The Assassin's Seven Principles of Manipulation

Chapter 267: Chapter 262 — Resources

”Prime!” Horus struck a fist against his chest the moment he entered the war room.

Seeing him, everyone gathered around the table straightened, including Zephyrion.

The moment Ingrid’s announcement had ended, Zephyrion had ordered Horus and his team to conduct a comprehensive sweep of the entire fortress to determine exactly what they had at their disposal, especially in terms of resources. Like the others gathered in the room, Horus had been assigned the role he was best suited for: scouting.

”Report.”

”Yes, Prime! Food and water are limited. If we ration properly, we can stretch both for a day. As for the fortress, we found several military-grade relics in storage.”

Several eyes immediately lit up at the mention of relics.

Over the past few months, they’d been introduced to the world of Ferran military warfare, and naturally, that included the relics that made Ferrans such a menace on the battlefield.

Unfortunately, each test had placed strict restrictions on their use, mostly allowing them just enough experience to familiarize themselves with the relics rather than truly make use of them. The prospect of finally being able to wield those frightening weapons freely was enough to excite them.

Zephyrion nodded. ”What do we have?”

Horus’ expression turned thoughtful for a moment before he began listing them off.

”Common-grade first: torches, lamps, swords, the usual. Beyond that, we found rune shackles, one bastion core, five guardian pillars, and several rune ballistae mounted along the walls. That’s everything.”

Zephyrion’s attention sharpened.

Relics were ranked in ascending order of power: common, tempered, superior, masterwork, grand, sovereign, and imperial. They were also commonly referred to as grades one through seven, with Grade One consisting mostly of common everyday relics, while Grade Seven, imperial-grade relics, possessed enough power to devastate entire regions and influence the outcome of major wars. Only a handful of known imperial-grade relics existed across the continent.

That said, a bastion core was already a grand-grade relic, serving as the beating heart of an entire fortress. It supplied power to practically everything within it, from something as mundane as the lights to the defensive runes woven throughout the fortress. In most cases, once the bastion core fell, the fortress followed soon after.

Still, Zephyrion’s attention had settled on the last relic Horus mentioned.

The rune ballistae.

’I guess that answers his question.’

Months ago, Arcturus had brazenly asked the High General if he could simply disregard the exercise and single-handedly storm the other fortresses. The High General hadn’t given him an answer, yet the fact that they had been provided with these relics was answer enough.

Rune ballistae were masterwork-grade relics specifically designed to repel sieges. A single shot packed enough power to seriously injure even a powerful Mark Seven, and there were several mounted along the fortress walls. It wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen to anyone foolish enough to simply charge their way in.

Zephyrion pushed the thought aside and focused on the matter at hand.

’The bastion core means we don’t have to worry about power. It also powers the ballistae, so that’s settled. That leaves...’

Zephyrion’s attention shifted to another relic Horus had mentioned. The guardian pillars. They were superior-grade relics, portable defensive towers commonly deployed across battlefields to establish control and maintain surveillance over large areas. The fact that they had been given five of them already gave Zephyrion a fairly good idea of what the academy expected them to do.

As it turned out, Nedra had arrived at the same conclusion.

”Guardian pillars, hm.” She studied the map thoughtfully. ”We should deploy them immediately. Five isn’t much, but spread properly, they should at least give us eyes around the fortress.”

Each guardian pillar could be synchronized with the war table, and once planted, would provide a live view of everything within its surrounding area.

Zephyrion glanced at the map displayed across the table. At the moment, it was little more than a broad sketch of their surroundings, leaving practically everything beyond the fortress unseen. For all they knew, an enemy force could already be marching toward them, and they wouldn’t realize it until they were practically at their gates.

Zephyrion studied the map in silence for several seconds. Then, without saying anything, he picked up five markers and placed them across different points.

”Put them here.”

Everyone around the table squinted at the map.

With only five guardian pillars available, the obvious choice would have been to deploy them around the fortress, securing their immediate perimeter and, at most, extending their vision slightly beyond it.

Zephyrion had done the exact opposite.

Each marker had been placed kilometers away from their territory, spread across distant sections of the surrounding forest, with some even positioned dangerously close to enemy territory.

No matter how they looked at it, it seemed like an absurd waste of their already limited resources.

Still, they had come a long way following Zephyrion and had learned by now to trust his decisions rather than immediately question them.

Nedra, however, didn’t seem to share the same sentiment.

”Prime, I’d say ’with all due respect,’ but we both know I wouldn’t mean it. This is a ridiculous waste of resources. These are the enemy bases. Obviously, they’ll be moving around them. Meanwhile, our fortress is practically blind.” She gestured toward the markers. ”They’re called guardian pillars. Shouldn’t they be, I don’t know... guarding something?

The room fell silent. Several people exhaled, subtly shaking their heads. This was hardly anything new. During practically every meeting, Nedra somehow found a reason to pick apart one of Zephyrion’s orders. Many of them had long since started believing it was simply her way of being defiant, especially considering how many times she had tried, and failed, to surpass him.

Zephyrion didn’t look away from the map.

”We need eyes there.”

Nedra frowned, clearly unconvinced. ”Wonderful. Any chance the rest of us could know why?”

Tobias coughed lightly into his fist, muttering beneath his breath,

”Maybe you’re just too stupid to get it...”

Nedra’s piercing glare silenced him instantly.

Tobias stiffened. A moment later, noticing the amused looks everyone was giving him, he cleared his throat awkwardly and turned away as though he had said absolutely nothing.