Dressed in a thick coat and with several layers underneath, Wenzel trudged through the snow. The weather only allowed him to hold a relatively shortened training session. Nevertheless, it still took place every day. The rest of the time he helped out with the necessary work in the camp, which ranged from chopping wood and stacking it to shovelling snow and maintaining weapons. Nobody ordered him to, but he wanted to help anyway. Most of the other work was done by the women, while the men practised fighting even at this time of year. Theodor was always busy. He and August had recently ordered the training of new battle tactics and weaponry, which gave the fighters plenty to do. Wenzel was not affected by this, though, as he had his own training regimen. The snow was crunching under the boy's soles as he walked past the camp's main tent.
Inside, the field marshal was standing with a man who were new to the camp. He was wearing armour with the insignia of the Kingdom of Ordania. "You also need to practise fighting with pikes. They are an ideal counter to cavalry charges. The horses will die en masse from your long pikes. However, make sure that the ranks are not too thin. Three rows of pikemen are certainly not sufficient." - "I see," replied Theodor, who listened intently. Then he said: "I'm very pleased that you've decided to join our side, Major General! It will help our boys immensely to adapt their tactics to what someone who has had military training knows about army leadership." The man nodded and kept a serious look on his face. He was glad of the Martyrs’ Brigades field marshal's offer to keep his old military rank in the organisation.
"Your methods so far have been more geared towards sabotage and conflicts in smaller groups. I will help you organise a larger army." - "Excellent!" Theodor noted. Then he had him introduce the subject to him. Until now, the leader had been more used to the methods of guerrilla-style resistance. He had mastered these to perfection, but the conflict would soon grow into a war and he and his chief of staff were working feverishly to prepare the troops for it. "I'm sure you know something about sieges too, don't you?" Theodor asked him. The man replied without hesitation: "Yes, I do. I'm no expert now, but I know a lot from my father, who was involved in the siege of Linna back in the day." Theodor was satisfied with this answer. He was very familiar with the city of Linna in his old homeland, Kasharovar. Meanwhile a slight snowfall continued outside the tent.
At the same time, preparations were also in full swing in the country's centre of power. Messengers were sent to all territories to provide troops for the army. No troops were to be expected from the occupied Kashar Lands or Camenia, which enjoyed many privileges, but troops were expected from everywhere else. The organisation and coordination of the whole thing would naturally fall to Field Marshal Etzel and his subordinates. He had come to see Her Majesty, Queen Katharina, two days ago to make sure of this, but had received an answer that was essentially no answer at all.
Today, however, everything seemed to be turning out quite differently than anyone would have expected. Anyone but one, at least. The ruler assembled her government to make a grand announcement. Gabriela crept along the marble corridors, along with a few other ministers she bumped into on her way to the meeting room. "I don't know why Her Highness has waited so long to make a decision about the war. She could have been coordinating and communicating with us the whole time," the Minister for External Relations vented his dissatisfaction. Treasurer Guntram, who was walking next to him, replied: "In any case, I already have major problems with our finances. I can't say whether the reserves will be sufficient in the long term. But today's council hasn’t even been called a war council." - "The topic can only be about the war. What else could it be?" the minister asked his rhetorical counter-question. Gabriela just looked over at them with her wide eyes and remained silent.
When everyone had finally gathered, the door to the meeting room was closed and Her Majesty rose from her chair to begin the meeting. Her long, flowing hair hung down and the beautiful woman presented herself upright and sublime. "My honourable ladies and gentlemen! We have something extremely important and momentous to announce here today." All those present paid rapt attention to her. "The current problem is the result of a long series of political missteps and missed opportunities. The crisis has gone too far and we need to get it back under control. As you are all aware, we have had the Melgarist problem for many years, but it seems to have grown more and more, despite the Kingdom's ever-increasing attempts to resolve the issue with military force. The army should and will receive the necessary funding from Us, We can guarantee you that, but We do not believe this to be the solution! You should all be aware of the sentiment of Our lower classes. For this reason alone, it will not be easy to keep the looming uprisings under control. We have therefore decided to approach the problem differently for the first time. We will try to establish channels of communication with the rebels in order to start negotiations to explore a possible compromise!"
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The government's astonishment at this moment was unmistakable. Her Majesty continued: "We have already ordered the withdrawal of the assassins. We have also appointed negotiators and sent them out to make contact. This may not be a step worthy of a position of power, but it is a logical and necessary course of action to avert even greater harm to the kingdom of which We are sovereign." All the ministers and advisors were speechless. They had not expected this. After almost a full minute of silence, Field Marshal Etzel broke said silence: "With my greatest respect, Your Highness, but I can see no reason why these heretics would even want to negotiate with us, or we with them. Their ideology is diametrically opposed to ours. We despise and destroy devils and they want to make a devil their ruler! That is completely incompatible!"
Katharina reacted calmly. "All discrepancies can be overcome. One just has to show enough diplomatic skill, an art that my late spouse did not master or did not want to master. But do not worry about it. We will personally take charge of the matter!" As a result, none of members of the government, who have just had cold water poured over their plans, dared to interject. Her Highness issued a few more instructions regarding the now changed action plan, then the council ended. It wasn’t a long meeting. Afterwards, all the ministers and advisors left the room in relative silence. That had been a big surprise!
It was purely by chance that another important person arrived at the royal palace around sunset that same day. A man with the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Zeemark rode up to the gates of the palace on a tall black steed. He had a few of his subordinates in tow. They were all in armour and galloped up quickly. They dismounted and were kindly escorted in by the servants. The appropriate people were immediately informed so that the knight could be duly received. The first to arrive, however, was the queen’s advisor. "A very good evening to you, Your Highness," Gabriela greeted him in her typical dissembling manner. Her face was as pale as ever. "You've arrived earlier than expected." - "The weather won't stop me from getting where I need to be quickly in times of need!" Gawein announced proudly.
It was the legendary knight who had now arrived. His full, golden-blonde hair seemed to be blowing in the wind as if in slow motion, even though we were inside a building. He was the epitome of an attractive man. Gabriela couldn't quite take her eyes off him either. Having noticed this, he said: "You're wearing particularly beautiful clothes today, milady." But she immediately saw through his flattery and got straight down to business. "The field marshal is on the first floor, but he should already be informed that you have already arrived. I would and must leave all necessities concerning the army to Etzel. However, I would wait to make any premature decisions anyway."
"Oh? And what exactly does that mean?" the man asked, leaning casually on one of the bench backrests. Gabriela leant close to his ear and whispered: "A privy council is scheduled for tomorrow. Since you're already here, I'll invite you too. Room 33 on the third floor. But don't say a word about it. Everyone who has been invited knows about it. Everyone else MUSTN’T know anything about it. Do you understand?" The knight nodded discreetly. He didn't know what this was about, but it certainly had something to do with the unrest in the country. Gawein now took a sip of the tea that a maid had brought him. Of course, he didn’t have the slightest clue of what the actual reason was.
