"I don't agree on this!" the scorpion queen was the first to object, "my beauty can't stand their ugliness. And I can't fight as a bodyguard to them! I want to taste blood for myself and win battles with my army!"
"Me too!"
"And me as well!"
"I see this as a failed plan!"
Many voices started to object to Arthur's arrangement. He never expected that and it took him a few minutes to realize how they felt.
"The moral is an issue," Doaf started to shift the discussion into more solid ground, "the army lost a lot of their spirit with the presence of the skeletons. Letting that continue would leave a deep scar in their souls."
"I agree with Doaf," Jud added, "we need to consider the overall view of the army and not miss important details like morals."
Arthur listened and his mind kept wrecking around this point. He never expected such a decision would be met with such resistance and objection.
But he couldn't let his pride stand in his way. He knew they provided enough reasons to make him listen and change his mind.
"Alright," he said before turning to the three necromancers, "you'll be accompanied with my originals for now. When time comes and you can walk alone in this world, you can fight on your own. However…" he stopped for a second before turning to everyone else.
"After each battle you'll have to leave fast. I'll send them to the battlefield to summon more skeletons."
The three necromancers exchanged silent gazes before Li, their leader, asked: "But how?"
"Leave this to me," Arthur simply said.
In fact the three necromancers didn't feel good when they listened to the words of objection from Arthur's main generals. They thought Arthur would ditch the idea of helping them and succumb to the demands of his trusted aides.
But they all underestimated Arthur. He simply thought deeply about this and came up with another idea. Just like that!
"What about the grand plan?" Amera asked while moving her eyes slowly between the three girls who she totally forgot about.
"Well…" Arthur didn't notice the clash of gazes between the four girls as he started to stare at his maps. For five minutes he kept thinking in silence before he finally spoke.
"We'll send out first the normal armies," he said before adding, "and the three necromancers each will go after an army or two. Your task is to summon as many skeletons as possible before setting you out towards the outer regions."
"What about people inside?" Doaf asked, "who is going to handle them?"
"Don't worry yourself about that," Arthur waved his hand as he already recruited two for this specific task, "now I want you to study these maps and memorize them. As I won't gather you up for later until we face those high realmers again."
The leaders of his armies looked at each other while a single thought popped up in their minds. "So it's a full on war?" Sara spoke at last while everyone waited for Arthur's call.
"It is," he simply said, "from this point on, it will be only crushing armies, gaining territory, and amassing people."
"What about the cities?" Sara asked again, "and the empire?"
"The cities will be handled by my trusted Deem and Gor," Arthur said before he took a deep breath, "as for the empire, I'll need you to stay behind specifically for that."
The other girls looked in weirdness towards Arthur and even Amera raised one eyebrow. Since the last meeting with these girls before setting out to the sect war, Amera got closer to Arthur.
She now saw him as her man. And she didn't like the idea of leaving her man alone with another girl. Especially someone with a pretty face and smart brain like Sara.
This time Arthur noticed the tension in the air and the intensity of their gazes. However he didn't comment on that. He didn't invite Sara to stay behind to play with her.
He wanted her for far more pressing issues than that; the economic problem.
He still couldn't figure out how to establish a currency and monetary system for his empire. So far his empire was still young and controlled a small stretch of land compared to his grand vision.
So editing things here was much simpler than doing it later. He postponed this matter for so long for now. So he decided to put an end to this and try to find a solution to this problem.
"Alright," Sara didn't show any weakening in front of the burning gazes of the other girls. She had cold heart towards Arthur from the start. But after all they went through together, her ice melted and started to see him as a worthy man.
A man who was destined for greatness.
"B*tch!" Tina said in a low tone while the other two girls were literally burning Sara alive by their gazes. However the latter ignored them as she moved and stood beside Arthur.
"Study these maps and start moving once you are ready," Arthur started to walk before Jud and Doaf stopped him. "What?" he asked while waiting for the two to say what they held in their chests.
"Are you going to leave now?" Jud asked.
"What about leading us to conquer this area at least?" Doaf said, "we still have a lot of people to handle after this battle."
"I told you already," Arthur rolled up his eyes, "I have people ready to do this task. All you need to do is fight, keep fighting and winning. Leave the rest to me."
His words were resonating with what he just said earlier, but it seemed none of the people here believed in what he said to the letter.
"But you aren't here to do that," Doaf expressed his doubts clearer, "how can you control the people without being around? Without our forces?"
Arthur gave him a long gaze before patting on Doaf's shoulder.. "Do you think I must be there in flesh to do everything?" he said before smiling in confidence, "plus you aren't my only force. Do you think I'd leave my empire undefended while all my troops are away with you?"
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