Return of the Wind Mage: A Regression litrpg

7.

“To recap, there’s a horde of cursed people who came from over the border, down the mountains and are now spreading like an infection. We have the remnants of the traitors and those who were helping them somewhere to our North East, and you want to go looking for a scout who might be able to get a class similar to Yessenia’s to help alleviate the bottleneck of evolutions,” Tank was looking mildly concerned.

“Yes.”

“And said scout just so happens to be somewhere North of us, where all the enemies are?”

“Pretty inconvenient, but yes. At least Daniel and Hana believe he’s up there. They lost their group of runners so we’ve lost contact with some of the scout teams.”

“You also have a curse of bloodlust. That makes you want to go and kill people, monsters, or anything that looks at you sideways?”

“Yes, but it’s contained. My willpower is my second highest stat. I can keep it under control.”

“So, again, I’m just reiterating what you said. After getting cursed, you decide the next best thing is to run to the North where all your enemies are and there’s definitely going to be a bunch of fighting and killing?” Tank pursed his lips and cocked his head as everyone turned to look at Santi.

“I’m in control. It’s what needs to be done. We drop Torin and Mom off and head up with some of Rayleigh’s heaviest hitters and anyone else we can scrounge up. Grab some of the golems and we crush them all.”

“See, that part is what’s worrying me. The whole smashing and killing all your foes. It reeks of not being in control.”

“I agree with you, but it needs to be done. The longer I have the curse, the worse it will get. We have to destroy the anchor being and isolate the curse. Actually, we need Yessenia to come with us. We’re going to need a powerful ritual to dispel the curse if it’s as strong as I think it is.”

“Yesi isn’t going to come out here with us,” Bianca said.

“She will if she feels safe. We’ll bring her golem with us, and Mom and Torin can stick with her.”

“So, now Mom and Torin are coming?”

“Listen, I’m trying to come up with this on the fly. We have enemies in the North. Two camps of them. Both are growing and both are existential threats to us. They need to be eliminated. Is this true?” Santi looked around to the faces all staring at him. Delilah and the other two girls were off to the side as far away from Chloe as they could get without making it too obvious.

“Yeah, that seems about right. If the information you tortured out of that guy is true,” Cam drawled.

“We didn’t torture him. He spilled without us doing a thing. If anything it was a mercy killing on our part.”

“What we need to do is go home and regroup. Plan out a full sized expedition, have Daniel and Hana’s people move North aggressively and find where the enemy is. We build up a strike force of the best people we can get. Armor them up, train in large scale movement and then we move. Also,we need to get food and supplies for a company of Acolyte fighters, which means more farmers and hunters, and all that other shit, need to be Acolytes.” Cam rattled everything off while everyone stared at him slack-jawed. He caught the looks and his cheeks flushed as he looked around.

“What? I like military history. Amateurs argue tactics, professionals talk logistics. Shit, I think that’s the quote. Regardless, we need arms, armor, food, transportation, and then finally men. Otherwise we’re going to get a day or two from Homebase and run out of food and that’s going to be the end of all of us.”

“The tall one is right. We need to return to the forges and arm ourselves,” Torin said. Heads began to nod all around him and Santi could feel impatience surging through him. He wanted to act. To strike. He took calming breaths and focused on isolating that treacherous thought and slowly strangling it.

“You’re right. We retreat back home and get armed. But in the meantime, I’m going with Daniel and Hana and we’re scouting it out. I need to see just how strong this horde is.”

“Can’t, I need to get all my people ready. We’re scattered to hell and gone doing recon. Need to gather everyone up and plan out a strategy and routes.” Daniel was firm, his accent thickening as he spoke. Part of Santi was proud of him for standing up and not backing down and being a leader.

The rest of him was irritated that he wasn’t going along with his plan.

“I’ll go. Me and Chloe and Santi. Fighter, mage, scout. We can move fast and quietly and have the firepower to knock anything out that runs into us and the speed to escape if it goes bad,” Hana spoke up suddenly.

“I’m fine with that. Chloe?” Santi spoke quickly as the momentum for his plans swung back in his favor.

“I’m good with that. I’m just thinking you’re a little too eager to go and potentially be fighting. Shouldn’t you be organizing everything?”

“A good leader knows when to delegate. Cam and Bianca will be organizing the fighters. Torin and Grimvr will gather the arms and armor. Daniel will get our scouts in line and Mom can get Yessenia out of her cave. Tank, I’ll leave logistics with you? Food, medicine, camping gear?”

“I can do that. We all can do that. But, Santi, you should be at home being the leader of this. You are the leader of the community.”

