Rise of the Horde

252 Chapter 25Commander Lars was cooped up in his office as he had to deal with a lot of things related to the current situation of the city, he had to arranged patrols, read letters of powerful individuals who were still in the city and provide a reply, settle the arrangements of the survivors that flocked towards the city and a lot of other things which took too much of his time. He had been having frequent headaches every single day as new problems would crop up out of nowhere which he had to deal with.

He knew that if they just passively defend the walls without doing anything else, they would soon lose since they don’t have any supply line at all to replenish their provisions and they were only depending on the gathered supplies that were in the warehouses of the city. Many of the nobles and merchants were against the idea of providing anything for free for the city and used many reasoning to dissuade Commander Lars of implementing such a thing, stating that it would make them suffer disastrous loses but the old commander was fed up with them after days of no progress as he stamped down his authority.

The commander went to visit some merchants who were strongly opposing his arrangements and after taking care of their guards, he threw them into the dungeon and accused them of colluding with their enemies while confiscating all their belongings. His move scared those who were yet to receive a visit from him shitless as they finally learned that the commander had enough.

“Are we not going to pay a visit to the others!?” Serkes questioned with a tone of excitement as he himself was annoyed by those selfish bastards who were only thinking for themselves. He had been tasked by his teacher to pay those merchants and nobles frequently in the days that have passed and deliver them his requests for help with the supplies, some agreed with the arrangements of his teacher but many of them declined stating various reasons which also pissed him off but he can’t do anything to them as he had no authority over.

“There’s no need to pay every single one of them a visit. This should be enough to let them know that I am dead serious about the situation.” Commander Lars plopped down on his chair as he felt another headache coming as he stared at the piles of documents that was piled up on his table.

“If only Faynah was still here then she would take care of these things in no time at all…” the old commander mumbled as he thought of the young woman who helped him in taking care of the administrative side of things of the garrison army before. Serkes heard the mumbling of his teacher and can’t also help but thought of that woman who was a great help to the garrison army of Alsenna.

“If only she wasn’t of that house then perhaps she would still be with us…” Serkes muttered softly but his teacher still managed to understand on what he is on about.

“That damn bastard of a prince threw the entire kingdom into a mess… wait… he is now the king and we are now engaged in war with many of our neighbors.” Commander Lars fumed as he grabbed his favorite cup and poured some wine into it. After hearing what his teacher said, Serkes opened the door of the office and took a peek outside and after seeing that no one was around, he heaved a sigh of relief. If someone who is at the side of the current king informed him on what his teacher just said, disaster might fall on their heads.

“Don’t worry Serkes, none would want to spy on me or should I say no one would dare after I just slaughtered the dozens of guards of those merchants.” Commander Lars snorted in annoyance after remembering the disgusting appearances of those merchants after he butchered all their guards. He tilted his head as he chugged down the contents of his cup and felt the burning sensation on his throat. Taking the lives of those guards and imprisoning those merchants, he could do all of that everyday if he felt like it but he can’t to the same to the nobles of the kingdom because of the many rules of the kingdom which clearly favored the nobility but he can’t do anything about it. He didn’t want to ruin the reputation of his family just because of such nuisances which had been taken care of by his elders and ancestors for many generations.

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The old commander grabbed a parchment randomly and as he opened it, he knew that it was a report from the mage assigned by the royal family on the city. That old man had no interest in other things as he never left the mage tower located near the center of the city from the day he arrived till now. He would have forgotten about the existence of that mage if not for the current report that he had on his hands.

“It seems that Baron Manakk and Baron Aster had done as a huge favor…they attracted the attention of our foes and are now entangled with them in the open desert.” The old commander exclaimed as a smile crept up to his lips. Serkes who was with him was confused on how did the report came into existence since he knew that it is a one-way trip for their scouts to venture outside the walls and no one was brave enough among them after knowing that none of those who were sent outside the walls to gather information on their enemies made it back, not single one of the more than twenty that were sent out returned.

“The letter is from the tower.” Commander Lars replied and after noticing the still confused look of his student, “The mage tower near the center of the city.” He continued.