8 What we learn in school II

"So show him!" The Scholar brought the General to the workshop in the evening of the next day and now he forced Steve to show the small catapult Steve made.

"What is this?"

"It's a siege weapon, this is the basic idea. If you are willing to tell me more about the army and weapons you are using I might think of other stuff," Steve showed how it works.

"You will make it bigger?"

"Obviously,"

"How big?"

"Well that is something my master will decide, I just come with the ideas,"

"I see..."

"So will you tell me more about your army?"

"I won't tell you anything the enemies don't already know, but not now... I sent a guard to tell you that. Is there anything else you want to show me?"

"Are you in a hurry?"

"We have a fucking war on our hands!" yelled the man.

"And yet only two people coming with new ideas..." Steve muttered to himself.

"Ideas don't win wars! Swords do!" Steve was silent, so he won't anger the General anymore and The Scholar ordered him to go to his room. He was still unsure if this is a good idea since he couldn't go to a yard to see his ship, but for now, he could make a living here, only if he kept his head down. Soon he could search for more information about a way home.

"You have anything else to offer?"

"I was toying with the idea of a similar weapon, it uses leverage, but it's more complicated and needs to be built on the battlefield, I don't really know how we could do that, but it doesn't matter since general doesn't like this kind of stuff..."

"The castle is not the only place we are fighting and the supply route is always attacked by bandits,"

"Is it? Why? Bandits? Do you have a map?"

"Yes of course," the Scholar brought the map to Steve's room and put it on the table.

"There is the route, it goes mostly through the woods here, the bandits attack randomly,"

"Why don't you attack them?"

"Nobody knows their hiding place, the general cannot dispatch any more man on capturing them,"

"First of all, I doubt they are just simple bandits, they were hired to take out your food. Second, you are trying to starve the castle and it is you who have a problem with food? That is ..." he stopped before saying stupid and rather looked at the map.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think the General needs so many men to guard the castle. If he uses half of them to go around the forest like this and then hide in the food crates and wait for the bandits, he could at least protect the food,"

"He didn't try exactly that, but he used a lot of guards to protect it,"

"Yeah, what kind of soldiers?"

"Normal spearman and fighters,"

"Fighters use swords?"

"Yes,"

"So they lost in the forest because the enemy had bows and element of surprise,"

"Yes,"

"Well you can always burn the forest, but that sounds terrible,"

"We cannot control such a big fire it could spread to the fields next to it!"

"I see, well it's not like I am here to talk about tactics,"

"But you seem to have a sharp mind, you could be helping General as well, maybe I call the rest of the higher officers to talk to you,"

"Why not, it's not like I have anything else to do,"

"Oh, you have! You are going to look at the rocks I have here!"

"Rocks?" Steve was confused, but then a little bit disappointed since it was just a rock collection and he had nothing to add to it. Since his strong suit was the chemistry he knew the elements and the only possible thing he saw, was to explain to him what gas is in simple terms and he was very happy, he also said to him that he needs time to study all the chemicals he had in the workshop since Steve only had a theoretical knowledge and never saw any labeled chemicals.

***

The next day Steve was woken up by his master and was forced to talk about the military with a guard as promised. The talk wasn't that much enlightening as he told him stuff he already knew

"The army is divided into smaller units. Bowman, fighters, scouts, spearman, cavalry and the preches,"

"Preches?"

"They are women and young boys who are willing to help,"

"What are they doing?"

"Mostly helping carry the equipment, helping injured people and fight if ordered,"

"Can they go to other groups?"

"Yes, of course," Steve was honestly surprised, that women could fight like men in such a place, but he didn't question it.

"I see, well tell me more about the equipment!"

"Well, the fighters use swords..."

"What kind?"

"Ehh... what? Sword kind, the best swords in the world! Swords of the Knight kingdom!"

"The one you have?"

"Yes,"

"Not bigger? Not smaller? Just this one size?"

"Are you doubting the smiths of this country?!"

"No, of course not it is just easier for the enemy to learn a way to fight against one type of weapon!"

"But it's the best sword in the world! No soldier will wield a bigger sword like a northern barrbar! Or small toothpick like a kid!"

"Fine, what about spearman?"

"They use a spear, obviously!"

"Again the same spear? Why not a halberd?"

"Ah what now?"

"It looks like this," Steve showed him a picture he made yesterday and the soldier shook his head.

"Also, they don't have a sword right? I guess it's cheaper that way... but since they are not fighters they could use at least sword taken from the enemy!"

"That is..."

