Assassin’s Chronicle - Chapter 421

Anfey learned from Ozzic what had happened as they travelled on the road. It was indeed a big issue. As the saying goes, those who were well-fed and well-clad tended to be lustful, and some mercenaries got horny when they saw young girls waiving bouquets to welcome them to the city. More than a dozen drunk mercenaries had forced their way into a house after having some alcohol. Only an older woman and five young girls lived there. Ozzic did not know the relationship between the older woman and the young girls. Perhaps because the girls fought hard and did not act like girls in a brothel, the mercenaries got scared. Or perhaps because they thought Anfey would give them their fair share of magic crystals soon, they felt like they could spend money. For whatever reason, the mercenaries were willing to give money to them. If they had gone to a brothel, it would not have cost as much as the money they left in that house.

For the police, what had happened was not rare, especially in the Country of Mercenaries. For example, when Tiger of Tawau mercenary group attacked Glory mercenary group and took complete control of Blackwater City, the surviving captives were all women. Everyone knew the reasons Tiger Tawau mercenary group did not kill the families of Glory mercenary group. This was common in the aftermath of a conflict. For the side that lost the battle, soldiers would definitely die, while women would lose their freedom. No one would allow the people related to their enemies to leave freely and seek opportunities to come back for revenge. Hotchbini with her clout could only save some people or one group of people, but she could not stop this phenomenon. She could have offended many people if she had tried to stop it. Soldiers risked their lives in battle and contributed to the victory. Why could not they receive some female slaves for rewards?

The troublemakers from Anfey’s league would definitely be punished, but the punishments could vary depending on the judges, since no one had died in this case. However, they did make a mistake by causing a disturbance in Centerburg. Most people who lived in Centerburg were key members in Band of Brothers mercenary group or their families. Therefore, over a dozen mercenaries from Band of Brothers mercenary group forced their way into Anfey’s headquarters to try to catch the mercenaries who raped the young girls in Centerburg. The mercenaries of Anfey’s league could not stand for that. They were proud of themselves because of the strong fighting abilities of Anfey and Suzanna. They would not allow anyone to take their people from their headquarters whenever they wanted. In the resulting fight, both sides had injuries and casualties. More than ten mercenaries in Band of Brothers mercenary group were either hurt or died. The injured Band of Brothers mercenaries were kept in the headquarters, which totally changed the situation. It became more than just a case of rape. Ozzic said Marino had not come yet when he left. Many mercenaries from both parties were on the verge of pulling their swords out and causing a large-scale bloody scene at any moment.

Anfey was so worried that he left Ozzic behind and ran immediately to Stormenburg with Suzanna. Anfey was somewhat relieved when he only heard loud noises in the distance, no screaming and yelling of a fight. What he heard signaled that there was still room to calm the situation.

When Anfey and Suzanna ran into the headquarters, Marino, Entos, and a few others were already there. The Band of Brothers mercenaries looked angry, but they had put their weapons away. The mercenaries in the League of Mercenaries still firmly held their weapons. They obviously felt tense, since their headquarters was surrounded.

Marino had a bitter smile on his face when he saw Anfey coming. He had the absolute authority and power in Stormenburg, but the current situation still was a huge headache. Everyone was angry and anxious. It seemed that there would be a riot soon. He could have forced his mercenaries to leave, but it would have left him a big problem. No matter what relationship he had with Anfey, he would not ruin his relationship with his mercenaries. He did not even know how to greet Anfey. If he sounded harsh, he was worried Anfey would misunderstand him. If he sounded too nice to Anfey, he would lose his reputation and authority among his people. In the end, he chose to smile bitterly.

Orsie and others felt a little better when they saw Anfey coming. Orsie immediately went over to Anfey.

“Master, Band of Brothers mercenaries forced their way into our headquarters and killed some of our mercenaries. Master, you have to…” Joseph cried out as he ran over to Anfey.

Surprisingly, Anfey slapped Joseph. He did it out of anger, so he put some force into it. Joseph was shocked that Anfey would slap him. His body turned as he was knocked over and fell hard to the floor with a loud thud.

“Where is Blavi?” Anfey asked coldly.

“Anfey!” Blavi squeezed himself through the crowd.

“What were you doing when this happened?” Anfey asked.

“I went to look for Entos when I saw people had died,” Blavi said bitterly.

“Why did you do that? Don’t forget you are the commander of the mage group!” Anfey yelled in anger. “Do you have to look for Entos when your enemy has put his sword to your neck?” Anfey had never expected the commanders to be able to solve any big issues. He did not give them that much power anyway. He felt more disappointed when Blavi did not do anything instead of making mistakes. A commander of a mage group, like Saul and Newyoheim, should have authority in any situation. Only Blavi could control the situation when Suzanna and Anfey were not there.

Blavi was shocked for a second, but he did not realize what he had done wrong. He thought Anfey just used him as an excuse to vent his anger and carry out his plan. He wanted to cover for Anfey, so he thought it would be smart to lower his head to look ashamed. He thought he was doing it for Anfey.

“You, come out!” Anfey pointed at a mercenary.

The mercenary was shocked and confused when Anfey picked him. He walked out with a bitter face. He was just a regular mercenary. He had no idea why Anfey picked him, since he had done nothing from the very beginning.

Anfey reached his hand out and grabbed Orsie’s sword shaft. He pulled the sword out and tossed it on the ground, yelling, “Go and pick it up. Bring it to Master Entos!”

That mercenary picked up the sword and slowly walked towards Entos. It was not a good feeling to be put on the spot, at least not to him. Every step took a lot of courage. He started to sweat. He felt like he had walked a long way before he got to Entos. He held the sword out.

Entos took a long look at Anfey before he took the sword without saying anything. Marino, standing next to Entos, felt a little nervous. He wondered why Anfey passed the sword over and why Anfey had mentioned the enemy putting the sword to the throat. What worried him the most was Anfey was still young and did not have sufficient patience and vision. He worried that he would not be able to pacify the situation if Anfey refused to work with him because Anfey was too proud.

“Did you see?” Anfey yelled so everyone could hear him. “You could have sent a mercenary to be the messenger. Why did you, a commander of a mage group, need to run around as a messenger? Don’t you know what your position and responsibilities are?” Anfey indeed did not control his anger, but for a good reason. He was disappointed. Anfey had been hoping Blavi, Riska and a few others could grow as individuals and leaders and take on responsibilities as leaders someday. However, wishes were never realities.

Blavi was not stupid. Anfey’s questions woke him up. His lips and fists were both slightly shaking. When Anfey and Suzanna were not there, he had the highest authority. When things happened, he had left the whole league to be a messenger, which was totally wrong. He did not do the most important thing, instead doing the most trivial thing. Strictly speaking, it seemed that he could not control the situation anyway, even if he had been there. If a fight broke out on a large scale, he would have had the chance to get out of the encirclement when he organized his mage group to attack the other party. Anfey and Suzanna were not there. He left to send messages and lost the opportunity to give commands. The whole league could have been in a mess if they had a fight.

“Where is Ye?” Anfey yelled again.

Ye was shocked that he was called out. He immediately walked out of the crowd and bowed. “Master!”

“Who were the mercenaries who raped the women in the Centerburg?” Anfey asked.

“Master, there are 13 of them. I investigated after that horrible incident,” Ye said.

Anfey slowly closed his eyes. Compared with Blavi’s mistakes, Ye’s responsive actions made him feel better. Unfortunately, he could not completely trust Ye.

“Bring all of them here!” Anfey said coldly.

“Yes, master!” Ye answered. In fact, he had prepared for this. He did not think Anfey would blindly protect anyone, including the mercenaries who raped women. He thought it did not make sense for Anfey to blindly protect them.

Eleven mercenaries were pushed out of the crowd. As Anfey laid his eyes on Ye, Ye immediately said, “Two of them were killed in the fight.”

“Who started the fight?” Anfey asked.

“The mercenaries in Eighth Unit,” Ye said.

“Take them out!” Anfey demanded.

Ye was shocked for a second. It had been so chaotic that he had not had time to do an investigation into how the fight started. He only found out which mercenaries had fought. After thinking for a moment, he decided that the mercenaries with blood on their clothes all must have fought. He only needed to check their clothes one by one. The mercenaries were lucky if they fought but had no blood on their clothes.

After checking all the mercenaries in the Eighth Unit, over 40 mercenaries were taken out. They formed a small square formation with the other 11 mercenaries. They all stood there looking worried.

Anfey looked at them one after another. After a while, he said coldly, “Kill all of them.” All the mercenaries at the scene were shocked.

Even Ye looked up at Anfey in shock. Mercenaries were neither slaves nor soldiers. Usually, the leaders of mercenaries did not have any right to kill mercenaries. Confiscating their mercenary licenses and kicking them out of mercenary groups would be considered serious punishment. It was rare to sentence mercenaries to death even when mercenaries committed serious crimes. It would be cruel to kill a group of mercenaries. Besides, the crime they committed were not serious enough for death sentences. Theoretically, if all the men who forced women to have sex were all sentenced to death, there would be a significant population decrease. The military surely would significantly lose its fighting ability and the Country of Mercenaries would be just a shell.

“Master, what they did was wrong as well. How could they force themselves into our headquarters?” Orsie hurriedly argued. “You cannot just punish our mercenaries, otherwise they would think we are easily pushed and bullied. Master, it would hurt your reputation among our mercenaries.” Orsie did not want to blindly protect mercenaries. Fights were common among mercenaries. The winners made the rules, while the losers were always in the wrong. The powerful parties always made the rules. In addition, Band of Brothers mercenaries forced their way into Anfey’s headquarters, which signaled that they did not care about the League of Mercenaries. The disdain they showed in their actions triggered the fight. Orsie did not think Marino dared to do anything, since Anfey and Suzanna, two big powers, were here. If Anfey had to kill his mercenaries, Marino’s side should do something as well. He thought that Anfey would look too soft and the whole league would feel ashamed if he only punished his own mercenaries. Besides their interests, men only cared about how they looked in front of others.

“Compared with right and wrong, does my reputation matter that much?” Anfey responded coldly.

Orsie looked weird. Mercenaries believed in the law of jungle. They did not have much sense of right and wrong. They felt it was okay to rob others if they believed they had the ability to do so. They thought they had the right to defend themselves by fighting back when others tried to rob them. This was the reason mercenaries had to have internships and learn to fight in real battles. Every mercenary tried hard to practice fighting, hoping someday they could be stronger and more powerful to protect themselves. The Band of Brother mercenaries who came for revenge probably were not that innocent themselves.

In fact, Orsie did not think Anfey had a sense of right and wrong. If Anfey had, Orsie did not think he would kill the people who did not want to join the League of Mercenaries? But Orsie simply did not understand why Anfey did what he did. He was just a commander.

“Master, please forgive me,” a mercenary said.

“I did not fight. I did not fight against them,” another mercenary said.

“Master, they started the fight first,” another mercenary argued.

The mercenaries in the square started to yell, argue and complain. They knew they would be punished when they saw Anfey’s look, but did not think it would be this serious.

“Kill them!” Anfey’s yell was as loud as roaring thunder. For a second, his yelling surpassed all the other noise. The League of Mercenaries developed so fast that its management had serious loopholes, otherwise how could they have issues like this. At least they should have noticed the conflict and stopped it from getting worse when Band of Brothers mercenaries forced their way into their headquarters to get revenge. Very soon, over 120,000 mercenaries Marino gave to Anfey would merge into the League of Mercenaries. When the number of mercenaries got larger, it would be impossible to command and control so many mercenaries without strict rules. The reason Anfey decided to kill all those mercenaries who raped women and were involved in the fight was to get rid of the bad guys in the league as well as set the rules for the current and future mercenaries.

As time went by, Anfey had some ability to change things around. The old mercenary rules did not fit Anfey’s needs. He had the right to show his attitude now. From now on, he could change the mercenaries into tigers and wolves if he wanted them to be. He also could change them into submissive sheep if he wanted them to be. Every mercenary needed to know what Anfey wanted and treat his demand as the highest order. If these mercenaries could not do that, what was the point of Anfey going so far on this political stage? He would have rather had a peaceful life with Suzanna in some quiet and remote place.

With all the mercenaries’ jaws dropping and eyes wide, a cloud of bright golden light appeared. Suzanna jumped into the square formation of mercenaries with her sword. The bright golden light immediately turned into a hurricane of blood. Blood spattered as pieces of body parts flew about.

They all knew the reality. If elegant elves could become sex slaves, so could regular people. Reality was reality, but everyone could have different feelings seeing the same thing. Suzanna was a woman, so she hated to see rape. She killed those mercenaries in a cruel way.

“Master, why are you killing your own people? Why?” Joseph cried out. He relied on those mercenaries. When his mercenaries were killed by Anfey, his reputation was affected. It would be a problem for him because other mercenaries would see him differently. He could not even protect his own mercenaries as a commander.

Unfortunately, Joseph immediately found out he did not need to worry about this issue any longer.

“You are a commander but could not control your mercenaries and allowed them to commit crimes. You should receive even more serious punishment than them,” Anfey said coldly. “Kill him!”

Anfey had said “kill” three times. The last “kill” stunned everyone, especially the mercenaries in the league. If Anfey could kill Joseph without any hesitation, it meant he could kill other commanders if they committed any serious crimes.

Joseph was shocked for a second before he realized what happened. “Anfey, you mother f*cker!” He stomped and cursed. “I am f*cking going to kill you.”

Suzanna’s sword radiance had already hit Joseph. The pathetic combat power Joseph released was crushed instantly. His body was cut in half and his organs fell on the ground. Some steam even came out of the organs.

