The sweep was fast, with sporadic pistol fire as they moved through the defeated infantry. The detonation of the powder wagon had destroyed most of the enemy force’s supplies, but the unit managed to come back with what looked like an entire truck worth of field rations.
They were only two days out of the Palace, so they didn’t have a lot of room, but all the crates were quickly strapped to the outside or roof of the trucks, and they were moving again, headed inland.
"The survivors went straight west. They’re unlikely to come across the first battlefield, but we looted this one as well." Commander Dax reported.
"Excellent work. Let’s find a safe spot to sleep for the night, and let the Dagos Army wonder why their team isn’t reporting in." Alexis agreed.
"Aren’t they just too poorly armed?" Dominic asked as they moved out of the ruins, looking for somewhere as good that wasn’t next to a fresh battlefield.
Alexis shrugged. "They’re traditionally armed. I don’t think that Dagos can actually afford to supply them all with magitech, so they’re sending them as heavy infantry, like they did a hundred years ago.
It worked well enough then, and for the most part, it will work now.
But not against riflemen."
A thousand kilometres to their southwest, stopped at Staptontave, just inside the Dagos borders, Prince Kaizon was fuming.
The unit that he had sent to find Princess Alexis had been massacred, and the tracking spell which should have been triggered when her location was verified had never been used.
What the hell had they run into inside their own borders?
None of the other surviving Princes were going to go down easily, and if he didn’t get this tie to the Cygnia Royalty before they conquered the nation, he would have to deal with mass rebellions when his people were already starving.
Worse, every village that they managed to raid along the Cygnia border had either destroyed the Techno Wizard’s shop before the village fell, or the damnable magicians had retreated before he even arrived.
They had nothing to show for their raids, and they still didn’t understand how the Cygnia Airships could have both a speed and altitude advantage on the designs that they had paid so much to acquire from West Keria.
The paratrooper technique had worked brilliantly at first, but now Cygnia was adapting to it. But Kaizon didn’t really care about that.
It had served its purpose, and all that he had to do now was capture his wayward concubine before he conquered her nation.
In his mind, it was just that simple.
If he wanted things done right, he was going to have to do them himself.
"Dispatch the Royal Guard to hunt down the war criminal and the concubine. I want both alive if possible, but I won’t be too upset if the sorcerer is dead. Just ensure that he does not escape.
I don’t know what gold blinded traitor told West Keria, but word is spreading that a Prince of Wavemates has survived, and if they can get their hands on him, those Kerian bastards are sure to use it as an excuse to raise an army against us while we’re mired in Cygnia." The Prince ordered his advisor.
"It will be done, Your Highness."
Deep in the woods near the village of Theton River, the Natural Sons had found an abandoned trading post, defunct since a flood eighty years ago had changed the course of the river.
There was no sign of habitation after that, and even the closest farms were near the horizon. It looked to the casual eye as if the nation were actually losing population, but they were actually undergoing industrialization, and the people were flocking to the city chasing the promise of jobs that paid more than subsistence.
Whether they actually did or not was questionable, and the quality of life in the coal smoke and filth of the Dagos major cities was not much better than struggling to keep a garden in the wilderness.
But to the struggling youth of the rural areas, the dream of a better life shone far brighter than the reality of the cities.
Droughts had been a constant companion for most of a decade, and for the majority of the farmers, tax levies were taking the ’subsistence’ out of subsistence farming.
"Commander, send someone to scout the farm village. Give them one of the Dagos ration crates, in case they need help getting people to talk. Don’t take the mechanical horses into town, leave them with the scouts, and keep the team under three men." Alexis ordered.
"Understood. They will get the information that we need." Dax agreed.
She would have preferred to go herself, but with the Prince searching for them, the chance that either her or Dominic would be recognized was too high. Anonymity was a form of safety, and until they could no longer keep it up, she knew that her best bet was to keep her head down.
Dominic was in the same situation. Even if they weren’t looking for him specifically, it was a death penalty for a Sorcerer to even be in Dagos uninvited. Going in to scout for himself was far too risky.
An hour later, the sun was nearly setting, and Commander Dax approached the village’s lone Inn.
"Stranger, what can we do for you?" The innkeeper asked.
"I don’t suppose that you’ve got drink? You see, my friends and I are working in the area, and I’ve built up a mighty thirst." He asked.
The Commander was a handsome young man, every bit the playboy young Noble that the Natural Sons Regiment had been looking for.
The innkeeper nodded. "The Baron taxes any money he finds in our hands, so we are a barter only establishment."
Dax smiled and set out a kilo of cured ham from the Dagos military rations. It was clearly bagged for military use, a calculated risk on his part.
The innkeeper smiled and moved the ham beneath the counter, then poured an ale for the young Noble.
"That should cover you for the evening. If your band of caring gents should happen to come across more of the same, let me know, and can work a way to pay you for them. The crops haven’t been good lately, and we’re still a few weeks from planting season when the rains slow." He whispered.
Dax winked at him. "If we are able to remain in the area, we will have plenty to trade. I hope you like barley, the gentlemen we met along the highway d it to us in fifty kilo sacks."
"In that case, I don’t suppose that it’s been a lonely trip? My Lydia is widowed, but she’s a kindly sort." The Innkeeper offered.
Tempting, but Dax had work to do.
"Perhaps the next time that I visit. My friends and I just needed to make sure that your village was made of good and pious sorts, not those warmongering pompous westerners."
The innkeeper nodded. "There are more than enough of those around. They’ve set up a recruitment and training facility northwest of here. Best steer clear, they’ve taken every boy between twelve and twenty for the army, and far too many of the girls as well."