All the mercenaries got excited and none of them looked scared or worried when Alice told them the next plan. This might contribute to Anfey's all-time victory impression the mercenaries had on him. The mercenaries did not think the Tiger Mawau mercenary group could pose any threats to them.
Of course, the leaders in the League of Mercenaries were not as optimistic as regular mercenaries. Alice, Christian and others all sat in the conference room, discussing the next plan. As everyone was discussing, Anfey pushed the door open and walked in.
Anfey was in the conference room at the beginning of the meeting, but he was called out by Black Eleven.
"What happened?" Christian looked up and asked Anfey.
"Violet City is in trouble," Anfey said.
"What happened?" Christian asked. Everyone was listener-ins in their conversation. Ozzic and Shinbela did not know about Violet City, but Christian and few others were very familiar with Violet City since it was Anfey's feudal estate.
"Sherif Urter was missing. Luckily, former Citymasters Aroben and Niya were there, otherwise Violet City would be a mess," Anfey said.
"How could Urter be missing? Did anyone…" Chrisitan asked.
"Shouldn't." Anfey shook his head. He knew Urter must have troubles in the underground maze, but he could neither go back to Violet City at this moment, nor tell anyone the secret about the underground maze or ask anyone to help Urter at this moment. Anfey got to know many secrets about necromancers. The seclusive house Minos had was actually in Violet City. The underground maze must have something to do with Minos so Anfey could not tell this secret to others.
He had no trust issues, but he needed to hold more information in his hands. If one more person knew about the secret, the higher the chance they would run into troubles.
"How could he be missing?" Christian asked. "Anfey, did you give him something important. Could he betray you?"
Anfey shook his head again. "He would not."
Urter knew the secret about the underground maze, but Suzanna did not. It did not mean Anfey trusted Urter more than Suzanna. Urter found the underground maze first. Anfey could have covered this secret by killing Urter, but he did not want to do that just to cover a secret. Anfey was cold, but not vicious to that degree. In addition, Urter was a righteous guy, which could be told by the way he treated the former citymaster. He was loyal to Anfey and a very capable person. If such a righteous person betrayed Anfey, it would be no one else's fault but Anfey's own since he misjudged him.
"If none of them was the reason, Anfey, what do you think would be the reason for him to be missing?" Christian asked.
"Let's not talk about it for right now. It is pointless since we are not able to go back." Anfey had a weak and bitter smile on his face.
Alice considerately changed the topic after she saw Anfey did not feel like continuing the topic. "Anfey, no one agrees with your plan. You forced it to happen when you attacked White Mountain City. You almost died in that battle. I cannot believe you want to go to Blackwater City now. We will not let you and Suzanna scout for us again."
"Yes, Anfey, it is not necessary. We have over 20,000 mercenaries now. With the help of Anthony and David's Glory mercenary group and over 20,000 Shield of Light Legion soldiers allocated to us by General Baery, Manstuly and Tiger Tawau's mercenary group are not our match. I can just confront them if it is necessary," Christian said.
"White Mountain City is different than Blackwater City. I admit it was a little risky back then. I only wanted to assassinate Archmage Michael first to get rid of our biggest scourge. Think about it, what kind of soldiers are we dealing with in Blackwater City? No matter if they are druids or elves, it would be no different than committing suicide if they wanted to release Nature series magic to me. I can dismiss their magic whenever I want to or even attack them with their own magic. If it were a fight without magic, do you think they could stop me?" Anfey explained.
"Anfey, we all know you are very good, but it is not necessary to scout Blackwater City," Alice said.
"It is necessary. Not mentioning us, even Master Baery does not know about the situation in Blackwater City. I heard the druids and elves have control of Blackwater City. It is really hard for any outsider to get into Blackwater City and obtain information on its people, but they know everything about us. Only if we know our enemies as well as we know ourselves, we could win every battle. At this moment, Manstuly knows us very well, but do we know them as well as they know us?" Anfey asked slowly.
"Long and Ling are no secrets now. How many mercenaries in the League of Mercenaries have seen them?" Anfey shook his head. "We could not guarantee every mercenary is royal to us. It would be riskier to have Long and Ling do it. They might not be able to come back once they get into Blackwater City."
