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The mood in the Snow Lions’ camp was beyond jubilant; they had managed to secure not only their own banner, but they’d also even gotten the Deathbringers’ banner! And since no one knew where they had gone after leaving their tower, there was next to no danger of retaliation.
If they weren’t as tired as they were, they would have undoubtedly started partying. Instead, they split off into their own small friend groups to excitedly chat about what to do over their first weekend break in more than a month.
Leon’s group, consisting of himself plus Charles, Alain, and Henry, all collapsed onto a number of chairs carved into the side of the cave to discuss how they wanted to spend the next day—stuffing their faces with as much food as they could fit won out over everything else.
After about fifteen minutes, the Instructors arrived—though they hadn’t actually been that far away, having constantly monitored the Snow Lions’ assault from beginning to end to ensure the safety of all involved. All the Snow Lions were called to gather around them in the largest cavern.
“That was damn fine work, everyone! Get those banners over here so we all can see!” shouted the Senior Instructor. Normally, he was of an exceptionally stern and sober disposition, but once both Castor and Aemilius, the Snow Lions’ bannerman, brought the captured banners out, he allowed himself to crack a rare smile.
The two Snow Lions raised the banners high, and the rest of the unit couldn’t help but puff out their chests in pride. A few of them even cheered. They quieted down quickly when the Senior Instructor indicated that he had something to say, though.
“Now, as I told you previously, the restrictions I placed upon the unit preventing you lot from heading into the city can only be enforced for units that don’t have banners! You have seized yours back, so those restrictions are now lifted! After breakfast tomorrow, the three of us will hand out the stipends, including the money that has backed up over the past month, then you will all be released to enjoy the day! Just keep in mind the time you’re supposed to be back! If anyone’s missing, we’ll be kicking all of your asses as punishment!”
With that said, the Instructors departed, leaving the Snow Lions standing in stunned silence in the cavern. The surprise was understandable for them as the Instructors had told them that they would be receiving a much larger amount of money than they were expecting.
That silence didn’t last long, and the Snow Lions broke back into their usual groups. Most didn’t stay awake to talk for very long, heading for their bunks less than half an hour after the Instructors left. They wanted to be fresh and well-rested for the following day.
Leon intended to spend some time training before bed, feeling that nothing would cap the night off like some good restful meditation, but Castor seemed to have other plans. He approached Leon and inquired, “Hey, do you mind if we talk a little?”
Leon frowned but shrugged and nodded in acceptance.
“Good. Head to our meeting chambers, I’m going to get Alphonsus to join us. We need to make some plans in case the Deathbringers attack us in the streets again.”
“Not much we can do to stop them save for attacking them as they leave their tower in the morning.”
“… Hopefully, that won’t be necessary.”
Leon certainly had more to say about that, but he ended up holding his tongue and silently walking to the meeting chamber while Castor went to find Alphonsus.
Once Castor found his fellow noble, the two walked to the meeting room in awkward silence. They were friends, born to a pair of southern noble houses whose lands bordered each other, yet neither were able to find any words to say to the other. Things between them had become awkward ever since Castor supported Leon’s idea to move out of the tower and into the caves. Alphonsus had argued vehemently against the idea as he was loath to leave the comforts of the tower behind, but in the end, his unwillingness to give up the finer things lost to Castor’s and Leon’s desire to move the Snow Lions to a safer location while giving them much harder training conditions.
“So,” began Castor once he and Alphonsus entered the meeting room and joined Leon, “there’s no doubt in my mind that the Deathbringers will be planning some kind of retaliation.”
Alphonsus raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Oh? I thought…”
“What?” asked Castor after a moment of silence.
“Nothing…”
“Come on, my friend, out with it!”
“… It’s just that, I thought this talk was going to be about the unit moving back into the tower.”
Castor looked at Alphonsus in confusion, not quite sure he’d heard his friend correctly. “We… It was never the plan for us to leave these caves, Al. They give us a tremendous advantage since none of the other units know where we are and they’re quite defensible even if they somehow manage to find out.”
“I guess…” muttered Alphonsus. His shoulders slumped down a little and the happy light in his eyes vanished. He didn’t even look at Leon, but Leon silently agreed with Castor that leaving the caves at this point would be a little premature.
