Promotions

"Hope, you won't pay us off with pennies when this is all over, Lord Governor," said Vandal as he got up to leave.

All the eyes of mercenaries focus on me at those words.

"You won't be disappointed by the payment, Captain Vandal," I replied. Mercenaries don't work for free. If we survived, I would have to pay them; it could be their standard fees or pennies; it depends on the lord.

He nodded and walked out. 

Stone is leading them out, where he will access their abilities and integrate them into the army.

Soon, everyone left, leaving only three people on the table. Valentina, Lena, and Edmon. All three of them were powerful mages and thus were invited to the meeting.

I had freed Valentina and Lena earlier. It was the first I did after I got this responsibility.

Many had given them a strange look when they sat on meeting, but nobody said anything. To them, survival is more important than the supposed rumors they have heard.

"Thank you for staying," I said to her.

If she wanted to leave, she could have. Given her prowess and connection, she would have been able to convince a few powerful to leave with her.

"It is my city too, and it became more important to stay since you have become in charge," she said, and I smiled.

"I am glad, you both have stayed," I said gratefully.

Both of them are powerful. I have seen with my eyes how powerful Valentina is and Lena is a mercenary. As for Edmon, I don't have much idea about him, but Valentina hinted that he was not weak.

A minute later, they left. I had a few more things to talk to them, but they needed to go to Stone.

"Madam Caena is asking whether to keep the establishment open?" asked Zela, as the door closed. Last night, I told her to close the establishment in the morning, but today isn't yesterday.

Yesterday, I wasn't the Governor, and it wasn't my responsibility to keep the important people in the city.

"Keep it open and tell her to use everything to make the patrons forget that the army of undead is coming to their lives," I replied and opened the files that Ina and Bell placed in front of me.

I had sent Lola with Stone; she will help him deal with some intricate things.

"The merchants have arrived," informed Zela, an hour later.

I walked out of the conference room and stepped into another. Every important merchant who hadn't escaped is present; there aren't many that escaped.

It's not like many of them didn't want to escape. They do, but face similar problems that Bradshaw had faced. The mercenary doesn't want the deadweight.

Unlike Bradshaw, these people could pay a massive amount of money, which made some mercenaries take them and escape, but these cases were in small numbers.

Even mercenaries who would take any risk for money, know, how difficult it is to escape safely from the net of the undead. Many wouldn't take such risk, even if the merchants offered them, all their wealth.

Only with life, they could enjoy wealth.

I looked at the merchants and they didn't seem to be in a good mood, which isn't surprising seeing the undead are coming.

It may be also because I have taken their guards and will now take their goods without paying. Merchants hate it when they don't get paid for their goods. It didn't matter, if the undead army was coming, what mattered was them getting the money.

"Lord Governor," they greeted.

The meeting started and lasted nearly two hours. It was so frustrating, that I wanted to hack a few of them to death, but controlled myself and used the approach of honey and stick.

In the end, I got what I wanted. It would have been faster if I had just used the stick alone, but I didn't want to go that far unless they left me no choice.

Fortunately, they agreed with my demands.

After merchants, I met another group of stakeholders and by that time, I had finished with them; it was already eleven. 

I had two hours before I had to address the citizen. It is risky; riots could occur if something went wrong, but needed to be done.

"The horde had reached Almin," Zela informed.

The fork from which I was eating stopped midway. For the past two hours, there was no information about it. The undead had started hunting the scouts, and they began to run away from them.

"The information is sent by Meldhorn's war office," she added, and a surprise appeared on my face before it turned into a smile.

"Finally," I said.

Till now, the information had been patchy. The region didn't have powerful enough scouts that could eye on horde and send information without getting discovered.

Now, the problem has been solved with the merchant state providing the information. I could rest assured of the regular information.

Their people have reached near the horde, and it is one, that is dangerous to us. Stone had said this horde would likely be the one that could be at us after it dealt with Almin and Panar.

I wished the two cities would deal with the horde, but seeing the state of things in those cities, forget about dealing with it; they wouldn't be able to resist for more than a few hours before it swept through them.

The Governors of both cities have abandoned them. In Almin, the person who had the old Governor had appointed had also abandoned his post.

The person, the second governor, left in charge had bolted the gates, and it made people angry. The last I heard, there were huge riots happening across the city, with the army unable to get control of the situation.

It could be said, that Almin is good as gone and the undead won't even suffer any losses in conquering it.

I am really hope, I am wrong.

Panar on the other hand, is a much better state. The one who was in charge had also closed the gates but had enough control to apply a strict marshal law so that there were no large-scale riots.

"Did they inform about the size of the horde?" I asked, and she nodded.

"The horde has the strength of two hundred and twenty-five thousand undead. There are also twenty-two pre-levels 30 and five levels 30 and above in the horde, but they said, there might be more hiding," she informed.

See!

I couldn't help but sucked a deep breath hearing that. I shouldn't be surprised; Stone had already guessed the number, and he is accurate.

