Elden Ring:After the end

Moving along a long dirt run that seems to stretch for miles backwards, a caravan consisting of a total of four huge wooden carriages, advances towards the intended direction of a city. 

Seen from the sky, the city proper is more akin to a fortified castle, along with a small residential area surrounding it. Yes, it could easily pass for one of those constructions of the past, where the lord's castle sits in the center and everything else is built around it. 

"They were taking a toll on Leyndell, what the hell was that mimetic tear doing?"

The surprise of the white-haired, horned, tailed lady is completely understandable. The outer walls of the city/castle are in a deplorable state, there is even a crack so large in the wall that it can easily be used to enter inwards. 

"Lansseax despite what is shown by appearances, Leyndell is in a much worse situation than this fortress city."

Without answering her question and letting her retaliate with her aggressive words. A young man with dirty blond hair, who has brown eyes and wears obviously upper-class clothes, speaks calmly to the young Lansseax.

"Worse than that? You must be joking, Aldrich."

"Leyndell is too big to be protected by the troops currently there, besides we depend on the grains passing through here."

"Only because of the mismanagement of that stupid tear, think about it if they had gathered all the troops before dispersing across the Altus Plateau, they could have easily secured this route."

Hearing what Lansseax says proudly, Aldrich watches her for a few moments as if surprised at her reasoning, though he then narrows his expression and replies. 

"Al's plan solely seeks Leyndell's livelihood, starting to attack the nobles could lead to civil war and result in widespread chaos."

"I still think my plan is very feasible. I'm sure you probably just want to be on Al's side."

"We'll never know."

Dropping a few words, Aldrich shakes his head in Lansseax's direction and starts jumping from one carriage to another, until he reaches the roof of the first carriage. 

...Aldrich pov...

Lansseax was right that it is an inexplicable situation that these guys are charging Leyndell, although I understand Al's action, but they don't even have steel bars on their main gate. 

It is literally open from side to side, while there are only two soldiers guarding that place, at the same time there is no one on the remains of the ramparts. 

"Stop! Stop there!"

"Report your provenance and business to be transacted!"

They're being oblivious to these two... No, I can see what they're doing and I don't like it at all to tell the truth. Taking my eyes off them, I glance intently into the city and I can see how the crowd is gathering from the shouts just given. 

They were obviously using us to increase their prestige, as if they were demonstrating that they can command us, I can also notice the dark faces of the citizens when they see us, almost as if they have already given up all hope... Something is going on here.

"We are the envoys from Leyndell, we have come to deliver what was agreed to by Mr. Jher".

"Hahaha you heard it brother, they are from Leyndell, the golden city... I really don't know if Mr. Jher is here now."

Giving a dry look to this idiot, I see how in a totally obvious way he hits his "Brother" with his elbow. 

"My brother here is right, besides how will we know if they are truly from Leyndell. I don't see any banners and I don't recognize their faces, maybe some help wouldn't hurt."

Maybe these two are trying to rip me off, but it must be a joke... ha ha ha... It's not. 

"Hahaha, of course how could I refuse to give you a hand to help?"

Laughing with a tone that makes Lansseax shudder behind me, he pulled my body closer to the guards and covered the eyes of the citizens with my silk robe, before handing a small bag of coins to the two. 

Yes, in the Midlands, ore is still used as a bargaining chip. That's why the aristocrats you sometimes come across carry swords made of solid gold, plus it's a symbol of power of the royal house. 

"It seems we have already remembered you and your arrival."

"Make room for the envoys! Whoever does not move, will receive no mercy from us!"

Under the shouts of one of the guards who clearly promises pain to anyone who does not follow orders, the faces of the citizens become even darker and begin to disperse around the place, while more than one throws us a resentful look. 

"Now that these... Civilians have left, follow me Mr. Jher must be waiting for you."

"Sure, it will be an honor"

"Hahaha, I like this boy bro".

"Me too. The previous envoys still maintained that haughtiness, but not this one"

Nodding towards them as they turned to look at me, I let a polite smile grow on my face and advanced along with them with the caravan behind me. 

...30 minutes later... 

The city wasn't big enough to take half an hour to go from one place to another by carriage, obviously they made us go slower, all in order to show us the inhabitants of this city.

Now I can see that something is clearly going on here, although I already have an idea of what it might be and perhaps this is for the best. 

As I considered certain things in my thoughts, we reached the inner walls, behind which rests the lord's castle and where our destination lies. 

"Welcome to my castle!"

Passing through the main gate which this time did at least have a solid wooden door, we arrived at an empty area in the castle grounds and in front of us about 200 to 300 meters away stands the one who calls himself the owner of the castle plus about 30 soldiers. 

Ignoring his words as he tries to strike a regal pose, my eyes quickly scan the entire castle and the solé result makes me steadier in my thoughts. The troops are out of place, there are areas that have completely collapsed such as some guard towers, there is garbage piled up on some sides and even the occasional freshly extinguished campfire can be seen. 

Everything here screams "Unprofessionalism" and makes me doubt less and less my previous thoughts. Most likely these guys are bandits, the way they talk, act and behave easily gives them away if you know what they look like... Thanks Patches for showing me this.

"Hahaha, no. Be you welcome to My castle."

Finishing my warm words that seem to make them shiver, I take a small step forward and easily appear at his side, before grabbing him by the collar to lift him into the air. 

"Weren't we going to do this diplomatically, Aldrich? I'm not complaining though, since the result will be the same."

Letting the frightened screams of the soldiers go through one ear and out the other, I make a seductive branch appear from the inventory, then thrust it into the throat of the self-proclaimed lord.

Finishing those actions, I turn around only to see Lansseax throwing some red lightning bolts from his hand towards the crossbowmen, managing to explain a lot of the screams. Shaking my head at that, I set the now flaccid lord down and replied to Lansseax. 

"The diplomatic method was just in case they were useful, what good are bandits to me as rulers?"

With that said, I guided my hand to the hilt of the straight sword hanging from my waist. It was a simple sword, with nothing to stand out with the exception of its golden color covering everything on it and seemingly made for the purpose of being decorative.(Nobleman's slender sword). 

Removing the sword from its scabbard, he gently waved it in a slow upward motion and the results were certainly surprising. The first soldier was split in two by the steel, while he who was behind was split by the wind slash and finally the third was blown into the walls by the pressure of the wind. 

"Looks like the title isn't just for show... I'm going to have to avoid extreme moves until I'm used to it though."

Nodding to myself, I raised the sword towards the sky under the fearful eyes around me and activated the electric war ash I had added... Blacksmith Hewg. From the totally clear sky strangely lightning descends and strikes the sword for an instant, then disappears leaving only the electrified sword behind.

It was certainly useless to use war ash against these little side guys, but the mana expenditure was close to zero... It seems to me that it has even already regenerated and as a bonus of this test, I now know that the weapon skills work. 

"Well, I can't keep all the fun, open the carriages!"

"Understood!"

Shouting loudly towards the soldiers you saw with me, they mechanically move towards the carriages and when they open the carriages, from inside even more soldiers start to come out. How is it possible that they didn't notice something so simple? It's all thanks to Lansseax and his cognitive interference magic. 

In a few seconds the entire empty castle grounds turned into chaos, mainly because they finally reacted and raised the alarm to call everyone here to defend against our assault.