Right now, I am sitting in the commander's office. His room looks pretty simple. A table and two chairs, with nothing else in the room. All the walls in the room are of the same color, which is a dull grey. The only decoration here is a map behind the chair I am sitting in. The room is pretty depressing with not even a single window in the place. This place is an assassin's nightmare.
Such a plain room is something I did not expect. With the man's might, even a grand throne room might be inadequate. Only a man who has complete control over his people will be able to live in such a simple place. I am left wondering what exactly the man needs me for. I don't think I will be able to do anything for the man, and whatever it is going to be is not going to be easy. I still won't be able to refuse the man even if it is beyond me.
The hexmountain treaty is one of the founding stones of the black mountain. The treaty, at its core, is quite simple. No force on the continent except the scholars is allowed to enter into magical ruins. In return for access to the magical ruins, the black mountain will grant a favor to the local power.
Most of the time, these favors take the form of knowledge that might solve a problem for these powers. Sometimes, though, in times of war, we might have to get involved physically. Normally, in cases like this, the legion is sent instead of the guard corps. Well, sending the legion here would be like declaring war against the Snowwind Empire.
By the way, this is another reason that scholars are not safe. After all, getting rid of the scholars means that the black mountain has no reason to join the war.
Well, my perspective of this treaty comes from the legion rather than the guard corps. The legion is the enforcer of the treaty. Their job is to ensure that no non-scholar will mess with magical ruins.
The legion does not need to do much work on this. Most people who mess with magical ruins end up dying anyway. Still, in the rare instances that they need to act, the legion leaves a violent and bloody trail.
Anyway, I have deviated from the topic enough. At the moment, we need to fulfill the Hexmountain treaty. The black mountain owes a favor to the Snowwind Empire. As the representative of the black mountain in the area, I must fulfill this favor.
Normally, with my power and cultivation, such a favor would be worthless. After all, I am sure that just this fort has at least a thousand people at my level of power. Anything that I can fight, the commander can have somebody else fight. The problem is that I am a formation mage.
They might not have too many formations. They certainly need somebody to repair the few that they have. If that is the only thing that I have to do, then I am fine.
The problem will start if they commission me to build a new formation. That is going to be a very tight rope to walk. I cannot give them an overly powerful formation, or that will piss off our other allies in the area. I can't give something too weak as well, or the Snowwind Empire will stop being our ally. They are already on the verge of banishing all of us as it is.
I am supposed to figure out a balance that will serve all our interests. Another thing to worry about is that I will have to stay back here if I am given this task. That is something that the head office won't like.
The scholars themselves are fine. The soldiers will be going with the scholars to the ruin. Jacob and Andrew are relatively good fighters. The snowwinders are not going to compromise with the scholar's safety. They like to screw with the guards, but they rarely mess with the scholars. That is true to a degree in most parts of the continent. Still, the snowwind empire is abnormally careful with the scholars.
Even after the Seven Temples incident, when things had ended up on the verge of war. Even then, the snowwind empire returned the surviving scholars without causing any incident. Any other force would have executed them. All the guards were executed naturally. So yeah, I at the very least need not worry about the scholars too much. I only have to worry about myself right now.
(After almost an hour.)
I have sat in this room for about an hour, waiting for the commander. The commander appears in my mana sense like a ghost. His appearance in my mana sense is more like him declaring his presence than me sensing it on my own. I wonder just how easily the man would kill me if he wanted to.
Well, I get up quickly to greet the man. The snowwinders are the ultimate sticklers for rules. Any perceived slights on their honor won't end well for me. The commander still can be considered to be one of the more reasonable ones. It is the nobles who are the true nightmares, I have heard. Not that I have gotten to meet any yet.
Anyway, the door opens as I bow to the man.
"You really should focus more, kid. Such a sloppy greeting would be considered an insult. Better to act arrogant than do such a sloppy greeting. It would insult them more, but you will look stronger to them as well.", he says. "Anyway, we are too busy to waste our time on this. Do you know why I called you here?"
"Well, it would be wrong to say that I have a concrete idea. All I can tell you is that it has something to do with the hexmountain treaty, Commander." I reply.
"Well, you would be partially correct. I am going to be cashing in my favor acquired through the hexmountain treaty, but that comes for later." he says. "Instead, right now, it is your skill as a formation mage that I require at this moment."
Well, the only thing I can do after this is sigh in relief. This headache has been postponed. Without the treaty, the man can't force me to say anything that I don't want to.
"...Now, if you would be kind enough to go to the map behind you." I realized that I had been ignoring the man as he concluded.
