"Shinbela, what are these people here for?" Anfey asked in a low pitch, as he looked at the swordswomen in the arena.
"Master, didn't you hear about it? I thought I had told you about it," Shinbela answered in surprise.
"Did you tell me about it? When?" Anfey asked.
"Few days ago. Lord Christian…" Shinbela tried to explain.
"Oh, Christian." Anfey immediately remembered when Shinbela mentioned Christian. Christian told Anfey that he felt it was not convenient for Alice to have male mercenaries as her safeguards. Suzanna and Shinbela could not be with her all the time, so Christian was thinking of forming a personal safeguard team with all women. Anfey thought Christian would pick some women from the League of Mercenaries, which was why he did not put those unfamiliar swordswomen together with Alice's safeguards. He paused for a second and asked, "Where are those swordswomen from?"
"Master, there have been a lot of mercenaries who came to us for help over the past few days. These women were the best of them all," Shinbela said.
"A lot of mercenaries? It is just the beginning," Anthony said with a smile. "No one knows better about how those mercenaries think than I. The Country of Mercenaries used to be under the control of four super mercenary groups. They collaborated, but also fought with each other, which left some room for medium or small sized mercenary groups to survive in gaps.
However, it is different than during old times. Smart people could tell that joining the League of Mercenaries was actually their only option. They knew that, the earlier they could join, the more benefits they could get. They knew they either could join the League of Mercenaries or leave the Country of Mercenaries."
Anfey nodded. He got what Anthony meant. Anfey asked, "Shinbela, are you thinking of forming a safeguard squad with those swordswomen for Alice? You must be kidding me."
"I have talked about this with Master Alice. We know neither about those swordswomen's backgrounds, nor the reasons they wanted to join the League of Mercenaries. If we ask them to be Alice's safeguards, there might be trouble down the road," Shibela said.
"I am glad you see that," Anfey said slowly. "What did Alice say about it?"
"Master Alice said she had an idea about what to do," Shinbela said.
"What does she mean?" Anfey asked with a frown.
"Master, I do not know," Shibela said.
"Ok, I will go and ask her later." Anfey went silent for a while and asked, "Shinbela, do you know the woman who always gives you trouble?"
"Master, do you suspect her?" Shinbela asked.
"No, usually, spies know they need to keep a low profile, to not attract others' attentions. Women like her, who make trouble everywhere, could not be spies," Anfey said.
"Master, you are right," Shinbela said in a low pitch, "I know her. Her name is Midof. She used to be the commander of the Mars mercenary group. We had some conflicts when we were on assignments. We even had a physical fight. She is a senior swordswoman, pretty powerful, but she was at a disadvantage in a few fights with me. It was because…" Shinbela suddenly stopped before she could finish her sentence. Her face turned a little pale.
Anfey patted Shinbela's shoulder. He knew what Shinbela was going to say. Back then, Manlyn was still alive. When Shinbela and Manlyn fought together, Midof was not a match for them. It looked like Shinbela had healed yet. "Isn't Mars a powerful name for a woman's mercenary group?" Anfey changed the topic.
"Hahaha… it is nothing unusual," Anthony said with a smile. "The weaker the mercenary group was, the more superior the name they gave themselves. Names like, "Dominator", "Protector",or "Invincible", sound terrifying, but they could have less than ten people in their mercenary groups. They are just jokes for others."
"Indeed." Shinbela smiled.
"But master, you did a great job on the name for our mercenary group," Anthony said.
"Me?" Anfey was shocked for a second.
"Yeah." Anthony nodded. "The League of Mercenaries. The word 'league' showed your vision and your ability to take in others' opinions. It does not sound grand, but has a long, reaching meaning."
"Master Anthony, if I did not know about you, I would think you were being sarcastic."
Anfey did not know if he should cry or laugh. "I just randomly picked a name, because I did not want to spend time on it."
"If you gave it a lot of thought, it would have sounded pretentious." Anthony must want to keep kissing Anfey's ass. "We usually could tell a person's true personality from whims."
Anfey felt that he had totally lost this game to Anthony. He had to switch the topic again. He knew the answer of the question, but he asked it anyway, "Shinbela, did Midof give you trouble because of the problems in the past?"
"Yes." Shinbela nodded.
"This should stop. We need to give them some real life experiences to rough them up, which will help them grow," Anfey said with a frown.
"Master, do you really want to give them the training?" Shinbela asked.
"Yes," Anfey said.
"Master, it will be a lot of work," Shinbela said.
"A lot of work? Hehehe, not at all," Anfey said.
Shinbela blinked. She did not get what Anfey meant. Of course, she would never understand it.
"I am going to talk to Alice about it later. Shinbela, can you stay and watch them?" Anfey asked.
