The system's screen read…
'Historic Quest Completed!: Establish An Empire!'
'Rewards: Due to the nature of this achievement, you are granted two new corps; you may choose a five-star and a four-star commander'
'What the fuck,' Victor thought, almost choking on the water he was drinking. 'There is no way this is real.'
The system had given him an overpowered reward. It was ridiculous. Victor had never seen the system give out such a reward. Two corps and two commanders for them. Victor could not comprehend the value of these rewards; it was sure to be over 500,000 Store Points.
Regardless, Victor was over the moon with these rewards and was eager to claim them. The troops for the corps were easy to choose from. He made sure to have an assortment of line infantry, light infantry and skirmishers to make up his infantry. Then he had 20-pounder cannons for the artillery. Finally, he had a variety of sabre, lancer and mounted skirmishers to make up the cavalry.
With the soldiers already decided upon, it was finally time to choose his commanders. First up was the four-star commander. Victor was able to browse a menu similar to which he chose his soldier summons from.
There were multiple promising candidates to choose from that were in the pool of four-star generals. There were people like Field Marshal Gneisenau of the Prussian Army, Field Marshal Paget of the British Army, and Marshal Ney of the French Army. All were promising canidates but Victor was a fan of having Field Marshal Gneisenau.
After Prussia's catastrophic defeat at Jena–Auerstedt in 1806, the state and its army were broken. Occupied, humiliated, and stripped of power, Prussia faced extinction as a military force. Gneisenau became one of the men who refused to accept that fate.
Working closely with Gerhard von Scharnhorst, he helped design and implement the Prussian military reforms. These reforms dismantled the rigid aristocratic officer system, promoted advancement by merit, modernised training, and laid the foundations for a professional general staff. They transformed Prussia into a modern war state capable of surviving Napoleon.
One of Gneisenau's earliest defining moments came in 1807, during the defence of the fortress city of Kolberg. Despite being isolated, outnumbered, and under constant pressure, he refused to surrender. He coordinated regular troops, militia, and civilians into a unified defence. Kolberg never fell, becoming a powerful symbol of Prussian resistance.
The Prussian Field Marshal was exactly what Victor needed. A strategist who valued endurance over glory. A war with the Sultan would not only be a game of deadly chess but a battle of endurance in the desert heat.
With the four star General confirmed, Victor then moved on to the five-star general who would take over 20th Corps. The options were slim for this selection. There were only three options: Field Marshal Blücher of the Prussian Army, and Marshals Berthier and Murat of the French Army.
The pickings were slim, but Victor chose a man that he had been wanting for a long time: Marshal Berthier of the French Army. Berthier was not a battlefield hero in the traditional sense. He did not lead dramatic charges or seek personal glory. Instead, he mastered something far rarer: the machinery of war itself.
From the Italian Campaign of 1796, Berthier became Napoleon's indispensable chief of staff. He transformed Napoleon's ideas into precise, executable orders, coordinating armies spread across vast distances. Without Berthier, Napoleon's speed and flexibility would have been impossible.
Berthier created the modern operational staff system. He organised intelligence, logistics, march tables, supply routes, and unit coordination with unmatched efficiency. Orders issued from Napoleon's headquarters were clear, timely, and exact, a rarity in eighteenth-century warfare.
His experience and skills would be indispensable for Victor in the war with the Sultanate. Having steady supply routes, logistics and unit coordination is a must, especially in such harsh climate conditions.
Victor had completely redeemed his rewards. Now he was excited to meet them the following morning. When the sun rose, Victor was eager to greet his newly acquired corps and their commanders. Leading the 19th Corps was Field Marshal Gneisenau.
He was tall and spare, his frame lean to the point of severity, as though excess had been carved away by years of cold mornings and harder decisions. His face is long and angular, dominated by high cheekbones and a narrow jaw that gives him an air of constant concentration. His skin was pale, stretched tight, more scholar than brawler, marked not by indulgence but by endurance.
His eyes are dark and penetrating, set deep beneath a thoughtful brow. They carry the restless intensity of a man who is always calculating, measuring distances, weighing risks, seeing movements before they occur. There is no warmth in their gaze, but there is clarity, and an unsettling sense that nothing escapes them for long.
His hair, worn neatly back, has begun to recede and lighten with age, streaked with ash-grey that catches the light when he turns his head. A restrained moustache lines his upper lip, trimmed with almost obsessive precision.
Then there was Marshal Berthier, who was leading the 20th Corps. Berthier cuts a quieter figure than the other marshals, a man whose presence settles rather than dominates. He is of medium height and slender build, his body narrow-shouldered and slightly stooped, shaped less by the saddle and the charge than by long hours bent over maps and dispatches.
His face is long and pale, refined rather than rugged, with delicate features that give him an almost clerical appearance. A high forehead rises above thoughtful, tired eyes that seem perpetually focused inward, as if still tracing lines of movement across an invisible battlefield. There is a faint nervous tension to his expression, a restlessness held tightly in check.
His hair, thinning and light brown, is worn neatly back in the fashion of the era, never out of place. Fine sideburns frame his cheeks, and his mouth is narrow, often set in a reserved, almost hesitant line. He does not smile easily, but when he does, it is brief and restrained.
Berthier's uniform is immaculate, precise to the smallest detail. Every button shines, every fold lies exactly where it should, as though disorder offends him on a physical level. His professionalism was outstanding and was something Victor would come to admire.
With the arrival of his two new corps, it was time for the first wave of Luxenberg soldiers to depart for Basra.