“It’s a sound strategy,” said Gaius. “But sending only me to scout is still too dangerous — I too can make mistakes and get sleepy. Likewise, I can conduct anti-scout operations on my own, but there’s a limit to a one-man operation.”

“We don’t have much of a choice,” said Winston. “None of us have much experience in scouting missions, since we usually work as a group.”

“Don’t look at me,” said Nalus. “I’m more of an administrator than anything else.”

“Why would I look at you for this?” Gaius shook his head. “Even the youngest Harvester would give you a beatdown in a few seconds.”

“I’m not that bad!”

“You want to spar against me now, huh?” The little lecturer cracked his knuckles. “Come to think of it, you never did attend my lecture, eh? You should have a taste too.”

The Campmaster’s son froze. “Wait. That’s cheating! You’re the youngest!”

“That’s your problem. Now, as I was saying, sending me alone presents a certain level of risk.” Gaius tapped his fingers on a wooden table. “And I can’t scout and conduct anti-scout operations at the same time. You guys have to decide which one is more important.”

“Scouting.”

“Anti-scouting.”

The two replied at the same time, and then glared at each other. The little lecturer spread his hands silently, adding on an extra flourish or two to show his mockery of them both.

The sound of teeth grinding filled the air, and the other Harvesters attending the meeting flinched. Gaius could almost hear a dragon and a tiger roaring at each other in the silence, which made for a rather amusing picture.

“Now, now,” said Gaius. “Don’t go scaring the others. They’re innocent. I recommend that you guys try to reason out why you think your course of action is the right one, and then call a vote.”

“Like the Eastern Holdings?”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” said Gaius, “but you probably have the right idea.”

The mini-Campmaster and the mini-Warmaster sniffed in tandem, and then glared at each other again. It didn’t take more than a minute before they reached a silent accord, which was a feat that Gaius himself found astounding.

“You go first, Winston.”

“You’re the senior here, Nalus. You should begin.”

“No, you —”

A vein throbbed on Gaius’ temple, and he pointed at Nalus. “You, go. If you lot are going to bicker any further, both of you are going to do your own operations yourself.”

“Y-yes, Lecturer Gaius.”

The Campmaster’s son cleared his throat and started speaking. He was a bit nervous, but the wavering in his words vanished as he delved into his argument. Broadly speaking, Nalus wanted to prevent the enemy from finding out the number of defenders stationed in the camp, so that the opposing force wouldn’t be able to plan their next moves properly before the clash actually happened.

“I don’t think that’s a problem though,” said Gaius. “The tall walls you lot erected are more than enough to prevent any scout from assessing our numbers accurately. Rather, scouts in this case would be to prevent any unforeseen accidents like traps or ambushes.”

His words were picked up by the peanut gallery, who echoed them with a tint of agreement after a few seconds of thought. Gaius tapped his fingers and said, “You’re too by the book, Nalus. It is important to prevent the enemy from gathering intelligence, but the size of our forces is not an issue, since we aren’t meeting them on the field. We’re a stronghold, not a mobile force, so their tactics would adapt based on that fact.”

Gaius had simply spouted out whatever he thought of, which was admittedly augmented by his scarce knowledge on military treatises and texts he’d read on Earth during a boring weekday. But the looks on everyone’s face was rather addicting. Gaius was beginning to understand why the Cardinal Champions plagiarised Earth’s famous works so much.

Burying that thought deep into his heart, he turned to Nalus. “You’re next.”

Winston’s words were short and terse, simply stating the importance of knowing the enemy numbers.

“So,” said Gaius, after Winston was done, “what would you do with such information?”

“Allocate my forces based on it.”

Gaius thought for a moment. “Good enough. I’ll get that information back to you the moment I make an accurate enough estimate.”

He wasn’t a strategist, after all. And the Warmaster’s son clearly had a better grasp of what was going to happen…which wasn’t much, either way. Gaius knew that defending a static area with a strongpoint meant that there wasn’t much in the way of tactics or strategies one could use.

But sieging a fortress — even a hastily built one — was never a good idea. The Art of War had said that, after all. Gaius smiled and asked, “Any other things you want me to do?”

The duo was silent for a few seconds, and then Nalus smiled. “Come back alive, ok?”

“You just told me that a few hours ago, Nalus.” Gaius smiled back. “But it’s a one-man show now. I’m not sure if coming back safely or even alive is on the cards.”

“This is Heritage, Lecturer Gaius.” Winston Chamberlain cut in. “And you’re widely acknowledged to be the strongest amongst our little group here, so that should hold true anywhere else too.”

The Warmaster’s son has learnt to be diplomatic…somewhat diplomatic, at least. Gaius couldn’t help but compare the first time they’d crossed paths and the Winston Chamberlain now, and realised that he’d somehow earned a bit of respect from the Warmaster’s son.

“Since you put it that way, I can’t really afford to die out there now, eh?” Gaius raised his hand and clenched it. “Rest assured. I’ll bring back the information you lot need.”

After all, I still have a little sister to take care of, no? And besides…I have just the right artefact for this job. I don’t actually need to step out of this place, but I do want some warmup. Gaius licked his lips. Nexus, and the Map of Stars, were the perfect aides to this next mission. He just needed an excuse to give the correct numbers to the two commanders here.

He got up from his seat and nodded at the two. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going. Make sure to play nice with each other, got it?”

“Yes, Lecturer Gaius.”

“Yes, lecturer.”

The little boy nodded at the other Harvesters, and headed for the giant gate that looked like a crossbreed between a portcullis, a heavy set of double doors and a drawbridge. The Harvesters on sentry there opened the complicated door as he neared the entrance of the fortress, and he smiled grimly as he stepped across the threshold.

It was time for yet another performance.