Back in the meeting hall, lit by various torches in the dark night, Fargo's leading team gathered in a tense atmosphere. Everyone would usually be asleep or in bed at this time, but they had to be called on an emergency meeting—which was truly irksome.
The huge Uzon sat on the side, arms crossed, and he was facing the twins Eli and Eso on the other side of the table. There was also Belize, who was sitting next to the head, an unreadable expression adorning his face.
Finally, on the head of the table was Fargo, whose face was incredibly dark, and they knew saying the wrong thing now could easily get them a bullet in the head.
"Report," Fargo said, his finger tapping on the table in thought.
"We have 129 men unaccounted for sir, 23 of whom are members of the Mercenary Team."
The morbid tapping paused. That was a lot of his guards at the brink of the major upgrade. Not to mention 23 mercenaries were half of the people they stationed in Fargo at the moment.
Let alone Fargo, even Belize also darkened at the value.
After all, he went to a village, while the others went to Towns. It was natural the manpower assigned to him was far less than the others.
"And why is this reported only now?" Fargo asked, pulling up the Lord Panel to look at the names there. As he perused the names, the reporting men continued speaking.
"We apologize, milord. We just thought they got a bit far and ended up camping outside—"
"Most of our people are dead," Amon interrupted him, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the panel. "The members of the Rongo mercenary team, however, are all alive."
"Sir?" Uzon and the others asked, shocked, before turning to Belize—the representative of the Mercenary Team.
They all looked at him guardedly. They were all suspicious people by nature. They hadn't trusted this guy despite all the oaths, and seeing something like this exacerbated it.
"Explain, Belize. What did you do?" Uzon said, slapping the table in front of him. It shook, but fortunately, it was well-made and kept standing.
Belize looked at him and Uzon met his gaze with a glare. Could this be the start of a rebellion? Could they have missed anything in the non-betrayal oath!?
Belize heaved a deep breath, rubbing his forehead. "We have no reason to do this. Do you doubt me, my lord? My entire team made various oaths…"
The others looked at him guardedly and his jaw clenched. "I swear, milord, I nor any of my team members would go out of their way to harm your people."
Fargo looked at him. "Can you blame us for thinking negatively?"
Belize shook his head. "I was born in a town and had worked in cities," he said, "We have settled comfortably here. We have no reason to ruin things."
Uzon looked at him. "Maybe you want the token for yourself?"
"I can make an oath specifically to ease you of your worries regarding this."
Belize was calm outside, but inside he was still thinking about his teammates. To be honest, he had minimal patience for such questioning. It was only because he had been trained well in the city that he hadn't snapped yet.
He especially had to walk on eggshells because of his low level. In cities, level 30s at his age… were basically commoners.
However, despite this, Belize had managed to serve a City Lord. This was because of his element and his skills. When he was kicked out, he was still plenty rich and had managed to take a few things without people knowing. Rather, he did so by framing a few of his enemies.
At the same time, his Mercenary team—one he had formed long ago with a couple of friends—had been tired of being the bottom tier in a city and looked for a good base. They divided into teams to look for various bases, though they had shortlisted a couple of Towns.
For his team, he decided to enter the Chancery and chose any territory other than the City, and was surprisingly hired by a village instead.
Being able to hire a level 30 elementalist as a village said a lot about it, and he was not disappointed. On the contrary, he saw the great potential in this Village so he remained obedient and helpful.
While they didn't completely dispel the possibility of them taking over, they had seen the power of this village and they lived comfortably. With enough power, his team didn't see a point in taking over and reducing their numbers even further
This was especially true now that a huge bulk of his men had been missing. It'd take a while for the rest of the mercenary team to arrive. He couldn't harm the lord and his people due to the oaths, but some people weren't, and he was already formulating an alternative plan in case his relationship with the ruling party here turned dour.
Fargo looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Isn't there a way to determine the last known location?" Fargo asked.
Belize shook his head. "In theory, except for some announcements that came with great costs, the lord token only works within the territory."
He didn't know more about the token, nor did he know how merging or controlling other territories worked. After all, to a lord, asking such questions was suspicious.
He didn't even know the token would detach during wars until he saw it by accident.
He was almost killed then, and had to swear never to say so to anyone.
He, of course, naturally used papyrus to tell his current lord.
This was how Fargo knew in advance what he could do and the advantages of war, letting him have a large head start ahead of the others.
Belize believed that he had given so much to a lord much weaker than he was, but now he was obviously being doubted.
Belize's dark eyes looked at the men in the room.
Was it time to make another plan?