Rebirth of the Phoenix God

"Are you out of your mind?!"

Contrary to Fen's expectations, it wasn't the Victor to erupt as soon as the young arcanist explained his plan. Slamming her hands against the table, Orsha stood from her chair so rapidly that for a moment it seemed as if she wouldn't be able to hold her balance.

"We have yet to finish reorganising the entire kingdom, and you want to force another war on us already?"

It seemed that Orsha wasn't instantly positive to anything that Fen would say, even though she was the first one to support his previous idea of carving out a kingdom for themselves.

"Calm down, let me explain."

Attempting to salvage the situation, Fen moved his hands up and down, as if gesturing at the girl to take some deep breaths. As one could expect, this only served to infuriate the girl more.

"Calm down? You were supposed to get support from the Gauna academy and the entire Kinar council, not come back saying that we need to kick them into the negotiating position first! Do you even realise how many problems we have right now? Kinzar might be easy, but if we dare to come out in our numbers against the Republic, just a few mercenary parties from the various academies will suffice to wipe the ground with our faces!"

Moving away from the desk, Orsha took a quick stroll around the insides of a random house they were currently in. Someone once said that conquering the land was the easy part of obtaining it. And all the local nobles that simply stood away from the ongoing fights, now proved that sentence to be true. 

Even with the history of raiding and destroying the wealth, the cities of the new Mercenary Republic still had quite a lot of goods and valuables in them, allowing to finance some of the riskier development programs… But unless someone suddenly were to find an entire flock of gooses laying golden eggs, then it was only a matter of time before this newly created kingdom would face the same problems that sprouted the governors into a civil war.

Because outside of crops, this land barely gave birth to anything else.

"On the other hand, I think this idea might be nice. Like, come on. What's the greatest problem in our country right now?"

Remaining silent during the entirety of the council so far, Victor started tapping at the desk while watching the draft of the detailed map of their country. With the former governor of this place already out with the missions of calming the nobles down and convincing them that cooperation might be an easier choice than opposing two perfectly trained groups of mercenaries, there were only the three of them in place.

And the truth was, before gaining their absolute trust, the former lord of those lands wouldn't have anything to say regaining the global politics of the country. 

"So you noticed that, huh…"

Looking sharply at his friend, Fen could only hang his head with disappointment and shake it for a moment. At this moment, this young man looked as if someone spoiled the surprise he was preparing for ages.

"Wait, what are you guys talking about?

Noticing that something was amiss, Orsha moved back to the table and gazed at the map but was unable to find anything.

"Okay, okay. Our greatest problem right now are the small nobles. With endless privileges given by the former and present kings, they are basically completely autonomous, occupying the majority of the fertile lands. But unless we wish to declare the war of the entire population…"

That was the problem with the minor lords in any monarchy. While burning down a mansion or two in order to sustain the troops was generally accepted during the war, placing a tax on the nobles? They weren't born into the lucky families that were shrewd enough to obtain lands in this country to pay taxes now!

With how the minor nobles reacted to the shift of power, one could see how little they cared about the state as a whole. Sadly, unless one could face the onslaught from all directions of unending small forces of the enemy disturbing any administrative or military task within the province, those nobles would keep their privileges as they were.

"Listen. It was never a plan to fight with the Kiznarias. If they move up with all the force, not even a dust would remain after us. Right now, despite all the possible opportunities created by it, a campaign against us with all the royal and provincial forces is simply not worth the effort. As long as we keep the road open, nobody will move against us, as the tax from this province is nowhere near enough justifying an expedition."

Starting with a bit of explanation, Fen suddenly raised his eyes at the girl's face.

"But what if we forced them to make a move? And what if we were to set them up against the nobility of our province?"

With smile finally creeping on the young arcanist lips, he smashed his hand on the map before hovering with his fingers over several important points.

"I know your town is first to the west, so I will calm you right away. Officially, we call ourselves a force of peace, sent by some unknown great lords from the Kinarian borderlands in order to secure the road… All the while, blaming the nobles for blocking it. We liberated this province because a huge group of small nobles from this area saw how profitable the trade with our… 'employers' was, attempting to take it all for themselves. And this will be the message that Kiznarian King will learn first from rumours and then from our delegation in person!"

Suddenly stopping the movements of his hand with his pointing finger hovering directly above one of the most important crossroads in the northern part of Kinar. The crossroad that was the greatest headache for anyone attempting to monopolise the road connection between the two countries!

"Our forces… We will move all the mercenaries back to this crossing. As soon as we get there, we will start destroying the northbound piece of the road. Officially, we will be on our way to visit several academies and ask for help, all the while suddenly attacked by the nobles from the province everyone already knows we conquered."

Looking intently at the map and staying silent, Orsha's eyes slowly started to widen as she understood what Fen was proposing them to do.

"This is soo risky… If only one thing goes the wrong way, we will be fucked beyond any imagination…"

Shaking her head with clear worry, Orsha raised her pupils towards Victor's face.

"And you really think this is an acceptable risk? What if the Kiznarian army will remain in the province? What if they loot it to the ground? What if…"

Before the girl could finish listing all the possible bad endings of the scenario, Victor shook his head in negation.

"Kiznarians won't remain. They won't be able to feed any huge army in there, and they supplies will run dry rather quickly. Even if they loot everything movable and burn everything that will remain, they won't dare to touch the road. With the declaration of independence from our Northern friend, this is the last thing that connects them to the east."

Once again, Victor perfectly nailed the entire point of the discussion.

"If you still don't understand, then listen. Right now we need to deal with two major problems. The nobles within the country and the lack of backing from any of the established forces. What we can do before anything would be capable of stopping us, is destroying the road and inviting Kinzarian forces into our lands. The only thing that's not certain is how everyone would react… but the simple fact will remain. No matter what, we will hold the only road that connects Kinar, Kinzar and Shallian Kingdoms."

Pointing his finger at each of the places he mentioned, Fen uttered the names.

"Kinar."

Picking up, Victor explained in depth.

"They won't dare to risk the destruction of their last road connection to the Shallia. They are one of the greatest trade partners of the republic. As sour as it will be, they will have to swallow this pill."

Fen's finger moved over another country before his lips once again spoke just its name.

"Kinzar."

Already in sync, Victor quickly followed.

"They will be forced to clear the road from the nobles, but won't be able to maintain any forces in the province that we couldn't easily take on by ourselves. If their king… no, if their chief commander has any idea what he is doing, he will leave the province as soon as he will learn that this entire noble rebellion thing was nothing more but a false rumour."

Ultimately, Fen's finger ended its journey above the lands of the Kingdom that still held one of the ancestral cities of the old mercenary kingdom.

"Shallia."

Following up like he already did twice, Victor smiled deviously.

"Shallian King is perfectly aware that the only thing that stops his country from dissolving like Kinzar are the profits from the trade. He will agree to any terms that we will propose, he will accept any customs on the border… Because his trading route will lead directly through us. Additionally, he won't dare to attack us, as everyone knows that Kinar would never allow for that to happen. Or in other words, if Shallia moves, so will the republic, and all that we will have left then is deciding who is the better horse to bet on!"