Chapter 15 – The War In Heaven
"There is a war in heaven, Gazef. And we are the pawns."
"Wait a minute, what are you talking about?" Gazef looked at his now very good friend, Brain Unglaus.
"It explains everything, Gazef. Everything." There was a strange glint in his eyes, that shone in flickers, that ebbs and flows together with the tavern's fireplace.
Gazef raised his glass of ale and took a gulp. "Really? Humor me." The warrior's face was lightly tinged.
Brain then leaned in, as if whispering. Perhaps he needed to be a little closer to be heard in the loud, boistorous tavern they were in. It's a typical night in the capitol, where as night falls, the men crowd into the various taverns for a cup of ale or rum, to ward away the cold. As the men gather, they trade a few rumors, gossips and stories, no different from a gathering of housewives when the husbands are away.
"Look... I heard some stories from some traders that were in Necropolis."
"Ah huh." Gazef still wasn't convinced. There were too many 'some people or things' in his sentence.
"Have you wondered why so many incredibly powerful people emerged recently? It doesn't make sense! Where are all these people from , and why have we never heard of them!" Brain was a little red in his face. "It cannot be a coincidence."
"So.. what have you heard..."
"That Ainz Ooal Gown, the Emperor of Necropolis... the stories say that he's a god."
Gazef chuckled. "Oh. I can believe that. He certainly has the power and aura to be one."
"And get this... out there, there are others like him."
Gazef almost choked on his next gulp of ale. "Ummph."
"And remember he set some weird condition that we represent him in some competition? That's not a competition at all. It is a war between gods! We just somehow tangled ourselves in the affairs of gods, Gazef!"
"Wait. Wait. You are jumping too far ahead. Slow down." Gazef did find that whole tourney thing a little strange, but didn't think too much of it, and assumed it was some kind of entertainment like a knight's jousting festival or something of that sort.
"Look. What the traders are saying is that, the gods have come to this world to fight it out. Momon, Ainz, that vampire, Sebas. I believe they are either gods or the chosen avatar of some gods, and they have come to fight out for supremacy. If the champion falls, the god loses as well."
Gazef took a gulp. And just looked at Brain in the eye for a moment. He shook his head a little, and then took another gulp from the cup.
"Brain, who the hell have you been talking to? That's pretty crazy." Gazef may have said it's crazy, but inside him, a part of him understood and believed it. That's the alcohol talking. Gazef thought to himself.
"You don't believe me, Gazef? How else could you explain why all these monsters appeared? This land is their playground, their battlefield." Brain's turn to take a gulp out of his cup of booze.
Gazef took another gulp, and stoned a while.
"You know... there might be some truth in what you are saying, but-"
"GAZEF-dono!" Their conversation was interrupted by one blond kid, that somehow appeared in their peripheral vision, next to the tavern's thick doors.
"Oh, Climb-kun. How rare of you to come and join us!"
"Yeah, your princess finally decided to kick you out?"
"It's not like that! She's a little restless these days, and she's not been smiling much. She looks like she's got a lot on her mind, and she asked me to give her some space."
"Couple quarrels." Brain joked. "She's giving you the cold shoulder."
"It's not!"
"Whatever you say, Climb-kun. We all know better." Brain laughed, then looked at Gazef, and raised his mug in a small toast. "War in Heaven. Think about it."
"Uh what?" Climb, a little slow on the catching the conversation.
"It's nothing. Just some gossip." Brain laughed, but somehow this laugh didn't seem very genuine.
"So... what's the princess so worried about?" Gazef asked, and called the plump tavern lady for a new mug of his favourite poison. The lady came over, took the mug, and Gazef handed her a few bronze coins to pay for the refill.
"That new country that popped up. She seems to think it's an existential crisis for the Kingdom, that our days are numbered."
Gazef laughed and said. "If that man wants us dead, we are dead. There's really little to worry about something we can do nothing to change." The mug of alcohol was clearly showing on Gazef's face.
Brain smiled and nudged Gazef, "You are taking it quite lightly."
"But mostly, she's worried about the Blue Rose." Climb too now had a mug of light ale, and he passed the tavern lady a few coins. "They set off on this expedition to rescue Lakyus, but seems like it failed, and two of the assassins now are retiring, apparently they are having some kind of traumatic experience."
"Oh? I heard about them having some leads, but I didn't know they have failed."
"Yea, the adventurer's guild didn't want the news to get leaked, as it would cause panic."
