His mention of her two cousins had the opposed effect of what he had intended. She had a surprisingly vast amount of things to say about them and the whole situation so they ended up letting her tag along. She spoke about them for the whole time they traversed the city.

According to her, those two were not all that smart, incredibly clumsy and she even described them as evil.

"Evil? Isn't that a bit harsh to describe your own younger cousins?" Kenneth asked with a frown.

"It's not! It's impossible to be that clumsy without doing it on purpose I tell you. They keep messing up everything that comes close to them in the worst possible way. I'd say they're agents of the G.o.d Destruction if they weren't my cousins."

She told them about a time they set fire to a pottery shop, told them about that time they dropped her sword into a well, how they snapped a table in two with a shelve and many other examples. She told them that it became so bad her uncle had to throw them out before they had the house collapse over the heads of everyone else.

Then, according to her, her two cousins just vanished a few years ago. She said their father thought that they'd learn to stop messing around and come back to them to apologize for their mistakes but they never did. They looked around the city but they were never able to find them.

Her version sounded slightly different than that of the sisters but she didn't sound like she was lying either. Maybe the truth was somewhere in between their two stories, maybe Vinnia was simply fed lies or the sisters misunderstood the whole thing as usual, who knew?

Vinnia came up with a whole lot of different scenario explaining why the two girls she described as unorganized and malicious pests could have ended up with the young lord Muracier.

None of them were flattering and most had the two sisters tricking him in some way. Of course, none of them were true, Emp had just wanted to help them.

Vinnia insisted that she had to go there and remove the two sisters before they caused some terrible havoc or forever tarnished the name of her family. She was certain that the two girls would have made a terrible reputation of themselves by now and feared how everyone would look at her name in the future.

Emp had been tempted to reveal who he was back in Bêtéclair to fix the problem right away but in the end chose otherwise. He had not wanted to spoil the surprise he prepared for the others and felt that this was a family matter for them. He shouldn't intervene without the input of the sisters.

The group could still have chosen to ignore Vinnia and tell her to leave but they couldn't really stop her from following them from a distance. She was free to travel wherever she pleased so even if they didn't let her tag along, she would have ended up in Dark-glint anyway.

Because of this, they spent the trip with her. As they travelled, Emp thought about ways to fix this whole thing and ended up deciding that the two sisters should take care of this themselves. He wanted them to fix their relations.h.i.+p with their cousin and their family or at least show Vinnia that they were doing fine here. If the two of them really wanted to be his retainers, they would have to mend their previous bad reputation at some point or another.

Meanwhile, just a few days before the group reached Dark-glint, the soldiers showed up. The amount of soldiers was higher than the amount of villagers in Darkglint. In total, excluding the support staff, a bit over a thousand and four hundreds warriors showed up. There were ten branches of 125 men each, four of spearmen, two of swordsmen and four of archers, alongside them, there was a pack of a 150 riders.

To make things clear, the armies in the steelwood empire were organized in groups of twenty-five soldiers called a root. Five roots made a branch and five branch made a company, this made it so a branch had 125 men and a company 625 men. Companies could be combined to form a legion, Emp was given the smallest possible legion of two companies of recruits.

Even though he had an official rank on par with a general, those usually commanded groups of legions to form an army. Emp's army would be made out of this small legion and those already present in Greenpeaks once he got there.

Those commanding a legion under a general where usually either a t.i.tled wallmaster which was a promoted soldier tasked to defend a specific place for the general or they were either knights or lords given a legion. Under them, a captain lead a company, a brancher led a branch and a rooter led a root. All of that was pretty simple.

Those were usually not counted in the troop ranks so a root of twenty-five was actually twenty-seven or twenty eight when including the flag bearer, the commander and sometimes, a messenger. The same went when going up in the groups, scaling upward along the chain.

Emp had been given surplus so that he'd be able to name who he pleased into all the different positions depending on who he felt would fit best. Only the rooters had been chosen so that the army could move with a minimum of discipline. Emp would be able to promote any of those rooters to higher positions if he didn't have anyone better in mind.

Riders worked a bit differently, there were thirty riders in a spear of rider and they were lead by a sous-meutier. Five sous-meutier and their spears answered to a meutier and combined into a pack of a hundred and fifty which was what emp was given. This was the usual amount of riders for an army in Steelwood because the overabundance of forest made it difficult to field any more than that. (1)

However, when the might of the empire was a.s.sembled somewhere, the packs could all come together into a cavalcade lead by a mounted commander or even a mounted legion of up to 3750 riders.

