Chapter 270 - Secret Plans

Well then, Zaos had a problem in his hands. He didn't travel for two weeks to serve as a sacrifice. Still, it seemed that Brien assumed that Zaos only came to make sure that they would last for as long as possible in order for the kingdom to make a reasonable, more significant force.

"… Do we have any notion when the enemies are going to attack?" Zaos asked.

"They still are solidifying their position in the town they took the other day," Brien said. "We lost three thousand men in that fight, but they had to work ward to win, so they lost the same amount of men and used many resources. They already knew that my soldiers would fight until the last men, so they were preparing to build the terrain for a fight where they wouldn't lose many men or resources. My guess is that they will be ready for that in two weeks."

"Resources, huh," Zaos said. "I guess that is all, sir."

"Don't worry, Zaos," Brien forced a smile. "I am sure we will be brought enough time for you and your men to flee if the necessity arises."

"I am not really worried, sir," Zaos said. "But I appreciate the sentiment. Now, if you excuse me."

Zaos left the room while showing a poker face, but as soon as he closed the door, he couldn't help but sigh. What kind of environment someone like Brien grew to think of himself as that disposable. It was ridiculous that someone with such a mindset became a commander of thousands of soldiers. Or perhaps, he was promoted because of that… he was relatively young, after all.

Without wasting time, Zaos went to search for Cohnal and Melisse. He needed to have a serious conversation with them. After looking for a while, Zaos found his unit being allocated in some free rooms on the second floor. It seemed that a lot of the recruits of that year died or deserted.

"How was the meeting, Captain?" Cohnal asked. "By the way, we already organized your things in the first sector of this floor."

"Thanks, well… it was worse than you can imagine," Zaos said after looking around and confirming that no one could see or hear them.

Zaos explained the conversation he had, and for some reason, neither of them seemed surprised with the commander's attitude. It appeared he had a certain reputation, and it was the same type Zaos had imagined.

"We heard that he was promoted recently since the previous commander was killed," Cohnal said.

"This kingdom is so fucked up… promoting a bloody coward to the post of a commander," Melisse said.

"Hey, not in front of the Captain," Cohnal said.

"Feel free to say whatever you think," Zaos said. "I also think that Brien is a coward. Regardless, he is dead set that this is a lost battle. So, we are on our own."

"But what we can do? Insubordination is a serious crime," Cohnal said.

"Well, he didn't give me any orders, not directly at least," Zaos said. "So we have some freedom. I will leave tonight with a small group of archers and then try to cause some damage to the enemies wherever they are. The enemies are also pretty relaxed since they think that they already won, so I will use that to pave the terrain for us and make Brien change his mind about the whole battle."

"We should go with you, Captain," Cohnal said.

"No, you guys will stay here because if we three leave at the same time, the rest of the group will feel restless, even if we return before morning," Zaos said. "I will need you to find the ten best archers of the group and then will have to be archers who know how to keep their mouths shut."

"Understood… mercenaries are pretty good at keeping secrets when they are not drunk," Cohnal said.

"Are you planning to kill some enemies or just destroy their supplies?" Melisse asked.

"Both, I suppose," Zaos said. "Even if they are a bit relaxed, the mercenaries won't leave their resources unguarded. So, we will kill some of them."

Zaos seemed pretty sure of his plan, so Cohnal and Melisse assumed that he had some experience in the assassination. That was quite weird considering his fighting style, but they knew that Zaos was a man who had many secrets… or a young man who had many secrets.

While Cohnal and Melisse were smoothly selecting the archers that would follow Zaos, he went to the library of the place. He looked for a map of the region. Fortunately, he found one pretty fast and memorized the whole area in a couple of minutes. The enemies were occupying the walled town called Toules, located at South of the base. The trip would be long, but it was something that he had to do. 

When he returned, Zaos noticed that Cohnal and Melisse had mobilized a good number of members of the unit, but with the excuse that they would for some wood to craft arrows. While the main group does that, Zaos and the archers will leave and head south.

Some guards frowned when the group began to leave, even before they had time to actually unpack, but neither of them tried to stop it. As soon as the base disappeared in the distance, the group stopped.

"You can go now, Captain," Cohnal said. "I assume the trip will be long, so you will need all the time you can get. Tomorrow morning we will be waiting for you here, but we will return to the base at night."

"That will be for the best," Zaos said. "If someone looks for me, say that I am studying the map of the region and that I don't want to be disturbed.

Cohnal nodded once more, and then he presented the ten archers that would go with Zaos. If anything, they sure looked sharp and pretty reliable. Without wasting any time, Zaos led them to the south.