Chapter 95: Chapter 87 – War Meeting

All the documents were moved and placed on the side of the room. Taking the largest map, Charlie began to sprawl it out across the floor. Once the map was laid out, he stood and took another map which he propped up against the wall. Walking to the pile in the corner, he began to pick out instruments whose purposes were unknown to the tribal leaders.

 

A mix of intrigue and stubborn annoyance. Controlled the gazes of the women as the only item which he picked up that they could recognize was a pencil. Again, he turned to walk.  Reaching the point on the map again, Charlie began to place down his collected tools. Moving around the map to make sure each clan leader had a good view, he walked back to a small point on the map. Next, he crouched and looked at the map propped up against the wall.

 

He took a pencil and began to draw a circle around the area that marked their village.

 

“Ok, this is us,” Using the other map against the wall as a reference. He began to draw a circle around the Region Lord’s home.

 

From his line of equipment, he had out, he picked out a compass. Placing the pencil into one of the arms, he began to stretch out the other arm until the pointed end was planted firmly on the Region Lord’s mansion. The measurements on this allowed him to see how far where he was about to draw in miles from the point.

 

“From what I have read from merchant logs about this region, the average travel speed is about twenty miles a day due to the sand. Considering he is getting reinforcements each day means two things he has a communication crystal (which only works up to thirty miles) and that the troops coming here are not from this region but rather the one next to us,” Using the compass, Charlie drew a circle which was the equivalent of twenty miles around Mr Green Water’s mansion.

 

But there was no form of civilization that fell within those bounds. Again, Charlie took the compass and began to draw. Now the range was extended to thirty miles. Glaring down at the map, Charlie stared at the three villages that fell within the range of the thirty miles. Sighing, Charlie realized who he was going to have to turn to for help, as there was not enough time to simply scout each area and then maybe hopefully find an army.

 

“Florentine,” Charlie muttered under his breath.

 

“Florentine? As in the girl you saved?” Cluupyte said.

 

“Yes,” Charlie turned to Nolkonoe, “have your vultures said yet how she is doing?” Charlie asked.

 

“They said her recovery is slow since she is human, but she is doing quite well,” Nolkonoe explained.

 

“Is she fit enough to walk?” Charlie said, and Nolkonoe shook her head.

“Not without assistance,”

 

“Can you please try and have some Vultures bring her here?”

 

“What purpose would an ally of the enemy serve? It is not likely that she is to betray him. And considering the state we found her in, she was probably in the Goblin hole for a week. All meaning she probably hasn’t seen his plans or know what that monster knows,” Ases stated. Turning to her Charlie pointed to the map.

“We have three points here. Each point is a town where soldiers have come from. Considering how quickly they get to his base from those points, it means there must be some kind of road around this area. And I don’t want to scout or attack any towns that are not involved in this war. Considering she has probably been around him for a while, she might know which of these towns the armies are coming from,” With this, Nolkonoe turned to her clan heir.

 

Whispering something to her, the woman then stood before leaving. For a while they sat around in silence, each watching as Charlie studied the map while muttering incoherent words to himself. “What ifs” and “What about” were the only phrases that were consistently spoken by Charlie that they could understand.

 

“Oh, you look even worse than usual,” the snarky, but the familiar voice of Florentine. Turning, Charlie have her a simple nod. For a while, there was silence, before Florentine spoke.

 

“I heard you saved me,” she said, stepping forward with the help of two Vultures on either side of her.

 

“I make mistakes sometimes,” Charlie responded, looking at her for a moment as he placed his hands into his pockets.

 

“Asshole,”

 

“Cunt,” For a while longer there was silence, before this time Charlie spoke first.

“I know you and I are not exactly the best of friends, but I know you and your family go by a code of honour,” Charlie began, but Florentine quickly interrupted him.

 

“Unlike yours. My family is a family of noble blood,” she said, despite having to be held up by two Vultures, she raised her head proudly.

 

“As Noble as my ass,” Charlie muttered in response. Quickly regaining himself, he continued where she had cut him off, “Since you are such a noblewoman of a noble family, then I assume you will be more than willing to repay the man who saved you,” Now the Chiefess sat up, a smile on her face as Phukomeia translated to her his words. Of course, her husband would never simply save another woman for the sake of doing so. He must have planned this for the very start!

 

He hadn’t.

 

Giving a slight ‘tch’ noise, Florentine gave out a little “sure.” She looked down, expecting Charlie to be giving her a smug grin at his victory. Yet as she peaked up to look at him, she saw him giving no such childish acts.

 

“Ok, well then,” Charlie pointed down to the map.

 

But he stopped as he remembered something. How long had she been in that Goblin nest? Also, guessing from where she was found, and that there were no signs of civilisation around for literal hundreds of miles, he doubted she had been anywhere with a crystal projector (a machine that works the same as a communication crystal, but it also transmits images).

 

That meant that there was little chance she had yet to hear of Mr Green Water being outed as the Region Lord. For a moment he pondered. Where did her loyalty lie? She was a leach, willing to latch herself onto those she thinks will bring her fortune. It was a trait Charlie despised on a moral level, but from the perspective of a merchant, he did understand her views.

 

If she knew of the army the Region Lord, then she may think that he was on the winning side and give them false information. Which meant if they lost, she would get into his good graces. On the other hand, though, she was very willing to back stand friends when they were children if it meant she could become friends with those of higher standing in higher social groups.

