Undercurrents and reunion.

While Renzo and his entourage were camping, Irelia training, and Hyuna heading back, a group of individuals in the previous village where Indah rested was gathering inside of the village chief house.

The village chief, together with the Noxian war leader and the owner of the fighting arena, were all gathered in this room, discussing the same problem that arose during these days.

Worrying news reached the village chief, apparently, a resistance has taken over the Korale village in the east, and there have been sightings of scouts in other villages that are under the influence of Noxus.

This news, coupled with the recent events of Renzo's group at the village gates, has exposed who they are, and more importantly, who entered their village without them knowing or being able to do anything about it.

"We can't let them run rampant in our lands, if we don't do something about it and impose our power, we will only make them understand that they can do the same in the other villages!" roared the Noxian war leader cockily and bravely.

He more than anyone else understood the dangers of not making it clear who is in charge in these lands, and the price they would pay if they reacted too late.

The village chief nodded his head as he added "We really couldn't do anything before, mostly because of the danger of putting our people in harm's way. We must make a tighter control on the gates and start patrolling, otherwise... I think you can imagine by now."

Hearing his words, the other two figures showed grim expressions on their faces. Of course, they understood, unlike the villagers who received no news, they were aware of the status of the invasion.

If any powerful army came here, their heads would roll on the ground, the village chief for betraying Ionia, and the Noxians, needless to say.

The arena chief asked with a serious expression "We will inform the other villages?" to which the other two nodded their heads as the war leader replied, "We have at least four battalions scattered among the villages, enough men to stand up to some army, however it is of extreme urgency that we have more patrols raking the areas surrounding Korale village." Shaking his head in the direction of the village chief he continued "My men said that group was no big deal, so we could mop them up if necessary, however, we don't know if they are an advance guard or just all the assets they have."

Hearing his words, both figures nodded in agreement, it was quite an accurate assessment.

"I will try to meet these ensuing days along with the other villages and arrange what is necessary, I just need you to ensure that everything will be under control in the meantime, understood?" the village chief asked firmly and seriously as he looked into the eyes of both Noxians.

The village chief nodded his head as the Noxian war leader flashed a confident smile.

"Very well, if that is all we can call the meeting to a close." said as the village headman stood up, however, he was stopped by the words of the Noxian war leader "Wait, there is something else left to say." hearing his words both figures looked towards the black-haired Noxian in heavy armor with arched eyebrows and curiosity.

"I'm more than sure another batch of reinforcements are on their way, Noxus will not stand idly by while they destroy our armies, if we hold on and keep a cool head we will simply see the reinforcements wipe out any threat and even help us expand much further."

Hearing this, both figures rose from their seats with broad smiles on their faces, 'Noxus will not forget us!' They both thought as they tried to keep their composure "If what you say is true then it's only a matter of time." said with vigor and joy in his voice the village headman.

The Noxian war leader simply smiled at his words as he raised his rapier to his shoulders, standing up and heading towards the exit of the room, leaving simple words for both figures "Noxus always answers, and Noxus never forgets."

After saying those words, the Noxian war leader retreated from the room, leaving the village headman and the village master with beaming smiles on their faces as they looked at each other.

It was clear that Noxus can always bounce back from stumbles, after all, they are the greatest empire in all of Runeterra.

With renewed hope and high spirits, they both left the room, one heading towards their arena to continue tonight's fights, the other going to prepare what was needed to talk and set up a joint defense in the area.

A long night lay before them.

****

At the same time offshore, a few hundred kilometers from Fae'lor.

The convoy led by Admiral Duqal was waiting at sea for the other reinforcements coming from Shurima, and the lands southwest of Valoran.

It is for this reason that the 6-day voyage from the Drakkengate to Ionia was delayed to almost two full weeks. Usually, Admiral Duqal would have simply headed for Ionia and left the reinforcements to their fate to arrive.

