Chapter 302: Anna's Rule In The Plan

She paused while gazing at the opposite wall. "Giving small sacrifices for the greater good, that was what they said."

"All of them?" Bloom was speechless before asking again, "no one agreed to fight?"

"My small army agreed to fight of course," she bitterly said, "but all the rich NPCs, merchants and store owners and even most of my friends decided to abandon me."

Bloom didn't speak for a few minutes while giving her time to collect herself. After all, despite her words and shock, the loss wasn't that great at all.

What matters at war was to fight it with enough and well prepared army, not by money and store owners.

"Don't be like this," he finally said, "they aren't worth a tear of yours."

She smiled despite her face being stiffened out of deep sadness. "How will we fight a war without the proper funds? We need gears, hire mercenaries, even call out for friends to help."

He heard all her complaints and only smiled warmly in return. "Leave these for me," he said and she gave him a deep glance that was full of doubt, "I want you to do another thing for me."

"What?" she sarcastically said, "do you want me to run? Abandon the town which their most attractive people abandoned?"

"No, I need another thing from you," Bloom shook his head, "we'll stand our ground and fight. I promise you victory but in return I need something from you."

"My wealth is under your control if you wanted," she said before bitterly laughing, "but don't put big hopes over it, after all my town is poor and I don't have much to offer."

"I don't need that either," he shook his head and his answer made her puzzled.

"Then what?"

"I want you to hurry in building my guild headquarter," he suddenly said, "I want what would take a month to be built in a few days."

"This…" and his words startled her as she never expected him to ask her about this.

"May I ask why?" she couldn't help but ask.

"They will come from the main road," he simply said, "and that road just happens to run in between my headquarter."

"You… plan to face them off the town?!!" she couldn't help but shout in deep shock.

"That's a good plan," he said.

"A very risky plan!" yet she shouted in disapproval, "the walls here are strong and can defend against such an army with ease. Why take the trouble of doing something so costly like this?"

"I don't care about money," Bloom said in confidence, "just do as I ask, please."

She kept gazing at him for long minutes while shaking her head from time to time. "What's your plan to stop them then?"

"You mentioned… mercenaries, right?" he asked and she understood his meaning.

"This would cost a fortune, not to mention the request of yours will cost another fortune."

"I'll handle anything," he simply said, "as long as it's money then I can handle it."

She couldn't help but sigh. "Let me tell you that shortening the time for one week will cost you the same amount of gold coins you paid for the entire building process," she said before hurriedly adding, "this isn't under my control, it's the rules."

Bloom nodded in understanding, "so to hasten the building process for three and half weeks I'll have to pay three and half more gold, right?"

"In advance," she added another condition again, "and if you want to receive it the next morning then you'll have to pay four folds."

"Hmm… sounds reasonable," he muttered.

"Sounds pricey, very pricey for me," she couldn't help but sigh, "and the value it adds? I doubt it would make any difference at all!"

"Have faith," Bloom laughed, "after all this is the first headquarter to be built and it won't be disappointing in regard to the money paid for it."

"…"

She couldn't say anything in return while he asked, "how much does a mercenary cost?"

"This… at least ten thousand gold coins for a decent one."

"What do you mean by decent?"

"Level fifty or higher, good gears, enough fighting experience… things like these," she explained.

"And level hundred?" he asked, "our enemies would have many level hundred guards with them," he warned as all the guards he previously killed at the Lion town were all level hundred.

"Enemies?" yet she noticed something else in his words, "won't we face only the Lion town?"

His silence told her there was more bad news she knew nothing about.

"Sigh, you don't get the news yet, ain't you?" he couldn't help but shake his head while feeling more guilt and slightly uncomfortable to be the one to deliver her this news.

Yet he didn't need to say anything as she was a big girl with a bright mind and she got it all herself.

"He… is going to hire my uncles, right?" she said with a tone that didn't tell him anything about her feelings.

All he could see was her two fists being closed up before relaxing. "Then hiring level one hundred mercenaries will cost around one hundred thousand gold coins each," she said and he felt something inside her had changed at this moment.

Something broke, and that damage helped her to feel more at ease and free.

"Well, I will do my best to gather the money," he said, avoiding touching that topic for now, "and you'll have to make the deals for everything else."

"Any siege tools as well?" she said, "like defensive towers, ballistae and massive crossbows perhaps?"

"I would never say no to such things for sure," he bitterly smiled, "but I don't know if the money I'll gather will be enough or not."

"I'm curious, how would you gather such an astronomical number in so little time?" she said with bright eyes, "if it was me, I doubt I can even gather a tenth of it in a year!"