New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The meeting with the other officers went by briskly, as Astaroth only wanted to discuss a few things with them. He told them who was being selected for the Inter-Alliance Military Exercises, and that they had weighed the decision in accordance with their current estimated troop strength.

Astaroth promised the other two the chance to prove their might for the following year and brushed off their further questions on the matter.

This wasn't the main reason he wanted to convene a meeting.

Once he told them he wanted to form another regiment, composed primarily of mages, he asked for their opinion on who should lead it, and who they believed was trustworthy enough, or capable enough to mount such a regiment.

A single name popped out from all three of their mouths.

Dilya Naemenor.

From what they said about her, she was an Elven woman, who had taken refuge in their city from a nearby village that had fallen to the corrupted monsters, not long after the Abnormals had disappeared.

The three commanders were in accord that her magic prowess was nothing to be scoffed at, and she had been around long enough for her to make her mark. The only downside to this was that she had made her mark as an adventurer.

Getting her to leave the guild to take up official functions under the kingdom would be far from easy. Especially with the guild leader, Singing Grove, who would assuredly do everything in her power to keep such a promising talent under herself.

Astaroth was determined to rope her in. But it would likely take a few tries.

After the meeting, Astaroth sent Phoenix back on her way alone, as he wanted to stop by a few places.

The first place he went was on the sixth floor. He could finally see what the training floor looked like.

After climbing the stairs, almost winding himself out from the thousands of steps, he reached the floor.

But it was much smaller than he expected.

Opening from the stairwell, he found a small round room, with runes carved into the floor, and a small desk at the back, close to the wall.

Behind the desk, a gnome with a beard longer than himself was reading a thick tome, unaware someone had entered the room.

Astaroth walked over to the gnome, clearing his throat to catch his attention.

The gnome lifted a finger, signalling him to wait, and kept on reading for a minute, before lowering the tome. When he saw who he had asked to wait, his face paled.

"I'm terribly sorry, my liege! I thought you were just a soldier coming for a training session! I had never expected the king to come here unannounced!"

Astaroth wanted to laugh at the gnome's reaction, but he didn't want to embarrass him further.

"Pay it no mind. It was my fault for not making my arrival known beforehand. But I did not come here to schedule a training session. I came here for information."

The gnome cocked his head to the side, curious.

"What kind of information, my liege?"

"I would like to know the capacity of the training room. How many sessions can it hold simultaneously? How powerful an opponent can it simulate? What size is it inside? Things like that."

The gnome looked at him curiously before explaining the room's functions and details thoroughly.

It took him over an hour to get all the details he wanted, but once he was done, Astaroth left the room satisfied, but not before ordering the gnome to reserve the training room the next morning at dawn for himself.

The gnome noted it and assured the room would be vacant for his personal use, without issue.

Next, Astaroth wanted to visit the two other commanders under him for private meetings.

He could have had them brought to him, but he felt he owed them the courtesy of showing up on their turfs. Especially after not letting them plead their case for the Inter-Alliance Military Exercises.

He started with Commander Kadmus, of the Griffon Scouts, since he was close to the top of the tree.

It took him a few minutes to make it to her floor, which was designed like stables, where a dozen griffons were currently being tended to, and a few more empty stalls that were cared for.

He assumed these riders were on patrol, but it didn't matter. He wanted to talk to Mary Kadmus, not her troops.

He found her caring for a Griffon, whose feathers and fur were a silvery-grey, instead of the brownish beige of the others.

Its size was also slightly larger than the others, his piercing eyes already locked on him as he approached the stall.

"Commander Kadmus," Astaroth said, announcing himself.

The woman turned her head, noticing the king, and went back to brushing her griffon.

"Yes, Your Majesty?" she asked, foregoing the usual etiquette.

But Astaroth didn't care about things like etiquette, anyway.

"I wanted to have a conversation with you, in private, if possible. Can you make time for me?"

Mary turned to face him, rising to her feet and setting the brush aside.

"I was about to take my Griffon out for a ride. Can you take the sky with me? He's been restless in his stall, and he gets violent when left in there too long, so I can't postpone."

Astaroth looked at the Griffon and assumed that it wasn't pretty if it suddenly went on a rampage.

"It is not a problem. But how will we talk, if all we hear is the whistling wind?"

Commander Kadmus chuckled before walking to a stable hand nearby.

"Saddle Silverwind for me, boy. I need him ready ASAP."

The stable hand nodded his head swiftly before skipping off toward the stall. The large Griffon cawed at the running stable hand, forcing him to slow his pace, but nothing more.

Mary walked to a shelf near the far end of the floor and pulled out a drawer. From it, she pulled out two small black things, one of which she threw at Astaroth.

Astaroth caught it deftly and looked at it. He recognized the object.

It was an earpiece.

'Well, shit. A magic Bluetooth. I'm impressed.'

"We'll hear each other fine, with those, Your Majesty."

Astaroth nodded, sliding the earpiece into his right ear.

But he could already tell by Mary's smug face that this would be more than a simple ride. She had a look of vengeance burning in her eyes.

'This is going to be interesting…'