Born From A Divine Gamble

At the insistence of all her attendants, she wore her n.o.ble dress today but it didn"t stop her from feeling ma.s.sively embarra.s.sed by the seven kneeling n.o.bles men. Emp and the ladies helped her deal with it elegantly and soon enough, everyone was sat comfortably and talking.

Odilon must have been stared down hard by everyone beforehand because he didn"t say anything out of place to the many ladies here. Thanks to that, everything went well and everyone seemed to get along. They all seemed to have digested who he was and apparently swiftly chose to act as they usually did around him except for Jin.

The son of the mouse didn"t know Emp well before that so it influenced his behavior a lot. However, he seems happy to know for sure that Emp did appreciate some cursed-bloods as Celtine was always with him and everyone here was respectful with Svae. She did an excellent job along with Harriett and managed to serve drinks to everyone properly and swiftly. Jin would probably be much more comfortable to be seen around his cursed-blood slave from now on.

Before the food was ready and while the talks were still animated, the three Porters came back.

Right away, Erin asked something while she was busy glaring back at her cousin.

"We want a spar with her." She said.

Emp had no objection, obviously, she wanted to show her progress to her cousin. He just had to state fair rules.

"Alright but you"ll all use wooden weapons and you go one at a time, you"re not fighting her two on one."

All three of the Porter were unsatisfied with that decision.

"As if they had a chance with two against me, one on one is way too unfair." Vinnia taunted.

"But we always fight the two of us! That"s unfair!" Leo complained loudly.

It was true that usually, they fought together against him, he even added Gilbert to their team to make it a bit less easy for himself and when not, it was one of the ladies here instead. The sisters where unused to fighting alone.

Erin just pouted in annoyance but since Emp didn"t look like he would change his mind, she turned around and walked away to fetch the wooden swords.

"So those are the two cousins that Vinnia complained about for the whole trip uh? Are they really as bad as she described?" Ivar said in a low voice so that Vinnia would not hear him.

"They are indeed attracting all sorts of accidents but they"re funny and they have the same sort of morals as Kenneth." Emp explained for him.

The circ.u.mstances in which he met Kenneth and the sisters were pretty similar after all, Kenneth accused him of mistreating Celtine the moment they met.

"I see." Ivar nodded before leaning back the other way towards Kenneth.

The others all had some curiosity about this, either they expected a catastrophe that would make for a good entertainment or they expected them to show some talent, Emp didn"t know.

All their questions would be answered soon enough however. Even wasn"t sure of what would happen because his sense of strength was all out of order. Vinnnia was an actual knight, it would be interesting to see how Erin who only trained with him up until now would fare against her.

After a very short debate, the sisters chose Erin to fight Vinnia. She wore her everyday clothes against her armored cousin but with wooden weapons, it didn"t make a difference. It would only make it easier for her to move.

Emp politely asked Kaisla to set the rules and arbitrate for him and she accepted easily. It wasn"t that he didn"t want to do it himself but instead that he didn"t trust himself to be fair towards Vinnia.

"Alright, here are the rules this time around. You win by hitting your opponent in a vital spot or disarming them. The match can also end by the surrender of either of you, is it clear?" Kaisla asked.

"Understood." Vinnia said confidently while her cousin nodded.

Leo came to sit close to Emp, clenched her fists and grit her teeth in nervousness. She really didn"t want her big sister to loose.

"Take your stances." Kaisla said while raising her hand high.

The two cousins stared at each other and raised their training swords for the fight. Erin took the proper position he had taught her while Vinnia took a more casual stance. She clearly didn"t expect her cousin to be able to hit her at all.

"Fight!" Kaisla shouted as her hand shot back down.

The two girls stayed perfectly still for a split second before Vinnia decided to taunt her cousin.

"You don"t have a chance, I"ll give you the first move."

Erin growled and charged forward, clearing the distance between them quickly and brandished her sword high. That was a position clearly open for a counterattack but Emp knew it was a bait, her footwork was off, ready to trow her body out of the way.

Vinnia decided that instead of falling for the bait to humor her cousin, she should try and guard her downward slash. Erin didn"t let the clash happen however, when she saw her cousin raising her sword upward, she shot to the side by pus.h.i.+ng her feet into the ground and changed the angle of the slash, making it curve towards the side.

