I struggled with this chapter. Not sure what it is, but will hopefully get back here to fix it.
Over the course of just a few minutes, the room was prepared for what, according to the Duchess, promised to be a longer meeting. Just as she'd been asked to do, Miriam left to get chairs and a table. Despite herself, Astrid couldn't help but smirk a bit more when the Assassin brought out chairs, and then Astrid looked at what was brought for her, squinted, then pushed it to the side. She then brought out one of these few luxuries she kept in her spatial pouch, despite the waste of space it was. A very comfortable chair, and large enough to fit Astrid herself, popped out, and she sat in it near the table that was brought out.
The rest of the party, who had chosen to instead keep simple camping chairs in their spatial pouches, didn't have such a wasteful item to bring out. They all just used the chairs that were brought for them, though Muti didn't fit in hers. The tall Barbarian's knees almost reached her chest from how bent over she had to be in the too-small seat. On the other hand, Muti fit at the table while Astrid's thighs pressed against the bottom of the table. It was enough that if she started to stand up, the tightening of her quads would lift up the entire table. With a sigh, Astrid pushed her chair back, instead turning it, so she sat parallel and could shift to her own comfort.
Then, as the Duchess opened a spatial pouch of her own and started setting delicate teacups, cakes, and sandwiches to prepare an entire formal tea setting, finally the real conversation began.
"There are a few different things that we specifically need to continue to do," the Duchess explained, putting a lump of sugar into her tea and stirring it, "and will leave the decision of which to do at what point up to you."
"Sure," Astrid nodded. "Before that, though, I have to ask: how closely matched do you think the highest tier people on both sides of the war are?"
"That's not a bad place to start," the Duchess nodded. "Because, in the end, if we win every other aspect of the battle, but have a handful of enemy Adamantium tiers shredding through our ranks, we lose in the end."
"The majority of war is deception," Leah said, leaning forward. "We can't compare what we know about our forces to what we know about the rebels'. We know everything we are capable of, but the Marchioness is holding some of her cards back, just like we are. Even so, if we only compare our revealed forces to her revealed forces, we have a firm upper hand. While she has her three Arcanite tier Dungeon dwellers, there's the five of us in the Golden Fist. We suspect that they're anywhere from 30 to 50 levels higher than us, so we absolutely won't be their match in a face-to-face fight."
"However," Aleksandr added, leaning forward, "any of the goodwill that either of us have had from the Council is long gone. There's next to nothing that either them or us can do to affect the continued results of this war. We had one opportunity to strike and make it hurt, whose success is where most of our confidence comes from."
"You're saying a whole lot without giving much information," Astrid said, staring at him. "Council? Goodwill? Made something count?"
"I'm assuming you've heard that people who live in the Dungeon proper will start making a stink on the surface if Arcanite tiers start causing trouble on the surface?" Ruth asked, leaning forward.
"And not just for Arcanite tiers," Astrid confirmed. "I've heard of deals being struck with these people, apparently the Council, to enforce agreements or contracts made up above."
"That's not unheard of, yes. However, largely, the Council, which you have surmised is the term for the loose leadership of all of the Dungeon dwellers, serves as a policing force of all of their denizens as well as for Arcanite tiers." As the Duchess explained it, she took a small cookie and dipped it in her tea. As she took a bite, a faint dribble of the tea coursed over her lip, but she was quick to collect a napkin and dab it away.
"Yes, regardless of if somebody has any intent of living in the Dungeon," Miriam said, her voice bitter. "Due to our long-standing position as the Duchess's Fist, we were permitted a single real engagement before we were forced to relegate ourselves to our current passive state."
"And we're grateful for that," Alexander picked up. "Because of that, we were able to kill three of the Marchioness's strongest supporters, all of whom were at least level 180. Now, however, if we try anything like that again, the Council will take care of us."
"And you mean that permanently," Benedict said, throwing a small sandwich into his mouth.
"Yes."
"So now you're sticking around to make sure that the Dungeon dwellers who came to the surface don't decide to just kill everyone?" Astrid asked, cocking her head to the side.
"If you wanna put 'protecting the Duchess from assassination' that way," Leah shrugged, "then yeah."
"I guess it's just as well for everybody else that you're guarding her instead of trying to teach all the poor Iron and Bronze tiers what to do. I've been told that doesn't often go your way," Astrid said, maintaining firm eye contact with the woman as she said it. Leah had the good sense to look at least partially embarrassed by that, but Isana wasn't about to remain silent.
"What I can see of your mana tells me that our instruction for you all was formative. Perhaps you are not grateful to the methods we employed, but the fact remains that our training served to help you all greatly."
"If spending a week giving instruction that most any Mithril tier could give, only to finish off with a round of publicly insulting the person you barely gave advice to can be considered extraordinary, then congratulations," Astrid scoffed, even as Skandr reached a hand out to lightly touch her shoulder.