However, the recent brutal defeat of his entire force, coupled with the need to secure every man in Ionia, along with the new weapons and figures, forced the Admiral to wait bitterly at sea, amidst the treacherous and dangerous waters of the Ionian Sea.

'This war has no head or feet anymore, I don't understand what the fuck Boram is trying to get out of all this, I'm more than sure the price isn't worth the troops lost or the expense.' Duqal thought as he looked up at the starry sky.

He, a man who has been on several fronts and wars throughout his career, knew how to recognize the defeat Noxus suffered in the course of two battles.

The best option would be to retreat and maintain control over Fae'lor, and the Navori coast along with other islands.

However, this was not the case. The invasion, or rather a war, must continue. Recover the lost advance, obtain the Placidium and other important points as well as Barhl, and eliminate the various figures that rose up during this course.

'The Fist of Ionia, The Yellow Lightning, and The Dancing Blade.' Duqal thought to himself.

He heard of their exploits, though he doubted the strength attributed to them, the reality of war left him no choice but to accept it and take it into account during the coming battles. To say that the future looked somewhat bleak and bitter was an understatement, yet it seemed that the tacticians and strategists had formed a plan to defeat these figures who could destroy armies on their own.

For example, the Yellow Flash belonged to a village in Barhl, and all they had to do was to destroy it and prevent any kind of life from ever springing up there again.

The Fist of Ionia would be killed by the various assassination squads that are not only on their ship but also on the other transport ships.

While the young Dancing Blade would suffer the same fate as the Fist of Ionia.

In this way, they planned to confront the three figures that rose among the Ionians. And in case this plan failed, then the decision would be made to use the same weapons as with the Yellow Flash.

For Boram this was already a matter of dignity and might over mere peasants.

'He's an idiot.' Duqal thought to himself as he shook his head, many were the things he would like to say in reproach towards his Great General, however, he understands he must keep them to himself.

Moving his gaze from the starry sky to his cockpit, he watched his crew as they checked the onboard instruments in case of any problems or alerts.

Deciding to take a look around the ship, Duqal walked towards the exit under the watchful eyes of his subordinates, however just as he was about to set foot outside, he heard the shout of the lookout in the crow's nest.

"ALLIED SHIPS ON THE HORIZON! ALLIED SHIPS ON THE HORIZON ASTERN SIDE!"

'Finally, those idiots are here,' Duqal thought to himself, as a smile spread across his face.

"Wake up everyone and get ready to move on, some figures have to board the ship before we set sail for land and disembark."Duqal roared into the cockpit as he disappeared down the corridors to the deck.

Briefly after that, the ship's personnel began to pace the corridors and deck as they prepared to continue their journey.

The second round between Ionia and Noxus was about to begin.

----

The next morning we woke up to feel the first rays of sunlight coming through our tents, after a little morning chat and a bit of tender loving care, Karya and I got up and tidied everything up, while Morpheus ate breakfast beforehand.

After we had eaten and prayed to Janna, we continued our journey to the salt production post, it was only a three to four-hour drive ahead of us, so we didn't worry too much.

The journey proceeded without any problems to speak of. So when I saw the village in the distance, a big smile formed on my face and the others, Sett and Indah were a little confused until we explained that this was our temporary camp.

After they understood, none of them said anything as we headed that way.

However, when Sett realized that we were not heading to the village, but to the backshore where there were only tents, his face showed an ugly expression of disbelief.

Still, as we moved on, he could only accept it and swallow his complaints or comments - there was little he could say in this situation after all.

As we were about to arrive, we sighted to the north of our position Hyuna and Tomura's group being followed in line by the beasts of burden and the remaining apprentices.

With smiles on our faces, Karya, Ymir, Tahru and I looked at each other while laughing loudly.

Once we arrived, Irelia was in front of us greeting us with a big smile as she said "welcome back! I am glad to see each of you doing well! If you need to rest let me know so I can make sure no one disturbs you!" The sweet tone of her voice, coupled with the innocent expression on her face, made each of us spread joy.

