by DB King
Arima seemed pensive for a moment, before sighing and nodding. “I have trusted you this far, Jin, and you have not disappointed me. From this day onwards, you will have full access to the Toyotoda treasury; it has grown a hundred times over with your aid and genius. Use it to defend our home, Jin. Spare no expense; I trust you.”
Jin nodded. “Thank you for trusting me, uncle. I will endeavor not to disappoint you.”
The rest of the breakfast was spent in silence; Ebisu had joined them at some point and made most of the noise by asking random questions regarding magic and its nature. Jin answered some of them, but mostly kept quiet as well. After breakfast, Jin excused himself and immediately walked out of the manor, much to Ebisu’s disappointment.
Procuring a cartload of rice wine and rice had been easy, given Hirata’s current surplus. However, they would need to begin stockpiling their resources soon with the war looming on the horizon. Jin, of course, had prepared for such an occasion, having commissioned the construction of several warehouses to store large amounts of rice and buckwheat. Already, two of the five warehouses were filled to the brim.
“Take the cart down the southern road; you’ll eventually come across the remains of a caravan – leave the cart there and return immediately. Ask no questions and don’t look back; am I understood?” Jin stood before a small regiment of armed guards. They bowed swiftly and moved immediately, accompanying the horse-drawn cart down the village’s southern entrance. Jin briefly looked on as the men trudged down the road, before turning away. There were other matters to attend to; barring unforeseen circumstances, that cart should fulfill his end of the bargain to Yojimbo.
Hopefully, he would be able to use that man’s ragged band sooner rather than later. A force of warriors, trained in the arts of guerilla warfare, would be extremely valuable in the coming war.
Jin walked over toward the village’s administrative office, one of the many other offices he’d established during his stay. It wasn’t a particularly tall building, but it was wide and spacious, holding numerous offices, pertaining to the day-to-day governance and tasks needed to be accomplished to keep the village running at optimal capacity. Jin had his own office, of course, at the center of the building. It lacked any form of decoration and only had a simple cabinet, which held many documents and paperwork, a simple desk, and a chair. He entered his office and closed the door behind him.
There were plenty of things he needed to consider for now – things to ponder, plans to improve, and a whole host of innovations to pull out of his memories. Firstly, Hirata would need far more advanced walls and defenses if it was to withstand an actual attack. Building the thirty foot walls that were common in his previous world here, however, would be rather difficult; firstly, cement had not been discovered yet and, even then, they didn’t exactly have a nearby quarry with which to collect durable stones to build walls and, even then, they simply did not have the time. Therefore, staying on the defensive is not a good strategy; if an army is headed toward us, it’ll be smarter to attack first. The three hundred or so soldiers we can realistically muster is a paltry amount, but they’ll be able to move much faster than large armies. I will begin teaching them guerilla tactics. The manufacturing and collecting of poisonous substances will also be of great help; the old wise-women of the village are said to be knowledgeable in such things….
Weapons and armor would be the hardest to acquire. Hirata had its own forges and blacksmiths, but they weren’t trained in making weapons; unfortunately, neither was Jin. As much as he wanted to simply teach them the actual art, he couldn’t. He’d never bothered learning it in his previous life. Either we buy our weapons and armor from this province’s capital, or we hire a master blacksmith to oversee operations on forging arms and armor. Both options will be costly, but the latter will yield better results in the long run; Hirata must not be dependent on other cities or villages for resources during war times.
In Jin’s previous world, there were many city-states and villages that’d grown too dependent on each other for growth and development - becoming a powerful chain. As with all chains, however, they were only ever as strong as their weakest link; if five villages, or cities, were too dependent on each other, the destruction of one would lead to the destruction of all others. Hirata would not suffer such a fate.
