All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 248: By Their Fruits

I kept one thread in my processor focused on watching our army march through the valley as I continued planting trees in neat rows.

Despite my initial estimations, it had taken much longer than expected to get the city back into shape. That meant I'd had pretty much no time for anything but cleaning and organization in the last month. The only exceptions were a few quick talks with Beatrice, Tony, and the Nighty Knights that I used to help clear my caches. Otherwise, it was nonstop work.

In a way, it felt just like old times. Cleaning up piles of dirt, sweeping up soot, clearing away debris. Truly, it was nostalgic. Even if the piles of dirt were a bit bigger. And the soot was an entire forest's worth of ash. The debris consisted of boulders and huge stones. Still, it was basically the same thing. Just a matter of scale.

Some of the stuff was salvageable, and I was able to return many of the stone debris to the castle's inhabitants as seamless blocks with a little bit of Void Manipulation. The rest I ended up constantly converting into energy to keep myself powered. For the most part, though, we'd taken care of all the mess from the battle now except for the forests, which still had to be rebuilt after somebody burned them down.

There was a bright side to the whole thing. The ordeal really brought the castle's inhabitants together in the name of cleaning. It was pretty inspiring to see everyone working so hard to put things back in order. But even better, the newly cleared forest meant I had some opportunities to make some much-needed improvements to the trees' placements.

It was still frustrating. I had only just started to really appreciate the beauty of trees recently, finding some kind of pattern in their generally chaotic growth. But then Dragonfire destroyed it all.

I read somewhere that fire was good for forests, as it would help them clear away the dead brush and revitalize the soil. Some trees even required fires to grow. But dragon fire was a bit different than a normal fire, it seemed. It just burned everything to nothing but charcoal. All impurities were gone, the soil was burned, and nothing grew back. It didn't save the established growth or give life for new growth to regrow. It just burned everything.

Not so long ago, I would have actually celebrated. Aside from the copious amounts of ash and soot Daedalus had managed to create, the stuff left behind was incredibly pure and sanitized, if nothing else. But now, it just felt like a waste. Especially since I'd seen how many things the humans used those trees for.

After cleaning up the worst of the mess, I actually spent most of my time fixing the forest and bringing in stuff to rejuvenate the soil. Even the so-called impurities that were burned away by the dragon. My lessons with Trent were certainly paying off in that regard, helping me to understand what we needed and where. Nothing would grow there naturally for a very long time otherwise, not before we'd gotten several seasons of rain.

I had to go grab saplings from much farther into the forest where the dragon fire hadn't spread, but rather than plant them willy-nilly like before, I decided to take a different approach. Jessica, one of the oft-forgotten Nighty Knights, had been my chief assistant over the last couple of weeks. She wasn't the biggest standout among their troop because her first skill wasn't very useful for combat. But here, it was invaluable.

Apparently, Imbue Plant had been the best of her three options; she had gotten no combat ability despite having sword training and leveling up at such a young age. It said a lot about her proclivities that the other two were also plant-based.

In fact, though Trent had been ecstatic to hear about her skills, she'd been quite disappointed and almost quit the Nighty Knights. Fortunately, she stuck with it and received a plant-based class with my name attached to it a bit later. Void's Gardener did have a nice ring to it.

Jessica had also gotten a more potent skill called Plant Manipulation on her 10th level. This allowed her to do things that I wasn't able to do myself, like coaxing the plants to take root, grow them faster, and turn saplings that I retrieved from other parts of the forest into full-on trees. Quite useful for the task at hand.

Of course, I wasn't only growing saplings that grew elsewhere in the forest. As over three-quarters of it had burned down, I would probably have to depopulate the entire remaining forest to cover the destroyed area. But I had learned that some of the humans' foodstuff also came from trees. Even better, if planted, I could grow some of these foods into trees themselves.

And that's how Jessica and I ended up planting red apple trees, marching back and forth for hours on end. I would vacuum up a narrow pit of dirt and deposit a seed, making sure everything was precisely lined up and spaced out. Then she would stop and use her skill on the seed for a couple of minutes, coaxing it to grow and take root and get past the delicate stages of first sprouting.

Like everything else stored in my dustbin, the seeds seemed to shine faintly when they emerged. But at this point, I figured it wasn't anything harmful. Hopefully, any weird magic would just make the trees stronger or make tastier fruit.

We had sectioned off the forest into several different grid-like structures that intersected depending on how well they fit into the surrounding terrain. But each would contain nice pleasing rows as far as the eye could see if one was walking amongst them, and several of the sections would provide fruit and food. Truly, this was a blessing in disguise. The forest would be much improved after our work was done.

We had just finished planting the last tree when I checked my models to see how far the army had made it. They said that I needed to leave within five minutes. Perfect. I had just enough time to make a quick trip back to the castle and drop a giggling Jessica off with her family before catching up to the army as they exited the valley.

