47
1234 Words
Finally, Juni pushed back from the table and paused. “The eight f****d over teams are pissed.”
“It’s nine now. Alyssa.”
Juni froze for a moment, then turned and punched the wall. A flare of gravity caused the wall to distort for a moment as Juni started wailing on the wall.
“That stupid b***h! I knew she went dark, but I was hoping she just got ambushed or something. I spent weeks working on that relationship, trying to fix it after the mess with Zoey. f**k! And now I bet it’s all down the drain.”
While Juni didn’t and never would say it Albert could read in between his friend’s words. He had wanted to use the excuse of the golem fight to remove some political snakes and spies planted in his retinue, but Juni had advised against it.
Albert had insisted and that decision was still biting him in the ass today. It was the reason he didn’t have full authority to remove worthless leaders without questions which would solve his problems in one fell swoop. But because of his blunder he now had noble families ready to question every time a commander position was changed. Asking if he was trying to purge their young. Or, worse yet, slight their honor.
“What do you think the chances are that they’ll leave?”
In contrast to everything else that could be purchased from the shop, the 20,000 cost to switch sides was the only item that could be bought on credit. The cynical side of Albert knew that it was so the vassal states couldn’t hold the Pathers hostage, but it rankled.
“Lysandra’s team is definitely changing sides. But the others are in the air. I think I can offset it by getting the team that took over Kelsor’s fort to jump ship. They got f****d hard by the queendom. Everyone else is on the fence, waiting to see how we react.”
Albert thought about that. He already intended to put a stop to this, but how he did it would need careful handling. Especially if he didn’t want more of his best teams to defect.
“What about…” he sighed, “Team Bucket?” Why, by all the Ascenders, did one of their top teams have to choose such a stupid name?
Juni flopped back onto the chair and spun it.
“I’ve only looked at the quick review, but they seemed to get hit pretty hard. Worse than we expected.”
Looking at his right-hand man, Albert waited for him to continue. “I’m sure you noticed that the numbers don’t add up?”
“Yes. Is it what you expected?”
Juni stopped spinning, “I’ll need to confirm, but their mages lasted far longer than they should have. Especially after taking the fort in the first place. I already got some information from our sources in the infirmary. They went in fast, hard, and with nothing held back. No way they should have been able to keep up that mana expenditure. Even with the fast converting mana stones, they would have needed to burn tens of thousands of mana to get back to full. No way they burn money for us.”
After a moment, Juni continued, “I think Alex’s feeling that Matt has a mana Concept makes sense. He only has a phrase, but he said that he felt something when everyone was asleep back during the Golem fight, and his mana came back faster. He woke up to piss and felt it, that is something which would fit the criteria.”
They had collected information about all the heavy hitters during the golem siege and Matt’s team had more mana sustainability than expected. Up until now it had just been a tidbit tucked away.
“That means that it’s limited to a small squad level, though.” Albert trailed off. A Concept for giving mana also explained how the man could cast [Hail] for so long. It was the perfect support ability. Odd for a melee frontliner to have it, but nothing unheard of. Concepts didn’t always conform to normal team archetypes. And a mana Concept wasn’t new. Just incredibly rare.
It could be useful for sieges though, so Albert made a note of it.
Juni cut into his thinking. “We need to keep them. What do you intend to do, Albie?”
Albert thought on it for a moment longer and said, “We don’t have the points, but reimburse the teams who got screwed. It will eat into our coffers, but better to handle this now rather than later, when it becomes a greater problem. Also, tell them I’ll make the various team leaders give them personal explanations. Do you think that will be enough?”
His father demanding that half the points get set aside made things tight, but Albert could make it work if he spent his personal points for being the overall commander.
Juni was already walking to the door. “I’ll make it happen. I might have to push the limits a bit. I just got a report that Amber is trying to poach our teams as well.”
As Juni disappeared, Albert thought long and hard before coming to a resolution. Amber was Princess Sara’s right-hand woman, but he personally felt that she was less efficient than Juni.
No, that wasn’t his problem.
He had read the reports of old Empire sanctioned vassal wars for Pathers and wanted to head off the worst-case scenarios. If they lost control of the Pathers, both sides could lose everything.
It had happened before.
If things got bad enough, the army would step in, but he had a few plans. One was increasing the kingdom-side payments for jobs correctly done. If he matched the Empire’s contributions, it would incentivize people to think tactically, not personally.
He could also publicly punish people for screwing over their allies for personal gain.
He could even increase the points earned for holding forts. He was sure that he could get a few Pather teams to stand guard with that.
The problem was spending the points. It would help resolve problems, sure. But he still needed to make sure that he didn’t allow the queendom to get ahead in points, solely for strategic level spending. A few upgraded forts could go a long way into fortifying their position on the planet and making it nearly impossible to win the war.
But if he warned her of his intentions, he could force her hand into doing the same, if only so he didn’t look like a better side. If they did it together, it would ensure that they lost a near equal number of points.
With a sigh, he started a video call with Sara.
Matt’s vision went from the stone floor to a blinding light.
He tried to reach up to block the light, but invisible bands of force resisted his movement.
“You’re okay, son. Just lay there while we heal you.”
Matt checked his AI to make sure that his teammates were okay. Specifically, Liz and Aster.
His fox bond was currently moving in circles, but Liz was still. Since he didn’t have a map of the area, he could only guess at her situation, but her AI showed that she was alive and being healed.
- Writer
