CHAPTER 265: FIND THEIR ORIGIN

John split off to return to his farm, but Ella waited until they were almost to the Manor to ask Dominic about the situation.

"Would you care to explain who that man is, and why you trust him?"

Dominic patted her on the shoulder. "He is one of the Dragon King’s Men. An assassin from the old Wavemates Kingdom. He’s come here to live mostly as a farmer, but he doesn’t have any problems helping out when we’ve got trouble.

The Royal Assassins were said to be unbreakable. None ever turned, none ever betrayed the crown, few were ever outed to the public and forced into seclusion.

Having him here is a blessing, in a way. He knows more about treachery and deceit than the vast majority of the population, and his loyalty is unquestionable."

Ella paused, forcing Dominic to stop as she thought.

"Are you certain about his loyalty?" She asked.

"One hundred percent. You can keep an eye on him if you like. But it’s a bit like suggesting that the Second Prince would rebel." Dominic replied.

"You trust the old Empire’s people far too easily. I will take your word on his identity, but that still makes him a threat to the Princess, even if he’s not a threat to you."

Dominic frowned, then nodded. "I understand."

Then Ella shook her head. "We’re going to need to start formalizing a military force for the Duchy sooner than planned. We’ve got lots of former military officers among the residents, but they’re not trained to work together in this particular group.

They’re also not properly equipped.

For most of them, their equipment was left behind when they left the army, so they didn’t arrive here with a full suit of armour and weapons."

Dominic shrugged. "We can likely get started on that today.

News of the Ogre attacks will the talk of the town, and everyone will be motivated to have something done about it. As long as we frame it the right way, I doubt that we will have any issues forming a militia force or organizing group training sessions for the capable fighters."

Ella nodded. "Alexis plans to train the maids as well. A force of veiled maids in the Manor will provide additional security from a direction where nobody will expect it.

When soldiers break in, they are wary of the guard and the larger men, like the stable hands. Nobody fears the maids."

"Alright, I will spread the news in town. I will talk to the Innkeeper and arrange for a dinner for everyone who comes to the training. They all know the basics, and we can have the Sheriff train up some of the boys later.

The expensive part will be equipping them. Well, that will be the time-consuming part, anyhow. I am thinking that we should train them both with pistols and swords so that they can take advantage of the Duchy’s unique skills.

Pistols were a game changer this morning, so if we can equip some of the farm families with them, we can have them start effectively defending the area with far fewer members.

Plus, we have a proper gunslinger as a Sheriff, and he will be able to get them up to speed without relying on the Royal Guard." Dominic agreed.

Ella smiled behind her visor. "There is also the likelihood that they’ll be much more cohesive as a fighting force when it’s the commoners training the commoners, with the Lord’s money backing them. That’s how things always go.

If you put a Nobleman in charge of their training, it introduces that class gap between thinking and doing. They’ll wait for someone to tell them when to fight. If you arrange it all with commoners, they’ll actually use a bit of common sense."

"That’s not a bad idea. We’ve got a retired General as well, and his family is on hard times. I’m sure that a little extra income to train and organize the militia won’t go unappreciated.

Well, technically we have two Generals if you Count Baron Keith. But you know what I mean."

Their joking brought them to the entrance of the house, where Dominic could smell fresh bread and frying eggs. Both excellent signs that the day was off to a good start.

Alexis greeted them at the door. "Is everyone settled in over there?"

Dominic nodded. "Yeah, they’re good for now. But we were discussing the fact that we should have some sort of organized militia in the village. We’ve got so many people now that we’re going to attract more trouble, even when it’s not targeted trouble.

Speaking of which, have you ever seen a bag like this one before? We were thinking that it might be from a school."

Alexis turned it over in her hand, then nodded. "It’s from the Skiple Mage Academy. Not the Royal Academy, the lower academy.

See here, it’s got the S embroidered on the inside. But its enchantment has been stripped. They should have a spell on them to prevent them from being damaged.

Either it’s old, or whoever was using it decided that it wasn’t worth renewing."

Now, that was the first bit of useful information that they had about the attackers so far. But that left them with the question of why a mage from Skiple was all the way down here in the Stansia Province, three thousand kilometres from home.

They might have been working for Dagos, at least on a surface level.

But the fact that they had launched an attack with Ogres suggested that there was much more to the story. A story that really needed resolution, especially if it was connected to the siege of the Cygnia Capital by monsters not long ago.

"Should I ask father to send soldiers to the region?" Alexis suggested.

Dominic frowned. "Not yet. I will start training up a militia later, and arming a team of huntsmen. We can call for reinforcements if we come up against something we can’t handle.

This might just be a straggler from the attacks.

With everything still tense in Dagos, the King doesn’t have too many soldiers to spare. It’s better that we train our own."

Alexis smiled. "In that case, I will start training the maids as well."