64: Re-organisation
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Chapter 64: Re-organisation

 

The very next morning, Klauna ordered all of the officers and representatives from the armies to gather around in a meeting. It was time for her to unveil her plan. In the middle of the room was a map already filled to the brim with instructions and markers. 

Wasting no time, Klauna quickly explained the plan to everyone in the room— everyone who only kept quiet and listened. As she explained, there would be the occasional weird stares and confused looks among everyone who didn’t quite understand the goal of her plans which consists of three main factors.

1.)Gather as many non-perishable foods as possible. Enough to last them for an extreme amount of time.

The way she proposed to obtain the food aside, the Ak’hims have no problems with this part of the plan. If they plan to hold down Divinatus from a siege, then they would require lots of food to hold out. It was especially important when you have hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed.

2.)They need to delay the enemies for as long as they can with whatever means at their disposal. Scorched earth tactics, raids, guerilla warfare and the likes.

Again, aside from how she proposed to do it, they had no qualms with the plan. Scouts have reported that the enemy had yet to move beyond Dragonsmourne at that moment; it seemed that the blow inflicted upon them was greater than expected. Considering the time it takes to travel from Dragonsmourne to Divinatus, the Alliance roughly had about one or two months before they reached the coastal city.

Two months was a long time, but if delaying the enemies meant that they would get more time, then it was worth doing. More time meant that the Ak’hims could gather more food and fortify their defences better.

3.)Clearing the ocean from a human blockade and to destroy the human port Aleksander. If possible loot them dry of valuable resources and bring them back to Divinatus.

The third part of the plan was the one that confused the Ak’hims the most. To destroy a port and the human’s naval blockade would require a great undertaking from the Ak’hims. But more importantly, they don’t understand what would be the goal of doing this. Human ships cannot come near enough to Divinatus in the first place due to harsh coastal terrain waters and the existence of the merpeople led by Saladis who guards the waters. Their large boats were a little match against the underwater dwellers. They have no reason to worry about an invasion from the sea.

Even weirder was that she would go all the way to destroy Port Aleksander that was on a secluded human island west of Divinatus. It was just a small island that the humans use to stock up on supplies before going on a long voyage out of the continent. It was also a great trading spot between the human countries as it was slightly out of range of the Ak’him waters.

Everyone had no idea what was the goal of destroying the port. At first, they thought that maybe Klauna had planned to steal a ship or two, to retreat back to port Aleksander. It would definitely keep them alive, the humans would not be able to easily assault them there as they would have to cross treacherous water filled with Merpeople. But when she told them to destroy it, the officers started to have their doubts and raised questions at her.

This was when Klauna told them about the real plan. That she was aiming for something much bigger in scope than just to take refuge on a small island.

“You want me to what?!” Yuupiecca yelled out in shock at his new orders from Klauna.

“I need you to take a battalion of engineers and craftsmen on the first trek to Divinatus. You have about two months give or take a few weeks to make it seaworthy,” Klauna repeated her orders.

“That’s not what I meant! Do you even hear yourself? You want me… to turn a city which mind you, have a half a million people in it, able to travel across the ocean? You are joking right?” Yuupiecca asked Klauna, his hands massaging his temples due to a slight headache.

But Klauna only has a serious expression on her face. Everyone should have known by now that she doesn’t joke around.

“Divinatus used to be able to float during very high tides. The engineers that built the Grand Bridge worked on Divinatus. I believe a man of your capabilities can fix the city and make it float again. All that’s left for you to do is to find out how to propel the city across the ocean. It doesn’t even have to be fast, just good enough for it to get from one place to another,” Klauna explained to Yuupiecca.

“That’s crazy! If we are going to do this then why not just make lots of boats and flee the continent that way?! Besides, how do you even know Divinatus can float?”

“Normal boats will not do against the waters outside of this continent. It was how the Southern Demons died. I’ve seen Divinatus sail the oceans before. I know that it can withstand the pressures of the sea,” Klauna said to Yuupiecca.

“Wait. Did you just casually say that you’ve seen Divinatus sail the ocean? No way, I don’t buy you for one second. You dreamed of it during one of your drunken stupors?" Lina talked back to the Analyst.

“Divinatus can really float? I always thought the tales to be children's stories and myths,” Saladis added.

“It’s that story, right? The one where the Ak’hims built a sea fortress to fight against a large seaborne monster,” Aberanis asked.

“It was actually to protect the city from very large tidal waves. The sea was much more brutal back then. Monsoons and Tsunamis were also a factor that turned Divinatus to what it is,” Cera clarified.

“If the stories are true, then it must be at least a few thousand years since Divinatus has seen the ocean. There hasn't been a high tide at the coast for ages now,” Saladis said to the room.

Harbin looked at the conversation going around the room and gave out a wry smile. Everyone was dismissing Klauna's statement and going on a tangent about myths and stories. Unlike the others, she knew just how ancient Klauna actually was. Whatever that she said here was probably the truth. Though, she didn't feel the need to correct them.

“Look, I don’t care if the stories are true or not. Let’s just say you are right. Two months is way too short for us to do that kind of undertaking. Not with the men that I have,” Yuupiecca argued.

“You have five hundred thousand valuable manpower in Divinatus right now. Use them as you see fit. Recruit the labour and engineers there,” Klauna said to him.