"What about the training?" Shinbela asked.
"It is easy. Ask them to run 100 laps around the arena first. If they finish it before I come back, then ask them to run another 100 laps. Oh, and they are not allowed to use combat power," Anfey said.
"What training is this?" Anthony asked in curiosity. The highest level of those swordswomen was senior swordswomen. Anthony wondered how Shinbela could ask them to run 100 laps.
"You will understand in a few days." Anfey smiled. "Shinbela, are there any wells in the garrison?"
"There are two wells," Shinbela said.
"Dump stones into them and block them. Are there any mages?" Anfey asked.
"No." Shinbela shook her head. "Master, if the wells are blocked, where can they get water?"
"I will ask Feller to send two mages over." Anfey thought about something for a while and said, "And no one is allowed to leave without permission. If they leave, they will not be part of the league. Do you understand?"
Anthony and Shinbela looked at each other, They really had no idea what was on Anfey's mind.
Alice did not look too good. Governing eight provinces was not the same as when she had managed the League of Mercenaries. Back then, she got Anfey's support, so she had ways to complete her assignments. Moonlight City was in a totally different situation. Marquis Legoya left with a group of royals and city officials. There was a gap in the administration, having no one in medium or upper level administration.
Orders from Alice could not get passed down, because of the gap. She wanted to fill the gap, but she could not find any people she could trust. Yolanthe reminded her several times that she needed to use people from the Shansa Empire to govern the Shansa Empire. The reason for this was to keep Moonlight City in order at this moment, and in the future.
Alice knew Yolanthe was right. If she appointed non-Shansa Empire people to be in the upper administration, people from the Shansa Empire would not be happy about it, even if Edward IIIV did not take advantage of it and make rumors.
Baery and Saul insisted to follow Yolanthe's order. They were only in charge of military affairs. They had no business in administration. Alice took all the administration jobs upon her shoulders. Governing a province was a lot harder than managing thousands of mercenaries.
She was not concerned a lot, when she was in the League of Mercenaries. As long as she thought it was the right decision, she could insist upon it, because Anfey, Christian, and others could understand her. She had to think a lot before she did anything in Moonlight City. She was afraid of creating problems, because she was not able to take anything in consideration.
The most important thing was that Yolanthe made the decision that she needed in order to take it easy and not be greedy. For every action she took, she had to be sure she could handle it. As it was said, before Alice could return the Moro Province to order, Baery's troop stayed where they were, to wait for the order.
Yolanthe had another reason for doing this. Edward IIIV did not want to sit and wait. He had been trying hard to recruit people for his troop. Yolanthe wanted to give Edward IIIV enough time to let him try. Edward had already lost his feeling of security. He would try to take money from civilians and force young people to join his military. The more pressure civilians felt, the more Shansa civilians would want the Maho Empire to take over the city to save them. By then, nothing could change the fate of Moonlight City.
Regular military officials might not understand the battle at the strategic level. Even if Edward IIIV rebuilt a troop with thousands of people, and had a general as good as Scarlet, he still would lose the battle. Every step Yolanthe took, he was sure he would succeed. He did not give Edward IIIV any chance to turn the situation around.
If Baery could take over several provinces at once, Edward IIIV should have more problems back home. There would be some messy provinces and tens of thousands of scared civilians. No matter how capable Alice was, she could not put everything back on track in such a short period of time.
Anfey walked to Alice's office. There were people everywhere in the hallway and rooms. The door of Alice's office was open. Suzanna stood at the door, quietly watching the people. People could be quite different. Each of them had different facial expressions. Niya smiled before she said a word.
Niya's smile was so genuine and happy. In Niya's eyes, people were generally good, except for a few. Alice always wore a smile, but the smiles were her mask, yet not everyone could tell they were just a mask. For example. Manlyn used to be attracted to her, even wanted to dump his fiancé for her, and forgot how he became the commander of the mercenary group.
Suzanna did not like to smile, especially to strangers. Even though her smile could melt people's hearts, she always looked distant. People were scared to talk to her, even when they did not know who she was.
Suzanna's job was to protect Alice, so she was very sensitive to her surroundings. When Anfey stepped on the staircase with just one foot, Suzanna had turned around to him. When she saw it was Anfey, her smile grew bigger and bigger on her face. It all started from her eyes, then mouth. The smile was so big and bright that it could melt snow. When people saw her smile, they might feel as warm as the sun shining in the spring breeze.
It might be because Suzanna was happy, satisfied, or for other reasons. She always smiled when she saw Anfey, even though they had been married for about half a year. Suzanna smiled genuinely, not because she wanted to appease Anfey. Her smile was not a routine either, just a real smile from her bottom of her heart.