It was absolutely quiet. The Band of Brothers mercenaries were not only scared by Anfey’s assertiveness, but also by the strong fighting power and coldness from Suzanna. No wonder Suzanna was a master swordswoman. When Anfey and Suzanna had just come to the city, they had been talking about Suzanna behind her back. They could not believe such a feminine girl could be a master swordswoman. Seeing what Suzanna just did, they finally believed she was a master swordswoman. When Suzanna put her sword back into the sheath, she became so quiet and sweet again. She submissively walked back to Anfey, quietly standing next to him like nothing had happened, which made others feel scared.

Anfey slowly scanned the group. Whenever he laid his eyes on a mercenary, that mercenary would lower his head. No matter whether the mercenaries were in the League of Mercenaries or Band of Brothers, they believed they would be killed if they did something to make Anfey so angry. They had heard his yelling, and seen his assertive actions and his suffocating power. No one could counter Anfey’s desires, at least there was no such a person around them.

Marino looked perplexed. After a while, he let out a long sigh. What Anfey had done was far beyond his expectations. As a leader of a super mercenary group, he had a much longer vision than regular mercenaries. Besides Anfey’s assertiveness and aggressive manner, Marino also saw the ambition of a great leader on display, which he and other mercenary group commanders were lacking. If it were him, he would have tried to protect his own mercenaries. It would not be fun to test his mercenaries’ submission. Instead, it could be very dangerous. What Anfey wanted to show in action was that he could kill anyone if that person was against him. If a group of people were against him, he would kill all of them. Marino did not know if Anfey would kill all the commanders if all of them were firmly against Anfey’s decision. He could tell from the looks on the commanders in Anfey’s league that they only wanted to obey Anfey’s order. It was obvious that Anfey had won the battle about the rules. From now on, the League of Mercenaries would probably enter a new chapter.

Band of Brothers mercenary group was Marino’s group. However, it could not be his mercenary group at the same time. Mercenaries in Marino’s group followed his orders because he represented the interests of the group. The League of Mercenaries was not like Band of Brothers mercenary group. Anfey had the absolute authority in the League of Mercenaries. If there was any uncertainty or disturbance in the League of Mercenaries, Anfey could kill any of them or even a group of them. It would be hard to change the situation when a group of people agreed on the authority Anfey had. His situation could become influential. The mercenaries who joined the league later on would follow the customs and traditions of the mercenaries in the league and learn to strictly follow Anfey’s orders and acknowledge that Anfey had the authority to sentence them to death.

An empire general could kill a soldier, while a senior official had to be kept in jail before the military department had a judgement, otherwise it could cause a problem in the future. Even when a king wanted to punish a noble, he had to get permission from the royal committee first. On Pan Continent, everyone’s power was constrained at some level. However, Anfey had the absolute authority in the League of Mercenaries. His authority would not be challenged as long as things would get settled in the League of Mercenaries.

“Ye!” Anfey raised his voice.

“Yes, Master!” Ye walked out again.

“Where are the injured friends from Band of Brothers mercenary group?” Anfey asked.

“Master, I am bringing them here,” Ye said.

Ye quickly brought five injured mercenaries over. Or maybe it should be described as Ye and his mercenaries carried those five injured mercenaries out and carefully put them in the center of the field.

“Master Marino, please accept my sincere apology for what happened today,” Anfey said slowly. “The mercenaries who committed crimes have gotten their punishment. I hope things could be settled between us.”

“No, I have to say there are still people who have not gotten their punishment,” Marino said with a deep sigh. He remembered that someone said Anfey was really lucky because he robbed two wagons of magic crystals. It seemed that lucky was not enough to describe Anfey. Over 120,000 mercenaries he gave to Anfey would help Anfey become more powerful. Since he believed Anfey would make great achievements in the future, he felt he should do something more to make him look better. If in the past he had wanted to keep a good relationship with Anfey, now it was imperative that he do so.

Anfey was shocked and slowly turned to look at Marino.

Marino looked at the injured mercenaries. “No matter what happens, all you needed to do was to report to me and let me make a decision instead of forcing your way into our friends’ headquarters and hurting our relationship.” Marino paused before he yelled, “The mistakes you made were unforgivable. Kill them!’

Entos stepped forward. He swung his wrist and shot a row of wind blades out. The injured mercenaries had no ability to fight back. They could not even beg for forgiveness. They could do nothing but lie there. The fast moving wind blades cut apart their bodies. There was no way they could survive the wind blades.

Anfey nodded at Marino. He had to admit that Marino helped him a lot. He could even hear Orsie and a few others sighing. Obviously, Marino’s order made them feel better. And the mercenaries in the League of Mercenaries felt better too.

Marino turned to Anfey with a smile. He waved his arm, “You guys can go back now. Continue with what you were doing. Don’t let what happened today affect our friendship. If I find out anyone is disturbing our friends, I would not forgive that person.”

“Yes, master!” Band of Brothers mercenaries responded together. The no longer continued to be angry. After seeing Anfey kill more than 50 mercenaries, there was nothing more for them to begrudge. All they wanted was fairness. Now they had seen justice carried out, and were also scared by Anfey. They felt it was reasonable when Marino ordered those injured mercenaries killed. If Anfey had killed all the mercenaries who committed crimes, the mercenaries on their side who had forced their way into their friends’ headquarters deserved to pay the same price. If Anfey could be so cruel to his own mercenaries, he could be even more cruel to his enemies. Unless it was necessary, they felt they should stay away from Anfey.

Marino felt he should not stay too long. He took a look at Anfey and slowly walked out of the building. Entos was in an even more awkward position. He hesitated for a second before he followed Marino.

“Entos, what are you thinking?” Marino asked quietly. He could tell there were something on Entos’s mind.

“I am thinking about the future of Granden,” Entos said bitterly. What shocked him was not Anfey’s assertiveness and cruel killing, but his aggressive anger. With some luck and more support, such an aggressive young man could go really far. Anfey had both luck and support. He knew Yolanthe liked Anfey a lot. It was very lucky that Christian and Anfey had become such good friends. Obviously, it was unlucky for Granden.

“You told me you and I should not worry about things like this,” Marino said with a smile.

Entos shook his head. “Never mind. I shouldn’t think about it.”

Anfey was quiet for a while after Marino and Entos left. He said slowly, “Do you guys have anything to tell me?”

“These guys deserved it. They made such a mess!” Ozzic said, walking back. He was the first one to step out to support Anfey. He looked bitter. “Master, if you had not come back in time, I cannot imagine what would happen.”

Everyone knew Ozzic was kissing Anfey’s ass, but Orsie and others felt what Ozzic said made sense after giving it some thought. They came to Stormenburg for help, not to fight. No one wanted to see a large-scale fight. Anfey solved the conflict very quickly and saved most people, including the mercenaries in the League of Mercenaries and Band of Brothers mercenary group. No matter what, it was a good thing.

“Blavi,” Anfey said.

“Huh?” Blavi looked up.

“Remember, you need to do what Suzanna and I cannot do when we are not here. Do you understand?” In fact, Anfey would rather have said this to Alice. He could completely trust Alice, of course, so Anfey would not have needed to remind Alice, since she was smart and capable.

“I understand, Anfey!” Blavi nodded vigorously.

“In my hometown, there was a saying that men think with their penises. Do you understand what it means?” Anfey said calmly. “But I hope you could think with your brain. I will not interfere with how you treat your enemies. If things like this incident happen again, and someone made the same mistake, I would kill that person. If a full unit makes the same mistake, that whole unit needs to be gone. Do you understand?”

“Yes, master!” Orsie and others answered immediately. Anfey had spoken casually, but they did not think these were empty words after seeing what he had done to those mercenaries.

Ozzic laughed in an exaggerated manner. “Master, the people in your hometown are so funny.” In fact, he was most shocked when Anfey mercilessly killed Joseph. He was not sure if Anfey would forgive him whenever he made any mistakes. The only option for him would be to listen to Anfey better and having a better relationship with Anfey. Anfey might show him some mercy if Anfey saw that he was totally dedicated to the league.

“Master, if we catch Scarlet, would you stop us from doing anything to her?” Thompson giggled. He was a smart guy so he was trying to lighten up the tensed atmosphere.

“If you can catch her, I will leave her to you guys,” Anfey said, “but, today…”

“Master, you do not have to remind us more. We are not stupid.” Thompson smiled. “If we want women, there are plenty of them in the Outerburg. Why would we risk our lives to get women somewhere else. Even if we want different types of women…I heard there are thousands of people who came to Marino. Marino has been given them some food each day. Many of them are still hungry. If we could bring some food there and walked around, we might get something there.” Thompson sounded so horny, but his eyes were clear. Obviously, what he had said was only meant to lighten the atmosphere.

Anfey was shocked. “I did not know about it.” He had been worrying about how to have over 100,000 mercenaries willingly listen to him. This was a good opportunity.

“Master, do you want women too?” Thompson giggled. “Unfortunately, you are married. Master Suzanna is so sweet and considerate. You cannot fool around like us.”

“F*ck off!” Anfey cursed in a joking way. The remaining commanders finally felt relieved after they heard Anfey curse. The tense and strange atmosphere disappeared. It was not that Thompson and the others were expecting Anfey to curse. But sometimes cursing meant things had returned to normal and they could get along as before.

The flags of Griffins Aerial Unit lined the wall. Despite the number of flags present, there were not a lot of soldiers in the city.

Scarlet had taken all the mages and capable soldiers with her to the Country of Mercenaries, so the only people left were civilians and the older soldiers. They were displaying the flags because they wanted to create an illusion of a well-guarded city.

Scarlet was not worried about her opponents. She was very confident in herself and the abilities of the griffin knights. She would detect larger armies, and smaller armies would not be able to reach the city. The presence of the alliance was news to her, however, because Transverse Mountains was too far from away. She could detect movements of real armies, but not the movements of mercenaries.

She was surprised by the attack on her supplies and wanted to find the mercenaries, but she learned the news of Baery’s arrival in Country of Mercenaries. She changed her plan, recalled her army, and spoke with Fernando. They discussed a new plan, and she did not care about the mercenaries anymore.

Scarlet was very torn. She wasn’t sure if she should attack the Shield of Light legion before Baery arrived. After a few days, she decided against it. She wanted to disrupt Yolanthe’s plan and prevent Maho Empire from taking over Country of Mercenaries. There was no need to force a conflict. If that happened, neither side would benefit.

Scarlet was a general, not a madwoman. She knew that the third prince of Maho Empire was with the legion. If she really attacked the legion, the attack would inevitably cause the prince harm. Whether she captured him, killed him, or allowed him to escape, she would anger Yolanthe and cause him to attack her with all his forces. There were no more necromancers in Maho Empire, but Shansa Empire was still struggling. She did not want to risk her armies on a useless mission. On the other hand, she still needed time. She had spoken with Fernando and knew that he had sent messages to the Church several times already, complaining of Maho Empire’s behavior and requesting backup. Because the Church’s relationship with Maho Empire was very turbulent, Fernando believed his requests would be granted.

This was why Scarlet chose to take things slowly. She did not want to fight Baery, because she knew she was still too inexperienced compared to him. If she lost, the situation would become too difficult for Shansa Empire.

Anfey watched the city and its flapping flags. Without mages in the city, he did not fear being discovered.

Just like Scarlet did not know much about him, he did not know anything about Scarlet. If he had, he would have known that Scarlet was in a difficult situation, and if he attacked right now, he would win.

A team of soldiers was patrolling the wall. They passed by Anfey several times but did not pay any attention to him. A few other soldiers were sitting around a bonfire, chatting. This city had never experienced war, because the mercenaries never dared to invade Shansa Empire. Edward VIII sent his soldiers here because he was worried about the necromancers and zombies. Now that the capable soldiers were gone, the remaining soldiers became too relaxed.

Small groups of mercenaries crept towards the city. However, because of their numbers, it was very hard for the mercenaries to be completely secretive. Soon, one of the soldiers spotted them. “Enemy attack!” the soldier called. “Enemy attack!”

Another soldier frowned and interrupted him. “No way,” the man said.

“There’s enemies!” the first soldier said hurriedly.

“Be quiet,” the second soldier said. “I’m trying to sleep.”

The patrol was alerted by the soldier’s calls and spotted the mercenaries.

“Pull up the drawbridge!” the leader of the patrol called as he drew his sword.

“We didn’t lower it, sir,” another soldier whispered.

“Then close the door!” the leader ordered. “And fill the sandbags! Hurry!”

However, most of the soldiers had never participated in a real battle and did not know what the man was talking about. Many of the soldiers were not even properly trained, and the city wasn’t as equipped as it should be. Because of this, the mercenaries had pushed closer to the city, but the soldiers still did not do anything that could stop them.

One of the chains that was holding the drawbridge suddenly broke. The leader of the soldiers cursed as more chains broke and the drawbridge crashed to the ground. “Archers!” he called, waving his arms. “Mages!”

Anfey sighed and shook his head. He returned his bow to his dimensional ring and levitated off of the wall and into the city. There were no swordsmen in the city, only normal soldiers. It was one of the poorest cities in Shansa Empire, and no one wanted to be stationed there unless they had no other choice.

The gate of the city shattered with a blast of light, and Suzanna appeared, Ozzic and Ye appeared behind her with their mercenaries.

“Suzanna, come with me,” Anfey said, walking over to them.

“Just us?” Suzanna asked, confused.

“We are more than enough to take this city,” Anfey said with a grin.

“We got it here, Lady Suzanna,” Ozzic said, reassuring her. He turned, saw some soldiers fleeing, and waved his hand at his men. He could tell that the soldiers had no will to fight and would be easy to take care of.

“Come on,” Anfey said to Suzanna.

The city was about ten miles away from a supply station. For Suzanna and Anfey, it was very close.

The soldiers at the supply station must have already seen the flame from the city. Because many had left with Scarlet’s army, the supply station was severely understaffed. There were no more than two thousand soldiers stationed there.

Even though the soldiers wanted to fight back and help the city, they were no match for Suzanna and Anfey.