"Thank you Irelia, I'm glad to see you well too! You don't know how much I missed you!" Karya exclaimed as she climbed down from the saddle and hugged Irelia.

The latter received her embrace as she closed her eyes, her face blushing.

Climbing down from the saddle with Morpheus on my shoulder, I started gesturing to the apprentices to carry our things inside, while looking with a smile at Karya and Irelia.

After they finished hugging each other, I approached Irelia and stroked her hair as I said "Are you ready for me to make you train until you fall asleep from exhaustion?" seeing my smirk she simply patted my chest as she replied "I'm happy to see you too, how's Morpheus been?"

As she finished her question she kept her eyes on the little kitten who maintained a smug attitude as she closed her eyes.

"Well very well I'd say, he's done nothing but sleep and eat so I don't think he has anything to complain about." I replied while fixing my words in the middle as Karya corrected me.

Irelia simply nodded and then noticed the two new faces in our group, with a doubtful expression she asked "And these are?" as she turned her gaze towards me and Karya.

The latter was the one who answered as she said "They are Indah and Sett, mother and son that we recruited and befriended during our journey." Karya then turned and looked at the mother and son duo as she introduced Irelia "This is Irelia, the youngest member of our group and a great girl."

Seeing the smile on Karya's face, both parties greeted each other respectfully. While Sett looked at Irelia with sparkling eyes.

Observing the latter, I snorted to myself as I thought 'No way Sett, that's not going to happen.'

While Karya, Irelia and Indah chatted, we stood waiting for Hyuna and Tomura to arrive, from a distance we could see them, so we waited for about twenty to thirty minutes until the caravan arrived, Hyuna throwing herself into my arms while laughing out loud "Hahahahahaha, they finally arrived! And they're more than fine, I'll finally be able to continue training!"

Receiving the missile in the form of a person without much trouble, a wry smile formed on my face as I hugged the energetic white-haired girl.

"It's good to see you doing well too, Hyuna," I replied as she raised her head and smiled at me, then she pulled out of the hug and pulled Karya closer, with whom they both exchanged a rare smile and simply waved.

After greeting Irelia, Ymir and Tahru, she turned to look at Indah and Sett as she asked "Who are those two?" her fingers pointing at the duo.

Karya again explained who they were as both parties greeted each other.

After some small talk, we all headed towards the centre of the camp, while Indah and Sett settled in near our circle.

After settling our belongings, we finally had time to have a meeting and talk in a serious manner together with Tomura.

The seven of us gathered around our tents and formed a circle, while Sett sat close to us with his ears wide open waiting to hear something.

Clearing my throat loudly, I observed everyone with a serious look and said with Karya's help "We have a problem, the Noxian presence is quite pronounced and in the villages to the west, we were not able to visit more than two, however I can assure you that the Noxians have a more than secure presence on the rest of the coast, and the villagers are cooperating with them.

Just look at how they set up an arena and daily several villagers and other Jonians line up to watch them. So annexing them is going to prove to be a problem if we don't bring in an army or overwhelming force to make them surrender and accept our terms, and even then I doubt this area will be peaceful after we move from here." When I finished saying my opinion and analysis, I could see that most of them had serious faces, while Karya looked at me with a worried face.

Irelia looked thoughtful as she said "So your option didn't turn out to be positive, will we have to attack them now, or what?" she asked as she looked at us with confusion on her face and a bit of unwillingness.

Sighing loudly, I shook my head as I explained "We're not there yet, however it's going to prove difficult to sway them in our influence this way, unless we show ourselves to be much more powerful, stable and economically superior, I don't think they'll want to go over the edge." I added my opinion while the rest nodded in agreement.

