Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

"The night here is a bit cold, are the people here accustomed to gatherings at night?" Malin looked at the commander of the assault team, a middle-aged man who was a Baron. In the Farol Principality, a Baron is the lowest rank of the nobility, unable to pass down their title (for their personal use only), typically only soldiers with military achievements who are promoted to command a squad are granted such a title.

He had a big beard and gave a bitter smile as he shook his head when he heard Malin ask, "Mr. Malin, please don’t say that; we Farolians never like to go out at night without good reason, so there must be something wrong with this village."

"Then we can start our operation." Another, younger mage spoke up, ignoring Malin and turning to the senior mage acting as the commander, "Instructor, since those guys are all there, we can approach and then have them undergo inspection."

"We’re just going to walk up to them and have them undergo inspection? What if they scatter, or if they resist?" The Baron asked with some doubt.

"If they scatter, then they’re definitely Chaos cultists, and if they resist, then they’re well-trained Chaos cultists. At that time, we’ll just suppress them outright." The young mage said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Malin didn’t interject. In this situation, it wasn’t his place as a military priest to speak up, though he did take note to keep his distance from this guy when necessary—who knows how he might stupidly get himself killed.

In Malin’s view, the best approach would be to form up and approach, then call the villagers out of the village—if they are Chaos cultists, they would probably charge. Against the formation of soldiers and mages, even nine hundred people charging in a disorderly crowd would not be likely to break through the soldiers’ lines.

Moreover, there were five mages—four mages plus Malin himself.