“The epitome of foolishness, milord,” Johannes almost shouted in the quietness of Lord Black’s study. Lord Black laughed at this rare outburst.

“Lawrence wasn’t going to give us anything else for it, so why press the case?” Edward Black reasoned and Johannes shook his head. Johannes looked at Edward Black in fury.

“No one has ever, in history, EVER given concessions to this degree,” Johannes said, beginning to lecture his liege lord. However, Lord Black nodded.

“I agree, and I want you to send word to the corners of this realm about the lenient terms that I have given, as well as sounding out that the territories of the Blacks are open to business and are willing to offer generous terms for businessmen,” Lord Black smiled and Johannes froze.

“Ah, so this is what you are playing at,” Johannes sighed, collapsing into the couch.

“Look, I keep Lawrence’s friendship, which effectively means I still keep a hand in his purse, while I bring more aspiring businessmen into my land. I do not see anything particularly wrong with this,” Lord Black said casually, staring out of the window. The quietness of Everett made this fortress his favourite place in his territories.

“But every other merchant is going to start walking all over us!” Johannes protested feebly and Lord Black shook his head.

“This means more of my people have jobs. Then do you know what this means? Our tax income goes up as people gets wealthier. To me, it is a win-win,” Lord Black said, walking to the window.

“Kaisenberg has not reported back yet?” Lord Black asked and Johannes shook his head.

“Call it a day and make sure the gold is sorted out properly. Let Sir Carstein say as long as he wishes and do not delay him if he wishes to leave tomorrow,” Lord Black replied, leaving to his own bed chamber.

As Lord Black left for his own room, he walked down a corridor made of stone and he stared at the moon as it hung brightly.

“Father, am I doing it right?” Lord Black whispered to no one in particular as he looked at the night clouds.

As Lord Black returned to his bed chamber, where a beautiful maiden is asleep on the bed. Of course, that would be his wife, Tatyana Black. Climbing into his bed, Tatyana moaned softly as Lord Black pushed her aside to make space for himself.

“If I should make the wrong call today, I will be damned as a criminal for all centuries,” Lord Black whispered, before taking a well-deserved rest.

“Phase one has been initiated, Your Majesty,” General Donovan reported, placing a leather binded folder in front of King Gerheist who was enjoying the imported tea from the lands beyond.

“The hill tribes are now fighting amongst each other and the various nobles of the lands are riding out to attack the barbarians they were at peace with as well,” Earl Malai said, grinning from ear to ear.

“Can we not import anymore battle slaves?” King Gerheist asked, feeling it a pity that they could only sneak 600 or so battle slaves that they have purchased from slavers and smuggle them into the Carminian territory.

“Anymore and it gets obvious, Your Majesty,” Duke Fiesen said, the usually serious duke entertaining a small smile on his face as well. The mood in the king’s study was incredibly upbeat, with the notable exception of General Donovan whom none of them have ever seen smile.

“Phase two will be initiating shortly. Earl Malai’s merchants have already established contact with Colonel Vava and we shall start our process of influencing the Carmine military leaders that are less than… Intelligent,” General Donovan said, looking at the documents in his own hand.

King Gerheist nodded, starring out of the window. The moonlight oddly peaceful.

“I wonder if we can win the war before the next full moon.” King Gerheist asked out loud, a rhetoric question that needed no answer. However, an answer he did get.

“If the house of cards fall quickly enough, perhaps,” Duke Fiesen replied.

“Oh, Sir Carstein, you should stay a bit more!” Johannes said, bowing politely and Lawrence shook his head.

“There are many things to plan for and I would like to return earlier,” Lawrence said, giving the thumbs up to Longines to begin the march.

“Men, march!” Longines barked and the squad leaders issued their orders, causing the squads of men to fall into neat lines, with the cavalry taking either sides or the infantry at the front and rear, with the bowmen in the center.

“It is a shame, Everett shall await your return, whenever, Sir Carstein,” Johannes sighed in an exaggerated manner.

You probably couldn’t wait for me to leave, Lawrence thought to himself before offering the most courteous smile that one could offer.

“I look forward to what Everett has to offer when I return,” Lawrence replied, with Craig and Jacob offering their own compliments for Lord Black’s hospitality during their short stay here.

The entourage slowly departed, making their way back to Black Bay. The journey was largely uneventful, aside from Jacob grumbling about how there should be a better cook in the army. This struck Lawrence with an idea.

“Why not train chefs for the army?” Lawrence asked and Longines looked at Lawrence quizzingly.

“How will that help?” Longines asked, “The men are already much better fed than other armies.”

“Simple, good food gives men good spirits. People in good spirits fight better and listen to instructions better,” Lawrence reasoned but Longines shook his head.

“It takes too long to cook individual meals anyway,” Craig sided with Longines but Lawrence shrugged.

“It is a mess hall for a reason.”

As the men returned to Black Bay to a grand welcome, having successfully entered battle and emerged victorious, Lawrence held a briefing with the members of the Internal Security Department, headed by a serious looking man by the name of Trey Reed. Trey Reed was recommended by Kraft.

Trey had the most average look you can possibly imagine of someone. He was a middle aged man who had normal brown hair, baby skin, brown eyes and medium in stature. He always dressed in common peasant clothes despite being a man of high rank.

“Yes, Sir Carstein, Trey Reed reporting,” the unassuming man said with a bow and within the confines of these four walls, aside from Lawrence and Trey, also stood Longines and Kraft. On a table was a large humanoid sized figure covered in cloth.

“On our way to Everett, we encountered hill tribesmen. This would have been normal except…” Lawrence trailed off and Kraft stepped forward.

“Except for the fact that the hill tribesmen have constantly denied being involved. In fact, they have refused to engage Lord Black’s knights heads on and have retreated to their ancestral homes in preparation for a siege,” Kraft said, looking at the information that the Military Intelligence has gathered.

“And I have it on good information that you hoisted a corpse back here, Longines!” Trey rubbed his hands together as the soldier nodded, a mix of disgust and wonder on his face.

“How did you know? Almost no one knew about this,” Longines asked and Trey shrugged.

“Is that important?”

Trey lifted the cloth covering the body of the barbarian that had given Lawrence a good hack in the shoulder.

“Hm… He is very poorly fed for a barbarian?” Trey muttered, observing the muscles on the barbarian.

“Oh, his tongue is gone as well?” Trey said, as he opened the mouth of the barbarian.

After some more prodding poking around the body, Trey pulled off the pants of the dead barbarian.

“What do you think you are doing?” Longines hissed but Lawrence raised a hand, signaling for him to stop.

“Let the man do his job before we criticize him,“ Lawrence said and Longines coughed awkwardly.

“You should listen to your boss, Longines… See?” Trey said triumphantly as he pointed at where the man’s penis should have been.

“… He is castrated.”

Lawrence stated the obvious loudly.

“In a land some distance away, they delight in owning battle slaves for amusement. I would wager that this man was one of them. Part of the process of becoming a battle slave is castration and the removal of your tongue, so that you can have no worldly desires nor can you communicate any displeasure to your owner.”

Trey placed the cover on top of the body and looked at Lawrence.

“I’ll make my own discrete inquiries into this matter.”

“Please,” Lawrence replied, looking at the body.

Was this the start of something bigger? Lawrence could not have known, nor any lords or princes. After all, this was a game played by Kings and the ones who truly held power.