118 Chapter 118: Statistics

Caesar traveled atop the vigorous trees and soon made it back to the stronghold, he approached the walls and once he was within a few feet of them, he crouched down and propelled off the ground, causing him to practically soar through the air and easily land on top of the walls.

Once he reached the walls, he didn't waste any more time and immediately headed towards the mansion, located in the middle of the stronghold… He had wanted to advance his plans so they could start pressuring the trolls, alas, he figured it would better to wait until Soka fixed his mistake.

Caesar had many things he needed to accomplish if he wanted to pose a chance against the trolls. Although he was confident in winning, he didn't know the capabilities of the person, or people, who backed them… knowledge was power, after all.

Caesar could, however, speculate many things about the person behind the trolls based on a few observations… If they were, in fact, mighty, then there would be no reason to hide in the dark. This suggests that they are afraid of others figuring out their identity, and the only probable reason they would fear such a trivial thing, would be, of course, if they were human.

Unfortunately, this conclusion leads to a few other puzzles, such as why the humans would care about a war between two medium sized clans within the dark continent. Though Caesar assumed that Ahri's rare bloodline was a major factor, that couldn't be the only reason. The assassin sent to Ahri's room was proof of that, if they didn't want to kill her, why did they send an assassin? These mysteries nagged Caesar, but to avail, he couldn't figure out their plans.

While Caesar was thinking about these troublesome matters, he soon arrived at the mansion and snuck inside, although he could wait for the guards to open the gates, he didn't feel like catering to the fox-kin formalities and wasting time.

Once inside the mansion, he made a bee-line for the meeting room, though he didn't make any arrangements with the others. They were sure to be awaiting his arrival if they had a few questions they wanted to be answered.

Thinking to here, Caesar quickened his pace and reached the meeting room in a relatively short amount of time… he slid opened the doors and stepped inside. Right as he entered, he could immediately feel a few eyes turn to him.

Khan, Musashi, Joe, and Ahri were all present in the room, sitting at the long table in silence, Ahri was drinking tea out of an elegant teacup whilst Musashi, Joe, and Khan were in the middle of a heated discussion, alas, Caesar's abrupt appearance interrupted them.

"What are you three discussing about?" Caesar asked while sitting down at the closest seat, small droplets of sweat trickled down his face, making it apparent he had just completed some physical activities.

Hearing Caesar's question, Joe cleared his throat and moved closer to him. "We were trying to give some advice to Ahri on how to most effectively seduce a man… both of these fools think that she should compliment their status, but I, an intellectual, believe that it would be better if she asserts her status" Joe explained with an expression of frustration.

"And here I was thinking that you three were discussing something productive, alas, I am once again baffled…" Caesar replied whilst massaging his forehead.

Seeing that Caesar was disinterested, Joe smiled smugly, "hehe, mister perfect, how did Ahri seduce you?" Joe asked with a wide grin, and even Ahri was calmly sipped her tea, raised her eyes and looked at Caesar curiously.

Caesar rolled his eyes and put his right leg over his left, "Don't misunderstand, she didn't seduce me, I seduced her" he said slyly.

If he remembered correctly, the first time he met Ahri, he was intrigued by her abundance of mana and couldn't hold back his vampiric urges back… Resulting in him forcefully taking her blood and her screaming something along the lines of 'you better take responsibility' to which, he did.

While Caesar was thinking about these things, he didn't notice Joe grab a piece of paper and ink stone… "please explain how you seduced her" he said while looking at Caesar as if he was some kind of professor.

Seeing this, Caesar let out a chuckle and smiled wryly, "I don't think taking advice from me would do you any good, you see, when someone with my appearance flirts with a woman, no one bats an eye, however, if someone of your 'calibre' were to do the same… I'm afraid" his words trailed off as he didn't want to insult his friend.

"What? Finish your sentence, god damn it" Joe said angrily with his fists raised in the air.

The corner of Caesar's lips curled, "of course, if someone of your caliber were to do the same, I'm sure the effect would be similar… the technique is to be assertive, you understand?" Caesar said whilst containing his laughter.