Anfey summoned his fire sword, gripping it tight as he lunged at the soldiers. He swept his sword around himself, setting everything around him on fire. Those that survived this initial attack were protected by combat power, but even those that survived knew that their combat power could not hold against such attacks for long.

The massacre ended in less than half an hour. The supply station became engulfed in flames from Anfey’s sword. Suzanna was standing outside waiting as Anfey appeared through the flames.

Anfey looked at the supply station and frowned as he realized there were not as many warehouses as he had expected.

After a few minutes, Orsie and Thompson arrived with their men and carts.

“Where’s Ozzic?” Anfey asked.

“Still in the city,” Thompson said. “He seems angry. He’s lost some people. Shinbella’s over there helping.”

“He lost men?” Anfey asked, surprised.

Thompson nodded. “Those people are stronger than we thought.”

“How?”

“Not the soldiers,” Thompson said. “There were some nobles in the city because this was a trade route before the war. They all had guards. We heard there is a senior swordsman.”

Anfey nodded. “I trust them to take care of it,” he said. “Open all the warehouses and search them.”

Thompson nodded and hurried off, giving his men orders to search the place.

“Wait,” Anfey said. “Remember to document everything you find. Take as much as possible and burn the rest.”

After about half an hour, Shinbella appeared with about a dozen of her men. Anfey waved at her. “How are Ozzic and his men?” he asked.

“It’s over,” Shinbella said. “I’m not sure about the losses, but…” she saw Orsie walking over and waved at him. “Orsie!” she called. “Save me some carts!”

“Why?” Orsie asked, confused.

“Ozzic needs them,” Shinbella said. “Said he needs to transport his injured. We also found a lot of things at those nobles’ places that need to be transported.”

“How many do you need?”

“About a hundred.”

“You’re joking,” Orsie said. “We still need them for food.”

“Let’s her take the carts,” Thompson said, walking over. “My men just checked all the warehouses. A lot of them are empty anyway. We’ll have enough carts.”

“Tell Ozzic,” Anfey said. “Just finish off the nobles. We don’t need them.”

“Ozzic wanted to keep them prisoners,” Shinbella said. “It’s easier to get more out of them that way. They have so many treasures. I never thought nobles in a city like this would have that many magic crystals. They have dimensional rings as well. Whatever they’re hiding in the rings must be worth even more than the crystals.”

“Alright,” Anfey said. “Tell Ozzic he needs to hurry.” Anfey knew that a lot of the mercenaries did not have dimensional rings. Ozzic’s plan would work, and he could give those nobles’ rings to the mercenaries who did not have rings.

Shinbella nodded. She walked over to Orsie and Thompson, and the three of them hurried off to get the carts.

Cheers erupted in Stormenburg when people saw a long wagon train. Many mercenaries who were not in the Band of Brothers already knew they would be merged into the League of Mercenaries. Anfey was in serious need of help when he had over 10,000 mercenaries and their families who were going to be merged into his league. However, Marino could not really give him a hand at this time. Everything seemed to need adjustment in the League of Mercenaries. Right now, when they saw their future commander coming back with numerous supplies, their excitement and happiness showed on their faces. They knew their lives would get better very soon.

In the previous Wars against the Dead, necromancers always chose highly-populated areas to start their fights, and then all the necromancers got together and shepherded the death spirits to fight. This large amount of death spirits had invincible power. No country had the ability to counter them. Even when the church and countries put their main forces together, they still could be at a disadvantage in the war. The number of death spirits was enormous. However, as time went by, humans figured many different ways to attack with sophisticated techniques or wait to attack until death spirits had nearly starved to death. Necromancers needed the power supply from death spirits and constantly consumed their fighting ability. When humans starved death spirits, death spirits could not get enough energy supplies, which caused necromancers to be short of energy. It was inevitable that humans would lose energy too. However, gradually, the fighting ability on both sides evened out. In the end, humans’ fighting ability was even better than necromancers.

Some human archmages released forbidden spells whenever they saw groups of death spirits and then escaped with the magic scrolls. They never meant to stay long in the fights against necromancers. In a few days, the human archmages would come back and fight the same way. Guerrillas formed by top powers were difficult for necromancers to handle.

Some necromancers wanted to fight back in the same way. They travelled a long time to attack human’s cities, but it did not help them too much. After the War against the Dead broke out, humans became very alert. Even if necromancers got the chance to destroy a city, they could not bring any death spirits into the legions. Instead, necromancers had a very high chance to be killed by groups of top level powers.

The patterns of the previous Wars against the Dead were very similar. The only difference was they attacked different locations. However, this time, necromancers attacked different areas at the same time. Strictly speaking, the death spirits could not threaten the nearby countries of the attacked cities. The death spirits were spread everywhere, which did not allow humans to unite their armies. They could only stop their fighting for the time being. In the previous War against the Dead, once the alliance among countries was made, every country would send their main force to the frontlines. They only wanted to wipe out the death spirits and had no other intentions. The country under attack by necromancers would treat other countries’ armies as their own people. That was the real meaning of being united.

Wise as Yolanthe was, he still could not figure out what necromancers wanted to do. Maybe the necromancers wanted to scare humans and numb humans’ sharp attitudes to break the alliance. If humans did not feel threatened, they could not really be united. If they could, then this new strategy was faulty. The new strategy changed the dynamic among the countries, but necromancers had not been able to unite all the death spirts. The death spirits spread too far.

In this War against the Dead, the Country of Mercenaries was the unluckiest one. Because of its low population density, necromancers never liked to attack there. Mercenaries had been living a decent life and had almost no influence of religion. Mercenaries were able to make a living and protect themselves. They did not need anyone to help them.

Most people were not dumb. There were some wise and knowledgeable people in the mercenaries as well. After experiencing this disaster, the survivors started to do some reflecting about the war. If the death spirits were not everywhere and were able to form a powerful death spirit troop, they wondered if they would be in a similar situation. Thompson, for example, neither knew about Anfey, nor what would happen after he merged his mercenary group into the League of Mercenaries. However, he decided to join the League of Mercenaries before he even saw Anfey. Did he do that just to survive?

Anfey knew it was not easy to have others trust him so he did not want to recruit a large number of mercenaries before he was ready. In fact, if he did things with poor timing, he would have had to pay a big price to earn others’ trust. Sometimes he still could not earn others’ trust even though he tried really hard. If it were the right timing, everything seemed like it would fall into the place. Anfey took everything too serious and thought others were way more complicated than they were.

While people were still scared and shocked, they only needed one person to step out to lead them. If Mourtta had called on everyone in the Blackwater City to unite, or if Anthony had called for union in White Mountain City, they both could get the support from the soldiers in the cities. Of course, this also tested how ambitious they were. Another test was to see if they dared to challenge the traditions and ideas that had existed for thousands of years.

After Anfey’s league walked out of the Outerburg, thousands of people in Stormenburg cheered loudly. Even though no young girls tossed flowers for the welcome ceremony and the setting was not as romantic as previously, people seemed to be more cheerful. Many mercenaries voluntarily came over to welcome Anfey’s league.

After passing Outerburg and Innerburg, they arrived in Centerburg. They had not seen Marino and Entos yet, which concerned Anfey a little bit. Anfey rode his horse toward City Hall. He did not see Marino and Entos leading a group of mercenaries out from the city hall until he jumped off the horse. A woman next to Marino was so beautiful that she stood out from everyone else. She did not have strong combat power, but others were attracted to her movements, smile, long blonde hair and long dress floating in the wind.

Anfey was shocked. “Alice, why are you here?”

Alice broke into a smile. Marino’s mercenaries all stared at her. Suzanna possessed internal beauty. She was adorable. Alice’s beauty was more apparent, especially when she wanted to let others know she was beautiful. Her eyes were so attractive that she seemed to be flirting with everyone. If Suzanna and Alice both fell to the ground, people would hold Suzanna up and feel bad for her. Even if Alice could get back on her feet by herself, she could be pushed down again by some guy who did not know how to be gentle with girls and would try to force himself on her.

“Anfey.” There was another familiar voice.

A familiar figure showed up. Hui Wei, Hagan, Sante, and Zubin all walked out smiling. Anfey was even more surprised to see dwarves and gnomes with them. Anfey thought to himself, What happened? Has Moramatch moved here?

“Anfey!” The crowd made a path. Even Marino moved to the side with respect. Christian slowly walked through the crowd.

“Christian, why are you here?” Anfey could not believe his eyes.

“General Baery asked me to come,” Christian said, walking toward Anfey with a smile. “He said the fight with Scarlet would not start any time soon, and you would have to do something, so he asked me to come here to earn some credit. I will go back once the battle with Scarlet starts.” Christian opened his arms and hugged Anfey, even patting Anfey on the back.

Anfey could not help rolling his eyes. It was really great to be the prince. Where the credit was, there he went. However, he did not have to be so direct; it made Anfey feel uncomfortable.

Christian turned to Suzanna. “Suzanna, are you ok?” The students of Saul had been calling her Suzanna. Obviously, they liked her as a peer more than as the wife of Anfey.

Suzanna nodded and smiled.

“Anfey, I know you have not seen each other for a long time. We will let you go.” Marino smiled. “But what about the battle? Did you win?”

“Didn’t you hear the cheers outside?” Anfey replied.

“Anfey, where is the stuff I asked for?” Entos interrupted.

Anfey looked back and then Thompson immediately walked over. He passed a paper scroll with data on it to Entos.

“Ok, I am going to check on our reward. We can talk inside.” Marino slightly bowed and departed. Entos looked at the paper scroll in his hand. The next second he was already gone with the teleportation spells.

“Alice, what happened?” Anfey could not help asking after taking just a few steps toward her. He knew Alice would not do anything without a good reason, but what they did mattered a lot. He had to ask what had happened.

“Master, you’d better ask General Baery. He forced us out,” Alice said.

“Why did he force you out?” Anfey was shocked.

Alice thought for a moment. “I do not know the reason. But General Baery said the border guards from Blackania City could watch Moramatch for the time being. Whenever we need go back to Moramatch, we could just send them back.”

“How about the underground city?” Anfey asked.

“Master, I would not allow those soldiers to watch the underground city.” Alice smiled. “I have closed the underground city. The dwarves and gnomes who stayed will attack any invader until we are back.”

“Do any of you know what has happened?” Anfey looked at Sante and others. He felt Alice was hiding something from him. Anfey was not a nobody anymore. He would not be played by everyone. In addition, Anfey had a good relationship with Baery. If Baery did it, he should have given him a good reason instead of keeping him in the dark.

“I do not know.” Sante shook his head. “We did well in Moramatch. Suddenly General Baery asked us to pack up and leave.”

“You’d better ask Alice!” Zubin interrupted. “General Baery planned to leave Moramatch in the early morning. He talked with Alice until late into the night. I do not know what they talked about, but the next morning General Baery asked us to leave with Roaring Dead legion.”

“Alice!” Anfey sounded serious.

Everyone could not help looking at Alice. Sante and Feller looked weird. Even Christian was a little shocked.

“Zubin, why didn’t you tell us?” Sante asked in surprise.

Zubin shrugged but did not say anything.

Alice smiled bitterly. “Master.”

“Tell me what you talked about with General Baery,” Anfey said.

“We talked at length about a lot of issues,” Alice said quietly. “General Baery said you do not know how to best use people. He also told me I should be sent to the most complicated situation instead of staying in Moramatch. He asked me if I would like to leave. I told him yes.”

Anfey went quiet. He knew how capable Alice was. Maybe at the beginning Baery did not pay too much attention to Alice, but he heard and saw how special Alice was and started to show interest. He found a time to talk to Alice and found how amazing she was. Anfey had not completely trusted Alice and always worried about her betraying him. Alice was smart and sophisticated. He did not know what was on Alice’s mind. In fact, he did not have to worry about her betraying him. Alice was more like a pearl buried in the mud. If there were a person who wiped the mud away and put the pearl on the palm, Alice could shine as much as the pearl could. Baery was experienced and smart. He would not mix the pearl with mud. After talking with Alice for a while, he was sure Alice was very good. That was why he commented that Anfey did not know how to best use of people. However, Baery was not entirely correct. Anfey knew the value of Alice, but he dared not completely trust her and put her in a critical position. Baery did not know Alice was the princess of Shansha Empire.

Maybe Baery gave Alice a lot more compliments, but Alice felt awkward repeating all of them. It would take a strong will power to give someone compliments.

Anfey was not sure if his guess was close to the truth, but it seemed to make sense.

“It seems like General Baery liked you a lot.” Anfey said causally. “But why did Sante and others come with you?”

“General Baery asked about their opinions on it. They said they wanted to come.” Alice sounded a little sad. “If master does not want to see me, I can go back to Moramatch right now.”

Anfey did not know what was on Alice’s mind. At the same time, Alice thought Anfey was very sophisticated as well. If it were at other times, she probably would have stayed in the Moramatch town in case of the misunderstanding between Anfey and her. Because of Scarlet, she could not control herself of coming out of Moramatch. After thinking about it for a long time, the idea of taking revenge took over other concerns.

“Since you are already here, you can stay.” Anfey shook his head and walked forward a few steps. He pushed the conference room door open and walked in. He picked a random chair and took a seat. Seeing people running around, he asked quietly, “Ozzic, you guys can leave for right now.”

“Yes, master.” Ozzic was shocked for a second before he walked out. Other commanders saw what had happened and knew they could not stay. They simply followed behind Ozzic and left the conference room.

Anfey took a look at Blavi. Blavi got it immediately and released a magic screen.

“In fact, you guys came at the right time. I was worried about not having enough people helping me,” Anfey said in a low voice. “Blavi, can you tell them about my plan?” Anfey did not want to repeat it himself. Besides, he needed some time to reconsider everything.

