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n“Nah, he was a threat. Look at that small birthmark under his lip… Though that still wouldn’t have saved him from his destined death,”

n“Is that birthmark special?” The tortoise asked as I picked up the man’s head and brought it back to where the monstrous tortoise was.

n“Yes, it’s from the Ashlance family, and I had talked with one of their boys while on the trip I had just come back from. The boy was silent for the most part, but when I began to become more friendly with him, he opened up and revealed tons of juicy information,” I muttered with a large smile.

n“So, what’s the threat?”

n“He could’ve grown stronger in the future. A shank in my cog that could ** my plans later… That’s pretty much it,”

n“Sick bastard…”

n“Well, I guess… To sum it up, they aren’t much of a threat right now but something worth keeping an eye on. Though it’s obvious who they are going to side with, from my predictions, that side won’t be able to keep up with the power struggle unless they pull something out of their ass,”

n“Why do you say that? Do they not have that much manpower?”

n“Meh, I guess… compared to the other sides that I’ve seen. The one side I’m talking about probably has a thousand soldiers in their stash right now, and though that’s before their mercenary requests… they’re still going to lose. The other sides have tens of thousands of soldiers already,”

n“Huh… How do they have that many? Are they from outside the city?”

n“No, that’s just from within the city, and before their mercenary requests… but I have a feeling it won’t be a request. All the sides will probably just use blackmail on the higher tier warriors… I hope they don’t commit suicide before they can even die on the battlefield, though,”

nThe tortoise took a long stare at me before talking again.

n“How many people do you have under control? Does your plan have a safety net in case it falls through?”

n“You’re worrying a lot about somebody who you like just because they give you chocolate cake,” I smirked.

n“I can tell you’re underestimating the power of your city. I’ve seen a few of the top adventurers come inside here just to flex their power, and despite their crude personality, I couldn’t deny their strength,”

n“…”

n“What? Did your plans just fall through?” The tortoise asked again.

n“Nah, I’m adjusting my plans to what you just said… I need more safety nets. I can never be too safe… and do you think you can tell me how powerful they were and how they looked like?”

n“According to your terms, they are about A-rank, and the descriptions of the strongest ones are….”

nI took mental notes of each description and came to some solid conclusions…

n“Seems like they are from the Whitmane family, Ravenwhisk family, and Hardtree family. But I don’t have to worry about them because their strongest warriors have left this puny city,”

n“As I said before, your city isn’t weak and most definitely isn’t puny,”

n“Compared to the surrounding cities, it is… You have to think wider. On a broader scale. Amlas is destined to fall, not just because of the civil war about to occur, but because of the surrounding families in different cities trying to eliminate any threats,”

n“Wait, are you thinking of saving Amlas?”

n“Saving Amlas?”

nMy face suddenly distorted into a chaotic smile that made the tortoise before me visibly shiver, which was apparent by the rumbling rocks.

n“Do what you want, kid,”

nFor the rest of the day, most of the meetings I had made with the other kids were canceled due to the upcoming war, but for some of the kids in smaller families, I was easily able to have a few minutes of their time.

nMost of them were around my age and were pretty smart, so they understood what I was trying to do… kind of.

nThey easily found out that I was trying to gather together multiple families into one side to try and fight the other side, but I would build one group of families a bit stronger than the other.

nOf course, that is easier said than done, but with the useless pride that these kids have, utilizing their authority is as easy as taking candy from a baby.

nThen, for dinner, I caught up with Aisa and Findir about what had happened in New York and about what was going to go down.

nCy, for some reason, was out of reach, and he wouldn’t answer his phone, but we just brushed it off as he normally disappeared like this during dinner.

nHe usually has dinner with his grandparents and mom during off days like these since he rarely gets to see them.

n…

nThe next day, we actually had classes, so I just followed the regular schedule that I had planned out the night before and followed it all the way through.

nWent through my classes like usual, and obviously, we had a substitute for Spear Theory. Then after school, I met with a few more kids I had met while on the trip.

nThis time, they were of bigger families, and I knew the persuasion process would take a while compared to the smaller ones since their pride was so inflated.

nBut thankfully, the impending sense of dread that came with war slightly humbled them a bit as they knew most of their family was relying on the decisions.

nI made use of this and proposed them some deals that not all of them accepted.

nIt was basically free connections with other families, thus pushing my idea of creating two sides with one of them ultimately winning.

nHow would they use it, though? That would be up to them, and it would be best if they followed my suggestions.

nThen, as soon as dinner had come, I ate with Aisa and Findir again… but with no Cy insight.

nI saw him during Spear Theory, but after that, he just completely disappeared for the rest of the day.

nWhat ** did he get himself into…

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