“100% honesty right now. I never wanted to lead the settlement. I took charge because that was the best way to do it. Dad died the next day. The world is changed and we can’t be like old world leaders. Alexander ruled his Empire from the saddle. Caesar became Caesar at the head of his legions. It’s going to be the same for us. Our leaders will be moving, fighting, working hard to get stronger and stronger. We can’t be staying at home filling out paperwork because at the end of the day what happens when a horde of cursed warriors comes knocking?” Santi looked around at the group. Months of repressed thoughts finally having an outlet. Most of them knew what he was saying, they might not have internalized it, but they knew.

“That horde of warriors kills us and takes our shit if we’re not strong enough. And as the leader of this settlement, I can’t just be a figurehead for people to rally behind. I need to be at the forefront. Marisol and Helena and others will be ministers or chancellors or whatever the hell we’ll eventually call them. They’ll be our paperpusher and run the day to day. We will be on the frontlines, fighting and saving people,” Santi finished his impromptu speech and looked around at his friends and family.

“Santi, I don’t know how people will feel about this. If we’re always gone, why would they continue to support us? If we can’t answer to them, be responsible leaders who are there to be held accountable, why would they continue working?” Tank asked.

“Simple. The world sucks and the area we are creating is safe. There are laws and order here. There are no monsters prowling their streets and eating them. We will continue to lean towards our democratic heritage, there will be elections inside of the city for, let’s say Mayor, or Sheriff. Local leaders. But at the end of the day, once they start to understand what this new world is. They’ll realize how good they have it. They can be safe and have families and be prosperous.”

“A benevolent dictator?” Tank’s voice was filled with scorn.

“What would you have me do!?” Frustration welled through Santi. They didn’t understand. It’d been months since the Initialization and they still didn’t understand!

“Set up elections and have the person with the most charm and charisma win. Have them capitulate the first time a threat arrives? What happens when a powerful monster comes roaming by and they decide it’s better to sacrifice a few small towns to save the few? When they tell those with the strength not to act because they won’t like the results? What happens if we’re not here and the next strongest person decides they don’t like taking orders?””

“I don’t know, man. I don’t know. This just feels wrong to me.”

“It doesn’t feel right to me either, Tank. Do you think I want to be a dictator? You think I wanna be hated and reviled? They’ll eventually hate me when I ask for more than they’re willing to offer. When the threat is so large and great that I might not be able to stand against it. They’ll remember all those times I told them to do something that was for the good of the settlement and they will spit on me. It’d be easy to let Marisol or Helena or someone else take over and run this place and just be the heavy for them. Until they decide to do something that’s against my conscience. Then what? Do I uphold their word as law even if it's wrong. Even if I know it will lead to destruction and death?” Santi looked around to his core group of followers. Friends and family, forged in blood and tears with bonds that were as thick as oak trees. They needed to understand.

“We’ve grown up and lived in a time of systems. Government had rules in place, order was followed because that’s what we always had. We can’t comprehend the chaos that is happening now because we’ve never experienced it before. Warlords and petty tyrants happened elsewhere, not here. Well, now it’s here. There is no more systems of governance, the social contract is completely shattered and gone. The ideals we held dear are gone. We can do our best to remain good and just, but this is the end of our civilization. We may survive as a species, but our civilization is gone. The longer we hold on to what was, the longer it’ll be before we can forge something new.”

There was a silence on the hillside they were on as everyone looked at him. There was understanding blooming in some eyes and resentment in others. He couldn’t tell if the resentment was aimed at him or if it was because he’d finally shown them the gravestone of their world.

“Now. Does anyone have any problems following my lead. Please, speak now and tell me. We can’t have any type of resentment building between us. Aside from Yessenia, everyone I love is here right now. You are the people who will lead us to a new future, the forgemasters who create the next great world and safety for our species. We can not have infighting amongst ourselves. So, please, tell me right now.”

Cam was solid as always, simply nodding. Mom’s face was a blank slate while Torin and Grimvr simply nodded as he spoke of what everyone who survived the Initialization knew. Daniel and Hana were holding each other’s hands but were serene and simply nodded to him when he looked in their direction. Their three scouts had wide eyes as they had been looped into a conversation far above their heads, but when Santi met their eyes they all nodded along.

Santi met everyone’s eyes until they agreed with him until Tank was the last. Santi hurt because the big man’s acceptance was something that he wanted. The man’s moral compass was absolute and he had never wavered from doing the right thing. If Tank rejected him, Santi didn’t want to think about it.

“I don’t like it. I hate it in fact. It goes against everything I believe. That man is equal to each other, that all of us matter. That no one should be above the other simply for being stronger or faster or anything. Everyone is equal.” Tank’s face broke as his shoulders slumped.

“That world is gone though. I’ll follow you Santi.”