Chapter 78 - Planning For The Future Of His Clan
Ron was feeling some sort of pride and shock from the way Arthur handled things. He saw this heir of the clan growing up day by day, taking his lessons to make him ready for this day, but he never thought Arthur would be ready for such a task, not perfectly like this.
"Sure, I remember their places," he instantly replied.
"Go and bring them now to the main hall, also fetch some servants to clean this place," Arthur said, before looking towards Amelia as he said:
"Come with me."
Amelia didn't hesitate to follow him, while others moved to do their tasks. As for the villagers, they couldn't stop their loud cheer, and even many of them started to dance and celebrate. Arthur didn't mind all this, as his mind was set on somewhere else.
That black raven clan!
He knew it was like a thorn in his side, and thus he needed to plan it well, or else everything would be in vain. A clan as big as this one didn't rise by accident in this world, there was no such a thing actually, so he knew they wouldn't put themselves in the main picture as the main culprit, and might also retreat couple of steps to the back, waiting for another moment to jump on here and take everything.
But he would never let this golden chance slip by. Arthur already sat his gaze upon the whole area surrounding his clan, and by the death of Willy's father, he could now rule everything under his name.
He passed through the small streets separating the small, neatly built houses here, heading straight towards the main, big house lying in the centre of this land.
Along the way, no matter who he met, a servant or part of the family, they all knelt on the ground, and he never bothered to look at any of them in the eye. Just as he reached the main hall, he found Ron was waiting there for him.
The main hall was meant for the leader of the clan to meet with his men, and discuss the state of the clan and the urgent matters.
It was, as named, a very big hall, bigger than any other hall in this place, and it had many nice decorations on the walls of it. Arthur didn't stop to marvel at the place like Amelia did, as despite the clan's condition seemed quite shabby, this place seemed as another part of another world, reminding her of the big town of the black raven clan.
Arthur headed straight towards that big, wide chair, lined with gold and many other jewels that mattered nothing to him, and sat, looking at the whole hall with Ron, Amelia, Omar, and Randy. They were all there, all his right handed mages, with the exception of Madly.
"Now, I want all of you to know the battle we are going to face isn't going to be an easy one, and our main enemy would prefer to keep himself hidden, but that would make us lose much time here," he started his talk with stating the most bothering fact, and after that he followed with the most critical question, one he wanted to know the answer long time ago.
"How many days are there between here and the academy?"
"At least twenty days on foot," Amelia replied, "and if we are going to use the flying pets, then I think five days would be enough," she added.
"Don't forget we have to pass through many risky places," Omar interrupted her.
"I know," she nodded, "I don't think any monster could stand against us after twenty days of preparations," she added, with a chuckle.
Arthur knew she was, to some extent, over optimistic, but he knew he had more time under his disposal. He had taken roughly one week from the moment he took the token, and now he had twenty three days remaining. He would put one week to go there, then it would mean he only had sixteen days.
"In a fortnight we must finish with this conflict, one way or another," he said, before looking at Amelia, Randy, and Omar, "you three know the bounty hunter guild so well, will they be extremely loyal to me, sending all what they got?"
He, at this moment, doubted what he just said when he heard his voice, and the expression over the two faces explained it all.
"They would prefer to support you two, so any part wins, they win with him," Omar said, revealing the twisted nature of the bounty hunter guild.
Arthur wasn't surprised by this, and he wasn't mad at them either. He was just trying to gather all the possible info, putting all the variables he could know in his mind, before starting to finalize his plan.
"Ron, is there any other clan nearby that we should be careful of?"
It would be stupid to defend one direction, exposing the other side to another enemy to attack you, so if there was any reputable enemy nearby, he needed to know about it.
"Not as far as I know," Ron said, before standing up and adding, "I will confirm with the records in the other room," he then left with wide strides, as he felt the importance of Arthur's question.
Arthur then looked towards the other three remaining here as he said:
"I will commence a focused large scale training. I want you to be my eyes, spot anyone with outstanding skills so I can add him to our main group. Beside that, you will be tasked to choose some of your weaker mages, replace them with other stronger seedlings we might find here, and those mages we will abandon will act as team leaders; they will take over the protection of this place when we leave here."
His words drew the future days they would face, and they knew how important this task was, so they just nodded. They were surprised for him to think about finding stranger mages than the group they already had, but they had no objection to that.
After all, strength was all that mattered in this world, and this was the law of life here. Arthur then started to check the maps with them. there were three clans in direct contact with his land, and behind them there were seven others, then thirteen.. The whole count was astonishingly twenty three, that was without the black raven clan, which would be the twenty fourth clan.