145 Unfounded Worry (1/2)
On the walls below, the wolf mercenaries had mixed with the local southern warriors and spent their time under the midday sun. The smoke from their fires rose into the sky to mix with the smoke Corco could see in the distance. Since his arrival, the smoke was all he had seen of the enemy.
”How many days does that make?” Corco asked.
”Four, boss.” Dedrick replied.
”I don't like it. What is my good uncle doing over there? Where did he get all that patience from? Shouldn't he be rushing us or something?”
”Of course it is impossible for us to know King Pacha's thoughts,” Tama said, sat among the maps of the local area like she always did during their meetings. ”However, it is not unreasonable to believe that the central king would have calmed quite a bit after his first proper defeat. Surely, he would also feel a great deal of respect towards King Corco and the united estates of the south.”
”...Pacha? Are you sure we're talking about the same person?” Corco turned to raise a brow at Tama. Her actions were even stranger since he knew from Dedrick that she had argued Corco's very point up until his arrival. Still, he didn't expect her to confront him on this. As predicted, the Spy master switched topics instead.
”Whatever his plans are, at least his plots have given us the time to set up countermeasures for their next storm on the castle walls.”
”True. For now we're stuck here though. How does our food situation look?” Corco frowned.
”Not too bad, in theory,” Dedrick said with a look at his notes. Despite Corco's best efforts, the knight still wrote in his native Arcavian. ”Qarasi's got about a year's worth of food-”
A clap from the king interrupted the mercenary captain.
”Great! That's one problem solved then!”
”-but that's before you decided to increase our numbers tenfold.”
Now it was Corco's turn to receive a critical look. Though Dedrick had only been blunt as always, Corco still felt his ears heat up. Rather than look at the captain, he turned to Tama again.
”So that's how much?”
”We have one month's worth of supplies, maybe a bit more.”
”And we can't just go buy more,” Dedrick added. After a thorough sigh and head-scratch, Corco turned back to the smoke in the distance, Tama's voice in his back.
”Now the war has begun, and no one in the Central Kingdom will trade with us. King Pacha has effectively closed off the northern border. Although no proper bans have been sanctioned by the Triumvirate Meeting, no supplies can travel between the north and the south for now. Not only will it be harder to make other lords sell grain to us, even if we do, King Pacha can raid our supplies and pretend they were lost to roaming bandits. He controls the border with his army, so who would know otherwise?”
”Not a problem,” Corco beamed. ”Did you forget about our outstanding harvest? With all the extra food we've made over the last fall, we can easily feed our troops. I'm much more worried about something else.”
”...you're not gonna say you're worried about the commoners, are you?” Dedrick said. Before his arrival, he and Tama had locked horns several times over that very issue. This Corco had heard too.
”If we can't feed the people, they'll starve. We will need a lot of food for some more... advanced plans in the near future.” A shallow smile crept onto Corco's face.
”So just let the commoners starve a bit. My soldiers need to eat and the peasants are used to harsh times.” Tension entered Dedrick's voice as he repeated the same argument again.
”Even though you're a smart guy, sometimes you're an idiot,” Corco said as he turned back to his staff in the room. ”Starvation is the number one reason for revolt, anywhere and anytime. If we don't want to destabilize the entire south, we can't afford a famine. The southern Kingdom is already under threat of division now that Epunamo has worked with the northerners. No reason to make things worse.”
”Right.” A deep sigh showed Dedrick's capitulation. ”We've discussed all of this before either way. Isn't that the reason we sent off the captain to get some more food from the north? What more do you want from me?” Mouth open, Dedrick raised his hands in mock-surrender.
”...maybe a bit of earnestness would not go awry,” Tama mumbled.
”Stop!” Corco rushed in between the two contestants. Already Tama had gotten up from her seat While Dedrick had made his first step forward. If the king didn't step in now, they might have their next division here, in this very room. ”The last thing we need right now is internal conflict. Can you at least pretend to be reasonable until the enemy army is not within eyeshot?”
Corco looked out of the window again. The smoke had lessened, which meant that the enemy's lunchtime was over. Not that it would change much. At this point, no one expected another attack from Pacha.
”Look, none of this is a huge problem. In fact, this is more of a chance than anything. We already have a surplus of food, and Atau is off to improve that further. This way, we can sell cheap grain to the other lords once they start to run out. What happens then you ask? They will no longer be reliant on imports from the north. Instead, they will become reliant on imports from us. If everything goes to plan, we can integrate the entire south into our trade network over the course of this war.”
”However, we will not have the harvest necessary to supply the entire south,” Tama said. ”Although our per-person production of grain and rice has been impressive, Saniya's population is as lacking as its arable land.”