The Broken System

A suffocating atmosphere enveloped the tent. Other than the commander-in-chief and the captain of his guard, there were Riyasu, Akai, Vorn present in the tent. Though it was the first time, Chanakya had entered the Commander"s tent but he didn"t have any fascination about it. He, was expressionless, was standing behind Kinoya.

Kinoya was different, different from before. He was wearing a loose cloth around his body, in place of red armour. The aura of an immature soldier was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that had remained the same, was the talwar at his back. In his only eligible eye, there wasn"t any resentment nor fear for those who are standing in front of him, neither there was any respect.

"Do you have any captives?" Kinoya"s voice was bold. Though it was kind of disrespectful, the captain of the guard didn"t utter a word.

"Captives?" The question was too absurd for Riyasu to understand. Not just Riyasu, none had known the logic behind the question.

"Do you have it or not?"

"Insolent!" So Riyasu slammed his hand on the table, "Don"t you know how to respect your superior? We can take your head for disrespecting your superior."

"Does it look like I care about it?"

Riyasu clenched his fist and was about to say it, but Vorn seized the opportunity, "We have some. Why are you going to ransom them?"

Kinoya shook his head but didn"t answer, "Do we have any Torria armours?" With a nod from Vorn Kinoya added. "Then I will need 100 captives fully dressed in the armours."

"Why you want them?" If wouldn"t have been someone other than Akai, he wouldn"t have responded at all.

"I will kill them."

"Kill them?" Akai couldn"t help but shudder, looking at his eyes, "But they have surrendered. Some of them, not even the soldiers."

"Then find those who are soldiers. If there is a  problem with that, then give me slaves, those I could kill. I don"t care who they are, as long as I get 100 in Torria armours. I need them within half an hour." Kinoya"s answer was too hard to swallow, wasn"t matching his age, but that wasn"t a concern for him, "Who is the general of the army?"

"The one leading now is called General Manu."

"What about the one called Whitefreak?"

"Whitefreak?" none of them had heard of him. To be precise, it was their first time hearing the name of such a thing.

"Who is that? Never heard of him." At such a question Kinoya could only frown, never did he think that the networking will be so useless. "What about the formation?"

*Boom*

"What the h.e.l.l?" With the loud roar, Riyasu slammed on the table, spilling water everywhere. He didn"t care whether it is General of the west or anybody else, even if it was the minister of war, he would have done the same. "Why the h.e.l.l are you taking orders from 13 years old? Don"t you have pride?"

His att.i.tude towards Kinoya couldn"t be more clear, but what was more surprising for Riyasu, was the att.i.tude of others. Not just the three-star generals but also the Cardinals general, the pride of empire, was listening like a good boy.

"It is not about thirteen years old, but it is about what is right?"

"Killing the surrendered soldiers is the right thing to do?" Riyasu eyes were red as he was howling his words out.

"General, you should remember that you are in the presence of the commander-in-chief." The captain of the guard thundered.

Riyasu snorted and was about to say something but commander-in-chief stopped them all. "Do you have any other plan?"

"We have sieged all those cities in just two months."

"What if we can"t do it in six months?" Vorn pointed out the biggest crisis they were facing right now.

Six months were the deadline and the generals were desperate. Riyasu wasn"t confident enough to answer that question with confidence.

Vorn didn"t wait for Riyasu to respond, he answered to Kinoya. "Yes, the whole army in line with me in the middle, Akai at the right and Riyasu at the left."

Riyasu was fuming. It was clear that Kinoya"s att.i.tude was worst only to Riyasu. Though he wasn"t too respectful towards Vorn, he wasn"t disrespectful either.

"If it is defending then wouldn"t it be better to let me do it?" Vorn was curious about the plan Kinoya was explaining.

Kinoya shook his head, "I don"t believe him neither he will listen to me."

"What made you think that we would follow your order?" Riyasu blasted again.

"I am not giving you order. I am just giving you a plan to win. If you don"t like it, you just have to go and siege the city." Kinoya statement was clear. He didn"t know about the imperial edict neither Akai had told him about it. So when he saw the army at Na, he thought that they had agreed to go with his plan, but the silence of the commander-in-chief and the att.i.tude of other made him believe that they were just desperate.

"Who wants your plan? Do you think you are the commander-in-chief?"

"When the general is weak and indecisive, the one under will be insubordinate." Kinoya stopped for a moment to look at the commander-in-chief, and with a smile, he continued, "But lucky for us, our commander-in-chief knew what is good and bad for him, for the army and for the empire. He will choose the right option, and will lead us to the victory."

Everybody knew very well, what Kinoya was implying but no one dared to refute. Even Chanakya flinched for a moment. His intention was loud and clear. Neither he was forcing anyone to jump into a death trap nor he was saying that he will win the war for them.

"But what about the cavalry?" It was Vorn again.

"Use it, however you want, as long as they don"t obstruct the three armies movement. I will give different order to the 10,000 cavalries under general Vaicus of Red Corps." A moment of silence followed by "Riyasu don"t use cavalry by you left." With the word, Kinoya left the tent. Chanakya followed.

"Wasn"t that too much?"

Kinoya looked at Chanakya with a smile, "You know, when I joined the army I thought I would contribute in silence and go up the ladder. Now I know if I follow them I will die even before I could take a step."

"So?" Chanakya felt he didn"t receive the answer from him.

"Right now I don"t care how they would respond as long as we gain the victory." Kinoya smiled, "You know the general of West is a strong man, but he lacks in experience. When the empire was having their peaceful nap, under the banner of the last emperor, these countries were training just for this moment. It will be dumb to think that they will be easy to beat. The general just needed to learn how the war is fought. He might have won the skirmishes before but never did he was in the actual war like general Akai."

"What are you, a guardian deity to him? You may not know but you are younger than me." Chanakya stopped for a moment, looked at Kinoya with surprised eyes, "Are you a retrocognition?"

"Is there something like that?" Kinoya never thought he would hear something like this.

"How could I know, you are the one who is retrocognition. But I know one thing that whether we win or lose there will be punishment for you."

"Let"s not talk about it, what about my troop?"

"Only 17 stayed. There are two sergeants, I talked about and that Plasa somehow resisted his urges to fight."

"That is too much. Tell them to rest for now, and get ready at noon. And you go with general Vaicus, charge at the front, come back if you survive."