Rebirth of the Phoenix God

"And what now? Are you going to just continue waiting full of hopes, or are you going to actually do something?"

Sitting directly on the floor of the gym class that Fen rented, Nadia smiled gently. 

"Do something? You mean, leave the theatre of operations just as the things started to get going nicely?"

Not even raising his head or opening his eyes, Fen answered from the floor level. Even though the situation of Nadia leaving the mercenary group right in the middle of the campaign was done in a peaceful manner of common agreement, it still remained as this unreachable and unscratchable sting on Fen's soul.

"Come on, how long are you going to sulk about this? I thought we were already through with that topic!"

Calling out Fen's bullshit right away, Nadia looked at her junior with annoyance. Even though their social position already reversed, putting the girl way below in terms of influence or power that Fen wielded, the core of their relationship remained exactly the same. 

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just anxious about what should I do now. I shouldn't release those emotions on you."

Releasing a long sigh before covering his still closed eyes with his hand, Fen took his time before admitting to being in the wrong. And for some reason, those words of his managed to pull at Nadia's facial muscles, making her open her eyes as wide as if she just saw a human suddenly turning to a horse.

"I didn't expect you to apologise so easily… You really have grown ever since I left…"

After taking her time staring at her junior, Nadia followed his example and released a deep sigh.

"Listen, I know that you most likely heard about it already, but I might be able to shed some more light on the matter. I didn't come back because of some silly reasons I gave you guys back then, but because I was called back. Called by someone whose requests I couldn't really refuse…"

The girl's face twitched as she brought this topic up. Fen was not yet on Victor's level in terms of reading other people's emotions from their faces, but this clue was too big even for him to miss. 

"Either way, you should already know that the south is quickly descending into a huge civil war. While anyone with brains knew that it was only a matter of time, no one expected for it to happen so quickly. And from what I learned on my mission there… We are at most, a few weeks away from the start of hostilities."

Bringing such an unexpected topic out of nowhere, Nadia succeeded at grabbing Fen's attention. Pulled-in by the story, the young man actually moved his back from the floor, sitting on it instead, fully focusing his gaze on the girl in front of him. 

To a degree, Fen considered the chapter of his life that was centred around the empire to be long over. With the insane relief and change of life that happened to him in Gauna, all the potential feelings of patriotism or love for the country that cast him away were long gone. 

But that didn't mean he was fully finished with his matters there. From taking revenge on those who wronged him, through killing those that harmed his family all the wait to finally bringing down that bastard that was responsible for all his grief…

And let's not speak about the matter of saving Galia from the clutches of inquisition! There was just no way for this childhood friend of his to randomly agree to join the group that killed him in front of her eyes! If Galia were to be such a person, Fen would learn about this in the years they spent together in the orphanage. 

Be it brainwashing of some sorts, simple calculation or any other reason, the young man was determined to save Galia from those fuckers. The only problem that stopped him from doing so earlier… Was the simple fact that he was too weak to even think about standing against the entire church organisation of the empire.

"Wait, weeks? Right in the middle of the winter season? I know that southerners are tough, but even if they can survive in the freezing cold of the period, they won't be able to create any logistic chains to supply any troops!"

Suddenly noticing this small discrepancy, Fen stood up from his place before reaching his bags stuffed in the corner of the room. Given how this failed class of his was going to be not only about the basics of military arcana usage but also on strategy and tactics, instead of talking about the pictures in their heads, Fen could simply use the map of the empire he had on himself!

"Okay, look. While it might be outdated, the information I have is that there will be seven factions in the civil war. Starting with the royalists, church and inquisition stuck in their threesome in the west, through two factions in Akhaz region and one more to their north, all the way to the southernmost Ice Federation and easternmost League of free cities. Outside of the central theatre between Akhaz and the Merchant Faction beside them, no other group can realistically do anything about anyone else. The distances are simply too far."

Moving his finger from the left to the right as he brough the names that Gaunian populace came with for each of the factions, Fen carefully observed the map in an attempt to find out just what did he miss for the timeline to mismatch his expectations so damn much.

