Post 7: Aide-de-Camp


[Spoiler= "Winning Vote]

[X] Chilling in the War Camp
-[X] As for joining the army, you…
-[X] Recommend to go to the military camp (unlocks special Army actions, double risks for savant/inspired).
-[X] While doing this, you…
-[X] Continue to be a magically skilled prodigy (0 risk)
-[X] For your time, you focus on (if Italica, choose 3, may take options more than once. If military, choose 1 from "before leaving" for Tanya, 1 from "before leaving" for Lucia, 1 "primary focus", 1 "side option"):
-[X] Before leaving you…
-[X] Make sure you're all ready. Get your supplies together, practice riding, find a decent (if unenchanted) short-spear to use bayonet techniques, that sort of thing. Though, you're pretty much ready already, as an old campaigner it's just habit and you can fly so screw riding.
-[X] While Lucia, before leaving…
-[X] Request for a band of solid veteran guardsmen from your family, though you'll likely owe a decent favor over it. (Lucia ONLY, Tanya cannot take this option). (high combat, legion or legion-veteran trained, high trustworthiness, loyal to the family)
-[X] While with the army, you mostly… (may select more than one, in order of preference, top choice that is successful will be done)
-[X] Serve as Marcellus' aide (direct experience with command staff of the army, little chance of combat, risk 1)
-[X] Take a position as a protectore/officer cadet under Count Formal or one of his Legates (risk 1, get regular military cadet training plus some command experience)
-[X] Sell your services as an enchanter to the officers/elite soldiers (risk 0, earn money and trade for loot)
-[X] In you downtime with the army, you mostly…
-[X] Socialize with the Italican High Society who came along.
-[X] Train with the battlemages.
-[X] Train with a Legion Aerial Ala Training Officer.

[/Spoiler]


1/1/682 - 1/1/684 of the Imperial Calendar (Age 10-12 years).

You decided that rather than stay in Italica, it would be better for Lucia to go to the front and rejoin Marcellus. She didn't take much convincing, putting up only a token argument against.

Before you left, there was time to make some last minute preparations. You focused on making sure you were all ready for a long journey. You bought a horse, a hardy but biddable pony, and practiced your riding. You also picked up a decent quality short-spear, sized down to not be too ridiculous in your hands, which would allow you to use the rifle-and-bayonet techniques from your last life.

Unfortunately, when you went to try and get armor, you found out that no one makes armor your size without it being specially ordered, something you didn't have time for. Instead, you had to buy materials to make into armor while on the road. The food was the worst part. The best quality preserved foods were either already purchased and sent towards the Legionnaires and their officers at the front, or had been consumed over the relatively long winter. You realized you'd need to keep an eye out for birds and other targets of opportunity while travelling if you wanted to eat well. Even worse, hunting down the food that you could get your hands on meant you didn't have the opportunity to enchant some flight boots for yourself.

Lucia's preparations went rather better. She'd requested a group of guardsmen from her family, and got a fairly good response. Six experienced lancers along with twenty-four medium infantry were sent over to provide protection, a group large enough to see off all but the largest raiding parties. Lucia added two large wagons for supplies, a few servants to make sure you lived in relative comfort, and her own collection of "essential" work materials, fine clothes and the like. While you couldn't prevent her from bringing all that superfluous junk on campaign, you at least made sure she had everything she'd actually need.

And then you were ready to set off.

The journey had four main legs plus a rest stop in the middle. Although Knappnai was north of Italica, you had to first cross the River Row, which meant a journey along the Western Imperial Highway to the crossing. After that, you needed to follow the road to Bellnahgo, where you had a brief stop scheduled to rest up before attempting to cross the Romario mountains on the way to Tanska. After Tanska you had to leave the settled regions of the Empire and head north to Knappnai where you could finally join up with the army.

The first leg of the journey, headed towards the River Row, was a bit wet with early spring rain, but not particularly serious. After that, you had an uninteresting journey until Bellnahgo. Though a bit bored, you had time to finish your armor. With limited access to facilities and doing the work on the road you couldn't manage anything particularly fancy, but did make a set of comfortable legion-style armor in your size. It didn't do much defensively or offensively your spells couldn't do already, but at least you looked the part, and it was enchanted for enhanced comfort.

