Luna blinks as her expression turns into a blank look that somehow tells me that she’s underwhelmed.

“Only 60,000?”

I twitch in annoyance at the rapid plummet in excitement, “O-only? It’s 60,000 people!”

“Yeah, but doesn’t the king have lots more?”

“Of course, but that’s not the point! And why are you so unimpressed now, you were in shock just a second ago!”

“Well yeah, it looks super impressive, but… y’know, now that I know how small this number actually is…”

I glare at her, but quickly cool myself down. It’s not wise to be provoked by a child’s thoughtless words.

“Let me tell you something, 60,000 is just the number of forces we have in this city. Throughout the entirety of Salvorum, our troops number 100,000!”

“Throughout the entirety of Salvorum? How does that work?” Luna asks.

“I know it's big, but this city of Eagswall isn’t the only city in the country,” I explain, “Sure, since it’s the capital city, we can fit more troops here, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the only city we’ve recruited in. There are many other cities and villages filled with just as many unhappy peasants suffering from unfair laws and the like, who are ripe for recruitment. We just took advantage of that.”

“We receive frequent reports from the commanders we’ve stationed in every village and city we’ve recruited in,” Ducis adds.

“Yeah, but how did you guys get those peasants to join you in the first place?” Luna asks, “I mean, you guys were just children when you were recruiting, right?”

“Our first step to amassing an army like this was to make a lot of money,” I answer, “The best way to do that, we figured, was to work in a noble’s mansion. We got Ducis clean and presentable, and we sent him to work for Lord Rutherford Wilhelm. Since we had managed to educate ourselves pretty well, Ducis managed to pass himself off as a merchant’s son and snagged a job as one of Wilhelm’s cleaners.”

“Money wasn’t our only aim though,” Ducis continues, “Eremus figured that the best way to reach the throne was by helping a noble rebel against the country. He said that generating resources and an army out of nothing would be a lot harder than simply taking advantage of someone who already possessed all that.”

“Even with an additional goal, our method remained the same,” I say, picking up where Ducis left off, “Ducis had the task of moving up the ranks of the mansion until he had a high-paying job and lord Wilhelm’s ear. Fortunately, Ducis is extremely charismatic; he always interacted with lord Wilhelm whenever he got the chance to do it naturally, and in barely a single year—from cleaner, to waiter, to storyteller, to scribe, and then finally advisor—Ducis managed to become lord Wilhelm’s most trusted aide.”

“That’s when Eremus told me to spring the idea of “rebellion” in Wilhelm’s mind,” Ducis says, “We were only fifteen then, but Wilhelm took me seriously enough. He accepted my idea and we began hatching a plan to overthrow King Vilibus Regis. Of course, Eremus and I have no intention of letting Wilhelm claim the throne, however we realized if we only use Wilhelm’s troops and resources, that’s exactly how the rebellion would end.

“So, I told Ducis to argue that they simply did not have enough troops for a rebellion and would have to recruit more,” I say, “As per my instructions, Ducis convinced Lord Wilhelm to give him an enormous amount of money and resources for the sake of recruiting. And that’s exactly what we did. We went from village to village, donating money and supplies to them as Ducis made his speeches. Like I said, Ducis is extremely charismatic, so a majority of the villages we went to joined up with our army.”

“Of course, we claimed that they were joining our rebel army, not Wilhelm’s,” Ducis says, “It would have been hard to keep this a secret from Wilhelm if we had an entourage of his guards following us, but I managed to leave them behind by claiming that having an army follow me would intimidate the peasants.”

“How did you guys survive then?” Luna asks, “Didn’t you guys have a lot of stuff on you? Bandits would’ve gotten you pretty quick without any guards.”

“We went to Talwar village, which is only a day’s march from here—meaning that, with just the two of us, we were able to arrive there in about half a day,” I answer, “Talwar barely had one person decently capable enough in combat, so it made the ideal spot to start our recruitment—After all, it’s much safer to try and risk your life against incapable people. We recruited a few people there, and with that, we had a small group of bodyguards. That was enough to discourage the smaller groups of bandits and we managed to beat back the few brave enough to attack us. Then we just continued to travel to other villages and did the same thing over and over again until we had an army.”

