Chapter 392: Plans
Georg froze. "New orders?"
"Yes. We’ve received orders to test Vale Athrimir and probe what kind of strengths he has. If he had any backer, because the powers he’s displaying aren’t normal. Also, you need to find every piece of information that you can about the borderland. Something must have happened there. We must have missed a lot from the previous information we got."
Georg’s jaw tightened. "We are testing him? Just that? For what? Are they going to set him up as the new puppet?"
There was a bit of silence, and Georg filled it again, his voice a bit pensive. "And what if he kills us? He’s going to Matsumoto. What will happen if this test turns into something it shouldn’t? What then?"
"It won’t. You believe he can kill me? Do you, Georg?"
He did not answer directly. "Eighteen Master Knights are dead."
"Vale Athrimir did not kill eighteen Master Knights. Eirikr did more than half. What happened, Georg? Why are you so riled up?"
Georg calmed himself. "Do you see his eyes? They’re red, they look like scarlet fire, and when he stares at you, it’s as if he could see your heart beating. His hair is like this kind of tangled darkness or something. He’s not normal."
There was a pause again before the voice silently said, "You’re afraid. You’re afraid of him."
Georg didn’t deny it. "You weren’t here. He killed Company Captains, the Water Lord. He’s very, very strong, and we can’t even identify his artifact!"
"Do you think he’ll kill me too?"
"You’re a Saint...I don’t think so." But he couldn’t fully hide the doubt in his heart. "But should we really be testing him instead of killing him? Can’t the Tachibana just come and sweep the whole Hinterlands? They can do that, right?"
"They can’t. Not at this moment. They need to focus on their own competition. Things are turning troublesome for them over there. We’ll play with him, probe him. If he’s weak, then he’ll die, but if he’s as strong as all the rumors say, then we’ll make him submit and make him our dog. That’s the plan."
Georg remained silent because, for some reason, he couldn’t picture Vale Athrimir as a dog. "As you command, I’ll keep feeding them the necessary information and prove my loyalty. I’ll stay on ’their side’ for now."
"Good."
"....but I just want to ask. If Vale had decided to kill me earlier, would a team be waiting to rescue me?"
The silence on the other side lasted a bit longer, and then, "We’re all doing our jobs. Don’t forget that."
Then the coin went still. Georg stared at the coin with cloudy eyes for a while before he finally shook his head and put it away.
☆☆▪︎☆☆
Vale and Tiber watched Georg leave the room without saying anything for a while.
Tiber shook his head. "My Lord, what do you think? Do you trust him?"
"No." Vale replied flatly, his eyes showing a shrewd light. "He said some Master Knights are created but without substance. But what about him? He’s a strong and normal Master Knight. He’s not like those that are created hastily. Besides, he was sent here a long time ago. I am guessing that he’s part of the hidden Master Knights he’s talking about."
Tiber nodded. "I’ve thought about the same thing as well. The information he’s providing is probably not that accurate. He’s not telling the whole picture."
"It doesn’t matter that much. Takoda will depart soon, and once he crosses into Athrimir, everyone will know what happened here and the situation of things. We’ll then wait a day or two before going to Matsumoto. We’ll observe them in turn."
Takoda will be going with two more Master Knights. The two other chiefs, Terrix Choxa and Helena Varrow, will depart with him to clear and hold Athrimir.
While the remaining will focus their attention here. Eryndor, Valtor, and Vale himself will keep things stable and attack Matsumoto. The reason Vale was willing to do so with just two Master Knights was because he’s worth two Master Knights himself.
His strategy if a battle broke out was to kill the weaker Master Knights first before focusing on the strong ones, and that meant not holding back at all.
Tiber frowned. "Are you sure you want to be moving around like this? Even fighting?"
"Don’t worry, I might still have healing flesh wounds, but my essence and core are working well. I don’t need to get physical with them when I can do long-range attacks."
"Alright. Then allow me to give you the report. Right now, Akatsuki has thirty-five Errant Knights, sixty-seven Knights, and about ten thousand militia that secure order in the city. Currently, we’re holding them all in restrictive prisons, but the normal human militia are operating as usual. They pose no threat."
Vale nodded his head in understanding. "Akatsuki does have good strength. He concentrated most of them in the capital here while those outside wasted away. Do you think we can get them to swear loyalty to us?"
Tiber remained doubtful. "All of them will swear loyalty right now if given the chance, but it’s all useless and fueled by their need to survive. I say we dismantle them and transfer most of them to Athrimir and some to Matsumoto....when we get it."
Vale nodded slowly. "We’ll take them along to Matsumoto and observe, give them the chance to ’prove their loyalty,’ appoint someone from our end to monitor them. I would like to absorb them."
"Yes, My Lord."
"And what of our own forces?"
Tiber shook his head. "Not good. Eirikr secretly killed a lot of them in interrogation and jailed the majority in Athrimir. Right now, apart from the sky bind under Slya, those we have are the officers that he kept because Eirikr thought he could turn them to his side. We have ten Errant Knights and twenty-five Knights."
Vale raised his brows. "Well, could he? Turn them?"
"Yes." Tiber said in a flat tone. "Only the Master Knights hold the deepest loyalty to you, and it only thins as the line drops. That is how it has always been. And will be."
"How can one solve this?" Vale asked with interest.
"You can make them fear you so deeply that they dare not step out of line. At the same time, it’s risky as they’ll be easy to manipulate into insubordination and betrayal. Another one is to buy their loyalty."
"You do not like that option either. Out with it, Tiber, you must have given it some thought."
"Well....yes. The more territory we get, the more Knights we’ll need to absorb. And we can’t kill them all, we need to absorb them and at the same time keep them busy so they’ll not scheme against your rule.
"That means we should turn them against each other. My Lord, do you remember the Flagbearers system in the borderlands? We can create something like that. Each Flag will be headed by a trusted Master Knight, and the rest will be made up of other Knights. We’ll make it so only the elite, only those who have the potential, can join.
"This will serve two purposes. It’ll weed out the useful and those that are not, making it easier to keep an eye on those that might turn into Master Knights. Lord, you too will have a Flag of your own where only the best can join. The other purpose is that it will give a clear understanding of where everyone belongs. We just need to rank them officially! Those kinds of things will naturally appear."
Vale could see the joy in Tiber’s voice as he said all of this, and he couldn’t help but smile in response. It was apparent that it was something he had given a lot of thought to. And Vale could see the sense in it. "When they follow these Master Knights, their loyalty will be funneled into me."
"Exactly!" Tiber nodded. "Of course, there are also problems with it. This will create factions, and this might strain operations and cause internal friction. But I think this can also be handled as long as My Lord remains...strong and powerful."
Vale smiled. "Tiber, Tiber, this plan can only be put in place now that I’m this strong, right? It’s something that wouldn’t have happened before!"
"Yes." Tiber admitted. "We need someone strong at the very top. My Lord, you just need to continue to get stronger, and we can have as many Flagbearers as we can...well, not too many, but yes! Your own Flag must absolutely be the strongest and will also serve as your guards and hands that you can send anywhere. I say we only accept Master Knights as your Flag members, but if an Errant Knight is unique enough, then we can accept them. The Flags can also specialize in different things! They can be semi-independent, manage their funds and resources. You can station any Flag you want in any location, rotating them if you want, and....."