"I suppose that's true," Isana said. "I can see that, though we did instruct you, much of what you have learned is through self-discovery, as well as learning from others. Other than ourselves, that is."
She didn't say anything more, her attention drifting down to the same thing she'd been fiddling with when the Wanderers entered the room. Miriam, however, had been holding her tongue and refused to continue to do so.
"You ungrateful brats," she scoffed. "You're acting like we walked up and kicked you, not spent a week training you. You're just a bunch of children who didn't know what to do and we sacrificed our time to help you, just pouting because you're spoiled.."
"I've only been truly taught by a good dozen or so people at this point," Astrid scoffed, pushing off Skandr's hand. "It's true that my exposure to teachers is limited. Even so, I want you to really listen when I say that if I have had ten teachers in my entire life, I am currently in the room with the people ranked sixth through tenth."
Miriam's nostrils flared as she glared at Astrid, but Astrid just maintained direct eye contact. She sat, her heartbeat thundering in her ears as she looked at the Golden Fist. Miriam seemed to start to say something back, then closed her mouth, pressed her lips together, hard enough to make the blood drain from them, and said nothing more.
"I wasn't gonna talk about it, I'm done now," Astrid shrugged. "You taught us as best as you could, you left by insulting me. I'll call it a wash."
Then, not continuing to look at them, Astrid looked at the Duchess. "What is it that you think we can do to help? If that's something we're capable of, great."
"We never finished talking about the difference in the highest tiers between the two armies," the Duchess said, a certain tilt to her head almost seeming to be amused at the argument. "In terms of revealed combatants, we have twelve Adamantium tiers and another seven who haven't revealed themselves yet. The rebels have shown a total of thirteen, but three were killed in the beginning of the revolution, leaving ten known Adamantium tiers. We don't know how many they have hidden, of course. For Mithril tiers, we have shown, not counting you five, twenty-seven, with fifteen, again, not counting you five, held in reserve. Within the rebels, only twenty Mithril have been found."
"That is a difference which could be considered sufficient to use as a basis for beginning the final conflict," Muti said. "Why do we sit here in conference instead of moving to stop the enemy from continuing to gain strength?"
"Some people might say it's too risky," Ruth said. "Honestly, I'm usually one of those 'some'. However, finishing this war would probably be better for people in general. That said, the fact that the Marchioness has made this move in the first place shows that she's very confident. A lot of that confidence was based off of her belief that she would be able to assassinate me right as the revolution began, leaving no further war to be waged. However, I know her, she had contingencies, and I am not going to get hundreds and thousands of people killed because I'm pretty sure we've got a good shot. She hid her strength so deeply, that there's no real way to tell if what we've seen is even half of what she's capable of bringing to bear."
"I can't say that I really understand what you're saying," Astrid disagreed. "You're talking in circles. Aren't you just letting her build a stronger base, to enslave more people, to gain more levels with time?"
"That's part of the issue," the Duchess continued. "The people in the capital are relatively high level, and it seems like our numbers are generally equal, moving further down the line. She's in a defensive area, and hasn't left the capital at all, so Ginnastadt's walls are letting her bunker down and use the nearby Dungeon branch and Dungeon proper entrances to strengthen her hold more. If we throw ourselves there recklessly, we're just going to break against the walls and give her an even greater leg up, if we don't lose the war outright."
"So we can't just leave her be," Astrid summarized, "because she and all of her subordinates are going to continue to get stronger. However, we also can't attack, because she's so defended. So we are leaving her be so she can force more people into contracts and get stronger, because if we attack, we'll all die. Is that about right?"
"Not too far off," Ruth let out a long sigh. "That's why our current focus is more on slicing away pieces of her power through taking plenty of prisoners and strategically maneuvering our forces to always win the battles we have with her. She needs to consolidate and continue to swell her numbers, and we are deliberately leaving openings so that she thinks she can seize more power while we cut away her support."
Astrid narrowed her eyes, not sure if she agreed with the approach.
"On the whole, we win two of three conflicts we come into with the rebellious forces, and about 50% of those victorious fights are total routs. Our numbers are growing, while hers are shrinking."
"But can't she force people to grow faster by compelling them into contracts?" Astrid pushed. "Then any advantage we might be gaining through these fights will be lost over time, especially as the survivors on her side manage to evolve."
"It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of situation. If we press too hard, we're taking an immense risk, one that might cost us the entire war in a moment. If we settle down, try to progress steadily, we can continue to grow, but we've also seen evidence of the Marchioness being able to take people from noncombat Classes into combat Classes."
"Yes, we have," Astrid grumbled, remembering Anders. "So what do you want us to do?"
