Chapter 97 - Deserving

It wasn't like Zaos didn't expect to find some people who worked with his father, but it was a pain that he had to deal with the impression he left on them.

"Aren't you going to get mad after hearing all that?" Verkan asked.

"No, sir," Zaos replied. "I am pretty sure my father deserves the fame that he has."

"Although you told the enemy who you are, it seems you are not as hot blooded as your father…" Verkan said. "Anyway, let's move your horses to a place they can rest. You guys do that. Follow me."

After giving the order for his men to do that, Verkan told Zaos and his squad to enter his post. As expected, it was a pretty ordinary place. Aside from weapons, armor, and some tools soldiers use, there are only some chairs and tables around. Verkan told them to sit since he was fully aware of how troublesome it was to move from the northern base to such a town while riding a horse.

"It looks like the commander already gave you the details of what we are going to do. Do you have any questions?" Verkan asked.

"Yes, sir," Zaos replied. "Why is there no guard patrolling around the town? I heard that the attacks inside take place at night, but leaving the town so exposed might make the followers of the demon god attack during the day and more than just with a few of them. This place looks pretty prosperous, so they think they will find a lot of money."

"That is exactly what we want, to lure them into attacking and wipe them out in a single moment," Verkan replied. "We have twenty guards here, but in the last few days, I only showed half of them. The others are hidden inside their houses, and they will join the fight once the enemies show up." 

"I thought you would wait for help coming from the northern base before doing or planning anything," Zaos said. "I am sure the commander imagined the same thing."

"We didn't know if the commander would send reinforcements on time," Verkan replied. "We know that you are short handed since most of the third years left the base and the first years are about to come. Our enemies also know that, so the chances of them attacking sooner than later were higher. Instead of getting attacked at the moment, we didn't expect, we decided to lure them out. It is a risky plan, but it is the best can we could think of." 

Instead of making the enemies do the thing they had done previously, Verkan decided to entice their greed in a cautious manner. Since Zaos could use magic, he was fully aware of the downsides of magic. In a close-range fight, mages were weak, but it was hard to imagine them losing any fight when they had a certain distance over their targets. The main reason for that was that to obtain resistance to magic, one has to train it… now that he thought about it, what will happen if Zaos is wounded by magic? Will he obtain a skill like Pain Resistance? He had to confirm that…

"Now that we are here, what are you planning to do?" Zaos asked.

"That will depend on what you guys can do," Verkan said. "I heard that the instructors were training those who survived that last year pretty intensely, but even if we think that you guys already reached the level of a full-fledged guard, it won't change the fact that your presence will only increase our forces by fifty percent. We can't just overpower the enemies, so we will need some other type of plan. Since you guys hurried, maybe the followers of the demon god already know about your arrival. Hence, a fight here is out of the question. They will be on guard, but I think our best option is a surprise attack."

That was something hard to imagine since they were actually on the defense side. The enemies would be on guard if they have seen Zaos and the others arrival, but that doesn't mean that they can't be caught off guard in some circumstances… for example: while they prepare to attack some merchants.

"We came here to receive your orders," Zaos said. "If the plan is sound, I don't see any reason to refuse it."

"I heard that you killed a few of them last year alongside Elius, so I want to hear if you have any idea about it," Verkan said.

Zaos didn't like to recall that, mainly because Elius practically used him as bait to lure the heretics. That being said, that didn't seem like a bad idea… after all, the followers of the demon god don't expect to find another magic presence nearby aside from theirs.

"On that day, even though I was pretty hidden, they found me thanks to my mana," Zaos said. "I think we can use that and then decrease their forces and capture at least and obtain intel about their camps. You don't know where their base is, do you?"

"No… so you are planning to use yourself as bait, again?" Verkan asked. "You are weird for a noble kid. I more or less knew that your father wouldn't raise a spoiled kid, but… you surpassed my expectations in many weird aspects."

"It is just the simplest way to surprise them," Zaos shrugged. "Regardless, do you agree with that plan?"

"Yes, to be honest, if what you said is true, this might be our best chance to get them before they get us," Verkan said. "Still, why didn't they attack you and instead just approached?"

"I have no idea, sir," Zaos replied.

Zaos realized that that was weird. At first, he thought the idea of facing another mage surprised them, but that seemed too simplistic. It doesn't matter if the enemy was a mage or not. Upon finding a mysterious presence, anyone with half of a brain would attack first and ask later. Maybe the fact that Zaos was a transmigrated person makes his presence different, but that was something he couldn't confirm or say…