Hero to Nobility
Chapter 1Elizabeth took aim with her well drilled musket. This was rather exciting actually, like a shooting gallery, so many greenskin boar riders to shoot. Elizabeth chose her target and dispatched another orc, who fell from their boar in an almost comedic fashion.
"Save me!" The Bretonnian lady cried as she crouched behind the bar. "I'll give you anything!"
Elizabeth glanced over her shoulder from her position crouched beside a bar window. "Bar keep, give her some wine or something will you?" Elizabeth loaded another cartridge into her musket and dispatched another clumsy orc rider. "It's not too bad miss, we used to deal with this sort of stuff practically every week back where I'm from."
Elizabeth heard a loud blast go off as Helga fired another spread of shots from her dwarf made shotgun to keep the orcs at bay. "Aye manling, this is nothing compared to the stuff we dawi face every day in the mountains." Helga concluded.
The Bretonnian lady nevertheless stayed crouched behind the bar as Elizabeth and Helga's combined firepower shot through the last of the raiders until only one remained.
The last orc boar raider forced his boar forward at surprising speed and Elizabeth readied her musket.
She fired a shot and laughed as both her and Helga fired and hit the greenskin at pretty much the exact same time, killing the greenskin pretty much instantaneously.
Elizabeth loaded her musket a final time and walked casually over to the Bretonnian lady who had finally started to stand up straight once again.
"Thank you." The lady with the Bretonnian accent said, trying to regain some dignity in her voice. "My name is Charlotte, I've come to the empire to collect an artifact of the Lady Of The Lake. I hadn't expected it to be so... dangerous here. I insist you escort me to Rottfurt."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrow at the suddenly quite demanding noble. "Give me a reason why I'd do that." Elizabeth inquired, looking the blonde haired delicate young noble lady over.
Charlotte cleared her throat and answered. "I can pay you and your short friend from the mountains. Name your price."
Elizabeth considered, she had been recently disbanded from the local militia and so was in need of a new job.
"Why not?" Elizabeth replied at last. "Lead on my lady."
Charlotte bowed in the typical elegant and overdone Bretonnian way. "Very good, I promise it won't be all work. Here I'll buy you and your friend a drink or two. I need something to distract me from the awful smell of gunpowder in here."
Charlotte made a face and curled up her nose in an exaggerated manner to further emphasise her point. Elizabeth didn't mind the smell of gunpowder, in fact she quite liked it. Still she had no intention of giving up a free drink when offered and she knew that her dawri ally would also not refuse it.
For the next hour or so, Charlotte bought them drinks and talked on and on about the wonders of Bretonnia and the colourful interior of her home castle and so on. At least, Elizabeth thought, nobody could possibly say that Charlotte didn't care for her homeland even if she did go on endlessly about it.
Helga didn't seem to be paying much attention either as she jealously guarded her large flagon of ale before downing them.
Then again, no matter how annoying and pretentious she may be. Charlotte did pay both Elizabeth and her "friend from the mountains", as she got into the habit of calling Helga, at the end of the night.
Therefore, Elizabeth chose to continue sticking around her. In the morning, they all gathered by Charlotte's carriage. Charlotte's driver and guards had long since fled or died in the vicious greenskin attack so Elizabeth and Helga sat up front on the carriage with Charlotte at the back.
This conveniently saved Elizabeth from having to hear any more of Charlotte's stories about the beauty of Bretonnia. With only a few provisions and of course Elizabeth's trusty sword, pistol and musket they began the relatively journey to Rottfurt from Ubersreik. Like any journey through the empire, it would naturally have its perils but it wasn't too long a journey so hopefully not much of a peril.
Elizabeth directed the horses along the dirt path as best she could. She considered herself a much better soldier than carriage or horse rider but Helga knew even less so she was forced to make do.
They travelled in relative comfort until their way forward was blocked by a gang of four horse riders across the narrow well travelled dirt path. To the left of them, a forest. To the right of the carriage, a long river flowing.
Elizabeth wasn't stupid and stopped the horses quickly while drawing her musket immediately after. Helga did likewise, equally cautious of humans in the empire, perhaps rightfully so.
"Who are you and why are you in the middle of the path?" Elizabeth questioned with an authoritative voice.
In response, the rogues attempted to draw their own weapons. Luckily due to their foresight and cation, Elizabeth and Helga had already drawn their weapons first.
This enabled them to immediately blow two of the unfortunate men away with practised shots to the centre mass.
As soon as she fired, Elizabeth scrambled off the left side of the carriage with her musket to avoid any potential counter fire. Elizabeth attempted to reload her musket from her ammo pouch while making a tactical retreat to the back of the carriage.
As usual Helga had the same idea as her and they regrouped at the back of the carriage.
