'This is starting to become impossible,' one of the logistic officers thought as he went over the current plans again. In the unofficial internal war, there were two big parties and a minuscule third.
The first two blocks were the Elder Princess and the Prince. The former wanted to become a vassal of The Holy Kingdom while the latter wanted to go to war with them. Both options seemed like a bad choice, especially the latter.
'A bunny fighting against or giving itself up to a tiger. The rabbit will end up the same way no matter the choice.'
He realized more than most where the country was headed towards. That's also why he decided to join the third faction, one smaller than the other two but with a much more realistic goal, cooperation with The Holy Kingdom.
Supported by the youngest Princess, she was the only one who seemed to back the average person. She had all the small nobles and commoners on her side. Sadly, the people who had the biggest influence were the strongest or most wealthy.
Even more worrying was the fact that they had to show what they stood for. Unlike the first two factions, they weren't allowed to leave commoners to their fate. They had to help the common man, keep him out of harms way. If this was the cost of their own men, so be it.
This resulted in some extremely difficult to make decisions or bets where the lives of multiple towns were put as the wager. Looking over the current state, they were more than just losing ground, they were losing the people.
Under the youngest princess around 10% of the country was under her influence. Nothing compared to the other two of her family. She had a pitiful amount of supporters in the south, and that was it. Even if she supported the normal people, she could only ask for favors from the small nobles. And those were often paid off by the larger ones.
Not all things were bad of course, when she first announced her return, she had nothing. Nobody believed her in the first place, yet she was able to garner a strong reputation for helping the weak and climbed her way up. She was still far from victorious, but it showed her potential.
'Too bad we're the ones stuck with her. No, I shouldn't say it like that.'
The man had grown frustrated over helping every single commoner, even if he himself was one. They all needed shelter, they all needed food and water, a place to sleep, somewhere to dump their waste, and so much more. It felt like a waste of resources and time, but his commander, Kasto, made sure to tend to everyone's needs.
Since mages could create water, that wasn't the biggest issue, but meat wasn't something that mages specialized in, especially since there was no need to eat in the first place for them. It would be a waste of time to specialize in that field, so they had to find other sources of food, which caused a headache among the logistics department.
'Still, that's nothing compared to the state of war.', they had a few outposts that were hanging on a spider's thread, ready to snap and fall into the hands of the enemies. Yet he couldn't even do anything about it. All his job required him to do was find the correct resources and provide them to the soldiers.
Magic crystals being the most important. Walking into Kasto's office, the man had a measly report of only two pieces of paper. That mostly meant nothing good. Kasto saw his demeanor and prepared for the worst.
"Go ahead.", his voice was deep as he kept his eyes away from the map that was on his desk.
"We have been capable of defending our current borders, but due to fanatics crossing the border in the east, we have lost a significant amount of men, but we were successful in capturing them."
Kasto felt the weight on his back increase. All the lives lost for some stupid conflict that was solvable through a simple conversation were starting to haunt him. The black lines under his eyes showed that he had been awake for far too long. Even as a mage, he was stretching his limits.
The man continued his report, "We have been able to tend to most people's needs, but if things don't change, we will only be able to hold out for five months at best.", the report ended there. It was simple, easy to understand, even if the reality of the situation was terrible.
Cal, who was also in the room nodded slightly. "With five months we might be able to push back some of the elder prince's forces and gain access to one of their warehouses."
Kasto shook his head. "They know we have a desire to protect the commoners and magicless, they'll simply burn the warehouses down if they were pushed back."
"A scorched earth tactic?", Cal asked at which the logistics officer nodded, "That is what we've also been noticing in certain parts. While sacrificing the land, we are the only ones who care about its people. We stand no chance against the others with such a disadvantage."
The man didn't mind displaying his thoughts and ideas. He spoke from his heart as Kasto had commanded everyone in the quarters to do so. Kasto felt forced to nod gravely at that immutable truth. Painful to admit, he held no regret in his heart.
"I won't let anyone change our way of working. We serve the young Princess, and she serves the magicless and commoners. It's our duty to help them out. Sacrificing them just because it gets tough for us would lead us to abandon our own morals. I won't take any discussion on this fact. What I want to hear are ideas. How do we fix this stalemate?"
Kasto had full trust in everyone in the room and had no problem sharing his worries with them. Cal had a few ideas ready, "How about we kill the combatants of The Holy Kingdom. The country never declared war, so they shouldn't care about some random people trying to fight against and losing their lives in the process."
The logistic commander found that to be a good idea. "That would save us a lot of trouble. The more people we can remove from our captivity, the better.", he only found them to bring more costs to his work, there were no benefits in his eyes.
