Chapter 10

Ludwin’s men and their allies were slowly but surely pushing the defenders back into the Grand Barracks. The entrance was large enough for six Orcs to stand side by side, which made the defender’s job a bit harder. Ludwin blocked a thrust aimed at his head and thrust back, being blocked in turn. He was always slower than the other lieutenants. Though he is legally defined as a gifted one, his abilities were only somewhat higher than the average person instead of being much higher. Ludwin was incredibly thankful that the Baron knew how to use him, namely, as a commander instead of a soldier. Well, he usually uses me that way. Thought Ludwin as he blocked another strike aimed at his head. One of his men stabbed through the thigh of the Orc engaged with Ludwin, the men next to him stabbing the Orc in the chest soon after.

“Good work men! Keep it up! We’re almost in!”

As the men kept thrusting and pushing in unison, a rumbling was heard from behind. Ludwin extracted himself from the formation and turned to see who was coming. It looked to be about eight squads guessing by the presence of a few Orc in plate armor, as well as Fergus, Helmut, and Gaius. In the front was Jack, the Skipper of Londonsburg, holding a stick with a head on it. After shouting more encouragements to his men, Ludwin ran over to ask why who’s head was on the stick, silently praying that it would mean an end to the fighting.

“‘O’s ‘ead is it? Greg’s! Da Skipper o’ Yorksburg! Da gitz in da barracks’l surrender wifout deir skipper.”

“Great! Come on then!”

Ludwin ran back over to the entrance of the Barracks.

“Hey! Orc of York! Stop fighting! We have something to discuss!”

The fighting continued on, despite Ludwin’s increasingly frantic yelling. Jack walked over and put a hand on Ludwin’s shoulder, taking in a deep breath.

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOYZ! GREG’S DEEAAAAAAAD!”

The fighting quickly slowed down. Ludwin ran over to his men.

“Clear the area! Make way for Jack!”

As Ludwin’s men parted around the entrance, an Orc wearing ill fitting and incredibly bloody plate armor stepped out.

“Greg’s dead? Shit. Roight boyz, wez lost. Trow down your arms.”

The Orcs immediately did as he said, Jack smiling and walking over to the enemy leader.

“Your boyz is gonna wanna be roight as rain for when we leave. Gonna need to rebuild lotz o’ shit, yeah?”

“Yeah, youz is roight. Go on an’ get de ofer gitz to stop foightin’. Wez is gonna see to da wounded.”

Ludwin was completely bewildered. They were taking their loss a little too well.

“Next time, wez is gonna be sackin’ Londonsburg, yeah?”

“Maybe after I kick da bucket!”

Oh, Thought Ludwin, So…it’s like a game to them?

The Baron kicked down a door, finding nothing. That pattern was being repeated all around him.

“What, did we kill every Orc in this god forsaken building?”

The Baron moved over and kicked down another door, finding two Orcs cowering behind a flipped over table.

“Are you combatants?”

One of the Orcs gingerly peaked his head over the table.

“N-no! Wez is bureaucrats!”

“Ah, I see. Good day then.”

The Baron left that room to go find more enemy combatants, only finding open doors and grumbling humans.

“Baron, I think we got ‘em all.”

“Yes, I’m starting to believe that as well. Gather all the men by the stairs we came from, it looks like it’s time to move on. The Skipper is not in his palace.”

The man saluted and ran off, and the Baron walked over to the stairs. Out the window the Baron spotted a huge group heading their direction, and at the center of it was Jack, holding a stick with a head stuck on it.

“That’s probably the Skipper.”

A group of around 40 humans were running over to him.

“Men! I believe our work in Orcland is done! Let us head down and meet up with the rest of our army!”

The men saluted and then followed after the Baron. On the way down, the Baron noted the carnage he and his men had caused. There were dead Orcs lying everywhere, on the ground, slumped against walls, some were even thrown halfway through the windows. How many did I kill today? I honestly don’t know. Hm, I feel like that may be a bad thing. As the Baron’s group left the palace they found Udo and Jeremy’s group also waiting for Jack to arrive. The Baron moved over to Udo.

“Hey, did you kill everyone on the first floor? There are no combatants alive on the second.”

Udo looked at the Baron and proudly stuck out his chest.

“No, we didn’t! They surrendered to me!”

The Baron patted Udo on the shoulder.

“That’s some damn fine work. What did you do with them?”

“Jeremy said that since they surrendered they were harmless, so we let them go. I felt it was weird, but hey, I’m not an Orc.”

“Well said.”

The two groups met and began celebrating. They had fully subjugated Yorksburg. Gaius swept Udo up in a hug, and Fergus followed suit with Ludwin. Helmut watched contentedly from a safe distance. He never was a fan of physical contact. Jeremy and the Baron walked over to Jack. Jack thrust the head on a stick forward.

“We did it! Wez won! Now’s just time for takin’ all dats valuable ‘n runnin’ back ‘ome!”

Jeremy roared with approval. The Baron just nodded his head.

“Sounds great, shame my men don’t go marauding. I’ll leave that part to you Londonsburg Orcs. Jack, if you wouldn’t mind, may I bring my men back to Londonsburg so we can get ready to depart?”

“Roight! Youz go do dat! We’ll talk ‘fore you leave, just come see me at my palace!”