“Our last recruitment spot was this city,” Ducis says, “We held mass rallies in secret areas and gave away money and resources to the peasants here. We were caught a few times by the guards, but a majority of us always managed to escape and meet up later. After all, we have more than one secret lair in this city, and only Eremus and I know where they all are.”

Luna tilts her head questioningly.

“But… how are you guys going to usurp the throne anyway?” She asks, “I mean, from what I remember, the country’s troops number around 400,000, right?”

Ah, I see why she’s confused now. She knows bits and pieces, but she simply doesn’t have enough of the puzzle pieces to make a coherent picture. She can’t think outside the box because she doesn’t even know what the box looks like.

“Tell me, Luna, do you know how the army is structured in Salvorum?” I ask, just to make sure.

“Isn’t it just that all the soldiers belong to the king?” she asks as her answer.

“That’s too simplistic a structure for an army to function,” I explain, even though I’m about to give her an incredibly simplistic rundown, “In an incredibly wide scope, Salvorum’s army is divided into three parts; the king, the lords, and the soldiers. Each Lord is allowed to recruit a specific maximum amount of soldiers—depending on their prestige—and those lords all serve the king. The king isn’t left without any soldiers either, in fact, the king holds the highest number of soldiers.”

“Your number was right,” Ducis says, “The king’s troops currently number 100,000, and the combined troops of all the other lords make up the remaining 300,000.”

“That’s a bit weird, isn’t it?” Luna asks, “Wouldn’t an army structured like that be, y’know, a bit dangerous?”

“Because the lords all have their own soldiers?” I ask to make sure.

“Yeah,” Luna says, “It would be easy for lords to betray the king, wouldn’t it? Why would the king make the army that way?”

“True,” I nod my head in agreement, “An army like that has a higher chance of betrayal, however, in return, the army has significantly higher mobility. It’s a trade that exchanges stability for ability.”

“But that still doesn’t explain how you guys are going to take down the king,” Luna says, “Won’t all the lords just try to take you down if you defeat the king?”

“Do you know how kingship works in Salvorum?” I ask in return.

Luna puts a finger on her chin, “Um… it’s basically that the eldest child of the previous king becomes the current king, right?”

I nod, “That’s correct. However, it doesn’t stop there. In this country, kingship is decided by who holds the Royal Seal.”

“Royal Seal?” Luna asks.

“It’s a ring that has been around since the creation of Salvorum. As I said, whoever wears the ring is legally the king.”

“What?” Luna looks incredulous, “That sounds absolutely—"

“Stupid?” I guess. Luna nods her head. “I agree; betrayal becomes a very probable possibility in this kind of system. However, there’s no denying that a system like this also has some merits; a king loved by his subjects will almost never be betrayed, and then, if a weak king inherits the throne, a strong and intelligent lord capable of seizing the Royal Seal can easily overthrow him and become the new king.”

“But still!” Luna protests, “Every country on Terra is constantly looking to take over each other’s territory! With a system like that, it’d be easy to take over a destabilized Salvorum.”

“'Salvorum First', that’s the lesson taught to every lord since childhood,” I explain, “If the king is fighting an important battle against an enemy country, then the lords will withhold from betraying him—same for if their betrayal will lead to a significant increase in the chances of Salvorum’s destruction. It’s a tricky system. Plus, there’re a few other things that make stealing kingship incredibly difficult. I’ll tell you them later.”

“Our current king is a special case though,” Ducis says, “He’s not particularly well-loved nor is he particularly intelligent, but he still hasn’t been usurped. That’s because he’s incredibly cowardly; he never leaves the capital and only allows his most trusted aides to even meet him.”

Luna is frowning. Clearly something is still troubling her.

“Yeah…” she says hesitantly, “I guess the system makes it easier for you to take over the country, but that still doesn’t explain how you guys are going to win against the king’s forces. It’s still 100,000 against 60,000. It’s basically a fantasy!”

I smirk, a cool line springing into my head, “Just wait and watch; I’ll turn that fantasy of yours into reality!”