Rebirth of the Phoenix God

"God, I would never think that we would end up like that. Honestly speaking, I'm relieved. I really didn't want to condemn all those people for this pointless fight…"

After the entire ceremonial surrender, the atmosphere between the local governor and the three of the mercenary commanders changed on its head. Instead of lack of trust, careful attitude and overall - the pain in the ass that accompanies any existing conflict, the governor turned out to be quite a normal man.

"First thing off, I'm Hexal. It's a… let's say a pleasure to meet you all."

Right off the bat, as soon as the general public couldn't see them thanks to the cover of the tent where the four of them hid, the man proved that he could be above the fact that he just gave up all his real power. After all, with his serfs already in the process of disbanding and deciding whether to stay in the local area if they were free souls or to return to their own homes they left in the west, the entire area around the city turned to a chaotic mess.

At this point, if any of the mercenaries were to propose to go back on their offer of hiring him, Hexal would have no power or means to prevent this change of terms. Yet, just the first impression that he made was enough to at least temporarily keep him at the table.

"Let's don't waste time. While we managed to avoid the fight, we still have a huge mess on our hands. We will reserve the decision for ourselves for now, but how would you propose dealing with all those people around?"

Raising his head from above the quickly sketched map of the surroundings, Victor glanced at the new hire of theirs with clear curiosity seeping out of his eyes. While Hexal words would ultimately remain just words, it was a chance for everyone to see his capabilities and judge whether he would be a good pick for the governor of the capital.

And the man himself seemed to perfectly understand this point.

"Before I will answer, I need to know one thing. What are your priorities regarding both solving the current situation and the general direction in which you want to take this… new country?"

'What a clever man…'

Shaking his head, Fen didn't even bother to hide his smile. Right now, if they were unwilling to answer, Hexal could pretend like he was never given the foundations on which he could fulfil his job. And on the other hand, explaining the idea they had for this place would be akin to giving the prepared answer for the man instead.

"Orsha? This town was supposed to fall under Fen, right?"

Suddenly turning towards the single female commander at the table, Victor proved that he managed to finally come to terms with this new reality. He could no longer just act like a benevolent officer turning a blind eye to one of his high officers bringing his woman to the meetings. That simple and mischievous question aimed at burying Fen proved that he finally acknowledged Orsha as his fully-fledged equal.

"I think that's a good idea."

Turning her head towards the young man, the girl smiled happily. It seemed that this little ploy between her and the young man's former commander seemed like some kind of great fun for her!

"Traitor…"

Muttering jokingly under his nose, Fen didn't fail to notice how keenly Hexal was observing their interactions. Point for him. By knowing what was going on in the inner circle of the decision-making of the new lands he would get to govern soon, he could make his policies even better suited for their liking.

While this posed a threat that at some point in the distant future, where all of their cities would grow and some conflicts potentially appear, he would be free to side with whatever the faction that would give him the biggest chances at coming out on top.

On the other side, this was just another mark that while his actions during the defence of the province from the mercenaries could be called to be at least, questionable, it wasn't something that he did for the sake of it, but rather it was his method of using all the resources he had to obtain what he set for himself as the target.

And that was a character trait that was extremely valuable for a governor. As long as they could put his talent in reins and direct it towards the aspects that interested them…

"In the short term, we need to spread the people out. As strange as it might sound, I would prefer for everyone interested to have guaranteed a safe passage home, along with some small amount of rations for the road. Let's not forget that those people are now not the soldiers we need to defeat, but the workers that will build the fortune of our own."

Starting with the immediate problem, Fen pointed his finger at several places on the map lying at the table in front of everyone.

"I think we should organise the distribution points… here, there and there. What's more, Hexal, am I right to think that you got the city's smiths to turn the metal tools of those serfs into weapons? Otherwise, it would be hard to imagine how could you come up with so many arms on this barren land."

Stopping himself from speaking anything further before he would completely fulfil the task given to the new addition to their group, Fen took a few breaths before calming down and raising his eyes once again at the former governor.

"As for the long-term goals, I wish for this land to prosper. Only by increasing the wealth of everyone will we increase the taxes they will ultimately pay for us."

