On their way back, Evans asked, "You overlooked my warnings and chose to spend the sum that would be nearly impossible for the kingdom to gather."
"Evans, listen, I did that because I am confident in getting that much amount. Let me explain-"
"What are you trying to explain. Do you know it's thrice the kingdom's total earnings? Are you going to pull a gold mine out of nowhere?" Evans interjected.
"Well, I wish I could then I wouldn't need to argue without." Eric chuckled but Evans with a deadpan expression looking at him.
"Evans, The money I would give them would return back to the kingdom, one way or other. Actually, the kingdom is the beneficiary of this arrangement."
"Huh! How?"
"Its investment, You can't view it as the salary we pay to the soldiers and get nothing in return. If we are spending 100,000 gold coins on them, they will give the crops to us. So we get back most of the investment." Eric happily explained.
Evans seemed to be in deep thought, calculating something in his mind. He suddenly spoke up, "but the total value of their produce is around 57,000 gold coins yearly under normal circumstances if there is no major crop failure. It's still 53,000 short. Where would the remaining amount come from, out of air?."
"Evans, believe me, the crop yield from this year would increase at least three folds." Eric had calculated it If the seeds provided by the system were just as advanced as the system had described, then the crop yield this season would surely increase by three-fold.
Evans nodded. "Why just three-fold increase, why not five-folds." he continued, "Eric, We can stop this mess at this stage, but if the news spreads far and wide. It will be embarrassing if we are unable to pay the farmers."
Eric shook his head and quieted down, looked out of the window of the carriage, gazing at the green scenery.
Evans understood it would be fruitless trying to persuade him any further. Instead, he would let elders take care of Eric. He would inform Adney and Kipler.
…
Northern mountains, Alvaton.
The Northern mountain falls under the territory of the Alvaton, but due to the limited number of troops, the commanders rarely send their soldiers to patrol on the other side.
The mountainous region had sparse vegetation, thus the troops needed a robust supply chain working all round the year.
The boundary of the Dazar kingdom was 30 kilometers away from the mountains, but since the previous skirmish, they had been building up the military camps within the boundaries of Alvaton.
They had estimated that there were a minimum of 12,000 soldiers on the other side, compared to a 7 thousand on their side, Dazar was sending even more troops to this border. It was clear that their intentions weren't good.
General Garett, the commander of northern forces, had sent three brigades of 500 each to monitor the passes in the mountains. There were only three passes from which an attack on any side was possible.
…
Commander Balder had just climbed on the boulder he was sitting on, it was just situated out of the camp. He was gazing at the magnificent mountains, he had great reverence for whoever built these majestic mountains.
He heard the arguing noises and ran towards the source. He saw some soldiers dressed in yellow arguing with his men.
There was only one thought in his mind, what these Dazarian scums were doing here. Who else in their right state of mind would wear the light yellow dresses, which shined brightly under the sun?
"What happened," Balder asked his men.
"Sir, Our men who had gone to patrol the other side didn't return. So we arranged a search team to look for them. We didn't find our men but these men appeared out of nowhere near the passes."
"We suspect they are related to the disappearance of our men," the scarred soldier said.
Balder analyzed the facial expression of twenty yellow dressed soldiers, they didn't look even a bit worried, knowing that they were standing in the enemy camp and had no chance of escape.
This could only happen if these people were dimwits which didn't seem possible hearing their arguments.
Or they were sure that their friends would rescue them if they were in trouble, which was not good news for him.
He barked at his soldiers without thinking twice, "Get ready for the battle." it was better to be prepared for the worst.
The soldier's first reaction was looking around the camp for the sign of the enemy but except the twenty-odd soldiers, they found nothing.
Commander Balder was serious, thus despite their reluctance they donned the heavy armor and pulled out their weapons from the tents, ready for the enemy who was not in sight.
The Dazarian soldiers were surprised by the strong precautionary action of the brigade commander.
Within an hour, there was a sudden shower of arrows on the camp…
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(Today's 3/3)