Greenpeaks was the most efficient place to move packs of riders around but training riders wasn't easy so a hundred and fifty was already a huge amount for him. More would wait for him once he reached his destination.

Mages had their own compositions too but Emp hadn't been given any. Those were very hard to train and often came from n.o.bility one at a time. Emp didn't expect to have many under his orders even once he reached Greenpeaks which made the meek Zoran even more valuable to him.

Going back to the legion that showed up at the village gate, Bor the chief was really upset to see it. Emp had completely forgotten to warn him about this so he apologized properly for the surprise but was never able to convince him to let them inside. Mostly, the problem was that there were too many of them to fit inside the walls of Dark-glint and he didn't want the responsibility of feeding them all.

The best Emp managed to obtain was to let them camp just outside of the wall along the road while the students where moving here. He promised they wouldn't be there for longer than a week and since the army already had its own provisions, he didn't complain anymore.

Emp put on his armor and met everyone in charge of the army, presenting himself as Emp Muracier. He walked into their camp and after naming himself and asking to see those in charge, he waited for them all to a.s.semble.

He ended up standing in front of fifty rooters, five sous-meutiers and those in charge of the support staff all at once. They made a coordinated salute, all slapping their armor at the same time and all chanting the same thing as one.

"My lord Muracier, sir! Welcome! This troop of recruits is ready to serve and hear your commands! How may we serve?"

Then, behind them, every other soldier made the same salute and bowed to him.

It was a very impressive thing to look at and it sounded so loud it scared the nearby birds away. Emp could only dread what it would sound like if a whole army did it.

"Woooow!" He heard from somewhere behind him.

Apparently, Erin and Leo sneaked out of the village after him to see and they were impressed by the scene. He had not noticed them before that, they were getting really hard to spot, it might turn embarra.s.sing in the future if even him couldn't tell where they were.

He ignored them for now and took some time to get familiar with the troops he was given. He couldn't a.s.sign everyone their final positions quite yet because he wanted to include the students that were about to arrive but he did spend a lot of time going around the ma.s.sive group to see how everything was going, their dynamic and all the specifics.

He had an inventory of everything they brought from weapons to armor, pa.s.sing by ammunition and supplies made and studied, he went around and chose flag-bearers for every roots under the counsels of the rooters who knew everyone since a while already, he listened to their stories and complaints, to how they felt and who they thought had a talented future and even went around to see who had some kills recorded on their hunting cards already.

In the empire, it wasn't necessary to be an adult to join the military, as such, many joined in hopes of getting a kill there to gain their adulthood. That being the case, an army of recruits happened to make it so most of the soldiers were rather short compared to Emp. Children too small or weak were never hired so he wasn't going to march with a bunch of kids but many didn't look all that manly yet even after the training they were put trough to get here.

The few that had some kills recorded were valuable to him as they were those with a better idea of what they were doing. That being said, most of them had been made into the rooters already and he gave the honor of bearing the flags to those that were left. They might be more useful with a true weapon in hand but looking at it from another angle, they didn't need the kills as much as the rest. The rooters could still re-balance it all later on when everyone would have gathered some more experience.

The truth was that Emp shouldn't be the one going around appointing the duty of flag bearer to who he pleased as the task was well bellow his position but with a whole army of recruits, he didn't have much of a choice. The rest didn't know what they were doing all that well so he had to explain everything to everyone while he was still new to the army and the role of commanding himself. He was so glad that he had received extensive lessons on all this from the strategy teacher and Aminui before this.

All this organization took most of his time until the other him showed up but he still found the occasion to finalize everything else he needed to do before his arrival and soon to follow departure.

First, of course he told the two sister that their cousin was coming here and after a round of complaints, he told them to deal with her themselves. His plan was simply to point her towards his house once she reached the village and let things happen between the three of them.

Then, he asked his brother in law, Gilbert, what he wanted to do between coming with him and the troops or staying here as a guard. He had been asked to think about it long before and had trained with Emp so he knew how hard it would be to follow him from now on, now it was time for him to take his final decision.

To be honest, Emp still didn't know what would be better for him. If something happened to Gilbert while he was under his command, he couldn't even imagine how saddened Calla would be. On the other hand, as long as he worked under him, he could keep an eye on him while leaving him here to watch the gate put him in arms way with no trustworthy support aside from Marcy.