The city of Bellnahgo was where things first became interesting. You're not sure if it was just bad luck, or the place is infested, but you ended up having multiple run ins with thieves trying to cut the straps holding packs onto mules or tying down supplies on the wagons. Luckily you were used to being constantly aware of potential sniping spells; common footpads were nothing compared to that. The first group managed to escape into the crowd when you raised the alarm; lacking a shot that wouldn't cause collateral damage, and wanting to stay with the party you were left with no capture options.

The second time, you were off the horse and giving chase a moment after noticing the young thieves. As you chased them, half a dozen loitering youths stood up or came out of narrow alleyways behind you, while in front there were a baker's dozen. You'd run right into a trap set by this youth gang.

You couldn't help yourself.

You grinned.

It had been so long since you'd drawn blood, after all.

"Oi, nice catch!"

"Ya, we'll have some fun with girly, and she'll sell for a lot," one of the older youths said with leer.

"Hey, guys, she looks like a noble. Are you sure…" one of the smarter ones began to think of what would happen if a young noblewoman was subject to their gentle attentions. Unfortunately for the thieves, he seemed to be the only one capable of realizing that the city guard would turn their full attention towards a crack-down, and that the gang would likely be sold out by their compatriots. Being enslaved and sold to a vengeful noble would be a truly horrific fate. Not that they'd have to worry; the idea that these peons could take you on was laughable.

"Hahaha. Hahahahahahah. AHAHAHAHAHA!" your shrill laugh cut through their self-aggrandizing stereotypical bullshitting and all eyes were firmly on you. "Ah. Wow. You really think you're the ones who caught me. No, you scum. I've caught you. But before beating you into compliance, I'll give you one chance to surrender. Less fun for me, but you'll sell for more if you're uninjured and I am, as always, a rational person." You gave them a moment to process your offer. "No takers? Well, if at any point you grow a brain, simply kneel with your hands on your head."

With that last instruction, you went off, leaping twenty feet backwards, backflipping and twirling your spear around as you passed over the rearguard. It's sharp end still in a protective sheath, you smashed the front end into the back of one's head, then extended the butt into another's temple. You landed softly, elegantly, and flourished your spear.

"Come on, boys. I don't want to have to do all the work, you know?" And then the brawl was on as they rushed you screaming, shoddy weapons in hand.

You swept one's legs hard enough for them to get some serious hangtime, spun and kicked another's ribs hard enough for them to bounce off the alley wall four feet to the left, brought your spear up and slammed it down onto the floating gangster's stomach. You leapt forwards, clearing a path by rolling your forward wrist, smashing the sheathed spear-head left then right against a pair of thugs heads, knocking them unconscious as they slumped down against the alley walls before you jabbed, smashing in a third thug's face.

You stepped forwards, facing another pair of thugs. The expressions on their faces were priceless. That mounting shock and horror as they see who you truly are. The Devil of the Rhine. Your spear in between them, you pinballed it off one body, into the other, back and forth, working them over from the knee to the head. Allowing the leftmost to slump into unconsciousness, you caught the other below the ear and with a twist of the spear knocked him off his feet before kicking him into a pair of his compatriots who all went sprawling.

You skipped over the latest idiots, daintily flicking the bronze-capped butt of your spear into their foreheads as you passed.

In the back, a pair of the youngest looking thieves looked at each other, then bolted. You took two quick steps forward before jumping up against the alley wall, spring-boarding over the half-dozen thugs who were still conscious and not fleeing. You landed boot-to-face on one of the fleeing fools. As his head hit the floor, you felt his head collapse inwards around your boots. Disgusting and wasteful of his bounty, but thankfully your servants could clean your boots. Blood can stain even leather, as you can attest.

Facing the other runner, wicked grin still on your face, you wagged your finger.

"I didn't give you permission to run. Fight, surrender, or die," you said as he fell backwards, pissing himself in fear and huddling like a whipped cur against the alley's wall. Well, that was close enough to surrender in your books. "And what of the rest of you?" you asked.

The largest of the remaining thugs looked around, fear in his eyes. "Scatter!" he called out, and they attempted to run.

"Tch, morons," you muttered, leaping between them and leaving them bloody and broken on the floor before sending up a flare to call Lucia and the city guard to your position. You then spent the next several days enduring Lucia's worried clucking and wondered if it was worth it.

At least the thugs rated a good bit of money; after taxes and splitting with the rest of your party, you earned seventy two thousand denarii for their sale, a little over twice a legionnaire's annual pay. Not that you really had much need for money; your shop provided about thirty thousand a year in income, Lucia gave you ten thousand a month as allowance and pay for assisting in her enchanting, and you had no real expenditures.

