“Viktoriya, heel,” the young wolfdog obeyed, following beside me. I had quickly started a rotation it came to taking the dogs around, as walking with the full group of five barely trained puppies was an ordeal. The kennel master was helping me with their training, but the matter still took a chunk of my time.

  On the plus side, the Princess clearly liked them.

  I moved with purpose through the city streets, the group of guards surrounding me preventing anyone from approaching. As an added precaution, I was maintaining Vaeltha, my shield spell, just in case.

  I had debated using a carriage, but that would defeat the purpose of taking Viktoriya with me.

  It was unfortunate that Adda Invaerne only lasted for a few minutes, I would have to re-design the spell with assassination attempts in mind when I had the time. Perhaps a slightly weaker, longer-lasting version, or a rework into a ritual?

  I shook my head, the time for that would come later. Now, it was time to pick up my order.

  We moved through the city swiftly, the citizens quickly getting out of our way as we moved towards the smith.

  A few moments later, I was walking into the shop with a confident stride while my guards took up positions near the entrance, with the exception of Roderic, who followed me in.

  Arms and armour sat in their display all around us, but I paid them no mind, going straight to the wide-eyed clerk.

  “Lady De-Degurechaff,” the young man hastily bowed, “I’ll get the master,” he scampered off.

  The smith arrived a minute or so later. He was a large middle-aged man with a bald head and moustache that would not have gone amiss in Germanian high society.

  “Master Smith,” I greeted the man politely. He had been exceedingly helpful when I had made my golem, so he had been the natural choice for my own armour.

  “Lady Degurechaff,” he greeted me with a small bow, “Here for your order?”

  “Yes,” I confirmed, “No trouble, I hope?”

  “A little,” he admitted, “The gauntlets were difficult. Give me a second.”

  I nodded, and the smith was off. I had expected trouble with the gauntlets. As a mage, I needed full-mobility of my fingers to cast most spells, yet hands were a decent target in a fight. As such, I had endeavoured to find a compromise.

  The results were gauntlets that were more akin to armoured gloves in style, with very intricate finger armour that connected at the palm, with much of my fingerpads exposed. They would prevent my fingers from being sliced off, but any decent hit would almost certainly break bones. Not perfect, but they would allow me to move my hands freely.

  Soon, the smith returned along with his apprentice, lugging an armour stand with my order on it.

  It was classic plate armour, though the steel was darkened. The helmet was close to a barbuta helmet of my first world, though the visor was intentionally made to resemble a skull.

  I hummed in appreciation. The smith had really outdone himself, bringing my amateurish sketches to life.

  The smith placed the stand before me, then went to retrieve the steel staff I had ordered with it. The mount at the top was empty, but I had plans for that.

  It would do nicely.

  Sorcerers tended to eschew armour for a few reasons, the sheer inconvenience of it being chief amongst them A shield spell was stronger, did not cost thirty times the yearly wage of the average skilled labourer, left you with your entire field of vision and did not take half an hour to wear.

  On top of that, armour was fairly useless in magical duels. Sure, there were spells it would protect against, but unless you were fighting a moron, they’d just not use those.

  There was one thing that armour was great at though. War. No one could pay attention at all times. Sure, it wouldn’t help against a lightning bolt, but mages were a tiny fraction of any military. Arrows and daring charges were statistically much more likely to threaten my life.

  As for the skull shape, well, I was inspired by chivalry.

  Ultimately, the best defence resulted in your enemy never attacking in the first place. Unlike my past life, I no longer had the advantage of high-altitude flight and artillery spells, which meant that I’d be eminently visible. Unfortunately, the appearance of a young woman was not exactly dread-inducing while also being fairly conspicuous on a battlefield.

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  I was pretty sure a peasant with a spear would be much more hesitant to charge a fully armoured figure with a creepy helmet than a robe-wearing young woman, even if a sorceress was a hundred times more dangerous than a knight. Most people struggled with understanding that, surprisingly.

  There was also the morale aspect to consider. Medieval armies broke quickly once casualties started piling up, but a scary enemy commander might knock off a percent or two from the needed number of dead. An ugly helmet was well worth that.

  “You’ve outdone yourself, Master Smith,” I complimented, running my fingers over the plate.

  The bald smith bowed, but I could see a faint smile on his face.

  After a cursory examination, I removed a pouch from my belt and gave it to the smith.

