Reborn: War's Nightmare

12-1

Ash sat in a dark tent looking over a small bundle of maps with a worry showing on his face. It had only been four days since the impromptu attack on the capital of Heluria and they had already faced a small attack in retaliation.

At first, Ash thought it would be at least six to eight days before they could mount an attack force, but he had underestimated the King and by a large margin. It seemed that he started moving a large number of troops as soon as the demons began their attack.

Rubbing his temples, Ash leaned back in his chair. His plan had backfired on him. He had thought that the King wouldn’t overly worry about a small strike force and would only rely on his personal knights to handle them, but the King had surprised him.

Using small metal figures, Ash placed them on one of the larger maps. He was still weeks away from the main forces arrival, however his spies had already reported four small armies and one large one on the move. Two of the smaller forces were on route to intercept Ash and his troops while the rest were moving toward the main army.

Not everything was bad news though. Ash had just heard that morning that two of the five other kings wouldn’t support the demon army, but they had agreed to stay out of the war between the demon kingdom and the Heluria kingdom. The other three had so far not returned any answer and from the reports, it seemed as if they were waiting to see which way the war was going.

From Ash’s point of view, these were the smart rulers. Instead of refusing aid to either country, they were waiting to see where they could make the most gains. There was still a chance that they could send aid to Heluria, but with every day that passed it gave them a better chance to win the war.

Currently Ash’s main force held a great deal more troops than that of the Heluria army, but Ash didn’t let that make him relax. He was well aware that one strong warrior or brilliant general could turn the tide of a battle and Heluria had plenty of experienced soldiers. Just in the past one hundred years, the Heluria army had fought in four wars while the demon army had been hidden from the world living in relative peace. Even if they were created and bred for war, the knowledge that they hadn’t fought a true war in decades made Ash more than a little insecure about his fighting force.

“Everything ok my lord?” Li asked as she bent down and rested her small chin on his shoulder.

“Just worried,” Ash replied as his brows furrowed. “I thought I told you to call me by my name when we are alone?”

“You did my lord,” Li replied quickly. “It is just hard for us to do such a disrespectful thing.”

“Then could you at least call me Lord Ash?” Ash asked with a heavy sigh. He had been trying to get them to call him by his name for months and while Celina, Eun, and Tolarea would call him by name when they were alone, the others seemed to refuse. “The way you are calling me now just seems so impersonal. It is as if I am someone who you barely know.”

“I understand my…Lord Ash,” Li said, her voice returning to its normal uncertain tone.

“That is better,” Ash said with a short and light laugh.

“So what is bothering you…Lord Ash?” Li asked, her voice gaining a bit of strength.

“I am worried about the forces that are headed toward us. The reports put the closest army near the size our own forces while the second is almost double our size. Those are only the forces we know about. There could be a number of smaller specialized groups that our spies haven’t noticed or received word of yet.”

“The demons in your army are some of the most skilled fighters that the demon army has. The only people stronger are those of the officer class. They could compete with five regular soldiers belonging to the human army,” Li said in a reassuring tone.

“I know everyone says that but if something happens it will be on my head,” Ash said slumping his shoulders. “This war only happened because of me. Every life that is lost will be on my head.”

“You are the Maoh,” Li said as if she was confused by Ash words. “Just like the human king, all demons lives are in your hands. If crops are not grown and the people starve, it is in some way the Maoh’s fault for not predicating the bad year and preparing. This is the same. The war was done in order to help us, but if it fails then once again the demons might have to pull back from the world, or face utter destruction, though I think that would take far more humans than are alive. In the end, no matter what happens, there may be people who blame you. Although, I believe the majority will look back understandingly, even if you lose.”

“I doubt that,”” Ash replied, not feeling any better even after the words of encouragement.

Seeing that Ash was in a peculiar mood, Li didn’t say anything more. Instead she silently wrapped her arms tightly around Ash’s neck and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

Squeezing out a small smile, Ash felt his body relax slightly. Without even thinking about it, Ash turned his head and kissed Li warmly before returning his attention back to the stack of maps. “Tomorrow we will come across our first real town.”

“Lord Ash, we have already attacked one other town since leaving the capital behind,” Li said almost confused.

“You can’t really call that a town,” Ash said shaking his head. “It had less than fifty people. It didn’t even warrant a marker on the map. If our scouts hadn’t spotted it then most likely we would have passed by without even knowing that the place existed.”

“True…It was very small,” Li said as she wrinkled her nose cutely.

“Yes, the town we will be attacking tomorrow should be large enough to warrant an adventure’s guild as well as guards, so we might find some resistance. It isn’t much of a risk to a force our size, but there is always a small degree of risk involved with any battle. I wish we could simply spend some time scouting the town more thoroughly, but if we stop for too long, it will just allow the King more time to attack and our supplies are limited. If we don’t attack soon, the men will have to go down to half rations. I hope that the town is well supplied. If we don’t get enough food, the fighting ability of the soldiers will drop drastically.”

“Don’t worry my…Lord Ash If we run low on food, there are those among the demon soldiers that can use magic to create the bare minimum to sustain the army,” Li replied confidently. Ash had seen the magic used before and while it was true the magic bread and water that was created filled ones belly, it left a lot to be desired. If Ash had to compare it to something, it would be like eating only bread without even taste. You could live on it, but that was all and Ash knew that it would still affect the soldiers moral and thus their fighting powers.

