The Quens' chambers...
Arisa was lying on a luxurious bed covered with velvet cushions, the girl was waiting for the chief of her guard to report to her, but to her annoyance he was late, which irritated the monarch to no end.
Trying to cope with boredom the girl tried to read, and it quickly bored her, the invited musicians also could not brighten her leisure time, being on her nerves she threw them all out. So the girl just lay, drilling the ceiling with a tired look, but it quickly bored her.
"Maybe she should invite a man to the court. He will at least somehow brighten my wait." Arisa thought to herself and immediately abandoned the idea, and not because she didn't want to cheat on her husband Toon, she didn't put him at the bottom of the pile. But she loved male attention, the number of her lovers could envy any brothel, young and handsome they 'comforted' her long nights, sometimes more than once.
But now was not a good time, which she knew well as a smart girl, Kias could enter his chambers at any moment, not that she cared much for his opinion, but relations between them were already strained, and considering that he was serving time here for his family's crime, they were very strained.
"And his clan had to get involved in the squabbles of the great houses, idiots!" Kias wasn't directly involved in them, but there was no such thing as vouchsafing, the judges couldn't bring him any charges and he was simply sent away from the empire. At first Arisu was not unreasonably worried that he might try to take revenge, after all, she was a princess of the ruling family, but over the years they somehow rubbed off, and Arisu simply put his worries out of his mind, without him life became much easier.
The door opened and a young man with a leaden face entered the chambers with a quick military stride. He was dressed in ceremonial red armour, his face and body were quite good and Arisu had thought of taking him to bed many times, but each time something stopped her.
"Speak." The queen said imperiously, here in her chambers she didn't have to put on a mask of benevolence, which she was certainly glad of.
"Lin, who is in charge of the troops, has decided to hire mercenaries, and according to my information, they will be ready to move out soon if necessary. The coastal clans of Kali and Kima, supported by the Mena clan and the northern and southern abbots, have formed a protective coalition. The Umi clan is keeping a low profile and refuses to join the coalition, saying 'we can handle it on our own." Kias, seeing the anger on the Queen's face, paused for a moment.
"Idiots!" The girl shouted loudly, she wasn't a strategist and had never been in a battle, but she didn't need to be.
'The clans in the coalition will protect each other, and in case of a breakthrough or a loss, they can always ask for help, or retreat to allied lines, what does Hito think of himself.'
"AAA," Arisa muttered, burrowing her nose into her pillow.
"Worried, about the Umi Clan?" Kias wasn't an idiot, here from context anyone would have understood the reason for the woman's worry.
"You do realise that if they take over the Umi Clan, they could go straight for the capital?"
"Well, not exactly straight, and the terrain in those parts is difficult with mountains and gorges, I would go another way if I were them."
"So what would you do?"
"I landed in Kali and secured a foothold on the beachhead, destroyed the coastal infrastructure, secured the fleet and went to the capital through the Mena clan." Kias, seeing the incomprehension in the eyes of his interlocutor, stopped the flow of his fantasy and coughing continued.
"Well I am me, to be honest we have no idea who we are facing, their tactics and most of the technology remains a mystery to us."
"And what are the chances of the coastal provinces?"
"On the sea there is almost no chance, the ships of the foreigners are better and bigger, but on land not everything is so clear, if the troops of the clans are able to organise a competent ambush and interrupt the supply, the invaders will fall, and given that the territory is hostile, they can retreat only to the ships, on the approaches to which they can be finished." Kias finished his report, and the queen's face contorted again in a grimace of anger.
"Tun you stupid idiot, you will drive us all to our graves," Arisa began to ponder, her husband was driving them into the abyss with his inaction. 'Yes the eastern coalition are our long time adversaries, but if we abandon them the people will start to murmur, and then it won't be long before there is an uprising.'
"Kias, what do you suggest?" Arisa's head began to ache, circumstances demanded her intervention, but how was a good question.
"We need to force Umi to join the coalition, in this case the chances of the coastal clans will increase, it would not hurt to come to an agreement with Ason, two thousand mercenaries standing on the border with the Mena clan is straining him, if you gave your guarantees about not attacking, then the released forces could be used in business."