I turn to see the map behind me light up. I cannot feel any fluctuations in the mana. This, more than anything else, causes a chill in my spine. Not many things can escape my mana sense. Forcing myself to swallow the surge of panic I feel, I look at the map in front of me. It is presently glowing in two colors. One side is green and the other side is red.
The red I have to assume is the territory of the snowwinders, and the green is the territory of the snowlords. If that is the case, the snowwinders have quite a bit to worry about. Almost two-thirds of the map is green.
"Well, the map you see in front of you is a record of just how deep the snowlords reached last year." The commander tells. "As you can see, we have not been particularly successful in holding back the snowlords. The strategies that we have been using until now have been a failure."
The commander gets up from his chair and walks to the map. This is vital information. Information that is not meant for a mere captain like me. It isn't meant for somebody higher up in the guard corps. My log is just a means to communicate with them.
"Well, the reason that I have shown you this map in the first place is simply to explain our present situation." the commander says. "With the way that things are going, it is clear that we need a new strategy."
"I don't understand why you are saying this to me." I reply. "It is not like I have experience related to strategy."
"Well, the reason that I am telling this to you is to give me a perspective related to a question that I have." he says. "You see, one of the ideas I have rolling around in my head is a formation wall in this area roughly."
As he speaks, a line appears on the map, cutting the map in two parts. If the map is scaled correctly, that would be a massive problem.
"Commander, building such a massive formation wall will be impossible for you if I have to put it frankly." I reply. "The formation walls that you see at the bone pits or the Rhune kingdom are the work of generations. What you are proposing is as large an undertaking as theirs. It might even end up being larger. Each section of that wall is class four or five at the very least, and you will have a dozen sections at least. It is wise not to build such a thing amid an active battlefield. Making a mistake with a class five formation will be disastrous."
"Well, weren't the walls at bone pits created after the undead calamity?" replies the commander.
"That is true, but they did it that way because they had no option and even then, they had to do it in sections.", I reply. "The undead from the bone pits are dumb and stupid creatures. They do not actively mess with the wall's construction. Do you think that your enemies will grant such leeway to you?"
"Well, they certainly won't. The snowlords realize the threat that they would face if they were to allow us to build any more forts here." the commander speaks.
"Well, you can attempt a fort chain commander." I reply. "Rather than try to build a formation wall directly, you can try to build it in three phases. First, you build a set of forts, acting as nodes for your wall."
"Well, do you think that building a fort in the middle of an active battlefield is any easier?" replies the commander.
"I would assume that it would still be easier than building a formation wall. Wasn't that the way the frozen peak was built?", I reply.
"Well, that is true. Continue your explanation.", he replies.
"Well, as for the second step, that would be connecting one fort to the other physically. You can do this with a wall. There are a few other methods, about which I will speak later." I reply. "The last step would be to connect these formations to form a matrix."
"A formation matrix, though. Aren't they supposed to be very weak?" asks the commander.
"Compared to a traditional formation, a matrix is much weaker. But a well-made formation matrix will be able to show at least three-quarters of the strength of a similar formation." I reply. "It will also put fewer requirements on the capabilities of your formation mages."
"Well, suppose that if I were to follow this strategy, how many forts would I need? What other problems will we face?" he asks.
"What I know about fort chains is purely theoretical. Firstly, the hardest phase will be the first phase. Multiple forts will have to be constructed, and formations will have to be built for each fort." I speak.
"Overall, the wall will require much simpler formations. A class seven or class eight formation will be enough for each node.....
(After about a couple of hours.)
I have spent the last couple of hours explaining to the man everything that I know about the fort chains. Finally, I have reached the end of my explanation.
I have spoken so much that my head is buzzing. We ended up back at the table sometime in the middle of this discussion. Right now, he is quietly pondering the feasibility of this idea. I have given him an entire game plan of what can be done.
"You have given me much to consider, young captain.", he suddenly says. "I will have to ask that you return to the guest room. I shall speak to you in a few days."
"Commander, I would have to request that we be allowed out of our rooms. As you must have seen during our entry, our ship needs extensive repair.", I ask the man, taking a bit of a risk. This action might just lead to my getting imprisoned right now.
"Well, you will have to negotiate with the nobles on that. They have charge of your security." The commander replies, "I could give you the permission that you want, but it will be too costly for me. I would offend the nobles too much. Instead, what I can do is arrange a meeting with one of the nobles. You can negotiate with him. Do you need anything else? If not, then you should leave."
Listening to the man, it is clear that this is a command. Well, before he gets to enforce that command of his, I leave the room.