Kasto, on the other hand, had a different opinion. "Killing those people would mean we killed citizens of The Holy Kingdom. They already have enough to declare war. No need to stoke the fire, we have to avoid getting into trouble, or there will be nobody left to protect in the first place."
Left in silence, they all started to think things through before the door suddenly opened. A dark-blue-haired man waltzed in like he owned the place. "We're back.", he had a big smile on his face as Lucas also joined in from behind him.
Cal frowned and the head of logistics stared at the two men and their brazenness. He was dazed at the fact that they so openly broke so many rules and with a smile at that. Kasto also didn't like it, but struck by inspiration, he used the men's abilities to his advantage.
"We have a bunch of fanatics of The Holy Kingdom in our cells. We need to get rid of them, but can't kill them for we might anger The Order. What do you suppose we do?"
Asta had some ideas, but when it came to handling people, he had to leave it to his partner. Turning his head to the side, he looked Lucas in the eyes as a silent agreement was formed that very instant. Nodding slightly at each other, Lucas stared at the people present before inquiring the details.
"You just need them to go away without dying right?"
"Torture is forbidden.", Kasto had some idea where this was going, so he instantly created a few boundaries. Lucas waved his remark aside, "Perish the thought, sir. All I'm going to do is talk to them."
Asta joined in as well, "They can be useful.", he mumbled as that was more than enough for both Lucas and Asta to be on the exact same page, smiling slightly, leaving Kasto and his group in the dark.
Kasto frowned for a second before giving him the authorization. "Bring him to them, Joel.", it was a simple order, so the man didn't mind it. He was curious about Lucas in the first place. He heard a lot about them, but he hadn't actually seen them accomplish anything grand yet.
Lucas pulled out a big sack and handed it over to Asta. "We both know how much is ours. Would you mind buying my things for me?"
Asta didn't mind as he accepted the bag and let Lucas leave the room with the head of logistics. Asta placed the bag on the table with a big smile.
"What is this?", hearing noises similar to glass, he wondered about its contents.
"102 Rank 1 cores and 49 Rank 2 cores. This should correlate to 51 points for the Rank 1's and 147 points for the Rank 2's, right? The split is 30/70, the former for myself.", Asta had a big smile on his face as he stared at the confused faces of both Cal and Kasto.
Cal couldn't believe what he just heard. He quickly reached for the back and tried to scan all the available cores. Turning slowly to Kasto, the man didn't even have to nod or say a single word before the commander realized he was speaking true.
"Haha-Hahaha!", Kasto laughed out loud, he couldn't help it. They send out two random mercenaries, and they came back with the figurative heads of more than a hundred enemy mages. Especially the losses of Rank 2's on the enemy's side deeply pleased the man.
He was in a good mood for only a mere moment though as even a hundred mages was nothing for the enemy, easily replenished, something he could only be jealous off.
"We did fail in our mission though, the town has been decimated. And while that was a mistake on our end, we did gain a valuable ally, a Rank 3 mage has joined our group."
Kasto's eyes quickly rushed to meet Asta's as his willpower hurriedly scanned the environment. Having a rogue Rank 3 in their base could have terrible consequences.
"Don't worry, we left him behind. We're not going to reveal your base to him so easily."
Kasto couldn't find anyone unrecognizable, so he had to trust Asta's words. But considering who he was talking to, this could be a simple lie. Why would Asta lie about having such a partner? The answer to that was quite simple.
Slacking a sigh of relief, Cal hit both of them with reality. "While great and all... we can't afford a Rank 3 mage with our funds."
"Don't worry," Asta smiled, "He'll work for free. You can leave him to us. I just hope you'll approve missions with a higher danger risk now that we have him."
'There it is.', Kasto pondered. 'It was bound to come up.'
It was an easy thing to ask and grant permission for, but Kasto wasn't certain. Sure, Asta and Lucas were powerhouses in their fields and Rank, their results were displayed right in front of him after all.
But granting permission to risk their lives, to encounter someone above their Rank? They might seriously lose some beneficial mercenaries. Besides that, the missions with a high danger risk also contained a ton of confidential documents and information. Releasing that to two non-affiliated mages was a risk.
Still, he couldn't stand in the way of their ambition, he saw that more than clearly. "Fine, even if he's imaginary, I'll grant you access to the more secretively missions, but you'll need my final permission before moving out."
"That's fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to do some shopping."
Leaving the room, Cal was left behind with Kasto. "Are you certain we should be trusting them so much?"