“You should come to bed Lord Ash,” Li said lightly tugging on his arm. Once she started to get used to him, a lot of her shyness had dissipated though only around the edges. If one looked close, you could see a light tinge of red coloring her cheeks as she spoke softly in Ash’s ear.

With a final look at the map in front of him, Ash let out a heavy sigh as he blinked his eyes. “I think you are right. Just staring at the map is not going to get me anywhere,” Ash said pushing himself from his chair and allowing Li to pull him toward the bed.

Looking at the angelic appearance of Li, Ash was secretly glad that it was her and not Tolarea who was on inside duty today. Whenever Tolarea thought Ash was too stressed, she only had one solution and that was sparing. It didn’t matter if Ash agreed or not, he would always find himself being led out to an open area to cross blades with the brute of a woman.

The next morning seemed to come all too soon for Ash, but once the sun had started to rise he found himself riding alongside his wives and their small coterie of female warriors.

The town came into view a few hours before midday. It looked slightly larger than Ash had expected, but there was no stopping their advance.  Even if it was the same size as the capital. This was a war and in war, one had to take a certain amount of chances, otherwise they could only wait on defeat.

It didn’t take long for the defenders of the town to gather at the edge of the town. Ash couldn’t count every person, but he guessed that a little over four hundred people had gathered, but a good number of them were only armed with leather armor and hunting bows.

As was customary when they drew close, Ash and his personal guards rode out front while the other side’s representative did the same. Ash had expected an old man or young warrior to meet him but instead he was greeted by a middle age woman with a thick build and stern eyes.

“Greetings,” Ash said with a smile as the woman approached.

“Greetings my ass,” the woman spat as her eyes scanned over the large number of soldiers standing on the large hill behind Ash. “What do you demon spawn want. If it is our women or children, then you might as well turn around now. Every person here would rather die than give up one of our own.”

Ash couldn’t help but shake his head. The old man from the previous village had done the opposite and instead offered many young women and children to the demons though Ash had refused them. They had no use for them and even if they did, taking them would only lead to more trouble down the line. The war had many sides and one of them was to show that the stories about the demons were just that, stories.

“We don’t want any of your people we just wish to take a look at your food stores, supplies, and anything else of value,” Ash said in a slightly annoyed tone.

“You want to take our food,” the woman said, her face turning slightly white then growing redder with each passing second. “You truly are a demon. Instead of killing us quickly, you would prefer us to starve to death.”

“No…Nothing that bad,” Ash replied quickly. “We will leave enough food for everyone to get through until the next harvest, but not a single grain more.”

“Even then, the King’s taxes will rob us of the rest,” the woman said her shoulders slumping slightly.

“If the King wishes you to starve, that might be, but that is unrelated to us,” Ash said coldly. “Now will you let us in or do we simply have to walk over your dead bodies to get what we have come for?”

“I can’t make the decision on my own,” the woman said after a few moments of silence. “May I have a few moments?”

“You have fifteen minutes,” Ash replied “I don’t have the temper to stand around all day playing with my thumbs.”

A heartbeat after Ash had spoken, the robust woman left the field at almost a full run and soon disappeared into the crowd waiting at the edge of the town.

“My lord, do you not think it is unwise to leave the city with so many able bodied men?” Tolarea said, her voice icy. “After this, it is most likely that they will join the army to fight against my lord. It is better to get rid of them now than to face them later.”

“They may or may not become an enemy in the future, but for now we have come just for their goods,” Ash said indifferently. “Our goal is not to kill common people. If we do, then we will paint ourselves as evil, just as the King hopes. As long as they do not raise their weapons against us, then we will leave them in peace. Their lives will be in the hands of their King.”

“If that is my lord’s decision,” Tolarea said though Ash could tell that she was not overly pleased with his choice.

It was the first time one of his wives had openly disapproved of one of his choices. Ash didn’t know why, but knowing that put a small smile on his face. He had always felt they were a little too forced in their actions with him so he was glad that they were starting to feel comfortable enough to show their true feelings.

Less than ten minutes later, the robust woman returned along with an elder man with a bald head and short silver beard and a large man with arms as thick as small trees. “We have agreed to your conditions,” the woman said her voice calm, though her face still showed her displeasure.

“Very good, show us to the store rooms and granary,” Ash said without a pause.

The larger man who turned out to be the spokeswoman’s husband was the town smith and didn’t seem as bothered by Ash and the other demons, so he had been appointed to show them around. While they walked, the man named Barnat was quite talkative and also full of questions. From his stats, he was only a level 23 smith, but what caught Ash’s attention was that he was more dwarf than man with an 80/20 bloodline.

Just as one would expect from a large town, they had a large supply of food stored and more goods than the army could easily carry. In the end, after the wagons were completely loaded, the army had to leave behind all the precious goods besides what could fit in two small wagons.

Throughout the loading process, the army was stared at with cold and disapproving eyes by the townsfolk, but no one dared to raise a weapon against them in fear of the response. Ash didn’t mind the rough stares, but he was slightly afraid that one of his guards would take it as a threat.

Once they were finished, Ash was glade to leave the town behind though even hours after they had left, Ash could swear that he could still feel their eyes burning into the back of his neck.

“My lord, I think that was foolish,” Tolarea said, her temper finally winning her over. “We should not leave any enemies behind. It is just asking to be attacked.”

“Maybe, but I will not change my mind on this,” Ash said. His voice was stern but his face remained calm while responding to his wife.

“Very well my lord,” Tolarea said before storming off to where the army of women awaited her orders.