As expected, the disaster was over and civilians were dispersing, except for the few tribes that knew their lands were definitely destroyed and the game would not likely return any time soon because of all the ash covering the ground. Most treasure hunters who listened to Andrew's advise already left for other places, while the ones who stayed behind in the danger zone most likely died.
The Sword sect was still present and cheered when they saw the duo arriving. Only Zia snickered and mumbled 'I told you so' under her nose, but still went to fist-bump them in greeting. Nick thanked everyone for their help and passed over four Qi restoration potions to the winning group and explained that the task here was done and they managed to eliminate the rest of Holy Order's forces that were present.
Even elder Jerold looked at him in disbelief, not to speak of his disciples, so Nick sighed, dropped elder Silvio's corpse on the ground in front of him, or rather the two pieces that were once the elder, and introduced to the group explaining who he was and what duties he fulfilled in the Holy Order. Then, under many jealous eyes he put back the body in his 'meteorite ring' and invited everyone for a round of pizza during the next summer after the Olympic games.
Many disciples were confused at this invitation, but Zia proudly explained how she organized the first international sports competition in the world and how the next event will be even grander than the previous.
When Nick saw the looks of disbelief around, he invited Andrew over and before the prince could get his awaited report, he had to explain how impressive actually that competition was. In addition, YunYun told how her brother in law was gathering elites from the Lethe kingdom and princess Cira definitely was doing the same in Styx kingdom as well.
Then Nick casually added information about Meyer family building the new arena for at least twenty thousand spectators and now even Zia and Andrew got all fired up, and forgot where they were and what they were doing. In the end the Sword sect's disciples happily accepted Nick's invitation and he pulled Andrew away to finally report and inquire about the news.
"Your idea was great!" Andrew immediately shared his experiences, "After we started to spread the information about the fraudsters and the fake priests, there was an incident when in a medium large tribe one priest from the Lori kingdom persuaded the elder to give up most of his valuables even when all the other tribe members were against it. But as soon as our messenger explained the new law and the necessity of permits for preaching, the elder was immediately removed from his position and the priest simply killed by tribesmen. Then news about the fraudsters spread like wildfire and I didn't even need to do anything – locals started to take law in their own hands and priests began to disappear one after another without a trace."
"Not bad." Nick nodded, "Although I don't really like the all 'taking law in their own hands' part."
"But what did you expect?" Prince looked at his friend in disbelief, "This is jungle! People don't duel here for honor, they kill each other during the night with poison darts or arrows! So what if some random Qi master comes over the river - if locals decide he's the enemy, no Qi protection will save him! Turned out that until now they mostly endured them because they thought the priests were something like government officials, but as soon as it was cleared, I doubt anyone will even ask for their permits in the future. Jungle tribes have enough of their own gods to worship and don't need other mystical beings."
"What about the Lethe kingdom? How did they react?" Nick touched his chin while thinking, "Even though you or your father directly didn't do anything, their priests are dying here."
"That's the good part! Fifteen to twenty days ago together with the Sand kingdom they launched a larger scale attack on the Sun kingdom. I doubt they will be capable of splitting their forces in two fronts, especially when the geographical situation for offensive warfare here is so disadvantageous."
Prince Andrew excitedly explained and only after the last sentence he noticed the stupefied expressions on Nick's and YunYun's faces.
"S … sorry, that's not really a good part." He blushed, realizing own his mistake, "Of course, the Sun kingdom is our closest ally and we sent the message to king Alexander Maxwell as soon as we got that information. To be more exact, we send every little bit of information we get about our southern neighbors to him – our spy network is our strong point in this case."
"Don't stress about it." Nick recovered and waved him off, "Does Zia know about it?"
"Know about what?" They heard a girls voice behind Nick.
"Sigh, Zia. Lori and Sand kingdoms have launched a large attack at the Sun kingdom. We were just talking about it." Nick explained.
"What's the big deal? Let's go and smash them!" Zia grinned and grabbed her sword handle.
"It wouldn't bad if few Qi masters could turn the scales of war." Andrew sighed as well, "Unfortunately, even though the army forces won't arrive to the front during the next month, you three won't be able to stop them anyway."
The atmosphere turned gloomy all of sudden, but then Nick's eyes lit up.
"Who told you that? Give us all the intelligence you have on this. Maybe we can lend a helping hand after all."
Even though everyone was used to Nick's unusual way of thinking, they still looked at him in disbelief.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He grinned, "Andrew, you are the heir to the kingdom and the future king, tell us the basic conditions on successfully fighting a war."
"Well … actually my older brother will become king. But answering your question – manpower and wealth, of course." Andrew shrugged.