With her sudden change of position and the angle of her slash, her wooden sword slipped under Vinnia"s guard immediately and hit the neck of her cousin.

"The winner is Erin." Kaisla declared, sounding unimpressed.

"What!"

That was an extremely short fight for sure. The two girls seemed surprised of the result even though they were the two who fought. The boys clapped at the swift victory, some by politeness but most were impressed that Erin could win so fast. Leo made a triumphant shout while Emp commented out loud.

"Vinnia, you underestimated your cousin too much, you gave the victory to Erin. Would you two like a rematch?"

Both of them agreed right away, Vinnia couldn"t accept loosing like that and Erin wanted to prove herself to her cousin.

"This time, I advise you to go at it seriously." He told Vinnia.

She nodded with determination and both of them took their original position again. This time, Kaisla looked a lot more serious.

The next fight started after Kaisla signal and went completely differently. This time, Erin stayed on the defensive while Vinnia attacked. The cousin chained attacks after attacks but nothing she did could break Erin"s guard. Meanwhile, Erin looked very apprehensive, she didn"t know what Vinnia was able to do so she was scared of counterattacking and just defended instead.

The fight this time went on and on, Vinnia would set up traps to try to bait Erin into attacking and break her posture but the other never fell for it because she refused to attack at all. On the other hand, Erin couldn"t believe that this was truly the best of what Vinnia could do and feared moving out of her defensive stance. She was too used to fighting Emp who was much faster than Vinnia, even though she usually could never win against him, Vinnia wasn"t too much for her.

She was so certain that some trick was coming that she only focused on protecting herself and thus, didn"t fare any better than her cousin. The sound of wood hitting more wood sounded over and over as the fight went on. At this rate, they"d both end up exhausted with no clear winner in sight.

Vinnia must have known at least a few special techniques but even with wooden swords, they might be dangerous to use on someone without armor. She"d never want to break her cousins" neck on accident. Because of that, she had to limit herself to pure skill and speed which were not enough to overwhelm Erin.

At first, the rest of the girls cheered her on but as the fight stretched on and on, they ended up awkwardly silent.

"Why isn"t she going on the offensive?" Oliver asked Emp from across the table. "She"s clearly dominating the exchange."

All of them had seen more than enough spars to be able to see that easily, most of the ladies here did as well.

"Is she toying with her cousin?" Oran asked further.

Leo looked over the table at Oliver and Oran in confusion, she didn"t understand what they meant. She had been tense since the fight started, almost ten long minutes ago.

"No, she thinks that Vinnia is holding back so she"s scared of trying anything. She"s always seen Vinnia as this great knight towering above her and her sister. In her head, it"s impossible that this is all Vinnia can do. She"s certain that all of this is a long feint to have her lower her guard, that"s why she"s never counterattacking."

"Are you saying this is really all Vinnia can do?" Leo asked loudly with a frown, she couldn"t believe this either.

"I think so yes, as it goes on, she"s getting more and more desperate and frustrated, the gaps between her movements are getting wider and wider as her patience is getting thinner." Emp answered Leo.

Many others around the tables nodded in agreement. It didn"t take a Muracier to see that.

"This could be a good fight since miss Vinnia there doesn"t seem like a bad swordsman but you twisted Erin"s perception of strength so far out of proportion that we"re just getting this instead." Lanavera said with a bored att.i.tude. "I wish I could jump in and get a spar too instead, that thing should have been over ages ago."

She was usually very lively but apparently, witnessing that sort of performance was despairing for her.

"The proud warrior couldn"t possibly be defeated today! Her honor at stake, facing the una.s.suming opponent that was her own blood cousin. How could she have ever guessed that fate would favor one she discarded as weak in the past!" Destiny said in a dramatic way, getting up from her seat and falling into the waiting arms of her twin who followed the story.

"For she fought bravely to impress her beloved lord, defeat could not be given to her today! The maiden had been left in the dust before but today she rose again thanks to the attention of her lord. unwilling to let her family stand in the way of her heart, she would never let herself be cut down. Despite the guilt tugging at her from the inside, she could not let her cousin through as her devotion outweighed the loyalty towards her blood."

The twins hugged each other and shed fake tears, drawing the attention of the rest towards them. Emp had to admit, at this point, their antics might be more entertaining then the fight that was still dragging on in front of him.