Marching through the valley had taken them some time, and I didn't feel the need to watch them during that process. But outside the valley, there were great dangers. Some of these great dangers could very well harm the army, and they would need my support to maintain order.

As I floated through the camp towards the command center, I received salutes and sometimes just bows from the people I passed. I was very glad they had stopped trying to kneel, at least. I wasn't sure who had started that trend, but it had definitely decreased productivity by a significant percentage. I estimated at least 7.4% less getting done when I was in the vicinity if everyone stopped what they were doing to genuflect upon my appearance.

I think it was one of the Nighty Knights telling the naive soldiers it was custom as a prank. But after a few quick conversations with Arthur and Beatrice, a protocol had been established for greeting me on duty. People would treat me as a military superior and salute me on leave. They would be free to either salute or bow. Most chose to bow, though. It was still hampering their productivity, but I did notice a morale boost as well, so perhaps it offset the negatives.

Scanning around, I approved of their camp. They set up right outside the valley in a well-maintained and disciplined affair. Straight rows of tents, orderly supply wagons, and even the horses were behaving properly. The horses didn't really exactly stand at attention, but at least they maintained mostly perpendicular stances to the picket lines and chewed in unison, which I found quite satisfying.

When I eventually made it to the command tent, I found Arthur and Beatrice having a conversation by themselves over the map table. It showed a diagram of the capital and the surrounding areas. The pair were preoccupied with gesturing to little flags with numbers on them posted amongst the outlying forts of the capitals.

"I really don't know how much we can trust some of these numbers," Beatrice said. "By the time we get there, they're going to be very out of date, right?"

Arthur nodded without saying anything, and Beatrice continued on. "I'm worried that you know we won't realize it when we get there. We'll take them for granted, or we won't realize updates."

Arthur shrugged. "Patterns like these rarely change too much, especially when it comes to guard shifts that have been established for generations. Any deviation should be notable. But in order to know that, we need to have a baseline. Susan's scout's messages are definitely out of date. And you're right to worry about us not realizing what's old information and not.

"If you notice these symbols," he said, pointing to a smaller marking underneath the number that the flag held on it. "They represent the age of the report so that we have a better understanding of how accurate it might be."

Beatrice frowned, but Arthur continued on without letting her interrupt. "Now you're right. Recognizing what information is out of date is actually a very difficult skill to acquire, and many of my young officers and commanders honestly have been promoted or not been promoted solely based off of their interpretation of maps and the troop placements. It's essential to be able to take that into account when making plans because sometimes old information is all you have. But you need to realize that it might be the best you have."

I came in as unobtrusively as possible, not wanting to interrupt the lesson Arthur was giving. Hearing him talk to Beatrice this way actually reminded me a lot of how he treated his officers when I was on campaign with him last time. Everything was a learning opportunity, especially when it wasn't an active battle. And as capable as Beatrice was, I didn't doubt that Arthur would have a lot to teach her. So when she eventually did notice me, she jumped a little as she spun around to bow. I greeted her with a little wave and gestured to the table. Indicating that she should continue talking.

Arthur gave me a formal salute with a smile on his face. "It's good of you to join us, Lord Void." I gave him a cheery wave as well. "I have to say, the orchards are looking quite nice. I imagine that it will ease the minds of many of our citizens to have such a staple food supply."

I wasn't exactly sure what to say to that, but I appreciated the praise. It was good to have Arthur's approval. I just dropped onto the floor and started making idle passes through the tent, making sure that the floor was completely clean.

I could have swept it completely clear in one go between my vacuum, Air Manipulation, and Sanitation Lamp, but that would have also made quite a spectacle. It's best to be unobtrusive at the moment. I found a surprising amount of dust that must have been trucked in through people's boots after the tent had been set up, so I spent time cleaning up the rugs and working my way around the chair legs while Beatrice continued the conversation.

Arthur was treating me a bit differently than the last time on the campaign, definitely showing me more deference, which I kind of regretted. I thoroughly enjoyed a lot of our conversations and his candor. While he had never stopped speaking his mind, now he did so in a much more polite way, which I found a little less efficient. It was slightly disappointing.

I needed to spend some time thinking about how I could get him to drop that and go back to the stern general he always was before. I didn't think he was acting per se, but the change in demeanor hopefully wasn't affecting his soldiers at all.

"Master, what do you think?" Beatrice pulled me out of my meditative state as I was cleaning the foot rug in front of Arthur's chair. Apparently, I had completely missed the conversation in my focus. I asked her to repeat the question.

"What do you think our goals should be when we get there? Should we try storming the castle directly or siege it out?"

Hmm. What a question. I wasn't entirely sure myself, so I deflected to Arthur.

"There are pros and cons to either, Lord Void," The general shrugged. "But how to approach the coming conflict is something we'd best leave to you."

Dang. I had really hoped that would work.