When I arrived at the meeting room that we always used for larger meetings, I met with a cacophony of voices. Most of the people I requested were there. Harold, Liam, Rosie, Maria, Eleanor, five of my students; with Soren and his brother Ryan being the only exceptions — which suggested that my realization about the mystic nature of the distraction and all that implied had arrived too late.
Any other time, it would have been a source of worry; but right now, we had too many other things to worry about.
Interestingly, my arrival went unnoticed by the most. They were already arguing quite heatedly, shouting over each other. It was not the usual way they operated, but the size of the crisis was a decent excuse for their situation.
Rosie was the only one that paid attention to my arrival. She caught my gaze worriedly, examining my expression. She must have found what she was looking for, because her worry was soon replaced by a soft, almost invisible smile.
I turned my attention to the rest. Maria sat by a window, looking out, barely listening to the argument between Eleanor and Harold. The former argued for striking out and destroying monster waves before they could gather, while the latter favored a defensive stance.
Terry, Liam, and Jessica were having another heated argument among themselves, while Spencer, Logan, and Rebecca tried to intervene hesitantly, only to fail to get a word edgewise.
Rather than saying something, I glanced around, taking note of the changes the modest meeting room had gone through since we had last gathered in full force. Despite the crisis, a makeover was done. The long table was replaced by a long one similar to a board room, a large map already sprawled, filled with scribbled notes. The chairs were finely carved, a mixture of wood and metal, like a silent statement about the nature of the town.
And, the fanciest one was at the one end of the table, clearly a position of honor, the chair assigned far fancier than the others, reserved for me.
I wonder if those changes were a waste of time, or a poignant notice about our changing nature. I wasn’t the only one that circumstances were forcing me to transform.
Whether we would adapt or break under the pressure was a mystery.
I walked toward the empty chair, making sure to make more voices than necessary. “Sir,” Harold jumped first, standing up, though the rest was not too far away. I could feel that they were making a statement.
The instinct to argue against was there, but I decided we had more important things to talk about. “Thank you,” I said as I sat down, Maria to my right, and Rosie to my left. Another deliberate seating, no doubt.
For a moment, I let the silence hang, letting the earlier arguments dissipate while I glanced around the occupants, making sure to catch every single gaze, even for a moment. For once, it wasn’t Wisdom that helped me to read them like an open book, but my familiarity with them. I could sense their worries, their fear … even their hopes.
Every single one of them was aware that we stood at the edge of a monumental decision. Maybe the most critical one since the inception of our little rebellion.
I took a deep breath, gathering my thoughts before I started. “We are all here because we face a crisis. I have no doubt about our survival, as we had faced far greater threats when we were just a ragtag bunch. Now that we have the tools to not just survive but thrive in such a crisis. An achievement that every single one of you had played a monumental role.”
I stopped once again, watching a prideful smile find its way to their faces. Too bad it was not a meeting to celebrate their achievements, but one that risked all we achieved. “But, this time, the threat is far greater than just our town.”
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Once again, I watched them, their smiles fading back to worry. “We have no idea about the reason, but the heretics had sabotaged a significant number of dungeons in the region, and most of them lack our tools to turn it into an advantage. Already, our scouts have detected simultaneous dungeon breaks; hordes of monsters pouring into the land, about to threaten every single small town while the cities that were supposed to defend them were locked in battle.”
I dragged my finger on the map, casually gesturing marks that denote the towns. “Lives at stake. Hundreds of thousands of them. Maybe millions of them. And, we need to decide whether to help them or not.”
Admittedly, what I was doing was not nice. By that opening speech, I was already making my stance clear. But, the situation was not one for fair debate.
Harold was the first to break the silence. I could see his expression shift slightly before he came to a decision. “Whatever we do, our first priority should be our defenses. We can’t afford to lose our home while chasing glory elsewhere.”
I had a feeling that his choice of words was rather deliberate, and the target was obvious. He was glaring daggers at Eleanor.
“Glory —” Eleanor tried to respond. I didn’t need my Wisdom to warn me about her flare of anger, so I interrupted.
“It’s not for glory, but for necessity. Without our intervention, a lot of lives will be lost.”
“And, most of those lives will be Farmers, who were never allowed to level up in their situation,” Terry intervened.
“Any innocent death is a tragedy, but if we lose the mountain, we will also lose our ability to help them,” Harold replied, his tone much calmer while talking to Terry.
I came to a decision, not wanting the situation to devolve into a personal conflict. I could have asked for a vote, but the general attitude of the room was clear already. I could see that Liam, Rebecca, and Spencer were more inclined to stay rather than go out, but even adding them, it only counted as four votes.
And, among them, only Liam — who was technically not my official student, but worked enough to count as one — had the necessary political weight for his voice to count if it turned into a political deadlock. But, it wasn’t a desire to save them from shame that I decided to skip a vote about the issue.
No, I wanted to save them from the moral implications of such a decision. The moment I put into a vote, they would either have to vote for abandoning many lives to a tragedy we could prevent, or they would favor an order that would see many of our soldiers dead.
I didn’t want my students to have such a poignant decision weighing on their souls. It was too early for them.
“Evil flourishes when good men do nothing,” I said, cutting their argument. “I’m not willing to let such a senseless loss of life commence, all because of the decision of a bunch of madmen, abetted by power-hungry politicians. But, I’m aware of the risks. It’s not a simple situation. It’ll come with a deep, personal cost. We will lose friends, neighbors, and loyal soldiers. I hope that you all support me in this.”
“As you wish, sir,” Harold responded, slamming his chest. “You have saved my life and elevated me from a small guard. I’m just worried for my soldiers.” Despite his rapid rise in ranks, Harold was still a sergeant in heart, more concerned with the lives of the men he trained than the strategic overlook.
It was a concern I appreciated.
“We are in complete agreement,” I said. “That’s why the mission will be completely voluntary. We can offer rewards, but not in a way that would dazzle them with a shine of riches or power. It’ll be a dangerous mission, and everyone has to be aware of the implications fully.”
“It’ll be tough to have the necessary numbers then,” Maria commented. “We have the power to ensure our safety, but not many of our soldiers, especially the newest arrivals. It wasn’t long ago that they had first fought.”
“No, you’re mistaken,” Terry responded. Maria looked surprised at his intervention. “I don’t mean any disrespect, Lady Maria, but I believe many Farmers will have a different perspective. It wasn’t too long ago, that every single one of us was being forced to toil in the farms, aware that all that was between us and a violent death was a mistake by the guards, letting a beast sneak in. We are more familiar with death than you think. Believe me, volunteers will not be a problem.”
Maria nodded, looking chastised. “No, I should apologize,” she said. “It’s easy to fall back into the patterns implanted by the System.”
Rosie intervened. “We have our orders from our king,” she started. For a moment, I thought that she used the title as a joke. If it would have been the case I would have appreciated it. But, I could sense that she was deadly serious when she used it.
Worse, through Wisdom, I could feel how the others were reacting to the title. There was respect there, but also a kind of reverence, a distance that I didn’t appreciate. I could feel my position of authority solidifying over them, but the distance between us growing as well.
I hated it, but I didn’t know how to fix it. And, a crisis was the worst time to fiddle with such a thing, so I decided that ignorance was my best bet for the moment.
“We have our decision. Now, let’s discuss our strategy,” I declared.