Finally working out what everyone was saying, Leo shouted some advice to her sister.

"Erin, just attack already! It"s not a trap!"

Her sister was so baffled by what she heard that she lost her focus and got hit in the arm. She lost track of what Vinnia was doing her her wooden sword slipped past hers, darting forward and sc.r.a.pping her arm as she twisted her upper body out of the way. She got lucky that the rules were about hitting vitals instead of ending on the first hit.

She blocked a followup blow and jumped under Vinnia"s sword from where she thrust her own upward. Vinnia tried to bend back and bring her sword down on Erin but her cousin slipped in between her arms and hit her lower jaw with the tip of her wooden weapon, bringing an end to that long second match.

"Erin wins again, finally." Kaisla declared.

"Yay!" Leo shouted, jumping from her seat in joy.

Vinnia looked rather offended to have lost but she didn"t seem to be able to find it in her to blame her cousin who seemed surprised to have won.

"Fine, you did gain some skills while you were away. I was clearly outmatched even though this is frustrating to admit."

"Erin, even though you won, I still have to point this out to you." Emp interrupted their conversation. "That was a really bad way to fight. In real combat, you can"t afford to waste time like this and let the opponent run out of stamina. Not only will you be exhausted too but your enemy could get some reinforcements while you stay on the defensive. You need more practice to learn how to feel your opponents abilities better."

"I understand. I shouldn"t have dragged this out this long. I should have attacked earlier even thought I was nervous. I was hindered by fear, I"m sorry." Erin said with a respectful bow, surprising her cousin.

"So, Vinnia, are you still angry that I took them in my service?" Emp asked her.

He should be more polite with her by calling her lady Porter but it could be confusing considering there were three of them. He was sure she wouldn"t be offended by being called by name.

"No, I can understand now why you would want my cousin Erin in your service. She is certainly much better than her father... and me. May I just ask... My lord, why did you put so much efforts into training her?"

"Sure, I"ll tell you, just come eat with us all. Before though, I need to give the reward I promised to your two cousins."

"You haven"t promised us any reward." Leo told him from the side with a raised brow.

"I promised you those two potions if you got the approval of Galana." Emp answered with a smile.

He got the two promised elixirs out of his bag and placed them carefully on the table. It took a moment for the sisters to understand what Emp meant before they shot him a beaming smile.

"You"re really going to give us those!" Leo half asked half cheered excitedly.

"I thought we needed to make friends with Galana for those?" Erin asked with a frown despite her clear joy.

While the others either were asking what those potions were or explaining the whole thing for everyone, Emp told them about how Galana decided to give them her approval.

The two sisters almost jumped into Galana"s arms but she told them she"d change her mind if they did, stopping them dead in their track. Vinnia in the back almost fainted hearing about what was in those two bottle, she couldn"t believe anyone would give her two clumsy cousin something so good and expensive.

"There"s only Emp to give some almost priceless treasures as rewards for making friends with someone else." Kenneth chuckled while Vinnia was still gasping for air.

Emp carefully uncorked the two small bottles and had the two sisters drink their content right there in front of everyone. They downed the whole thing quickly and both frowned at the taste and lack of effect.

"It tastes bad, are you sure they were still fine?"

"I feel sick, not better than before at all."

As expected, no one likes the fishy taste.

"It"s fine, it takes a few days to take effects. I promise you on my full name, those elixirs work just fine and you"ll gain great benefits from them." Emp a.s.sured them.

In the past, the two of them would have been very skeptical of this but this time, they accepted it easily. They trusted Emp a lot, maybe way too much in fact.

Shortly after that, the meal was served and the large group ate all together. As they ate, they talked about many things, many discussions were held at once around the tables. Emp did his best to follow everything but still failed miserably.

It seemed impossible to him because everyone talked about different things and he could only catch a few bits of words through the conversation he was having himself and the ambient noises. Gilbert, Marcy and Bor soon joined them and even if Gilbert was rather nervous to sit down with so many n.o.bles, Emp did his best to make him fit in. He wanted him to follow them out after all, those n.o.bles would be close to him for a while after tonight.

On his side of the table, he told Vinnia about how the sisters came to be here but apparently she already knew pieces of it from Erin and Leo themselves. What she really wanted to know was why he let them stay instead of sending them back, they had no real use when he met them after all.

