Chapter 118: Reina, The Beast Tamer [Bonus Chapter]
"That’s the goal," Silas replied, leaning back and crossing his arms. "You can’t run a military on fear and strict orders forever. Eventually, you need them to want to build the base with you so pull a ticket, let’s see what we got."
Aeliana set the box down, pulled a tiny brass key from her pocket, and unlocked the bottom panel.
She reached her delicate hand inside, rummaged through the small pile of folded papers, and pulled one out at random.
She unfolded the rough paper, scanned the handwriting for a second, and then leaned across the heavy ironwood desk to hand it directly to him.
Silas took the paper.
The handwriting was sharp and a little messy, like it had been written in a hurry using a cheap piece of charcoal.
’I really need to get pens...’
He flattened the parchment out on his desk and began to read.
[Dear Lord Silas,
I know you’re busy running the war room, but I’ve been watching the scouts run the perimeter patrols for the last three days. They are burning way too much stamina hiking through the mud. By the time they clear a five-mile grid, they’re exhausted. If an ambush happens on the way back, they won’t have the leg strength to break contact.
My class is Beast Tamer. Right now, I’m just poking training dummies with a spear like a standard foot soldier. It’s a waste of my stats...
If you allocate the timber to build a reinforced Beast Pen near the eastern wall, I can start setting snare traps in the treeline. We don’t have to just kill the Corrupted Umbral Wolves. I can break them and I can tame them. If we saddle those wolves, we can use them as high-speed cavalry mounts. Wolves don’t get stuck in the mud like horses. They have natural night vision, and their stamina pools are massive. Put a scout on the back of an Umbral Wolf, and we can triple our mapping range and cut patrol times in half.
Think about it.
— Reina.]
Silas stopped reading.
He stared at the piece of paper with his eyes locked onto the jagged charcoal letters.
The office went completely quiet except for the sound of the wind rustling the shutters.
’Cavalry...’ Silas’s inner Lord screamed, his brain instantly lighting up with the possibilities. ’We don’t have to walk everywhere. We can field actual, high-speed monster cavalry units.’
He read the letter a second time, a genuine grin breaking across his face.
It was brilliant.
It was so incredibly obvious that he wanted to kick himself for not thinking of it sooner.
The Umbral Wolves apex predators in this basin. They were huge, aggressive, and perfectly adapted to the terrible terrain.
If he had a squad of archers riding those monsters, they could hit-and-run enemy camps, outmaneuver monster scouting parties, and explore the red zones on the map without worrying about getting caught in the dark.
He looked up at Aeliana.
"Do you know a girl named Reina in the barracks?" Silas asked quickly.
Aeliana tilted her head, her mind rapidly scanning the roster of new summons.
"Reina... yes. She has ash-blonde hair. She listed her primary class as a Beast Tamer, but since we have no beasts in the territory, Brida assigned her to the spear-infantry block for standard training."
"Pull her out of the spear block right now," Silas ordered, tapping his finger hard against the parchment on his desk. "Go down to the yard and bring her up to this office immediately."
Aeliana’s pointed ears perked up.
She looked at the paper, then back at her Lord. "Is the suggestion a good one, Lord Sy?"
"It’s not just good, Aeli," Silas grinned, standing up from his chair. "It’s a game-changer. Go get her."
Aeliana didn’t ask any more questions. She bowed crisply, turned on her heel, and walked swiftly out of the office to fetch the recruit.
...
Down in the muddy trampled dirt of the Warlord Barracks backyard, the afternoon training session was in full swing.
The sharp sounds of clashing wood, heavy grunts of exertion, and the barking orders of the sergeants filled the humid air.
Dozens of girls were running laps, doing pushups in the mud, or sparring with heavy weapons to build their physical stats.
Reina stood in front of a thick scarred ironwood training dummy that had been brought outside with her boots planted deep in the muck.
She drove her back foot into the dirt, twisted her hips with a sharp exhale, and thrust the heavy wooden spear forward.
THWACK!
The blunt tip slammed into the center of the dummy’s chest with a dull sound, sending a shiver of force straight up the wooden shaft and into her forearms.
She pulled the spear back, reset her stance, and thrust again.
Thwack!
Sweat stung her eyes.
Her ash-blonde hair was tied back in a messy braid that was currently plastered to the back of her neck.
Her canvas training shirt was clinging to her skin, and her calves burned with a deep persistent ache.
Thwack!
She hated the spear...
She wasn’t a brawler like Brida... She wasn’t a Huntress like Tasmin... She was a Beast Tamer.
Her class was built around forming mental tethers with aggressive monsters, sharing stats with a companion, and fighting as a coordinated pack but there were no beasts in the Blessed Land.
Just high walls, mud, and endless drills. So, the girls had handed her a long stick and told her to stand in the mud with the rest of the generic infantry.
Reina wiped a streak of sweat and dirt off her forehead with the back of her hand, letting out a frustrated breath.
She leaned on the shaft of her spear, looking around the crowded training yard.
A few yards away, three girls from the archer division had stopped their stretches and were actively whispering to each other while staring up at the towering dark stone structure of the Warlord’s Keep looming over the base.
"I saw him walking the walls this morning," one of the archers whispered, giggling like a schoolgirl. "He wasn’t wearing his heavy armor and his shoulders are ridiculous."
"I know," another girl sighed, practically swooning. "Do you think if I drop my bow during the inspection tomorrow, he might actually come over and correct my stance?"
Reina rolled her eyes so hard it physically hurt.
She gripped her spear and violently drove it back into the dummy.
Thwack!
’This entire base is out of its damn mind,’ Reina’s internal monologue ranted bitterly. ’It’s like a cult. Everyone is completely down bad for a guy who sits in a tower and looks at stuff all day.’
