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"Your Highness," the lead priest said as he politely bowed to Prince Avontus Valorhelm, the sixth prince of the Valorhelm Dominion. "This humble priest greets you. You may call this one Advan. And as I am sure General Vash has informed you, we come bearing gifts." priest Advan said as he stepped aside and gestured to ten white-clad clergymen, each wearing robes plainer than Priest Advan's and each shouldering a long wooden case. Flanking the white-clad men were an equal number of dangerous-looking men, all clad in mismatched clothes and armor, the only thing the ten men shared was a dangerous look in their eyes and the nondescript sword that looked to have come from the same batch.
"Acolytes, please present our gifts," the priest said. The white-clad men responded by lining up before the prince and general and opening the cases they were carrying.
In each case was a plain longsword that glowed with a dim light like some enchanted weapon the prince had seen. But what was not like an enchanted weapon was the lack of traces, runes, or words of power engraved on its surface, and unlike the many enchanted equipment the prince had seen in his life, none of them made him feel a pressure settling on his whole being, tempting him to hold the sword that somehow promised power.
Yet something at the back of his mind screamed for him to abstain from such an action, warning him of danger. And being a prince in a nation where strength was everything and survival was justice, Prince Avontus had survived his fair share of assassination attempts and had developed a sense for danger, and the danger Prince Avontus was sensing right now was his growing greed for the weapons presented before him. So, with great effort, he squashed the greed for the sword and gave a polite nod to acknowledge the 'gifts'.
As for General Vash, there was no hiding the greed in his eyes, the only thing stopping him from immediately grabbing a presented sword was his years of military discipline, especially in the presence of royalty and foreign envoys.
"To you, close friends of the Theocracy, we give ten Divine Armaments. With this sword in hand, few warriors in the land can be your equal." the priest said proudly.
When the priest was done with his gift presentation, General Vash was the first to make a move and reached out his hand to grab one of the swords, only to be stopped by the prince grabbing his shoulder.
The general turned and was about to throttle the person who dared touch him, but quickly schooled his expression when he realized it was the prince. The prince only showed a relaxed smile, like everything was normal. "General, how about we distribute these weapons among the best swordsmen among the knights? After all, what use is a weapon if it is not being used? It would be a real shame for a weapon as powerful as this to languish in the hand of those who command from the back." the prince said with a meaningful look in his eyes.
That look snapped General Vash out of his greed. He had been around long enough to know that look, and now he looked back at the swords that called to him like coiled vipers ready to strike. "Ah… Yes, your words are most wise, Your Highness." He then turned to some soldiers standing by and told them to receive the gifts from the acolytes.
When the swords, enclosed in their wooden cases, were out of sight, the prince and general looked back at the priest, all of them smiling like everything was as it should, but now more wary of the Theocracy's presence.
The prince and general had some ideas as to why the swords were gifted to them, but they were not going to tip their hand. They had orders from their king and little men to do it with, so they were essentially depending on these 'gifts' that could supposedly turn the tide of battle in their favor.
'Seeing the number of soldiers I was given and the situation I am in, I can only assume that Father wants to see the power of these so-called Divine Armaments. And since the Zagraf Theocracy is not using it with their own men, I can only assume they are also testing it, but with live targets and using us so that they have a degree of separation and some plausible deniability.' the prince thought to himself as he asked the men to escort their guest to some tents for accommodation.
***
"Any word from the scouts sent into the no man's land?" Dad asked one of the runners who came to him with updates.
"None yet, m'Lord." the runner replied before running off.
Dad just sat and massaged his temples. "Our scouts are missing, most likely dead. The messenger birds we send out are shot down soon after they leave by hidden enemies, and I am pretty sure the fast riders I sent out to report our situation and ask for help have befallen the same fate."
Dad did not say it, but I know what he is thinking. Instead of a normal siege that we can fight off by the book, the enemy is planning something nasty, and Dad does not want me anywhere near this fort. But seeing that ambush forces box us in, it will take a sizable force to escort the non-combatants and me to safety. And if he did so, they would reduce the strength of his fighting force to fight off any invaders.
But doing so would compromise his duty to defend this fort, and seeing that he was put in charge of every soul in this fort, he could not in good conscience sacrifice so many lives just to save his son. And neither would I want him to do so. That means that Dad cannot get rid of me, and I can stay to guard his frail ass as we spend another day collecting reports of enemy sightings and nothing else.
***
*DING!* *DING!* *DING!* *DING!*
I was woken up by the alarm bell in the dead of night. I could hear the barks of commanders shouting their men into order. I quickly rolled out of bed and put on my gear.
When I burst out of my room, Dad and his men were already running down the hallway. When I caught up with Dad, I heard the tail end of a report. "- from the front and back gates, they are already inside the outer wall."
"What?! How? How did they manage to sneak siege equipment up to our gates?! Were the sentries asleep? Or did they somehow manage to cast multiple siege spells without the mages noticing?" Dad asked in outrage as he grabbed the soldier by the collar and shook him.
"No! No, my Lord! From what I heard, knights with shining swords ran up to our gates and hacked them down. Now, we have enemy troops flooding through our gates. We are currently trying to push them out, but the knights are too powerful!"
The report was ridiculous! How the hell did swords beat a defense-arrayed and enchanted gate? I don't care how powerful the knights' aura is. Things like a proper fort's gate need at least a heft of an enchanted battering ram to breach it.
What the fuck is going on?!!