"Haha, if an undead overlord leading a nation of elves doesn't cause us panic, I doubt this news will. The people don't give a shit, only the lords and nobles, worried of their weakening influence and losing their valuable land is."
Gazef gave Brain the stare, as if he said something he shouldn't have. It's his turn to be politically-incorrect.
Climb though, took it well. "Yea, so as I was saying, only Evileye and Gagaran came back, and they only spoke a few words with the Princess before leaving the next day. Seems like they are heading out to some faraway castle in search of an old witch."
"Ahhh.. they are professional adventurers, they'll figure something out. Any idea what actually happened?" Brain was curious.
"Not really. But Evileye and Gagaran don't look too good, probably had a tough fight against some terrible monster." Climb casually remarked.
"SEE! More monsters! War in Heaven, Gazef. More evidence!" Brain almost banged the table with the mug, when he heard what Climb explained. "I'm telling you, this war in heaven thing is real. There is no other explanation for the monsters that we are seeing lately."
"Oh come on Brain. There's plenty of reasons why some people will want to kidnap Lakyus. She has the power to revive people!" Gazef shot back, his voice a little louder than normal.
Climb was a little startled by the banter between the two seasoned warriors, and could only muster out an.. "Uhhh..."
"But how many people can actually do it, under the Blue Rose's nose too! There's some God behind this I tell you, and this war is not going to be pleasant. "
"Brain, you've been drinking too much and mixing with the wrong crowd."
"Oh please, you are nagging me like my mother." Brain shot back. "There's a freaking plot right in front of your face and you are not seeing it."
"I think you take to these rumors way too easily. Traders say the craziest stories just to get you to buy their wares. What did they try to sell you, some miracle god's water that will save you from this war in heaven?"
"No they didn't! I didn't buy anything. I don't even have money!" Brain wasn't lying about being broke.
"Look, the Kingdom and the world, is always in some kind of conflict. If it's not this, it's the Empire's war. Or some noble rebellion. Or something else like the monster outbreak a few years ago. Or that massive earthquake that created a new river during our childhood years. But that doesn't meant there's some kind of war in heaven or divine plot." Gazef had seen plenty of conflict over the years, and perhaps he too wanted to believe it is all a convenient coincidence.
"Gazef, it sounds crazy that they are all linked, but I believe they are. The traders heard it from the elves of Necropolis! Apparently the Lady Albedo announced that they are preparing for war. Tell me, what kind of crazy threat they must face, for someone of their power to need to prepare for war."
Gazef and Climb looked at Brain silently, though in Climb's case, it's more of a case of being lost and out of the loop.
"It has to be someone of equal or greater power than them. You've seen it, you've felt it, Ainz Ooal Gown is no pushover, but if he needs to command an army to a war, you know it's serious."
"Fine, fine, let's assume you are right." Gazef added. "So, in this conspiracy theory of yours, where do we fit in? Why did he pick us?"
"I don't know."
Gazef frowned. "Seriously." He then pushed his mug against Brain's, and took a gulp. "Drink up, tell me when you have more of that crazy story."
Climb awkwardly laughed, and he too had a taste of the ale.
In this ordinary winter night, maybe he should just enjoy the ale. There's enough worrying to go around.
"So, we've discovered the culprits behind the granary fires." One of Erik's trusted men came in to report. Before they launched the rebellion, they wanted to be sure who was behind their food shortage in the first place, lest they walk into a trap.
"Prince Barbro? Are you sure about this?" Erik couldn't quite believe it was the Prince that masterminded such an idea.
"But why? It doesn't quite make sense. And the Prince isn't that smart!"
"The few arsons we captured said it's so that the prince would have a chance to display his military prowess and crush the rebellion. He sees the north as weak and would be unable to resist his personal army. We are his springboard to the throne, as he's a little sick of having his father hold on to the crown."
"Isn't he already fighting Necropolis beforehand?"
"Necropolis has not emerged as threat yet when this was planned."
"He's overconfident. He wanted two successive victories to firmly establish himself as the next King, ahead of the second Prince. Probably the Marquis Boullope or Count Lytton had a hand in it, since they are the Prince's supporters."
"That's mad." Erik ranted.
"We can't say much, we're thinking of rebelling, with few chances of winning. "One of Erik's advisors quipped, whilst doing a pose. "At least the Prince's army is weaker now."
