William was glad to have a way to talk to Lorelei not only for important matters, but also just for conversation. Lorelei also enjoyed it, because it allowed her to speak freely about matters she would otherwise not have much opportunity to talk about. “Most of the other academies are pathetic.” William imagined Lorelei shaking her head in disappointment before she continued, “I was so close to telling Lila to kill all of them.”

“You wouldn’t do that.”

“Tch. Probably not. But I am actually considering it with two of them. They think growing fat and rich from selling overpriced magical junk makes them equivalent to an archmage. They’re not even as learned as Lila! Though… don’t tell her I said this- it won’t be that long before she’s probably qualified for the title. If we get through this alive, we need to make sure to place the authority of such titles in the hands of those who know what you’re talking about.”

“How bad are they?”

“They refuse to listen to my orders, and they’re not even supplying the right amount of recruits.”

William nodded, forgetting for a moment Lorelei couldn’t see him, “Right… just remember we’re in a war. Execute the next person to refuse or even delay any order of yours. You’re not dealing with lords, but mages completely under your authority.”

“Damn, you’re right. It’s been so long… the Demon King usually let the heads of the academies sit on their fat, lazy posteriors during the wars. They get replaced anyway, since many of them die suddenly.”

“From heart attacks?”

“The heart always stops when people die.”

“Getting massively overweight and a lack of exercise causes heart problems, sometimes including it randomly stopping.”

“Hmm, I hadn’t had the opportunity to study that. Not enough fat people I guess. Though there are many of the lords… I suppose they do exercise still, because they have to be strong. You can restart a heart with proper application of electricity, right? Not that it would be worth doing on these people.”

“Yeah, but of course too much fries people.” William paused for a few moments, “Does recommending you kill people make me a bad person?”

“Why ask me? You know I’ll say no. You’ve always advocated killing the right people is better for everyone as a whole.”

“How do you know they’re the right people?”

“You think about it, then make the best decision you can. What’s really going on? I mean, have you actually ever regretted anyone you killed?”

William didn’t say anything for a few long moments. “Zhu Fang. He was my friend, and I had him and his clan killed just because they used a different cultivation technique…”

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“From the gevai, right? Or from ‘demons’... but they knew the stigmas it had. You can’t say for sure they were or weren’t spies. Didn’t you calculate that it was better, just in case? What’s wrong?”

“Is killing people because ‘it’s probably better’ really alright? I don’t… I don’t want to be like the Demon King.”

“You’re not.”

“But he killed people… and let them die… so that it would be better for the gevai in the end.”

“And himself.”

“I also want things to be better for myself.”

“You should know better by now than to just compare things on a few details. You don’t plan to genocide an entire race. You don’t destroy souls carelessly- I bet in your memories of the Demon King doing so he could feel the wrongness. I haven’t seen it much, but it’s… disgusting. Even so, he did it it just to become stronger- and not always just to humans. The most important thing is that you actually think about whether you’re doing something wrong. There won’t necessarily be anybody but you who can tell you what is right and wrong.”

“Hmm… sorry to get us so off topic. Let’s go back to something more… fun. Since you didn’t have Lila kill anyone, did you at least have her rough them up?”

“The best part is one of them has a black eye. Also some broken bones. Totally worth the cost of the window.”

-----

The war wasn’t going as well for the gevai as William would have liked, but when he thought about why it seemed obvious. The gevai didn’t properly fortify the southern border. Oh, they had keeps and watchtowers before their cities, but most of the area was wide open plains. They didn’t control many of the main mountain passes like the humans did- though in some places humans and gevai had forts on either end.

What that meant was that humans could just waltz into their territory- more or less- and go wherever they wanted to. Of course, there were rivers and hills and other terrain that slowed them or made certain routes impractical, but nothing as good as mountains.

Jordan commented on it as soon as he was given a map. “So… I didn’t grow up with the best education, but I think this map says… we’re as organized and tactically prepared as a drunk chimaera.”

“That sounds about right.”

Jordan shook his head, “Really though, I can already point out ten places they should have forts, and these aren’t even detailed maps. It’s a lucky thing the ports are decently fortified. Who was responsible for this mess anyway?”

“Do you want a real answer?”

“Uhh… sure.”

“Probably the Eternal King. Maybe he didn’t order where every fort should be placed, but he let the lords controlling those territories do whatever felt right.”

“How has nobody seen this before? It’s just terrible.”

William shrugged, “We’re usually on the offensive. Besides, would you say that to the Eternal King’s face?”

Jordan gulped, “Uh… no sir, Lord Rutten. I uh…”

“Relax. He’s not even around right now, and I wouldn’t say anything about it anyway. You have to understand… people have different priorities, such as cost.”

“How much do you want to bet I could draw up a plan which would have shorter supply routes and better located forts that would have been cheaper?”

William shook his head, “I don’t like to lose money.” He turned to leave, then stopped, “Maybe draw up those plans anyway, for practice. You need to work on your arithmetic some anyway.”

Jordan groaned. “Me and my big mouth.”