"Well, in a perfect scenario, your guard would have to step in, otherwise we can't claim victory. I'm done." Kias stared at the queen, who was looking through him with a thoughtful face. 'Hurry up, I've already chewed it all up and put it in your mouth, don't be stupid.'
"You're free to go," Kias backed away in surprise and turned around to leave the room. Arisa frantically rummaged through the nightstand for paper.
...
The stronghold of the Umi clan ...
In a semi-dark room, twelve people were sitting on cushions around the perimeter of a large room. On some elevation sat a young man with dark hair and a sharp face, his gaze was aloof and blank, the guy was listening attentively to the reports of his subordinates.
"Lord, maybe you will change your decision, an alliance with other coastal clans can help us," Again, again these idiots are messing with my head.
"No, they will only hinder us, and maybe even worse." The councillors looked at Hito in bewilderment, but he didn't pay much attention to them and spoke as if to himself.
"What did you think would happen after the invasion, gentlemen?" The crowd glanced at the head with incomprehensible eyes, but remained silent, Mr Hito was so intimidating that his subordinates did not know who they feared more than foreign barbarians or him. Seeing the timidity of his men, Hito continued his thought.
"I think it's no secret that the coalition of the Mena clan is preparing a rebellion," there were quiet whispers in the hall, apparently Hito overestimated his subordinates, because many of them heard about it for the first time.
"A civil war is imminent, and if we join the coalition now, there will be no turning back, and when the coastal coalition revolts, the Tun and the central clans will accuse us of betrayal and go to war against us." Hito spoke with indifference, and a certain amount of boredom, even though he was young, but he saw the situation clearly, which, unfortunately, he could not say about his subordinates.
"But the head, we can't just sit and wait!" loudly said one of the officials, the others supported him with approving whispers. Hito stood up, his face taking on menacing animal features, and the official had already regretted his question a hundred times.
"You misunderstand me, we won't sit on the sidelines forever, when the sides break each other's teeth, we'll join those who give the best price, because our clan is known as a bunch of bandits and vagabonds. So let's not disappoint those around us." All present with a glint in their eyes looked into the mouth of their master, they were young like him, so they tried to see him as an equal, but with every word he said they realised that he was absolutely right and had taken his place as clan leader for a reason.
The meeting lasted for another half an hour, having finished with all the subtleties Hito dismissed all of them, left alone, he suddenly said.
"Come on, and you tell me how wrong I am." To an outsider, he was the only one in the room, and Hito was talking to himself like the crazy person many people thought he was. But after his words, one of the paper-thin walls moved aside and a young girl with grey hair and a lively, emotion-filled face stepped out to him.
"Brother, answer me, just honestly are you really sure of your choice?" The girl's voice trembled slightly, but her eyes were as hard as a diamond in her gaze.
"If I say, no, will it make you feel better?"
"Don't answer a question with a question."
"As you will, naturally I'm sure, or do you have something to add Anko?"
"No, but your plan is risky, there's a more advanced civilisation coming at us, you of all people should know that, but you're calm as hell."
"Anko, is that where you think I should be flailing around screaming 'All gone, all gone'?"
"Don't be sarcastic, answer the fucking question." Anko had already started screaming, her half-brother was always on his wavelength, which in the current situation was a death sentence.
"Sure or not sure, it doesn't matter now, we don't have time to change anything, and anticipating your question, no I won't refuse to personally participate in the raid."
"Hito, you're the only person who keeps this bunch of degenerates in line, if you die the whole clan will collapse like a house of cards." Anko shuddered for a moment, the bloody picture of the uprising came back to her mind, and her greatest fear was that it could happen again. Hito only sighed dejectedly.
"Anko look at them, they respect only strength, and only strength, if I sit in the back rows, what you are so afraid of will happen inevitably." After he said that, a chill ran down her spine.
"Besides, without competent management on the spot, these idiots will definitely fail, but at least you don't need to explain that." Anko just nodded, she could hear everything that was going on at the council, and the stupidity of some of its participants made her want to weep.
'I shouldn't have let all the old men go under the knife then, maybe then I would have had normal subordinates, eh, but we have what we have'. - The head of the Umi clan th