Chapter 174: You can return home now

"I think I'm going to develop some kind of trauma. Whenever you appear in the academy, bad news follows right after."

Fen was never someone who would just waste the time. Despite how tiring all his adventures to date were, instead of taking a proper rest at his home under strict Cleo's care, he simply dropped the stuff he brought with himself in one of the rooms before rushing to the academy.

Being a mercenary was one thing, but Fen wasn't just a simple sellsword. As a commander of not only the unit but also one of the rulers of the mercenary kingdom, he couldn't allow himself to just rest easy.

"Sir, I may not be officially alumni of this academy, but I don't think that sentence is correct. It's not that I'm the herald of bad news."

Taking a short break from speaking to wet his lips with a relatively good wine, Fen took a look at the dean of the Gauna academy sitting on the other side of the huge desk. 

"I'm a harbinger of change. Or to be more precise, following your advice, we made sure to ramp up our actions so that we would turn ourselves into a vital element of the Kinarian political game."

There was no point in hiding his plan anymore. It was already in motion, and nothing that Kinar would do could influence the outcome. Compared to mercenaries who were mostly spending their money away in all sorts of places all over the country, the Kinarian council coil only set a single plan to react to the changing situation in the north. Contrary to them, Fen was simply way more flexible, capable of adapting to any given scenario with how thin and professional his forces were.

But it was the attitude of the dean that made Fen realise how greatly the situation changed in reality. With not even a single hint of his previous haughtiness, this old man was now attentively listening to every single word that Fen dared to utter while watching every sentence of his own.

After all, Fen just admitted that it was the dean's words that made him come up with the situation that was currently proving to be problematic for the entire Kinarian council.

"I see… Wait, let's put a stop to our talk for a moment. I need to tell you something as a former mercenary, as a former commander with ambitions. Don't take my next words as the voice of the dean, just a peer."

With such a dramatical introduction, the older man behind the desk successfully managed to catch Fen's attention.

"For your plan to eradicate the nobles while using Kinzarian ruler to do it for you… I can do nothing but praise both the genius required to come up with that plan and the wits to actually pull it off."

That was definitely strange… Or it actually wasn't. In the first moment, Fen was slightly puzzled just what gave this part of his plan away to the dean, but the picture that Victor managed to paint about his encounter with Kinarian forces at the building site quickly appeared in front of Fen's eyes. And from that point, it would take someone incredibly naive to fail to notice the simple connection.

"Well, should I assume that keeping our act even in Kinar was a slight overkill? Well, you will have to forgive me for that, given how we were left completely on our own, we didn't expect to find out that you guys are planning an invasion against Shallia either."

This was the main problem that stemmed from how Fen's actions were completely detached from what his Kinarian peers were doing.

'So he doesn't know that little provocation was my job…'

There was a slight chance that the news about the escalating hostilities has yet to reach the dean's ears. After all, while a huge political figure with how he was a part of the council, he wasn't one of the military commanders. It was actually quite a curious question whether he wasn't on the frontlines because he was simply weak combat wise, or too important to risk losing him in some stupid fighting!

"Well, the face that you made when you were leaving last time… Let's just say that it made me quite vigilant about your exploits. But let's stop this free speech for now. I guess you didn't come here just to chat. What do you want?"

Destroying the uncomfortably pleasant atmosphere in the room as quickly as he made it appear, Dean looked at Fen with his face turning fully serious.

"I see I won't need to explain my position then. I wish a free reign over recruiting, teaching and organising the people that will be willing to join us in the summer expedition. That's when we expect Kinzarian King to pull his forces back if you were to ask about the timing… sir."

In theory, Fen could speak on a casual note with the dean right now. While his academic background was a far cry to what the old man in front of him has achieved, the same couldn't be said about his social position. While the Dean was a part of the council that ruled over one of the stronger countries on the continent, Fen was actually one of the autonomous rulers of the new mercenary Kingdom!

As long as one acknowledged the existence of the Kingdom that was currently overrun with the forces of the former overlord of that land, then Fen's position would be actually higher than that of a dean!

"That's more or less what I expected. While I can't forbid you from recruiting people…"

The way in which the dean cut his sentence off, the message behind what he didn't say was clear.

While he wouldn't make things especially hard for the young arcanist, it would be naive to expect him to push his own weight around to help him. But that kind of status quo was exactly what Fen hoped for.

After all, what would be the point of creating a new force, if it would have some formal connections to the Kinar in the first place? Given how those people would create the core of the new academy that would soon be hated by all the other schools around the entire continent, allowing the Gauna academy to be a patron of this project would only make it harder to cut the ties with them later on. 

"I understand. I can organise most of the stuff myself, but I just wanted to ensure that I won't face any issues if I were to ask for renting me a single gym or something. You know, I wanted to know I'm Gauna didn't suddenly decide that my presence was no longer welcomed in the city."

As annoying as it was, Fen was perfectly aware that in case of the dean only pretending not to be bothered with his actions, just a single open mention of the stuff that was going through his head would be enough of a reason to detain him. 

With how Kinar was either at the verge or already entangled in a huge conflict, it was obvious that the council wouldn't enjoy the idea of a third force meddling and sapping the manpower of their mercenaries. But that didn't mean that the council could do anything about Fen's actions.

In fact, the young mercenary still had some hopes that he could convince everyone that by cooperating, they could earn much more than what they could obtain by war. But the perspectives bound with the war that was about to happen were simply too great for Fen to risk following his own moral code. 

With the normal trading route between the entirety of Shallia and Kinar being broken, the only way for the big nobles of both sides to keep their trade income intact would be to push all the trade through the lands of the new, mercenary kingdom. Without even putting that much effort, Fen's actions in the west resulted in a war to the east that would fulfil the problem of cutting the only other road that connected the countries of the central continent!

"You don't need to worry about that. Once the war with Shallia will be over, I'm quite sure that the council will seek to cooperate with you. Once again, speaking as a fellow mercenary instead of a dean, you perfectly played your cards. But that doesn't mean everyone will turn the blind eye if you dare to overstep your boundaries."

Shaking his head while thinking about this problem, the dean suddenly stood up from his chair before approaching the window of his room.

"By the way, you came here from the empire, or is my memory playing tricks on me?"

With how suddenly the old man changed the topic, Fen could only accept the fact that the previous topic was now definitely over. 

"Yeah. I was born in the empire, but due to my phoenixian bloodline, I had to escape from it."

Answering the question casually, Fen directed his eyes at the dean once again, puzzled by the sudden question about his past.

"I know this is random, but I figured you might want to know this."

Turning back towards the young man at his desk, the dean returned to his seat before cupping his hands together on his desk and resting his chin on this makeshift, flesh tower.

"While it's just a rumour that I heard… It appears that the empire entered the state of civil war. All sorts of factions appeared, basically eradicating the empire as we knew it. Right now, outside of the western area controlled by the royal inquisition and the fanatic part of their heretic church… Well, it will suffice to say that you are no longer barred from returning to your home. Unless you go to the western faction lands, no one will dare to persecute you any more."