“Back to the matter at hand,” continued Castor after Alphonsus made it clear through his body language that he wasn’t going to press the issue, “we ought to prepare some kind of counter-strategy.”
“Well, there isn’t much we can actually do to prevent the Deathbringers from retaliation, though it probably won’t be tomorrow,” said Leon. The possibility of the Deathbringer’s Senior Instructor invoking the same policy that his counterpart in the Snow Lions had that deprived the unit of their weekend privileges only crossed Leon’s mind long enough for him to dismiss it; their own Senior Instructor had indicated that such an invocation was rare and thought to be cruel enough that the Knight Academy’s commanding Legate had considered banning it.
“What makes you say that?” asked Castor with genuine curiosity.
“There isn’t much time for them to coordinate assaults on our guys again, especially with the morale blow of losing their banner and needing to wait for their unconscious people to wake up. Maybe they’ll seek retribution next week, but I think tomorrow ought to be fairly safe. Maybe I’m wrong, though, and the anger and humiliation will be too much for them to bear.”
“It’s that second possibility that has me worried,” Castor muttered. “I think we should come up with a few rules for our unit to follow, just in case. For instance, those who were ambushed in the city back then were only attacked when they were in relatively low-traffic areas. If our people stay in more crowded locations, we can hopefully avoid those kinds of attacks.”
“If you really want to avoid anything happening, we could always do what I mentioned earlier and just ambush the Deathbringers on their way out of their tower…” Leon said with a ruthless smile.
“No. Let’s not get too personal here—that’ll only make permanent enemies rather than friendly rivals. If they make moves against us off Academy grounds, then that’s another story, but for now, let’s wait and see how they handle losing their banner. These are our fellows, and we could be fighting together in some war in the future. Let’s not push them too far.”
But if they do attack us in the city…” Leon began.
“Then we’ll hit them back at our first opportunity,” responded Castor without hesitation.
“Good,” Leon said, the smile he was wearing growing slightly wider.
“Additionally,” Castor continued, “we need to make sure the rest of the unit travels in groups of three or more. Safety in numbers.”
“Makes sense,” Leon agreed.
“And come to think of it, are we allowed to carry our training weapons outside of the Academy?”
“We can ask the Senior Instructor tomorrow. Moving on, we should also move as an entire unit back to the tower…” Leon paused for a moment to fetch a detailed map of the training grounds. “… and we ought to decide on a good route. If I were in charge of the Deathbringers, I would have someone watching our tower just in case anyone returned. If the returning group was small enough then they would be open for an ambush, while if it wasn’t, simply following the direction they came from could give a clue as to where the camp was. We need to figure out an approach direction beforehand so that we don’t give away the location of our caves when we leave, then proceed on to the city from a more oblique angle.”
“That’s an excellent point. We can also have our trainees meet back up in the tower when their business is done in the city, then we can return to the camp together.”
“Exactly what I was thinking.”
Leon and Castor spoke for a few more minutes to hammer out the remaining details. Despite Castor’s lack of reaction to the assaults, both were determined not to let their unit suffer such attacks again.
As for Alphonsus, he didn’t participate much, having been too put down by the realization that they weren’t leaving the caves anytime soon. Castor didn’t seem to think it too big of an issue, though, so while Leon was a little worried about their fellow third-tier mage, he didn’t stress too much over him.
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When the morning came, the air in the Snow Lions’ camp seemed charged. Everyone had woken up early from the excitement of finally heading back into the city and were expressing that in various ways, from pacing to training.
There was some slight tension when Leon led a larger-than-usual group of a dozen trainees back to the tower to pick up the unit’s breakfast, as they weren’t sure if there would be any spies watching the tower or not. Fortunately, Leon had been leading the food run-group on fairly long and winding paths every day to and from the tower for the past couple weeks, and he chose a different route every time, so he wasn’t that concerned about an ambush. But given his suspicions that someone might be watching the tower, he left his group about a quarter mile from the tower and went ahead to scout out their tower’s surroundings.
His caution wasn’t necessary, though, because the area around the tower was deserted.