Gilbert chose to follow in the end. Emp accepted even though his reasoning, made no real sense, he wanted to impress Eda, that was seemingly the only thing in his head.

Emp couldn't really say anything against that. Not only was Gilbert a grown man who could take his own decisions, Emp understood well how it felt when someone he liked gave him a proud smile, he constantly sought that feeling. His decision might not be all that logical but still understandable.

It wasn't hard at all to convince Bor to transfer Gilbert to his troupe since he was a Muracier and Gilbert was his brother in law.

Aside from Gilbert, he also planed on taking Svae with him instead of Harriett as she was better suited for an expedition. However eager Harriett was to please him, he didn't want to drag her through the empire towards an area in crisis with an army. He'd leave her with Calla instead while Svae would take her place and scout from the air for him.

This brought the question of whether he should bring the sisters or not. They trained hard to be useful for him and they said they wanted to be his retainers but they hadn't pa.s.sed the test. They still had not managed to befriend Galana.

However, at this point, both of them had far surpa.s.sed what Gilbert was able to do and what Emp expected them to be able to achieve which was very good. They could definitely be proud of themselves even if they still could not crack the sh.e.l.l around Galana's heart.

He didn't know what they wanted either, maybe they'd like to stay here with Calla more than going around with him. They first met because of her after all, Emp fully believed they were there for her. It didn't really matter to him whether they followed him or stayed with Calla as they would provide additional protection for his wife in one case and lend him their talent in the other.

Likewise, some of the nine ladies here to a.s.sist Calla were more than talented enough for Emp to want them in his group. Lanavera Verepe in particular was a knight from Greenpeaks so when she heard where he was going and for what, she almost begged him to join. Her goal was to prove her worth as a knight after all but here in Calla's service, there wasn't much action to be had.

Many of the other girls here had some strong fighting ability and he wished they could follow but he refused them all the same, even Kaisla was denied. He had asked them here to care for Calla, teach her and protect her. Bringing them so far away wouldn't let them do that.

He wanted them here with Calla even more since he'd take back his double while he pa.s.sed the village.

He had thought about it for some time, should he leave his double here while he was going in Greenpeaks? The idea sounded great since he didn't want to leave Calla's side but the more he thought about it, the more he felt it wasn't the right thing to do.

There were two reasons behind this reasoning.

First, this would be unfair.

His human father Chinui once told him to never order something he wouldn't be willing to do himself and even if this wasn't a perfect comparison, he thought the idea could apply here as well. While they were gone to work in Greenpeaks, none of the soldiers or his friends would be able to see their families and loved ones. Leaving half of him here would be unfair for them and some soldiers might come to resent him for being able to spend all his nights by his wife's side.

Second, his grandfather Aminui advised him with reason that he should always go all out in every single fight however insignificant it seemed.

The fact was that one could never know what to expect from the future or an opponent, going soft because things seemed easy was foolish at best and Aminui had a deep scar to prove his point. Having the two him side by side would literally double his fighting power or seeing it from the other side, leaving one of him here would halve his true power. It didn't matter while he was studying but now that he was leading an army away, the two him should be kept close in case he needed it in a fight.

There might come a day where he became so strong he wouldn't feel the need to have the two him standing side by side to be safe but that day wasn't now.

His evaluation of everyone's strength had never been good to begin with, he didn't know if he was good or not, he didn't know if Aminui showed him all he could do, if he was affected by old age, if knights stronger than him were common or not... He would not leave his future in the hands of Luck even if he had helped many times in the past. Since he couldn't evaluate his power properly, it was best to take no chances at all.

This meant he had to say goodbye to Marcy and Calla as well as everyone else. He'd have the hardest time leaving Calla but of the two, Marcy was the one who was the most reluctant about letting him leave.

Calla was a nervous person and also a cute and very loving wife but she trusted wholeheartedly that he would come back to her safe and sound. She didn't doubt it at all, the proof was the charm she gave him and sealed over his armor above his heart. The message painted on it was u003cPlease, help him keep everyone safe.u003e instead of asking for his protection directly.

She was afraid of everything and anything and could barely speak for herself but apparently, when it came to him, she just trusted he'd be fine no matter what. Emp wasn't certain that blindly believing in his safety was a good thing but he felt that at least, it was better than having her torment herself all the time over this.

Marcy on the other hand was a lot harder to escape. He had known this wouldn't be easy and had even spoken to her about the plans and task he was given as soon as he knew about them but she still stubbornly kept saying he should not go.