"They're both running around with a fake identity, presumably commoners who have angered multiple nobles in this world. Their power is unmistakingly grand, they are monsters in their fields. To them, this war is but set dressing. All they want is the tools to gain power faster."
Cal furrowed his brows for a second. "That sounds like a dangerous friend to have. Won't they easily betray us? The Holy Kingdom has treasures and artifacts far above what we can offer. Actually, they might just join the other forces of Frigus for all we know."
"When it comes to the other forces, I have my theories as to why they won't join them. But you don't have to worry about The Order, Lucas uses Dark Magic and Asta is too proud of a man to be bought. He hates all elemental users for some reason, but he hates people who are blinded by ideology even more."
"Why do you say that?"
"Hah! Just ask him if he believes in The Lady of Light, and you'll get a preaching even I'm impressed by."
Cal only hoped that they weren't misplacing their trust, while Kasto hoped they wouldn't bite more than they could chew, resulting in their demise. Either way, as mercenaries, he had no full control over them. If they helped them out while risking their lives, he could only commend it.
Lucas was led to a different section of the mansion. The head of logistics was dutifully leading him, not caring if his personal feelings conflicted with what he had to do. For him, bringing Lucas to the prisoners was a mistake, but he wouldn't go against Kasto in a thousand years.
"We don't keep our prisoners here, but we do have a direct communication channel to them. Will that be enough?"
"It limits my options. But I'll try.", he didn't sound all that confident, but it's not like it would be a waste. Of course, if Lucas released some strategic information, he would have to cut the call off as quickly as possible. Joel's hope that this wouldn't come to fruition was the only thing he had.
Walking to the communication chamber, they came in contact with the guardians. A large mirror-like structure appeared in front of Lucas. It looked almost watery as images started to form from the other side. Having seen multiple communication techniques, Lucas wondered if it had something to do with privacy, security or cost efficiency.
After some back and forth, a new appearance was visible on the communication device. A simple but extremely efficient device. Lucas saw a bunch of men and women behind bars, each with special handcuffs to restrict their magic.
"Alright Lucas, they're all yours.", Joel gave the floor to him and stepped aside. Staring at all these men and women, Lucas noticed something. They all had a vicious look in their eyes, their hands itched for freedom and combat.
A brief analysis was useful, but far from sufficient. "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, my name is Lucas. You can see me as a mediator.", he was all smiles as he blatantly lied to their faces, not that they realized it of course. Only Joel was aware of the bile he was spouting.
"What do you want from us? The Holy Kingdom won't let things stay like this!", the prisoners were well aware of their advantages. Having The Holy Kingdom step in at any time would spell the end for the entire country, making them a lot more confident. Lucas didn't flinch or even show any crack in his mask.
"What I want is of little importance. What I am wondering about is your goal.", Lucas spoke in a polite and friendly tone. Joel felt the need to nod that his was a good way to start a conversation, but he already knew where this was going. He had read the reports of what other interrogators knocked loose, and it was all useless.
"We want the destruction of Frigus! The entire country is polluted with Dark Mages!"
'There it is,' Joel thought, these people were all insane in his eyes, but Lucas found something else.
"While I am supposed to be a neutral party, I do agree that Dark Magic and the mages who dare use such foul tools should be apprehended and executed after the correct procedures. Dark Magic has a terrible history and that won't change for the better anytime soon. But I do wonder, excuse me sir Joel, do we have any mages under our commander who uses Dark Magic?"
Lucas stared at the man with a glint of authority in his eyes, Joel knew that they had some, even so, he felt compelled to play along. "No, sir, we have prohibited the use of Dark Magic because it would scare the commoners we are protecting. Our leader, the Princess Freya is also in support of a Dark Magic ban."
Lucas smiled widely as he pretended to listen closely and nod along. "I see! That is great news! I would feel uncomfortable if there were any of those Dark Mages here, thank you for clarifying that. Now, where were we? Ah, yes, you want to remove the Dark Magic users in our country, correct?"
"Hah! Like we would believe such a lie! We're certain that you also hold Black Mages!", the prisoners started to complain and accuse random crimes to the group, but Lucas waved them all aside.
"Perish the thought! Having such creeps right next to me send shivers down my spine. But the more I talk to you guys, the more I feel like we might be able to help each other out."
Lucas didn't give the leader of the prisoners any room to answer. "You might've been informed, but we're talking to The Holy Kingdom to see if we can organize your return. Sadly, they informed us that they aren't able to take you at the moment as there are other groups as well that had priority. When asked when they would have a slot for you, they said in about 40 days."
