Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 87

Preparing to leave Silvaguarde took a lot more time than Caspian imagined it would, though to be fair, their army had expanded quite a bit and they needed to prepare a lot more supplies.

The forces of Silvaguarde and Imperium Prae had offered to send 5,000 Peacekeepers with the army of 10,000 elves. It was all they could afford. That said, since Imperium Prae's primary purpose--that being to safeguard Arcadia against elvish incursions--was no longer needed, the Peacekeepers were consolidating their forces at Silvaguarde. A task force of 3,000 Peacekeepers would remain behind while the rest traveled with Caspian and Elincia.

Because Caspian still knew very little about logistics, he left the task up to Valen and Gerald, both of whom were adept at dealing with matters like that. Instead, he spent his time helping load up supplies into the carriages they would be taking. It was unfortunate, but because their army was so large (and also because the trains were controlled by the nobles), they couldn't ride to Axium on the trains.

It was quite odd to see elves and humans working together. As Caspian helped load supplies by carrying boxes, bags, and barrels and placing them into the carts, he watched as humans and elves did the same.

They were working in something of an assembly line, with the one in the back grabbing the supplies and passing it to the others. This kept them from getting in each other's way.

Caspian's assembly line consisted of two elves and three humans. He didn't know if the other five people in his assembly line had grown close, or if they'd just learned to accept each other's differences, but neither the humans nor the elves seemed bothered by the others' presence anymore.

Of course, it hadn't been like this right away, and it wasn't like everyone was okay working with the elves. Several fights had broken out. However, Valen and Gerald had quickly dealt with those issues, punishing both human and elf equally. Caspian had seen several of both races standing against a wall with buckets filled with water balancing on their head.

As Caspian grabbed a crate that was passed to him, he set it inside of the cart, pushed it back, and then looked at how full this cart was. There was no way they could fit anymore.

"Looks like this one is done," he said.

The human who was behind him nodded. "Then we should move on to the next one."

"Right," Caspian sighed.

Caspian didn't know how many carts they were going to use during this journey, but at last count, there had been at least one hundred. He suspected there would be even more. These carts were filled with food, wine, camping equipment, ammunition and gunpowder, and weapons. While the carts were filled to the brim, it wasn't like one hundred carts worth of food would be enough to last an army of 15,000 for very long.

Everyone continued working for several more hours. By the time they were finished, Caspian's muscles ached. However, it wasn't like his day was done. He still had somewhere he needed to go.

"Off to see the misses?" one of the human Peacekeepers joked when he saw how eager Caspian was to leave.

"That's right." Caspian sent the man a mock glare. "You got a problem with that?"

"Not a problem at all." The man shrugged. "Just couldn't help but notice how excited you were to get away from us."

"He and Lady Elincia have always been stuck to each other as though they were attached to the hip," one of the elves commented.

"Heh... well, if I had a girl like Elincia, I'd probably be the same way," the Peacekeeper said.

"Look at her inappropriately and I'll gut you like a fish," Caspian gave that parting shot as he left everyone else. He could see Valen and Gerald in the distance, but he didn't stop to say hello.