"I lost Chijou to the army, I really don't want to lose ya too. Really, why did ya have to be a Muracier?"

"Mom, nothing is going to happen to me. I have great equipment, a bunch of soldiers and I can take care of myself."

"Ya certainly can't! Every time ya leave these walls, ya get in big troubles and half the times, ya get back half dead."

"But I wasn't as strong then as I am now. The task doesn't seem so hard either. I'm not going to clash with another army, we're just doing some peace keeping and rescue."

"Yeah this time its this and next time it'll be something else and then something else again until ya end up dead in a field somewhere."

"I sure might die but I really don't think it will have anything to do with the army or being a Muracier at all." Emp answered convincingly. "Maybe you're right and I always get in trouble but then isn't it safer to be surrounded by thousands of armed guys working for me? When was the last time a great general even died?"

She placed a hand on top of his head and squeezed his skull, messing up his air in the process.

"Don't get c.o.c.ky ya slag, yar no great general yet and ya're not nearly as strong as Chinui or Chijou."

"I know that but if you keep me locked up here all the time there's no way I'll get better. Just trust me mom."

The discussion kept going this way for days and days. Marcy clearly didn't want to give in but Emp just couldn't stay and nothing she said or did would be able to convince him to do so. In the end, she was powerless to keep him in Dark-glint despite all her worry and her anger.

To be fair, she might have been able to hold him down using brute strength as he wasn't convinced that he was physically stronger than her yet but she wouldn't do something like that. This meant that she reluctantly had to let him go after a million promises to be careful and the longest hug he ever received. He was pretty sure she'd do it again on the day he left but he wasn't about to refuse his own mother.

After all that done, the group of students arrived at the gates of Dark-glint, joining up with all the soldiers. Village-Emp waited behind a tent while school-Emp pointed Vinnia towards the house where Leo and Erin waited. She left in a hurry while the soldiers came to salute the him that had just arrived.

"General, sir! When did you leave the camp?" The soldiers were rather confused to see Emp there. Of course they would be, another him was standing just behind a tent a few meters from them.

This was the moment he had awaited impatiently for so long, he couldn't help but make a giant smile under his helm while the other students looked at him in confusion. Why where the soldiers calling him general?

"My actual t.i.tle isn't general to be clear, it's heir great general or just heir general for short." He told his friends. "I heard that some soldier referred to that t.i.tle as great prince in the past but it would always upset the imperial family."

All of them made a confused face. Odilon was the one who voiced what was in all of their minds.

"Eh? What does that even mean."

Emp removed his helm to show them an enormous smile. They looked so lost! Their faces was all that he wished for and then some, he couldn't restrain himself and burst out laughing while the other him stepped from behind a tent further and also removed his helm to stand by his side.

Now even the soldiers didn't understand what was happening anymore, some thought it was an identical twin but Emp removed that notion when he held out his hand towards the other him and after a touch, made it disappear.

"My name is Emp Muracier, I was Aminui's grandson all along!"

A bunch of mouths opened up in shock and Odilon shouted the loudest "What?" he had ever heard.

"Guys," He said laughing hard again. "If only you could see the faces you're all making!"

"Is it some joke or is it actually real?" Oliver asked, completely thrown off balance by his declaration.

"It's really the truth, you can all look at my hunting card if you don't believe me. I chose all of you because I didn't want to go all the way to Greenpeaks without my friends. And yes Zoran, that means you're not going to get into any danger."

The small guy almost collapsed from both the shock and the relief, his two girl servants had to hold him on his horse in fear he fell down.

He'd keep their distorted faces in his memory for a long long time, he never wanted to forget that hilarious scene. Celtine too seemed to think that all their faces was very amusing as she hid her mouth behind her hand to laugh.

Once they'd have some time to think about it, Emp was sure that many of them would realize it was obvious. The one thing that made it so they had not thought about the possibility of Emp being the Muracier heir was that no one expected to be in a cla.s.s with a top ranked n.o.ble heir. Who would have expected the clueless boy who kept getting tricked for a laugh to be someone so important?

They all gathered closer to look at his card and Ivar made a comment to which everyone else nodded.

"You know Emp, we really need to work on what you think is a fun surprise to make."

What was wrong with is surprise? They all made wonderfully confused faces after all, this was perfect. Emp would give himself a perfect score for it.

"Doesn't that mean that lady Porter was complaining about you the whole time? Why didn't you just answer her instead of pointing her into the village?" Oran asked, clearly still confused.

