39 Chapter 39 The Western Kingdom (2/2)
Because he had just gone through all of the slaves looking for mages, he knew all of their information and who had what skills. As dawn broke over the horizon, there were happy smiles on faces as they realized the plan had worked. If anyone had been waiting for them to settle down in order to attack, it never happened.
(CONGRATULATIONS. FOR SUCCESSFULLY LEADING A GROUP OF PEOPLE FOR THE FIRST TIME, YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED LEADERs.h.i.+P AT THE BASIC LEVEL.)
Shortly after that the gates opened, and the rest of the caravan wasted no time in crossing over. The guards looked tired and unhappy with having to search the carriages before letting them pa.s.s, but didn't try to tear up anything in the process.
”I'm very proud of you, son! You did an excellent job keeping everyone safe last night.”
”What happened?”
”The guard captain is a greedy man, and decided to hold half the caravan hostage in exchange for more money. I paid, but I won't be using his gates anymore. There are other routes I'll take in the future.”
”Well, I think we should have drills and tactics figured out among the slaves in order to secure the camps.” He was thinking about the reports he had read in his previous life that talked about raids on drug lords and their compounds. They discussed the idea in great length, inviting his father's chief guard in to join the conversation.
Brian, the chief guard, loved the ideas that Joseph had. He wanted to know where he had learned them. William told him that he had learned a lot from the books that he had gotten me, but when Brian eagerly asked if he could read the book, Joseph had to tell him he would loan it, when he was through reading it.
After Brian left, his father turned to him.
”You need to be more careful how you share your knowledge. I know that since you remember things so well, it's frustrating knowing something that can help, but we must not ever give away the system.”
Joseph nodded. ”I can write the book for Brian, but it'll take me a few days.”
”Well, I'm still proud of you, regardless.”
It took him two days to write the book. He included stories from a few movies but most of it was from after action reports of fighting drug lords or scenarios from video games. He armed the people with magic repeating crossbows instead of guns and took a little creative license on some other places. He made walkie-talkies as magic devices and cameras as magic monitors. With all the magic devises he had plenty of reasons to have read it.
It took the captain several days to read it, but then they had another long discussion about it. Several things couldn't be duplicated with the magic crossbows so most of his ideas and concerns had to do with fighting with swords or normal bows, but they quickly improved and implemented a host of ideas.
When he finished missile to intermediate, it b.u.mped his externalize mana to advanced. He could form runes within himself to cast magic without any warning.
Over the next four days, after leaving the border gates, they traveled through the rough mountain pa.s.s that led to the western kingdom. It was mostly uneventful. The road was very well maintained, and they could tell where a section had been destroyed from an avalanche, but had been repaired.
Once they reached the first town in the western kingdom, there was a messenger from the king. He demanded that William present himself before the king immediately. There was nothing William could do. He made arrangements with Brian to oversee the caravan, and to continue conducting business as he had been doing while he went to visit the king. He would catch up with the caravan as soon as he could, where ever they ended up.
Brian wasn't happy about suddenly being in charge, but he was trained enough not to argue. William was going to take Joseph, Stella, Joseph's four guards, and his own guards. They would all be traveling by horseback, in order to travel faster.
This was Joseph's first time traveling by horseback. He was pretty excited about it, even if he didn't really have a clue. No one else, not even Stella, had a problem with their horses. While they traveled the five days it would take to get to the capital, Joseph's enthusiasm wore out. He wished one of the healers had traveled with them, that first morning after riding all day. All of his attempts to focus on spells weren't very fruitful.
x.x.xxX
During the time of the standoff, while the guards were waiting to be bribed with more money, Stella made sure that any a.s.sa.s.sins who tried to mess with her Joseph knew better. She took to crouching on the roof of his carriage, keeping an eye on the busy bodies who were eyeing the caravan.
Several merchants, when they realized no one would settle down for the night, complained loudly of the incessant noise of William's slave caravan, and left in a huff. She was amused by this, because she knew that they didn't actually have any wares in their carriages to sell. They didn't sink into the mud nearly enough to actually be hauling anything. And she knew that no merchant would be daft enough to travel without some kind of goods.
The guards were aware that she was watching them, and made a point of patrolling often. There was no way they would be punished again for slacking, even when it may not have been there fault. The two young boys were shaping up to be great guards, and Stella was kind of proud at how well they were doing. They didn't have any of the old bullies in them from when they first met her. Maybe taking them away from the guard town wasn't a bad idea after all.
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