The Baron gratefully inclined his head and put his hand over his heart.

“I thank you for that. It was a pleasure working alongside you. I hope we can cooperate again in the future.”

“Roight, yeah! Wez so gonna do dat!”

The Klarwasser mercenary company had loaded all of their things into their wagons and were waiting by the gates to leave. The Baron still had business with Jack to attend to, but after that it was time for them to go home. The Baron sipped the whiskey offered to him gratefully. He hadn’t drank for a full two weeks, ever since he garrisoned Castle Cornwall.

“Roight, so, youz gitz did a bloody fantastic job! Youz ‘as more dan just earned my axe, you earned my ‘eartfelt respect. So, do you know what youz want us to do, or will youz discuss it wif me closer to rebellion time?”

“I have some ideas as to what I want you to do. It would mostly be harassment detail,I do not require a full scale invasion of the Empire.”

Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

“Tank London! I was ‘fraid dat’s exactly what you’d ask.”

“Of course, I just wanted to begin with assuaging your fears.”

Jack kicked his feet up on his desk.

“‘Preciate it.”

“Right, so, I would mostly want you to look like an invasion is imminent, and also generally harassing northern Imperial provinces. I would want for you to send occasional warbands down into Jagstadt and cause trouble down there, and possibly attack Imperial ships in and around the Gross See, or whatever you call the channel separating Londonsburg from Grossenstadt. All I wish from you is for you to divert Imperial supplies away from the Grossenstadt-Bickenstadt border.”

“Roight, yeah. I can do dat easy. Just send me da word ‘n I’ll start sendin’ my boyz down dere.”

“Excellent. Well then, that is really all we have to discuss. All I have left to do is see if the Orcs I hired are willing to live in Bickenstadt or if they wish to be let go. So, I’ll see to that. As I said before, It was a pleasure working alongside you.”

“Roight back atcha!”

“Well, wez been talkin’ ‘bout it since youz ‘ired us. Yeah, wez wanna live in Bickenstadt! Workin’ for youz wez gonna see bunch o’ shit we ain’t seen ‘fore!”

“Wait, so, do you all want to come?”

An Orc raised his hand.

“I don’t. ‘Eard jim ‘n da Williamson boyz ain’t goin’ neifer.”

A couple of Orcs yelled their agreements. A Gob spoke up without raising his hand.

“Roight, so, most ‘o us ain’t goin’ to Bickenstadt. I fink like ten ‘o us wanna go, roight?”

Ten or so Gobs yelled their agreements.

“Alright then. You are all let go. You have been paid already, so you have no more business here. It was a pleasure working with you gentlemen. If you ever change your minds, just come to Bickenstadt.”

They all shouted their agreements again. The Baron turned to Ludwin.

“We should probably send word to Wolfgang, tell him to construct an Orc quarter. Enough housing for, like, 100 or so men. Can you write the letter and send one of our skirmishers to ride ahead of us?”

“Of course, Baron. I’ll get right on that.”

After just three months in Orcland, and a week's worth of crossing the Empire, the Klarwasser mercenary company was finally home. As they unloaded everything in the courtyard of Castle Bickenstadt, Wolfgang was yelling at the Baron.

“You can’t give me just four days' notice and expect me to build enough permanent housing for 100 Orcs! We don’t even know how big we’re supposed to make things!”

The Baron cracked a small smile.

“It should be around me sized.”

“This isn’t funny! Where are they going to live in the meantime?! In tents outside the city?”

“Yes. They’re from Orcland, our weather is hardly going to bother them. Orcs and Gobs are quite hardy, I’ll have you know. They’ll live in a camp just outside of Bickenstadt, and if they don’t like it they can go home. Trust me son, they won’t complain. I may appear to be doing things arbitrarily, but I do put thought into the things I do.”

Wolfgang pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his temples, sighing heavily.

“I know. I know, alright? You just give me too much to do. The note you left on my desk before leaving just says ‘create a people’s court’. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“I want the citizens of Bickenstadt to start thinking for themselves, proposing policy and acting on it by themselves. Wolfgang, if I want to create democracy in this god forsaken country, I need to teach people how to do it. Now, I will admit, my note was rather vague, but now I am here, and I will work with you on creating it.”

“You being here now doesn’t change the fact that you left me horrible instructions and then left for three months!”

“Oh, this may not be the right time for this, but I want to legalize Christianity and build a church.”

Wolfgang stared at the Baron in utter bewilderment.

“You…you what? Christianity?”

“Yes. I wish to stop persecuting Christians. They’re the only people in the Empire nowadays with ideas worth a damn.”

“But…but you’re a warrior? How can you be a Christian warrior?”

“We can discuss the finer points of theology later, just announce that Christianity is legal now and that we’re building a church.”

“Dad, this has to be a joke, right?”

“No. I am Christian. I want to be able to practice my faith openly, Imperial law be damned. I doubt the Empress will care enough to do anything about it. Just get it done dammit.”

The Baron quickly walked off and started helping his men unload things from carts. Wolfgang stood completely still, jaw hanging open.

“But your…But he’s…Christ…what?”

The Baron turned around and threw a bag of coins at Wolfgang.

“Just do it!”

Wolfgang slowly picked up the bag and headed towards the castle.

"By the gods, I need a drink."