“... Yes?” Grok said, his voice unsure... and there was also like a 5 second wait between me finishing my sentence and him speaking, so, his uncertainty was clear from that also.
“...Are you sure, Grok? Because, from what I learned from talking with Gram and other goblins, Krone seemed to be a bit of a fanatic, set in his ways and only thinking about pleasing his gods.
“So, are you sure he would’ve changed his beliefs in only a few short weeks?” I asked, and this time, Grok was silent.
“...”
Not wanting to wait for Grok to start speaking, I lifted my helmet a bit, revealing my “mouth”, and regurgitated a scroll, and a few writing supplies, out of my stomach, and took it out of my mouth, and started writing a short magical contract after putting down my helmet.
My goblin wasn’t perfect, but now I knew enough that I could speak and write basic sentences without relying on Rifu-san, though I still relied on her help while writing to make sure that I wasn’t writing nonsense or grammatically incorrect sentences.
The magical contract wouldn’t be affected by the writing mistakes much, as magical contracts were one of the few types of magic that the system actually helped maintain, but the more writing mistakes in the contract, the more likely it was for the system to misunderstand its meaning and more room for both parties to exploit the mana contract.
“Here.” I passed the mana contract to Grok, and took out a wax to seal the contract after Grok was finished reading it, and signed it.
“...There is nothing here about releasing my father after allowing him to use his mana again, or any clauses for a surgery after his release.” Grok asked, raising his head up.
“Yes, there are no clauses like that, as I am doubtful if your father would be open to a deal with me, and as even you, his son, couldn’t argue that he wasn’t a fanatic, and he’d be more than willing to make a beneficial deal with me, I just don’t think I’d be able to make a promise like that, and have it be on a magical contract.
“But I will give you my word that I will at least try to have a conversation with him when we return back to the village, and inquire with him if he’d like to have a deal with me.
“And, on the off chance he does, I will fund the operation to unblock his mana channels.”
“...But you won’t have it written on the mana contract?”
“Make no mistake, Grok, even this mana contract is my way of showing you that I am going to uphold my promise and free your father from his cell after we are done up here, in the north. I could, of course, write another clause in the mana contract about this little promise I’ve given you, but if we are going to work together, we should at least have some trust between us, no?” I told Grok, and he nodded, and signed the contract.
I could feel that he wasn’t entirely happy with only having my word, but I also got the idea that he knew that this was the best he was going to get, and so, went along with it.
Signing the contract myself as well, using the heat of a nearby lantern, I waxed the contract, closing it off, and felt my mana react to the contract, which was a novel feeling, but one that disappeared as soon as it came.
“Now we are done with this mana contract business... would you like to start strategizing right now, or do you want to have some time for yourself?”
“I am ready when you are, Eternal One.” Grok said, and I nodded, and went for the door.
Oppening it, I saw the butler assigned to me waiting there.
“Are there any bigger rooms you can give me?” I asked, and he nodded.
“Yes, there are Lord Eternal, but I’ve led you to this one as I didn’t think you and your acolyte would’ve needed a bigger room... do you want me to have a bigger room prepared?”
“Yes, please do. And, also, bring the biggest pieces of parchment and paper you can. Multiple would be better, and, if you can, give me a room with a large wall so I can fix the papers and parchments on the walls.”
“Of course, Lord Eternal, but if I may ask, why do you want to attach papers and parchment on the walls?”
“I am going to draw a map of Prady and Lublin, and the forests in between, and wanted for it to be visible to my men, who I also want you to gather and bring to the room.”
“Of course, Lord Eternal. Do you need any writing instruments and ink?”
“Hmm... I do have some with me... but, still, bring me some brushes and ink.”
“Understood, Lord Eternal. Do you wish me to also inform the mayor, and the priests?”
“I do not mind them attending the meeting I’ll be holding with my men, but inform them that I will be mostly speaking in the tongue of my people, and should they have any questions, they should raise their hands while I am talking, and I will give them a moment to speak, and answer any questions they may have.
“And after the meeting has started properly, I’ll shortly tell them what I am doing in your language, so they have at least some idea of what is going on.”
“Of course, Lord Eternal. Please give me a moment to go fetch some staff to start things off while you wait in this room.” The butler said, bowing slightly.
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“Of course, take all the time you need.” I told him and he walked off in a quick pace.
Then I went back to the room, and quickly told Grok what we were going to do.
“Grok, I’ve ordered for a bigger room to be prepared, and for the rest of the Acolytes, which is what you and your fellows are by all means, to be gathered, and we are going to hold a meeting that will last for quite a few hours, and we will probably come back to the same room for the next few days, planning everything out.
“But before we can start the meeting properly, I’ll be drawing a map, as extensively as I can, and placing on the walls of the meeting room we’ll be in.
“Also, while this is going to mostly be a meeting where you and I talk and brainstorm, we’ll still be taking ideas off of the other Acolytes should they have any good ideas and some priests and the mayor may also join us, but they’ll mostly be observers.” I told him and he nodded.
“Do you need me to do anything, Eternal One?”
“Not yet. We’ll be waiting for a few minutes for the staff to prepare an adequate room, and lead us to it, and after we are in the room, and the other Acolytes arrive, I want you to explain them what we are going to do, and start talking with them to see if they have any useful ideas or suggestions before hand that we can integrate into our plans while we are coming up with them.”
