The head office doesn't look too impressive among the many palaces of the hexmountain. Not that it is not impressive. It is large enough to match the council of the snow tribe. The people thronging the place are easily ten times that of the council, though.
The reason for that is that almost anything that needs to be done in the hexmountain has to go through the head office in some form or another. You need some kind of funds, either to build a formation or an airship, you come here. You need refunds for breakfast and dinners eaten during a mission, you come here. As long as you have a problem in the hexmountain, you come to the head office.
The only people who tend to be relatively independent of the head office are the legion. Even though they are forced to come here for quite a few things,
As for the guard corps, they function almost exclusively through the head office. This is to the point that the head office and the guard corps are synonymous with each other. To speak of one is to speak of the other.
The main reason for this is to protect the place against enemy attacks. At the same time, the guard corps needs to come here quite frequently. Just setting up base here is the most efficient solution.
Right now I am in one of the many meeting rooms that you can find in this place. It is a standard design, a table that is placed at the center of the room, with chairs on either side. It will work well for a supervisor about to chew out his underling for failing at his mission. You can make use of these rooms as long as you submit a letter about it beforehand to the head office.
I am waiting for my supervisor right now. I guess I should explain how the guard corps works. Every ten guards in the guard corps has a supervisor. The supervisor deals with all the matters of their guards. This includes things like mission assignments and mission reviews.. They can make your life very hard if they want to.
Your supervisor holds the authority to punish or reward their charges, after all. Only the committee of supervisors has the ability to override a supervisor's commands. When everybody speaks of the head office, by the way, it is this committee that everybody is referring to.
Right now, the major source of my worry is that I don't know why my supervisor chose me. Daniel usually supervises guards who take on more violent positions, such as in the bone pits or the eastern desert. If the rumors that I have heard about him are true, the man is supposed to be one of the strongest supervisors. He normally isn't supposed to be working with mere guards like me.
Right now, I am waiting for him to show up. I don't know if I have pissed the man off or not. So I don't even know if I am supposed to be feeling nervous or not.
Another problem is that he doesn't have the experience to deal with a new guard like me. The man has little experience with politically unstable situations like the Snowwind Empire. So I have no idea if his judgment will be fair. So there is that as well.
On top of that, the old ass doesn't have the patience to deal with the politics of the head office. I mean, the man looks like a young man who might have passed off as my uncle if anybody were to see him.
I swear that I have yet to see a white hair on him, and he certainly doesn't move like an old man. Still, the way that my master behaves around that man, he must be at the very least as old as my master.
I wonder if I should be recording right now. After all, the man could be reading my logs right now at this very moment. The supervisors are the first people in the hexmountain to read the logs of their charges.
I have no idea what the man could take personally.
(After about ten minutes.)
Looks like they are not calling the entire committee on me at the very least. There are only two people here for my review. The first is naturally Daniel, and the other is a lady whom I have never seen in my life.
How do I describe her? She has a kind of beauty that does not feel real, like she is a statue brought to life rather than a human.
Well, from the time that they entered the room, they had been sitting at the table in the room just studying my logs. I guess that I should say something. I don't think that they will be able to or are willing to hear, though.
They have covered themselves with a cloak (magic), which means I can't hear anything that they are doing. It is a fascinating piece of magic, one that is very commonly used in formations. Place a cloak or one of its many variants on a mask. You suddenly have a mask that will be able to completely stop you from speaking. You have masks to make your voice heard only by a specific person. My favorite use of this is to make sure everybody can hear you. It is a pretty useful spell to inscribe onto crowns.
Anyway, where was I? Yeah, they are speaking with each other behind a cloak. It is the spell variety of a cloak, the kind with which I can look at the other side, though I can't hear their voice.
Just based on their body language, I can't tell what they are going through, though. I would say that they are pretty civil to each other, talking calmly. That is a good sign. I would assume that things would go badly if they were fighting, right?
I could be completely wrong, though. After all, even we at the legion would have lessons to mask our body language. Why won't the guard corps that works at even more sensitive places than us not have something similar?
"Guard Antonio, you have left us with something of a mess. After all, it is not like any of the scandals in this mission are your fault. You just have pretty bad luck. ", it is Daniel who speaks, his voice oddly excited. "Honestly, what we should do with you is a question that nobody wants to answer."