Saying this had no influence on the conversation, Lucas just wanted to try lowering their self-worth. "Frankly, the army of Frigus called on me because of this exact situation. Normally a mediator isn't necessary, but with The Holy Kingdom refusing your immediate return and the fact that we can't keep housing you, we need to search for a solution."
The prisoners stayed quiet as they listened to what Lucas had to say, his calm and friendly tone eventually made them give pause and think for once. Sadly, as fanatics, their brains weren't fully there.
"The commander has said that they want to transport you with a carriage over the border no matter what The Holy Kingdom says. You people belong at home with your families. The issue that I have with that plan is that it's very dangerous. I wouldn't want to think what would happen if you were suddenly ambushed while wearing those handcuffs."
"Hah! The Goddess is our protector! Do you think we'll fall to a measly ambush!", one of the prisoners said. The leader, on the other hand, didn't look so cocky. Instead, he saw the thinly disguised threat that Lucas was displaying.
"What are you suggesting? I hope you remember that offending The Holy Kingdom will result in a severe punishment from the Goddess herself!", trying to buy his way out through his backing the leader hadn't given up yet, but Lucas had never dropped his smile.
"Offending The Holy Kingdom? I'm not smart, but even a fool would avoid that. All I'm stating is that monsters and magical beasts are out of our control. We can try to secure your safety, but we're also just commoners trying to help other commoners. We cannot guarantee your safety that way. No, I don't want to just send you away, I suggest we work together."
"How?", the man realized Lucas wasn't just talking out of his ass, whether animals, monsters or humans, if no-one survived, what would it matter?
"You see, we also want to remove the Dark Magic users in our kingdom, but we lack the strength. To support the young Princess, we are trying our absolute best, sadly, against the Dark magic users, we stand powerless. Thus, I believe we might be able to help each other?"
"You're going to throw us into a battlefield?!", one of the prisoners yelled out, but Lucas chuckled slightly.
"Oh please, don't mistake this as me laughing at you. I just found it somewhat ironic that prisoners of a war they entered voluntarily and want to fight don't want to enter a battleground.", shaking his head slightly, he ignored the remarks from the prisoners.
"Look, as the mediator, I'm still neutral, so if you're not willing, we can look for something else. But everyone wants you out of these cells. Question is, how can we make sure that everyone is also happy with where you are released. Placing you out in the dangerous wilderness won't be great, and since you'll most likely come back to purge our country of Dark Mages, I have a proposal."
Listening closely, the leader was starting to become more open to certain suggestions. He realized what Lucas was trying to do, but he also felt that not going along with his plan might put his own life in danger. And if he were to die, who would continue to spread the gospel?
"Say we release you in a spot near a base where Dark Magic users reside, and say, for hypothetical reasons, we would accidentally leave a map on their base and it's weak points. What would you do?"
Lucas wasn't even trying to hide his intentions, but when it came to these kinds of people, he needed to be clear.
The leader stayed silent as Lucas presented his hands. "You have quite the dilemma, don't you? On one hand, we drop you off at the border and hope The Holy Kingdom will start to care for you. On the other hand, we can ask of you to only hunt the evil mages in our kingdom together with us."
"What if you'll betray us?"
"Betray? Why would we do that? We have the same goal after all.", Lucas gave a light-hearted laugh before continuing, "Why would we wait until then?", it was a question laced with poison. The leader quickly realized what kind of man Lucas truly was and nodded.
"We'll think it through, thank you.", his tone was grave, and even if he said it ambiguously, the leader had already made up his mind. His posse would follow without any doubts. It wasn't even a hard choice to make.
The idea that they might be working with the enemy who also contained Dark Mages was extremely hypocritical, but they declared that they didn't have any. And while most likely a lie, the man didn't have the evidence to prove the contrary. It was a simple decision.
"I'm glad to have been of service, sir Joel, you can close the communication channel."
"Alright", Joel nodded before closing it off, the moment he did so the smile drained from Lucas's face. "What a bunch of lunatics."
"That was my first impression as well. Do you believe they'll listen to you?"
"I don't know. All I do know is that humans tend to think in black and white. So giving them a dilemma to think about should close their mind to other solutions. Whether they accept it or not, I can't say. I'm not a master negotiator, although I do think of myself as someone persuasive, I'm still not a miracle worker."
Joel nodded and found his attempt worth something. And while the results weren't obvious yet, it was a valuable attempt. At least it was better than letting them rot in their cell for eternity.
Lucas wanted to use his aura to pressure them into submission, but using aura through a communication spell wasn't something he knew would work. If the spell collapsed due to his aura's chaotic nature or affected the people around him, it might've turned the entire situation against him.
For now, Lucas shrugged his shoulders as he moved back to meet up with Asta.