Elizabeth then remembered why she had the carriage in the first place and called out. "Stay in the carriage, lady Charlotte. We have everything under control, just some foolish bandits attempting to steal our valuables."
Helga chuckled to herself. "Two left, you take the one on the left, I take the one on the right, manling. We'll deal with these wazzocks in no time and be on our way."
Elizabeth nodded and worked up the courage to poke her head out from behind the carriage.
To her immense surprise, she saw a bandit appear right in front of her eyes. The bandit lunged forwards and grabbed her musket with both hands.
Elizabeth found the musket pinned against her chest and unable to fire at the rude bandit. Elizabeth thought fast and reached in the back pocket of her coat for her dagger.
With the bandit distracted with the musket, Elizabeth thrust the dagger into his open stomach and did it over and over again until he stopped moving and fell to the dirt ground dead.
Elizabeth became aware of the sound of struggle from the other side of the carriage. Presumably the bandit on the right had the same idea as the bandit Elizabeth had just stabbed to death.
Elizabeth glanced at the bayonet poking out from her musket. It appeared sharp enough to do the job well enough. If not, she can always use the bayonet as a club Elizabeth thought to herself sardonically.
Elizabeth rushed over to the other side of the carriage just in time to see Helga wrestle control of her shotgun and shoot the last bandit dead in an explosion of blood. Elizabeth should have known that it would have been difficult for the bandit to wrestle anything from Helga who typical of her kind was short but shocking stout and strong.
Helga smiled at Elizabeth as soon as she saw her. "You better go check on the princess, I'll haul the bodies out of the way of our carriage."
Elizabeth smiled back for a brief moment before clearing her throat and knocking on the carriage door.
"Charlotte, are you okay? The bandits are all taken care of. We can carry on the Rottfurt."
Charlotte opened the carriage door and sighed dramatically. "Well thank the lady. I have survived yet another hour in this godforsaken empire. I almost spilled my wine all over the carriage-"
Elizabeth closed the carriage door shut before she had to listen to any more out of the spoilt noble girl and her petty complaints.
"Okay Helga, our lady is fine. She still has her supply of wine so she'll live. Lets press on and hopefully we can reach Rottfurt before night."
Elizabeth and Helga returned to their previous positions at the front of the carriage.
"You know Elizabeth," Helga began, "I think I've started to like Charlotte. No matter how dire the situation she will only be concerned with her wine and the interior of this carriage. I don't know about you manling, but I much prefer it to the typical screamish noble umgi lady."
Elizabeth looked at the narrow road ahead, covered with the blood splatters of the fallen bandits. "Maybe you're right. On the other hand, we haven't known her for very long, she could still surprise us with an unexpected burst of courage."
Helga snorted in response. "Unlikely, that lot have been raised to expect other people to do the courageous thing for them. Nobles have knights to perform courageously while they hide in their pretty castles."
"I think you're letting your bias against weak humans get to you. Maybe once she gets this important Lady Of The Lake artifact then she will find her strength."
Elizabeth started the horses going forward again as Helga leaned back with her shotgun in her arms. "In my experience, grasping an artifact of their god doesn't fundamentally change a person. I appreciate the sentiment though."
The cultist stalked through the forest, eager not to be late to see his master. The cultist arrived at the meeting spot and threw himself at his master's feet the very moment he saw her robed figure.
Before he could even speak, his robed master spoke in a harsh, coarse voice that didn't sound entirely human and gave only the slightest hint of coming from a human female.
"The Bretonnian is dead?" The voice demanded to know.
The cultist swallowed. "She has by sheer dumb luck found two bodyguards to protect her. As soon as these new obstacles are removed, she will be swiftly killed."
The cultist's master allowed for a long period of silence to follow, allowing them both to think hard about his failure to deliver noble's head to her.
Just as the silence become truly unbearable, the master spoke. "Good, see that you do, Mr Koch. I do not need to tell you how disappointed I will be if you fail me again."
Mr Koch nodded his head and fled the scene before his master changed her mind and opted for a more painful reminder for him. Mr Koch felt as if he could feel her gaze burning into him all the way back to his small village hamlet. He slammed the door shut and finally felt able to take a series of short sharp breaths. he had to stop that arrogant noble from taking the artifact if not...he couldn't bare to consider that possibility.
Elizabeth managed to navigate the carriage to Rottfurt in a single working piece. A slight surprise as she had never driven a carriage before. She found a quiet inn to rest for the approaching night and got off to inform her noble lady employer.
She knocked on the door and allowed Charlotte to open it.
"Good evening, Lady Charlotte. We are in Rottfurt, shall we rest for the night or go find your artefact dealer?"