“What? No way we have the resources to hire that many people!” 

“That’s why I am sending you half of the Seventh Army to go with you. You should be able to maintain power and force them. This isn’t a paid job Yuupiecca.”

“That’s just slavery!” Yuupiecca yelled.

“This is survival,” Klauna said back almost immediately.

Yuupiecca gritted his teeth in response and looked away, folding his arms and tapping his foot on the ground restlessly. He then breathed in and out before calming himself down. “This is a lot of weight on me. Is there really no other way?”

“This is the only way I know,“ Klauna responded. “There is probably a better way or a better plan... but I don’t have them.”

Yuupiecca let out a sigh. “This is crazy you know. What if I can’t fix this city?”

“Well, if we just mount a standard plan, we will lose, right? Might as well go all out with the crazy,” Medica said with a small laugh.

Yuupiecca let out a sigh at the response.

The room was then filled with small laughter and banter. One by one, the officers nodded in agreement with Klauna’s plan. It was much better than what they had anyways, might as well.

When the room had finally gotten quiet again, Yuupiecca spoke out. "So who is going to come with me to Divinatus then?"

"Kazakiel, Natahiniel and Blackmask will be following. Yuuka, and Yuuki will be directly under you. Yuuko and Poi will stay with me," Klauna replied.

"Eh? Why am I singled out again? I'm a great engineer too, Lord Klauna!" Yuuko protested, but Klauna paid no heed to it.

The people involved nodded, showing that they have no problems with the arrangement. Poi, on the other hand, was a little bit upset that she won't be able to come with her brother. Klauna must have known just what kind of disturbance she was and wished to split the trouble makers away.

Poi spied Yuupiecca at the corner of her eyes. She could see Yuupiecca letting out a sigh of relief knowing that Yuuko and Poi won't be coming with them. There was also another person whom Poi spotted was giving out a strange reaction. Lina who could be seen rather disappointed, her tail swooped down without any energy to it. Though her face remained calm. Poi let out a small pout when she saw the butterfly hairpin on Lina's hair.

“I know this might be sudden as well. But in order to execute this plan, we will need to do some reorganization,” Klauna said to everyone once she sorted the matter.

“I am in agreement. I don’t see how we can pull this out without a proper split,” Vargus said.

The others nodded as well.

“Then without further due. Cera, you are now the General of the First Army. The First Army, your battalion and the reserve army will join to become the new First Army.”

“Huh?” Cera could only respond with a dumbfounded expression. The same shock could be seen on the face of the others as well.

“Congratulations, Harbin. You will take over Cera’s place as the Vice General of the Seventh Army,” Klauna continued without paying heed to the others.

“Ngah?! Me?”

“Lina. You are now in charge of every single flight wing in the military. Congratulations on your promotion on being the Ninth General. Medica, you will remain as a support role within the Ninth Army. As a captain of a support company.”

“Ehh?!” Medica let out a yelp of surprise.

“Now hold up just a moment,” Lina raised an objection.

Her objection was overruled when Klauna continued, ignoring their protests. “You know what, Yuupiecca. I think you’ll be better off as a General than staying under me. You’ll be the Eighth General.”

“An army full of Engineers? Aren’t you just blindly assigning rank people now?” 

Just like the others, Klauna ignored Yuupiecca in order to finish her words. “The Second and Third army will remain the same. The fifteenth to the seventeenth army. You’ll be called the fourth to Sixth army from now on. By the end of this, we should have nine armies in total.” 

“...” There wasn’t much that the people in the room could say to her. Klauna wouldn’t take no for an answer anyways.

Though, Natahiniel, the Watchtower Warrior raised a legitimate question towards Klauna. “Wouldn’t this mean that the Seventh Army will be spread thin? Cera’s, Lina’s and Yuupiecca’s battalions are more than half of the army. We would just be a few hundred soldiers at most.”

“This is just temporary. It’s all just for ease of communications and planning. We can properly reorganise once things settle down,” Klauna explained.

“I see.” 

“Any objections?” Klauna asked the room. 

“No Objectionssssss.”
“None.”
“I’m alright with it.”
“I don’t think I am ready to replace Lord Leida, but I’ll do my duties to the best of my abilities.”
"Don't worry too much about it Cera. I can guide you through the First Army."

Various people brought forth the agreement on the matter. The only really affected people among them is the First and Seventh Armies anyways. All things considered, the remnants of the First Army took it rather well. They do not mind Cera taking over as their General. The people from the Seventh Army, however, had more of a concern regarding the matter.

“Well… I don’t really have much of an objection. But is it really alright for me to be a general?” Lina asked Klauna.

Lina knew of her failures in the past. If this was the old Kingdom, she would be the least likely to be promoted to a general. She understood that now. Though Klauna completely misinterpreted Lina's question and assumed that she wasn't satisfied at being just a general.

“If you don’t like the rank of general, you can be the Demon Lord if you want. The rank doesn’t matter anymore at this point of the game anyway. Not like anybody can stop us from doing whatever we want,” Klauna answered back, not really caring.

“You have a point there I guess… But I’ll pass on the position of Demon Lord,” Lina responded.

“Then let’s get back to the discussion at hand,” Klauna pointed at a point on the map before telling others about the more finer parts of her plan.

 

Thanks for reading. Next chapter will be on Sunday 10th of May.

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