Rebirth of the Phoenix God

"No fucking way. This is not what our deal was."

Just like expected, it was one thing to come up with an idea and another to turn it into reality. Thankfully, no matter how much their employer would protest, the common folk in his army already praised the young mercenary that saved them from the massacre as their hero, making it nearly impossible for the man to use them against the mercenaries. 

And it would suffice to say that with the two mercenary groups combined, it would be tough to find a force capable of dealing with them unless the entire kingdom were to join hands and go against them!

Obviously, given how it was basically in the state of a civil war, there was absolutely no way for it to happen, as the King's power was limited just to his capital alone.

"My lord, you fail to understand one thing. A huge part of the riches that you hoped to rob during the raid does not belong to the adversary that was defeated thanks to our contribution. They changed the ownership to our brotherly mercenary group the moment they signed the contract. And if you dare to go against the mercenary contracts, forged by the bloody history of the old kingdom…"

Instead of finishing the sentence, Victor left it hanging, allowing one of the many lords in the Kingdom to come up with the rest himself. 

In reality, though, there was no such thing as a universal mercenary contract. While it indeed existed in the past, all the records about its details were long lost. Given how the major casus beli behind the crusade that lead to the collapse of the Phoenixian country was the reconquest of the lands lost, it was quite obvious that reenacting the use of the old contracts would be scored upon.

But in the current situation, the lord that employed Fen's group had no other choice. Either he would agree to the terms that Victor proposed to him, or he would face the situation where the mercenaries would enforce those terms without his agreement in the first place!

"I can still take a loan…"

It was clear that once the proposition to pay with the land titles for the combined debt generated by employing both companies would appear, this man's situation would turn to something definitely not worth being envious of. 

"Of course! If you will be capable of paying the price of both groups, then we can call it a day and go home without further ado. The question is, are you capable of doing so?"

Smiling deviously, Victor looked at the sweating face of the lord. In the small room within his palace where they were discussing the situation, not a single person was naive enough to believe that anyone would be willing to provide a loan for just a small lord in the middle of a country with unofficial but still raging civil war.

"I need some time to think about it. Could you leave me alone for a moment, dear sirs?"

Taking a quick look at each other, Fen and Victor simply shook their arms before standing up from their chairs and leaving the room. Even after they closed the doors behind them, neither of them dared to strike up a conversation. 

In order to be sure that no one would eavesdrop their talks, those two men went to the courtyard in front of the palace, where Fen created a barrier made out of fires all around them to make sure that the noise made by the blaze would cancel any sounds that would be made inside.

"What do you think about it? Will he agree?"

Even with his back pressed against the wall, it was still hard to say what the local lord would decide. In reality, if he were to ignore the settlement between the two groups of mercenaries, then the situation wouldn't be as simple and drastic for him as Victor presented. With the populace of both the losing and the winning land still perfectly fine with being a part of the Kinzarian Heptarchy. In order to truly take over the lands that Victor demanded in exchange for their service, a long and unpredictable war would have to be cast.

And that was something that would be problematic for everyone, yet it would be the mercenaries that would be in the worse spot. 

With no administrative network to rally the troops or even collect the taxes in the lands that they were currently unofficially controlling, they would be a few steps behind the local lord if he were to declare war on them. 

"I think he will. While our situation isn't the best, we still control the routes that connect those lands to the Kinar Republic. I do admit that it would be insanely costly, but in the worst-case scenario, we could call for other mercenaries to join our cause with the promise of turning them into smaller nobles once we would win. Even more, we could even propose an alliance with Kinar… But that would mean risking the intervention from Shallian Kindom to the east… And I don't think we should aim for this kind of escalation for our small business."

Resting his back against the lone three that was encapsulated by his fire barrier, Fen took a deep sigh. As nice as it was to figure out a way to push their agenda on the lord, now that the ball was in his hands to decide the next move and the course of future, waiting idly made it seem as if they made the greatest mistake in their life.

"By the way, did you even think about how would our potential princedom be ruled?"

Hearing Victor's inquiry, Fen's face turned ugly. In fact, while the general idea behind the structure of the government was incredibly simple to come up with given how they had a historical example of how it was done, deciding who would take what position was something that could potentially split their forces even before their main point would turn to be real.

"As much as I believe that a strong central power is the best to effectively govern any country, I don't think we can afford to implement it in our situation. To start things off, I think we should form something akin to a republic. With four cities within the province and the important position of Gazar at the central crossroads that connect all the bits of the province… How about finding someone suitable to manage the economics of our future country and placing him in that city? With how it's basically no different from a small trade outpost when compared to all the other cities, we could split the relatively rich lands between you, me and Orsha. In this way, we would each have a relatively close distance to the… capital, while not getting in each other's way."

It was hard to explain anything without the map if this talk were to happen between two commoners that never left their local village. Yet, for mercenaries, recreating a map from their heads was something as simple and natural as picking up a fork to eat their dinner.

"It might work… but we only have two mercenary groups. Doing it like that would force to device our forces somehow… Ah, the more we think about it, the less I like the entire idea…"

Thankfully, before their talk could develop even further away from the idea of going through with what they started, Fen suddenly twitched.

"Someone is coming."

Given how they awaited the response of the local lord, the young arcanist took down his barrier with care, ready to put it up and strengthen it if the people approaching the two of them would turn into attackers.

This time, Fen's worries turned out to be wrong. Instead of a group of armed assassins, the butler of their employer stood a considerable distance away from the fire, desperately gesturing at the two men.

"Sirs, my lord is ready to talk with you again."

Looking at each other for a moment, both Victor and Fen shook their shoulders before following the servant back into the palace. On their way to the chamber where the local lord awaited, they could once again see all the hints of decay created by the poor administration of not only the lands but even this once beautiful palace as well.

"The more I think about it… Even if the war were to happen, we would be seen more like saviours and liberators rather than the aggressors…"

Speaking to himself, Fen shook his head with powerless annoyance. If the areas where the power was located were so unkempt, then he could only imagine how bad the life of the commoners was. And with how he was hailing from nowhere else but a small and backwards village, it wasn't that hard for the young man to sympathize with the greatest victims of the divide in the country.

"Gentlemen… I came to a decision."

Standing in front of a huge and beautiful map, their employer didn't even bother to look at them. With a thoughtful look on his face, it was clear that something huge was going through his mind.

"And what is that decision?"

Unwilling to let the man enjoy this moment of tense atmosphere that he created, Victor stepped forward. While he was theoretically unarmed within the palace, being an arcanist served as a threat big enough for anyone in the area to steer clear from causing them any troubles.

"This country has no future. With the draconic taxes… Hehe, do you see what I did here? With taxes that are akin to what the southern, barbaric emperor is imposing on his own people, we have no other way to live but to rob others. While you might find this strange, this is the only way to stop ourselves from paying the taxes… but it destroys the lands that we live from. As for my decision, this is what I came to decide."

Reaching with his hand to the side, the lord alerted the two young mercenaries for a moment. Thankfully, instead of the chamber turning into a battlefield, a servant approached his lord before passing a torch to his extended hand.

"As of today, Kinzarian Heptarchy is no more."

Putting the torch to the insanely beautiful and clearly expensive beyond any imagination map, the lord watched with a crazy expression on his face as the fire consumed the material that it was made off.

"You can take those lands that you desired. But I only have one term. Given how I will be declaring the independence of my own province as well, I want you guys to sign an obligation that in case of an attack, you will come to my aid. If you are not happy with that deal, you can go and fuck yourself."