“Of course, Eternal One, but can you explain to me exactly what are we going to plan out? I know that you want to build supply lines to escort refuges from Prady’s villages into Lublin, then back to our village, but what exactly are you planning?”
“I want to build a multitude of small bases throughout the forests of Prady that can, at most, hold 10 or 15 people for a night or two, and bigger bases in more isolated areas that can hold people for a few days in case complications arise and we can’t get them quickly to Lublin.
“I also want to build at least one POW camp outside of Lublin.”
“A POW camp? What does that mean?”
“It’s basically just a place where we put prisoners of war. So, a place where everyone we fight, but don’t kill, go to.
“I’d rather release them and not have to deal with feeding and housing them, but releasing them into the wild for them to just go back to Prady and inform their people of my existence would be problematic.
“There probably wouldn’t be any armies of a thousand soldiers marching to hunt me down, as The All Mother and Ojciec Lasu would step in to stop the chaos before that happened, but that is still a bad option as I’d have to owe more favours to them, and we wouldn’t get what I want out of this, which is at least a hundred followers I can send back to your village.
“And other than holding enemy combatants that were surrendered or captured, we’ll also be putting civilians who don’t want to settle down in your village there, as we can’t exactly release them like in the case of enemy combatants as they’d just inform the priesthood in Prady of my presence.”
“I think I understand why you want to build these camps... but wouldn’t it be easier to kill all the people who fought against us? I can understand wanting to keep the villagers alive and well even if they didn’t fight us, but I can’t understand keeping the troublemakers alive as killing them would leave us with less mouths to feed and keep housed, and their exp would be useful to us as well.”
“...You are correct, but I am hoping that after seeing that we are not bad people, they’ll decide to change sides and become my followers, or settle down back in the village, and pay taxes.
“Sure, the exp we’d gain from them is large, and important, but the good will we’d gain from them is more important and useful.
“Afterall, if our enemy knows we are just going to kill everyone we can get our hands on, they’ll fight tooth and nail to even have the chance to see another day, but if we let them know that there is a chance for survival, most would take it.
“Remember, most of the people we are likely to fight will not be properly trained soldiers or warriors like you, they’ll just be civilians that have taken up arms to appease their goddess, and expel the “undesirables” who are the reason she’s not returning back.
“Hell, most would probably surrender after I showed my face, as, if you remember what happened with Priest Jarek when he first saw me in the forest, he was so scared of me and my golems he chose to just hide in a bush in hopes of evading our gaze.” I said, and Grok nodded as I talked.
“I understand your point, but like you said, most are just religious fanatics that have taken up arms to appease their goddess, so, wouldn’t seeing a towering undead with an army of other undead behind it “invading” their lands make them more likely to stand their grounds and continue fighting rather than surrendering?” Grok said, and I stood silent for a moment.
I... hadn’t thought of that possibility...
“...Ahem. The thing you are missing Grok is that most fanatics we are going to encounter are either going to be in a rabble of other fanatics or be lead by a charismatic leader.
“If they are in a rabble with their fellows, without any set leader, intimidating them through use of skills, or killing a few to make a point should make the others get in tow. And if they don’t, we’ll just have to hack through them until they start dropping their weapons.
“But if they have a charismatic leader its going to be easier to get them in tow! Making their leader route by breaking his will with skills and spells or through just normal intimidation methods will probably make the other fanatics, who suddenly lost their leader, more likely to drop their weapons and surrender or escape.
“And if we can’t intimidate their leader into escaping, just killing him swiftly will do the job as well, as most likely the fanatics will choose someone skilled in fighting to be their leader, and the remaining fanatics, seeing that their strongest just died in a few seconds, will surrender or escape.
“All in all, I wouldn’t worry about it much, if I were you Grok. I will not send you guys in to a lot of battles, as my undead army will take care of most of the enemies we encounter, and when I sent you into battles, it will be just for show as even though I haven’t given you guys classes as I am just unsure of who to make my first priest, you all are my Acolytes, and will gain your classes in a few months.” I said Grok, and he nodded as usual while I talked, but he opened his mouth quickly the moment I stopped talking, seemingly wanting to tell something quickly.
“Your ideas of subduing any fanatics are great, Eternal One, but wouldn’t it be better to turn a few of the fanatics and their leaders into undead to scare the living ones and make them surrender? My people are used to seeing all types of undead, including humanoid ones, as we’ve all basically grown while being surrounded by them, but seeing a humanoid undead just walking about should give normal fanatics quite the scare, as I am pretty sure their priests would know enough to consecrate most if not all the dead, no?”
“...No. I will not be doing that.”
“...Can you explain why, Eternal One?”
“A matter of principal.”
“A matter of... principal?”
“Yes, I believe that the dead of any people should be honoured, and turning them to undead is desecration of bodies, unless you are just making them walk into their graves which would be... weird, but somewhat acceptable.”
“Ah... I understand Eternal One... does this mean you don’t want us to re-animate the body of anyone when we become Acolytes and Priests?”
“Yes, I do not like that. Just consecrate their bodies and free their souls, but leave the rest of the body intact, and simply bury them in individual graves, if you can’t make individual graves, digging mass graves is... tolerable. Not acceptable, but tolerable if you simply do not have the time to dig graves for everyone.
“And if you can’t dig graves, you are also allowed to burn them to ashes. But don’t do any other method of corpse disposal unless the family of the deceased asks for it, or it’s been asked me before, and I’ve deemed it acceptable. Understood?” I asked Grok, and he nodded.
“Yes, Eternal One, understood.”