Ymir snorted in disdain as he said aloud "A bunch of traitors, that's what they are, Renzo you know well I respect you and take your orders, however we would do the whole of Ionia a favour if we executed every one of these vermin who didn't hesitate for a minute to surrender to the Noxians. Let's save ourselves the trouble and kill them all, only the children can be saved from all the stupidity their parents did." Hearing Ymir's violent response, most in the group were shocked and dismayed by it.

The group was shocked and dismayed by his words, however I could see out of the corner of my eyes that Karya, Hyuna and Tomura were nodding their heads in agreement.

"We can't kill them! They are our brothers and sisters! Enough we have lost to the Noxians without pointing our weapons at them!" Irelia suddenly exclaimed in alteration as her eyes looked sadly towards the group.

It was Tahru who interceded and said "It's not that we want to do this Irelia, it's that having our enemies on our backs would be a grave mistake. Do you think we are in a position to afford such a thing?" he asked with a serious tone and gentleness in his eyes.

He of all people knew the pain of killing those you consider your own, during his time in the De Navori Brotherhood, the second squadron was ordered to eliminate Vastaya tribes that allied with the Noxians and exchanged information.

More than once you spent sleepless nights in the horror of your actions in the name of Ionia. Wondering if it was really necessary.

Looking into Irelia's eyes, I sighed as I said "If it is in my power, I will not make that decision, however something needs to be done with these villages, we have our source of income here to maintain our faction, plus we need to expand it further, if not, when we head north or east what will happen? What will we do if the Noxians in these villages rise up against us and take our food and production points?" As Irelia listened to my reasoning from Karya, I could see her posture and face shrink as she understood the reason.

"We cannot be compromised in this way by simply having soft hearts. Either we subjugate and control them, or they have to leave here, dead or alive," I finished with firmness in my voice, looking at each of them.

The group looked down at the ground as they thought about what to do, Karya asked "Couldn't we appoint one person to control these villages?"

Hearing her words, the majority did not look at her completely convinced, however I nodded my head while adding "I've been thinking something among those lines, a figure to which the villagers respond, be close to them and also have my trust, although we would compromise our influence in the zone, it is something that would easily be fixed over time, by observing how we treat them and the situation in other villages. " Hearing my explanation, Karya felt that it made a lot of sense and was very attached to what she thought.

"It's quite feasible, but who do we leave there? We don't know anyone of repute enough for that, we didn't have time." She added as I looked at Sett.

'Clearly I wouldn't have added you to our ranks if you didn't prove to be useful.' I thought to myself while smiling.

Sett who was frowning listening to our conversation had no idea I was looking at him.

Karya followed my gaze and when she noticed I was perched on Sett she asked "Are you seriously thinking about it?" her tone of voice full of doubts and disbelief.

I simply nodded and pointed to my reasons "You could take him as a the underlord, we can support him in taking power, the arena owner or putting him as a village chief, although he will not know many things, we can teach him and make him a capable person, he's not a fool, so I don't think we have any problems. What do you think? " I shifted my gaze to Karya as a confident smile played on my face.

Karya thought for several minutes while keeping her eyes on Sett, the group notice that we were looking at Sett, while Karya seemed analyzing and thinking something, they were interested in hearing what was going on, and Hyuna asked "Well what are you talking about? Don't forget we don't understand Piltovian."

I didn't answer while I maintained my smile, meanwhile Karya retrieve her gaze and explained "He's thinking in appointing someone, I'm not going to say who for the time being but just know that is somewhat crazy in many aspects." She then looked over me again and asked "Are you really sure about this? If we do it we may shoot at our feet if we choose the wrong person."

Hearing her solemn tone and looking over her serious expression, didn't falter me from maintaining my smiling face as I answered her with confidence "No, I'm not sure about it and it's something I don't want to resort, however it's the best thing I come up with when thinking about this carefully."

Karya face-palmed hearing my response while with an annoyed voice she answered "We can do it with someone else, it doesn't have to be him." she tried to reason to me.

