Elijah paused for a second before deciding to bite the bullet. After all, he was already locked in with his current issues and needed a way out, which he hoped would be this lad.

Darius was an enigma to him currently, so if the lad claimed to be able to help him out of this situation, he could at least listen to his input.

The Royal Seneschal wasn't so obtuse that he would pass up an opportunity due to pride or prejudice, as such he directly shared the three big issues the camp was facing.

Firstly, the safety provided by the priests by creating a peaceful shelter. Secondly, resources for daily living and upkeep. Thirdly, funding for all matters concerning the above two points.

Of course, there were also other minor problems like faction conflicts, laziness, arrogance, and distrust between the groups.

Elijah also filled Darius in about the situation regarding the battlefront, the casualties over the past week on their side, and that of the undead, the Bone Dragon, and the remnant protectors of the Stonekeeper, as well as what they knew of the Marasmus himself.

Darius listened as his eyes kept shining, his formerly hare-brained scheme becoming more and more refined as he soaked up both data and information, processing them mentally to fit into his overarching scheme.

Elijah noticed the shine in Darius's eyes and felt his heart thump. The fact that Darius could barely conceal it showed his utter confidence in his ideas, and that all the fellow had lacked was information.

As a sharp fellow, the Royal Seneschal capitalized on this to share even insider information with the young lad, hoping it would be able to help in some way.

Although Darius' Mind Power was weaker than his, meaning that the fellow was less intelligent, Elijah did not dare underestimate the power of external help.

As they said, the bystander could always see clearer than the parties involved.

Darius, a young talent not involved in the chaos and much of the current encampment might be able to see things he could not due to various constraints, especially since the boy supposedly hailed from a mighty empire.

Or better yet, the saying that two heads were better than one.

Darius eventually nodded to indicate that he had heard enough and Elijah stopped with what had almost devolved into banal gossip. Such information had little use.

As he thought, it was not very useful to what Darius had cooked up so far. Since he had done his part, Elijah leaned back into his seat and released a deep breath, gazing at Darius silently as he waited for the young Baron Stone to share his plan.

Darius drummed the table silently for a few seconds, settling his mind as he decided how much he should reveal to Elijah to win his trust, while still retaining his secrets.

He paused and pulled his hand away as he suddenly spoke.

"On the first issue, I already have a solution.

"

Darius took out one of his Common Purification Potions and placed them on the table.

"You might be surprised with their potency and I can provide enough to supplement the camp.

"

When Elijah saw this, his eyes shined. Of course, he knew what these were for, but in the current situation, they were as rare and precious as air itself.

No faction would ever take out their stockpile of such potions to cater to the camp. They were saving them for their own men when in combat or in times of emergency, when the priests could no longer be paid for example.

The Royal Faction also did not dare take out their own stockpile foolishly, as they would be offending the priests while wasting their resources on fellows who would not pay back this gratitude.

In this case, it would be Darius offending the priests - yet that was inevitable since he wanted to utilize his undead followers - while also bringing in the resources.

This would allow Elijah to tamper down on the priests' exorbitant prices, or even make do without them altogether, as long as Darius could maintain supply.

Thinking about the issue of supply, Elijah frowned. Darius saw this and chuckled.

"I'm willing to provide you 700 Common Purification Potions by midnight, so you will have a week's worth it advance. That way, there should be no interruption in the supply should I die or disappear for at least a week.

"

Elijah's frown abated as he nodded with admiration.

"Sounds good.

"

Darius tapped the table lightly once more.

"For the second issue concerning resources, it seems like it is two-fold. The residents don't pay enough while those meant to fetch them charge too much.

"

The fellow rubbed his chin.

"A hot-headed way to resolve this would be to threaten the fellows that if they don't pay, they don't eat. However, this would be the epitome of foolishness, as we would only earn the mockery of the various factions. They would just use their own private channels to secure supplies and ignore the mandates of the chairman altogether, treating you like a figurehead.

"

Elijah nodded with a sigh. This was exactly the first solution he had thought up, discarded almost immediately after for Darius' listed consequence.

After all, it would undermine his position and make him seem like a youth who had no understanding of how the world worked to these old foxes.

Darius continued.

"The only breakthrough point would be to cut out the middlemen somehow, or lower the expenses to the point where the donations provided by the factions do not cause losses on the balance sheet.

"

Elijah grunted in agreement. This was what he had been chasing so far to no avail. He had been trying to cut out the middlemen, but it was almost impossible to find Journeyman level mages or fighters with spatial abilities.

The ones who fit the bill knew about their rarity and had already banded together as a temporary union and it was next to impossible to do it without them.

His next attempt had been to try and get them to lower their prices through threats, warnings, coercion, discord, entrapment, or trickery.

However, none had worked as the union was not about to let their profit potential slip away.

No matter what he used, they took it head-on like a monolith, determined to ride out any wave because they knew they would come out on top eventually, troubling the Royal Seneschal to no end.