"We need our people to continue to grow faster," Ruth said. "To do that, we need training, we need people to take them into the Dungeon branches, and potentially, even into the Dungeon proper. We have many of our higher tier people already doing this, but having more trainers, more people to help is always going to be good. In addition, having a few individuals who are capable of turning the tide of a battle that might have been slightly up in the air before that will be immensely valuable as well."
"Are those the main things you want us to do, then?" Astrid asked. "To escort people into the Dungeon and give training? Because honestly, it doesn't seem like our presence will be particularly impactful in that case."
"For now, not really," the Duchess agreed. "However, in the final battle, you'll probably be more impactful than you might think."
"Why is that?" Skandr asked, leaning forward. "Near as I can tell, we'll help with one part, but the most important is always going to be the highest tier people who are fighting. If all the Arcanite tiers are being forced to stay out of the fight, then it'll be the Adamantiums that matter most."
"That's true, and both sides are pushing people to evolve as fast as possible. With that comes the necessity of taking lower quality evolutions, whether they're the only ones that are offered, or because evolution will be possible only through taking a lower rarity option doesn't matter. If they're looking to evolve in a way that somebody can conceivably finish quickly and without entirely leaving the country for a long period of time, that's what'll happen. Which is where you come in."
Astrid glanced over her Status, doing quick math, and then following her thoughts to the logical conclusion of what the Duchess was saying.
"You're saying that if we continue to gain some levels, even if it's just a handful, we'll be able to take on the weakest Adamantium tiers the rebels might be able to build up in the interim? If they're truly unremarkable people who would never be able to reach those heights without being pushed along by others much stronger than them, we might be able to take them on as a party."
"If you all have the same quality of Classes that I suspect," the Duchess said with a raised eyebrow and a faint smile, "I suspect that even in a direct fight, you would have a good chance of holding your own against, or even defeating one of these people."
"She's not wrong," Skandr said, his voice soft. "In terms of pure attributes, you nearly compare to a level 141 Adamantium whose Classes were uncommon in Iron and Steel, then rare in Mithril."
"I've done enough thinking and talking about the disparity in numbers between myself and others' Classes," Astrid shook her head even as she found herself preening a little at the thought of being able to potentially confront someone fifty levels higher than her.
"Then let's not talk about it," the Duchess waved off the line of questioning. "We can just talk about what you might want to do here, what you might need from me. If we're going to have a good relationship, I would like to be able to provide for you what you want."
"I wish to teach for now," Muti was the first to speak. "I will serve in teaching others to be more flexible with their mana and to also defeat the enemies who can pose threats to me. To stretch myself in taking prisoner instead of killing will be an exercise in my own capability before I retreat to the Hordes' lands."
"A worthy cause," Ruth nodded. "Is there aught you require from me?"
"I will find my own opportunities, so long as I am permitted to do so," Muti answered, looking at Astrid for confirmation. When Astrid nodded, the Barbarian bared her teeth and finished, "I look forward to training the deadliest people who are willing to learn."
The rest of the party followed suit after Muti, Skandr and Benedict simply saying that they wanted to focus on evolving, while Felix didn't mention any real desires. Finally, the Duchess turned to Astrid.
"You say you're a friend," she said, "and friendships are reciprocal, so far as I know. So, what do you want?"
"I don't need anything personally from you," Astrid shook her head as she spoke, her voice becoming bitter. "I've always sworn by the Duchess. For my life, I considered the Duchess to be a holy figure. Then, I saw the weakness of the Guild, the corruption of the nobles, and the self-obsession of the powerful. I don't need you to line my pockets or 'scratch my back', so to say. I want to see you be the Duchess that I dreamed you would be. A woman who leads a country, protects her lands, and loves her people. Don't look down on the ignorant or scorn the weak. Be better than those who came before, and when you struggle to do that, reach out for genuine help from me. I'll support you if you try to fulfill my selfish desire.
"Be the best Duchess there's ever been. Actually protect the innocents who trust you, and, when you're not enough, let me help you. That'll be the best way to actually get my trust."
Silence filled the room for a short while before Ruth stood up, staring at Astrid. Her short stature compared to Astrid's only allowed her to be at Astrid's eye level as she stepped around the table to stand in front of the Warrior.
"You don't have an easy request," she said, smiling softly. "In truth, they're the same expectations I carry for myself. Having you wanting me to do the same seems to be another testament to the potential friendship between us.
"I swear that I, Ruth Duchess, will strive to be better than those who came before, and when my own strength proves insufficient, I will reach my hand out to you."
The two women shook hands, and Astrid stood up, glancing at the windows where the sun had set and night had fallen. "Actually, I do have one thing to ask for," she said as a thought crossed her mind.
"What is it?"
"Do you happen to have some open beds? Turns out, my parents sold their house and there are no inns with vacancies."