After saying goodbye to Frostbite, Isy and I walked down the hall to the front door and swung both of them wide open, Isy almost hiding behind me as we faced the group of 12 new underlings. ‘Now it’s starting to feel like a gang… I mean guild…’
None of them so much as dared to speak before I made the first move. Checking their stats, they seemed to be much weaker than the others, and all of them were on the younger side too. That wasn’t to say that any of them were awful… But none of them stood out enough for me to want them as pillars of my guild. Isy had a lot of flaws, her clumsiness being chief among them. Still, her strength was actually really high, she was probably just having trouble adjusting after hitting her growth spurt or something along those lines. Everyone I saw before me though was remarkably average by comparison… ‘Alright… I guess we will go with plan B then…’ “How many of you are commoners, raise your hands.”
Every single one of them went up. ‘I guess that tracks… Seeing as how I gave a speech about how our blood was the same… It makes sense that would inspire commoners more than nobles… It also explains their lack of strength and unfortunately means they also probably lack any technical training…’ I sighed. ‘I planned for this though.’ “Ok. All of you follow me.”
Without a word, I led them all to the garden and had them gather in a circle where they could see as I started drawing on the ground with my sword.
“There are 12 of you, right?” I said out loud, thinking to myself. “Ok, here is the plan. Within the next 5 days. Each and every one of you is going to gather at least 25 marks, then I’ll give one of you 700 marks and have that person establish a secondary guild that will take orders from me directly. This will effectively put me in charge of two guilds. All of you will be in this secondary guild. Does that make sense so far?” I drew a diagram with our two guilds, and me above them. No one seemed very enthusiastic though.
‘Well, they aren’t whining about it yet at least…’ “Furthermore. You are no longer allowed to steal marks, or attack people while they are defenseless, in the shower, or otherwise.” Their looks grew more troubled, but still, none of them spoke out against me. ‘Either their souls are crushed… Or they have a lot of faith in themselves… I’m going to guess crushed…’
Finally, one man stepped forward. He was large enough to pass as a noble, but he wasn’t shredded like one, carrying fat on his bones that only made him broader and stockier. When he stepped forward he kneeled, squatting down to look me in the eye. Our eyes met and even the birds stopped chirping for a moment. “We’re with you… What’s the plan…” His voice bellowed with a deep rumble, but it was as soft as my grandfather's.
‘Confidence than? Interesting…’ I felt myself start to smile. “With 12 of you working together gathering marks should be easy, even doing so honorably, the hard part will be defending them after you have them gathered. First off, stay away from the dueling grounds, and that goes for all of you, there will always be someone stronger than you, and if you lose you lose big. Next, you need to start sharing rooms. Ideally groups of 4, but 3 is fine too. This will help you watch each other's backs against rogues. Finally, never show how many marks you have, always act like you only have 1.” My smile grew wider. ‘Not only do I get to come up with a plan, but I have a full group under my command… Not only that but I’m the underdog. This is too good… I might get addicted to this feeling… Well… I guess that’s only if this all works out…’
They all crowded in closer and I took another look at their stats, connecting them with their names and mentally processing the data. As it so happened, there were 5 girls and 7 guys. Which in a way was preferable since the girls were much weaker in terms of raw strength, making up for it in wisdom and agility… But admittedly still being less preferable.
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I wrote the names out in three groups. The five girls would all be together, and then a group of four and a group of three. The strongest man would lead the group of four, and the second third, and fourth strongest would be in their own group.
“Any questions so far? I know the rooms will be cramped, but this will be for the best.”
One of the girls hesitantly raised her voice. “You said gathering marks would be easy… How uhm… Exactly what did you mean? Sorry…”
‘A little timid, but she can talk… Which is a lot more than I would do in her position… She has some of the higher stats among the girls too.’ “Right. Well, there’s five days left. Each of these days, including today, you are going to go to the grand hall and receive one free mark by transferring control of all marks in the group to one half, and then to the other half. You can do this through a game of rock paper scissors… Or a duel. and that way it’s honorable.” ‘probably…’ “That will mean that you each will get 5 marks for free, leaving 20 to go without any work. So that’s step one.”
They all stared at me so intently, excitedly… I was having so much fun planning I hadn’t noticed before, but it was starting to make me nervous. ‘Sense they’re commoners… I guess they will just listen to whatever say is or isn’t honorable… That makes this easy.’
“And step two then?”
I cleared my throat. “Right. Step two is to challenge people outside of dueling grounds and play to their ego. For instance, most nobles are strong, but inexperienced, at least in fighting multiple opponents or against different styles. They will underestimate you. Challenge them to duels two against one, or even three against one. When you win, take three marks, one for each. It’s still honorable because they will agree to the challenge.” ‘probably…’
“I see… And is that how we will gather all our marks then?”
“Not quite. There is one other option.” ‘I was thinking about this after the bodybuilding contest, but nobles really are bullheaded…’ “There are plenty of competitions and for people in our age group, you receive marks based on how many people you beat, not how you rank. In most of these contests, you don’t have to win, and you don’t have to participate like the nobles, if you can just stay in the contest till the end that will be sure to net you a few marks. I’m sure you can even enter some of them in groups. Does that make sense?”
“Hm… It’s a plan…” The large man muttered cautiously.
“Oh… And… You should know… If a noble ever says you're being dishonorable while doing these things, it’s just because you hurt their pride, by being so successful despite being a commoner, don’t take it literally…” ‘Although… That’s probably a lie… But I’m their leader, so really honor is whatever I say it is right? Right…’
I turned to the girls in the group and found out their room numbers. Luckily one was close by to me. “You should all stay in that room, That’s close by enough that if anything happens I will be able to hear it and come help.”
As if on queue, Kai slowly made his way through the garden, hesitantly walking over to me, his presence striking fear into the people who had seen his skill with a blade firsthand.
“Alright then… Now for the last step. Kai here is going to teach you all how to fight, just enough to be dangerous. It will likely take the entire first day, maybe even two, but if you learn well you will be able to be much more efficient. If you don’t then there is a higher chance you would lose all your marks in a duel. Does that make sense?” They all nodded in agreement.
‘This is almost too easy. They just listen to everything I say like I’m some kind of genius… Ha… It’s almost like I’m some kind of noble or something…’ I sighed. “Right. Kai, you can take it from here yeah?”
He patted me on the head as I walked past toward the exit, placing his hands on his hips. “Ok. Who wants to die first.”
I froze, slowly turning back over my shoulder. ‘This wasn’t a mistake, was it? I feel kinda bad for them… Well… Then again, their training can’t possibly be harder than what I went through…’
“Siya?” Isy said, looking back.
“Oh, sorry. Just thinking about the past… Sometimes it doesn’t even feel real anymore…”
She giggled. “Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s like when someone asks if you like apple pie, but you haven’t eaten it in so long you forget what it tastes like. You remember not liking it, but not the flavor.”
‘That’s an oddly accurate and specific analogy…’ “Now I’m hungry…”