“Sure.” Blavi nodded, stood up and said, “We know our league has developed very fast and has six, no, I mean, eight units. However, there is no commander for the eighth unit yet. I do not know if Master Marino has talked to you about it. We have over 10,000 mercenaries from Stormenburg to recruit. Could our management keep up with the fast growing league? No! Anfey, Suzanna and I all think we have a lot of loopholes in our management. We cannot trust any of them to be a commander.”

“Blavi!” Anfey was not too happy about what Blavi said and interrupted him. “Your wording was not appropriate. “Cannot trust them at all” and “could not completely trust them” are totally different things. Besides, each one of them was different. In my opinion, I can trust Shinbella. Right now, you need to state the facts. Don’t add in your personal opinions.”

“Yes, master.” Blavi’s face turned red.

“What happened, and what made Blavi believe those commanders are not trustworthy?” Christian asked in surprise.

“Nothing big. We confiscated two wagons of magic crystals. Those commanders were jealous of us. It was normal,” Anfey said quietly.

“They must be really jealous. Look how pissed off Blavi is,” Christian said.

Anfey chuckled and said, “Blavi, continue.”

“After mercenaries from Stormenburg merged into our league, we have about 18,000 mercenaries. It would be a mess if we do not have a good management system. Anfey wanted to add a magic counselor in each unit,” Blavi said.

“Magic counselor?” Everyone looked at each other. They felt that position was interesting.

“Yes, magic counselors have a lot of power. When commanders are not there, magic counselors have ability to command. If they think the commanders’ orders are not appropriate, they have the right to veto them. Let’s put it this way, they are the supervisors of commanders,” Blavi said slowly. “I will be the magic counselor for the first unit. The magic counselors in the rest of the units have to be our people as well,” Blavi said.

Alice looked at Anfey. “Master, it is a good idea, but have you realized it could really affect our fighting ability if there were any misunderstandings between counselors and commanders?” Anfey was not too pleased she had come here on her own. He did not even have any courteous gestures, which really made Alice feel sad. However, at this moment, Alice still knew what she should do about her responsibilities and how to control her emotions. She had to say it.

“They might have conflicts and misunderstanding, or maybe not,” Anfey said slowly. “What might really happen is not up to me.”

“If it is not up to you, who should it be up to?” Alice said bitterly.

“Whoever is the counselor should take that responsibility,” Anfey said seriously.

Alice was shocked for a second before she got what Anfey meant. No one could be carried by others all the time. Those magic counselors needed to learn to solve problems on their own when they had any conflicts, arguments or difficult situations. Should they come back to Anfey for help every time when they had difficulty? The answer was obviously no. Alice looked around. If Blavi could be the magic counselor for the first unit, Riska was qualified to be a magic counselor too. Christian was even more qualified, but he was already a supervisor for the Shield of Light legion. If Christian had to be both, it would be ridiculous if he was asked to go back to the Shield of Light legion when the unit needed him. The commander of that unit would have absolute power in that case. Alice did not know what arrangement Anfey had. She thought Christian could not be a serious candidate for magic counselor.

Zubin could be a magic counselor too. Alice secretly ground her teeth. Zubin saw her talking with Baery, but pretended he did not see it at all the whole way to Stormenburg. He did not say anything until he saw Anfey. He was definitely qualified to be a magic counselor, since he really could keep secrets. Zubin did not only see her talking with Baery, but also knew how long they had talked. He was totally spying her.

Feller was capable as well. Anfey asked Feller to manage the funds and supplies, like a bookkeeper. She had no right to change Anfey’s appointments, but to follow him. After a while, she found Feller was smart and flexible. He became less timid and more sophisticated after he accumulated experience. He had potential.

For the rest of them, Alice secretly shook her head. In Moramatch, she was not busy, so she had a chance to talk and do things with them. She secretly observed their personalities. She thought it was fun. Maybe some of them would leave their names in the magical history books, but they were not outstanding in other areas. It seemed that they were not capable of becoming better educated. If she had to pick someone among them, Alice thought she would choose Sante and Arrago. Sante acted on impulse, but he was outgoing, generous and popular everywhere he went. Anfey had the idea of magic counselors to develop two different systems. Sante could help build relationships. Arrago was a little paranoid and a little too proud. He was super nice to the people he liked, but did not even care talking to the people he did not like. He was smarter than Sante. However, it seemed that they had their own strengths and weakness.

Alice, deep in thought, suddenly was awakened by a noise. She noticed a piece of paper in front her. Anfey looked at her in a weird way.

Alice was so smart that she immediately understood what Anfey meant. Without hesitation, she wrote down few people’s name on that piece of paper and pushed it in front of Anfey.

Anfey picked up the paper and started to read. Christian stood up in curiosity and walked around Suzanna to stand behind Anfey. He started to read with Anfey. Anfey smiled and passed the paper to Christian. Alice suddenly realized something. She got worried and angry. Anfey should not have let anyone else see what she wrote on the paper. She was qualified to attend this top secret meeting, but she was definitely at a disadvantage in this small group, otherwise Zubin would not dare to shadow her. If she made anyone dislike her, it would be a disaster for her. Under such circumstances, she kicked Anfey’s foot without thinking too much.

Christian was confused, as he saw his name on the paper and a note behind his name: “half”. What does “half” mean? Does it mean I am only half as good as Riska and Blavi?” Christian thought to himself.

As Christian was about to ask Alice, he saw Alice kicking Anfey. He could not help making a noise. “Huh?”

Alice’s body got stiff. She just realized what she had done.

“Christian, let me take a look.” Blavi stood up.

“Sit back. You cannot see it.” Christian shook his head and took a look at Suzanna. He released small fire balls and burned the piece of paper. When he saw “impulsive” after Sante’s name and “paranoid” after Arrago’s name, he knew Alice had been commenting on their weaknesses. However, it confused him even more. What kind of weakness was half. He did not know when Alice and Anfey had become so close. They flirted in public and did not even care Suzanna was there. The world had gone crazy.

Alice really appreciated what Christian had done. Christian knew to protect her. If Christian had passed the paper to Blavi and let others know what was on the paper, she could not imagine what would have happened to her. The students of Saul were really united. If she made any one of them unhappy, she actually made all of them angry, especially Sante. He was popular among them. If he complained about her to them, she did not know what she would do.

Anfey had not looked at Alice yet. In fact, he was shocked as well. He decided to treat her as a girl from now on, a girl who had no one to rely on, no matter how sophisticated she was. He decided not to suspect that she could betray him anymore. He worried they would never reach the level where they could work together if they continued their previous relationship.

“I just saw Tiger, Khufu and Stein. Alice, did you bring those three mercenary groups with you?”Anfey asked slowly.

“Yes.” Alice nodded. Everyone could tell there was something wrong with Alice, but they could not ask right now. They thought there was something on that piece of paper.

“We have too many mercenary groups in our league. We have to combine them, since we do not have that many magic counselors,” Anfey said quietly. “Blavi will be the magic counselor in the first unit. I made that decision with him. Entos, can you be the magic counselor in the second unit?”

“I…” Entos slowly nodded. “Anfey, I will try.”

“Zubin will be the magic counselor for the third unit. Tiger in the fourth unit.” Anfey was quiet for a while and said, “Sante, you will be the magic counselor for the fifth unit.”

Zubin and the other three nodded one after another. They all looked excited, but in different degrees. Blavi had made the responsibilities and powers clear in his speech. They would be the supervisors for each unit. They would have been lying if they had said they did not want to be the magic counselors.

“How about me?” Christian asked.

“Ok, my lord, don’t give me a hard time. You are the supervisor for the Shield of Light legion. How can I have you be part-time magic counselor in my mercenary groups?” Anfey said, smiling bitterly and shaking his head.

“I think I can do something at least,” Christian said.

Anfey immediately remembered what Marino had said. He needed to make sure everyone recognized Christian’s prominent position in this small group at all times, otherwise it would cause suspicion and doubts among them. Of course, Christian would not say anything, but it was hard to ask others not to say anything. Anfey thought about it and said, “We will have 300 more mages. Christian, can you be the commander of the mage group? Blavi is the magic counselor for the first unit. When you are not here, Blavi will be your substitute. Any questions?”

Everyone nodded. Blavi did not seem to mind that he was demoted.

“Let’s call the meeting,” Anfey said. “Feller, can you ask all the commanders to come in? We should only have five mercenary groups. It is going to be hard since we have more commanders than we need.”

The mercenary leaders walked over and joined Anfey. Anfey glanced around and nodded. He turned to Blavi and said, “Go find Lord Marino. I wish to meet with Bernedo, Uri, and Shashibi.”

Blavi nodded and hurried out of the room.

Anfey fell silent again. The mercenaries knew that he would be discussing important issues, so they did not say anything and did not interrupt his thought process.

After a few minutes, Blavi returned with Bernedo, Uri, and Shashibi. The three of them bowed at Anfey respectfully, but did not sit down with the other mercenaries.

“Sit,” Anfey said, waving at the chairs. “Don’t be nervous.”

The three nodded and sat down quietly.

Anfey smiled and said, “Let me introduce you. This is Christian. He will be the head of all mages in the alliance.”

The three turned to Christian and nodded. Even though Anfey gave Ozzic many tasks, everyone always thought that Blavi was Anfey’s most trusted man because Blavi never referred to Anfey with any honorifics. However, anyone who had spent time with Anfey would know that he trusted Christian more than anyone else.

“I’m sure you already know Suzanna,” Anfey continued, “so I wouldn’t reintroduce you. This is Lady Alice. She is responsible for all internal business within the alliance. Christian will be her deputy and will assist her. Suzanna will assist Christian.”

Alice turned to look at him in shock. This was the first time Anfey recognized her position of power. In the past, she had been in charge of Moramatch, but she had to be careful, because one misstep could be disastrous. Now that she was in charge of all internal affairs, she had power over most people in the alliance, including Christian and Suzanna. Alice knew that Anfey wanted Christian to practice his leadership skills with her. Suzanna’s position was a bit baffling, but Alice was smart enough to figure out Anfey’s intention. Suzanna may have been a master swordsman, but she had no leadership skills or experience dealing with internal affairs of a large group of people. Her appointment was to make Alice and Christian’s positions seem more special.

Alice frowned and licked her lips. She was excited but also nervous.

“As you know,” Anfey said, “I’m not the most capable person. The only reason the alliance has been able to reach this size is because of all of you. I did not form the alliance, you know. Alice is the one that had this idea, not me. Without her, none of us will be sitting here right now. Without Alice, we will all be scattered throughout the nation, fighting zombies or dying.”

“I agree, sir!” Ozzic said. “Lady Alice is a very smart and capable woman. There’s no alliance without her.”

“Wait, let me finish,” Anfey said with a smile. “We all know how brilliant Alice is. This was why I put her in charge of internal affairs. We have more than ten thousand men, which is something I never thought I would say.

“It is no easy task controlling and regulating all of these people. The only thing we can do is try to figure it out ourselves. Since the founding of the alliance, we’ve been supporting each other through thick and thin. I want everyone to know that the alliance will not become a reality without the work of all the mercenaries.

“Lord Marino is supportive of our cause, but we can’t be certain how the others will react. Glory, Storm, and Tiger of Tawau mercenary groups may not react as nicely. They will likely band together against us. We need to work together to resolve this situation.

“They say I’m a butcher, a murderer, but I don’t think I was wrong. If I had let those people go, who knows when they would come back and attack me?”

“You’re right, sir,” the head of the third legion, Tiger, said. “Lord Bernedo here has attacked my men before.”

Bernedo looked at Tiger with a mix of shock and confusion. Clearly, he didn’t remember what Tiger was talking about. Mercenaries attacking each other in the Forest of Death in order to steal spoils was nothing new.

Bernedo stood up and bowed to Tiger. “I apologize for my past behaviors, my lord,” he said sincerely. “I do not know when or where I attacked you, but I hope that I can earn your forgiveness.”

“What is past is past,” Tiger said, shaking his head. “We are allies now, aren’t we? Don’t worry about it. You probably don’t remember me, though, because I was hiding then.”

Bernedo nodded. He was confused. Tiger was such a tall man, it was hard to forget him.

“Sit, Bernedo,” Anfey said. “Tiger is right. The past is in the past. We should not let it interfere with how we treat each other now.”

The other mercenaries all nodded and agreed.

“In order to control the mercenaries better, I want to reorganize the legions. We also need more scouts, and I want Long and Ling to be the heads of the scouts, but we will discuss that further when they get back.” Anfey paused and turned to Ye. “Ye, I want to form a policing force, and I want you to take charge of it.”

Ye froze and turned to Ozzic. He knew that if he turned this down, it could affect the later appointments and Ozzic.

Ozzic smiled at him and nodded. “I believe Ye is more than capable for this position,” he said.

Ye nodded and accepted the appointment.

“I want to reorganize the alliance into five legions,” Anfey said, “with approximately three thousand men in each.”

The mercenary leaders glanced at each other, murmuring. Three thousand was a large number, especially for those that had been in charge of smaller groups in the past.

“Ozzic, you will be the leader of the First Legion. The original Fourth Legion will combine with the original First Legion, and Stein will be your deputy. Blavi, you will be in charge of the mage coordinator in the First Legion.”

“What is mage coordinator?”

“I can’t divide up the mages,” Anfey said. “In an emergency, the coordinators will be the commanders of the mages in their legions. In a normal battle, the coordinators will be assistants to the leader of the legion.”

“There are three thousand men,” Ozzic stood and said. “I don’t know if the three of us can keep them in line all the time.”

Anfey smiled. Ozzic not only accepted Blavi’s position, he had implied that Anfey should send more people to help him. He was sincere enough to be a good example. “You’re in charge of the legion,” Anfey said. “You will do as you please.” Ozzic nodded and sat down.

