Second Arc (His Art of War) – 38. Kings

Several days had passed, the morning sun shone brightly above Eternal Harmony City. Euphorion troops that guarded every corner of the city had been increased since Flare and her army arrived. Some workers were seen busy fixing the city walls. Some civilians were seen passing by on the streets. While some of the merchants opened their shops and people started to fill the market. Although not as busy as usual, the city activities began to return to normal since the castle announced that the war was over and let the civilians carry out their activities as usual. Despite the city having begun to return to normal, their fear had not disappeared.

Angel actually did not want to let the civilians do their activities before the city's security was stable, especially since Commander Irwin's troops had not yet arrived. But if he prevented people from working for too long then Asteria's economic conditions would worsen.

The castle's conditions were different from the city. If the city had just gradually returned to normal, the castle had become crowded since the war ended. The nobles' carriages went back and forth to enter the castle, sometimes some of them returned after the sun had almost set. The days in the castle were filled with courts, meetings and discussions to solve Asteria's economic problems, especially how to implement it. The tasks allocation was done, each nobleman had duties and responsibilities in accordance with their expertise. Not only the nobles but the military leaders and Asterian troops were mobilized to help solve this problem.

Today was also not different from yesterday. Angel sat in the meeting room with King Gervis and several nobles. They discussed the land that would be used for agricultural expansion. King Gervis stood near the table, his index fingers pointing and moving in circles on the map and their eyes fixed on it with a serious expression.
"And this fertile forest is very suitable for agricultural land. This forest is very close to Swanstar Lake. Farmers will fetch the water easily and it will be easier for us to make an irrigation system," explained King Gervis.

The others nodded at King Gervis' words but he just kept quiet while continuing to pay attention to the map before him. After a while, he stood up and pointed in the direction across from the land pointed to by King Gervis.
"I think it's better if we use this land."

They frowned in confusion after hearing his advice.
"Why? Isn't King Gervis's land closer to several villages?" said Chancellor Vello.

"Look again at the map. There are a number of villages and agricultural lands around it. It's too crowded. If we changed the forests as a farm land, floods and landslides will hit the villages during the rainy season. If that happens then our efforts will be in vain, " he explained.

They looked at the map before them and realized that what he was saying was true.

"This land should have the same fertility. Although it is located a little further from Swanstar Lake, the irrigation system should be still easy to make," he added as he pointed to where he was referring.

They nodded at his advice. To be honest, when he was still the prince of Asteria, they didn't expect him to understand anything other than fighting since he rarely attended the court. Even though he attended, he was only silent and rarely said his opinion. Most of the advice was given by Ilex while he only acted by commands.

"Then we will follow your advice," said King Gervis, then he turned his gaze to the others.
"Are there any other questions?" said King Gervis again, closing their meeting. After a few days he worked together with Angel to solve this problem, he acknowledged Angel's ability beyond his expectations, even, many of Angel's solutions had not crossed King Gervis' thought before.

"No, Your Majesty," they answered.

"Very well. After the task list is complete, we will start sending troops to execute this plan," said King Gervis.
After King Gervis finished speaking, they cleared the documents in front of them, stood up from their seats and bowed before leaving the meeting room.

Once the door closed, Angel and King Gervis sat back to their seat. Angel checked the merchants' list that Chancellor Vello gave him while King Gervis checked the castle damage list. They checked sheet by sheet, while sometimes they took the pen and paper to write something down.

King Gervis' assistant went back and forth to fill their ink or gave sheets of paper and documents for both of them. He looked at the two kings who were busy working before him. A few days ago they had almost killed each other but now they could work together to solve Asteria's economic problems. It felt strange to him to see them sitting side by side while busy working on documents in front of them, even occasionally they were discussing the decisions they had to make.
'Too bad His Majesty King Angelus has become a king in another kingdom. If he can return to Asteria and cooperate with His Majesty King Gervis, Asteria might be in its golden age,' thought the assistant.

The sun was getting higher, both of them had just finished tidying up their documents. The assistant swiftly cleared up the pile of documents in front of them.

Angel stood up from his chair and intended to take a short walk to the training ground to stretch his stiff muscles. For the past few days, he had been taking care of documents and attending meetings to the point where he didn't have the chance to practice his sword skills as his habit every afternoon.
"Do you want to have lunch with us?" said King Gervis suddenly as he looked at the young king who had been working with him for several days. Indeed he never liked Angel but he was very grateful for his help to solve all the problems.

Angel was stunned by King Gervis' words, during his time as the prince of Asteria they never wanted to eat together with him. That's why he always ate alone in his room.
'I don't think there will be any harm for having lunch with them once in a while. After all, if I can show our closeness, the rebel groups might discourage themselves from rebelling.'
"Fine," he answered.

King Gervis stood up and gestured to follow him, which was answered with a nod.

They came out of the meeting room and several guards immediately followed them.
"The merchants should arrive tomorrow. We should increase capital security," said King Gervis as he walked alongside him.

"I have taken care of it with my generals. I will make sure that no rebels can infiltrate the capital," he answered as his feet continued to walk down the corridor. Currently, he had assigned Flare to manage the city security and Frost to manage the castle security, while the other Asterian military leaders and their troops were preparing themselves to be sent to expand the farmland.

"Fine, I'm entrusting this to you," said King Gervis. Actually entrusting city security to the enemy was the riskiest decision he took. But without the weapons and with Asteria's conditions that were just recovered from the war there was not much he could do now.