"The only place where the fight could begin is the centre, with the Akhaz and those central cities on the imperial road. That would be right if not for the statement that the merchants gave out. Quoting, for whoever will ascertain the dominance of the Old City of Akhaz, we will be willing to ally ourselves with to ward off any aggression at the prosperous, central region. That's what their statement says. And that also removes the only option for the early conflict outside of the picture. As for the Akhaz itself…"

Finally bringing up something that Fen didn't really know much about, Nadia looked at the young man for a while as if gauging his reaction before spreading her arms and shaking them.

"We only know there are two different factions there. We can't even be sure whether they are friendly or hostile towards each other. But that doesn't change what I wanted to say. With the winter season already in place, what would be the better time to proclaim the separation from Gizadian emperor? What would be a better time than the period where they can safely secure their power base and prepare for the spring campaigns?"

Only now did Fen realise what Nadia wanted to say from the very beginning. Contrary to the situation in the north, where not only the winter was far softer and the distances far smaller, Gizadian borders stretched over the entire south of the continent. What was discussed as factions on the map, could easily reach the size of the entire countries up to the north. 

And Fen learned on his own skin how taxing the process of taking over any land or settlement can be. Unless one was willing to just change the ownership of the former administrative structures, binding a stone to his hands in terms of any future changes, the entire organisation of the land had to be rebuilt from the scratch. And that simply couldn't be done with the threat of the invasion handing over one's head!

"You told me that you have some news that I could find interesting. Is that all that you wanted to tell, or are you hiding something else to smack my face full of surprise later on?"

Raising his head above the map, Fen looked sternly at the girl. Without even casting his eyes at Nadia's face, just the atmosphere around the girl made it clear that she still had something in store.

"Well, I really shouldn't tell you that, but given how it's my own observation, not a part of the classified intel, as long as you keep it to yourself, I might share it with you."

Instead of revealing her secret right away, Nadia actually put forth some warrants before that. And that served to prove how potentially useful this information could be to Fen and his future plans!

"Okay, okay. I won't speak a word about it to anyone unless it becomes public knowledge."

Not bothering with any sorts of rituals to accompany his oath, Fen simply agreed to Nadia's terms. After all, the value of his words was just too great for the young arcanist to destroy it like that by sharing the knowledge he promised to keep secret. And with her own brains, Nadia had to be perfectly aware of this fact.

"Originally, Kinar was preparing for the defence war in the north… But there is a huge chance they will try to come up with a voluntary force that could stir up some trouble to the south. That might be one of the reasons why no one bothered to attend your class. And that also…"

Before the girl could finish, a knocking on the door closed her mouth. Only after taking a quick look at his talking companion and confirming she wasn't going to reveal anything else, for now, Fen turned his head towards the entrance.

"Come in."

With the doors prying open, a flood appeared. What Fen imagined to be just a single visitor, turned out to be a huge group of young people, all following someone he didn't expect to see again so soon.

"Teacher, we are ready for the lesson. Please, forgive us for being late, we had to deal with some problematic teachers on the way here. As it appears, the academy considers your lessons to be a waste of our precious time that we could spend wisely on some other activities."

Brimming with smiles, the girl that stepped up to explain the situation proved that the change in her energy that Fen noticed a few whiles before wasn't just for appearances. All fidgety from what she achieved, Cleo looked at her saviour with a happy yet smuggish smile.

"Well…"

At first, Fen was lost for words. But once he saw the looks of expectations in the eyes of the youth, he quickly realised where did they passion came from. Unless Cleo lied about the academy staff trying to stop them from reaching this place, most of them being in the rebellious age, found out the forbidden fruit of his teachings to suddenly be way more attractive than it would appear to them otherwise!

At this point, Fen wasn't sure whether he should curse at his fellow teachers, or actually thank them for helping his cause!

"Come on in, everyone. While we will be starting late, don't you ever think about leaving early."