"The what about the peace at home?" Nick's grin grew wider, "Or the inability to provide provisions despite the wealth?"
"You're talking … about guerrilla tactics?" YunYun asked in confusion and disappointment. Such things were below any Qi sword master's honor and were generally despised on the Eastern continent.
"Exactly. Why the three of you look at me like that? There is nothing wrong with it!" It was Nick's turn to get disappointed, "Do you honestly think that going to war to kill thousands, tens of thousands of people is an honorable thing to do? Openly and honorably making tens of thousands children orphans and wives – widows is also an honorable thing to do? Don't make me laugh! Those bastards not only support slavery, but also the psychopaths from the Holy Order and now when they 'honorably' launch a large scale attack we have to turn our backs and let them rape us? Are the three of you f*cking kidding me?"
"Uhm ..." Prince Andrew blushed at this verbal attack and scratched his head, "If you put it that way, you are, of course, correct. But if you perform atrocities on their land, doesn't it make you the same as them?"
Both girls nodded in agreement – this was the exact reason why they were disgusted by Nick's idea.
"Who told you that we are going to do anything atrocious? As if you don't know me." Nick sighed, "Give us all the information you have and maybe we can figure out a plan how to help our Sun kingdom."
They sat around the prince and the map he put in front of him.
"As you know, the Lori kingdom is not really a kingdom, but actually a theocracy. There is no royal family, but only the church of the goddess Lori and the highest person in power is bishop who rules over hundreds of high priests, elder priests and … well … regular priests. The country shares the large oval-shaped desert in the east with the Sand kingdom and probably because of that they have become a historic allies for centuries. But also because of this desert its actual territory is almost halved and most of its population is located in the cities along the coast, except for the capital Moira that is in the south-west around four hundred kilometers from the coastline. This geographical peculiarity turned out to be an advantage for the Sun kingdom, because Lori kingdom's forces have to make a long and expensive roundabout route to arrive at your southern borders. Thus, even if I said they launched a large attack, realistically they can take part in war only two months from now."
For the next two hours Andrew explained every detail he knew about his southern neighbors and even disclosed some secret information as well.
After he finished, both cousins and he looked expectantly at Nick.
"What? Seriously?" Nick got upset again, "Do you expect me to instantly come up with a plan to prevent or win a war? I'm not a magician, you know!"
"In that case, what do we do?" YunYun didn't pay attention to his change of mood.
"Whatever we do, we'll probably need more alchemy supplies, but I guess we can stack up on everything in Moira." Nick scratched his head and answered.
"I doubt it will be that easy." Andrew disagreed, "All the alchemy and, actually, medicine as well is in the hands of the church. You probably will have to rob their warehouses or something."
"Hmm. It will take us some time to get back to Aurora. Maybe we can go as we are and think of something on the way?" Nick pondered.
"Why don't you just come to our capital Selva and restock there? I'll send a messenger to my father and he could help you to prepare some stuff." Andrew suggested, but the three looked at him with weird expressions.
"What? You don't think it's a good idea?" He was confused.
"No, it is a great idea." YunYun tried to answer politely, "But do you really think there is a messenger faster than us?"
"Oh, right." Andrew blushed, "In that case, I guess I'll go with you. I completed my assignment and have been stuck in this jungle for far too long. I'll just give out few orders and we can be on our way."
"Maybe we can rest for the night and go tomorrow. If we're fast, we will arrive before the dark anyway." Nick suggested, "Zia, are you going back with your fellow disciples?"
"Nope!" Zia's smile shone like a second sun, "They left without me. I finally figured out the trick and elder had no other choice but to let me go with you."
"So you challenged him already?" Nick was surprised. He was optimistic about Zia's chances to think of the simple solution, but he didn't really think she would immediately challenge the elder and win the first fight.
"No, as soon as I thought of the trick, I went to challenge him, but he just sighed and told me to be careful. I didn't even know he was that nice."
'He didn't want to get his old bones broken, that's all!' Nick thought to himself, but welcomed Zia's company.
"Great, then you two can deal with 'the Olympic' questions while we are in Selva, but meanwhile we'll purchase all the alchemy materials we need." Nick didn't forget Andrew's heart's desires and tried to help his friend out once again and the latter threw him an appreciative glance.
Zia didn't notice it in her excitement of being free again, but YunYun realized Nick's intentions and finally the last pieces of jealousy disappeared. Zia and Nick were always too close and chummy with each other for her to feel comfortable, but now that she saw how Nick was almost actively trying to make those two a pair, she found her previous thoughts laughable.