"Okay guys, let's sum up everything that we know so far."

Instead of relying on their imagination alone, Fen pulled out his personal knife - the only weapon he was allowed to carry within the walls of the city without holding an official position. In fact, though, this knife was nothing more than a tool he would use either while eating or in random situations like the one at hand.

"Let's start from the bottom and work our way up."

Relying on his memory alone, Fen used his knife to carve the general idea of how the Gizadian empire and its southern neighbours used to look like. Noticing an anxious look of the Innkeeper, Fen momentarily stopped his work only to reach for his pouch and throw a small gold towards him.

An unnecessary generosity as even a brand new desk like the one Fen was vandalising right now could cost at most maybe five silvers, meaning the young mercenary just overpaid more than twelve times!

But given how little this spare change meant to Fen at this point, just the amount of hassle that he avoided by trying to exchange this smallest denomination that he carried on him for something even smaller was worth it.

"Okay then. Here we have the empire, Shagon, Shalia, and respectively Gizad, Kinar and Kinzar to their west. Given how far away we are from the west coast, let's omit the countries there for now."

With the entire map of the part of the continent that could have any influence of their life now nicely carved into the wood of the desk, Fen placed the tip of his knife at the bottom-right corner of the makeshift plan.

"From what you just told me, Bizaram province declared its independence…"

Moving the tip of his knife to somewhere in the middle of the eastern Kingdom of Shagon, Fen carved its bottom half away.

"And they took over Gizadian eastern plains."

With Victor interjecting, Fen quickly carved out a few more lines before marking the area that they outlined with a simple rune."Due to my lacking artistic abilities, let's omit the factions withing Gizadian itself and treat them as a greater whole. From what I remember, there are three central factions centred around the imperial road and city of Akhaz, with the merchant league declaring they will join whoever will remain supreme in that coastal city. That makes them a single entity in my eyes."magic

Drawing the very first arbitrary line of how far each faction's influence could spread, Fen pointed the tip of his blade at the remaining, western part of Gizadian Empire.

"While there is Church, Inquisition and Royal faction located in the west, I do honestly believe we should treat them as a single organism. From my time in the south, I can tell that Inquisition is in cahoots with the royal family, while the church, instead of overseeing the inquisition, is actually nothing more but its more propaganda-friendly face. And that means…"

Given how all the division lines were already drawn, there was no point or even a way to add any more markings to the map just to pinpoint the location of the Royal faction.

"That they openly split their forces in the rumours they are ought to spread, just to make their enemies think they are weaker than they are. That also explains the move from the merchant league in the centre."

Finishing up Fen's words, Orsha nodded her head with understanding, as if she was familiar with what her young friend was talking about. Turning her head to the side, she smiled to Victor before lowering her head a bit.

"I'm sorry, dear. For now, just take our word for that. While I don't know what you went through in that rotten place…"

Moving her eyes on Fen's face, the female mercenary betrayed the curiosity that was eating away at her soul before shaking that unsavoury feeling and picking her sentence up.

"... I can fully agree with all three of those factions being in fact just three faces of the same devil."

Nodding his head in acknowledgement of Orsha's words, Fen moved his pointing tool at Kinar. Drawing a line between its north-eastern border and the insides of Shalian Kingdom, the young man raised his eyes towards his friends.

"No matter whether our small scheme out there worked out or not, the war is imminent. The question is, who will gain the upper hand. While I would love to side with Kinar given how much we can earn from being friends with the council… I'm not really sure whether the republic can still hold up to the standards of the old mercenary kingdom when it comes to the quality of their troops. Those few decades of peace and prosperity that Kinar could enjoy ever since the fall of the old kingdom… When compared to the slightly unstable situation in Shalia, I'm keen to believe it will be the north that will reign victorious in this conflict."

Saying those words out in the open could seem like a poor decision to make, but with how things were developing in the republic, Fen wasn't really worried about the potential consequences of his actions. Given how everyone in the seat of power knew about his exploits in the north, it was only natural for him and his fellow commanders to analyze the situation without looking at sympathies or local patriotism… Especially with how their patriotism should be oriented to the Kingdom of their own making!Additionally, the war summons directed to all the elites related to the government made it clear that Kinar now had greater problems to solve than some unruly mercenaries. And it also meant that even if the push were to come to shove resulting in an arrest warrant issued against Fen and his companions, there wouldn't be any real force strictly bound to Kinarian side that would actually be capable of taking them down!

"I'm not so sure about this. Don't forget that in a war, the economy is just as important as the number of troops one can put in the line. Since we are yet to be struck with a single war-tax, I don't think the council takes the northern threat all that seriously."

Suddenly stepping in to the discussion that was quickly turning into nothing more but Fen's monologue, Victor pointed at an area near the border, exactly where the stronghold was being built.

"I know the elite summons are putting a shade on my words, but I do personally think that those summonses… They weren't fully warranted with just the erupting war. I think the council noticed that with how insanely rich and powerful some of its elites are, making a move to make sure they will fall in line if necessary."

Proving to be the best diplomat amongst the three of them once again, Victor explained his train of thoughts.

"Point noted. But before we move to the details, there is one place that remains. Kinzar."

At this point, the faces of all three of the mercenaries darkened. Debating over the conflicts that influenced their situation but didn't apply to them directly was far easier than debating over the situation they were directly both responsible for and involved in.

"Come on, guys. Don't make this kind of faces right now. It is way to late for regret. All we can do right now is show the damned guts and face the consequences of our own actions."

Noticing the tense atmosphere around the table, Orsha riled up a bit. At the same time, Fen could feel a sting on his soul when he heard the girl shout those words. While he could understand why she got so emotional over it, given how she was the only one mutilated in that conflict, the fact that she admitted to what they did out loud, right in the open…

"Yeah, we get it."

Surprisingly, Victor was the first one to attempt calming the girl down. While spreading the news of their exploits had some purpose, doing it too much could only bring harm to their plans.

"For now, let me just make sure. While the chaos in the south seems to be quite… attractive for our situation, I don't think we should change our focus. Rather than that, just let everyone enjoy their part of the southern cake while using their busy period to grow in the north. Do you agree with me on that point, guys?"

As attractive as participating in the southern fiesta could be given all the opportunities of doing so, Fen was quite sure that entering this part of the political game could only cause them grief. If they alone were capable of seeing the chance that the southern chaos offered, then all the countries surrounding what used to be Gizadian empire were sure to be aware of it just as well!

After all, when the old kingdom was falling down, everyone who had even the remotest border with it participated in its partition! In the end, it's hard to say no to free land, taxes and manpower!

"Yeah. There is no point in splitting our focus for now. Unless something unexpected were to happen right now…"