immediately.”

The ‘or else’ hangs in the air, even as the one with his helmet off steps forward, his smile morphing into a grin.

“Apologies Commander. We didn’t mean to step on any toes. We are… adventurers if you will. Looking for… adventure.”

The Commander’s eyes narrow at that, but before he can react, the other man gestures to himself and then his female compatriots.

“I am the Hero. This is the Mechanic, the Dame, and the Warrior. As for our purpose… well, it’s quite simple. We’re hoping you’ll point us in the direction of the biggest, baddest, scariest thing you’re currently dealing with. We’ll take it from there.”

If his eyes weren’t already narrowed, they’d narrow even further. Either these people were some of the bravest warriors he’d ever seen… or the stupidest. But then again, maybe it was both. Seriously, code names? How… juvenile.

“You’re planning a trip into the Savage Lands.”

Its not a question, but the one who called himself ‘the Hero’ answers it all the same.

“Oh, we’re not just going into the Savage Lands my good sir! No, we’re planning on seeing what lies PAST the Savage Lands!”

The Hero’s boisterous claim sends a jolt through the encampment and for the first time the Commander realizes just how many of his men are listening in on this conversation… or just staring in lustful admiration at the Hero’s companions. Once you got past the leather apron and gloves, or the half-orc status, or the golden armor of a Knight of the Rose, you realized just how beautiful the Hero’s female compatriots really were.

Jaw clenching, the Zuverian Commander realizes that he should have had the soldier who first came to him bring these four to his tent, rather than coming out here himself. Well, nothing to do about that now. There’s just one thing here that doesn’t make sense.

“If your plan is to try and journey past the Savage Lands, wouldn’t you want the path of least resistance?”

Not that anyone had ever made it past the Savage Lands and then returned to tell of what might lay beyond in the first place. But still…

“Oh, nah. We’re not looking for Easy Mode or anything like that. We want a good, solid fight. Mostly to settle a bet.”

Wait, what? The Commander just stares at the self-proclaimed Hero, nonplussed.

“… A bet.”

Nodding jovially, the man, with his glowing teal eyes, grins a savage grin.

“Oh yes! Plus, we’ll need the power going forward. So… point us in the direction of your biggest problem. And like I said… we’ll take it from there.”

There’s no way. And yet… slowly, the Commander looks down at the rolled up map in his hands. Then, before he can second guess himself, he takes five long strides forward and thrusts the map in the Hero’s direction.

“Here. This map leads to an orc warlord who’s just popped up in the area.”

The Hero’s eyebrow raises as he takes the map.

“Oh? Orcs have warlords then?”

What? He was literally traveling with a half-orc! Did he know nothing? Pushing that thought from his mind, the Zuverian Commander grits his teeth as he explains.

“Yes. It’s said that he’s managed to browbeat two tribes into submission in addition to his original tribe and named himself Warlord. Warlord R’azz. Unfortunately, the way in which he managed to bring the extra orc tribes under his control was by discovering and ransacking a hidden cache of castle-forged weapons buried underneath an old abandoned Zuverian Fortress from back when our border with the Savage Lands was an hour in that direction.”

Pointing towards the Savage Lands themselves, the Commander watches as the Hero follows his eyes. After a moment, the other man slowly nods.

“Which means you have an orc warlord with the strength of three tribes an hour from your encampment.”

Huh, maybe not a complete idiot after all.

“Yes.”

Now that the cards are on the table, he half-expects the Hero to fold and say that that’s too much. After all, three tribes of orcs working together… it was practically a death sentence for every single man in this encampment if he didn’t receive reinforcements within another week or so. No group of four adventurers, even with magic and a half-orc at their disposal, could possibly hope to take on such a large-

“Well then… consider it done. Ladies? Shall we?”

His jaw drops open as the Hero tucks the map away in a satchel and then turns on his heel and begins heading out of the encampment and into the Savage Lands themselves. His female compatriots follow him, much to the Zuverian Commander’s relief and the utter disappointment of his troops.

Still… that had to be either the most terrifyingly powerful man he’d ever met… or the stupidest. He’d wait a day or two and send out the scouts again to assess the situation and find out which it was. For now… it wasn’t his problem anymore.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Tomorrow we'll be back to Mikael's POV for one final smutty Epilogue Chapter.

Thanks for reading along all this time with me and I hope you've enjoyed!

See you all tomorrow for the finale!