But cleaning up the streets is its own reward, right? Plus, after that your stay in the apparently crime-ridden Bellnahgo was peaceful.

After you left Bellnahgo, the journey to Tanska over the Romario mountains was nice and peaceful, if a bit chilly and annoying to bring wagons over the steep mountain paths.

Once past Tanska and on the rougher paths headed to Knappnai, one of your wagons unfortunately broke its rear axle passing over a particularly nasty pothole. This extended the journey, as you had to first fix the axle before continuing. You're not sure if you'd have met them anyways, or if the slow-down allowed them to gather in what they felt to be sufficient force, but a few days later you met an absolutely huge band of bandits.

Seriously, what was happening in the area that company-sized groups of bandits could gather? Even your over-sized, well equipped guard force seemed tiny in comparison. As the leader of your guardsmen and the bandits began to negotiate your possible paying for passage, you considered what you should do.

At first, you thought explosion spells. Lots of explosion spells. But that would give up the game.

A close-quarters bloodfest was out for the same reason.

In fact, using direct combat spells at all was a bad idea.

But, you had demonstrated using telekinetic spells to launch stones at birds and other game over the journey. And Lucia knew how much a genius you were, so a logical if somewhat extreme extension of that wouldn't be out of the question. The only problem was that the captain of the guard was a bit too close.

"Captain, a word," you imperiously called out, making everyone's attention focus on you.

"Milady, I don't think now is the right time," he began, obviously frustrated by a child interjecting during such tense negotiations.

"Captain, a word," you ground out.

"A moment," he said to a laughing bandit leader, then rode back to be next to you.

"Thank you, Captain, for clearing my firing lane," you said quietly, then with a motion of your bangled right hand levitated hundreds of stones and pebbles around you. "I will give you one chance to surrender. Lie down with your hands on your heads if you wish to take it," you called out to the bandits. After the surprise wore off, the bandit leader drew his saber.

"Atta-" he began to call out, before being silenced by the booms and impact of stones breaking the sound barrier. Your stony buckshot tore swaths through the bandits, sending them screaming to the ground. A few who were on the wings were spared, and a handful in the rear escaped with relatively minor wounds. As their surviving brethren screamed, you levitated another mass of stones.

"I lied. I'll give you a second chance for surrender, but no more. Now, lie down with your hands on your head. Or die. It makes no difference to me," you coldly instructed while your own party looked at you in shock and awe. The remaining bandits surrendered. After your guards went through and culled those too injured to sell, you had nineteen captives. A quick interrogation and side-trip found their base.

From the lacking physical loot, they were either extremely ineffective (unlikely due to the band's size) or sending their loot back towards some group within the Empire. Unfortunately, there was no useful intelligence to be had. Rescuing their captives proved to be much more profitable as you found a noble Italican officer's wife and the remnants of her party.

For your own performance you claimed a slave girl, Sasha Gard. She was seventeen years old, with a good bit of latent magic, an inclination towards healing, and despite being from a commoner background was a natural scholar (or nerd, take your pick). She, like the rest of the captives, had been badly used, and was traumatized. Lucia actually dealt with what had happened to the captives much better than you had expected. Meanwhile Sasha adjusted well to being your slave; it was, after all, much preferable to the alternative which she had already experienced.

When you eventually arrived at the army base, your party sold the captive bandits, their loot, and redeemed the officer's wife. Your cut from all of that came to be sixty nine thousand denarii, but you valued getting Sasha much more. After all, magically capable slaves were rare and useful to you.

[center]====================[/center]

After Lucia and Marcellus had an incredibly soppy meeting, and Marcellus hugged you and thanked you for the campaign cloak and your annotated collection of tactical texts too, he asked an important question.

"So, Tanya, what are you planning on doing while you're here?" he asked.

"I'll be your aide, naturally," you stated as he grinned.

"And what does your mother have to say about that?" he asked, turning to Lucia.

"It's likely safer than the alternatives," she said with an exasperated expression. "I didn't tell you what she did to the thieves in Bellnahgo, or the bandits yet."

"Oh, what happened," he questioned, his eyes looking over you and Lucia for injuries.

"In Bellnahgo some thieves tried to take our packs. Tanya chased them down and when we found her she was in an alley with a score of gangsters she'd beaten unconscious," Lucia explained.