Christian and the others looked at each other. The upper level of the League of Mercenaries was a democratic organization. Everyone was liberal about expressing their ideas and believing what they believed. Everyone had developed a habit to trust and listen to Anfey. Besides, Alice's movement of cult personality towards Anfey played a role in this. If a person told the same lie a hundred times, he would believe in his own lie. Once Anfey insisted on something, everyone would agree with him in the end.
"Ok, if you insist." Christian smiled bitterly. "When will we leave?"
"We cannot leave too soon. At least we have to wait for Batusimon's decision," Alice said in a low pitch.
"Batusimon?" Christian asked.
"Yeah, Batusimon showed interest in us, but was a little hesitant. Right now, we are about to battle with Tiger Tawau's mercenary group. He can not be so hesitant anymore. His decision would mean nothing if his decision were made after the battle is finished. My guess is he will make his decision in the next few days." Alice smiled.
"Batusimon will be trouble someday," Hui Wei said with a frown. "Our king has titled two dukes. Does he have to title a third one? In terms of closeness, Master Marino has agreed to work with the Maho Empire. In terms of the power, the Storm mercenary group is not as great as the Glory mercenary group and Batusimon is not as great as Anthony. How could Batusimon be titled duke but not Anthony? Anthony will be pissed about it. That is why I said he would be trouble in the future."
"There is one more reason why Batusimon is not as good as Anthony. After the titling ceremony, Anthony was not the commander of the Glory mercenary group anymore. He passed it on to David. Anthony is planting the seed for their futures and it shows his stance that he would give up control of the super mercenary group as Master Marino did. Would Batusimon be willing to give his super mercenary group up?"
"We have no control over what would happen in the future," Alice smiled. "Right now, it seems that having Batusimon on our side is very good for us. We not only have one less enemy but also get stronger."
"You will be in charge of the case of Batusimon. I will not get involved. You will be on your own. Alice, can you pack up so you can leave together with us?" Anfey asked. Last time when they travelled to White Mountain City to fight, he asked Alice to stay in Stormenburg because many newly-joined mercenary families needed Alice to help them settle down. Those families were still in Stormburg. It would not help with the situation to have Alice stay here. Besides, Anfey was worried about Alice's safety. It was better to take her with him.
"Ok," Alice nodded, "but it seems inappropriate to have myself talk with Batusimon. You are the Chief General. If you were not there with us, it might make Batusimon feel he is not important enough."
"Wouldn't it show that he is very important when our CEO is talking to him?" Anfey smiled.
It usually produced a strange feeling from a person when his position changed. If this happened a year ago when Anfey and Christian just came to the Country of Mercenaries, Batusimon would not even bother to see them. Back then, Batusimon was number one in the Storm mercenary group, but the situation totally changed. At this moment, it's Anfey's turn of not wanting to spare time for him. To be more specific, it was already a little late for Batusimon to join the League of Mercenaries. If Batusimon decided to join the League of Mercenaries before Anfey took control over White Mountain City, he would receive many privileges. If he dragged it along and did not make the decision until the battle between Anfey and Tiger Tawau was over to see Anfey, Alice would not even bother to see him no matter how sincere he would be.
"This is the courtesy." Alice smiled bitterly.
"Ok, I will see." Anfey scanned around. "We will stop here for right now. Let's hurry up and do some training. Alice, can you stay for a second? I have something to talk to you about in private."
Everyone seemed to know what they should do next when Anfey said "in private". Everyone stood up and left the conference room. Alice felt her heart pump harder. She asked timidly , "What's going on?"
Alice misunderstood Anfey. If Anfey had anything romantic to say to her, he would not dare to directly ask everyone to leave the conference, especially not in front of Suzanna. Judging from the way Anfey handled things, he would never be able to flirt with Alice while everyone else knew about it in next ten years.
"Our king wants to use the underground city for a while." Anfey took out a half crystal from the Dimensional ring. This crystal looked like it was broken in half by force so the surface was not smooth. "Can you ask a few dwarves to take the crystal back to Moramatch Town. If there were a person taking the other half of the crystal over and the two halves matched, you could let him in."
"How could our king know about the underground? What is he going to do with it?" Alice asked in surprise.
"Christian must have told him. What the king would do with it, I have no idea," Anfey said.