Jacob yawned, it's now day three of the journey and he's been waking up much earlier than ever, he couldn't wait to go ahead and sleep in a comfortable bed the moment that he reached Yarya village, his current state of hygiene be damned. Right next to him, Alexi took sleeping on the ground in stride and looked as confident and stressless as she had been the moment that they rode out of the city and Jacob didn't get it, how the hell do people spend weeks on end sleeping on small, uncomfortable tents?

Now he's starting to get why Asya has the tent that she had and why she would willingly buy something so large and bulky, because despite all its flaws and the fact that it's hard to set up, it was at least comfortable for sleep in and keeps the cold out enough that the people sleeping inside of it wouldn't die from hypothermia in the middle of the night. "I fucking hate my tent," Jacob murmured as he kicked his horse into gear, the stallion also looking no worse for wear despite sleeping in the cold outside, "scratch that- I really, really hate my tent," Jacob repeated.

Alexi stared at him, "I see," she said simply, her simple yet blunt tone making Jacob reflect on the unhappiness he's been feeling since waking up.

Either the tent is an asshole or... maybe he's just being grumpy and is taking it out to the closest thing. Jacob cleared his throat, "Sorry about that," knowing that they won't be able to hear each other talk when the horses start picking up speed, he took the moment to apologize, "It's just that it's been so long since I went out camping,"

"You don't need to apologize, I understand why you'd feel that way." Alexi said, "Though worry not, I'm sure that we'd reach Yarya village by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Jacob asked, "I thought it was only three days?"

"Three days worth of travel yes," Alexi replied, "the morning we left the city doesn't count."

Jacob groaned, "Ugh. Is there a spell I can learn that'll make me faster somehow?"

Alexi nodded, "There are, yes," she answered, "though you'd need a special [Mage] class for those, and those spells are usually reserved for supporting mages and since you're clearly a battle mage..."

"Damn it." Jacob cursed, lamenting the fact that he can't go any faster if he wanted to. Though speaking of classes, he still hadn't used his Class Ball hasn't he? He should probably get to that when he reaches Yarya village, though, he did wonder how in the hell he would test [Nuclear Explosion] without ruining the surrounding environment.

Him radiating the land sounds like something that would get him hanged even with the Duke's support. Then again, he has an entire day of traveling to think about that so who knows? Maybe he would come up with a solution during the entire day of traveling- thinking that he was getting grumpy again, Jacob decided to close his eyes and take a deep breath to calm himself down.

'Just one more day,' Jacob thought to himself as his steed picked up speed, 'Tomorrow night I would be sleeping soundly on a bed like a baby,'

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Tomorrow night, that is when they would attack. Yavneck had planned things out left and right, from the actual attack itself to how he would remove his wanted targets without suspicion, everything would be set and in order and there wouldn't be a single thing that would hinder his plans, included among them are the villagers and adventurers on Yarya who had somehow caught on to what they were doing and are now hastily preparing trenches to hide on and pikes for defenses.

But dealing with all of those would have to come tomorrow, and preferably when he's in a better mindset than wanting to strangle the nearest person because it just so happens to be that Teyen isn't just some muscle headed brute, the man is also quite capable of thinking for himself as well as a bit of cunning- which sadly isn't a surprise given that he's taken the Bandit Group that Yavneck wanted for himself to the heights that made it tempting for him to want to take it to begin with.

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It is that very same man who is currently arguing against him and his three day plan before the attack, which Teyen has been against from the start.

"And what would trenches do exactly?" Yavneck argued with a raised eyebrow as their armored benefactor oversaw the argument going on around the mapped table, Teyen looked furious, and the three of his most trusted second in commands were standing right next to him, their face grim and faces red, which isn't that far off from their leader.

"What- will Trenches do," Teyen emphasized, his large thumb moving across the orange, dated parchment that was the map, "is simple, strategist," he growled, "it will make our charge living hell because the people there would be able to employ guerilla tactics that will slow us down, hinder us, and give them favorable positions to adequately stab us."

"We have the monsters do we not?" Yavneck countered, his head moving to their new alchemist, Cego looked as bored as ever and the expression told anyone staring at it that he would rather go back to his tent and continue his experiments rather than sit there and listen to people argue, "Those are more than enough to make up for the trenches because as far as I am aware, your men-" they would soon be Yavneck's actually, "- would be fearless, painless, and more importantly, stronger than the average man."

Yavneck scoffed, "Even more so when you consider that they are already muscled and strong." He crossed his arms, "I do not see why you feel the need to complain, we are stronger while the villagers only have their numbers against us." To further prove his point and mark his words to the brain of the stupid fool, Yavneck loudly tapped the table with his knuckle, "And what's more, even when the number of their people is large enough to count as a small army, how many within that do you think are women? Men? Elderly?"

"... you have a fair point," admitted Teyen, his glare receding, "but it still stands that you let them prepare and I do not doubt that their people are ready to run towards the other side of the river the moment that they see us coming,"

"I already thought of that," Yavneck said, "we have cavalry ready to intercept at any given moment," he faced the living armor that miserably failed to hide its state of existence, "isn't that right?"

"Yes." Rumbled the monster, "We have riders of 50 men strong ready to run around to the flank and catch the fleeing villagers off guard,"

"See?" Yavneck grinned, oh how he loves it when things line up for him, "There's nothing to worry about!"

"Perhaps you are right," Teyen replied with a nod, "I trust you," that wasn't directed and Yavneck, everyone knew that because Teyen faced the armored "man" sitting on the corner and gave it a nod, "I hope the plan goes well,"

"It will," bellowed the living armor, "I will make sure that your men will have little to no casualties and you will return safely to commit the next few phases of our plan,"

Ah yes, the plan; use a bunch of named Bandits to make the Kingdom think that it is nothing more than barbarians taking their villages from them, and, once the bastards lowered their guards and sent in a bunch of infantry that are just enough to fight bandits but are clearly ill equipped to fight armies, they will strike with a force worth a thousandfold and raze the grasslands as they ate anything they could find while marching forward into the Lezatian Dukedom to take over the frontier city.

Yavneck wanted to compliment the one who decided to use such an obvious shock tactic but then again, it is not like the tactician of the Fratenian Kingdom is so willing to meet up with his lessers, so sadly, such an event wouldn't happen unless the stars themselves align in Yavneck's favor.

As the meeting concluded, Yavneck stepped out of the tent followed by Cego, once the man was certain that they were far enough, he spoke, "You are very cruel," he started with a chuckle, "I did not take you for someone so willing to use living, breathing men as nothing more than tools. At least I use corpses that do not have feelings and aspirations,"

Yavneck snorted, since when did Cego learn to speak like this? Still, if it's wordplay this fraud wants, then he has plenty of experience with such things. "If you think that putting your trust into puppets is a mentally good idea, Cego, then I am afraid to say that your thinking might be skewed, because using thinking men is better than killing them and making them into your little puppets. That is a mistake because I am at least willing to put my faith in my men no? So much better than being so paranoid that you surround yourself with dead machines that have a low chance of doing mistakes,"

"Perhaps," replied Cego, "but I do not see you trusting any of your Pawns, you do not even have someone who listens for you,"

"I do not need ears," he retorted scathingly, "when I can do it myself,"

"Mhmm. I see," Cego parted away from him and Yavneck took that as a sign of reprieve and made his way out of the camp, potion of strength in hand.