"It was eighteen captives and one corpse," you corrected her. Accurate reporting is the cornerstone of performance, after all. Lucia rolled her eyes and continued as if you hadn't spoken.

"And then, between here and Tanska, we were attacked by what, ninety five bandits?" she clarified as you nodded. "My guard Captain was trying to settle the matter peacefully when Tanya, calm as can be, ordered him back to her side. Then she levitated hundreds of stones and called for the bandits' surrendered. When they went to attack, she just… there's no other word for it, she slaughtered them. The stones moved fast enough to punch straight through the bandits. Only nineteen of them were in good enough condition to be taken as slaves," she said.

"Incredible. How long did you have Tanya training on combat applications of motion magic?" he asked.

"I haven't," Lucia replied. "I asked Tanya how she did it. Go on, Tanya, explain to your father how you cast that spell."

"It's fairly simple, really. I'd been using stones to take down game on the journey, it's much better than that nasty preserved stuff we'd be eating otherwise. And the only difference between one stone and dozens is number. A simple linkage net allows them to be manipulated all at once, and combining a rotational matrix with the lift instruction gives you a plane of stones. After that, it's just a point-cone push spell to send them forwards. The Captain occupied their attention for much longer than I needed to cast something so elementary," you bragged, fully playing up your image as a magical prodigy to Lucia's fond smile and Marcellus' laughter.

"I dare say half my battlemages lack the skill to do something like that to so many stones at once, no matter how long they have to prepare. And of the half that are skilled enough, I can't think of many that have enough power to do so on such a scale," he said. "I'm glad my aide will be so competent." And with that, he ruffled your hair. "Now come on, I should introduce you around."

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Unfortunately, your first few months as Marcellus' aide are an exercise in frustration. Your adorable aura was massively acting up, preventing you from being taken seriously by anyone. Luckily you kept your cool as your talents were utterly wasted. But then, as your aura wore off you were finally allowed to help. You mostly focused on planning out patrol routes and logistical assistance, improving the efficiency of the mage contingent.

The big breakthrough was in how the battlemages were parceled out. By conventional doctrine a number were assigned to the infantry cohorts, who were seeing very little combat in the primarily mounted raider skirmishes between Imperial cavalry and Knappnaian mounted nomads. While the battlemages were sent out with the cavalry, they were rarely in enough strength to do more than match any shamans that were with the raiders.

Instead, you instituted a policy where the cavalry would patrol in more of a clover shape, gathering up with each other at regular intervals and keeping the majority of the mages distributed with the cavalry groups most likely to make contact. Although the cavalry covered slightly less territory, the increased battlemage contingent meant that more of their engagements were victories, and that their victories were more decisive.

Before you had arrived, the Legions weren't doing well, though they had avoided any serious blunders. Spring brought many new raiders, and the Imperials were on the back foot. Your first few months, while you were having your time wasted, were relatively balanced. After your suggestion on mage-concentration was used, it gave your troops an edge. You further suggested that Count Formal purchase a dozen pagasi to allow for greater mobility and concentration of magical firepower. Marcellus told you he'd push for it, but that the flying horses were unlikely to arrive before winter.

With your first significant contribution, Marcellus started bringing you to more staff meetings and planning sessions. It didn't go well. Most of the officers' reacted to you with sentiments along the lines of "aww, isn't she just the cutest thing playing soldier!" To which you were visibly irritated, which in turn didn't exactly help your position. Overall Marcellus performed well, and took what advice you had to offer in private, showing noticeable improvement in his martial skills.

During this time you managed to install Sasha as an assistant to the medical mages, and she was busy helping and happy learning.

In your (rather copious) spare time, you mostly socialized with the Italican High Society, represented in the noble officers and what members of their families had accompanied them. Your adorable aura acted up horribly here, basically turning you into a mascot. Further, "adorable" isn't always a good look in a military camp, and you had a run in with a pervert.

Luckily, you saw it coming and engineered the encounter to occur in front of a fair crowd while he was drunk.

First, you used magic to make him trip and stumble, gathering attention. As more and more people were watching, you finally let him catch up.

"Ah, Tanya," he slurred. "Tanya, Tanya, Tanya. Tiny, sweet, adorable Tanya," he said, licking his lips as he 'cornered' you by a tent wall. You noticed several of the more sober and decent officers start to stand up to intervene. Hidden by his bulk, you gave an evil smile. It was show-time.