Lady Charlotte jumped from the carriage. "Well at last! I think I will go stretch my legs for a moment. I assume you will be joining me."
Charlotte handed Elizabeth and Helga their pay for the day from her garish red purse.
Elizabeth smiled. "You have no need to ask." She stated sarcastically.
Charlotte grinned back at her and began her walk around the small town. Helga chose to hang back to "book their room for the night at the inn", leaving Elizabeth and Charlotte by themselves for the time being.
Elizabeth and Charlotte strode along the cobblestone street as the sun started to go down. Elizabeth found the town to be relatively quaint and assumed that the surroundings were not impressing her high and mighty Bretonnian escort.
Surprisingly, Charlotte didn't immediately launch into another tangent about the superiority of Bretonnia. She remained quiet for a while as she glanced around at probably only the second or third imperial settlement that she had ever even seen in person.
Charlotte finally spoke, more quietly than Elizabeth had gotten used to. "I still can't believe that I've been nearly killed twice in as many days. If I'd known how dangerous this place was then maybe I wouldn't have come here in the first place."
Elizabeth felt like she needed to say something in response but couldn't think of the something that she should be saying to Charlotte so was left awkwardly silent.
Charlotte continued speaking then, almost to herself. "Why me? I'm just a stupid noble, I'm not supposed to be risking my life everyday."
"I'm not sure that I can relate," Elizabeth admitted, "I'm used to fighting for coin therefore I have no problem almost dying every day."
Charlotte glanced briefly in Elizabeth's direction before turning her attention back to the street. "Maybe you've spent too much time as a sell sword, you've forgotten the inherent danger in fighting and killing. I envy you a bit."
Elizabeth coughed awkwardly for a moment rather than speak, again attempting to think of a line to respond with.
"Well when you get the artifact, I'll obviously help escort you back to Bretonnia or indeed further on to your home castle." Elizabeth stated simply.
To Elizabeth's mild surprise, Charlotte smiled at her. "Then you are a true knight, Elizabeth. I should be happy to have you at my court, thank you."
They finished their walk and headed back to the inn. As Elizabeth's head hit the pillow that night, she drifted off to sleep thinking about Charlotte's bad luck. Maybe if she had as bad luck at the start then she never would have survived this long to become a mercenary at all. She strangely respected Charlotte for being willing to go to the empire for an artefact with extremely limited combat experience. Elizabeth didn't tend to judge a person who outwardly appeared to be either very brave or very stupid because she related to that feeling, herself being either a brave or a stupid mercenary who regularly fought for the chance to get herself killed.
Charlotte woke up early the next morning, a consequence of getting into the habit of waking up early in the army. Charlotte put her working clothes on, a simple coat and body armour. She headed across the landing and downstairs to see if she could find anyone else awake.
Charlotte found herself sitting in a damp corner of the inn waiting for the Bretonnian lady to wake up and give herself a shake.
Charlotte rested her head on her hand and sighed. A quint small inn in a random imperial town, some more boring people might find this a comfort, Elizabeth found it bloody boring.
She ate her breakfast and tried to think of things to spend her new found supply of money on. She probably wouldn't find anything too exciting in this town in the short amount of time that she would likely stay here.
Elizabeth tapped her fingers on the small wooden table. Maybe this is why she became a soldier for hire, any other activity bored her extremely quickly. Sitting here in a relatively quiet part of a relatively quiet inn in a no name town made her feel trapped in a way Elizabeth didn't know how to properly explain.
When Elizabeth saw Helga arrive downstairs, she felt quite the relief that she now had somebody to distract her.
Helga sat down by Elizabeth's side. "Good morning comrade, its a good day to finish a quest."
"The quest isn't over until our Bretonnian lady is safe back in the green pleasant lands of Bretonnia with her beloved artefact. Then we can celebrate by drinking the special Bretonnian wine that Charlotte likes to talk about."
"I prefer good ale personally but to each their own, manling."
Elizabeth leaned back in her chair. "Do you think she'll ever actually do anything with the artefact or just throw it in a room somewhere?"
Helga shrugged her shoulders. "Who cares, she thinks she needs to get it so she goes to get it. It is not the job of employees to question the unwise decisions of their employers."
Elizabeth gave a small smile. "How stoic and poetic of you. I hope someday to be as wise as you, Helga. Are you going to wake up the sleeping princess or should I?"
"You're welcome to try to wake her, I'm going to stay here and savour the quiet...and drink an ale or two." Helga replied.
Elizabeth stood up, no longer willing to wait in boredom any longer. She walked to the stairs and up them back to the landing. She stood there for a moment thinking if she really was planning to wake Charlotte up like her mother or a servant.
