Over the next several days, Aurelia put us to use in cleaning up the city. Making good use of Lia's strong bureaucratic skills, Aurelia had her assist with the general administration of the city and help with the interview process for filling the many new open spots. And of course, the reason for so many new open spots was because of me. Much like when we first arrived, Aurelia asked me to go around and deal with the people who are standing against her. She didn't want me to remove everyone though and gave me a list of people who had staunchly supported the Archidux from the beginning. This time, however, she didn't want me to be too discreet about it.
Naturally, news of the people supporting Aurelia's uncle mysteriously disappearing spread. But with a very controlled manner, likely being Lia's handy work, it didn't spread to the general public and was mostly contained to the Archidux's faction and a handful on our side.
And that's not the only rumour that's been spreading. Although perhaps it's more misinformation than a rumour, people have been saying things like, 'Lia's a mute'. When I first heard this neither me nor Aurelia couldn't hold back from laughing a bit. The cause of this was the Nether Pepper Curry, she had a few days ago. Whenever she opened her mouth, she would still feel a burn and spent the last couple of days not consuming anything other than milk. Her not speaking out loud wasn't a problem for me and Aurelia since we can communicate with telepathy, but this confused many of the other officials Lia was working with. The older ones paid it little mind, but the younger and newer staff got a nice scare after Lia recovered and spoke aloud for the first time in a while.
With Lia at full capacity, the training for the new staff went much faster and under her strict guidance, the newly recruited officials seem to be able to handle everything they need to be with no mistakes. And now that the internal administration of the Capital has been cleaned up and mostly replaced with people loyal to Aurelia, she has us gather to in her chambers again to discuss the next step.
"While I've had you two deal with cleaning the Capital for me, I haven't slacked off either and had been looking into what my Uncle has been up to. First off, it seems he realised I had been laying low all these years and hiding my power."
"I have barely seen you leave your room, just when did you find the time to do this?" I ask.
"Do you think I've done nothing but sing, dance, and paint for the last decade? I've too have been sowing seeds and making plans for the future. My Uncle isn't the only who with the ability to move spies around. As I was saying, his movements are becoming more hurried. Whether this is because he thinks I might wrest true control of the military from him or he sees me an actual threat, I don't know, but it is likely one of the two since his actions have been much bolder compared to the past. At this rate, he might take the army and march on the Capital. In the past, he hadn't taken me seriously and left me alone save for a few assassination attempt here and there. This was mostly due to me being a popular public figure amongst the plebians. The common citizens enjoyed listening to me sing and the merchants were able to sell my paintings for a nice price, this popularity made it hard for my Uncle to make public moves against me without losing the faith of the citizens."
"But the situation is different now, right?" Lia asks.
"It is as you say, the situation has changed greatly. While the Legendary Masters had chosen to stay removed from this conflict, my Uncle still had the upper hand in terms of raw manpower and personal strength. His ability in statecraft was known to be worse than both my Father and Grandfather, but as I had never publicly shown my capabilities before, many of the nobility and other government officials chose to support him over me. Coupled with his long time affiliation with the military, in their mind, between me and him the choice was obvious. This thought has changed in recent times though, with the appearance of you two my influence has spread greatly. The old thought of me not having and talent for statecraft has almost been entirely forgotten and my apparent lack of personal strength is proving to be false. Word of my actions in Ugernum has spread to my Uncle and his aids, and while I don't know the specifics, he is currently gathering a large military force. I want your opinions on this matter as I haven't personally experienced large scale battles, discounting you two, our forces are severely outnumbered ten to one. I need to know now so I can proceed to make the proper preparations, with the strength of three of us, can we fight back against a siege and come out victorious?"
I opt to remain silent for this as I can't give a strain answer due to my own lack of experience in this kind of large-scale warfare. Perhaps if I had more levels I alone could change the tides of battle, but a couple Tier 4 classes with sufficient levels are enough to hold me back, not to mention the Tier 5's that likely serve in the military.
Lia on the other hand is thinking really hard over this, taking a small peak into her head, she is calculating every possible scenario she can think of. After a couple of minutes, Lia breaks the silence.
"Depending on how much time we have and under the right condition, we can not only come out relatively unscathed from a siege, but we may be able to end the conflict in a single battle."