136. The real plan

"A royal knight? A royal knight would be aggressive enough to cross the border proudly. Isn't that just suicide?"

"Suicide?" Itkas laughed as he shook his head. "What do you think all the attacks have in common?" 

"Common? She murdered innocent people."

"Yup, those people from the village might not even protect themselves. How inhuman could she be to kill the people who couldn't even fight back?"

Itkas looked at the general as if he were looking at an idiot before asking, "Why do you think we are any better? Didn't we use the same tactics to pull the enemies out of the cities?"

Another commander asked, "Could she be here for revenge?"

"I don't think that young royal knight wasn't idiotic enough. If she were like that, she would have attacked the villages deep in the empire first before moving to these villages later."

Itkas looked for other options, only to find others were like baby chicks waiting for him to hand-feed his reasoning. He couldn't help but let out a sigh. 

Some of the generals here were old and even served his father. But that also contributed to their rigid thought process. However, they were only here because they had their own merits.

As he was about to explain it to them, one of the commanders sitting far away from him said, "Three out of four of them said that she destroyed or burned the corps and food storages first."

He looked at Itkas, ensuring he was on the right track. When Itkas asked him to continue, he said, "She was aware we were short on food. That's why she is trying to hit our food sources."

"She is an idiot. Burning crops in a few villages won't be enough to trouble us."

"It's not a couple of villages." Itkas shook his head, adding, "If my guess is correct, then she had attacked many more villages, and we just don't know about it yet. And if we consider the distance between this place and the first village, she attacked near Kojac…"

"... It would be a lot of food."

"But we have more than enough food in this city."

"There won't be any immediate problems, however…" Itkas sighed, saying, "It will be a problem in the future."

"What should we do?" There was a sense of definite concern on their faces.

"Nothing." Itkas himself was the only person who didn't care about the situation. 

"Yes." 

The meeting between the generals and Itkas continued for an hour before the servants started bringing the food. 

Unlike the kingdom, the empire had the tradition of eating food while sitting on the floor. After finishing the food, they left the room one by one.

It was only then that the guards could relax. 

"That was a long day. Now we can relax a little." The guard said this while noticing his partner was thinking deeply about something. "What are you thinking about, Viksha? Are you still thinking about that child?"

The so-called Viksha looked at him momentarily in confusion before nodding. 

"I know it." Viksha's partner said, "Isn't your eldest son also four years old? I knew that you would go and look for him. But please be cautious. The tension in the city is rising. The high general Itkas even sent another soldier to jail just because he left the post without informing others."

The meeting room had eight soldiers in total. The generals left the room, and the servant came in to clean up. Two soldiers were flirting with a few young maids while the others gathered around Visksha and his partner.

"I think he is kind of paranoid." 

"Hey, don't say that."

"It's not like I am speaking in front of him." The guard reasoned, "Think about it. That old man just lost two of his sons and came to the city to survive, and he put him in jail."

There was a pause before another one said, "He didn't even let the refugee enter. Wouldn't they be killed first if the enemy attacked? Didn't you hear that the female knight is a bloodthirsty maniac?"

"But, he did it for the safety of the city." Viksha reasoned. "What if enemies are in the group and try to enter the city?"

"What safety? There were just 100 or so villagers. What can they even do? We have more than ten thousand soldiers here."

"Yeah!"

"Let's not waste time here anymore. We have to report to duty as soon as the sun rises. Let's go."

They left the room, leaving the flirty one with the maids behind. As they left, Viksha asked, "But what is the real mission they were talking about?"

"Who knows?" One guard shrugged and said, "It's not like simple soldiers like us could know."

"Yeah! If you ask me, half of the commanders and the general don't know about the plan. They were like parrots, nodding at Itkas's every word. Only a high general like Itkas could know what the emperor planned to do."

"We don't need to know." Viksha's partner said, "All we need to know is how to survive. That will be enough."

As they were talking, they left the mansion. Viksha's partner suddenly asked, "Hey Viksha, why are you going with them? Are you going to go to the brothel with them too?"

Viksha was quick to shake his head and walk towards his partner. The other guards teased Viksha a little before they left them to indulge themselves. 

"Don't mind them." His partner said, "Your youngest is just a year old. You should take care of him from time to time."

As they continued to walk back, the partner continued to talk. "I didn't tell anyone till now, but you are the first to know my wife is pregnant. We will have the third one soon."

"Congratulations," Viksha said with a smile.

And it just made the smile on his partner's face brighter. "Thank you, thank you. We are hoping the third one might be a girl. We already have two boys, and I want a cute girl."

Viksha's chatterbox partner continued to speak as they took twists and turns through the bursting streets of the city.

"Father." Viksha didn't notice at first, but a small boy came and wrapped his arms around his legs. Viksha looked at the child smiling at him and heard his partner say, "If only my sons were so enthusiastic like yours."

Viksha paused, took another look at the smiling child, and carried him up. His partner looked at him enviously, saying, "Go, go. Don't be late tomorrow. We have to go to the third storage facility. We have to spend the entire day in the sun tomorrow…"

As the partner continued to speak, he turned around and was about to leave. But Viksha grabbed his shoulder, asking, "Third storage?"

"What are you expecting? Do you think we would be at the mansion every day? We were at the mansion because they needed a few extra hands. From tomorrow on, we will be on regular duty again. Don't be late."

"Okay," Viksha said with a bright smile on his face.

"What are you so happy about? Forget it." His partner didn't wait for an answer and left, waving his hand. 

"Father, let's go." The boy was pulling his body towards the small restaurant, and Viksha followed.

It was a small restaurant with eight or so tables, but all of them were filled up. It was pretty busy.

The girl, who was ten or eleven, was like a deer in the spotlight. She paused as soon as her eyes met Viksha's. 

Viksha's son shouted, "Sister, Father is here." 

The girl didn't know what to do. She nodded at him and escaped to deliver the food to the table.

"Mom!" Viksha's son cried, and a woman appeared in front of Viksha in tavern maid garb, perfectly squeezing her front asset on display. She also had a young child wrapped around her back.

She smiled and nodded at Viksha, saying, "You should go to the room and rest." She didn't wait for Viksha to answer and left to deliver the food to the table.