“Shinbella, you will head the Second Legion, and Tiger’s original Third Legion will join you. Tiger will be your deputy and Riska will be your coordinator.” Shinbella glanced at Tiger and Riska and nodded briskly.

“Orsie, you will be the head of the Third Legion and Khufu will be your deputy. Zubin will be the coordinator.” Orsie nodded. The rest of mercenaries muttered to each other. The mercenaries who had been demoted were not fond of this decision, but they knew that they did not have seniority.

“Thompson, you will be the leader of the Fourth Legion. Shashibi will be the deputy and Feller will be the coordinator.” Thompson and Shashibi glanced at each other and nodded. Feller grinned.

“Bernedo will be the leader of the Fifth Legion and Uri will be the deputy. Sante will be the coordinator.” Anfey paused. “I don’t have experience leading so many people. None of us do. We need to depend on each other to figure everything out.”

“I need a chief of staff,” Alice said quietly.

“Who do you want?”

“Hui Wei.”

“Done,” Anfey said.

Hui Wei frowned but did not say anything to turn down the offer.

“Kumaraghosha,” Anfey called. “I know you but… I need you to see someone. Come to me after you talk with him and tell me what you want.”

Kumaraghosha glanced at Ye, who smiled at him, and nodded.

“Anything else?” Anfey asked. The mercenaries shook their heads. While they were happy about how big the alliance had gotten, they felt pressured by their new positions. Alice watched the mercenaries shuffle out of the room and walked over to Anfey.

“Don’t you think something’s missing?” she whispered.

“What is?”

“Hope,” Alice said. “Prize. Benefits.”

Anfey shook his head. “I have more than five hundred mages, Alice,” he said. “I can’t use the crystals.”

Alice pursed her lips and nodded. “Do you trust Marino?”

“I do,” Anfey said. “Don’t worry about that.”

“He’s going through our spoils,” Alice said. “He didn’t participate in the battle.”

“He provided us a place to rest,” Anfey said. “Tell me, Alice. Why did Baery tell you to find me?”

“I already told you,” Alice said.

“You can go talk to him yourself,” Christian said after he made sure no one was eavesdropping. “He’s coming here in a few days.”

“Do you know what he wants?” Anfey asked. Baery was Christian’s uncle, so maybe he had told Christian things he had not told the others.

Christian shrugged and shook his head.

Anfey had his hand on the door and hesitated before he pushed the door open. He walked quickly as Suzanna and Alice walked behind him. For the past two days, Anfey definitely got others’ attention. No matter where he went, he had two unbelievably beautiful girls next to him. A lot of people were trying to guess the story behind this situation. There already seemed to be a lot rumors. However, it was totally different story for Anfey, Suzanna and Alice. Suzanna knew Anfey was very disciplined. Besides, they had a really good relationship. She never thought Anfey would cheat on her.

Alice had shown her naked body to Anfey, but Anfey did not even care to look at her. She knew she could not win Anfey’s heart. Instead of betting on her looks and body, she would rather do more things to win Anfey’s trust by showing her ability. In addition, she had been feeling awkward and scared after she kicked Anfey. Suzanna was nice and sweet. She had been very nice to Alice. However, if she offended Suzanna, she would be dead. No one would help her and protect her. Everyone would be on Suzanna’s side. No matter how much Anfey appreciated her capability, there was a strong chance he would choose to be quiet and would not give her a hand after weighing his interests. Therefore, Alice had been very cautious and anxious for the past two days. In terms of work, she tried to agree with Anfey on every issue. Emotionally, she was quite cold to Anfey. She did not do anything that could indicate any flirting. When she had to give Anfey something, she would give it to Suzanna and ask her to pass it to Anfey, even though sometimes she was even closer to Anfey than Suzanna. She tried to avoid any physical contact, not even touching his fingers.

Smart people could be dumb sometimes. Alice did not realize her behaviors were not natural. It looked like she was trying to hide something, which made Anfey frown. However, Anfey could not remind Alice to stop. Luckily, Suzanna blindly trusted Anfey. Suzanna was no smarter than Alice in this matter. If she did not trust Anfey so much, no one would know what drama they would have. Women seemed to have a sixth sense on these issues.

A very skinny person was curled up in the corner of the room. It was Kumaraghosha. After hearing the tragedy his family suffered, he started to act like this. He acted more like a zombie. Even zombies knew to look for food, but Kumaraghosha had been sitting in the corner of the room without food, drink, or even sleep. He cried at the beginning, but now his tears even dried up.

He knew his family would be punished. There were so many different ways for punishment: eviction, jailing, even slavery. The most serious would be death sentences. He never thought Edward VIII would be so cruel that he would torture them to death. He had risked his life in battle for Shansa Empire. He did not know how he could end up in this situation.

People can have very rich imaginations. The military in the Shansa Empire did not have strict rules. They had even fewer constraints on the territories they took over. When they attacked Blackania City in Maho Empire, they did not act like gentlemen, nor did they depart like gentlemen. The things that happened to Kumaraghosha were not unique. The only difference was his wife and young children happened to be in the story this time. The bloody scene kept playing in Kumaraghosha’s head. He kept thinking about it. The more he thought about it, the more painful he was. It was a bad cycle.

Anfey flicked his fingers and released a small fire ball. A mouse crawling next to Kumaraghosha’s feet, screamed, and turned into a cloud of fire. Anfey could not help secretly shaking his head. Kumaraghosha was so meek a mouse could even run around him. Anfey had wanted to wait until Kumaraghosha recovered, but he could not wait anymore. He was worried Kumaraghosha was completely crushed and had become unstable.

“For the last two days, I have to come and ask you how long you will sit here.” Anfey casually took a seat next to Kumaraghosha. “Do you want to sit until Edward VIII dies?”

Maybe the desperate screaming from the mouse or the need to pay attention to Anfey because of his high position made Kumaraghosha move his lifeless eyes. He took a look at Anfey and turned his head the other way without saying anything to Anfey.

“Maybe we have different personalities. The way you are acting is ridiculous,” Anfey said. Anfey spoke so harshly that Suzanna and Alice could not help frowning when they heard him. What Anfey said next was meant to remind Kumaraghosha: “I do not punish myself for others’ crimes.”

Seeing no response from Kumaraghosha, Anfey smiled. “If I were you, I would eat well, sleep soundly, and gather all my energy to find a way to stomp on my enemies. Only this way could I get revenge for the people who died for me.”

Anfey thought for a moment and continued, “In fact, there are so many ways to torture a person that he could not even die even he wanted to. I know some of them. I would make my enemy regret ever being born. On this continent, many nobles were sickly as young children. You could find 100 of them to serve Edward VIII. I think when Edward VIII got a taste of it, he would regret committing such sinful crimes.”

“Anfey!” Suzanna’s face turned red. Alice looked even weirder than Suzanna, since Edward, who was addicted to child porn, was her father.

“At least I would not let Edward VIII die easily and quickly. In fact, we do not have too much time left. In a few years, Edward VIII will die from some illness on his bed,” Anfey said slowly. “What I am saying is that it is up to you if you want to continue to sit like this.”

Anfey stood up, patted the dirt off his clothes, and strode outside.

Kumaraghosha slowly looked up at Anfey. As Anfey was about to open the door, he heard a coarse voice yelling, “Master.”

“Don’t call me master yet.” Anfey turned around. “I have two questions for you. If I ask you to lead troops to attack Shansa Empire, would you take my order? If I ask you to kill civilians in Shansa Empire, what would you do? Would you obey my orders?”

Kumaraghosha’s face froze. He zoned out and just stared at Anfey.

“If your answer is yes, then take some rest and see me later. If your answer is no, I would rather have you sit here till you die. I will arrange a decent funeral, for you since you are a well-known general and I respect you,” Anfey said. “But I have to remind you of one last thing. There are so many talented people and good generals who could fight for Maho Empire. If you do not want to fight for me, there is always someone else who would like to do it. If you want to work for me, you might have the chance to protect more people you care about.”

After Anfey finished talking, he opened the door and walked out quickly. He had not only been speaking to Kumaraghosha, but also wanted to pass the message to Alice. If Alice did not want to work for him, there was always someone else who was willing to take over. Alice had been cast out as a princess, but her hatred was only toward certain people instead of the whole country. Yolanthe wanted to start a war to establish his superior position among the countries on the Pan Continent. There would be wars, without doubt. He did not want Alice not knowing who she should side with.

Just as Anfey walked out of the room, he saw Ye and his mercenaries dragging someone. Ozzic and few other commanders followed behind them. They all looked curious.

“Master, this guy said he has something good to show you,” Ye said.

“Oh? What is that?” Anfey smiled.

After Ozzic went back to Stormenburg, he had been trying really hard to torture those tax officers, hoping to get every bit information out of them. However, the soft, spoiled tax officers acted really tough in this situation. They knew they would die once they handed over what they knew, so they kept their mouths shut. Ozzic even tortured one tax office to death and still could not make him say anything.

Later Ozzic had complained to Anfey about it. Anfey told him few things that totally changed the situation. Anfey knew the dark side of humans. His method really amazed Ozzic and others.

Ye first tortured and killed a captive in a very cruel way. He set an example for the tax officers for what could happen to them. A few of the tax officers got scared and told Ye some worthless information, but they were treated as honorable guests by Ye. They were served with good food and wine. Ye also grabbed some female slaves for them to pick. Things went just as Anfey expected. Only one tax office chose his own wife, while the rest chose others’ wives and daughters. Grass seemed to be always greener on the other side, so were women to men. The most senior tax officer even picked a middle-aged woman and tortured her to death. Curious, Ye asked him about it and learned there were different levels for tax officers. That middle-aged woman’s husband had bullied him at work and even humiliated him. He would not let this perfect time for revenge go. Nobody knew how many times he might have imagined torturing that poor woman.

The tax officers who gave some information were treated very well. They were served with good food, wine, and women. Other tax officers watched in the Eyes of Sky as their companions lived well. Those who wouldn’t give up information also saw their former colleagues harassing their own wives and daughters. Those tax officers could not see other tax officers enjoying good food, wine and their women. They started to give away their valuables. Their peers had wives and daughters. They could not just let them harass their own wives and daughters. Valuables? Everyone seemed to have something valuable. If those other tax officers had sex with their wives and daughters, they felt like they needed to get back at them in the same way. Even though they did not act out of spite, they might have been craving their colleagues’ women after working with each other for so long. This was their opportunity. They were all captives and shared the same status. They were not concerned about offending anyone, since someone had already started this game.

At the beginning, the tax officers were kept separately to prevent them from making some agreement to keep secrets. Now they were kept separately because Ye worried they would fight and kill each other. The fact of keeping them separately did not change, but the reasons had changed.

The tax officer in Ozzic’s grasp walked over with a pleading smile. He first looked around to check his surroundings and then held his left hand out. There was a milky white crystal on his palm. Ozzic and others walked closer to him to check. The tax officer said he wanted to show something valuable to Anfey, so they guessed it must be something good. They did not think he would play a joke on Anfey.

“What is this?” Anfey asked as he handled the crystal.

“Master, this is a memory crystal.” The tax officer gave Anfey a pleading smile. “You will know what I am talking about once you release some magic on it.”

Anfey added some magic to the crystal as the tax officer said. Something like water droplets started to shake in the air, and then there was a screen in front of everyone. A naked couple was having intercourse on the screen. A female elf was underneath the male. They could tell from the ears of the female that she was an elf. The male was a human with a strong body. Every time he pounded the elf, he seemed to be so rough.

Alice screamed. She covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes. This scene tested her experience with sex, but not her wisdom. She could not watch it in public. Suzanna was married, but she was no better than Alice. Her face was all red, and she turned to look elsewhere. Ozzic and others stared wide-eyed. They had heard about memory crystals before. Memory crystals were very rare, had no practical use, consumed too much magic power to operate, and needed help from mages to start them, so they became luxuries for royal families. Usually, regular people had no chance to see them.

Anfey squinted to watch for a while. He took a look at the tax officer out of the corner of his eye. “Is this the valuable thing you talked about?” Personally, Anfey did not think this crystal was that valuable. The picture was clear, but the video was shot at just one angle, which made it too simple. The couple was just in a traditional sex position. It was nothing special. Most importantly, it had no sound. He did not want to watch a silent movie.

“Huh?” The tax office was shocked. He thought these mercenaries would not have seen any items like this or any memory crystals. He did not know Anfey’s experiences were way more complicated than he could imagine. This memory crystal was nothing special to Anfey.

Anfey tossed the memory crystal back to the tax officer and waved his hand. “Take him back.”

“Don’t!” Ozzic hurriedly yelled. Anfey did not want it, but Ozzic wanted that memory crystal so badly. Whenever Sante captured scenes of the tax officers enjoying sex with the Eyes of Sky, he always found excuses to be there to watch. It felt different for him having sex and watching others having sex. It made him so excited when he saw the girl in the memory crystal was an elf.

“Do you like it?” Anfey was shocked when he saw Ozzic looked so anxious. Anfey thought that Ozzic would be considered a pervert in modern times. “If you like it, I can give it to you.”

A big hand came out of nowhere and grabbed the memory crystal from the tax officer’s hand. It was Tiger. “Master, I want it too.” Tiger was so worried of losing it that he even stuttered, or maybe he felt ashamed for taking it from the tax officer’s hand. The sweet and girly elves triggered the innermost desire of beasts. When elves and beasts had conflicts, the battles were bloodier than the battles among humans. Beasts had shown their special interest in elves.

“What are you doing? Master has said he would give it to me,” Ozzic yelled in anger. He was about to take it from Tiger’s hand. Tiger was tall and put his hands behind his back. He circled around Ozzic. Ozzic looked at Anfey, hoping he would help him.

Anfey did not know if he should be angry or laugh at them. “Ye, pass my order. All the mages in the mage group cannot help Ozzic and Tiger! I will punish whoever releases the movies in the memory crystal for them. The two of you, why are you still standing there? Fight, continue to fight over it!”