Siege weapons and equipment would be ironically easier to procure. Jin’s memories held designs for some of the most powerful and effective siege weaponry of his previous world, though a few of those required the use of black powder, which hadn’t been discovered yet in this world – or Moyatani, at least – so, he’d have to leave those out or risk shooting his own foot. However, trebuchets, scorpions, mangonels, onagers, and even the simplistic ballistae were within reach; Hirata’s blacksmiths were certainly possessed of enough skill to build the components of the weapons, and they were not in shortage of workers willing to assemble them. Mangonels and scorpions would be the easiest to build, given their simplicity. I’ll have them be mass-produced, while assembling a few ballistae and onagers for heavier threats.
Troop training would be rather complicated given the fact that Moyatani culture was simply too different from the rather unified culture in his previous world – at least, in terms of warfare. Moyatani soldiers didn’t really fight as a single, cohesive unit; an entire army would act more akin to a loose gathering of warriors, seeking out honorable duels in the battlefield. Jin couldn’t have the only three hundred soldiers he’d have at his disposal dying due to the sheer stupidity of Moyatani warfare. I’ll have to break it into their heads that fighting dishonorably is a lot better than dying like a bunch of stupid cretins. After all, honor can be restored and regained later in life, while death was permanent. I’ll teach them the phalanx, alongside the use of shields and formations.
One of the greatest warrior civilizations in Jin’s previous world were the Eltruskians, whose soldiers fought with steely discipline and unwavering courage. They marched as one and fought as one in lockstep formation, moving as a single entity – a true army. Three hundred soldiers with no real experience really couldn’t hope to match them, but Jin could train them to be close enough, at least. The only way for us to survive this war is to fight differently. If we stand by the codes of honor, we’ll all be killed.
As the wheels in Jin’s mind turned and spun with thoughts of war and death, a grizzly howl from the distant woodlands echoed across the village, sending forth an unnatural chill that shivered the bones of the villagers.
Chapter 20
The whole of Hirata froze at the blood-curdling howl that echoed across the winds. Many fell on the ground, unconscious, their minds riddled with dread and fear. Children ran into their homes and huddled in the dark corners, whilst their mothers frantically chased after them. Many of the old and sickly simply dropped dead, blood frozen. Those of enough age and experience to recognize the source of the howl, however, quivered upon their feet, eyes widening and breaths hitching, their chests rapidly rising up and down, hyperventilating. Cold sweat dripped down the sides of their faces.
Several veteran soldiers and old hunters, even grandmothers who told stories, froze in place. They knew the source of this malady, the dark and oppressive power that ruled all of ice and snow. They knew the lord whose rotting flesh drove away the beasts of the wilderness, the lord whose crown is antlers and desecrated flesh, the lord whose eyes have sunken away into blackened pits, and whose maw ever hungered for more flesh. It was said to awaken once every three decades, a maddening creature that drove entire ecosystems into extinction with its passing.
A grandmother fell to her knees, eyes wide as she hugged her grandchild closer into her chest, softly caressing the child’s back as she whispered, “Wendigo….”
The creature’s existence drifted in and out of reality; no one knew for sure if it existed or not – not even the oldest of mages. Records of it existed only in the form of scant eye-witness accounts and supposed sightings by mages addled with fear
and paranoia.
A dreadful blast of frigid winds swept across Hirata, sending dust and debris flying into the air. The howl continued. With it came a biting cold that seemed to freeze the bones. Fear and panic had stricken the hearts of the villagers as they hid in their homes, praying and hoping for salvation.
* * *
Jin stood up off his chair, eyes wide, and rushed out of the administrative building, kicking open the sliding doors as he did. A powerful wave of freezing winds met him as soon as he was outside, nearly cutting apart his clothes with an unnatural cold. Jin averted and shielded his eyes, raising his left forearm up over his face and turning away. He gritted his teeth and waited for the winds to abate. There’s magic in the air…
The magic in itself was incredibly powerful, and yet it was also incredibly ancient, older than the oldest tree and oldest raindrop. Jin reached out with his magical senses and recoiled at the sheer age that came with the dreadful presence. It was clearly sentient and sapient, and its aura was not the same as that of a Magical Beast. It felt distinctly more powerful – almost alien in nature. It was something that should not have existed and yet it did anyway, an affront to the natural laws – even when the irrationality of magic was taken into account. A shiver ran up Jin’s spine as the winds turned into a blizzard – one that should not have happened, given the fact that winter wouldn’t come for another four months.
