Necromancer: Kingdom Building with My Legion of Undead Knights

Chapter 172: A Pleasant Surprise

Darion was stunned. It didn’t show completely on his face, but it was there, the shock, the disbelief, the absolute what in the world am I looking at? For a moment he simply stood there staring at the pile of meat as though someone had dumped a small mountain of gold in front of him.

Seven Cteedles. One Bogart. Five rabbits.

The numbers repeated themselves inside his head: seven, one, five.

This was supposed to be a training hunt. A first hunt. A chance for the archers to practice against moving targets and maybe bring back enough meat to justify the trip. That was what Darion had expected, perhaps one deer-sized creature, maybe a couple of rabbits, and if they were particularly lucky, a Bogart. That was the extent of his expectations.

Not this. Definitely not this.

His eyes slowly swept across the dead animals again. The Cteedles alone were ridiculous. Each one was large enough to feed families. Together, they represented more meat than many hunting groups managed to bring back after multiple expeditions. And somehow Seren’s archers had returned with seven of them.

Darion glanced toward Seren. She had noticed the look on his face and was grinning, not even trying to hide it. Her lips were practically twitching with satisfaction. Darion couldn’t blame her. If he had been in her position, he would probably be grinning too.

Eventually his shock faded into a genuine smile. Then he looked toward the archers. Most of them were standing straighter than usual, some wearing proud smiles while others tried to maintain serious expressions but failed miserably.

They looked like children waiting for praise after accomplishing something impressive. Even the two accompanying knights appeared pleased with themselves despite being covered in sweat and dirt.

Darion folded his arms. "Did either of you help kill any of the animals?"

The question was directed toward the knights. Both immediately shook their heads.

"No, my lord."

"Not at all."

One of them stepped forward slightly. "Everything was done with arrows."

Darion blinked. Everything? All of it?

The knight nodded firmly. "The archers killed every animal we brought back."

That earned several even wider smiles from the archers. Darion looked really impressed now. That was actually significant. Hunting wasn’t the same as target practice, targets didn’t move, didn’t panic, didn’t run and didn’t dodge. Real animals did. The fact that the archers had managed this much on their first serious hunting trip meant their training had paid off far better than he had anticipated.

Then the second knight suddenly spoke. "And she saved my life." He pointed directly toward Panett.

Immediately several archers nodded. "Oh yes." "That was a good shot." "A really good shot."

Panett looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her whole. She stood there with her usual calm expression, though Darion could see a hint of embarrassment creeping onto her face from all the attention.

Darion raised an eyebrow. "Saved your life?"

The knight nodded. "Yes, my lord."

Then he explained, about the Bogart, about the spear, about the creature jumping, about how he had actually believed he was about to die, and finally about the arrow that had struck the Bogart in the neck and killed it before it reached him. As the explanation continued, Darion found himself slowly turning toward Panett. The woman stared straight ahead, looking anywhere except at everyone currently talking about her.

When the knight finished, Darion nodded. Then he said simply: "Good job."

Panett immediately lowered her head slightly. "Thank you, my lord." Nothing more. No boasting or grand speech, only a simple answer.

Darion appreciated that. He already knew she was good. Actually, he knew she was very good. Back when the archers had first started training, she had stood out almost immediately. She hit targets consistently, hit difficult targets, hit ridiculous targets. At some point he had simply started referring to her as the Bullseye Lady inside his own head, mostly because every time he saw her shoot, the arrow seemed determined to find the center.

The funny thing was that despite all of that, he had never actually learned her name. He knew some knights name, but somehow the woman he privately called Bullseye had remained Bullseye for weeks. So now seemed like an appropriate time to fix that.

Darion looked toward her. "What’s your name, by the way?"

The question caught her slightly off guard. "Panett, my lord."

Darion nodded. "Panett." He repeated it once, then smiled. "Nice name."

Panett looked even more embarrassed. Several nearby archers immediately began grinning, one even snickered. Panett shot him a glare, and the archer quickly looked away. Darion almost laughed.

Then his attention returned to the enormous pile of meat. The sight was still impressive, maybe even more impressive now that he knew the details behind it. Because now he knew it hadn’t been luck. It had been skill, training, coordination and discipline. The archers had actually earned this.

He turned back toward the group. "I’m proud of what you’ve all achieved."

The words immediately straightened backs. Several smiles widened. Even Seren’s expression softened slightly.

Darion continued. "This is impressive."

And it was. Not just because of the amount of meat, not just because everyone had survived, but because it showed progress. Weeks ago these people had simply been villagers, farmers, hunters and ordinary citizens. Now they were functioning as a trained unit, moving together, fighting together, hunting together, bringing results back to Percvale.

What started as a small idea: ’We need Archers, Seren train them’, had expanded to this.

"Thank you, my lord." The response came almost instantly, the archers spoke together, the knights joined them, even Panett.

Darion nodded. Then he looked back at the growing mountain of meat. He looked at it for quite some time.

Which immediately presented a new problem. Because now he had to figure out what exactly they were going to do with all of it. And that was a question that suddenly seemed far more complicated than it should have been.