Chapter 8: Strategic Planning and Sobering News

  Five days after the meeting with King Tomo and the council, I found myself lost in thought in a beautiful garden, surrounded by plants I had never seen before. I settled under a tree that eerily resembled a sakura tree from back home. The thought of home hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn't help but compare my current life to the one I had back home. To be honest, it was pretty much the same. Just replace the kingdom issues with family issues, my lack of understanding the kingdom and its customs with my social awkwardness back in Tokyo, and everything was pretty much the same. Maybe this was why it was so easy for me to adapt to the Starfall Kingdom.

  As I was lost in thought, Elara approached and startled me. Her voice and face were as pretty as ever. She told me with a kind voice that I had a guest and that they were eager to see me and had completed my task. I got up from under the tree and told her to escort the guest to me. Elara smiled and said, "As you wish," then walked away for about 2 to 3 minutes before returning with Raymond. He was wearing fancier clothes than usual.

  "How is it going today, Alex?" Raymond greeted me in his always kind voice. "I have some news for you today."

  I quickly interjected, "Is it good news or bad news?"

  Raymond sat down on a bench nearby and motioned for me to sit next to him. "Alex, to be honest, in my experience, there's no such thing as good news or bad news, only news."

  I sat down and told him to go ahead and tell me the news then. Raymond talked confidently but softly. "I think it's best that we use your skill, Terepashī, to speak more secretly."

  I agreed and linked our minds using Terepashī. Raymond's voice in my mind was a mirror image of his regular voice.

  "Now that our minds are linked, I can tell you the news that I have discovered by rubbing elbows with various nobles in the Kingdom of Rengoku," Raymond began.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  I cut him off, "What did you find out?"

  Raymond quickly replied, rubbing the back of his head. "If you would let me explain, Sir Alex, I can tell you everything that I found and more."

  I quickly apologized and told him to go ahead.

  Raymond continued, "I have basically talked with every single noble in Rengoku. Sixty percent of them have no problem rejoining the Kingdom of Starfall, especially if it would make us a more profitable nation. That group only really has concerns about how they fit into the new society and government once the two kingdoms join back up and what would happen to their titles and land."

  Before Raymond could continue, I asked, "What of the other forty percent?"

  Raymond laughed and replied, "I was getting to that, Sir Alex. Ten percent don’t really care either way as long as they can keep their wealth that they've amassed. They don’t even care about their titles or land. The other thirty percent are loyalists, some would even call them extremists. They want nothing to do with the Kingdom of Starfall and will follow King Tomo's uncle, King Romo, to the grave."

  When Raymond said that, I knew it could only mean one thing for certain, and that was the thing I feared the most since arriving here: war. War was something I wanted to prevent at all costs, but I knew it was a possibility. I began to shake as I thought about this. Raymond put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me out of my thoughts. I quickly thanked him for the information and asked him with a serious face, "Do you know if King Romo has an army, and if so, how big and deadly is the force?"

  Even Raymond's face got serious. He took his hand off me, intertwined his fingers, and looked down for a moment. "Their army is the biggest and deadliest out of all the kingdoms on the 14th continent," he said. "The only reason why their army is so deadly is because everyone is forced to serve in the army and are trained from the age of five to the age of twenty-six. At twenty-six, you can finally opt out, but most people stay in because it’s a good source of income. Despite being a small kingdom like Starfall, the Kingdom of Rengoku has fought off hundreds of invasions, and no one has ever gotten close to their capital."

  I quickly thanked Raymond for the information and used another one of my abilities called Shadousutorēji. My shadow started to swirl around as if someone was tickling it. I reached into my shadow and pulled out a small brown notebook, then wrote everything Raymond had told me inside it. I put the book back into my shadow, stood up from the bench, shook Raymond's hand, and thanked him again, asking if he could keep an eye on the Kingdom of Rengoku. Raymond smiled softly, shook my hand, and told me he would, letting me know if anything changed in the kingdom. He then softly said he had to take his leave and slowly walked out of the garden.

  As Raymond left, I thought to myself how quickly this whole situation could get messy and that war was the last thing I wanted to happen. But it was something I had to plan for. The thought of going to war made me sick to my stomach, but one thing was certain: if we did have to go to war, I wanted to develop something that would end it instantly with no casualties on our end.