Chapter 301 New Hierarchy
Chapter 301 New Hierarchy
The hot sun set, and night fell.
Throughout Waris, the emblems of Blue Seal and Purple vanished. Red flags and insignias flew in their stead.
A new faction was born.
The barracks had been renamed Command Headquarters.
Jiha's office was renamed the Chief's office.
Inside, Jiha was receiving reports from the informants he had scattered everywhere.
"Reporting. We have arrested the merchant Quartet for hoarding food. As ordered, we will confiscate all supplies and distribute them to the citizens."
"Reporting. Unrest is growing within the Merchant Association. Public opinion of you, Commander, is worsening."
"Reporting. Citizens are flooding the recruitment office. We have already surpassed three thousand. We need more screening personnel."
"Reporting. The public mood is considerably favorable."
Jiha listened to each unending report and issued orders without pause.
Uben, watching from the side, was astonished.
People came and went by the minute, the topics spanning everything from street-level gossip to detailed municipal administration—an incredibly broad spectrum.
Yet Jiha responded without a hitch, as if he had already considered everything, and every matter was resolved smoothly.
"...How in the world do you handle all of this?"
"I've done it before."
To serve a superior, you need foresight over the whole situation and a clear grasp of the pros and cons of every choice.
Above all, you need to answer rapid-fire questions without stumbling.
Jiha was handling things by making full use of that experience.
After a brief pause, Jiha gave Uben additional instructions.
"I've cracked down on a few merchants, so there will be discontent. Spread the word that the bars are open for free for the day. All on me. And tell Iroha the same: if any new enlistees visit the red-light district today, I'll cover those costs too."
"...That will be an enormous amount of money."
"It's money I gathered for exactly this purpose. And now, this city's entire operating funds are my money."
Jiha explained calmly.
"We need to win public sentiment. It's boiling hot now, but there's no guarantee it will still be there tomorrow morning. People will start to wonder if it's really safe to stick with Red, which suddenly appeared while Blue and Purple are still standing. So before that, we seize the mood and make it an established fact."
For the third faction, Red Union, the coming days were crucial.
A three-day reign, or a three-power world.
This was not the time to spare money. The billion invested today would return as a hundred billion later.
'Crowd-pleasing alone won't work, but we also need to let people loosen up. We have to show that Red Union is somehow different from the old Blue and Purple. Create a festival atmosphere first....'
Jiha spoke as he organized his thoughts.
"From now on, do not use the term Security Force. The official designation going forward is simply the Army. The Red Union's Red Army."
"Yes. At this rate, we'll have an army of ten thousand within days. That's just from Waris. If we draw from other cities, it will exceed fifty thousand. Realistically, even if both major factions mobilized fully, they'd struggle to gather that many. The momentum is on our side."
Despite Uben's words, Jiha did not relax his expression.
"Who among the unit commanders can hold their liquor?"
Jiha had mixed Narsha's escort guards with the Commons to create the organization called the Security Force, and had picked ten to appoint as unit commanders.
"Ah, Garaon and Bran are the strongest. They say it's a close match between them. Next would be Okram."
"Bran?"
That cross-dressing woman is a heavy drinker? Unexpected.
"Good. Take those three first... plus the next two unit commanders who can hold their liquor, and send them out into the streets with their troops. Tell them to mingle with people in the bars. The goal is to mix with citizens and build a sense of familiarity. Absolutely no drunken violence. I'll behead anyone who does."
"Yes, underst...."
"I mean it. Remember this is a military order. Anyone who gets drunk and screws up today, no matter who they are, I'll cut their throat myself."
Jiha spoke coldly, and Uben tensed.
Jiha was making it clear: even if it was a Common who had been with him from the start, there would be no forgiveness for a mistake today.
"We've just now reached the starting line. Tell them not to forget the day they swore loyalty to me. I haven't forgotten either."
"Understood. Comm... Chief."
Jiha, Chief of the Red Union. That was his new title.
Uben bowed his head, overcome with emotion.
Jiha, once the King of Slaves, was now the lord of a major power, beginning to rule openly in the light.
For Uben, who had been aiding him at his side all this time, it was naturally overwhelming.
"What will you do, Chief?"
"I'll hold my position."
"Wouldn't it be more effective if you personally stepped out onto the streets? The citizens will want to see the Chief. The goodwill toward Red Union would also rise significantly."
"It's not yet time to let my guard down."
No word had yet come from Enril or Leticia.
Had the elves and dark elves successfully occupied the cities around Waris?
Future strategy would depend on success or failure.
'Enril and Leticia's martial strength is fine, but army command is different. On top of that, they've suddenly joined a new faction, so even the rank-and-file soldiers will have complicated thoughts. The probability of a serious problem beyond mere noise is over fifty percent. But for the long-term, I need both of them to gain experience as corps commanders.'
World conquest required corps commanders he could trust.
Jiha couldn't appear on every battlefield.
While Jiha fought in the east, he needed talent to advance in the west and disrupt the enemy.
Warsland, which had seen no all-out war for hundreds of years, was not an environment that nurtured such generalship.