However, the horde that will come to our city would be around a hundred thousand. It would be split; some undead would stay in the cities conquered, while a large part of it would separate and move to attack other cities.

Most likely Norke.

They wouldn't attack Gailhorn with such numbers; it had a population of three hundred thousand and a better army and powerhouses than the Greltheaven.

Stone said that if they were to attack it, they would either send a big horde, like the one they have sent toward the Port Midlet or attack it from the sea, like they did Ashton Harbor.

This horde is for us.

"Thank them for the information; tell them we are grateful for it," I said. She nodded and closed her eyes.

Click!

"Master Silver Hugo is here," said Ina. "Ask him in," I said, and a second later. Hugo walked in with two lieutenant-rank officers following behind him, holding a stack of documents.

I turned to him and saw him looking at me with complicated emotions. He seemed to sense me looking and controlled his expressions.

"Commander Stone, need your approval, Lord Governor," he said, placing a stack of documents in front of me.

I nodded and took the documents in my hand and could feel the power of skills on them, but I was more interested in the content of the documents.

They are promotion papers. A lot of people are getting promoted, to fill the gaps that those who escaped had left behind.

The first person to be promoted is Captain Azalea. She had jumped a rank. Directly becoming a lieutenant colonel instead of a major.

The same for Captain Julian and Captain Hiren.

The rank is too high for them, but there is no choice, with the number of people they are going to lead, they need to hold this rank. 

They should have been promoted a long time ago. When they fought in Lockridge Castle against the bandits, while the Lancel escaped. Count wanted to do that, but Lancel stopped him.

He felt angry and ashamed and tried to bury the incident whole.

Stena, Hugo, and Lena had also been promoted to lieutenant colonels, along with two mercenary captains. 

Over a hundred were promoted across all ranks.

If look carefully, one would see there are more officers than our army needs, but it is not. The number is perfect as more people going to be added to the army soon.

I read each paper, before signing on it. 

Soon, all the papers were signed, making promotions official.

"Thank you, Lord Governor," Hugo said and left with the papers.

"They breached the walls," said Zela suddenly. I didn't have to ask her, what walls she was talking about.

Almin had been breached, and the horde took only an hour to do it. It made me shudder and panic started to build in my heart before I controlled it.

Now, that they had breached the walls; it wouldn't take long for them to get control of the city.

I didn't say anything to that and got up. This time, I was going to any conference room but out of this mansion. 

I have been here since I was summoned last night. Everything I know comes from others. It is time, I looked at the things myself.

Soon, I walked out of the mansion and sat in the carriage waiting for me.

"Any news from baronies?" I asked, and she shook her head. 

Not a single person is coming from the baronies. Instead, those nobles gathered their men together and formed an army to prepare against the undead.

I wanted to curse the bastards, including my sister, but also understand why they were doing it. To them, their territories and people are more important, and protecting them is their priority, coming to the aid of Greltheaven is not.

Still, it made me angry, and I am not the only one.

Dane was also hopping mad at them, especially Major Jarvis, who had decided to stay in the baronies with his men.

The streets are a lot emptier and there are a lot more guards than they were before. There is martial law in the city, and gatherings, moving without a cause, are not allowed.

However, there are more people than one would find during the usual marshal law. I have no completely restricted movements, people could move, if they want to leave the city or gather in the square.

Speaking of which, thousands have already gathered on the square, but my carriage isn't moving toward them.

There is one thing I have to check before I address my people.

Ten minutes later, I reached near the gate and saw a long line of people, many were children.

I have informed them of the danger, but people still want to leave. It is a normal human reaction. Undead are big-bad horrors and they want to get away from them as far away as possible.

The line is moving slowly, but not slowly enough to make people angry. 

I am letting the people leave, but not as much as people would expect. The guards are checking the documents of each person and most of them would be detained, especially those with children.

It is a delicate process, but Steven seemed to be handling it.

I watched for a few minutes and went to the port gate where the same thing was happening. I spotted a little chaos appearing, but the guards acted quickly and resolved it before it could turn into something more.

I watched for a while before going to the square.

"How are things?" I asked Robin as I stepped out of the carriage and walked toward the podium with him.

"Good, but I still don't like what you are doing, Lord Governor. It is too risky," he said, and I couldn't help but smile.

It is a powder keg. 

If people got angry and rioted, then it would very be dangerous. Even the heavy guards won't be able to control it. 

It is risky, but it needs to be done. They deserve it.

I walked to the podium and turned to face thousands of people. I had faced such a crowd many times, but they had never been as focused on me as they are right now.

I felt the weight of gazes and it shook my knees. I needed to take a deep breath to control myself.

Hun!

I opened my mouth and was about to speak, when suddenly, the feeling came over me and my eyes widened in shock before joy lit up in my eyes.

It is so different, yet familiar. The same as the old man had described; similar to what I had felt months ago.

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