As he speaks, I can see the man dismantle the cloak spell. It happens instantaneously as the barrier dissolves and the voices it hid are now revealed to me.
"You defend your charge, Daniel.", the lady speaks, her voice very robotic and slow. It feels the exact opposite of Daniels. There is also very clear animosity in her tone. She either doesn't like me or doesn't like Daniel or both.
"Guard Antonio, we have studied your performance on this mission, and I find you lacking on many points." the lady says to the room. The words are not directed at me, she speaks like she is addressing the room rather than me. "How do you defend yourself?"
"My lady, this is my first mission. If you could point out my mistake, I will try to justify myself", I reply, as a sense of nervousness creeps into me. It is a funny sensation if I am honest. I shouldn't particularly care if they remove me from the guard corps, and that is the worst that they can do to me. I wonder if this nervousness is caused by magical means.
"Well, there are three things. The first is your willingness to abandon the scholars in enemy territory.", she replies.
"My lady, I did as I was instructed by the behavior of the people who took the mission before me. In most cases, the guards and the scholars were separated when we went to that place. That is what my supervisor would have advised me to do. That is what I have done.", I reply, as calmly as possible. "The soldiers of the frozen peak have always escorted the scholars to the magical ruin. They have done so for many years without any issue. The other side has never done anything worth suspecting them for. They have never failed at protecting the scholars. Meanwhile, I was not resting. I was situated in an outpost quite near the ruin, fulfilling the hexmountain treaty. If anything did happen, I was in a position to quickly send reinforcements."
"Still, have you not abandoned your scholars? You have abandoned this outpost of yours and traveled into the territory of a known enemy." she replies, an edge to her voice that warned me not to push it with her. Before I can reply, though.
"Leave it, Minerva. You know as well as I when a demigod kidnaps you, there is little you can do to save yourself.", Daniel speaks. "The kid did pretty admirably, in my opinion. After all, he left the rest of his troop to protect the scholars. Few in his position would do that. Also, he is right about being in a position to send reinforcements. He could have sent soldiers to their position in two days. I can vouch for that."
"Fine, on to your second mistake. You have leaked formation magic to the Snowwind Empire.", she speaks. "If any of our allies were to find out about that, it would be another mess for us. It will break a set of agreements that will fill a hundred sheets."
"My lady, the man asked me to do it, invoking the hexmountain treaty. It is not like I can go directly against the Hexmountain treaty.", I reply to this. "I still tried my best to limit the damage. The formation that I have placed at the temporary fort is druidic. Unlike other formations, it will take too long for it to be of actual use to the enemy."
This is a bit of a lie, as any person who has dealt with or studied druidic magic would know. After all, regardless of how gentle druidic magic seems to be, it has a dangerous edge. You only understand that if you have seen it in action.
The guard corps has no relation to the druids, so let's hope that this lie won't be caught. Based on the twinkle in Daniel's eye, the man knows clearly that I am bullshitting. At least he seems to be on my side.
"Fine, the last thing is a complaint from the Snowwind empire.", the lady speaks. "About how you have broken treaties between the Snowwind Empire and the Snow tribe. The Snowwind Empire was pretty offended by this as well. Offended enough to make them our enemies. We had to concede quite a bit against them."
"Well, I don't need to justify myself.", I reply, hoping that she can't hear the slight tremble in my voice. Again, I don't know why that tremble exists. "I was as much a victim of the circumstances in this case. The other side was there with the clear intent to attack us. I just defended myself."
The instant that I speak this, I can feel a tingle on my back. Like, I am about to be attacked this very instant. Thankfully, I don't need to reply to her as the cloak appears around the lady again.
I can feel my heart pounding by the time the cloak is opened, which is not that long, actually. I am sure that the other side can hear it as clearly as drums. If they do, they don't give me an indication of noticing it.
"Well, guard Antonio, I have to admit that Lady Minerva has certainly made good points. Meanwhile, you have provided reasonable justification for each of my colleagues' worries. As your supervisor, I don't see any reason for us to remove you from the guard corps.", he says. "Lady Minerva will be taking her leave now, as I present you with your next mission right now. I think that you will find it more suited to your skill set."