The pervert reached out towards you, only to have you snatch his hand mid-air. With a quick twist, you had him in a wrist lock. As the good Samaritans were brought up short by your actions, you exerted a bit of pressure, forcing your victim to his knees.

"Do you know something?" you said rhetorically, your voice somehow carrying over the entire gathering despite your conversational tone. "There are so many things annoying me right now. First, I didn't give you permission to touch me, you filthy worm!" And with that, you send a pulse of pure pain through him, twisting the medimagic anesthetic spell to a darker purpose. His spine went taught as he screamed.

"Second, I am tired of being called adorable! Let me remind you of a simple truth. I am among the strongest mages in this entire army! And I expect some respect!" you say, flaring his pain receptors again. You let it last longer this time until he's at his absolute physical limit, then released the spell. He was left twitching, moaning in pain, eyes wide with fear.

"I hope I've made myself clear," you stated, sweeping your gaze over the suddenly sheepish gathering. And it seemed you had; your victim, though a shameless pervert, was an accomplished military man whose toughness was well known. And you'd broken him in front of a collection of command element officers. You wouldn't face any more issues with those officers and your adorableness.

At least Lucia was happy being with her husband. Otherwise the trip was more aggravation than it was worth.

In those last months of your first year with the army, the Imperial forces gained serious advantage in the ongoing conflict. Although there was no decisive engagement, the legions destroyed a few of the larger raiding groups and captured an entire tribe before it could flee, including all the civilians.

The winter was relatively peaceful, but the new year brought serious gains. Spring continued and extended the recent Imperial advances as the now pegasi-mounted battlemage group proved their worth as they helped bring about dozens of victories. They crushed the smaller raiding groups, while enemy shamans were suppressed and eliminated, and the larger groups were located, raided and harried until legion combat groups could show up and destroy them. You and the other officers were too busy organizing advances and collating information from the victories to socialize much.

As spring moved towards summer, you were lucky not to catch food poisoning. Everyone else at your mess table did, but it seemed that your constitution was too strong for that. Further, your advice as to how the cavalry groups could be more efficient was tried by the mounted auxilia units, further improving the Imperial army's advantage over the Knappnaian barbarians. Due to the mounting losses amongst their raiders, the enemy was forced to form a larger army and meet the legions in battle. Otherwise the army would have made unacceptable progress towards essential food-producing areas, important shrines and trading centers.

The battle seemed to be starting off well. You were ready to kick ass, and given permission to do so. Given your spare time, you'd "developed" a fair library of combat magic, so it wouldn't be too surprising for you to unleash some hell. Marcellus had deployed his mages competently, and Count Formal was using standard legion doctrine as the army advanced towards the enemy positions.

The enemy seemed to have taken an advantageous position on a sand dune, but it wasn't so advantageous as to preclude an assault.

And then everything went wrong.

The Imperial archers had just advanced to the front, ready to begin engaging the enemy when they were ambushed. The enemy general had had some men dig pits, then cover them with blankets and sand. As the archers advanced to these positions the enemy sprung out, attacking the archers in close quarters. The archers did better than you expected, and withdrew in good order despite the casualties. More heavily armored and skilled at close-in work than the Knappnaians (or you) had expected, the archers were bloodied but not beaten.

At the same time, the enemy cavalry charged your own cavalry while flanking forces which had been hidden by the terrain viciously targeted the Imperial cavalry's sides and rear. A less competent commander might have panicked, split his forces and experienced defeat in detail. Luckily for the Empire and Count Formal, his cavalry commander was far more capable than that. The Imperial cavalry charged through the lighter enemy blocking force as their heavier horses and armor allowed them to smash through the nomad light cavalry who had finally given the Imperial horse what it most wanted – a straight fight rather than a skirmish.

As the flankers got tangled with their own troops, the Imperial cavalry reformed, came around, and smashed the enemy light cavalry, reaping a bloody harvest.

Meanwhile above the battlefield the Knappnaian general seemed to have scratched together a motley collection of Rocs, pagasi-archers and a few wyverns. Though a surprise strategically, they didn't manage the kind of tactical surprise needed to match drakes and pagasi-mages. The Imperial Aerial Ala first took advantage, then swept away the Knappnaian aerial forces in a decisive victory.

On the ground, things were going somewhat worse. The Knappnaian shamans had corralled together a horde of djinn, spirits of sand and storm and destruction, then released them on the Imperial lines. The mages weren't positioned for such a sudden and close range attack, and the djinn reaped a bloody harvest among the Imperial legionnaires and auxilia. It might have gone terribly, but before the infantry could buckle or break, the Imperial mages struck back.