Emp had a hard time explaining it. There were no obvious answer, it was more of a mix of many smaller things. Calla liked them, they were eager and desperate, he wanted to help, he thought they were amusing, he liked how they viewed right and wrong, all of that combined led him to teach them a few things. After that, since they were learning so well, he just went along and taught them more and more.

This all led to today when he decided to invite them to follow him on his a.s.signment, if they were willing.

"You want us to follow you?" Erin asked in shock, excitement distorting her voice.

"Yes, I don"t know exactly what I"ll have you do yet but I"d like my two retainers to follow me in case I need them."

"Yay! We"re going on an adventure!" Leo exclaimed happily before Erin corrected her.

"It"s even better than that Leo, didn"t you hear what he said? His two retainers! We did it sis!��

While the two jumped about to celebrate, the girls around the tables clapped and congratulated them.

"At this point, it"d almost be more accurate to call them your wards." Galana mumbled.

Maybe that was true but he felt it would be really awkward to call them his wards knowing that they were barely any younger than him, much older even if you took into account the way he was born half grown already. They actually lived in this world for longer than he did. Retainer was a much more suited t.i.tle for them.

The guys didn"t look as enthusiastic as the others but it was normal. They didn"t know about anything that was going on so they needed a bit more explanation but none of them seemed to be upset by this which was good for Emp.

If they ended up thinking the sisters didn"t deserve the chance and honor to do this, it might have made things difficult. Luckily, they were all good friends so they trusted his words and judgment.

Vinnia might have wanted to argue against this but she had just been defeated so she couldn"t really say anything. He wasn"t sure on whether she was more worried for her cousins or for the damage they might do to the reputation of her family. Gaining the favors and trust of a high n.o.ble was great but only if they didn"t mess things up, which they usually did, flamboyantly so. She could only hope they would stay on Emp"s good side.

Everyone had some great fun that evening and once again, Calla was showered in compliments for the food.

While they all shared stories and tidbits to learn more about each others, Emp finished his plans on how to organize the troops. He spoke with the rest and didn"t loose track of the party but he did put his mind behind the last minute decisions he needed to take.

He"d bring Svae and Celtine with him, Celtine because he intended to find the trial grounds of Life and Svae because she would be more useful there than Harriett who would be more suited to a.s.sist Calla. The one he most hesitated to take or not was Galana.

She had improved a lot as a mage and her abilities would no doubt be much more useful in a fight than those of Zoran. With only Zoran able to use magic properly in his troops aside from his fellow students, he might get in trouble if he met with something the simple soldiers couldn"t deal with. However, he didn"t really plan on fighting, he didn"t want to drag her all over the place if it was only to let her waste her time. It might be in his best interest instead to let her study more here and watch over Calla while he was away. He"d leave most of his money here in her care instead, she"d be more than capable of handling the finances of the house on her own.

Zoran"s magic, aside from healing, would only really be effective against undead creatures but those were unheard of in the empire. Despite the G.o.d Death having his trial chambers supposedly somewhere in Greenpeaks, the dead of the empire remained dead as the ancestors grew from their corpses. Emp had read that in other empires, corpses sometimes rose from their graves to attack the living but not here or at least, not since a long time ago. He guessed each kingdom had their own strange problems.

Anyway, Zoran alone would have to do, Galana was better off here, at least for now.

Thinking about all his followers carefully, he a.s.signed them to different positions in his head.

He"d make Gilbert a brancher for now. Since he was his brother in law, he didn"t want to simply give him a root of twenty five men but he couldn"t trust him with much more either. Gilbert was awfully inexperienced and not that great in a fight either so giving him 125 spearmen was the best he could do.

Oran would follow the same path, he"d give him 125 swordsmen and let him lead from the front with his monstrous strength. Oran wouldn"t be disappointed and might even be thankful of that since the lighter load of duties would let him fight on the front-lines more easily. With a bit of luck, his branch of swordsmen would gain good training and eventually be turned into fearsome elite troops.

He dealt with Odilon as he said he would and put him in charge of the supplies for now, he couldn"t let that boastful and reckless guy lead a bunch of soldiers to their death.

Zoran would stay close to him or at the back of the troops if he decided to move up himself. There he would be safe and would be able to heal any injured that were brought back to him.

