Caesar let Ahri out of his tight embrace and held her by the hand as he walked towards Musashi. He was an old fashioned man, thus, asking for her grandfather"s consent was necessary.His footsteps didn"t halt until he was about only a few feet away, he gazed into Musashi"s eyes as he opened his lips, "may I have your permission to marry your granddaughter?" Caesar asked with a smile. He already knew Musashi"s answer, however, it was a necessity for this formality to be completed.
Musashi stared back at Caesar for a few moments before nodding his head with a solemn look, "only on one condition…" his words paused for a brief moment as he scrutinized Ahri"s joyful expression, "you must win" his words continued as he gripped his fists tightly.
Musashi loved his granddaughter dearly, but he was still responsible for the well-being of the clan. Even now, he knew that this joy was only temporary and that the trolls would be knocking on their doorstep soon.
Caesar, who clearly understood Musashi"s words, nodded his head in acceptance. He wasn"t 100 percent confident of victory, however, he would try his best. Not just for Musashi or Ahri, but even he had grown to dislike the thought of the fox-kins annihilation.
"Very well then… Ahri, please go talk to your friends for a moment, I"m sure their deathly curious about the sudden proposal. I want to talk with Caesar alone for a few moments" Musashi suddenly stated and dismissed Ahri from his and Caesar"s presence.
Ahri glanced between Caesar and Musashi before saying, "I know that you two want to protect me, but keeping me in the dark and treating me as some kind of princess will only hurt me in the long run" she spoke gravely before turning around and walking away. She trusted that Caesar would treat her more like an equal, but Musashi was an entirely different story.
She headed towards her personal maids who were currently looking at her with an incredulous expression. Almost all of them loved drama and wanted to spread rumors, but one specific maid that was relatively young and had long brown hair, looked at Ahri worriedly whilst glancing between Caesar and Musashi.
Seeing this, both Caesar and Musashi could only cough into their fists and try to think about something else. Neither of them knew what kind of strange and disgusting thoughts were going on in that maid"s mind, but one thing was for certain, both he and Musashi were too scared to ask.
Once Ahri reached a good distance away, Musashi patted Caesar on the shoulder and gazed at the setting sun, "you need to swiftly complete your preparations for war, it will not be long until the trolls attack" Musashi spoke in a soft tone, not hiding the weakness in his voice at all.
Caesar clicked his tongue and scanned the surroundings to make sure everyone"s attention was focused on Ahri before subtly raising his hand and showing Musashi a bluish marble, "this is the device we had found in the traitors" room… I a.s.sume it is utilized by some sort of magic, and after much practice with controlling my mana, I was finally able to sense an almost indiscernible stand of mana inside," Caesar explained.
Musashi inspected the marble and tested Caesar"s theory, and sure enough, he was soon able to sense the faint mana inside, "what"s your plan?" he asked strangely.
Caesar concealed the marble and stashed it inside of his storage ring, "I a.s.sume after capturing those last two spies, whoever is in control, probably had warned the others and made sure they hid the marble quite well. Alas, they still need to have some sort of way to communicate with each other, thus, most of the spies still possess one of them" Caesar said with squinted eyes.
"So what do you suggest?" Musashi asked.
"Tonight, you and your most trusted warriors search for traces of similar mana, and a.s.sa.s.sinate each and every man or woman with this in their possession… once that"s complete, blame the a.s.sa.s.sinations on the trolls, anger your citizens and fuel their rage" Caesar said coldly and cut off Musashi"s next words.
"Don"t try and convince me that this plan is too ruthless, it wouldn"t it make your soldiers lose morale, in fact, it would simply be a wake-up call. The fox-kin have gotten far too comfortable without the trolls attacking as of recent, they"re probably thinking things along lines of "maybe they won"t attack?" "maybe they just gave us a warning previously"" Caesar explained and scanned the training grounds.
Musashi stroked his beard and had a hesitant look on his face, he wasn"t dumb and knew that Caesar"s plan was feasible, however, he didn"t know if lying to so many people would be the right course of action, "why don"t we just explain to the many citizens that they were exterminated because they were spies?" Musashi asked after a brief moment of thought.
Instead of answering, Caesar asked a question instead, "how would you feel if your father, significant other, son, sibling, or maybe even friend, was found out to be a spy. You would feel disappointed, sad, but most of all, you would be wary around others. You wouldn"t know who was a spy, so you would be constantly on guard. However, if they were a.s.sa.s.sinated by the enemy, you would feel rage, you would want revenge. Never underestimate someone with nothing to lose" Caesar replied with an expression devoid of emotion.
Musashi wanted to retort, but his mouth simply wouldn"t open. He hated the thought of lying to his citizens, however, Caesar was slowly convincing him that it was necessary.
"and what will you do about Ahri? Surely she wouldn"t be too thrilled about this idea you have, do you plan on lying to her too?" Musashi finally responded after a few seconds of awkward silence.
"No, I won"t treat her like a child. I will be honest with her, whether she likes it or not, she is an intelligent woman and will come to the conclusion that it is essential" Caesar said hesitantly before starting to walk in Ahri"s direction.
After he made a few long strides, Musashi"s voice made him halt his footsteps, "and what will you be doing tonight, while I"m busy dirtying my hands and killing the previous clan members that I treated like my own children?" Musashi asked somewhat bitterly.
Caesar looked over his shoulder with a slight smile on his face, his eyes were cold and a feeling of danger a.s.saulted Musashi, "we must demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, a.s.sa.s.sination. This is the war of the future" Caesar said before turning away and walking towards Ahri, replacing his cold smile by one with happiness.