Firstborn: Return of the heir

“I can’t believe nothing happened.”

Dropping herself on the bed as soon as the doors of the chamber closed behind the two, Venna let out a long sigh.

“It was uneventful, yet tiring. Am I right?”

Smiling at his own thoughts, Saulus rested his tired bottom on one of the chairs, pouring himself the very first cup of something palatable that night. With the awful taste of the fake drink at the feast finally washed away, the young general could, at last, think clearly.

I wonder if I’m relying too heavily on the drink… It won’t be good to let that happen, but I wonder how my body would react if I suddenly stopped… Shaking his head, Saulus attempted to cast away that sudden and unwelcome thought. Right now, the crucial time of the entire rebellion would start. He would worry about his drinking later.

Because right now, Saulus was completely safe.

Obviously, there would be a lot of opposition to the south. Even with all the help from the unruly provinces of the east that Saulus could expect, the enemy had lords. This was an undeniable and unavoidable problem that he had to solve. A unique approach of throwing masses of priceless veterans against a single person while still expecting huge losses.

But even this was something that he wouldn’t need to figure out until sometime in the future. Instead of using his momentum to instantly sweep the entire area, Saulus had entirely different plans for his next move.

“Tiring? That’s a gross understatement. I feel like dying right now.”

Spreading her arms wide on the comfortable sheets of the bed, Venna continued to stare at the ceiling.

“Anyway!”

Suddenly propelling back up to a sitting position, the girl smacked her cheeks with her hands twice before looking sharply at the general.

“When are you going to tell me? I was trying, but I just couldn’t find any opening during the feast to ask you about it.”

Resting her elbows on her knees, Venna supported her head with her fist while staring daggers at Saulus. Maybe it was the atmosphere of this place, her true home, that allowed this girl to make such a sudden shift from acting like a maid to how she really was, back before all hell broke loose.

Or was there any shift, any change at all? Suddenly puzzled by this question, Saulus quickly had to drop the idea of pondering over it as Venna’s face continued to sink more and more into a sulk.

Heh… I guess she was always just the same. Nodding inwardly at his own thoughts, Saulus had no choice but to reply to his queen’s urgings.

“Rylas will stay in the south. While it’s only a hearsay, I learned he took it… differently than I expected.”

With the topic of the first legion finally surfacing, Venna calmed down. Both because her wish was granted and due to how important this report was to her.

“Well, he gave me a timeline to fulfill my part. If I nail it properly, he will enter the new regime and keep my authoritarian rule in check. Can you believe that brat? Not only does he dare to give me terms, but for some strange reason he even believes I will do the ruling.”

Saulus shook his head in an exaggerated attempt to look irritated by his former subordinate’s arrogance.

I guess the bird finally took its first flight. For as pained as he was with how he had to cheat his old and trusted friend, this was the one bright spot in the picture. After ten years of fighting together, Saulus had always wanted to return to Rylas not as a subordinate, but as a peer. With his leadership talents and relentless determination in achieving his targets, he somehow had remained a relatively pure person.

And as little as Saulus hoped for this to happen, hearing that the absolutely best outcome had come his way, he couldn’t help but get all nostalgic for a moment.

Farewell, my friend. Now you are the architect of your own fate. Breaking away from his own thoughts, the young head of the rebellion finally took notice of Venna’s face right in front of him.

“If not you, then who do you think will rule?”

Suddenly asking this obvious yet strangely delicate question, Venna didn’t allow Saulus to move his eyes away. Reaching forth, she took hold of his chin before seriously staring right into his eyes.

“I…”

Stunned by the sudden occurrence, Saulus was at a loss as to what to say. With just a single tone leaving his mouth, the question hung in the air, weighing down on both of them.

Isn’t it pretty obvious? In theory, it should be easy to say it. Point his finger at her with a playful look should do the rest. But for some reason, the young man could not voice out those words.

“Either way, isn’t it good? Now we can take our time to sit comfortably with what we have. With Istoa and Aldo in our hands, everything between the lonely plains and Allice river is basically in our hands. Outside of establishing ourselves locally, what would you advise to focus on in the next steps?”

Looking at his childhood friend, Saulus couldn’t believe how much she matured. In a flash, she turned from her normal, cheerful self, to the role that she had to bear. But Saulus couldn’t help notice that there was a kind of sadness in her eyes.

At first, Saulus even had some ideas about Venna becoming upset because he insisted on her participation in the ruling, but the long-reaching conclusions of this kind of thinking were so audacious that the young man didn’t dare to give them thought any longer.

“Right now, we have two options. The first is to use the Allice river and take over a small outpost of Gaudio on the southern road. This would allow us not only to close the rest of the province from the world but also establish contact with the first legion to the south. We would cooperate by buying off Rylas’ spare food for the money that our generous neighbors will support us with once we reach the border.”

Moving his finger over the material of the invisible map, Saulus finished the explanation of the first idea.

“And? The second option? I know that look on your face. You started off with something basic and now you are going to blow my mind by revealing your grand plan that only firstborns would be capable of figuring out.”

Raising her head from the imaginary map that Saulus indicated, Venna looked with a smirk at her friend.

“Instead of using the river, we go by road and march directly on Mengia. If we take it, only the two big cities to the south will remain between us and victory.”

Given the idea that he previously had about forcing Venna into the role he wasn’t willing to take himself, Saulus included both of them in the future he painted.

“Dugao and Exama… What about Oreta? You know, the one to the north from Mengia?”

Instead of showing any reaction to Saulus’ small ploy, Venna focused on his larger plan.

“I know the governor there. Once we will secure the road and his profits from the trade, he will be happy to support us with all his might. You might be surprised, but he is one of the loyalists.”

Smiling at the memories that the mention of that man brought him, Saulus shook his head before moving back to the main topic mentioned.

“Dugao and Exama. While there is still the matter of that outpost to the south that I mentioned previously, we need to only worry about those two. Each of their garrisons alone will be capable of burying us once we exhaust ourselves at Mengia. The battle with those soldiers and their lords… will be the deciding point of the entire revolution.”

Shaking his arms as if they weren’t currently talking about how the entire civil war would play out, Saulus looked at Venna. While he had already made his decision, he still wanted to hear what Venna thought. After all, the only way to make her safe was to turn her into a capable leader. And Saulus was willing to go to any lengths to achieve that.

“I understand. Okay then, what we will do is…”