“Yes, master!” Ye tried to hold his laughter. Among all the people at the scene, only Anfey and Ye could keep calm. Ye was interested in women instead of this kind of contraption. He was not interested in the memory crystal.

Ozzic and Tiger were both stunned. Ozzic was a swordsman. He could not release the movie in the crystal. Tiger was a beast. Neither could he. If they did not have the help from mages, this memory crystal was just an ornament on the shelf. They wanted this memory crystal so badly but could not enjoy it.

“Besides, take this guy away.” Anfey pointed at the tax officer.

“Master, I have something top secret to tell you…top secret,” the tax officer yelled as two mercenaries grabbed him.

In fact, he was forced to tell the secret. Ye made a rule that tax officers could only have one woman each day. The information he gave was never as good as his peers. He thought if he gave this crystal that had been passed down from his family, the situation would turn around for him. However, he was very disappointed and could not think of other things now.

“What secrets?” Anfey waved his hand and signaled the mercenaries to let him go. Anfey sounded a little nicer.

“Master, you need to be prepared for it. Our Prince Chiellick has led his troops to the Country of Mercenaries to meet with General Scarlet. Right now he should be about at the border. If he knew that customs had been attacked, he might come after you for revenge.” The tax officer seemed to tell everything and giving top secret information to Anfey.

“Chiellick? How many people are in his troop?” Anfey asked.

“Well, I do not know about that,” the tax officer said bitterly. “I am just a tax officer.”

“Do you know who would know about it?” Anfey asked.

“I know, I know!” The tax officer immediately looked excited.

Anfey looked at Ye and said, “Ye, this sir is our most honorable guest now. Please treat him well.”

“You are so lucky. Follow me.” Ye patted the tax officer’s shoulder and smiled. “You will have so much to enjoy once you tell us who that person is.”

That tax officer had a big smile on his face. He nodded as fast as a chicken pecking grain. He excitedly followed Ye.

“Chiellick is going to come. Alice, what kind of a person is Chiellick? Hey, Alice!” Anfey asked.

“I…” Alice immediately turned around, but she was still blushing. Her face was beet red. “My oldest brother…”

Anfey cleared his throat and sharply signaled Alice to stop talking.

Alice did not realize it until she saw the look on Anfey. She worriedly looked around. Luckily, this area was secure so no one could disturb Kumaraghosha. Ye had taken his people out. There were no other mercenaries around. Ozzic and Tiger were still arguing about the memory crystal and did not pay attention to what Alice said.

Everyone could make mistakes. Anfey felt the strong influence of the environment on self-control. Alice was so smart and alert, but she still had made a mistake. After watching the porn, she almost sold herself out and leaked her secret to others.

“Give me the crystal,” Anfey said, walking over to Ozzic and Tiger.

Ozzic let Tiger go. Tiger hesitated for a second before he passed the memory crystal to Anfey.

“Ok, you guys can leave now.” Anfey waved his hand. He had to send them away immediately.

“Master, you said you would give me the memory crystal,” Ozzic yelled.

“I said I would give it to you, and I will, but I have to keep it for awhile,” Anfey said.

“For how long?” Ozzic asked.

“Maybe three years, maybe five years.” Anfey planned to give the memory crystal to Ozzic in a few days and get a similar one from other tax officers to make Tiger happy. Ozzic kept asking Anfey, which made Anfey a little pissed. He changed a few days to a few years to punish him.

Ozzic was immediately disappointed. He stared at Tiger in anger. He turned around and walked out as Tiger scratched his head and looked apologetic. He did not want both of them losing the memory crystal. However, it seemed to be too late.

“Alice, you can say it now. What kind of person is Chiellick?” Anfey asked in a low voice.

“Master, he is not worth too much of your attention.” Alice had her head down. “We have known each other for more than ten years. I know him. He is a useless person.”

“Useless? What do you mean?” Anfey asked.

“He does not have good vision and always hesitates when things happen. Maybe the only thing he did right was to go after Scarlet,” Alice said in a hushed voice. “There was nothing wrong with him as a prince, but he is not good enough to be a king.”

“How did he become a candidate for prince?” Anfey felt there was something strange about it.

“Well, this has to do with many things. If you really want to know about it, we can sit down and talk,” Alice said. “But I think it is really not necessary to waste time on him.”

“If you say so, then never mind.” Anfey smiled. “If he knew what happened and knew we killed them, do you think he would attack us?”

“Did you forget? I just told you he hesitates when something happens unless Scarlet can make the decision for him. A few months would not be enough for him to make a final decision.

Anfey stood still and watched the blazing sunset. Before coming to this world, he kept himself away from society and did not have any emotional connections to anyone. Here, everything he had once believed about himself was changing. He initially only made contact with people in this world because he needed to survive, but now he knew that was the beginning of his change. He felt the warmth of friendship and trust. He didn’t care for friendship at first, but he had come to value those friendships more than anything. So many people trusted him and believed in him now. He had never expect he would find people who would believe in him.

He did not know whether this change was good or bad, but he did not care anymore. Even if it was bad, even if it was wrong, he would not turn back.

Suzanna walked over quietly and joined him. She laid a hand on his shoulder and smiled. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “Don’t you want to go see how everyone’s doing?”

“I want to train them,” Anfey said with a grin. “They need to know how to work without me there, you know.”

Suzanna smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Did they distribute the food?”

“Not yet,” Suzanna said.

“Why not?”

“Because…”

“Because we can’t!” Alice said angrily and stomped over to Anfey. “I need money.”

“What? You’re the…”

“Yes, yes, I’m in charge of internal affairs,” Alice said. “But I don’t make money!”

“How much?”

“Fifty thousand for now.”

“That’s impossible!” Anfey said, his eyes widening. Fifty thousand was a big number, and Alice said “for now”, which meant she would need more in the future.

Alice sighed and handed him a piece of paper. Anfey glanced at it and saw that it was a list of all their expenses. He frowned as he read it. “I’ll find a way,” Anfey said after he finished reading the list. “Distribute the food.”

“We cannot,” Alice insisted.

“Why not?”

“We can’t ignore the mercenaries’ tradition,” Alice said. “Traditionally, the leader of a group will only give the mercenaries a certain amount of wages. The group will only be responsible for paying the mercenaries when there is a mission.”

“But we aren’t a normal mercenary group anymore,” Anfey said.

“Tradition is called tradition for a reason,” Alice said. “It’s not easy to change a tradition. We still need to pay the mercenaries even if we distribute all the food. You cannot replace wages with food. We’re better off paying them wages and letting them buy whatever they want.”

“That’s a good business plan,” Anfey said.

“It’s not business,” Alice said, shaking her head. “How are you going to determine rations? Some mercenaries eat more than others. Some have families, some want good food. We cannot satisfy everyone if we distribute rations.”

“I see,” Anfey said. “What do you think we should do?”

“It’s easy,” Alice said. “A lot of mercenaries have families, but we aren’t responsible for the families. Ever since we founded the alliance, we haven’t paid any wages. We need to make up for everything. The older mercenaries will be paid more. We can’t become a sanctuary. We need fighters, not people who just joined us so they can get free food.”

Anfey sighed and glanced at the paper again. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll talk with Lord Marino about this.”

Alice nodded. She turned to leave, then turned back as if she had just remembered something. “Another thing,” she said. “We attacked Shansa Empire’s border city, which is a good thing, but you shouldn’t have placed Ozzic in charge, no matter how much you trust him! The spoils of that battle are not his alone. They’re Shinbella’s, and Orsie’s. Do you really think he will distribute the spoils fairly and evenly?”

“We’re all in this together,” Anfey said. “Do we really need to divide everything so evenly?” In the past, he had always trusted Feller with their money and supplies. Leaving one person in charge of all the supplies had become a habit for him.

“We must!” Alice said, wide-eyed. “We need the mercenaries to know what we took, how much we took, and how much each mercenary should get. If we can’t do that, the mercenaries will never fully trust us.”

Anfey looked at Alice in shock. She had never really talked back to him, but everything she said today was true. “What do you think we should do?”

“I counted everything,” Alice said. “You can read it over and decide.”

Anfey nodded. He looked at the paper Alice gave him and saw that she had categorized all their recent missions. She had also listed the mercenary leaders and the wages for each of them. Under the names of mercenary leaders were wage categories for normal mercenaries.

Anfey frowned when he saw how much money Alice had calculated for him and Suzanna. Alice asked for fifty thousand gold coins, and out of those fifty thousand, almost ten thousand would go to him and Suzanna.

“Alice,” Anfey said. “Suzanna and I don’t need this much money. I’m sure Christian and the others don’t, either.”

“My numbers are correct and fair,” Alice said.

“I’m not saying that. I’m saying we don’t need it. The mercenary’s wages I agree with, but we don’t need this much money.”

“You can always donate your wage,” Alice said. “That’s your business, but you must be paid. But you are still in charge and you can decide the wages for the mercenaries. This is just my calculation of what I believe is fair.”

“I understand,” Anfey said. “We must be fair.”

Alice smiled and nodded.

“What kind of wage can the new mercenaries get?”

“Eight silver coins.”

“That is too little,” Anfey said. “They can hardly feed themselves with that money.”

“They’re new,” Alice said. “They shouldn’t expect too high a wage.” She looked at Anfey and said quietly, “I never realized you are such a noble person.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you so worried about the new members? They need to earn their wages. If they immediately get the same wage as a mercenary who has been with you since the beginning, don’t you think it’s unfair?”

Anfey sighed and nodded. “I’ll talk to Ozzic,” he said. “Then I’ll talk to Marino about this.”

“Of course,” Alice said. “One more thing.”

“What is it?”

“I saw that you had a memory crystal yesterday,” Alice said. “I hope that you can give it to me and I will auction it off. Anyone can join the auction. No one has the right to keep spoils of war. We need the process to be as fair and transparent as possible. You appointed me to be in charge of internal affairs. I hope you can support my decision.”

Anfey nodded. He found the crystal and handed it to Alice. “Alright,” he said.

“Good,” Alice said with a grin, wrapping her fingers around the crystal. She nodded at Suzanna and turned to leave.

Suzanna chuckled. She had never seen Anfey follow someone else’s orders without questions.

Anfey glanced at her and smiled. Suddenly, both of them felt strong pressure coming from afar. They both frowned and glanced into the distance.

Baery and Ernest stood shoulder to shoulder in the distance. They watched Suzanna with wide eyes. They looked like they were appreciating a rare masterpiece. More than a dozen people in knight suits stood behind Baery and Ernest. However, the knight suits they wore were intern knight suits, not the uniform armor of Maho empire knights.

“Uncle Ernest, General Baery.” Anfey immediately walked over with Suzanna. He should have called Baery first, based on their ranks. However, Anfey did not care much about the so-called rules. In his mind, he respected Saul the most, followed by Ernest. Everyone else should be behind them.

Ernest turned to look at Anfey. “Anfey, did you kill Deswright yourself? Suzanna must have helped you.”

“I did not,” Suzanna said, giving Ernest a sweet smile. She would never want to steal her husband’s thunder. She needed to make it clear: “When I got there, Anfey had already killed Dewright.”

Ernest and Baery looked at each other. Their expressions had changed when they heard Suzanna’s explanation. Ernest was proud, while Baery was shocked. They both could sense an almost invisible force running through Anfey’s body. This force did not seem to be able to threaten a master swordsman. They could not believe Anfey actually did it. This only proved their theory that a supreme power indeed passed his skills to Anfey.

“Uncle Ernest, you are here for…?” Anfey asked.

“Baery came here to talk to Master Marino,” Ernest explained. “I did not want anything to happen to him, so I came with. Besides, I knew you would be here too.”

“It isn’t that important to find Marino anymore. Anfey, I need to talk to you,” Baery said abruptly. He turned to look at Suzanna and smiled. “Madam, can I?”

Suzanna was shocked for a moment before she moved to the side to allow Anfey to pass. Alice had not left yet. She looked perplexed. Baery did not mean to discuss it with Anfey but asked him to do it because Anfey was younger than him. However, when he called Suzanna “madam,” he had treated both Anfey and Suzanna as his peers.

Anfey felt weird about it, but he did not say anything. He walked behind Baery.

“Deswright was a student of Philip, but we did not know about it,” Baery said casually as he walked. “I did not know all the details. I heard when the news got to Sacred City, Philip passed out, which caught the attention of the chief general.”

Anfey smiled. He wondered who this chief general was. He had heard about him from Saul and Miorich. Now he heard about him again from Baery. It sounded like he was in a high position with considerable power.

“In fact, Philip should be respected,” Baery said with a sigh. “He has helped at least three people–Shawn, Dalmatian and Deswright earn the title of master swordsman for the empire.” Baery chuckled, then continued, “The accomplishments Philip achieved were almost as many as Newyoheim in Ellison Empire. Anfey, do you know why Philip ended up in a such bad situation when he got older?”

“Because he has a good-for-nothing grandson”, Anfey said.

“Are you telling me the truth?” Baery smiled. He turned around to look at Anfey.

Anfey quietly looked back at Baery with his lips pressed against each other. He did not respond to Baery because he was not sure what Baery meant.

“I know you are very sophisticated. You seemed to have already drawn too much attention from others. I understand. I just hope we can have a heart-to-heart talk today. Since I am your elder, I should show the gesture first.” Baery smiled. “Philip’s accomplishments are tremendous, but he is narrow-minded and unforgiving. He thought he made Shawn and Dalmatian master swordsmen. Without him, they could not be who they are now. He thought Shawn and Dalmatian should completely listen to him and obey his orders. If Philip wanted to work for the Empire, our king would never give him a hard time. Philip had so much control over Shawn and Dalmation not for the country, but to strengthen his own power.”

Anfey quietly listened to Baery without comment.