Jin’s eyes narrowed as he braved the unnatural blizzard and leapt to the rooftop of administrative building. What the hell is this thing?
A brief flash of images flooded Jin’s mind. It hurt. It was as though pieces of his mind had simply been ripped right off without warning, breaking the proverbial dam that held back a rushing tide of deadly waters. The flashes depicted a creature of blackened skin and glimmering red eyes, horns and dreadful auras. The demonic creature spoke something inaudible, before Jin’s world was submerged in frigid waters and everything was turned in its head.
When Jin came to, he found himself on his knees, absently clutching his forehead. Jin forced himself up, unsheathing Agito in the process. There was something incredibly powerful out there in the woods – so powerful, in fact, that its magic was directly altering the weather, filling the once clear blue skies with dark and heavy clouds. It’s another deviant – one that hasn’t been documented or recorded. I can’t recall the books mentioning a deviant with powers over ice and cold. It might just be an overgrown elemental type, but its presence does not lie. This thing’s far beyond the power level of anything I’ve come across thus far, except for that horned creature…
Deviants were feared for a very good reason. No one could challenge them – not even with an army of powerful mages. They were unbowed and unbroken. Everyone lived in fear of them. Legends and myths sprouted in their passing. Their powers were so far beyond anything that the Imperial Academy of Mages simply gave up on ever trying to conquer the beasts and told everyone else to stay the hell away from these things. Jin recalled a particular passage, wherein a certain Archmage Ibiki, outlined the proper steps to follow in the event of crossing the path of a deviant type: run, hide, and pray it does not find you interesting enough to kill. Aside from that, there was literally nothing else to be done.
Thankfully for everyone in Moyatani, the deviant population was only estimated to be at around eleven or twelve, spread evenly across the continent, making their home in the deepest, most magically-saturated woods, where no sane man dare venture.
So, what the hell is a deviant doing all the way out here?
Judging by the slowly approaching magical presence and its trajectory, Jin figured it’d take thirty minutes for it to reach the village, snap its fingers, and kill every living thing here. Jin groaned and gritted his teeth. Of all the bad things that could have possibly happened today, it had to be the absolute worst option to actually occur…
His mind raced as he leapt from his spot and landed on a much lower rooftop, before continuing on leaping from one rooftop to another. Jin’s feet met the hard stone of the battlements with a low thud. The guards posted there had long since fled or hid. Jin couldn’t blame them; the magic in the air was activating their fear senses and forcing them into fight or flight. In the presence of an apex predator, humans could do nothing but flee for their lives and, as Archmage Ibiki so eloquently put, pray it doesn’t find them interesting enough to warrant killing.
Jin considered his options; he was the only one here who couldn’t physically be affected by its fear aura. Without magic, most people would simply be too overwhelmed to do anything as their minds were literally engulfed in dread. However, that was just it; while he couldn’t be affected by the aura it emitted, Jin knew firsthand that deviants were on an entirely different league of power, cementing themselves as the apex of the world – for now.
He didn’t have the power to go out and face it head on. Jin wasn’t even sure if the ancient deviant would find him interesting enough to warrant diverting its course if he decided to go out there and try to send it away or some such. But, when he turned over his shoulder and found a young mother cradling a freezing infant, something in Jin’s heart was set alight.
