Galvie

The city of Galvie was once again confronted by a day of rain. Not an unusual sight if one looked at the time of the year. The city of Galvie lay quite a bit away from the great Gratpein forest, meaning it lay more in the south. Although that didn't exactly mean that it wasn't cold, it meant that snow would only arrive during the middle of winter, whereas light snow already fell in the forest. Once the real winter would hit, all the small settlements that were located in the forest would be inaccessible by road. The forest was so insanely cold that one couldn't survive 10 minutes below the snow-covered trees.

The settlements could of course be reached by ship, but the ships could only be used for the transport of goods and materials, not the likes of people. You would have to modify a ship to be able to house more than 100 people and keep them warm. The ships that were sailing on the river normally had a crew of about 15 men, as that was the maximum amount of people that could manage to survive in the cold.

The duke once again sat in his study and looked out of his colored window. The sight of the town always gave him a strange feeling. He knew very well that he held the power over the lowly peasants that were living in that town.

It always amuses him to talk with them. They were so fascinating to him. Be it his court Jester that he recruited from the streets, or his guards that were constantly patrolling every inch of his castle.

He enjoyed the food that was served to him a few minutes ago, putting a steaming piece of the finest meat there was to find in the northern region, in his mouth. He looked down upon the reports he had received while chewing the delicious meat. He had to wipe his blonde hair out of his face quite a few times when he looked down.

Most reports were about the current situation in the other two big cities in his domain which would be Concuilsen and Nyruleia.

Both cities had something of an own government, being ruled over by a baron each. The reason why they were mere barons was one of the duke's decisions. He had the more powerful nobility in his surroundings, meaning that they resided in Galvie. He had one baron per town as they were easier to control with them being almost none other than the common peasant with a few nice clothes.

With a bit of teaching, he easily fed them the information they needed to run each town just enough to be self-sufficient, but also short of being able to mobilize an army of their own.

He was actually the first duke to do so, as most nobility in the other dukedoms ruled over their parts like usual. He did this so he wouldn't be overthrown easily, as the northern dukedom had many central spots of the population due to its difficult geography. The smallest city in his domain was Nyleria, with a population of around 7 to 8.000, which already placed its population in the top boards.

While looking through the stack of documents, he found a letter with one of his favorite sentences on it.

It read "From the Mayor of Fontechia".

The duke loved the letters from the town of Fontechia. He found the complexity of their history fascinating, as it was something completely different from what developed in the rest of the civilized world.

When the old man that currently held the position of "Mayor" first approached him with the promise of a deal, he was already interested in the fact that it was a man from Fontechia who had come to his doorstep. As he was the duke, the "Mayor" of course handled himself with extreme caution, knowing well that the duke could put his life to an end with just a few words.

The deal itself was also extremely intriguing to the duke, as it didn't directly result in a loss for him, but rather for the people of Fontechia. He was surprised, but also not really hesitant to agree to it, as it only benefited him AND gave him more authority in a place he had a hard time getting control over.

As he read the letter, he noticed that the usual handwriting had seemed to be more crude than usual, but he didn't pay it to much attention.

After reading through the whole letter, he took another bite of his meat, thereby finishing the now empty plate.

He yelled the maid over to come and get his empty plate, and then slowly stretched his back. He had a meeting to attend to with the other nobles.

He stood up, elegantly walked towards the exit of his study, and walked through it. He walked through the glamorous hallways of the castle, which not only possessed a red carpet floor, but also golden ceiling decorations alongside it.

Sometimes, a few paintings of other people came into sight, each with a name below them reading Augustus I. then Augustus II. and so on until a painting of the duke cane into sight, with the little text below it saying Julius Augustus III.

Not too long after the duke passed the paintings, a big, wooden door with decorations on it appeared.

He opened the big door without hesitation, entering a huge white and brown room. White Marble pillars stood in perfect harmony with each other, reaching the ceiling, which was covered in old, beautiful paintings.

A gigantic chandelier hangs from the painted ceiling, brightly illuminating the huge hall with its golden glory.

The duke walked over the brown, wooden floor, slowly approaching the long table in front of him, which had about 4 iron chairs, with red silk pillows on them. At the end of the table was a big and glorious throne, with gold all over it.

The 4 seats were already taken by the 4 respective underlings of the duke, meaning the 4 marquises that were residing in Galvie.

The duke took his place on the throne, while the 4 marquises took a respectful bow, with their fist on their foreheads.

The duke gave a sign with his hands, signaling the others to end their greeting. The duke looked over the crowd of 4, then followed that by saying, "So, what is it our majesty is requesting from us?".