The Uniques, except for Asira with her rich local-conflict experience, had exceptional personal combat strength, but army command was a separate matter.
'I told them before they left... but real combat is different.'
Uben inwardly marveled as he looked at Jiha.
Last night, he had fought a fierce battle and tamed Gashiel. This morning, he had prepared a speech and achieved the incredible feat of stirring hundreds of thousands of hearts. Then, he came back to devise responses to public sentiment and wait for reports from his subordinates.
Superhuman workload management. With ordinary human stamina, it wouldn't be surprising if he collapsed from exhaustion.
"Understood. Then I'll report when the situation develops."
"...."
Uben left, and alone in the office, Jiha closed his eyes.
His eyelids were heavy. His stamina had indeed reached its limit.
"Huuuuh...."
He thought about closing his eyes just for a moment, but then came a knock.
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
The person who had been granted permission entered.
Dark blue hair and odd eyes. It was Pairan.
She had come without being summoned, her face fraught with tension.
She must have made her decision about whether to follow him, based on what Jiha had said before the speech.
Her face showed she had steeled herself, unsure of what she would suffer this time, having been forced to crawl on all fours before.
But Jiha's thinking was different.
'There's the option of pushing her even more coercively, but that will definitely become a problem later... I'll use this chance to filter her out completely. It's better to use a Unique if possible, but if she ultimately won't obey me, she's useless.'
Until now, the fighting had been within a city, so even if she harbored second thoughts, Jiha could control it.
But from now on, it would be a territorial war. If Jiha was at the eastern edge and she began trolling at the western edge, the whole situation would become tangled.
Under Jiha's gaze, Pairan opened her mouth.
"Lady Asira is already with you. If you can make her happy, I'll follow whatever you d..."
"Swear loyalty to me."
Jiha cut her off.
"Stop using Asira as an excuse. Don't misunderstand who your master is."
"...."
Resistance flickered across Pairan's face.
After being soundly punished by Jiha, she didn't dare lift her head, but the existence of Asira was still enormously significant within her.
"You're like a Jindo dog."
Pairan wasn't the type to hide her true feelings. Jiha tsked.
Her loyalty to the first master she met upon opening her eyes was so strong that she couldn't easily give her heart to the next.
"...I won't refuse your words, but what Lady Asira gave me is greater than anything. Without her, I wouldn't even be standing here now."
"Fine. I'll fix that insolent habit of yours soon enough."
"...."
The tension in Pairan's face and body was obvious.
No matter how stiffly she tried to act, the fact was she had submitted to Jiha.
He still needed to make use of that conditional element. Jiha gave his orders.
"You're someone who climbed up from the bottom. Go out and tour the bars alone. Don't cause trouble even if someone picks a fight. Just listen to the honest talk at the drinking tables. If problems arise for others, resolve them."
"Lady Asira has already been doing that...."
"Asira is a knight, so there are places her eyes don't reach. You fill those gaps."
Pairan nodded and turned to leave, then hesitated.
"...May I go?"
Didn't she have to crawl on all fours like before?
Her face showed worry that Jiha might be stern if she stood and walked out on her own again.
"When I say sit, sit. When I say stand, stand. If I say wag your tail, at least pretend to wag it. If you just follow that... I'll let it slide for the time being."
"...."
And after that 'time being'?
With an expression mixing relief and tension, Pairan did not step away.
She had the air of someone with more to say. Jiha's gaze posed the question.
"There's something you should know."
"How you became a Unique?"
"...."
Pairan was quietly surprised, but for Jiha it was nothing special.
Before coming, she must have resolved to make some kind of deal.
The cards she could offer Jiha now were few.
It had to be the process of how Pairan, once Blue Seal's Super Rare, became a Purple Unique.
"What are your terms for the information?"
"...None."
"You expect me to trust something free?"
At Jiha's smile, Pairan answered seriously.
"If I set terms, you might believe my information, but you wouldn't believe me."
"Fine. Speak."
Pairan hesitated for a long while, then began to talk.
"What do you think a Unique is?"
"A broken unit that appears once per species. To use a game analogy, a hero unit with infinite SP. There's a restriction that only ten can exist on the map. You can only summon another Unique when one dies."
Pairan understood the nuance and nodded, then spoke.
"...There are still only ten Uniques in Warsland."
When she had suddenly become a Unique, it was ambiguous whether the count was ten or eleven, but now it was clear.
Jiha narrowed his eyes and looked at Pairan.
"You. How far up in Purple did you meet?"
A sudden question. Pairan was internally shocked that Jiha had already seen through things from that alone, but she replied.
"The one I met directly was a Legend...."
"And indirectly, you've seen all the way up to an Epic?"
"...."
Pairan nodded heavily.
Purple's Epic, the being famed as the strongest lifeform in Warsland. Fear lingered on Pairan's face as she mentioned them.
Even for this cool-headed swordswoman, an Epic was a being too terrifying to speak of.
"So how did you become a Unique?"
Pairan steadied her breathing, then spoke firmly.
"Purple Liberation is trying to increase the number of Uniques."
"...."
"They are trying to create an army composed entirely of Uniques."
Mass production of Uniques.
It was a statement that overturned every premise until now.