Joe wrote down a few things on his parchment of paper and looked back up to Caesar with stars in his eyes, "what else?" he asked.

"That should be the just of it, the rest is up to you…" Caesar replied while pulling back the bangs of hair that were slightly covering his eyes.

Joe nodded his head and sat back down on his chair, the others in the room couldn't help but shake their heads noticing his gleeful smile.

"Ahem" Caesar cleared his throat and grabbed everyone's attention, "moving on to more pressing matters, Khan, were you successful in finding anything strange within both of those two traitors' rooms," he said while shifting his attention to Khan. Causing the previous light atmosphere to drastically change.

Khan rummaged through his clothes after hearing Caesar's words and took out two, elegant looking marbles… they were perfectly round and had a blue hue, inside the marbles were a few strange white lines.

"Although there was nothing out of the ordinary, I did find both of these under their pillows," he said while sliding them across the table.

Caesar grabbed the marbles and brought them close to his eye, he inspected them for a moment before opening his eyes wide in surprise, he had acquired something similar from the assassin lass's clothes.

He immediately used his storage ring and took the marble he had gotten from the assassin's clothes, and after a few moments of observation, sure enough, they were identical to the two Khan had discovered.

Caesar attempted to put his mana within the marbles, alas, they had no reaction and just radiated a dim, bluish hue.

Although slightly disappointed, he still smiled, "Excellent work Khan, if my assumption is correct, this should be the device that lets them hear and communicate with the mastermind…" Caesar complimented after a few seconds of thought… he delicately placed the marbles back on the table and directed his attention to Musashi.

"Did you get the information that I wanted?" he asked curiously, and in response, Musashi took out a few small scrolls from his inner robes.

"I couldn't get an accurate number regarding the amount enemies presently in the troll clan, however, I do have an estimated sum" Musashi replied while handing Caesar the scrolls.

Caesar grabbed the scrolls and delicately opened them up, revealing quite a few words and numbers written within... detailing supplies, soldiers, and even weapons.

Caesar closely examined the scrolls and took note of each specific detail, the fox-kin elites numbered roughly 3000, about 6000 regular soldiers, and 20000 citizens were living in the current fox-kin stronghold. 3500 swords, 3500 spears, 500 shields, 800 bows, 2000 arrows, 250 axes, and 150 daggers. While their food supplies were estimated to last only about 2 weeks, not including the amount of food the kobolds brought.

Caesar nodded his head and shifted his attention to the other piece of paper that only had one line of words written in it… 12500 troll warriors, 5000 elites, and 50 Ceros. Which meant that the trolls had 17500 soldiers whereas the fox-kin were at a measly 9000.

After reading the contents, Caesar raised his eyes and looked at Musashi, "thank you for gathering this information for me... it will certainly help us in the long run" he said and leaned back in his chair with a contemplating expression.

After a few moments of silence, Ahri finally broke the ice, "where are Soka and Falthor?" she asked.

Hearing her question, Caesar sat back up and tapped the table, "Falthor should be tired, so he has presumably retired to his personal quarters, I assume he didn't want to keep his wife and son waiting for too long… as for Soka, I'm not entirely sure what he's doing at the moment" Caesar replied.

The room once again entered into an awkward silence until, finally, Caesar sighed and stood up from his chair. He scanned Joes, Ahri's, and Khan's, face before landing on Musashi's.

"I need that tournament to happen within three days, we need to train, rebuild, and recruit as quickly as possible, with their superior numbers, I highly doubt they are going to let us rest for too long" Caesar spoke gravely to which Musashi nodded his head with a solemn look.

"I will try my hardest, all of the men that want to participate have already signed up" Musashi replied.

"Good…" Caesar suddenly shifted his attention to Joe, "follow me, we can perhaps make those tools you need for those mana gems" he said and turned around.

Joe looked at Caesar's back with a blank, for a moment before frantically trying to catch up with him, "w-what do you mean?" he called out from behind, excitedly.

Caesar chuckled whilst opening the door, "perhaps you will get along with them…" he said with a strange look in his eyes.