Firstborn: Return of the heir

All the way to this point, even the worst campaigns that Saulus took part in didn’t come close to how tiring his current lifestyle was. From the moment he finished the inspection of the open ground around the camp in the south, Saulus had no other choice but to race back north.

Unable to count how many days he had gone without proper sleep or even a short rest, Saulus grew to enjoy the boring time of traveling far more than ever before. Something that used to be the least liked part of life in the military for him, turned into a rare chance for Saulus to detach himself from everything.

Riding on the horse, with the wind caressing his face, he could finally rest a bit. But just as he regained a small semblance of energy, the gates of Aldo closed behind him as the group reached their destination.

As annoying as it was, even this city couldn’t be considered a safe-zone for him. Stuck with an entire unit of personal guards, something that Venna forced on him right before he left, moving back to the palace took him nearly four times as long as it would have taken him to travel it on his own.

But even the palace itself didn’t bring comfort to his tired body. As soon as Saulus reached his private room, he had to sit down and read through a sizable stack of reports about the events he missed while inspecting the defenses in the south.

Going one by one, Saulus properly inspected a huge chunk of the documents before finally raising his head from his desk. By now, the sunny weather of the afternoon on the other side of the window had already turned into the gray color of the late evening. Casting his eyes down, he could see that the remaining amount of reports he had to read would keep him awake through the entire night to come.

As tough of a task as it would appear, Saulus simply ordered one of the maids to bring him a small barrel of a light, refreshing beer before getting to work. Emptying a small glass for every portion of the reports he went through, Saulus sipped away through the entire night…

But when morning came, the pile of papers was replaced by a small stack of new documents, personally written by Saulus.

“Sir, how can I be of assistance?”

With one of the butlers responding to his call, Saulus stood up from his desk. Taking a moment to regain the strength in his legs, he unsteadily pointed his hand at the set of orders on the table.

“Take them to the office. My people there will know what to do with those.”

Patting the shoulder of the butler on his way out, Saulus had to recall this moment later on to understand how inebriated and exhausted he must have been to get so familiar with a servant.

With his legs carrying him towards his next job, Saulus recounted everything that he decided in the past few moments. Thinking about it, he couldn’t help but realize that the decisions that would normally require the approval of the monarch, he was making all on his own.

But that was what times of rebellion required. If he had to convince a huge group of people that diverting more than half of all their resources to the north was a good idea, the chance to do so would waste away before even a half of them got around to approving it.

Thankfully, with how he was organizing the entire uprising in the first place and how he had the ruling queen’s full trust, Saulus didn’t need to bother justifying his actions. Because some things couldn’t be brought to public knowledge. Even if everyone knew about something happening, there were times when one had to keep his mouth absolutely shut about it.

And the huge scheme of former Retesian neighbors pouring an insane amount of wealth and manpower into the already rich lands of the northern Burn household could never be openly confirmed. Saulus’ two northern neighbors would involve themselves only for as long as it remained nothing more but a rumor.

“Sir! Thank God you are here already!”

By the time Saulus managed to reach the central hall of the palace, one of his administrative officers noticed his presence and instantly caught up to him.

“I have the reports with the highest security lock possible. I am only to deliver them right into your hands!”

Bringing yet another stack of out of nowhere, the young officer failed to notice how Saulus’ entire body convulsed when seeing even more papers. Not even the fact that the sealed envelope clearly contained only a few pages mattered.

Pushing his own repulsion away, Saulus reached forward and grabbed the letter. Breaking the seal on it, he quickly pulled the short note from within before scanning it.

“This idiot…”

Muttering under his breath, Saulus shook his head before hiding the note in his pocket.

If you are almost done, then why are you still in the north… Thinking to himself, Saulus had no choice but to cast thoughts about Bloy aside. No matter how quickly the Pleiades would manage to squash the last remaining pockets of resistance in the north, it would still take them too long. Even though their loyalty could be questioned, Saulus had no other choice but to rely on their help.

Initially attempting to move forward, Saulus suddenly stopped by the window. Being on the third floor of the palace, he had a nice view of nearly the entire city below. And even from as far as he was looking, he could easily spot the busy crowd on the streets.

“That’s right! The inspection will take place in two weeks!”

Suddenly realizing this fact, Saulus sobered up from his exhaustion in a second. The constant pressure of scrambling to put all the pieces together for this reborn household to survive made him miss the fact that he was currently well behind schedule!

With two weeks until all the preparations would have to most likely conclude, the young general suddenly faced the perspective of finally lying his body to its well-deserved rest.

“Only two weeks of this fake peace left, huh?”