“Philip has challenged the king many times. The worst was when the king asked Shawn and Dalmatian to go with the negotiating team to Ellisen Empire. Philip sent Shawn and Dalmatian a letter asking them go back to join his birthday party. How should I put it? Philip is too arrogant. He thought he was better than everyone, and the king would not do anything to him no matter what he did. He never took the king’s feeling into consideration. The king still forgave him, because he knew about Philip’s personality.” Baery slowly said. “You did not forget about what happened a year ago, did you? The king lied about his death and tried to lure Ellisen Empire to invade Maho Empire. In fact, the king had planned everything out. He did not expect you to kill Zeda and escape with Niya and the others. Philip chased you on his own. Once again he forced Shawn and Dalmatian back to help him after Ernest tried to stop him from chasing you. As you know, our empire has limited resources. Shawn and Dalmatian both have very heavy responsibilities on their shoulders. Anfey, what do you think? Where should Shawn and Dalmatian be?”

“As wise as our king is, he should have expected Shansa Empire to do something to the empire when Ellisen Empire invaded Maho Empire after hearing of the death of our king,” Anfey said calmly.

“You are right. Edward VIII is a chicken,” Baery said coldly and distantly. “He is stingy and has alligator arms. If someone bluffed him, he would immediately step back. Shawn and Dalmatian were under my leadership. If they had taken their troops to different places to trick Edward VIII, Edward VIII would not have been able to tell that Death Roaring mercenary group had left the eastern front. How many cities were taken over by Shansa military? How much stuff have they taken from those cities? How many people have lost their families? All of these were because of Philip. Because he only cared about his own interests, not the country’s, he ruined the king’s whole plan. That is why the king could not forgive him anymore. I have worked for the king for so many years and never saw him so enraged. The chief general told me this time the king was so angry at Philip that his body shook. Since then, the king has started to keep a distance from Philip.”

“It was my fault too. If I did not kill Zeda, none of this would have happened,” Anfey said bitterly.

“No, it was not your fault. The king is just and fair to everyone, including you. Similar incidents happened previously in Sacred City. A nobleman liked a girl, but she already was married to a businessman. That nobleman wanted to rob the girl. The businessman and his personal guards fought back hard and killed the nobleman. The nobility advocated that the businessman and his bodyguards should be killed, but king pardoned them. The king said every innocent person had the right to defend his life.” Baery smiled. “You killed Zeda to defend yourself. It was not your fault. It was Zeda’s fault. However, those noblemen did not see it the same way as the king did. That was the reason the king could not punish Philip. Philip could have blamed Archmage Saul for that. The king could protect you but could not punish Philip, since it might look like the king tried to challenge the privileges royals had. As in the example I just mentioned, the king could protect that businessman, but could not take away the nobility’s rights of inheritance. In other words, he could not punish noblemen for that reason.”

“General Baery, what are you trying to tell me? You can directly get to the point,” Anfey said slowly. He looked serious and sounded cold and distant. What was Baery trying to say? He blamed Philip for everything and pointed out the main issue Philip had was his strong desire for control. What does it mean?” Anfey thought to himself.

Baery was shocked for a second and immediately realized what concerned Anfey. He laughed hard. “Anfey, you are not thinking we are trying to get Suzanna, are you? Don’t worry about that.”

Ernest, Suzanna and others were some distance away from Baery and Anfey. When they heard Baery’s laugh, they all looked at him in confusion. Anfey looked a little uneasy as others looked their way.

“If you thought my talk had anything to do with Suzanna, it once again proves you are not very sophisticated.” Baery stopped laughing. He curiously looked Anfey up and down. “But this time, you think too much. I have worked for the king for a very long time. Do you know what makes me feel the most secure?”

“What is it?” Anfey asked.

“The King never gave me a hard time. He thinks I am a good general, or cares about my feelings. Anfey, you do not know our king.” Baery said quietly. “If you could work for the king for awhile, you would know the feeling of being appreciated and cared for.”

Anfey went quiet. He could tell Baery did not respect Yolanthe for his position but respected him as a person. It was actually more than respect. It was admiration.

“Anfey, you think everyone is trying to get you. It is really unnecessary to think that way.” Baery pause for a moment. “Alice is amazingly talented. She is still young and needs more experience, but she is smart and has good vision. She can achieve so much in the future. Why did you have to keep her in Moramatch? You do not trust her. Is it only because you do not know her background?”

“No, Alice knows neither magic nor combat power. Moramatch was the safest place for her,” Anfey explained. He knew it was not a good excuse.

Baery smiled. He stopped asking Anfey more questions and changed the topic. “Anfey, you are getting very powerful with the help of Suzanna, Alice and many mercenaries who are willing to work for you. Suzanna is good with fighting while Alice is very strategic. So what is your dream now?”

“I’m not a very ambitious person,” Anfey said to Baery.

Baery snorted. “You’re always where you’re supposed to be,” he said. “That can’t always be a coincidence.”

“Maybe. I want a peaceful life as much as everyone, but it seems like the world has other plans for me.”

“I had a talk with Christian,” Baery said. “He trusts you. I trust his opinions, of course, but I need to know more about you before I can work with you.”

“Work with me?”

“A lot of people call me a madman,” Baery said with a sigh. “But this world is cruel. I have to be ruthless to survive. Scarlet is braver than we expected and she is disrupting the plan. What happened to Slanbrea had aroused suspicion, as well. We are at a disadvantage right now. Scarlet and Fernando’s alliance is very strong, at least at the moment. Knights of Divine Wind also have been sent to aid Fernando. There are not a lot of members in that order, but every single member is at least a silver knight. They can be a decisive factor in this war.

“But, we still have hope. You and Marino are very important. Scarlet maybe working with the Church, but I’m not worried. They cannot touch me. But at the same time, I cannot touch them, either. That is where you and Marino come in.”

Anfey nodded but did not say anything. He did not know if he had enough power and influence to affect the situation. If Baery was speaking on Yolanthe’s behalf, then this must be part of a larger plan. All he needed to do was listen.

“When you were at Zagreen, you ordered the murder of those priests and knights, didn’t you?”

Anfey nodded.

Baery shook his head. “You couldn’t have known, but other than Martin, there were several other spies among those priests and knights. Some spent decades infiltrating the Church. Your mercenaries murdered some valuable informants at your order.”

“I…I didn’t know.”

Baery sighed. “This is why Yolanthe decided to grant you access to some information relating to the Church. Black Eleven will be in charge of receiving this information from Sacred City.”

“I see,” Anfey said, nodding. He appeared very calm, but in reality he was very surprised by Baery’s announcement. Even though this might not seem like a great honor, it showed how much Yolanthe trusted him. It was an important step towards becoming a member of the class of political elites. It showed that Yolanthe fully trusted and accepted him.

“No one knows what the necromancers want or what they’re planning,” Baery continued. “But we do know that they are not using their full power. That is why Yolanthe asked us to prevent a full scale conflict. Scarlet must be thinking the same thing, or else she wouldn’t have let me get passed her. Yolanthe believes that considering this situation, it’s unrealistic for Maho Empire to forcibly take over this country. What may work is to help one person take control of the Country of Mercenaries.”

“Me?” Anfey asked, incredulous.

Baery nodded. “Yolanthe believes that the biggest threat to our society is privileges. Especially privileges of the upper class. In order to get people to work for you, you need to give them benefits. You need to convince them that following you would work out favorably for them. As long as there are benefits, people will be loyal to you willingly. The larger the benefits, the less likely they will be to rebel against you and take others’ offers. But this affects the development of society, which is why ever since he became the ruler, he’s been actively trying to weaken upper-class privileges.”

“But what should we do about it?” Anfey asked. “The only thing I can think of is ending the system of nobility, but that’s not practical, is it?”

“How is it not?”

“What?” Anfey asked, his eyes widening. “My title is legal, isn’t it?”

“Legality is not the issue,” Baery said. “You can’t give too many titles, but you have to be generous at the same time. If people do not know how beneficial it is to ally with you, it may not work out in your favor.”

“But…”

“Don’t forget, Lord Marino received a title as well,” Baery reminded him. “And he needs to give titles to his men. You can ally with him. As long as you two recognize each other as nobility, it will make things much easier.”

“Really? Isn’t it a bit ridiculous?”

“What you think isn’t important,” Baery said. “What’s important is what he thinks. Marino defected. What do you think about that?”

Anfey frowned and shook his head. He had good reason to hide the fact that he did not know what Baery was talking about.

“Mercenaries believe in freedom. They believe that each man is his own and needs to fight for a living. But everyone wants to follow tradition. A lot of people have been calling for changes. They want reassurance for themselves and their families.”

“Oh,” Anfey said. “Now I see.”

“There are a lot of capable mercenaries, but no one can be sure what their children will be like. If they can have a fulfilling life without risking their lives everyday, they will take that chance. They need reassurance. Traditions are like habits. They’re hard to change, but they can be changed.”

Anfey took a deep breath and nodded. He had similar thoughts before, but he could not analyze the situation as deeply as Baery could. He wanted to try and change this country in the direction Baery talked about.

“I think we’ve talked enough,” Baery said. “Do you need anything?”

Anfey thought about it and said, “Money.”

“I can’t to anything about that,” Baery said, shaking his head. “Blackwater and White Mountain are both wealthy cities. It’s better to go to them.”

“I’m worried about Scarlet.”

“She won’t do anything,” Baery said. “Just like I won’t do anything until I’m fully convinced that I will win, she won’t, either. Maybe she will aid Tiger of Tawau mercenary group a bit, but that shouldn’t be a problem, should it?”

“That’s not an easy opponent,” Anfey said. “I don’t know what Hotchbini is doing and I’m worried about her.”

“Give me a few days,” Baery said with a nod. “I’ll get you more information on that city.”

Anfey and Suzanna stood shoulder to shoulder on the roof of the building, watching the arena below. About 1,000 mercenaries were training. The trainer was Kumaraghosha.

Kumaraghosha looked a little out of focus and very gloomy. He seemed to have more energy now, perhaps because he was loyal to Anfey or he wanted to have his own troops. Kumaraghosha had tried really hard to convince Anfey to develop a paramilitary unit with about 1,000 guards in it.

Kumaraghosha had been a knight. Because of his background, he had treated the mercenaries in his unit as feisty knights. He asked all the mercenaries to forget about defense and focus on attacking. Every drum beat signaled the mercenaries to rush forward swinging their swords. The faster the drum beat, the faster and more intense the attack should be. Anfey thought the arena looked spectacular. Two rows of shiny swords clashed against each other. They looked very deadly.

It took mercenaries some time to adjust to this kind of training, especially when they were asked to fight in pairs. When they encountered their partners’ attacks with wood swords, they tried to block the swords by instinct before they fought back. Kumaraghosha demanded they not block the swords, but instead keep moving forward as they swung their swords. It was contrary to what mercenaries knew about fighting.

Anfey did not interfere with Kumaraghosha’s training, but he did not agree with him. Anfey admitted this strategy could allow mercenaries to maximize their attacking ability and attack with the most speed. However, Anfey was concerned about fatalities with this strategy. The paramilitary units were elite mercenaries Kumaraghosha handpicked himself. Anfey felt it was just not right to have these paramilitary units risk their lives to keep rushing forward on the battlefield.

Unfortunately, he did not want to tamper Kumaraghosha’s enthusiasm. Besides, Anfey was never a general and could not give advice on an area he was not familiar with. He had to keep quiet. At the same time, Anfey decided he would not have paramilitary units join the battle before Kumaraghosha could prove he was right about this strategy. It would be too risky to send these units on the battlefield. Anfey really could not afford major losses.

“Suzanna, what do you think?” Anfey asked quietly.

“Very good. They look like they could dominate the battlefield.”

After repeating one move hundreds of times, the mercenaries seemed to get what Kumaraghosha wanted them to do. Every time the drum beat sounded, they would move one step forward with the same pace as they swung their swords at the enemies and then move one more step forward. 1,000 mercenaries formed two square formations. The lights reflected on the swords moved in waves. Mercenaries moved very fast from one end of the arena to the other end and then moved back again.

“They only look imposing,” Anfey sighed.

No one could be absolutely right about everything. If someone thought he was right about something, others might not think the same way. Someone could point out a lot of errors while others could think it was right. Everyone had limitations. As an assassin, Anfey had been very cautious. He paid a lot of attention to knocking his opponents down with one hit, better from a distance. No matter whether he could get his enemies in one shot or not, his safety was always more important. Therefore, Anfey could not agree on this almost suicidal fighting style.

“Hey, Alice, here you are.” Suzanna nudged Anfey.

Anfey looked nervous when he looked down and saw Alice hurrying over. He turned around and said, “Let’s go.” He immediately jumped off the building. Suzanna did not know if she should laugh or cry. She hesitated for a second before she jumped off the building after Anfey. When Alice walked up to the roof, nobody was there. Alice was shocked for a moment before she rushed to the rails and saw Anfey running away from her without looking back. She could help getting enraged and screamed, “Master!”

In fact, Alice could not blame Anfey. Except for Alice, no one in the league, whether commanders, mage counselors or even Anfey, had settled into their roles yet. A rough structure of management had been developed, but they had a long way to go before it could get perfected. Anfey did not expect it would take so much work to manage a couple of thousands of mercenaries. It was overwhelming for them. A few mercenaries drank together but got into a fight for some reason. Some mercenaries borrowed money but did not pay it back, while some even refused to admit they borrowed the money. A mercenary walked into his house and saw his daughter sleeping with a guy in bed. Some mercenaries even saw their wives having sex with others. It had become chaotic in the league. Too many of these things were happening. It was common to see conflicts and problems whenever there were people. The most important responsibility of the leaders was to solve problems and resolve conflicts. Unfortunately, the management under Anfey’s leadership would not fully function as needed. Their management team was in an embryonic stage.