Ivar would be made captain of his own company of archers. Emp would split his forces in two company, one of melee fighters and one exclusively made of archers, Ivar would oversee all four branches of archers. He trusted him with the position because archery was his thing and he was always a responsible man.

The other company encompa.s.sing all the spearmen and swordsmen would be lead by Oliver. At heart he was just a talented spear wielder but Emp felt that making him a simple brancher would be a waste of his talent. Plus, aside from Kenneth, he didn"t really have anyone else who could take that spot.

The thing about Kenneth was that he was primarily a rider and Emp only had a pack of them. Josephal the mouse was a cavalry officer so Emp estimated that Jin would fit in with the riders easily as would Kenneth. He couldn"t split the pack in two efficiently however since it was made out of five spears in total.

Jin could also fit in well with the spearmen but again, making him share the same rank as Gilbert was a bit... insulting for him. It wasn"t that Emp disliked Gilbert but Jin was a n.o.ble and worked years to improve is martial talent were as Gilbert was essentially new and born in a family of orchardist. Emp didn"t want to upset Jin so he"d make him his only meutier, he was a valuable warrior after all.

That meant that he had no more captain spots to fill for Kenneth. Oliver had 750 men, Ivar had 500 and Jin a pack of 150 riders. Since he didn"t want to waste Kenneth as a brancher, the only logical spot to place him in would be to make him his second in command. He could have chosen Ivar too since his advice were often very enlightening to him but Kenneth could not lead the archers so he didn"t really have a choice.

Celtine and Svae didn"t really need any ranks since they were his slaves rather than his troops. Celtine would remain close to him while Svae would pa.s.s on messages and scout for him. Maybe once he reached Greenpeaks and gathered more troop, he"d have a proper group of scouts he could leave in her hands, if she proved herself worthy of it.

This only left Erin and Leo. He trusted them with weapons but to be honest, he was afraid of what might happen if he placed some soldier in their hands. He"d need to think about this a lot more before he took a decision. Either they stayed near him and learned before he gave them anything proper to do or he"d put them in charge of a root of 25 men to test them. If he did that, he"d place them at the orders of Oran because the sisters didn"t know how to wield spears and he didn"t want them to follow the orders of someone he didn"t know.

Normally, he"d need someone in charge of logistics who would be ordering Odilon around but he had so little troops it wasn"t worth it, between him, Kenneth and Odilon, everything should work properly.

After all this reasoning, the evening went on without too much trouble as Emp explaining his decisions to the rest. The guys agreed to take the posts he wanted to give without too much complaints.

They could have been given much more troops but his army was rather small in the grand scheme of things so he couldn"t offer much more until he could be certain that the troops in Greenpeaks would follow his lead.

His grandfather and the duke warned him about those in charge over there possibly be siding for Graube and following his lead only reluctantly. Until he was there and saw for himself, it was in his best interest to place the people he trusted at the head of the certainly loyal troops, even if all of them were inexperienced.

It would be beneficial for everyone involved and the rest understood that. Only Odilon complained about the unfair treatment of being a.s.signed somewhere away from the front-line but that was to be expected. Emp ignored his plea because he really didn"t have anything better to offer him. His outburst only served as fuel for a new dramatic scene performed by the Whisperstring twins.

Despite all their fun and the substantial amount of food prepared by Calla, the day eventually came to an end. Everyone went back to wherever they intended to sleep for the night, Vinnia staying in her cousins room for the night while they hurriedly packed their things to leave in the morning.

While they ran about in their room to the exasperation of their cousin, Emp spent a wonderful night with his wife. He wouldn"t see her for a while so he wanted to get the most out of it. He would miss her a whole lot, it was almost torture to leave her side now even if he knew he"d see her soon enough.

He just wanted to keep her in his arms forever and listen to her small voice telling him all sorts of things. She would snuggle against him and just whisper things in his ear all the time. She looked like she had so much fun telling him all about her day, he just couldn"t help but feel warm all over in front of her pleased eyes. The more intimate moments would be sorely missed too, but he"d never admit it to the guys because they"d keep bringing it up to no end and Calla would die of shame.

The next morning came way too soon to his liking and after forcing himself out of the bed, he prepared himself to leave.

