章 50: Training the Troops
Alyn stood in front of what had become the barracks for their group of people.
Barely four months had passed in relative peace and with the shop now handled by Yannis, who quickly learned how Myra wanted it run, as well as the various craftsmen trained by Myra directly they rarely needed to interfere anymore.
From time to time, Myra would make some special items and it would always cause the shop to be overrun with people, but even without her items they made a solid profit just by acquiring all the raw ingredients cheaply from their own sources.
Within a short few months, Celestial Armaments had become one of the top shops in the capital, making profits that were similar to that of a great clan's income, not just because of its quality, but mostly because of the items that could be found nowhere else in the empire.
It was not rare to find people travelling from neighbouring empires to Luminos' capital just to acquire a few items from them.
Their once silly ideas seemed to have taken on a life of their own and with the funding provided as well as the support of the Emperor they had no lack of resources or men.
The Emperor had given Myra the rights to the whole area close to the western border and it would only be a few months until the Celestial Kingdom became a reality. In return, Myra had provided him with several ways to improve his empire.
"Liam! We have to step up our pace and move things along. I want to see a full group of proper Celestial Archers at Myra's wedding and not just a flock of dying doves that fall from the sky!"
When Myra had told them of her plans to marry Aaron even before her 16th birthday they were all surprised. They knew that their relationship was very deep and stable and it did not come unexpected that they decided to marry, but it was much earlier than they had anticipated.
"It should be fine, Myra is improving the gear more and more. It's just the coordination of the group that needs some work. The best flying skills don't help them if they crash into each other all the time or block each other's line of sight."
Liam had followed Alyn after she announced that she would head to the western region and train the people there, who would make up the core of Myra's forces in the future.
With their magical gear highly confidential, they didn't think that they would be able to keep anything from becoming public otherwise if they were to stay at the capital.
Flying was still reserved for Skylords and birds after all and having a unit of flying archers, who were equipped with spirit weapons was something that was unheard of right now.
"How many do you want to send?" Liam asked and was curious how much of a force they would be showing just for a wedding.
"I will pick the 50 best of them. This will be the first time our Celestial Archers show up in public after all." Alyn had already decided on the number of people she wanted to have and even made plans for the formations they might use to fly.
"How is the status of the warehouse? Do we have to build another one?"
The barracks and shelter for the people as well as the storage space for food and supplies were only exceeded by the large warehouses they had to build, just for storing the resources that Myra planned to use for the mage tower.
"I'm afraid that the ones we currently have won't hold a lot more, so I guess we need another one."
Liam sighed and headed towards the carpenters and mason's to discuss setting up yet another building.
--
While Alyn and Liam were on the western border, Myra was busy finding new ways to strengthen and improve their people's constitution inside of the capital.
It was easy to find a way to help a single person to become stronger and healthier, as she usually did with Rae, but it was also very time consuming.
Myra spared no effort for Rae and offered her the best she could give and the little girl had already improved significantly. She was still small for her age, but she no longer looked as if she was malnourished.
Using the same type of procedure on multiple people required something different altogether.
"Aaron? Have you found out more about the insects that live in the western tundra?"
"Do I look like I have found something about them?" Aaron grinned at her confused face.
"Mhm yes, you look like you do!" – "I wonder how you knew."
"It's easy." Myra explained. "Whenever you get something that you want, you grin like you just found a cache of cookies."
"But does that explain what I got that I wanted?" Now Aaron was curious how his grin was related to the information he found.
"No, but when you found something that I want, then your grin becomes really lewd, because the first thing you will do when you come here is to ask for a kiss as a reward."
Aaron had to laugh at this unexpected, honest but nonetheless totally accurate deduction. He put a few documents right next to her with the information that he gathered before asking the question that she already expected.
"I see, do I get a kiss?"
"Maybe later, I have to make sure this enchantment gathers magic power and releases it in a useable form instead of blowing up in our faces."
"I guess preventing things from blowing up is more important than a kiss. I can wait a little bit longer for one."
"Will we head to the western area after the wedding? You said that you wanted to start building that tower and a little city around it after the wedding, to prepare for the announcement of the kingdom."
"Sure, still nothing changed about that. The place is called Snowstorm Hill, because the area is so close to the tundra, the weather is really bad there."
"You plan on changing that? Or should I prepare to live most of my life in a city in a cold area?"
Aaron didn't like the idea of living in a place with constant snowfall all year round, but he would still settle down there if Myra told him to.