‘Maybe the Deathbringers haven’t gotten their act together yet; it hasn’t even been twelve hours, after all. Not enough time for the news to spread, either, so no other units would be watching…’
Regardless of the reasons why, it was clear to Leon that it was safe to begin transporting the food back to camp, which he immediately began doing after signaling to the waiting group that it was safe to approach their tower. Leon didn’t let his guard down for the entire time his group was there, though, and he resolved to be extra alert for the next week or two for the inevitable response from the Deathbringers.
Leon’s group returned to the camp in the gorge without any trouble, much to everyone else’s relief. About half an hour later, after everyone had finished their meal, Castor got up in front of them to explain the new rules he and Leon had decided on the previous night, with both Leon, and more surprisingly, Alphonsus there with him.
While Castor was speaking, the Instructors arrived at the camp. Castor paused for a moment, but the Senior Instructor ordered, “Keep going, don’t mind us for now.”
However, once Castor was finished going over the new safety rules, the Senior Instructor felt that there wasn’t much for him to add. He merely reiterated his usual warnings about staying away from shady areas and the importance of returning to the Academy on time. Then, he indicated to the other two Instructors to begin passing out the silver stipend to the trainees.
While the Snow Lions were distracted with the enormous bags of silver coins the Instructors had brought, the Senior Instructor quietly approached Leon and gave him a notice the Knight Academy had received from Heaven’s Eye, addressed to Leon.
Leon raised his eye in momentary confusion before realizing what it probably was. It seemed that Elise had made progress with finding some of the ingredients Xaphan needed for his recovery potion.
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While the Snow Lions were busy preparing themselves for heading back into the city, the third-tier nobles in charge of the Deathbringers were having quite the heated conversation in their common room at the top of their tower.
“This isn’t something that can go unanswered! They’ve humiliated us!” shouted Actaeon, his face red from passionate argument.
“But we haven’t a clue as to where the Snow Lions are! We can’t just storm their tower again, can we?” answered Linus.
“Then we find some Snow Lions and beat them until they reveal where they and the rest of those cowardly rats hole up!”
“You’re suggesting to attack them in the streets again?! That was a terrible idea then and it’s even worse now! How would it reflect upon us if it were to be found out that we had our subordinates attack our fellow trainees outside of the Academy?! How would it look to our families if it gets back to them that we’re engaging in such underhanded and blatant attacks on our countrymen?! If we gain a reputation for such dishonorable means, then we are no better than common thugs, terrorizing people in back alleys!”
“We’re encouraged to fight amongst ourselves! This is just an extension of that prerogative! We need to retrieve that banner or we have no honor to save!”
“I can only speak for myself, by my honor is more than a piece of fabric! I won’t sully my hands with such an endeavor, and I will stop any attempts to attack the Snow Lions off the Academy’s training grounds! We may have lost both banners we held, but we are noble, our reputations are worth more than a thousand banners!”
Throughout this argument, Gaius remained quiet. In fact, it appeared that he wasn’t even paying attention; his chin was resting in his hands, and he was staring into the fireplace with a tired look that suggested he’d been awake all night.
He certainly felt the expected amount of rage and indignation at the Snow Lions’ seizure of the banners, as well as the personal defeat he and the other two third-tier mages suffered in that final arrow barrage, but he was just so tired of this feud he had with Leon. The seizure of the Snow Lions’ banner had been his first real taste of glory, and while the order he gave to assault their people in the streets weeks back had been cathartic, it just didn’t hold a candle to defeating Leon in the open as he’d done in the assault on the Snow Lions’ tower, even if he hadn’t actually beaten Leon personally.
He’d left Lentia with such dreams of glory and honor, but he couldn’t say that he’d acquired either in these past few months. And all of that was due to this conflict with the barbarian. The savage had beaten him, and making matters worse, he’d then started growing closer to Valeria and utterly ignored his warnings to give her more appropriate space. Gaius needed vengeance, he needed to punish the barbarian for his insolence and utter disregard of his place… but with this latest humiliating loss, he wasn’t sure he had the will to continue down that path. As far as he’d walked so far, he’d only found more humiliation and dishonor, and he just wanted it to end.
“Actaeon, would you just… shut your mouth?” Gaius asked with a pleasant yet fatigued tone, though the way he glared at Actaeon made it clear it wasn’t a request.