I nodded my head in agreement while I said "That's indeed the case, however you need to think further into this, I'm going to be putting my trust into a kid that was never shown such a thing, how do you think he would take it? We both know he wishes to prove himself, if we give him the tools to make his mother proud of him, while also helping him raising, how do you think he would feel about us?" I retorted back and I saw her agreeing while in her face an understanding look washed over.

"Sure, there's the chance that he doesn't give a damn about our help, but did he already shown something that could make us believe so? No, he's here sitting with us alongside his mother after being given the chance to stay back and continue with his life. I say, let's give a chance, if I'm prove to be wrong, I would step down for my position and let you all guys continue leading the faction, what do you think?" As Karya heard my words, I saw her looking over me with concern and seriousness all over her face.

"It's not necessary to reach such lengths Ren, don't say that." She reprimanded while I added "I'm being serious, tell the rest later on, meanwhile let's heard what Tomura and Hyuna can tell us from our first batch." I looked over the mentioned people while Karya sighed deeply and asked them.

"Well, he's asking for the results of the first batch."

As Tomura and Hyuna hear her words, the first took out two piece of papers from a bag and start reading "In the Jallel village we delivered 1050 kilograms of Salt and obtained materials to continue constructing here. They were also informed they can start sending the transportation while we would send Apprentices in the rest of the villages along the path.

At the same time, we also sell a little bit more of salt for the materials, then we went towards the Qinag village and sell 400 kg of salt, we were a little bit behind the required number for the village necessities, so the next batch would leave there two bags before continuing their path." Seeing him finishing his report, all of us nodded to him while Ymir frowned and asked "So we're not obtaining money in exchange?"

Karya sighed while explaining "We're going to start obtaining something after delivering our promises to the villages, it would be around the third batch that we're going to start making a lot of money the second batch may get us a little bit, but the bulk would come afterwards." She looked over at Ymir as if she was stupid.

The latter simply said "Oh I see." And shut up while started cleaning her axe.

"We need to expand our salt production capacity to 3000 kg, so we can both satisfy the needs of the nearby villages while also selling something, at the same time opening another trading point in another coastal village later on, we can't centralize out production in just one place." I pointed out while Karya conveyed my words.

Tomura nodded his head while adding "We're going to start producing from tomorrow onwards 900kg each day, that's almost the monthly supply that Jallal village require." Hearing his words I thought to myself 'That's 27 tons in a month, not bad at all.' I nodded to myself.

Currently there were 150 people working each day on the salt production. One person was in charge of working 32 liters of water that produced 4 kilograms of Salt approximately in 3 hours, that would require then to be placed in the oven for further crystalization.

So, a person could produce at best 8 kg of salt, an amount that would be expanded to a greater number after more ovens are built.

There were plans for a large kitchen to be built, where the amount of salt able to be boil will be increased. And with it, the production could be doubled from 4 to 8 or even more kilograms of salt each 3 hours.

"How's the storage of fish? What's the needs to be improve further?" Asked Karya.

It was Irelia and Tomura that answered, the first saying "Just yesterday they started to storage fish after supplying our necessities, when I asked them, they only told me that bigger boats is all they needed, or more of the currents one." She said while looking over Tomura who added "The production of boats would be increased after obtaining a little bit more building materials and creating a shipyard, our carpenters and shipwrights are building the ones in the shores with poor conditions on their sides."

As Tomura pointed out the current situation our shipbuilders were in, I smiled wryly at that while I said to Karya "Let's make sure they aren't angry for that, although we need the money, we need the fish more."

Karya agreed with my words and conveyed them to Tomura. We then continue speaking about the current situation in the camp, which was good but nothing espectacular, we all knew that living on tents wouls eventually bite us back and start creating troubles, more so when storms and rains were something that happens habitually on the place.

Thus, after planning further into the construction of houses and large barracks, we ate our meals and went to rest.

*****

6 chapters ahead on my Patre*n.

2 chapters from 1$, patre*n.com/xerstoren