CHAPTER 77: I HAVE A PLAN

Skya raised her brows. "You think the Duke of the Red Leaves is working together with the other Dukes?"

Drenvar turned to Vacuse instead of answering and gestured for him to answer her question.

’...wait...is he testing me? Teaching me things for when I become the Dragon Lord?...’

Vacuse found it amusing, but he answered the question anyway. "I suspect they are indeed working together. That was why Duke Frexon Sevrix had the boldness to send his army before him. He must be expecting them to join him.

"Now though, things have changed, and they would rather watch from afar for what is going to happen. Likely let us fight the Red Leaves and then swoop in to take all."

Skya frowned. "But why didn’t they do all of this earlier? Why now? They’ve been fighting among each other for years. Why do they want to unite and fight us now?"

Vacuse shrugged as he pointed at himself. "Because there was no me before. Now though, I’m here, and the crumbling Vorrakyn might just have a fighting chance after all. They intend to take all of that."

Drenvar nodded in satisfaction. "You are right. Now, they are willing to share the loot of fighting us. They don’t want the Dragon to spread its wings.

"I’m afraid we are really in a difficult situation."

Vacuse understood.

Because no matter how he looked at it, they would still end up at war with the Red Leaves... and then later, the Dukes.

Drenvar continued. "The only thing stopping the Dukes from uniting right now is the unconscious Duke. And the only thing stopping the Red Leaves is still their Duke.

"If he wakes or dies, they would attack. In a way, I don’t think there’s any way we can avoid this."

Skya’s eyes widened. Just when she was made the commander of Kragthar, they would be going to war? That doesn’t seem fair at all.

Vacuse noticed the mixture of emotions in Drenvar’s voice. There was excitement, determination, and relief.

Vacuse understood. Drenvar had spent almost all of his time as Dragon Lord walking on a tightrope so as not to trigger war with the Dukes under him.

All the while, he searched for how to bring up and preserve the family.

Then Vacuse came, and he had no reason to really hold back anymore.

’...you old bastard... you better find a way to hold on until I’m ready to kill you and take over...’

Drenvar shifted to him, and Vacuse knew what he was going to say before he even said anything. "You, Vacuse. We have to find a way to send you away and hide you. As long as you are alive, then we have nothing to fear."

Eh.

Vacuse grimaced and began. "I think we can still navigate our way out of this."

"What? Tell me then."

"Everything still boils down to letting another power intervene. Since the West is currently built up with pressure, we need someone to punch a hole through from the outside."

Skya shifted impatiently on her feet. "Well, that can’t happen now that the Red Leaves are going to block their territory. There would be no way for the Empire to hear, and so, our strategy of giving the Emperor the opportunity won’t work.

"After all, the Emperor can’t just meddle in the Region’s internal issues unless it threatens the stability of the Empire as a whole."

"Or you plan to use the Gold Accord? It won’t work though."

Vacuse nodded. "All you said is the truth. No matter how eager the Emperor is, he won’t intervene unless we give him enough of a reason, and I suspect he would prefer we were wiped out of the West entirely."

"Then what do you want us to do?" she asked.

Vacuse sat back with a smile. "I have a plan."

Skya tensed as if she were waiting to hear bad news when Vacuse said that. She now regarded Vacuse as someone with the most absurd plans of ruthless endeavors.

But still, all his plans seemed to bring out solutions, even though they might be different from what ordinary people think about. She couldn’t help herself but think of him in a more favorable light.

Hesitantly, of course.

"What is the plan?" she asked.

"It’s simple. We only need to force the Emperor into doing something, right? Then I know just the perfect way to do that.

"The Orcs!"

Drenvar and Skya went very still.

What?

Their eyes went wide, and Skya had that ’I knew it’ look on her face.

"Explain yourself!" Drenvar demanded.

There was a lot of bad blood between the two, the Vorrakyn and the Orcs.

Through the years, the Empire and the Orcs had used the Vorrakyn as a means to fight each other. And although things were relatively calm now, they still shared bad history between themselves.

Vacuse nodded with a serious face. "We need to ally with the Orcs and then attack the Dukes. It would accomplish two things. Scaring off the Dukes and forcing the Emperor to intervene, a good reason.

"Since then, the fight would be external affairs, which is the Emperor’s domain."

Drenvar frowned, and then he shook his head. "It won’t work. Those blasted Orcs won’t ally with us. They’d rather fight us than ally with us."

Vacuse nodded. "And if I have a way to accomplish that?"

Drenvar’s eyes glinted coldly. "If you can do that, then I think it would be something no one in the history of the Vorrakyn has ever done before."

Vacuse smiled. "I have already done something like that before. Why can’t I do the same thing again?"

Drenvar huffed coldly and looked away while Skya looked at him as if he were crazy. "You want to ally with the barbarians? They are going to kill you once you reach their land!"

Vacuse nodded. "I expected that. Unlike us, the Orcs take vengeance very seriously. They are not just going to ally with the family that has been killing their family for generations."

Skya scowled. "They killed us too."

Vacuse smiled. "I have a plan... I think."