Erik looked out the window, and watches the snow falls. Winter is now almost over, and the northern towns have been hastily working to stock up arms and food. This winter had been hard for them, but Marquis Raevan's food convoys have helped alot.
Erik felt a tinge of guilt of rebelling against the kingdom, even as Raevan had so generously assisted them with their food crisis. But still, too little too late, and the accumulated anger of the populace against the central governing body has risen past a point of no return. No bundle of grain, no loaf of bread, can placate the anger of a populace insulted, and degraded as being less equal to the other citizens of Re-Estize
Still, the game plan they devised has not changed by this development.
The game plan is for the North to pretend and act as if nothing has changed, and only rise once Re-Estize in embroiled in some other conflict, perhaps with the Baharuth Empire. With that moment of chaos, the North should be able to muster up a decent defence, and hopefully the Kingdom's forces will be split between a war against the Empire, a rebellion, and the manpower needs of the harvest season.
"The tax collectors are coming in early summer, when the first batch of crops are starting to mature."
"The Empire's previous war was set in summer, during the peak of the harvest. The Kingdom needs about a month to muster the forces and draft the men from across the nation."
"We should pretend to heed that draft, but all our men should head for the key choke points, and start fortifications then. We could buy ourselves a week or so during the confusion."
The northern cities, a collection of thirty towns and about 50 to 60 villages, number about 200,000 in terms of population. The largest of these, Kest Estree, is home to 30,000 people. If they conscripted every fighting age male and also a volunteer group of females, they should be able to muster about 60,000 souls, and that forms the core of their fighting force.
But not all 60,000 can be deployed in a battle, as about half will need to form the administrative and logistics force, channelling food, water, medicine, warm clothing and even the process of delivering messages and news. So, in an actual battle, about 40,000 will be actually fighting. That's a decent sized force, but the Kingdom in past wars with the Empire have mustered some 250,000 people, and that's just a fraction of the total manpower available to it.
As such, the North's defence required aggressive use of the terrain to hinder and limit the numerical superiority a counter-insurgency force the Kingdom can muster.
Such is the perilous state the rebellion is in. Every move must be done carefully, or else the Kingdom's wrath would fall on them.
"We should spread some rumors in the Kingdom about Prince Barbro's acts." Erik's advisor, Kandae suggested. "That'll drum up some sympathy amongst the southern populace, and may lead to some defections in the event of an actual war."
"Good idea, but how do we do so without getting us in trouble?"
"I'll get some documents forged, and leave them to be discovered in the towns. There are some towns that already dislike the Prince, and that should get the rumor started. The merchants and the bards will carry the story from there."
"Okay, do it. But leave no trace to us."
"If he's smart he will know it's us."
"Explain, Kandae."
"He'll probably try to shut down the rumor, and that'll probably cause him to be a little distracted and require him to spend some people to manage it, if he still wants to be King. If he tries to accuse us of attacking him, we can reveal more evidence and that will cause more attention to fall onto him."
"And why would he care about the evidence. He's the Prince! He'll just claim we're insulting royalty and should be punished by death. Whatever the populace says, they will be crushed when he is King"
"If that happens, and he marches himself northwards against us, we may have a opportunity to capture him, if he tries to march here and arrest us. He probably underestimates the size of our rebellion. If he doesn't, we have just cause to defend ourselves. Some nobles will stay out of this conflict, and that may help our odds."
"That's a little too crazy for me."
"Erik, you're willing to kill other people for the north's independence, but you are not willing to hold the 'enemy Prince' as ransom?" Kandae quipped, and another of the advisors laughed.
"Yea, if we can have the Prince, we can probably trade for a truce. Heck, we probably should start planting our men around him, so we can kidnap him."
"The Kingdom will not forgive this."
"Once this starts, we are all wanted men. There's no turning back. On your head will be a bounty, and it'll probably be worth as much in coin."
Erik looked out of the window and into the snow.
The white hills and plains will not stay white for very much longer. He felt a little sick in the stomach at what he is about to lead his northern comrades through.
Kandae and the Captain, Magni, both walked a little closer to Erik, and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Have faith, my future King. We're with you."
AN : No Supreme Beings this chapter. :)
Current "plots"
Ainz, Albedo & Necropolis
Wololo, Aura & Lakyus
Erik & the Northern Rebellion
Politics in The Kingdom - Gazef, Brain and the royalty
Anna & the Theocracy. (been neglecting this a while)