Elizabeth paced up and down the small hallway, contemplating her next move, torn between going to Charlotte and simply waiting for her to come out.
At long last her own boredom got the better of her and she went to Charlotte's room door and knocked. "Charlotte, are you awake yet? You have a contact waiting for you to buy an artefact from them."
Elizabeth got a rather strange response. She heard the unfamiliar sound of muffed screaming from within the room.
Adrenaline kicked in immediately for Elizabeth and she forcefully shoved open the door and witnessed Charlotte being held at dagger point, pinned prone on her bed.
Elizabeth reached for her pistol but didn't get the chance as the attacked rushed at her recklessly. Elizabeth unwillingly dropped the pistol as the young man in peasant's clothes tackled her to the floor.
Elizabeth felt the pain of slamming onto the cold floor. This pain soon became accompanied by a punch to face from the man crouched over her.
Elizabeth grabbed the man's head and attempted to gouge out his eyes in a fit of bitter revenge for the pain in her back. Elizabeth and her opponent wrestled on the floor with neither gaining an advantage. This might have continued if Charlotte had not snatched the dropped pistol off the floor.
Charlotte clearly didn't feel confident with the pistol in her hand as she spent many more seconds aiming than Elizabeth usually did to feel that she could fire with any hope of hitting the target.
Charlotte held her breath and fired. The pistol fired loudly, especially load in the cramped conditions of the small inn bedroom.
Charlotte blinked a few times and attempted to dispel with her hand the lingering smoke coming from the gun barrel. It was only then we she could see the effect that the firearm had on the intruder.
The intruder slumped over on top of the prone Elizabeth and soon became motionless entirely.
Charlotte cleared her throat and attempted to steady her breathing. "I assume you're not dead...right?"
Elizabeth got out from underneath the now dead attacker and managed to smile sardonically at Charlotte. "Either you are seriously the most unlucky noble in the entirety of this empire. Or something is going on We need to get that artefact and get you back to Bretonnia before whoever is doing this succeeds in their goal."
Charlotte nodded, partially to herself more than anything else.
The two girls headed out the door and were greeted by Helga, who hearing the loud sound of gunpowder, had of course decided to head right up stairs with speed.
She naturally became a bit disappointed when Elizabeth told her that the struggle had already been ended by Charlotte's steady hand. Helga didn't bother to hide her surprise at that revelation. Charlotte didn't seem to care though and remained more than a little shaken by the whole incident.
Elizabeth told Helga the same thing that she had previously told Charlotte, this apparent bad luck now appeared to be more than that. Somebody had once again tried to stop Charlotte from getting the artefact and they needed to be on their guard. Helga nodded in understanding and they jointly concluded that they had to move quickly before the next assassin showed up on the scene.
As they headed back downstairs with Charlotte in tow, Helga placed her arm around Charlotte in an attempt to comfort her. "Don't panic, my lady. We will protect you from these weaklings, have no fear. You have a strong dawri and her skilled companion at her side. You have nothing to worry about now."
Charlotte said thank you to Helga but she sounded less than sure any more. Elizabeth also tried to appear confident for poor Charlotte's sake although ironically Charlotte had so recently saved her rather than the other way round. Elizabeth apologised to the inn keeper for the mess in their room and offered to help clean it up as best she could.
Charlotte likewise offered to pay any amount of money for the clean up. The middle aged inn keeper looked indignant but regardless he had little choice but to accept the offer help to clean the now bloodied room. Elizabeth cleaned Charlotte's room of the dead body while Helga stayed with Charlotte and tried to cheer her up a tad.
It turned out to be generally heavy work but eventually the room looked practically brand new according to Elizabeth.
Finally, Elizabeth went downstairs to retrieve Helga and Charlotte from their table downstairs and tell them that they had long since outstayed their welcome and now was the time to leave and see the artefact of the Lady.
Thankfully Charlotte had indeed cheered up by the time the body had been cleared away from her room and she smiled when she saw Elizabeth come over to their table.
"My saviour!" She greeted cheerfully. "You came just in time to save your dear lady. You have my deepest thanks."
"You are more welcome, lady Charlotte. I stand ready to save you at any time. However, now we had better get going, I'm starting to get tired of the cosy atmosphere here. Shall I escort you?"
Charlotte smiled and held out her hand for Elizabeth to take. "Lead on my noble, almost knight. I trust you to lead me to safety"
Helga downed her ale in a single big gulp and stood up to join them. Elizabeth lead the noble and her escort dwarf out of the in and into the busy cobblestone streets. Elizabeth took a breath and fresh air to steady her nerves. They had all survived the morning so therefore they had a kind of progress. Their quest for the artefact also appeared tantalisingly close. A short walk and they would be there, for better or for worse.