“Wha-Why?” Actaeon demanded indignantly as he turned to face Gaius, but as soon as he made eye contact, he sheepishly continued with a “Su-Sure…”
“Good,” said Gaius. He then took a deep breath and paused for a moment to search for the right words.
“… I… understand the desire to seek immediate vengeance. I think that fact is not lost on anyone in this entire Academy; I haven’t exactly been subtle with my hatred of the barbarian. And that attitude has gotten me here, having suffered several humiliations, recriminations from my family, and the loss of our banner.”
Gaius paused again, his eyes repeatedly flitting between Actaeon and Linus. Both were equally silent, puzzled and concerned over what Gaius was now saying.
“We can certainly pursue pure vengeance today, seeking out and ambushing what few Snow Lions we can find in that enormous city. We’ll get four, maybe five, and then they’ll respond by ambushing us. We don’t know where they sleep, so we won’t be able to retaliate again, except by ambushing them in the streets of the capital another time.
“They’ll move in groups, sticking to more crowded areas, I’m sure. Our people will be seen, and our reputations will suffer, while theirs will only grow after enduring these assaults and successfully counter-attacking.”
Gaius paused for a third time, letting his eyes wander around the room for a moment as he thought his words over. Neither Actaeon nor Linus dared to break the silence. They were both quite taken aback at Gaius’ seriousness and somber attitude. Just half an hour beforehand, the two nobles had expected him to emerge from his room ready and willing to hunt down any Snow Lions they could find in an attempt to retrieve their banner, his rage and damaged pride finally pushed past the breaking point.
But now here he was, calmly analyzing the situation and considering their options, without a hint of rage in his face, his pride practically nonexistent.
“Assaulting our rivals in the streets may be gratifying, it may bring us some momentary satisfaction, but that is not what we need right now. We need a concrete plan, one that doesn’t degrade us, one that doesn’t make us look like a bunch of spoiled rich boys throwing a temper tantrum, a plan that won’t end with our people being ambushed on the road outside our tower. We need a plan that retrieves both our banner and our honor, and most importantly, befits our nobility.”
’… A plan that she won’t abhor…’ Gaius silently added.
As Gaius finished, his two noble comrades could only stare at him in shock. So, to kick them into gear, he thought he’d get them to do something productive—he didn’t want the more impulsive members of his unit heading off on their own and bringing him further dishonor by proxy.
“Go tell the second-tier trainees my decision: no one attacks the Snow Lions until I say we’re ready.”
“They’re not going to like that…” Actaeon said with a grim expression.
“It doesn’t matter what they like. I’m the leader of this unit, so I make the decisions and they follow them.”
“That won’t change the fact that they’re out for blood after losing the banner, especially those first-tier trainees who were stunned in their sleep. Apparently waking up after that brings a massive headache…”
Gaius glared at the two of them; he made it clear with his expression alone that he didn’t want to hear these things that sounded like excuses. Linus and Actaeon got to their feet and made for the stairs to relay Gaius’ decision. They returned several minutes later after forcing every second-tier trainee in the unit to personally swear not to attack the Snow Lions for the time being.
Gaius used those few minutes to think, and when the other two third-tier mages sat down at his table, he let them in on his thoughts.
“So, it seems to me that wherever the Snow Lions have been, they’ve used their time well. Their teamwork was far better than ours, and they knew exactly what they were doing. They moved with purpose, stealing our banner as quickly and as quietly as possible, only sparing the time to stun those who were absolutely required. I’d guess they practiced a few times in their own tower.
“We’re going to need a similar level of teamwork if we’re going to fight them on equal footing. As it is, even if we knew where they were hiding, I’m not sure we could win in a straight up assault as we did last time, especially not without outside help from someone like Tiberias…”
As proud as Gaius was, and as opinionated as he was about the northern barbarians, he couldn’t deny Leon’s strength anymore—or the strength of his unit. After all, if he continued to say that Leon was just a weak barbarian, then it would say nothing good about him, having lost multiple times to the savage.
“So,” Gaius continued, “we’re going to double down on our training. And not just for the three of us, we’re going to get the Deathbringers as ready for our next fight with the Snow Lions as they can possibly be.”
Linus and Actaeon slowly nodded in agreement, steeling themselves for the hard training that was to come.
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