"Yeah, it will take a few months or years, but I will make the tundra a bit livelier. It will still be a colder area, with longer winters and shorter summers, but I have some ways to make it more temperate once that mage tower is completed."
"Oh …"
Aaron cringed when he heard her words, getting ready to hide and take cover. Her 'Oh' could only mean that something would explode in the next second.
"What's wrong, did it end in a failure?" Aaron cautiously asked her.
"No, what do you think of me! I just forgot to bring something to drink. Let me get it quickly."
Aaron followed Myra along when he suddenly heard a loud explosion behind him.
'I knew it would explode.'
--
The group of soldiers, maybe a dozen of them made the people who watched the procession rather uneasy. It was rare to see tamed magical beasts and it was rather obvious that the cats the soldiers were riding were not tamed mounts, but rather companions to the soldiers.
Soldiers, not mercenaries, as these people were not just some random ragtag group of hired thugs, but instead a disciplined group of people under the Emperor's youngest child.
No one knew about the details of how they got these magical beasts to follow them, but they knew not to cause any problems with them around, especially as this was not some random infantry or cavalry group, but a bunch of guys that had a deadly reputation to kill first and ask questions later if provoked.
"Captain, why are we riding through the streets of the capital like this?" the woman next to their leader asked.
All of them were handpicked and none of them was just chosen because of their strength or their status. They were picked because they were loyal and smart.
There were quite a few of them, who had rather dubious backgrounds. Thieves, Assassins, Robbers, … there were all kinds of histories that one did not want to talk about.
When Myra requested for a pardon from the emperor for the group who would join her, all the officials involved were surprised. When asked, she just said that they would change and many doubted her words at the time, but it was granted anyways.
Nell still remembered the gift that Myra had given him, as well as the responsibility that did come with it.
"We want the cats to get used to the human population. It is rare for them to see human behaviour and we don't want them to harm innocents when in a battle and there is only a short amount of time for them to make a decision if someone is an enemy or a friend. Don't worry about it Tia, it will be fine."
He looked at the young woman beside him, perhaps two years older than he was, who asked the question and was really happy how far they had come.
Not too long ago, she had tried to kill him and Nell still vividly remembered the day when he not only spared her life after her failed attempt, but even fell in love with her.
"I still can't believe that we ended up as a cavalry unit under a princess." Tia remarked, still not sure why Myra needed a unit such as theirs. "Lady Myra is like a totally innocent and kind girl, why would she want a group of people like us?"
"Her exact words were, 'If you're picking up an assassin, you can lead a group of them. Gives you something to do.' But I think she was really annoyed at the time."
"You mean the time when she wanted to fry me with some spell after I nearly killed you and you asked her to let me go?"
"Yeah, that time. It was one of my best ideas, but the repercussions really suck." Nell rolled his eyes.
"Now I'm stuck with a group of overzealous fighters like you guys and not even a proper manual on how to lead a troop."
Tia smiled, when Nell mentioned a manual. "So you need a manual for me? That sounds adorable."
"It's not as if the lady randomly picked us. Each of them has a life debt to her of some sort. She either saved their lives directly, or she saved one of their important family members in some way."
"I know skilled people when I see them, and none of our little group is an amateur when it comes to hidden operations, but interestingly enough, none of them is cruel or sadistic. Well, you're the exception actually."
"Myra has a way of sorting out the good people from the bad people and pick the right ones." Nell replied and had to agree that their group was creepy, but they were not a threat of any kind to innocents.
"What do you mean I'm the exception?"
"You see, you are horrible at staying hidden, horrible at opening doors and locks, horrible at noticing traps or hidden magical alarms …" Tia started to list all his lacking skills when it came to stealth and covert tactics.
"Enough, enough! You're right, you just have to train me properly so I won't let you all down as your captain." Nell seemed to have given up.
He knew as well as Tia that he was never trained as a spy or assassin, how could he compete with any of them?
He was however trained by Myra and learned quite a few tricks of his own. By now the only one of their group except Myra herself who could use more power than violet grade was Aaron, who had recently stepped into the realm of a skylord. An 18 year old skylord was unheard of in all of Luminos.
All of the others making up the inner circle of Myra's friends were currently all wielding violet grade power, and could easily compete with grandmasters.
It was a really impressive force for such a small group. It was no wonder, that Tia, who was a red grade assassin at the time, had troubles killing him ending in their unexpected but nonetheless now happy relationship.
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