Chapter 24: Chapter 24

“I didn’t expect you to call me so quickly. Is this when the great general suddenly faces troubles too big to handle?”

Waltzing inside the headquarter’s tent as if it was the most natural thing to do, Bloy appeared with an ironic smile plastered all over his face.

“Cut the crap. Seeing you all smiles leads me to believe that you already know what I need you to do. I think it would be smarter to drop the attitude before it starts looking as if you were the one behind my current problem.”

As Saulus’ words were spoken, no one present in the tent would have ever believed that Bloy’s smile could become even brighter.

“Before I go, I need to make sure about one thing.”

Even with how wide Bloy’s smile was, there was absolutely no warmth behind it. In reality, his face was nothing more but a facade.

“Yeah. I’m well aware of the price for your help.”

As annoying as it was to watch the smug smile on Bloy’s face, Saulus didn’t really have any other option than to seek out his help. Thankfully, the young commander could at least hit two birds with one stone, as he could avoid later inviting the representative of the neighboring countries to the new royal council. After all, what’s the point of bothering someone all the way from beyond the border, if Bloy was already in place and ready to serve?

As personal as it was for Saulus not to give that bastard the pleasure of being invited to the council, Saulus wasn’t willing to back down from this perfect scenario.

“Good. You can expect the riots to stop… In about two to three hours.”

Saluting with his fist to his chest, Bloy pretended as if he didn’t see the furious expression on the faces of all the legionaries in the tent. Given how obvious it was that he wasn’t their true ally, seeing him commit an act of profanity against the sacred, military statue still managed to get a rise out of Saulus’ subordinates.

A little thing, both short and long term, but it was yet another small piece of glass that Bloy knocked out of the mosaic of a stable reign that Saulus was trying to construct.

“Sir…”

As soon as the back of that arrogant man disappeared from headquarters, Saulus’ officers riled up. While Saulus was pretty sure about their loyalty, he knew nearly nothing about the people that built their power in turn. And as soon as they started perceiving him as a weak commander with low chances to push the rebellion on the entirety of the former Burn kingdom…

Despite how little Saulus could do at this moment, he still had to act to placate the pride of his retainers. After all, without his officers, he wouldn’t be able to command an army at all.

“Don’t worry about him. Personally speaking, I would rather swallow my pride now and save our troops for later. If we quell the popular uprising without wasting our force for it, I would much rather see our soldiers well kept and taken care of.”

Instead of bullshitting his way out like he quite often did, Saulus decided to go with the truth. In the end, his officers weren’t idiots either, nor did their own subordinates have a death wish, who would opt for the more disastrous flow of the events.

“Now that we can leave the annoying job to the Pleiades, let’s plan our next steps. As I said, I can take Rena on myself. Being the coward he is, I’m almost certain he will opt to just leave the place instead of dying in vain, just for the sake of annoying me. But that still leaves many topics that we need to discuss…”

For a moment, Saulus lost his composure. Trapped in the middle of the intricate web of schemes, relations and political games that this rebellion was truly all about, this moment of realization of how much work still had to be done momentarily overwhelmed him. Even if he was the mastermind of more than half of all the schemes that shook Retesia into its current state, Saulus couldn’t help but miss the times when everything was just simpler.

“Did I ever tell you that I really can’t stomach that guy?”

With a new voice entering the fray, Saulus instantly snapped to attention before turning his face to the newcomer.

“Your highness.”

Nodding his head to the face of the approaching entourage of his childhood friend, Saulus properly followed the old, royal protocol. With his early years spent at court with the current queen of the rebellion, Saulus was pretty well-versed in the intricate details of one’s appropriate behaviour.

“How may I be of service?”

Direct an intimate way of communicating that Venna was unfit for the place they were in. Not when the new court has yet to be formed. And that brought Saulus’ thoughts back to the unpleasantries of political realism. Just as he thought that he could conveniently push it aside for the time being.

“I already told you that I want to involve myself in what’s going on. You don’t need to worry, I won’t interfere in matters that I know nothing about. You are way better commanders and officers than me.”

Turning her head to the rest of the crowd gathered in the headquarters, Venna proved that be it her bloodline or just inborn talent, she was perfectly aware of how to coax influential figures.

For the better or worse, her aptitude towards the task was what forced Saulus to finally face one of the greatest challenges that were yet to come.

“My queen… I know this might be abrupt, but I think…”

Instead of explaining what he had in mind, Saulus suddenly stopped. Inhaling a few times, Saulus actually took his time to choose his words before speaking.

“I think we should propose the position of residency for Bloy’s… family. The residency over the eastern province which would be turned into a free-trade, autonomous area.”