I have to find a way to stop this thing or, at least, alter its course so that Hirata isn’t flattened. Jin’s chest felt weirdly fluttery, almost lighter as he leapt away from the village’s battlements and landed on the petrified rice field down below. Bolstering himself with the combined powers he’d stuffed into his Fire Salamander, Jin rushed into the nearby woods, Agito in hand, its dark crimson blade glinting a grotesque light. Jin waded into the trees, eyes scanning left, right, up and down. It’s here – somewhere. Its presence is too damn big to narrow down to a single area, but should be more or less northwards of my current position.
Jin chuckled as he took to the tops of the trees. The grimness of the situation wasn’t lost on him and neither was he blind to the fact that he was out here and not running toward the opposite direction – far away from one of the few things that could very easily kill him just by looking at his general direction. I can find it pretty easily; the problem is that I have no idea what I’m supposed to do once I meet the damn thing.
Honestly, it was a miracle he was still alive; Jin knew for a fact that, given its insane magical presence that was nearly encompassing the entirety of the forests surrounding Hirata, the wandering deviant was already quite aware of him. The ancient creature probably just wasn’t interested in him the same way a human wouldn’t be interested in the one ant that just so happened to pass by his or her boot.
Jin shook his head and soldiered on. I could probably direct its attention to me if I drop the biggest lightning bolt on top of its head.
Magical senses sent outwards, Jin followed the ancient aura that’d permeated the woods in a dreadful mockery of winter. As Jin gradually came closer to the creature, his streaks of blue lightning would arc between the dark and heavy clouds, following Jin’s every move, converging, becoming larger and more powerful each time it jumped from one mass of gray to another. Once Jin gave it the command to plummet, it’d be the single largest bolt of lightning ever seen in Moyatani, dwarfing even the largest Redwood tree.
He wasn’t so sure if that was enough to catch the creature’s attention. And so, for the next hour, Jin pushed himself deeper and deeper into uncharted woods, patches of trees and frozen greenery he’d never explored before, despite its closeness to the village. Or, at least, he didn’t recognize anything here; the trees were warped and faded, and boulders were cracked and withered. Streams became shimmering paths of dark ice that formed deep gashes and furrows into the frozen soil. Cold, black masses of pure magic jutted out of the ground, rising over thirty to forty feet high, forming unnatural crags in the once pristine and familiar woods.
Jin paused and took a moment to examine the growths. He dropped down from the tops of the trees and walked toward one of the numerous jagged things. He reached forward, brushing its surface with the edges of his fingers. They’re made entirely
of magic – frozen and solidified. How come humans are incapable of doing the same thing?
As Jin had learned long ago, human magic was vastly different from the magic of the Magical Beasts. Humans, by themselves, weren’t really worth much, save for the enhanced healing and regeneration that comes with the presence of magic in their bodies. Humans couldn’t directly control the elements, they couldn’t form magical constructs, they couldn’t even move objects with it. The only way for mages to actually perform feats of powerful and advanced magic was to absorb Magical Beasts into themselves in a process known as Beast Taming. In Jin’s humble opinion, not a single mage or scholar, it seemed, had made any meaningful research as to the very simple question of: why?
Why was it that mages weren’t capable of doing the same things as Magical Beasts without Beast Taming? Why was it that this approaching deviant was capable of creating solid magic? Why was it that Ebisu could just barely create a magical construct that lasted for two seconds at most and he couldn’t? Jin gritted his teeth. Even now, nine years later, I still only have the barest of ideas as to the inner workings of magic in this new world. How it works is simple; why it works is a mystery that no one’s bothered unraveling because they… don’t know any better.
Of course, it was only because Jin knew of other ways to utilize magic that he had such thoughts. Mages in his previous world were capable of bringing down entire castles by accident, simply by flaring their magical energies; sure, they weren’t as physically resilient as the mages of this world, but their ability to control magic in and out of themselves was far more advanced.
Jin pulled his hand away from the magical construct, before turning and heading further inwards. I think the deviants themselves might be the key to this whole mystery. Even when taking into account the known rules of magic in this world, those things still hardly make any sense at all.