Lord of the Truth

"Hmmm?" Julius's answer made Robin raise his eye brows

"When Marquess Julius learned that we were leaving his lands and regrouping here, he asked to come with us, he said that he will bring with him 9 middle-leveled and high-leveled saints, and he brought with him 400 knights and 40,000 soldiers... I saw no reason to refuse, so I allowed him." The patriarch intervened and explained

Robin became even more surprised, he didn't come alone?

Even with the oath that restricted their freedom and made them absolutely loyal, the Burton family was supposed to be hated to the core by them now!

and this is exactly why Robin didn't think about calling them to help him in wars any time soon, there is no point in bringing someone to fight a war in this way,

Even if they accepted and executed every order perfectly, morale is what wins you battles, not numbers, they would only be a burden and weakness in the formation and nothing more

The plan was to leave them in their lands to administer it on his behalf and to send him its taxes and riches annually, maybe even use them as a shield if they ever faced a threat from the north, in his eyes, they were nothing more than that...

and perhaps with the passage of years, they will forget the humiliation that was brought on them from this war, and the benefits from being a vassal of the Burtons would soften their hearts...

Only in this way the two families might get closer to each other, and only after that would he take their presence into account when he plans a war, but now they are the ones who took the initiative to join him?

Robin looked long at Julius Rufus, who was still smiling in front of him.. 'This guy isn't simple...'

"If it were up to me, I would have brought with me the rest of my saints and the family's knights, but as your excellency know, we need troops now in our lands now more than ever to help you secure the Burtons position as our new masters despite the acts of some small rebellions of a minority fools in the family

And also to help Your Excellency in securing the control of the former lands of the Tawi family, there is a lot going on there, and it got worse when brother David withdraw his army" Marcos spoke to Robin

"Oh, of course, I understand, if you didn't keep enough troops there yourself, I would have ordered the return of part of your army... You have obviously thought of everything, Saint Julius, it seems I will enjoy your company." Robin muttered smiling and then pointed toward the table, "Please take a seat, all of you, gentlemen. Let us begin our meeting."

"Here we are..." Patriarch Brian moved to the nearest chair, "Can you now tell us why you have gathered the army here?"

" Please be patient, uncle Brian... Can any of you make a full report about our combined army? Just so everyone knows the military situation before we go any further," said Robin.

"Then let me do it, If we count the army that remained here, the one with the patriarch, and mine, and the army of the Rufus family, and the forces that came here as support from the new lands as per your request, then let me summarize the situation for you." Saint David stood and headed for the large map drawn on the ground for the area and began to move pieces of it, "we currently have:

320,000 soldiers, including about 20,000 cavalry

1000 knights who use Minor heavenly laws,

About 3,200 knights who use Major heavenly laws,

21 saints,

and finally, about 70,000 fire explosion talismans, with an abundance of all the other kinds talismans with a few thousand each."

Everyone gave a long sigh after hearing those numbers...especially Marquess Julius.

*3,200 knights who use Major heavenly laws* what kind of concept is this? in his way here, he kept asking Patriarch Brian about everything that concerns the Burtons, and the Patriarch wasn't stingy in his replies

His mind was blown when he heard that the three famous legions all use major heavenly law, and till this moment he just can't find it in himself to accept it!

even ignoring their major heavenly laws, The army now contains more than 4 thousand knights?!  these numbers of knights do not even appear in the wars between the duchies!

And 70 thousand talismans? How can any army withstand the rain of 70 thousand fire talismans?

Only now not only did he was assured that his decision was the best, but it was also the only one

"good." Robin nodded with a smile, reassured after hearing the current state of the army, "And you all don't have to worry about the Fire Explosion talismans situation either, we have much more than just 70,000 now."

"Oh?" The patriarch was surprised, "Are you sure? I was supervising the Rune Masters before the war began, and there was only the quantity we took with us... Where did more come from?"

"I issued an order that all the Rune Masters are to only and intensively work on the Fire Explosion talismans, 40 days have passed since... and a week ago the first batch of their products arrived... The quantity that reached us was 120,000 Level 6 Fire Explosion talismans, and a few thousand Level 10 Fire Explosion talismans!"

"What?! How can the 480 masters of inscriptions produce an average of 4000 talismans per day?" Everyone was shocked by this number, 120,000 talismans in one month!!

"This is normal after practicing the Soul Strengthening technique all these years, now the worst one of them can make five Level 6 Fire Explosion talismans per day1

and many of the Rune Masters can make up to 15 Level 6 Fire Explosion talismans per day! When we take out all the more difficult Runes from the equation and focus their entirety on the Level 6 Fire Explosion talismans, this result is only to be expected." Robin answered straight away and then continued, "So we currently have 190,000 talismans of the Level 6 Fire Explosion talismans."

"This…." The Patriarch muttered to himself, this was just too much!!

then asked, "What do you intend to do with all this?"

Robin stood up and walked up to the map, then moved the pieces east, "We'll conquer the Lying Water Kingdom."

"As I expected..." David sighed

"I also think it's a good opportunity, but I don't think Duke Galan Bradley and Duke Raymond Alton would be happy when you break the agreement like that." The patriarch knocked on the table

Even Mila furrowed her eyebrows a little after hearing this, the agreement was that Robin would take part pieces of their old lands in exchange for his assistance in helping them divide the Lying Water lands between the two of them!

If Robin broke that agreement and jumped in with them, he will surely demand a piece of the new cake... this will mess everything up!

"You think the agreement didn't break when we had to fight 3 armies with a total of half a million soldiers for them! if we kept the original agreement and kept watching, there might not be anything called the Bradley or the Alton Duchies!" Robin snorted as he rested his back on the chair,

then he continues "But don't think too much, it's not like I want to break our relations with them or something like that... I was in contact with both dukes during this last period, after our great victories here, the pressure greatly eased on them and they were able to advance again and managed to control 50% of the two duchies they are invading... But their fire explosion talismans completely ran out.

And the Middle Duchy -Harris- gave up the dreams of the counter conquest after we destroyed their main army here, and began to send reinforcements again to the other two duchies, even the other noble families there seemed to finally realize the bad situation and began to send reinforcements too...

with this new situation, it became impossible for Duke Galan and Duke Raymond to keep pushing forward, they both had to stop at where they are and try to fortify a few citadels to defend what they got, but for how long can they hold their position with no talismans?

There is one more option though... We intervene. if we cut through the Duchy of Harris, and put pressure on the other two duchies from the middle, that will give Duke Galan and Duke Raymond a chance to catch their breath and move forward again."

"The situation there is that bad...?" Mila asked worried, her father did not tell her anything every time she tries to contact him, for fear that she would worry about them and try to catch up with them in the fire pit they throw themselves in...