"Didn't you just lie to her then? You said you were in that house. I thought the Muraciers never lied." Jin observed.

"I didn't lie at all, I said that the young lord Muracier lived there which is true, that is my actual house over there and my wife Calla is inside with the ladies attending to her and more importantly, the two cousins of lady Porter.

I just felt that her true problem wasn't with me but rather her own cousins so I wanted to give them a chance to work it out between themselves while I surprised you all. I always mean what I say even though sometimes people don't quite get what I'm trying to say." Emp answered with a wry smile.

After that, there was an awkward silence where no one knew exactly what to say.

The guys were all trying to digest the fact he was the Muracier they came to a.s.sist, the soldiers were just standing there confused and waiting for orders and Emp didn't know if he was supposed to wait for them to ask more question or just bring up the next subject himself.

In the end, Celtine's heel tapping his armor from where she sat on his shoulders convinced him to just bring up the next thing.

"So, there you have it. I'm a Muracier, those are the reinforcements we were promised and my probably temporary house is over there. My wife insisted to receive you all properly with a good meal but I don't have enough rooms for you all so we'll eat in the yard later and everyone will camp here with the soldiers for tonight. This means you all have to prepare the camp here, we'll leave tomorrow and I'll a.s.sign everyone a spot I think appropriate for now. Is there any questions or objections?"

Emp waited for a moment but no one seemed to react. He let out a sigh and turned towards the nearest rooter.

"You, find those guys a spot to camp, as you know, they'll be your superiors from now on so make sure the soldiers behave with them am I clear?"

"Yes, general, sir!"

"Great." He turned back around towards the seven guys he brought. "Once your tents are set, join me at the house I pointed earlier to Vinnia. You won't be disappointed by the meal, I promise. Calla is a really fantastic cook. In the mean time, I need to go see how the whole Porter situation is going on."

He turned around with Harriett on his heels and left for his home while the newly graduated students stared blankly at his back.

*-*-*-*

1. A pack is a meute in french, that's where Meutier comes from, it's a pack leader. A sous-meutier could be translated as an under pack leader or lesser pack leader. I went for meutier because it just sounds better than pack leader in the context, it's not a pack of wolves after all.

I wanted to give you a pretty graph of how the army works here but I can't.

Instead I can only do this, it's a bit messy but I can't really do better, I can't even use tabs to align everything properly.

Ranks from lowest to highest and what they command.

u003cu003e

Military slaves: u003cServe either on the front lines in the most risky positions or helping the logistic teams.

Soldiers/riders: u003cAll must be trained in Highsteel before being a.s.signed somewhere to insure the cohesion of the troops. u003cu003cu003cGuards are also considered soldiers but are usually trained by their fellow guards.

Rooter: u003cLead a root of 25 soldiers

u003eSous-Meutier: u003cLeads a spear of 30 Riders

Brancher: u003cLead a branch of 5 roots

u003eMeutier: u003cLead a pack of 5 spears

Captain:u003c Lead a company of 5* branches u003cu003c(between 2 and 8)

u003eMounted Commander: u003cLeads a cavalcade of 5 packs. u003cu003c(A mounted legion can be made with many cavalcade but it is so rare there are no official t.i.tle for their commanders in the Steelwood empire army.)

t.i.tled wallmaster: u003cLead a legion of 5* companies u003cu003c(between 2 and 8) but only has authority to defend a specific place.

Knights/n.o.bles: u003cCan be a.s.signed anywhere along the chain depending on their abilities and n.o.ble ranks.

u003cu003cu003cKnights can form their own elite troops or lead branches while higher lords can lead up to a legion.

u003cu003cu003cWhile the t.i.tled wallmasters can only guard a place, a legion lead by a n.o.ble can move around under the commands of a margrave or a general. When commanding a legion, they use their own n.o.ble t.i.tle hence why there is no official military t.i.tle for the master of a legion.

Margrave: u003cCommand all defences of a border region they are higher ranked than a general on their territory but lower anywhere else.

General: u003cLeads an army between 2 and 8 legions

Heir Great General: u003cTemporary t.i.tle, generals can disregard their orders in certain circ.u.mstances but generally, only the Great general himself outrank them. u003cu003cu003c(Graube is considered an Heir Great General even though his actual t.i.tle is only that of a General)

Great General: u003cLeads all the armies of the Steelwood empire. Only the emperor himself can overthrow his orders.

I hope this explanation will help in the future when things get a bit more complicated.