"Bowman, do they at least have a dagger or something? Also, you know what crossbow is, why they don't use it?"

"They do use both and yes they have daggers,"

"Good, scouts are what?"

"Mostly hunters before the war, they have mixed equipment and there are a few horses in every unit, they are gathering information about the enemy and also carry orders,"

"That sounds fine for now, what about the cavalry?" Steve says arrogantly trying to look smarter than he actually was, mostly because of the pressure from the fact that his ideas almost always fall flat which was really not good for his heart as his life depended on them.

"They are heavily armored to protect from the spears, they use swords and spears as well,"

"No bows?"

"Bows? While riding a horse?"

"I bet some soldiers could do that, but I looked at the map and saw, that most of the fighting is on smaller fields or forest so I think the scouts are the best unit to use, make them a unit that attacks randomly like bandits inside the enemy territory,"

"That is not for you or me to decide, I came here to talk about weapons and armor!"

"Fine bring me every weapon here and other equipment,"

"So you have no ideas hmpf,"

"What about shields?"

"Fighters use them,"

"What kind?"

"Wooden and iron ones,"

"Nobody uses axes? What about mace, hammer, flail...."

"Weapons for peasants!" Steve got a little bit annoyed and sighed.

"What about nets? Caltrops?"

"Caltrops?"

"Metal spikes that you toss on the ground,"

"Never heard that one sounds easy to do," said Scholar genuinely trying to help Steve and the guard turns to face him.

"How about you just take every idea this kid has and make them useful. This is a waste of time!" the guard left the room with the Scholars blessing.

"I like how you think without the... how to put....knightliness," Steve smiled at the old man that didn't know he was just reaching any information he learned in school.

"I go back to my room to think, thank you,"

"Fine by me! Also, the Holy man wants to see you as well, he should come after lunch,"

***

"So you are the boy from the stars?"

"Yes,"

"I like Grand Mother, she is very wise and taught me many things, one of them was how to read the language of gods," the Holy man said to Steve in a voice that clearly looked at him like he was a fraud. The man put a book on the table.

"Read it and tell me what is about!"

"What..."

"To prove your story is true!"

"Fine,"

"That was an order!" the Holy man left Steve with the book and he looked at it.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"This is the god tongue?"

"Yes, you cannot even recognize it?"

"Well I can recognize the symbols, but the words are weirdly put together. It says We the sun great..."

"Are you making fun of me?"

"No? I thought this was a test for me,"

"No, this book was written by a Holy man such as myself who is working in the secret temple,"

"I see, so he was wrong!"

"How dare you!"

"Show me real writing,"

"I show you maybe the gutter!"

"Stelte!" Steve said annoyed by the man's tone, only being reminded of what happened with the Sisters.

"What?"

"I can speak in the god language!" Steve says in the alien language. He never tried to speak out loud whole sentences, but it looked like he could, although it was really weird for him since he just focused and said the sentence in English it came out alien.

"Stop!"

"Why should I stop, Holy man?" he smiled in while uttering alien words.

"I get it, you must be telling the truth, you sound just like the messenger! Don't damn me, please!"

"Don't worry, I am not doing anything," says Steve normally.

"Thank god! Thank god!"

"Just take the book and..."

"And?"

"You talked about a messenger..." Steve didn't expect such a reverse of attitude from the man and realized he probably heard the language spoken before!

"Yes! Of course! It is a top-secret, only a few people in this country know, but we receive a message from one of the relics we got!"

"Can I see it?"

"Of course! Come with me right away! You can even get better clothes and anything you want, just ask me!" the Holy man took Steve to his chapel, the guard who was watching Steve went with them but was not let into the private room of the Holy man which was similar to the one Grand Mother had.

"Just close the door and come closer to me," Steve was genuinely interested in the small stone that the man was holding. The stone started to glow after the man closed his eyes and focused intensely. A short message started to play as a record, it was static as if the device was broken and Steve couldn't hide his smile since he understood what the person said easily. The content made him happy, but wouldn't make the Holy man, so he had to lie to him. It was a simple message to a friend, that artifact must have been some kind of letter, it made the aliens more human in Steve's mind.

"What did it say? Tell me please,"

"It said that anyone who could listen to this message and make the stone shine was chosen by the gods, and it said that everybody should follow the gods in a way they feel is right," Steve felt it somewhat easy to come with a religious-sounding message after few dozens of seconds of thinking.

"Oh, thank you!" the Holy man started crying and Steve went back to his room, saying to him that the king ordered him to be there, but it looked like he wasn't listening.