To say that Fen had a few ideas that could potentially allow those lands to grow in riches at a worrying rate would be a gross injustice to the complexity and quantity of the ideas that were crashing around his mind. But, before he could share even a single one to the rest of the group, the young arcanist still had to listen to what the potential governor would have to say.

"Thanks for the hint, that's the first thing. Before we will let everyone get off, let's make all the smiths and their apprentices in the town, work at turning those primitive weapons back into tools. This way, if someone will want to stay back, we will grant them some basic tools to work the land with. That also leads to another point that I need to have your confirmation for. A lot of people died in recent years, with the former small-nobility amassing more than three-fourths of the land in the province. Now that they are gone from the protection of the heptarchy, what do you want to do with this land? How about we give it to those who decided to remain?"

Peeking at the Fen from below his eyebrows, Hexal obviously attempted to sway his towards himself. By organising the situation in a way that would profit the area of Shataz the most, he could earn some brownie points with at least one of the commanders.

"The farmlands? Sure. The land around the cities will be governed and owned by their… governors, while the villages and small settlements… How about we just make them pay a flat percentage of what they grow before selling it to the west? As strange as it might sound to trade with a country we just robbed out of two provinces, given the state of constant civil strife within their borders, I think the prices of food will quickly skyrocket. And by that point, no one there will give any damn for where the food will be coming from."

Entering the discussion, Orsha took a small piece of charcoal before drawing a simple circle around the city.

"That's a great idea, my lady. What I would propose is to let the serfs organise themselves in the groups of ten, one of which will be tasked with working the city land in form of the tax, while the remaining nine will receive twice the minimum amount of land necessary to feed their entire group. While in short-term it will lower the income from those lands by a huge margin, I believe it's the best way to promote this form of feeding the cities."

Yet another point for Hexal. Even though he could work with only a little information that he had, he still managed to realise an important point about the government of this newly-made country. While we were friends and compatriots, we still followed the values of mercenaries. 

What's the use of a city that can be starved out if the supply of local food turns too pricey? What's the use of maintaining a rich land that could be devastated just with a single raid at the fertile lands that supply it with food? In order to preserve the local autonomy that made the idea of creating our own country so appealing, each of the cities had to be fully self-sustainable, hence the willingness to go for huge efforts and losses just to make sure this point would be secured.

"Good. I like him. I think we can go with the proposed ideas about the current situation. But what about the long-term?"

Outside of the one proposal that Hexal brought and that just so happened to coincide with the second main topic of the discussion, the theme of the general idea for the country has yet to be touched.

"To be completely fair and without doubting the strength of each of your groups of warriors… But I don't think our country has any chance of becoming an independent entity anytime soon. Rather than trying to defeat the whole world which is sure to scorn at the idea of reinstating any form of mercenary Kingdom, I think it would be the safest bet to swear fealty to the Kinar Republic and make them our… protector. I think we should be able to easily obtain their protection just by taking all the trade tax on the border down… And as bad as it might sound, this could splurge the merchants from Kinar to explore beyond our borders, meaning that all the trade both from the east and from the west would be in our hands!"

There was a distinctive difference between freeing a country's merchants from the tax and taking said tax down on a specific border. Outside of border customs, all the traders that would want to make money in this new country would have to pay local taxes either way, while any attempts to travel anywhere beyond our borders would force them to pay the custom upon leaving!"

"So you are suggesting to make the trade the focal point of our interests? You should know that maintaining the roads and keeping the countryside safe isn't exactly an easy task?"

Even if the customs would be retracted, unless the roads would be safe to travel, the entire process of kickstarting the trade would be insanely painful. That's why, instead of being nitpicky, Victor pointed out a huge problem in the current plan instead.

"And that's why you can't stop fighting. It's in your vital interest for the famine in the Kiznar to start right when our fields will give birth to the first round of fresh crops, right? And you need some way to cheaply fix the road too. How about you just keep raiding the Kiznar while taking as many people as you can into slavery? If you want to keep them in the country while making them obedient, just give them five year's terms during which they will be able to work for their freedom. But if you keep them well-fed and safe…"

Hexal didn't need to finish his sentence. Being a former villager himself, Fen could picture what would happen when the first potential batch of the slaves would buy their freedom out and be faced with the choice of returning to a famished country on the brink of collapse and living their new lives as a citizen of extremely rich trading state!