Chapter 29 Warcrimes and such
I left to find Samuel. The man had been working like a machine.
When he told you that he would get something done, he would.
And right now, that something was preparing as much as possible for the Beast Wave.
More importantly, coordinating and making sure everybody knew what the heck they were doing.
As I walked through the town, I made sure to observe as much as I could.
There were things you learned by seeing, hearing, and smelling that you wouldn't otherwise.
Firstly, I noticed the expressions of the townsfolk.
They were serious, but not panicked. Most people walked at a brisk pace with purpose in their strides.
But there was no full-blown panic I could see.
This meant we did a good job. We portrayed the threat in a way that gave them hope rather than helplessness.
And if I were being honest, I had no idea whether or not that was the truth.
Sure, we had some basic information about what would happen.
But we had no clue just how bad or good the Beast Wave might be. That's what Sebastian was for, and I desperately hoped he wouldn't bring any bad news. I prayed that my Calamity Points wouldn't do some bullshit and that finally we could have some luck.
I sighed and pushed those thoughts away. It was not like I could change these things.
On my walk, there was something particular that made me stop. It was nothing unusual in any other town. But in this town? It was unusual.
The local bakery was stacked with people.
It was so full, I could see a small line outside. Intrigued and with a little time to kill, I joined the line. The guy in front of me looked back, nodded, then turned back around. Only a moment later did his head whip around so fast I could have sworn I heard cracks.
"Psshh," I said, and put my index finger over my mouth.
The guy nodded slowly and turned back around.
The line moved fast, and surprisingly, nobody else recognized me. It made sense. Who would even be paying attention to that? Only the guy in front of me stole a few fearful glances. When it was his turn, he motioned for me to go first. Well, he tried to speak, but no words came out of his mouth.
I decided not to torture the guy and skipped ahead of him.
The bakery was a small shop with some type of glass wall, that didn’t truly seem like the clear glass I knew.
It was a murky grey color, but it still allowed one to look inside.
To my left, there were tables with people munching on whatever they brought.
They were completely focused on the food in front of them.
In front of me was a counter displaying all the different goods with a cashier behind.
A young woman with a bright smile. To her left was a door that presumably led to the oven.
"Hello, Miss, can you tell me more about what you–" I froze as I saw who came out of the door. "Magret?"
"Magret is my mother!" The woman yelled. "My name is Mag!"
I could see the guy next to me frantically shake his head at the carbon copy of Magret.
Well, now that I had a few seconds to look at her, I could see that she was quite a bit younger.
Maybe in her 70s? Magret, I was sure, was close to a century old.
And the more I stared at the baker and cashier duo, the more I saw their resemblance.
Both of them had orange-red hair, with a mischievous light inside their eyes.
"Alright, Mag," I smiled. "Can you tell me what those pastries are made of? As far as I remember, we are experiencing a famine."
Mag shot the cashier a look.
"Mom!" She complained. "I explained it...163 times these past few days. You do it."
Mag snorted. "Youth. This generation is so lazy.
Anyway, young man. These pastries are made out of poisonous weed.
Yes, the weed is now edible thanks to the incredible lord.
Anyway, it's obviously not just poisonous weed, or else nobody would really care.
We are a bakery. We had wheat left that we planned to use to survive.
Now we can use it to earn a little extra coin. "
Mag shot me a toothy grin as she said the last part. Wow, her smile really resembled the cashier's. I also realized that, obviously, I had to pay for my goods.
"Ughh," I said, as I fumbled through my pockets. I hoped to find at least a copper coin. There was nothing. "I will come back later; I forgot my money."
The guy, who knew who I was, scrambled a couple of copper coins out of his pockets. He clumsily tried to hold them up before they dropped to the ground.
"I will pay for you–"
The coins hit the ground with clanks. Mag and the cashier chuckled a little while I helped the man to pick them up. I was just about to deny his offer when Mag spoke up.
"It's okay, my Lord," she said, and I froze. "The first batch is on the house."
"You knew?"
"Of course, I knew," Mag smiled. "Mother keeps talking a lot about you. And that Sebastian fella. Well met, my Lord."
She bowed her head and forced her wide-eyed daughter to do the same.
"I apologize for my rude behavior," Mag said.
"I am sure you have experienced it often in this little town.
We didn't have... the best experience with powerful people.
I needed to confirm my mother's words. Just know that I have been splendidly surprised.
If you or your mansion ever need our help, we will be at your service. "
I waved her off. "It's fine. I don't mind rude. I mind close-mindedness, and–"
I wasn't able to finish my words as the people sitting inside the bakery and the ones behind me in the line all yelled different kinds of greetings.
"We greet the Lord of Blackstone Town!"
"Greetings, Lord Harvings!"
They all bowed their heads.
I wanted to wave them off, but decided not to do that. My cover was blown.
