Chapter 433 433: The Northern Campaign III
Cole leaned against a pillar as he watched the king having a meeting with his underlings. From the man's agitated steps, it was obvious he was extremely worried about the current situation of his kingdom. Not that this wasn't a z serious situation as far as Cole was concerned, but what the King was doing, yelling and looking agitated in front of his subordinates, it was not a mind of reaction he would advise any ruler to make.
But never the less as the leader of an elite military unit that quote unquote 'answered to the king' he was more than qualified to sit in on the kingdom's military meetings. Never the less this has been going on for a good two hours and Cole was reaching the end of his patience. At the same time he did not want to act out and make it seem as if he did not even have an iota of respect for the king.
Eventually the chamber emptied out of people, leaving only Cole and the king behind to carry on with this discussions from where they stopped. By this point the king had already run out of energy to be annoyed so he was sitting down on a chair and helping himself to a generous helping of wine. And far be it for Cole to be the one to spoil someone else's fun. Especially when they are in so much dire need of some much needed 'me time'.
"Two of the cities that they have taken control over happen to be very important cities. One of them is store house for about 65% of the kingdom's grain, and placed in such a place that no northerner would be able to just waltz out of their fucking mountains and take over. Obviously the Adventurer's and Craftsman guilds are determined to put and end to our alliance and my notion of shaking off their authority in my Kingdom.
Look I don't need much for you, if you need more troops I am more than willing and happy to funnel a significant amount of my force for you to use and regain that city. With them holding that city under siege, in non time at all the reserves within the city will run out, and people will starve. And while the people are hungry no one is going to blame the guilds, since in the end it's the kingdom's responsibility to feed her citizens.
I don't know what your next move is, but with both of them joining hands with Aspirants I am stretched really thin as it is. So go secure a supply line for my soldiers and by the Gods I will fight these guilds for decades if I have to. But neither I nor my soldiers would be able to do so on an empty stomach, or do it enough and we'll knowing that the people we love have been left behind and are starving."
Cole nodded to the king, it wasn't as if the man was wrong, and since they had an alliance now Cole was obligated to help and ensure that this nightmare comes to a swift end, and as quickly as possible. Cole already had a plan of attack regardless, and he would be moving out immediately. After a little bit more small talk, Cole left the palace, his intention of going to meet Dix from the Craftsman guild for lunch in order to pry out some extra information from her, has to be forgotten.
Obviously the woman and the force that she represented were spoilt rotten, nothing much Cole could do on that part. But there was no a certain sense of urgency, and his soldiers were already prepared and ready. So without much fanfare left the great city of Te Boreas for the north, ready to take the fight to the barbarians who felt that they could invade this noble land.
It was not enough time for the propaganda to take root, but there was still enough people in the city who had been present to see the intimidating unit of almost a 100 individuals, they rode their black horses and carried a banner of snarling wolf drawn in blood red against the backdrop of a black banner. But there was one particular banner, a depiction of a crescent moon with a star in it right on top of a black mountain. The black mountain itself was actually a giant wolf head, and this particular banner, many people have taken to start calling as the Crest Of The House Of Night.
Regardless Cole was able to make the impacts he was aiming for as they left the city and began their long journey to the north. They rode hard, moving away from the city for a good two days before the reached the lip of the basin that the served as the entire Territory of Te Boreas. Not that the geography mattered much to Cole, but if he would fight wars or any conflicts on this world he at least had to understand the Terrain.
There was an outpost built at the top of the basin, a rather large city actually as opposed to the megalopolis that is Te Boreas. Either way, they rested there for the night, resupplied and began their journey to the north by dawn of the next day. Cole had no idea how much time he had in order to regain the city that had all of the kingdom's food storage. When you thought about the guilds were really too ruthless.
This plan of theirs was two pronged. The lack of food flowing back would most definitely destabilize the city as a whole and cause the confidence the city had built in the kingdom and the government not crumble quickly. Nobody gave a shit about kings on an empty stomach, it was the same in every universe, and as hard as it was to swallow that was the truth. So the lack of food and the fact that the king had no choice but to send Cole out to handle it.
It was their plan all along, they wanted to find a way to get Cole to leave the city, and somehow they had succeeded. The king would have to deal with the two guilds for now and hope that somehow Cole would be able to solve this problem quickly enough that the king and his forces would not be spread so thin. If Cole can succeed it will ease the pressure and the king can turn it right back at them.
After the city they moved north east towards the city or Te Merea. The store house of the great city kingdom of Te Boreas. On their way towards the city the amount of refugees that Cole could see coming down was astounding. The population of The Boreas was not in millions but billions, so it stood to reason that any of its other cities would also have a whole lot of people leaving with them.
It was an almost endless stream of bodies as people ran away from the reality of war between the guilds and the kingdom. It annoyed Cole really. Even if the guilds were all about profits, acting without care about the source of said profit was beyond stupid. Cole was a business man, this sheer amount of bodies were resources that could be properly utilized but instead here are people displaced, their livelihood and homes turned to rubble and ash by the greed of men and woman who would rather see a kingdom be held tightly in their grasp rather than grow.
Cole made a decision to set up a healing booth, from there it was easy to have all of the Raens offer healing services to refugees who were all running away from the conflict. Not that it would make much of a difference as they were also in a hurry, but the most heavily injured were helped, making their movements a lot faster, and at the same time it earned Cole, and the King some goodwill amongst the people.
Once these refugees arrive at whatever city or even Te Boreas itself, they would be able to speak about the benevolence of the king as his specialized military unit who still took the time out of their incredible busy schedules to heal and help the affected people of the Northerners invasion. It was a small rumor, a small spark that Cole was hoping would turn into an inferno that would ease things on the king until he returned.
But he would not know if the spark had taken off until a few days later, that was good enough for him, because it was another two days later that Cole and arrived at Te Merea. And it was a city very different from Te Boreas, for one the city itself seemed to have been built/carved out of a giant tree. How this place was a store house Cole could never be sure, but he was sure of one thing though... Te Merea is a fortress, and getting in was going to be very, very difficult…..it was time for a siege and a plan so crazy there will be songs about it for generations to come.
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