Alice was able to handle a lot of things, but Anfey had to be involved when things got serious. Alice did not have strong magic power nor combat power, while mercenaries respected powerful people. They did not want to listen to a girl who was so weak at combat power. Some people thought Alice’s judgements were fair, while others directly disobeyed her orders and claimed to appeal to higher authorities. They even gathered their friends and mercenaries to try to take justice into their own hands.

Even Superintendent Ye had lost considerable weight because he had been so busy with work. They had been putting out fires and running around the city. It was a struggle for them. If it were possible, Ye really wanted to resign and go back to being a regular mercenary.

“Anfey, do you think what we are doing to Alice is a little over-the-top?” Suzanna felt bad for Alice when she heard her screaming.

“I am giving her opportunities to build her experience,” Anfey said with sincerity as he stopped walking. “I have given her full authority to do everything. She really has no reason to report to me for anything. If she kept looking to me for help, she would not grow as a leader.” Anfey already understood why there were so many people chasing after power and willing to pay a big price for it. It was amazing to have power. At least it gave Anfey many excuses to cover his real intentions and allowed him to play the role of an instructional leader while he was just too lazy to deal with the conflicts and problems among mercenaries. Anfey used his power to claim he was training Alice, while he just laid more responsibilities on her shoulders. However, nobody could say he was wrong.

Anfey and Suzanna heard familiar laughter and voices ahead of them. They turned the corner and saw Christian, Riska and a few others. “What are you doing?” Anfey asked loudly as he walked towards them.

“We are waiting for Blavi,” Christian said. “Anfey, do you want to go with us?”

“Where are you going?” Anfey asked.

“We have been so exhausted lately. We would like to find a bar to have some drinks and relax.” Riska smiled. “Besides, Blavi has so much money and does not know how to spend it here. We want to help him with that.”

Blavi’s position was not the highest among them, but he had recently made more money than Christian and others. Alice had made rules that the allowance for taking assignments was a lot more than regular wages. Blavi had been following Anfey and took assignments that were at level C and D. Blavi had become their target to exploit, like a tall tree catching more wind.

“Anfey, let’s go together,” Sante laughed loudly.

“Keep it down.” Anfey looked around and looked serious. He said quietly, “Everybody has been busy recently. I am not going to say no if you want to have some drinks, but don’t be so obnoxious. You don’t have to tell everyone you are going.”

They looked at each other, and their smiles gradually faded. Anfey was right: everybody had been busy, and, as the saying goes, the first step was the most difficult part of the journey. They had not made any outstanding contributions to the league yet, but enjoyed high positions with power in the league. Many people had been watching them. Anfey had told them a few times to set examples for others. Of course, he did not mean setting examples for drinking.

“Look at Alice!” Anfey sounded even more serious. “She has not gone to sleep until midnight on a daily basis and wakes up in the early morning. She has been busier than any of you, but she never complained about it. Never mind. I will let you guys go. If you are going to have some drinks, go quietly and come back early. There are so many things waiting for you guys to handle.”

“We got it, Anfey.” Feller stuck his tongue out.

At the same time, Anfey suddenly noticed a strange look on Suzanna’s face and then saw two people landing diagonally behind him. One was Blavi and the other was Alice. There were a decent amount of mages in Stormenburg. Sometimes mages flew in the city with Levitation magic, so Anfey got used to sensing magic surges in the city. He had sensed these magic surges but did not pay attention to it. He did not expect the magic surges would be from Blavi and Alice. Anfey’s face was a little red. He thought he would have time to teach them a lesson before he ran away from Alice, since Alice could not jump off the building. The damn Blavi brought Alice over with Levitation magic. Looking at Alice’s face, it was obvious Alice had heard his compliments.

“Master, I have to tell you about a situation.” Alice only paused for a second before she got into her role as the CEO of the league.

“Why?” Anfey was shocked.

“Because this would be our first time to give mercenaries the death sentence,” Alice said.

“This would not be the first time,” Blavi commented in shock. He was standing next to Alice. “Anfey did…”

“What happened before has nothing to do with what is happening now. This would be the first time after we made the rules and developed the laws,” Alice said.

“Is it that serious? Is it necessary to sentence them to death?” Christian asked in surprise.

“Master, do you remember the case you judged yourself yesterday,” Alice said in a low voice. “A mercenary named Jupiter went to see his girlfriend. His girlfriend is a widow. As he walked into her house, he saw a guy in her house. He was enraged and pulled his sword out to fight the guy. The new boyfriend of the widow is a mercenary too. His name is Mauser. His fighting ability is actually better than Jupiter’s. Jupiter lost the fight, and one of his hands, and then he came to me for justice.”

Christian and others could not help frowning when they heard the story. This kind of case was the toughest. Jupiter was not innocent, since he started the fight, but he did lose his hand for it. Mauser seemed to have a case, but being between Jupiter and the widow was the main cause of this issue. Even a very experienced sheriff had to be very careful with this kind of case.

“As the saying goes, there is indeed too much drama in a widow’s life,” Anfey said bitterly. The statutes of the league were put together by copying here and there from other statutes. It was like an American quilt. The statutes were very simple, while mercenaries were feisty. They pulled their swords out to fight for any small quarrel. This kind of personal fighting happened very frequently.

Alice continued to relate the story: To appear as just as possible, Anfey was very cautious in approaching this kind of case. He asked about the details of what happened among Jupiter, Mauser and the widow before he made the final judgement. Anfey felt good about his final judgement, but it was very time-consuming. After questioning the three people involved, Anfey used deductive reason to figure out what had happened, and made sure it was the closest to the truth. It took more than a few hours. Things like this happened a lot. If Anfey needed to handle everything, he would die of exhaustion. In addition, Anfey thought he should spend more time on micro-management of the league instead of this time-consuming trivia.

“What judgement did Anfey make?” Christian asked.

“Jupiter was guilty,” Alice responded. “The widow is not his wife. They have been seeing each other for about eight years. If they wanted to get married, they should have by now. He had no reason to hurt his peer for that widow. However, he only got five whips since he already lost one hand. Mauser was guilty too. He was too murderous. He should have stopped after he had the advantage in the fight. Master said he excessively defended himself. He will be punished with 30 whips. The widow is guilty too. She did not have skills to make a living, so she had to rely on men. She has been starving recently, but Jupiter did not help her. That was why she flirted with Mauser. Master decided to give her a lesser punishment than the law would allow. She will only be punished with three whips”

“Isn’t Anfey’s judgement fair? Why do you have to sentence them to death?” Christian was confused.

“Early this morning, Jupiter and two other mercenaries sneaked into the widow’s house and killed Mauser and the widow,” Alice said. “They committed homicide. It cannot be forgiven.” Alice paused. “This is our first time to punish mercenaries under the new statutes, and it is a death sentence. In case of any riots, I hope Anfey will be vigilant.”

“Why are you sure Jupiter killed Mauser? Was he caught at the scene?” Anfey asked.

“No. Commander Ye has been busy with this case all day. Some mercenaries reported that they saw Jupiter and the other two mercenaries sneak out of their quarters. Other mercenaries saw Jupiter around the widow’s house. Besides, Jupiter pleaded guilty after Commander Ye’s interrogation,” Alice said.

“Since he already pleaded guilty, you can execute him tonight. I will supervise it.” Anfey nodded.

“Yes, master,” Alice responded.

A snow beast rushed over from the end of the street. Ling jumped off the snow beast. “Master!”

“Ling, why are coming back from White Mountain City so quick?” Anfey asked in surprise.

“Master, we encountered the mercenaries from White Mountain City and got bad news. Long asked me to come back to report to you,” Ling said hurriedly. “There is a top level power in White Mountain City besides Master Swordsman Anthony. The top level power is Palace Archmage Michael from Ellisen Empire.”

Everyone gasped when they heard what Ling said. Anfey had targeted White Mountain City as the first city to attack. They thought it would not be too hard. However, the appearance of an archmage in White Mountain City had crushed their hopes. On the battlefield, the power range of an archmage was way better than any master swordsman’s, because archmages could use destructive forbidden magic.

“This is the situation according to Long and Ling,” Anfey said, looking around the room. “Mourtta and Hotchbini’s attack on Glory mercenary group has caused considerable damage. Ellisen Empire sent a group, with the Palace Archmage Michael at its head, to Glory mercenary group to aid Anthony and intimidate Mourtta. This is old news, of course, but I thought Ellisen Empire would recall Michael after the war with the necromancers broke out. I don’t know why, but Michael is currently still at White Mountain City, which makes things more complicated. What do we think?”

This was the first official meeting of the alliance. Other than the leaders of the mercenaries and Alice’s men, Marino and Entos were there as well. After learning about Michael’s presence in White Mountain City, even Marino frowned.

“I want to remind everyone,” Alice said quietly, “that we need to consider the attitude of Ellisen Empire. Anthony is a proud man. He would never let an attack on his men go without retribution. Michael’s arrival boosted the strength of Glory mercenary group and gave them an excellent chance for counterattack. Tiger of Tawau mercenary group is expecting a counterattack as well, which is why they are hiding in Blackwater City.”

Everyone’s attention turned to Alice. Whenever she spoke, she did so with a degree of confidence that was very rare in people with such a low level of training. She spoke with confidence and ease and drew everyone in easily.

“However, Anthony did not launch an attack. He did not seek revenge. Why is that? Why didn’t he do anything? There is reason to everything, especially to things that are out of the ordinary. Maybe it is not Anthony’s decision to make, because he would definitely seek revenge. There is only one person that can stop him, and that is Michael, and Michael must be acting on behalf of Ellisen Empire.”

“But why is Ellisen Empire stopping Anthony?” Ozzic asked.

“Dark Moon Magic Legion was the pride of Ellisen Empire,” Alice said. “With it gone, they cannot be certain whether they could win any battle. They know that they are no match for Maho Empire, which is why they must ally with Shansa Empire. As long as Ellisen Empire is working with Shansa Empire, Anthony becomes less important. They must have initially sent Michael to aid Anthony, but Michael changed his stance because Ellisen Empire cannot risk angering Shansa Empire right now. They need to make peace with Tiger of Tawau mercenary group.”

“I think you’re right, Alice,” Christian said. “But what should we do about it?”

“There is a plan,” Alice said, turning to Marino. “I hope you don’t mind, Lord Marino.”

“Go ahead,” Marino said with a nod. He was very impressed by Alice’s mind.

“If Lord Marino attacked us and killed a few hundred men, and His Majesty stopped us when we were planning revenge, how would you feel?”

“Angry,” Christian said. “I probably wouldn’t listen.”

“Exactly,” Alice said.

“I see,” Christian said, nodding. “Michael might have eased the tension between Ellisen Empire and Shansa Empire, but that will inevitably cause a rift between him and Anthony.”

“That’s what I think,” Alice said. “Of course, I can be wrong. We need to approach this from another angle. Let’s talk about Anthony.

“Anthony is the only top level power in the Country of Mercenaries. He is the king of this country. He is powerful, proud, strong, but most importantly he is smart. After he became a top level power, he realized the other three major mercenary groups were teaming up against him, which is why he was willing gave up power and allowed his right hand men to take care of his mercenary group.”

“How is Anthony smart, though?” Orsie asked. A lot of mercenaries would admit that Anthony was powerful, but in order to make themselves feel better, they would not admit Anthony was smart. The mercenaries pretended that Glory mercenary group only grew because of Davidson and Shanteler, not Anthony.

“He’s smart because he recognized that the situation wasn’t working out in his favor and gave up his position willingly,” Alice said. “He hid away and grew his power. Because of his absence, no conflicts broke out between the other three mercenary groups and Glory mercenary group. They may not be friends, but the relationship between them could have been so much worse if Anthony had not given up his power.”

“Lady Alice is right,” Marino said. “A few years after Anthony became a top level power, I had several secret meetings with Tiger of Tawau and Storm mercenary groups. After he stopped appearing, we stopped those meetings as well.”

Alice nodded. “Tiger of Tawau mercenary group’s attack on Glory mercenary group caused panic and chaos in White Mountain City. Anthony isn’t controlling White Mountain City. Shanteler is, in Anthony’s name. After his death, Glory mercenary group descended into chaos due to lack of leadership. Anthony is a proud man, and he did not care for power struggles. He only wanted to practice and strengthen himself. He wanted to become stronger.

“Let’s think about it now. Anthony is proud, powerful, smart. If someone tries to silence him and stop him, how will he react?”

“You’re saying that because there’s a rift between Michael and Anthony, we can leave White Mountain City alone and let them finish each other off?” Anfey asked.

“No,” Alice said, shaking her head. “We need to attack that city.”

“Why?”

“If Anthony listened to Michael once, he will do it again and again. Michael still hasn’t returned to Ellisen Empire because he needs to maintain peace between Glory and Tiger of Tawau. He still hasn’t left because he still hasn’t convinced Anthony that peace is vital.”

“Wouldn’t our attack show Anthony that he should listen to Michael?”

“There’s pros and cons to everything,” Alice said. “Our attack will threaten Anthony, but we can also show him another side of this thing. We could tell Country of Mercenaries that Tiger of Tawau attacked Lady Suzanna, and we are looking for revenge. Because Michael is trying to mend the bridge between Tiger of Tawau and Glory, he is our enemy too. We need to make Anthony feel like he is collateral damage of Michael’s actions.”

“Alice, what do you mean by show Anthony another side of things?” Anfey asked.

“I believe everyone here is smart enough to understand my words,” Alice said with a smile.

The mercenaries turned to each other, muttering in surprise. If this plan works, it would work out greatly in the alliance’s favor.

“Tell your men to ready themselves,” Anfey said slowly. “We march two days hence.”

“Yes, sir!” the mercenaries said. They quickly stood, nodded at Alice and Anfey, then hurried out of the room to inform their men.