"Well met, people," I nodded and turned my attention back to Mag.
She smiled and went over each and every pastry, explaining whether they were savory or sweet, and their texture.
I took a couple that sounded delicious. Mag wanted to give me more, but I declined.
With a grateful nod, I nodded at the mother and daughter duo and left the bakery.
Man, it was stressful being in such a close space with so many people all staring at you.
On my way through the town, I savored the pastries. They were good. I especially liked the sweet ones. I hadn't had a snack since coming here. Fucking hell. Yeah, we need a way to get some chocolate or something.
Else I will revolt.
As I walked towards the place Samuel was working this early afternoon, I passed Jason's house.
I stopped and peeked inside. The door was still...
let's call it wide open. There, a tall figure with a thick and extremely muscular back was hammering down on a piece of iron.
This time, each clang reverberated through the whole room, and I felt chills run down my spine.
Scary.
I left Jason alone.
A few minutes later, I began to see the old town councilors' work.
People were hastily walking towards the edge of town.
Some of them carried stones, others tools, and another a small group of wood.
The closer I got to the edge of the town that bordered the Verdant Expanse, the more wood I saw being carried around.
I even spotted a few people hauling logs out of the forest via ropes.
The Verdant Expanse was an endless forest. Luckily, it didn't expand endlessly around us but rather away from us before spreading into a sea of trees.
Because of that, we only had to guard the northeast of our town rather than the whole thing.
Better yet, the forest was around a mile away from us, with only Barren Lands between us.
I spotted people digging holes right at the edge of the forest. I thought they were Gerald's guys for a moment, digging the holes for Julie, but that was not the case.
They were building some kind of moat. All in all, there were probably a few hundred people walking around where we suspected the Beast Wave would come from.
Since we didn't have anything certain, Samuel and I decided to mostly gather the materials before building anything too time-consuming.
Gathering the materials was the most tedious process, and we didn't want to do it a second time in case we were wrong.
"How is it going?" I said as I arrived next to Samuel. The man was reading some kind of blueprint, deep in thought, before I brought him out of it.
"Very well, my Lord," Samuel said. "The people are motivated. They are also angry. Revealing the bandits' involvement in the Beast Wave seemed to get them fired up much more than we had first anticipated."
I nodded, but didn't comment. I knew this would get them going. Hate was a force that united masses of people, much stronger than love—especially so since you can only love so many, and hate a lot.
"I see you have already started construction."
"More or less," Samuel answered. "We aren't building anything great yet, but there are a few things we want to have prepared.
Mainly the moat, since it takes a hell of a lot of time to create.
We have the moats and holes split up into two categories.
One part is meant to split up the forces and drive the beasts in the direction we want.
Those will be very visible. Next will be the hidden ones.
We decided to forgo traps for now simply because if those beasts fall down there, they will be incapacitated anyway and won't get out.
If in any case there are so many animals that they pile upon one another and can get out, it won't matter anyway if those below have died. "
I nodded along. "So we will funnel the Beast Wave in a way that leaves us with the advantage."
Samuel nodded. "Yeah, we also want to make sure that they don't just run around us and into the town, which is why we haven't built any constructs yet.
We need to know how many of them are coming and how thin we need to spread ourselves.
Or rather, how dense the Beast Wave is. We are thinking of around a mile right now. "
"Hmm, I see," I said, and stayed silent for a moment.
I thought about Earth and about the wars that I knew about, where a small force defeated a larger one.
A few options immediately popped into my mind.
First was guerrilla warfare. Honestly, I immediately liked it, but didn't see much use.
That type of warfare required long-range attackers. My swordsmen would simply die.
Then there was obviously the high ground and home defense advantage.
Usually, attackers needed a force three times as large as the defenders to win.
Sometimes it even went as high as 20 to 1, depending on the environment.
This was mostly useless for me, since, well, we were already changing our environment to make it more favorable for us.
It was also about modern warfare, not Beast Waves.
Then it hit me.
"Have you already acquired poison?" I asked, hopefully.
Samuel shook his head.
"Do you know anything about the poison Julie can create? Or did she have anything in that booklet of hers?"
Samuel didn't say anything and instead waved one of the younger guys over. The man sprinted. Samuel relayed his orders, and the guy sprinted away again. A few minutes later, he came back, panting with a small booklet. Samuel thanked the man and dismissed him.
"From what I can see, there are a couple of poisons. Hmmm, I see what you are trying to do. We should cover the spikes in–"
"No," I interrupted the man. "We should not do that. But Samuel, tell me, how easy do you think it is to spot such a large group of beasts? And even if they are fleeing, they will have to rest, don't they? They will have to eat and drink eventually."
The man's eyes went wide.
I grinned at him.
I was about to introduce guerrilla warfare with a mix of war crimes into this little town of mine.