Chapter 16 Before the battle

“I know it's hard to believe, director, under normal circumstances there would be no difference between doing an ordinary siege and attacking Galatea. What I am going to tell you is only for you, I trust you will know how to handle it. I'm talking about the real reason why Galatea was attacked ... What happened just after Galatea was attacked? ”

"We lost our funding".

“Actually that was already happening. What happened in addition to that, was that refugees arrived in Galia ”.

I could see in the director's face that he yet wasn't understanding what I wanted to say.

“This is something I noticed from the first day I arrived at Galia. When I entered the city gates and wasn't inspected, all they did was look at my name. Although I didn't arrive armed, I was immediately able to buy a weapon in the armory of the city. Then, I began to wonder what would prevent the city from being invaded by foreigners, if they just let them pass”.

"It would be strange if a group of foreigners suddenly arrived in the city ..."

“No doubt that would be suspicious, after all this place is quite isolated. Surely, without counting the well-known merchants who brought resources, it would be rare to see more than one or two people arrive in the city, but there is an exception to that rule.Imagine that a nearby town was attacked. Those who managed to escape would seek refuge in the nearest city, which turns out to be Galia. It wouldn't be strange if dozens or more refugees arrived at the city gates at once and people would not even question it”.

The director's face darkened as he realized what my words meant.

“What I try to say director, is that we were already invaded. Since Ryuuji's arrival I was touring the city to buy equipment, and I saw that there are a large number of refugees. However, the interesting thing is that Ryuuji and my guard doesn't know any of them”.

With a deep seriousness in my next words I explained to the director my plan.

◆◇◆◇

"They will not cooperate with us."

These simple words shocked my royal guard. I could see the despair on the captain's face. It only showed how much trust he had placed in me.

Sorry captain, but is better for you to not know what my true plan is.

After that we began to prepare for the descent. Although it would have to wait, since it's not safe to go down at night and the conversation with Gara'kat took me a long time.

He told me many interesting things about his tribe, but I will leave that for later. The descent took us a whole day. It turns out that it's much harder to get off a mountain than to climb it.

...

The first thing I did once we returned to the city was to meet with the director to make sure he continued with the plan.

Fortunately, the director was able to follow my instructions to the letter. If everything goes as planned we should have a good opportunity ... The bad thing is that plans never go as you would like.

Now I intend to speak with Ryuuji. During the last two days we went up and down the mountain, he should have been training. I am interested in seeing his progress, although I don't have much hope.

While I was going to meet him, I realized that I was being accompanied by Zera, which is not uncommon, since being my assistant while I was away Zera had to devote himself to help Ryuuji. He's a smart guy, so even though he can't understand Ryuuji, he sure could intuit what he needed. I must say that I made a good choice by choosing him as my assistant.

“Argent-san!”

“How are you, Ryuuji? Have you progressed? ”

"I already have better control of the sword, but I'm not at the level of the soldiers, not even the guard".

At that moment, Ryuuji's eyes shifted in the direction of the city guard, who raised his hand and greeted me. I have the impression that he was helping him all this time.

“Ryuuji, I must tell you something. We will be busy for a couple of days. I've made some arrangements and prepared a guest house just for you, you don't need to continue living in the academy”.

“S-sure you can afford that? I have no problem staying in the cave”.

"Don't worry about it. You will have the time to train as much as you want, and I assure you, for me this is no problem".

I said that while putting my palm on his shoulder to encourage him. As I suspected, there has been no great progress, so it's better to keep him out of this.

“Mr. Argent!”

Perhaps sensing that my conversation with Ryuuji had stopped, Zera approaches me.

“Did you succeed? Will we have the help of the Half?”

In Zera's face a great anticipation was reflected, apparently he didn't even imagine the case that I couldn't convince them. Sorry to let you down, but you better not know the truth.

“Sorry to say it, but they won't fight for us. If you think about it, in the case of being attacked, they can always fly away, so they will not take the risk without need”.

My words caused a strong depression in Zera, who with head down and a soft voice responded.

"I-I see".

Normally I would not allow trust in me to fall so easily, but the less people know the truth, the better. The only one I can trust who will not reveal this is the director. He is smart enough, I also cannot let infiltrators know that we know they are not refugees.

…

I went to the city. Before I left I had asked the smiths and the armories to retain all the weapons they were repairing and to not sell any other weapons until I told them. It wasn't difficult to convince them by releasing a few coins.

"Do you have the armor I asked for?"

“Almost there. It truly is a very large amount of metal, but it should be ready by tomorrow”.

"I hope you aren't mistaken".

If it's not ready tomorrow, it will be too late. I could confirm that the artisans did manage to finish what I asked for, except for the armor and the minerals of the academics everything is ready ... We only have one day left.

...

Walking through the halls of the academy, I met Johan. Naturally, as the leader of many of the projects, I have given him a valuable task.

"Greetings, how's the Kalasta project going?"

“Smooth, Mr. Argent. Although I still don't understand for what purpose you put those sticks”.

"Trust me. They will be useful".

"As you say, Mr. Argent”.

"And regarding the mineral?"

“Yes, I have good news in that regard. The tests are as indicated by the equinox day experiment. This could revolutionize the way we illuminate the streets”.

"Easy, Rome was not built in a day".

"What is Rome?"

“It was a great city. In addition, it's an expression that indicates that great advances aren't meant to be rushed”.

"I understand, people need time to adapt".

"Just make sure you have enough for tomorrow".

"Don't worry, tonight everything will be ready".

Those words did not prevent me from hiding my smile. The most crucial part of the plan is almost ready.

...

Immediately afterwards I went to the academy library.

That should I be doing something more important?

You don't even have an idea. In the first place, when there is little time left until combat, the important thing is to confirm the information one has.

After talking with the Half, I was able to make sure that what I had read in those books was true, if so, there's a better chance that what the book said about the people of Iren is also true.

To start, Iren is supposed to be an oligarchy, a government led by the powerful. All the people of Iren who are born with the ability are trained in the militia to become soldiers. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. 100% of Iren's population are supposedly military. It's a group of people who have been 1,000 years (or that is estimated to be the time that has passed since the age of the legend) purely living in war, taking everything they want by force ... People who cannot be manipulated with money.

They have gone through long stages of wars and short moments of peace, invading nearby towns and cities. All that until the kingdom of Jagheb was established, which became a recurring enemy for them, from then on they had begun to ignore the rest of the nearby towns, who only became victims of the crossfire between both kingdoms. As far as I know, the last peace treaty culminated less than 2 years ago, but hostilities didn't begin, until a few months ago.

In all these years and generations, Iren had not attacked Galia. I can understand that there's great value in the academy, but it's still a mystery why they attack now. I can understand that Galatea was a victim of the invasion plan to Galia. But why invade Galia right now?

Precisely when they are more concerned with fighting against Jagheb, why attack a city on the edge of the continent between the mountains?

I feel a little insecure about carrying out my plan with this mystery, but in the event that everything fails, I still have the Halfs to fly away.