The whole household followed him out to the gate of the village to say goodbye. The sisters looked hyperactive but that was normal so he paid it no mind as they hurriedly ran around to say goodbye to everyone. Those two at least didn"t seem to think that saying goodbye was hard at all. They left for an exciting expedition and would be back soon enough to tell the rest all sorts of stories.

Hopefully for the safety of Emp and the soldiers, those stories wouldn"t be too special.

He shared one last kiss with Calla, and then another one because he didn"t want to leave.

"I"ll miss you." She told him with a slight blush.

"I"ll miss you too." He answered sincerely.

He didn"t need any fancier words to explain his thought, the naked truth was fine as it was.

He let go of her hand even though he didn"t really want to and then moved up to Marcy.

He knew exactly what to expect and wasn"t disappointed to receive an overly strong hug. All his soldiers stood behind him and stiffed their laughter along with his friends from school as he was lifted in the air and almost crushed in her arms. He believed he should be embarra.s.sed of this, more so since it ended up being a very very long embrace, but he wasn"t too disturbed by this. Even if the soldiers laughed about his mother hugging him in the open, it didn"t change anything about his abilities.

"Don"t you dare get injured." She told him as she put him down.

"Of course I won"t, I"ll keep Gilbert and those two safe as well." He said, pointing at the sisters.

Even if Marcy wouldn"t admit it, he knew she loved their antics and always laughed alongside them while they weren"t looking. As for Gilbert, even if she never wanted him as an apprentice, it didn"t change the fact she knew him since long ago and would never want anything to happen to him.

As she decided that a single hug wasn"t enough despite is protest and grabbed him again, all the Champom made their farewells to Gilbert and the rest.

Their departure got slightly delayed by all the goodbyes and Eda who also came to say good luck to Gilbert even though she wasn"t exactly sure of where he was going. Like the rest of the village, she had never been told of Emp"s ident.i.ty so watching him leave with a bunch of n.o.bles and soldiers along with Gilbert was more than slightly nerve wracking.

Gilbert promised he"d be back but she didn"t seem all that satisfied about his words. She shot a skeptical look towards Emp but he wasn"t sure of what she wanted him to say exactly.

"I"ll do my best to bring him back, there won"t be a second Vesa on my watch." He told her, hopefully that was what she wanted to hear.

She didn"t look all that satisfied but still nodded and let everyone leave the village.

The army started moving and right away, Emp found a slight problem. He never taught the sisters how to ride. He left them his own horse for now and had Svae a.s.sist them so they wouldn"t fall while they waved goodbye to the village behind them. Emp stayed on foot with Celtine on his shoulders, anyway, he walked faster than the horses.

Commanders usually rode horses to travel but in a way, walking the whole distance was better. The soldiers would all see he was willing to put up the same efforts they did.

"We"re moving to Stonegrove for now!" He shouted to all the troops.

"Why Stonegrove? I mean, general, wouldn"t it be faster pa.s.s through Red-Water?"

At first, Kenneth asked casually just like usual but he tried to fix his speech on the second half of his question. Emp paid it no mind and explained for him and everyone else that was listening while he led his horse by the bridle.

"It"s barely any faster and I don"t want to go there for now. Last time I went, I promised the lords I"d share a feast with them the next time I went and I don"t want to deal with it."

A mix of laughter and wry smiles answered his words. He waited for everyone to be done before he continued.

"That"s why we"re going north of the lake, we"re going straight for Greenpeaks, we"re not making any stops in Thronewoods or anywhere else. We have a long way to go and I don"t want to waste any time."

"As you order." The others answered, barely keeping in their smiles.

Emp noticed from the corner of his eyes that Jin"s slave was now riding with him on his horse. The mouse-like girl did so with a heavy blush but she didn"t seem to be displeased and Jin was clearly in a great mood. Emp didn"t think it was any problem at all and let him do as he pleased, after all, he did much worse by carrying Celtine on his shoulders all the time.

All he needed to do now was to help the troops and his commanders train properly to work together on the way to Greenpeaks. He was certain this would be a lot of work but he wasn"t worried, eventually he would have a coordinated troop instead of a bunch of disorganized rookies.

He also needed to make some sort of badge or something that represented him well and couldn"t be easily counterfeit. He would give those to Erin and Leo and they would serve to prove that they were indeed his retainers wherever they went.

For now though, he needed to help the two ride properly or they"d have sore b.u.t.ts and cramped legs for a long time.