The first marquis on the left the quickly answered, saying "The battle at Sensk is getting out of control, and the Fiatano kingdom apparently tries to get access to the Tusk mountain. They already wage a small war against the Hensperger kingdom, but they seemed to have set the target somewhere else now. It looks like they are planning a complete invasion at Sensk. I don't think I have to say how catastrophic that would be for every kingdom on this planet".

The man finished the long dialog he had received from one of his underlings. The duke's face remained the same, but his feelings were already suspicious of what his majesty wanted. He bluntly asked the marquis, "What is it that his majesty is requesting from my domain?" he asked with a loud and clear voice.

The marquis felt sweat coming down his neck, but he quickly answered the question posed by the duke.

"They are requesting..." he gulped down his saliva while one of his hands slowly started shaking "About one-third of our Galving troops"

The other marquise all looked at the talking one with utter disbelief, but no one dared to speak.

"That is utterly unreasonable! How am I supposed to gather those 10.000 troops?! Does his majesty know what he is asking of us? of ME!?..." The room was silent after the duke yelled in anger at the unreasonable request. Not only was the Sensk region about 3 weeks away, but transporting all the required materials over the challenging terrain was way too expensive, even for someone like a duke.

He didn't have enough ships ready to transport 10.000 men, but ships would be the cheapest option he had.

He asked the marquise one last question.

"...How does the ki- his majesty expect me to get my troops over half the continent? Is he at least taking over the costs?"

The marquis quickly shook his head, answering that the king would not only pay for the transport but also get enough ships for 10.000 men ready.

The duke sighed a small sigh of relief, at least the king had the decency to pay himself, but something still didn't sit right with him.

Normally, the king would ask the eastern dukedom for troop support, then it would send support from its own domain, and they request it from the western dukedom. Now, the two main questions in the room were, why would the king need 10.000 troops for a battle that could probably be won with 7 thousand, and the other question would be why the king requested it from him.

Suddenly, a shiver was sent down his spine. Could it be that the king already requested troops from the other dukedoms? and if he was assuming that he requested the exact number of soldiers he had asked from him from the other dukedoms, that would mean that the king had about 50.000 troops in the Sensk region. What enemy would one fight with that many troops?! That amount of manpower was only 10.000 short of the capital.

The duke involuntarily cooled down a bit, and defeatedly answered "Get the men ready, and send his majesty the message that we'll need his ships as soon as he can send them".

The marquis quickly obeyed the command, standing up from his seat and excusing himself from the meeting. The duke dismissed the others with some orders and then went back into his study.

The duke wanted to blow off some steam, so he looked out of the window. To his welcomed surprise, the rain finally stopped, meaning that he could get back to training with his Vindex-gloves.

He got a neatly decorated box out of one of his drawers, which was secured with multiple locks. He opened them with a lot of keys, and then slowly got out a pair of leather gloves.

The leather gloves had, just as pretty much everything in the duke's possession, detailed golden decorations on them, while the inner side of it had a smooth and clear diamond-like stone in it.

The duke put on the gloves and some other clothing, then he went towards the yard of the tall castle.

Finally arriving in the yard, a few guards and other people waited for him there.

A man with smaller stature approached the duke, giving him the usual bow with his fist on his forehead.

After that, the two of them talked one or two sentences and walked onto a big dirt field, which was still quite muddy from the rain.

The short man got into a fighting position, while the duke also took a position. He flattened both of his hands, then put the right hand in front of him, while he put the left behind him.

A man on the right side of the court slowly counted down from ten to one.

When the man yelled zero, the short man ran towards the duke at full speed, easily surpassing the speed of the average soldier.

Just as the man was halfway to the duke, the duke made two quick and seemingly smooth hand movements.

The man who approached the duke suddenly got blown back by an explosion directly in front of him. Just the shockwave threw dirt up into the air and threw some guards over that looked amazed while watching the battle.

The duke quickly followed, making another quick movement, followed by a quick flash of light that was barely visible as it was to thin.

An even bigger explosion ripped the ground open, the shockwave throwing over the rest of the still-standing staff that was nearby.

The short man now lay motionless on the floor, blood covering his body while one leg clearly sat in a position it wasn't supposed to.

The right half of his torso seemed to be completely burned off while a few pieces of burned flesh fell of it.

It was certainly a horrific sight.

The duke was actually holding back quite a bit, as the explosion looked powerful and certainly felt like it, but was indeed not that devastating. It surprised the duke to find such huge damage being done to his opponent, but as the man was just a peasant, it didn't really touch him emotionally.

The duke rubbed his hands together and slowly took the gloves off, then walked back into the castle to finish the rest of his documents, as he was sure that a lot more of them would arrive soon.