Reina didn’t hate Lord Silas.
She wasn’t ungrateful.
She knew the reality of the Sovereign Realm... most summoned troops were treated like cheap, disposable meat shields by Lords who sent them into monster tides to die.
Silas fed them well, the barracks were warm, and he didn’t scream at them when they made mistakes but she was naturally like this.
She couldn’t stand the hero-worship.
’He’s just a guy that’s a Lord,’ Reina thought, stepping back and doing a sweeping horizontal strike against the wood. ’He doesn’t give a damn about the regular infantry. We’re just numbers on a roster. The only people he actually talks to are the other girls... The elites get all the attention, and the rest of us just stand in the mud and hold the line.’
She thought about the little piece of parchment she had dropped into the wooden shuffle box the night before.
She had stayed up late sketching out the logistics for a Beast Pen, detailing exactly how much timber it would take to build reinforced walls that could hold an Umbral Wolf without the beast chewing through the wood.
She had poured her heart into that pitch but in the cold light of day, she felt stupid for even trying.
’That box is just a cheap PR stunt,’ Reina scoffed to herself, pulling her spear back to a ready position. ’A little trick to make the grunts feel like they have a choice... He’s never going to read it... the first one was a trick and I know it. Even if Miss Aeliana pulls my ticket, he’ll just toss it in the fire and pick whatever idea the Instructor gives him.’
She squeezed the rough wood of the spear handle, channeling her frustration into her muscles.
She reared back to deliver a massive, full-body strike to the dummy.
"Attention!" a sharp clear voice rang out across the mud.
The entire training yard froze.
Reina stopped her strike mid-swing, lowering her spear. Dozens of girls snapped to attention, dropping their weapons and standing up straight.
Aeliana stepped out from the covered walkway of the barracks and into the training yard.
The Arcanist looked like an ethereal painting, her pristine white robes completely untouched by the dirt and grime covering the rest of the troops.
She held her clipboard against her chest with her eyes scanning the rows of sweating recruits.
The yard was dead quiet. Aeliana rarely came down to the mud unless she was delivering direct official orders from the Lord himself.
Aeliana’s eyes locked onto the spear division.
"Recruit Reina," Aeliana called out, her polite voice carrying easily over the wind.
Reina’s heart skipped a beat.
Her stomach dropped like a stone.
The other girls in the spear block immediately took a half-step away from her, leaving Reina standing completely isolated in front of her training dummy.
Dozens of eyes turned to stare at her and whispers broke out among the archers.
’Oh no,’ Reina panicked internally, her grip tightening on her spear. ’What did I do? Did I fail an inspection? Did I break a rule?’
"Step forward," Aeliana instructed.
Reina swallowed hard.
She stabbed the blunt end of her wooden spear into the mud, leaving it standing upright, and walked nervously to the front of the block.
She stopped a few feet away from the pristine elf, wiping her dirty hands on her trousers.
"Yes, Lady Aeliana?" Reina asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
Aeliana offered a soft reassuring smile.
"Your ticket was pulled from the box this afternoon. Lord Sy has reviewed your written suggestion."
Reina blinked, completely caught off guard. "He... he read it?"
"He did," Aeliana confirmed, gesturing with her free hand toward the towering stone Keep behind her. "And he has requested your presence in his private office to discuss it. Immediately. Please, follow me."
The silence in the yard shattered. The whispers turned into loud frantic murmurs.
"She’s going up to the office?" one of the shieldmaidens muttered in shock.
"He actually reads them?" an archer gasped.
Reina couldn’t hear them.
There was a loud rushing sound in her ears. She was a standard, mid-tier recruit covered in mud and sweat, and she was being summoned directly to the Lord’s inner sanctum.
She didn’t argue. She nodded numbly and fell into step behind the silver-haired elf.
The walk across the courtyard felt like a dream.
As they left the noisy, crowded barracks behind and approached the Keep, the atmosphere changed completely. The heavy ironwood doors opened smoothly for Aeliana, revealing the grand quiet foyer of the main building.
Reina had never been inside the Keep before.
The floors were polished slate. The air smelled like lavender and burning hearth-wood which was a contrast to the smell of sweat and swamp mud she was used to.
"Up the stairs," Aeliana directed politely, leading the way. "Top floor."
Reina climbed the spiraling stone steps, her anxiety spiking higher with every floor they passed.
’He’s going to tell me it’s too expensive...’ Reina’s mind tried to brace for impact. ’He’s going to sit behind his big desk, tell me we don’t have the timber for a Beast Pen, and mock me for trying to play cavalry commander when I should be holding a spear...’
They reached the top floor. Aeliana stopped in front of a heavy wooden door, knocked twice, and pushed it open.
"Recruit Reina is here, my Lord," Aeliana announced, stepping aside to let the Beast Tamer enter.
Reina took a deep breath, clutching the hem of her dirty canvas shirt to keep her hands from shaking, and stepped into the Warlord’s office.
The room was wide and airy. Massive bookshelves lined the walls, and a huge, intricate map covered the center of a heavy desk.
Sitting behind the desk wasn’t an intimidating tyrant wearing heavy spiked armor.
Silas was dressed in a simple, clean black shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
He looked relaxed, casual, and undeniably striking. His golden-ringed eyes looked up from the map, locking onto her as she stood awkwardly in the doorway.
He offered a warm easy smile.
"Reina," Silas greeted her.
He gestured to the heavy wooden chair directly opposite his desk. "Come in. Have a seat."
Reina walked forward stiffly, feeling incredibly self-conscious about the mud caked onto her boots ruining his clean floor.
She sat down on the edge of the chair, keeping her back straight and her hands folded tightly in her lap.
Silas picked up the jagged piece of charcoal-stained paper she had written last night and held it up.
