Homesteading in a fantasy world

On a warm afternoon, when the sun was colouring everything in soft tones, the Bravenhold army finally saw the Eastern army start to appear on the horizon. As people pointed it out, a nervous wave went through the army.

Message books and sticks were used to inform about the change in the situation. It was confirmed that they needed to execute plan A, so they started to pack up their current gear so they could abandon this location and start to head west on a decent dirt road.

Everyone not at that location concentrated on all the information coming in so they could make the correct choices for their next actions. The leader of Aetherhold had already foreseen multiple futures and knew that the best-case scenario was to take a defensive position.

Then when the main army of Bravenhold started to leave, to move out and use the extra-long spears they had prepared to keep the cavalry at bay, keeping both of the enemy forces tied to that location.

There was a chance that when the United Freehold realized they would not be able to pull their army along, they would choose to send the cavalry to join up with them in Aldermarch. But he also had a plan for that.

He wouldn't mind a direct conflict with the Bravenhold army, as with the prepared holy spells he had left with the general of the eastern army, they should be able to defeat the Bravenhold army and then move towards Bravenhold towns, which would make the cavalry return.

It was a perfect plan that a brilliant general would have come up with, even if they didn't have access to future knowledge. It was because of that, a few days later, when Rich was informed that the eastern army was digging in, he enacted his plan.

At the start, everything went as the leader of Aetherhold had expected. The Bravenhold army continued to march further west, so the eastern army started to march out of the fortified position towards the cavalry of the Triple Alliance.

Then a few things changed a bit. First, the Bravenhold army took longer before they turned around to cover the cavalry army and while it came close they never actually engaged with the eastern army directly. It was at this moment that the leader of Aetherhold realized something was off because the Bravenhold army hadn’t reached as far as they expected.

They had been purposely dragging their feet, and now they were moving back double time, which meant that the eastern army wouldn’t be able to get back to their fortified position and would, in fact, be sandwiched between the Bravenhold army and the cavalry army.

In the western army, they had set up for the night, the leader of Aetherhold and his 10 followers were all in their command tent, trying to figure out what was going on. "It's obvious that they want to engage or keep the eastern army there, but that just doesn't make any sense. They can't be confident in victory," one of the followers said, and immediately after, another spoke up.

"It doesn't matter if they want to engage; it will be a hard battle, but no one will win anytime soon, and even if the eastern army were to lose, it wouldn't matter. Not even the cavalry would be able to come back in time to help them."

"Silence," their leader said while looking over the reports and the maps. He was channelling his divine insight ability to try to figure out why things had changed. Of course, he knew that it was the fault of the heretic, but while he could somehow change his future, he still acted like a person, and it didn't make any sense for him to commit to such an uncertain battle.

In the past, every time he engaged with an enemy, he had a huge upper hand if it was possible and only engaged otherwise if it was the only solution. Yet here, there should be many better options than engaging.

The United Freeholds army had marched south this entire time, but currently, they were camped near a crossroads where the road further south led to Aldermarch, and another road that went northeast would bring them into contact with the western army of Aetherhold.

The only reason they would need to continue to march down that road was that technically, the Western army could cross the narrow forest between that road and the one that leads to the United Freeholds' lands. They would still have another two weeks of marching before they reached the point where the Western army would need to engage them if they wanted to continue.

They would be waiting here for a few days so the mercenaries could make it here. In the command tent, there was a serious discussion with a lot of yelling, mainly because Rich wasn't there, and the letter he left just stated, ‘I will be back in a few days.’

When Rich was able to confirm that the Eastern army would be forced to fight both the Bravenhold army and the cavalry army on the open field, he immediately started his plan that he hadn't told anyone.

After he wrote that letter, he met up with Goose. Goose had grown quite a lot, and with the second rank he had achieved, he could now carry Rich for a short while if he used his wind manipulation. That was, however, when Rich wasn’t using his ability to make himself weigh less.

"We’re going to try something new today. You're going to have to push yourself, but not to worry, it shouldn't be too draining as I will be helping, and you can let off some steam by killing some enemies afterwards," Rich said to Goose while scratching his neck.

Goose immediately liked the idea and shifted into a better position that would allow Rich to get onto him more easily. Rich didn't hesitate and climbed onto Goose. His eyes, however, immediately noticed how fate-coloured holy power started to appear all around him, nudging him back towards the camp. He just smirked at that.

Currently, Goose was using the special harness they had made for him to deliver mail, but Rich had purposely overdesigned it so he could hold onto it against the wind resistance he was about to experience.

With only a few flaps, they were soaring into the sky, and thanks to Rich supplying energy to Goose, they soon broke the sound barrier and could stay at that speed as they flew towards the eastern army.

Slowly, word spread through the Triple Alliance that there was about to be a conflict with the Eastern army, and Rich was nowhere to be found. In the western army camp, the leader of Aetherhold started to feel that something was off.

Yet, he couldn't use up too much power to find out what was currently happening, as his ability to see the future and past didn't allow him to see the present, and the closer to the present he got, the more he would need to spend his holy power.

It was a few hours later when he finally got a glimpse of the United Freeholds Army camp command tent, only to find out that Rich wasn't there, and no one knew where he was. He didn't need to use his power to figure out what was going on. Rich was headed towards the eastern army; the only question was how he was going to get there.

All of the army mages were using anti-teleportation and anti-recession spells. The area they were able to cover was quite big, but Rich was rank 2 and probably had abilities that allowed him to move fast.

In a panic, he looked up and said, "Eastern army, how would the calculation for the upcoming battle change if Rich was personally there?" It only took one of the followers a second to answer.

"It would be a complete slaughter. Not only could he boost his army's soldiers, but there's also no one who could fight against him, and he could probably solo the army with enough time as he can always retreat to recharge his energy and then continue to slaughter."

The leader didn’t say anything, but everyone could see how his face was turning more white than it already was. It was at this point that everyone else figured out what was happening. "We are going to lose at the eastern army; how would that change our plans?" one of the followers said and asked the others as they needed to readjust their current war strategy.

"Doesn’t the eastern army have the boost spells we made for them? It should help them hold on," there was an immediate answer by the 1st follower who spoke. "That would work, but only for a little while. They simply don't have someone there who could fight Rich, and he could break the front lines, making those spells a lot less effective."

They continued to strategize while their leader stayed silent. He was barely holding his anger. They knew that they couldn’t win against Rich in an open battle; that's why they had come up with this current plan that would allow them to kill Rich before any major conflict.

Now they were going to lose the first battle, which would bring doubt into the hearts of his followers. This was unacceptable, yet he couldn’t do anything to change this outcome. Rich, on the other hand, was working hard not to lose his grasp on the harness he was holding onto, but he couldn't help but smile, imagining what was happening in the enemy command tent.