 

Maybe she would do the same here. Maybe she would see the potential Charlie also saw in the natives and decided to latch onto it, hoping it would turn a profit for her in the future. Calming himself, Charlie gave himself a slight frown, to hide his nervousness, while also trying to calm himself to make it seem as if he was confident in his questioning and charge of the situation.

 

“Which one of these places belongs to the Region Lord?” Charlie began, wanting to see if she could give them a simple truth.

 

Establishing the first truth would mean there was a higher chance she may tell the truth on the second question. For a moment she looked at the map. To the others, it seemed as if she was simply looking it over, but it was obvious to Charlie she was trying to make sense of the situation and figuring out why he was asking her questions.

 

Eventually, she took her arm from around the neck of a Vultures and pointed to the area Charlie had marked as Mr Green Water’s mansion.

 

“There,” she said, her smug tone gone as she also seemed to snap into a sense of seriousness.

 

“Ok then, from there, do you know which of these three villages is the easiest to get to?” For a moment she paused, looking over the map. She pointed to a village, the furthest village.

 

“They have built a road from that village to Mr Green Water’s mansion. Why do you ask?”

 

“Oh no reason,” Charlie said casually, “I simply wanted to know since we have gotten permission from him to set up some trade roots, so I was wondering which way it was best to go to take said goods,” Charlie quickly dulled her threats.

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“You made a good decision then. That town has a large population who harvest Fluxp,” She said, seemingly again proud of her memorised knowledge of good places to trade. She was a good merchant, Charlie would give her that. But much like him, her pride was often her downfall.

 

“Ah, so I assume there is also a mercenary company there?”

 

“Of course. It is the only one in the area. But I think they are a little too pricy for… your kind,” She said as she glanced around the room at the natives. Without a doubt, she was still under the impression that the natives were in poverty and still being squeezed for money by Mr Green Water.

 

“Well then, do you know the average prices there? I mean you are a merchant after all, and it would be… cute… If you didn’t know much about an area that you seem to be so proud of holding the knowledge of,” Charlie taunted.

 

Using his thumb to stab his index finger, and using the shelter of his pocket to hide this action, he was able to suppress his smile as he saw her grimace and make a sour expression before speaking again.

 

“Of course, I do! They have one of these contracts at the moment,”

 

“What kind of contract?” Charlie pushed.

 

“Well, if you shut up and listen, I will tell you! Ur… it is one of those contracts where they hire the locals to fight for them in exchange for money and the mercenary company funding the village. These lower quality men tend to go for a lower price, so I guess you can buy some there for about one silver a man,” Florentine said, her overly smug expression returning as she now believed to have put the inferior Charlie in his place.

 

“Oh, thanks,” he said with a sigh as he closed his eyes a little to try and simulate looking defeated. Again, she seemed to fall for this as she scoffed.

 

“Would you mind giving me insight on just two more things?” Charlie said, putting on a pouty tone as he turned his head away from her and began to shuffle in place.

 

Ha! She thought as she looked at him. He hadn’t changed from when they were kids. Whenever she did better on a test than him at school, she would go around flaunting it, and he in turn would do the same as he was doing here. Peaking from the corner of his eyes, Charlie saw her expression and knew she had a Gina fallen deeper into his control.

 

A growl from the Chiefess off to the side startled him for a moment but also reassured him that his act even had her fooled. Swiftly regaining his posture, he turned and looked to Florentine.

 

“So?” He asked, again trying to act as if he was trying to act tough. Smirking, she spoke.

 

“Oh, what great knowledge of mine can I grace you with?”

 

“Well, how long is it to get from roughly the area of the Region Lord’s mansion out to this town. Also, what is the name of the town, and can we potentially use a communication crystal to send word to them of our intended trip ahead of time?” Charlie asked, and she wasted no time in responding.

 

“Well, yes, they have a communication centre set up at the centre of town. The town in question is Fluharva, and it takes about a day to get to there from his base,” Charlie again dug his thumb into his index finger as she confirmed his theories.

 

A warm liquid began to ease its way over his thumbnail.  The ears of the Chiefess pricked up. Turning, the Chiefess darted to Charlie’s side. Leaping down, she sniffed him, before grabbing the hand he had been using as a coping tactic and ripping it out of his pocket. Seeing the cut on his index finger, and the blood on his thumb, the Chiefess began to lick his finger like a mother wolf licking the wounds of an injured pup.

 

“W..Wait…” Florentine muttered while staring at the Chiefess.

 

Slowly, her gaze wandered over the tall wolf ears and down to the long black tail. Creeping across the wolf features, her eyes looked onto the blood under the nail of Charlie’s thumb, then to the wound on his index finger. This…This was something she had seen one of the two maids that had always followed him around teach him as a way to hide his emotions.

 

The most commonly used this when she or one of his siblings was taunting him to hold back his anger. There was though another time she had seen him use It. She remembered it clearly. It was at the first merchant class they had. He had often used this method when he was hiding his excitement when he was lying…

 

Then it hit her. These people were demi-humans and Charlie… Charlie had just used her. For what though? What purpose did he use that method for? And why was he helping these creatures? Didn’t he know he would be filthy rich if he told the Empire about them?

 

“Etasose, please, calm down,” Charlie said, trying to push the Chiefess away from him. Etasose… that name… she had overheard his maids mentioning it. Who was this woman? Looking over to Florentine and seeing the look of shock on her face, Charlie smiled.

 

“You look pale? Are you alright? I think you should get some rest. And thank you for your contribution, I am sure I can get you a front row seat to Mr Green Water’s execution, ” Charlie said, a sinful, smug, smirk forming on his lips as the Vultures carried her away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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