Black Iron's Glory

As Bluefeather was raging across Askilin, the flames of war continued to burn through the winter . The land all over the duchy was scorched . Countless refugees escaped on carriages with whatever they could . When the heavy snow fell, the roads were chock full of refugees carrying sacks, hurrying their beasts .

The toll gate Mazik set up by the pa.s.s began to bring in lots of income . He demanded astronomical fees . Each person had to pay a small silver and a small gold had to be paid for each carriage . They were Askilin coins, but they had roughly equal value to their Aueran counterparts . Two small silvers were equal to one thale, and two small gold coins were equal to a crown .

Most of the people were rich, so they could afford it even in their current downtrodden state . They were even willing to buy hot food at exorbitant prices .

It gave Mazik another great idea . He partnered with the village chief and erected a large tent next to the road within which he started a small tavern . He hired several villagers as cooks and servers and paid them two-tenths of the place"s earnings . The prices were at least double the normal rate .

"Sir, I really don"t understand why these people bother escaping . Don"t they know going to Swansburg will only delay the inevitable? The two irregular corps will soon come and Bluefeather will take the city sooner or later as well . When Askilin is eliminated, what would they do in Swansburg? Await their death?" Myjack asked .

Claude was standing on the extended cliff with Gum and Myjack . They could see the carriages and people crowded below, paying tolls and moving through . The roadside restaurant was filled, too . They could hear the greetings shouted between familiar faces .

"Most of the townsfolk won"t escape . The ones that even bother are afraid we"ll come for them later . The three southern prefectures are famous for their mining and weapons industries . Perhaps these people are affiliated with them . It might not be far off to say they have deep, vested interests in those businesses . We"ve occupied the three prefectures, but we haven"t bothered sweeping their industries clean because we don"t have enough men . Bluefeather is still on the campaign trail .

"If they don"t flee right now, they"ll be charged with all sorts of crimes when the kingdom comes to deal with these refineries and weapons factories . They might even be sent to labour camps . The only thing they can do is run . They might just be able to live free for a little longer, or maybe they can escape to another kingdom . Not to mention they have ties to the duchy"s lords and ladies . They might be headed to Swansburg in hopes they can reclaim their lost land and businesses," Claude explained .

"Then why are we letting them go? We can just capture them here . "

"Haha, why would we capture them? We didn"t receive any orders to that effect . Plus, clearing out and restructuring the industries is a matter for the kingdom"s pen pushers . If the military b.u.t.ts in, we"ll just be dabbling unnecessarily and even the king might take action . The generals probably don"t want needless trouble . Also, letting them go benefits us, right?"

Claude was quite aware of this point . The job of the army was to fight wars, not to dabble in the jurisdiction of other departments such as the economy . He had heard Major Lederfanc mouth on about it a couple times now .

"Let"s go, bring your muskets . We"ll head to the wood . The chief said he heard wolves howling in the middle of the night . Let"s go see if there really are any wolves . If indeed so, we should kill them all so they don"t make trouble later . "

There was no longer anything interesting to see at the cliff, so he turned and left .

Snow covered the whole wood and the hungry beasts approached the village to look for food . Claude had learned that in Whitestag . The snow was thick and heavy . He noticed some wolf prints at one point, but they belonged to a single wolf . Either it was old and had been left behind or it was a rogue loner . They ought to get it while they had the chance .

When Claude returned to the camp, he found a soldier waiting for him .

"Second Lieutenant Claude, we stopped a carriage earlier . A lady and her maids were inside," the soldier reported .

"What about them?" he asked .

What was Mazik up to this time?

"Well, we found this on the carriage," the soldier said as he handed over a package .

Claude opened it and his face darkened . Two disa.s.sembled Auba.s.s Mark 3s were inside . They"d also been carefully and expertly taken apart, none of the parts showed any pry damage .

"Tell the sergeant-major to bring them to me . I have a few questions for them . "

"Yes, Sir . "

The soldier saluted and left immediately . The carriage rolled up a couple minutes later .