  “Thank you Lady Degurechaff,” the smith took it, storing it away without even bothering to count the money.

  Bit foolish, but I suppose it was nice to be trusted.

  “Let’s go, Roderic,” I glanced at my guard, before moving towards the door. The other guards would carry my new armour.

  After a few steps, I paused.

  “Viktoriya,” I sighed, turning towards the dog, which was currently being petted by the smith’s apprentice.

  The young man immediately raised his hands, as if I was pointing a gun at him.

  I sighed again.

  “Heel,” I commanded.

  The dog looked at me.

  Then at the apprentice.

  Then she whined piteably.

  Before he could stop himself, the young man was petting Viktoriya’s head again, freezing when he noticed what he was doing.

  I clicked my tongue.

  Clearly, the princess was a bad influence.

  “Viktoriya…” I said in a low voice.

  The dog looked between me and the apprentice again, before licking his face and strutting next to me.

  I sighed again, before pulling out a treat and giving it to the unruly dog. I still found rewarding only partially acceptable behaviour counterintuitive, but the kennel master was insistent on rewarding the animals when they obeyed, even if imperfectly. Humans were easier in that way. Threatening them with an execution or extra training for disobeying orders usually did the trick, no treats needed, while the opposite was true for dogs. Funny how that worked.

  “Let us go,” I repeated, before marching out. This time, the dog was happy enough to follow me.

  As I walked back to the castle with my entourage, I thought over the future. The Marnadal Expedition would begin soon as the Queen had finally finished wrangling the nobility, though I wasn’t privy to most of that. The Duke of Attre, the official ruler of Marnadal, had finally acceded to the construction of the Fortress while also agreeing to help source the needed material and to send five hundred soldiers to help with its construction and security.

  The other noble houses helped finance it, while the Crown promised to send another thousand men to help build it. How Calanthé had managed that, I had no idea, but I was starting to feel quite a bit better about the entire thing.

  In the battle of Hochebuz, Nazair had fielded around eight thousand. Not a small number, but it was also very unlikely that they would muster fully, if at all. I doubted that they’d that decisive. If we worked fast, we could have some fortifications done by the time they realised what was happening. Ideally, they’d decide an attack was not worth it at that point. If not, I did not feel terrible about the odds with fortifications on my side. After all, we’d only need to hold out until reinforcements arrived.

  It was nice to know that the Queen was competent though, since I was working directly under her. There was little better for an employee than a competent supervisor.

  On another note, I had still yet to see the King. He had come back once, then left a day later again, going on another hunt.

  ‘Maybe the King didn’t exist at all?’ I mused idly. Though quite the hilarious possibility, it was much more likely he was just a bum with no sense of responsibility.

  Cintra was very lucky that Calanthé was both competent enough and willing to shoulder his workload as well.

  The one thing that rankled me was having to slowdown my work on Alzur’s spell. I could create rabid monsters fairly reliably at this point, but progress beyond that had been glacial. I would have felt a lot better if I had a bunch of giant killing machines between me and the danger, but it seemed that I would have to do without. Any progress I could make while marching would be limited.

  I did consider bringing the dogs regardless, but they’d be more of a hindrance. The soldiers might think I was some spoiled princess bringing her pets too, undermining my authority.

  The walk back to my tower was quick. Soon, I was euthanising my remaining test subjects and cleaning the place up. I didn’t know how long I’d be gone and I certainly did not wish to come back to rot and mold.

  The prisoner had been moved to a regular cell yesterday, which was somewhat unfortunate. I had thought I might get to making use of him before I was sent out, alas, progress proved more elusive than I had thought at first. I was fairly confident that I had a good understanding with the Queen by now, so getting him back wouldn't be an issue, but it was another headache to consider. It might be worth it to just find someone else and let the Crown execute him.

  I mulled the matter over for a moment, before deciding to leave it be for now. I’d make the decision once I came back.

  After cleaning up my laboratory with the help of Moigh and Gaeth, I started packing.

  I wasn’t taking much. Extra clothing, some emergency rations, both of my daggers and my journal with the spells I copied from Fregenal’s ramblings and the extra notes produced through my research. I might not be able to continue the experiments properly, but I could still work on deepening my understanding of the spells themselves.

  I sighed. Just when I was starting to think of this place as home. With a bit of luck, I'd be back soon without any further incidents.