Phantasia: The Princess Knight 146 Test Of Generosity Part Twelve

"Get those towers up! We need the lookout towers before we finish the walls!" Alicia was standing in the middle of a partially constructed fort yelling out orders. As soon as the walls for the front of the forts were constructed she quickly went to work leading the soldiers to build up certain portions of the fort first. The lookout towers were the most important part of the forts, they had even prebuilt bridge parts to allow for easy access between the forts. These bridge sections were made out of stone.

 Alicia had once helped her father install a click-lock system floor in one of the rooms in her house back on Earth. So the idea for a click-lock bridge made of stone came to mind. Each section of the bridge was like a puzzle piece at the joints. And took almost three hundred men to move. This was a major undertaking and one of the most important besides the fort itself. Alicia did not want to make the bridge out of wood because a few oil dipped arrows could take the whole bridge out quickly splitting her forces. But now with a stone bridge, they were even able to have watchtowers at each end so they could see what was going on down the river and act accordingly. 

One thing that amazed Alicia was that the few experts she brought from the capital were quick in snapping the bridge together and even securing it underwater. When she had brought the idea of a preconstructed bridge to these experts it was as if a god had sent them a divine message. They took to the idea quickly and in around an hour they already had plans drawn up. With the assistance of the Kingdom's military, they were able to make the entire bride, with insert sections, in around a day. Since it was a click-lock system it did not matter how wide the river was because they could just snap it together by adding or subtracting pieces as needed from the mid section.

Now, Alicia did not go that far with the fort at the start but she did bring enough material to start construction of the main walls with stone after the wood walls were put up. They could do this out of sight of the enemy giving them a big surprise when the wooden fort walls were finally burnt to the ground. 

Quickly four days passed because of the time the enemy was giving them, the stone walls of the fort were already in place around the entire fort. With so much man power this ended up being a simple task. It was on this day that a small boat floated across the river. They waved a white flag to show they did not come to fight. Seeing this Alicia gave a big smile. This was one of the best outcomes they could come out with. If they could use this chance to begin peace talks things would go a lot smoother. Alicia assumed the reason they did not attack was because the commanders on the other side already understood that they were not going to be able to fight from water to land with just bows and arrows.

"Let him in!" Alicia shouted a large wooden gate opened revealing the massive fortress that was still in the process of being built. The Dukedom messenger stared at the fort in surprise. He was truly shocked to see all the fort walls made of stone already constructed and that the Kingdom was already in the process of building stone watchtowers. The Dukedom messenger was brought into the command tent were four old men and a young girl sat around a large table. What really surprised this messenger was that the young girl was sitting at the head of the table. 

"May I ask who is in charge here?" The messenger asked, looking at the four old men completely ignoring Alicia.

"That would be our Young Miss here. If you have anything to say, say it to her." One of the old generals said with a wide grin. This grin was as if he was mocking the messenger.

"Old Sirs, please do not jest! I need to speak to who is in charge here." The messenger voice raised a little to express his anger. 

"Are all the Dukedom's men this stupid?" Alicia asked in a stern voice. Though coming from her it sounded like a joke more than putting someone down, due to her youthful voice.

"Listen brat! You should show som..." The messenger did not get to finish that sentence when Alicia jumped across the table with her sword drawn. Before the messenger knew what was going on he could feel the cold steel of her blade pressed up against his throat. 

"Listen to me clearly. The one in charge here is me. The one your Dukedom lost to is me. You are now in my Kingdom's land. This is land we annexed from your Dukedom. If you came here to just spout nonsense, I do not mind sending back a reply to the Dukedom in the form of your head." Alicia slowly drew back her sword and walked across the table back to her seat. 

The four old generals all let out a hearty laugh. One even said: "We told you who was in charge yet you did not listen! Ahahaha!"

Wiping the sweat from his brow the messenger finally realized how close he came to death just now. He lowered his head not daring to look Alicia in the eyes. "Our General has gotten word from the grand duke to enter peace talks. We ask that the leaders of both sides to meet in a neutral area." 

"That is fine. War is not something that we should be doing now anyway. Now, more than ever with how the Dukedom is in dire need of food supplies. We already have constructed a floating barge that can host the meeting in the calm sect of the river within the empire territory. We also already have an Empire court representative to oversee the meeting. I myself will be leading the Kingdom side in negotiations."

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Chapter end