"Search the carriage thoroughly, Myjack . Confiscate anything suspicious . "

"Yes, Sir . "

Myjack saluted and vanished with Gum just as Mazik came up the stairs .

"Here they are, Sir," he said, stepping into the office .

"Bring them in one at a time . And call a scribe . "

"Yes, Sir . "

The lady entered first . She wore thick leather clothes, which did little to hide her curves, and a netted hat through which her voluptuous red lips shone .

"Off with the hat, please, Miss," Claude said, only mildly polite .

The woman"s lips cracked into a gentle, if somewhat c.o.c.ky smile .

"You should address me as "madam", young man . But I"ll not chide you for "miss" . "

She removed her cap and revealed her face . The scribe and Mazik were immediately lovestruck . She was the kind of beauty that sported an aura of both allure and dignity and wore a helpless expression that stimulated the male instinct to protect .

Claude was not moved, however . He"d seen more than his fair share of beauties her equal . Earth"s evil asian arts (read makeup) could do wonders to even a subpar face . He had been quite the connoisseur of such beauty back then, though he never stopped being shocked at the hags they could turn into the moment their makeup came off .

Rapping on the table to chide the two gaping perverts, Claude pointed at the package .

"Madam, please tell me your name and background, as well as how you managed to obtain two of our muskets . "

She was slightly taken aback by the lack of effect her looks had on Claude . She inspected him thoroughly, hesitated at the sight of Claude"s businesslike, no-nonsense expression, then answered .

"I am Baroness Sonia Lou Vaksiri . I come from Pacasia and am on my way to Swansburg to visit my sick father . As for those two muskets, I purchased them from someone else . I wasn"t aware they were military arms . "

Pacasia was the prefectural capital of Pauralto, one of the three southern prefectures -- the capital of the regional industrial economy . The duchy"s largest factories were also there, including it"s smithies .

Claude smiled and stood up . He took out a doc.u.ment leisurely .

"Baroness Vaksiri, someone of your stature should know better than to weave flimsy lies . n.o.body could"ve disa.s.sembled these muskets so thoroughly without great expertise . Just look at this part . It"s incredibly difficult to remove it without damaging it . Normally, people would try to hammer it off, but the parts on these two muskets don"t show signs of being hammered at all . I trust you purchased them complete, not disa.s.sembled?"

"You wouldn"t be saying that if you knew who my father was," the beauty retorted, "He is Liboyd Milowski . You should"ve heard of him before . "

Liboyd Milowski? Who the h.e.l.l was that? Claude glanced at the other two in the room, but they also had puzzled expressions .

"Ahem . . . Madam . . . Who might your father be? We haven"t heard of him . "

The lady"s face flushed furiously . She shot Claude a glance like she would a country b.u.mpkin .

"My father is the most famous musketsmith on the continent! Many of the muskets he"s designed have become standard-issue for many nations" armies! As his daughter, I"ve learned to disa.s.semble muskets from my birth . It"s not that hard to take your musket apart . My maidservants can do it under my supervision . "

"Oh, you mentioned Master Boyd?" Claude finally recalled Master Boyd was the most famous armsmith of the duchy . Before Aueras came to the three southern prefectures, High Command had released a list of people that had to be treated cordially and sent to them directly if found . The kingdom wanted these talented people .

Master Boyd was third on the list, obviously a high-value target . Most of the people on the list were gone by the time the last of the cities fell, however . Master Boyd was one of them . He"d apparently gone to the duchy"s capital for treatment of an illness .

If Baroness Vaskiri really was his daughter, then her possession of the Mark 3s made complete sense . She wanted to reverse engineer them and build on their secrets .

Even though Askilin had issued their own Falchston Type-185, they were still inferior to the Mark 3 . The lady probably intended to take these two samples to her father .

"Baroness, do you have concrete proof of your relationship with Master Boyd? If you don"t, I am sorry to say, then you will be staying with us for a while . We cannot let people go who have illegal possession of military material," Claude decided before ending the session .