Under you quick command, they engaged in "counter-battery" fire. After all, it was likely the Djinn weren't acting on their own will, but rather that of the enemy magicians. Your mages throughout the army targeted the enemy shamans positions, sensing the concentration of mana. As the enemy casters came under fire, they lost control of the djinn who began to run amok. Most of the djinn turned back, angered by their controllers, and attacked the low quality Knappnaian foot.

The Knappnaian foot had more in common with a peasant levy than professional troops. Faced with an enemy which occupied the cultural equivalent of the boogeyman, the enemy foot broke and ran. That sort of thing tends to be infectious for a losing army, and as they saw the foot flee the rest of the army followed.

Unfortunately the Imperial cavalry was tired from their combat, and the enemy cavalry lighter and more used to desert conditions. The enemy foot was fleeing literal devils, which leant them quite the turn of speed, while the Imperial foot needed to re-order after everything that happened. Plus, any pursuit from the foot would have gone through the djinn, which your men weren't terribly excited about.

"Dad, permission to pursue?" you asked excitedly to Marcellus.

"You can levitate and bombard them, but don't actually chase them down. Your mother would kill me if you were so much as scratched after the battle was already won," he explained to your pleading gaze.

Still, given aiming spells, a nice levitation-derived viewpoint, and large clumps of enemies you were pretty effective. You lost yourself a bit to the blood-haze, but people seemed to assume it was an issue of age, inexperience and battle-fumes rather than true bloodlust as you accelerated rocks beyond the speed of sound to strike down the enemy while prioritizing anyone wearing armor, riding a horse, or giving orders.

You succeeded in your mission, killing the flashiest Knappnaians before they could get too far away for believable engagement and ensuring that the retreat would become a rout.

Meanwhile the enemy aerial forces were utterly destroyed. Enemy shamans seemed to do better, as they could shield from Imperial attacks and were much less obvious than the military leaders. Those that survived the counter-battery likely got out relatively fine.

Overall, the victory was huge. The Empire had taken out all of the commanders willing to work together, and each tribe blamed the others for their defeat. Beyond that, although many of the enemy survived the battlefield due to the early rout, retreating into the desert without supplies is the sort of fatal mistake people only make once.

The loot was pretty good. For your share, you got seventy three thousand denarii worth of plunder. You also got among the first pick of slaves. Three of the enemy casters survived capture and were young enough to be re-trained. One was a magically weak but reasonably skilled boy with a focus in geology, capable of finding or creating wells and other water sources in the desert. Another was an unskilled shamaness specializing in animals, a magically mediocre escaped slave girl with a murderous temper. The last was a young girl, trained in pyromancy, reasonably skilled for her age with strong magic. She wasn't too happy with being a slave, but preferred a strong female mistress to her alternatives.

You ended up taking the third of the available slaves, the pyromancer Aisha Zaman. The other two were snatched up by others from the army's mages, though you suspected the animal-shamaness would end up in a coliseum.

Following the battle, as summer transitioned to fall the Empire mopped up the Knappnaian groups in the region. It wasn't just one crushing victory, but a series of them. Without enough raiders to slow the Imperial advance, the softer civilian targets fell one after another. Remnants of the most hostile tribes were curshed and captured, shamans suppressed and eliminated, larger groups of refugees located and enslaved.

The remnants of your enemies and those tribes clever enough not to join their foolish army were all quick to bend the knee after this, offering tribute and obedience in return for a policy of benign neglect.

You were kept mostly busy at the camp. Lucia, glad her little darling made it through the battle without injury, didn't want you out of her sight. Meanwhile, you were busy dealing with your new slave, and being feted by the other officers as the "Little Hero" of the battle.

As the campaign came to a satisfactory close, the bulk of the army returned to Italica, leaving behind some garrison and quick reaction forces to maintain order. The march back was uneventful, and as the army dispersed you were given the end-of-campaign loot and pay, a combined two-hundred-thirteen thousand denarii.

Your reputation was similarly golden. Small, adorable and utterly lethal, you were seen as something of a mascot by the Italican Legions.

Meanwhile, Lucia was just glad to be home. It was a long trip, and she wanted her workshop and creature comforts. But, it was better than missing Marcellus for two years.

As for your slaves, on the way back Aisha learned to talk intelligibly and read and write slowly, which was great.

Now, what do you plan on doing next?