Rising from his seat again, Lucas extended his hand to Victoria, a gesture she returned.
"Thank you for your assistance, and your insights, Viscount Moore."
"Not at all, Young Master Lucas," Victoria responded politely, "Helping you is helping myself."
Staring into the older woman’s eyes for a mont, Lucas weighed a few thoughts in his head and quickly decided to toss her a small token of his appreciation, "In the near future, Lady Victoria, I may require your family’s shipwrights for an... innovative new project I have in mind. I hope that when that ti cos, I’ll be able to count on your assistance once more."
"Oh?" Victoria gripped Lucas’ hand slightly more firmly as she asked with clear interest, "Will this new project of yours be a... lucrative one?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Lucas replied frankly, "The research and developnt phase will certainly require a substantial investnt on my behalf. As for how profitable it will be after that... that will depend on the Moore Family’s skill in both ship building and marketing."
Smiling winningly, Victoria declared proudly, "My Moore Family may not have much history compared to other noble houses, but you’d be hard pressed to find better craftsn when it cos to building ships anywhere in the Rockwell Kingdom."
Lucas smiled back at Victoria, knowing that she wasn’t just making an idle boast.
From the information he had gathered in preparation for this eting, Lucas had learned that the Moore Family really was one of the leading forces when it ca to ship building. It was one of the reasons they had been able to grow a minor, unknown town into a major trade and comrce city in just over 100 years.
Finished with his business in Port Calden, Lucas bid his farewells to the Viscount and her staff before promptly making his way back to the open field where his group had first landed.
eting up with Commander Crest, who had also recently returned from the Manor’s infirmary, Lucas asked her about her condition and the state of the city.
After confirming that everything was in order, and that Allina had not been seriously injured, Lucas and his delegation all mounted their Tartans and took-off, heading north-east along the Belton as they aid for their next stop of the day.
.....
"Lucas, First Disciple of Marquess Celestina Balfour," Victoria Moore muttered as she watched the unusual boy flying off.
To say that Lucas had left a strong impression on her would be a gross understatent, and as such, Victoria made a special point to address her subordinates, "Rember that young man’s na; he will be a big deal in the future."
No one in the room disagreed with the Viscount when she said this. They had all participated in the eting just now, and it had been a very eye-opening experience for them.
Seeing everyone from her council taking her words to heart, Victoria Moore nodded approvingly before clapping her hands loudly, "Good. Now, we have a lot of work to do and not long to get it done. I want everything in place before the ship from Herald City reaches us, is that understood?"
"Yes, My Lady!"
With that, everyone quickly filed out of the Viscount’s office, including Victoria herself. If she wanted to complete all the arrangents she and Lucas had agreed upon within the allotted ti, she was going to need every able body at her disposal working non-stop for the next few hours.
.....
While it was nearly 250 km by river from Port Calden to Iron Rock, the distance by air was significantly shorter, only about 170 km. As such, although they had taken off right around noon, Lucas’ group arrived in the airspace above the Carlson County’s capital just over an hour and a half later.
From so 500 tres up, Lucas was easily able to spot Iron Rock from quite far away. This wasn’t just because the city was far bigger than Port Calden, or because of its lengthy 12 tres high walls, but mainly because of the many plus of grey and black smoke which rose up from what he assud were a large number of forges and furnaces.
As they got closer to the city, Lucas also took note of a massive dirt pit surrounded by low rolling hills approximately 10 km north-east of the city. Obviously, this was the enormous open-air mine that Iron Rock took its na from.
Unlike most other places in the Rockwell Kingdom’s South-Western Province, the Carlson County didn’t have large tracks of extrely fertile farmland. However, what it lacked in agriculture, it more than made up for with its thriving mining and smithing industries.
It was these tallurgical industries that had allowed the Carlson County to grow extrely rich and prosperous, and for Iron Rock to beco the second largest city in the province with a population approaching 60,000 people, more than Herald City and Port Calden combined.
Reading the direction of the wind, Allina Crest signaled for her subordinates to follow her to circle around and approach the city from the west in order to spare them and their mounts from inhaling too much of the seemingly omnipresent smoke.
As the group of 10 Tartans was making this brief detour, however, they actually spotted a group of 60 or so fully armoured soldiers engaging a large pack of beasts a few kilotres out from the city walls.
Quickly scanning the battle with her Soul Sense, Allina confird that the humans had the upper hand despite being outnumbered 5 to 1.
This was partially because the average strength of the attacking beasts was lower than that of the soldiers by a significant margin, but the excellent equipnt the human side was using was also a significant factor.
It made sense that the soldiers of a city that specialized in smithing would have high quality weapons and armour, so none of this ca as a surprise to Commander Crest.
Still, just to be on the safe side, and thinking that doing the local forces a small favour before the next round of negotiations couldn’t hurt, Allina raised her hand and signaled the elite soldiers following behind her to prepare for battle.
Allina wasn’t an Aerial Knight like her best friend Vanessa, but she had phenonal strength and nearly 100 years of training, so she could still pull off so simple air-to-ground combat with relative ease.
Within seconds of Commander Crest issuing the order, the 10 Tartans ridden by real Aerial Cavalry had all decreased speed, changed formation, and begun steadily descending.
As they swooped down on the unsuspecting beasts, all of the soldiers took out their bows and throwing spears and began picking targets, waiting until they had closed to within 300 tres before all firing at once in an impressive display of coordination.
The two Squads of Aerial Cavalry continued firing at will as they flew past the enemy pack, so of them even turning back over their Tartans to score a few more hits before they were out of range.
Lucas was the only one unable to participate in this attack as he wasn’t strong enough, or proficient enough with a bow. As such, he could only observe the battlefield from his perch on the lead Tartan.
Compared to the scenes of war in his inherited mories, where enormous ships and fighters exchanged fire across millions of kilotres of space, this kind of primitive bombardnt lacked a certain shock-and-awe factor, but that didn’t an Lucas was any less impressed.
Without advanced weaponry or targeting systems, the level of accuracy these knights displayed was, frankly, hard to imagine.
In the wake of this deadly strafing run, according to Lucas’ rough count, over 70 Wild Beasts had been killed, including all of the ones in the Third Order, while no instances of friendly fire had happened despite the soldiers on the ground all being engaged in close-quarters combat.
The attacking beast pack had effectively had its strength reduced by so 60%, while the humans still retained full combat effectiveness.
This sudden assault from the sky caught both the Wild Beasts and the soldiers from Iron Rock off-guard, but it didn’t take long for the human officers to regain their composure and order an all-out attack.
They had the absolute advantage now, and they had no intention of wasting it.
Having finished with their good deed, Allina didn’t bother bringing her troops around for a second pass as she felt that would be superfluous. Instead, she steered her mount right and headed towards the city, aiming for a sprawling complex on the eastern banks of the river.
User Comments
0 comments from readers