The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

Chapter 402 - From A Scratch

                        Once again, like usual, Aleni left to do some investigation after dinner. It was around the time Milliendra went to bed, and since she liked how lively her life was when Milliendra was awake, she decided to enjoy every single one of those moments.

                        When she left the inn, Aleni felt weird since that country was supposed to feel so nostalgic, but she couldn't feel anything. Aside from some worry, since it was the first time she was going to investigate a place so easy to invade. The desert wolves' base was located in the center of the town. It was the only building that actually had any level of security, but even that level was laughable for Aleni. She was used to moving around inside mansions and castles, without being found, after all.

                        Although the town wasn't that big, their base took over around twenty percent of the area of the town. It had some walls made of stone that were ten meters tall, and training camps inside that could be used by dozens of people at the same time. While ten or so mercenaries were patrolling above the walls, Aleni easily passed by them. 

                        In the blink of an eye, she crossed the training grounds and reached the barracks. She found hundreds of presences, all of the mercenaries inside were sleeping… too soundly from her perspective. It seemed that they never suffered a night attack, and that was why they could relax so much despite the fact only ten people made the protection of hundreds of them.

                        The main building inside their base was pretty large. Still, Aleni didn't have to look around too much to find three presences talking about something. That surprised her a little bit, but then she recalled that it was pretty early for mercenaries to be sleeping… unless they were planning something. The barracks were so silent that she finally noticed that they had been sleeping for hours.

"As I keep saying… This is our only option. We can no longer keep going like this."

"This will completely tarnish our reputation. Not even them will be able to hide their actions in such a brazen plan."

"Who cares about that? We already became the laughing stock of the entire region! We need to do whatever it takes to recover and spread our fame."

                        Aleni frowned since those presences, and even their voices were so similar. They didn't hear earlier that the leaders of the group were triplets, but Aleni already noticed that it was the case. Regardless, she was more interested in the contents of their conversation. It seemed that she had arrived at a pretty convenient time…

"I already sent half of our troops to travel at night and one third of them should have already reached her territory. Within a week, we will have the chance to surprise her and completely take over her territory at night… if we delay this any longer, our soldiers will get annoyed."

                        Aleni hears someone clicking their tongue. It seemed that the two of them wanted to do something sneaky, but the third one was worried about the group's reputation. After a while, Aleni confirmed that they were planning to use the assassins to kill the leader of another group and then make his soldiers attack the camp and kill all the enemy soldiers. Without their leader, they won't be much of a trouble… 

                        Although she waited for several hours, Aleni didn't hear them reaching any conclusion to that conversation. Somehow, one of them could contact the assassins. Still, she will have to keep an eye on them to see how and then find a way to track the place the assassin came from and then the intermediary… It would be a lot of work. Still, she couldn't see any other solution to the problem.

                        When those three went to their respective rooms, Aleni returned to the inn as well, and there she found Zaos practicing with his new weapon. As expected, such a weapon didn't suit him. He looked so out of place while trying to move gracefully.

"You should give up on that weapon," Aleni said. "No… maybe storing it for Millie to use one day will be better."

"I can buy something ten times better than this crap for her," Zaos said. "Perhaps forging a new weapon will be better and then add some effects in it… Anyway, what did you learn?"

                        Aleni explained what she had heard to Zaos, but he only frowned… their timing was too good to be true. In any case, even if it was weird, Zaos was planning to use it in his favor. Defeating the triplets shouldn't be hard, but he had to track down the assassins before that. Should he get involved in that conflict and win the favor of another mercenary leader? That was the real question…

                        Zaos was planning to use the assassins that Aleni might succeed in joining their side to start a new mercenary group. Still, even so, he will need the help of some people of that country. Considering that Zaos was already thinking of an expansion, perhaps trying to ally himself with someone that could become an enemy soon wasn't a good idea…

"If you are planning to start a mercenary group from scratch, you should do the right thing," Aleni said. "Remember, we are doing this to build a place for Milliendra to call home and to be a place that she won't have to abandon."

                        Zaos nodded. He needed to make things right to create the best environment possible for Milliendra. He also couldn't think of using those three minions since, based on what Aleni said, their loyalty was already wavering…

                        In the mercenaries' land, Zaos will have to use his strength to prove his point and reach his goals, but perhaps he might use his strength in a more efficient way. After all, he didn't want to build an empire for Milliendra.. He wanted to build a home for her.