In an unknown location, somewhere that couldn’t be located, a circular table with five-thousand seats, most of them empty, currently there were about thirty-three seats occupied, though some of them had been recently used. No one’s face could be seen, though they were all strong and they knew that.

They had already given up on resolving their discussions between themselves and instead used other methods which they could influence. But the rules weren’t explicit and the limits of what was allowed was always broken, at least according to some of them, while other said that their actions were completely “legal”. This was the case with their present situation and even though their rules didn’t allow them to discuss until the year ended, but some people already muttered between themselves and looked at each other with suspicion.

Petrió was worrying endlessly about what to do with the current situation. Any course of action seemed to make everything worse, so perhaps he should do nothing, yet that could also worsen the situation. Autumn was ending and with no food supply within the zone they’d have to spread, and his territory was likely to be invaded in order to feed the soldiers.

The vacation of his soldiers had ended so now he had all hands back on deck and he ordered them to prepare some defenses in case a lot of people tried rushing them into their territory, mostly create barriers that’d make it less enticing to enter due to its higher difficulty in comparison to nearby, enemy cities.

But he couldn’t make it that close either, because that way his enemies would easily notice what he was doing and do the same, basically nullifying the work that his soldiers had done. In order to ensure that the plan stayed secret, it was covered as a railway in order to connect cities and future critical spots to protect, which was likely enough not to be considered a secret plan by spies. Just to be perfectly sure, he also produced train tracks and sent them to the location, though instead of building a track, they built traps out of them.

He tried communicating with the leaders of the armies sent there, the ones that seemed to be with him, but even though they were there to support him, they didn’t want to meet. Perhaps these were their orders, but he believed that they didn’t really want to support him but were forced to. Still with no war going on, the year was going to end. The city that was to be conquered or defended had been fully ransacked of its valuables.

First, they took not only the edibles, but also any cash or gold they could find. Then, they took the decorations that some homes had, be it paintings or sculptures, though the light weighted ones first. Finally, they took anything and everything that could be taken. From cutlery to beds, anything that could be sold wasn’t within the city anymore. What angered Petrió the most was that it wasn’t only the enemy that was committing these crimes, the troops that were supposed to be allied with him were also robbing him.

And what was worse was that when these two opposing armies met within the city, both ransacking it, there was no conflict, they just let each other continue with their day and keep stealing from him. It was indeed too much, but at least they stayed on that city, but if they were to move, he’d have to take action. In fact, he needed to do something now in order to prevent that.

But it was the end of the year and he needed to prepare a celebration, according to his advisors. He understood that it was a new year and all, but not why it was so celebrated. It wasn’t a natural date, it was set by someone, any day of the year could be the first day if you set your calendar right.

Thankfully he had some skilled writers and speakers to set him up a speech, because he would have most likely flubbed it. There wouldn’t only be a speech, before and afterwards a show was planned and he thought of using this time to try to solve the solution of the armies, but he was forced to be present during the shows and pay attention while looking happy, even if he wasn’t.

It was publicity and they couldn’t have anyone see their leader worried, because then everyone would get in on the scoop and create various fake scenarios that could be happening and would only help worry the population.

The publicity stunt seemed to have been successful, as no one commented about his attitude or speech, though there were some critics about the show, too much of this, too little of that, but nothing that would affect the current, fragile balance he had managed to maintain throughout the last few days.

But after the new year had started, all the visiting soldiers started behaving better. They didn’t give back what they stole, of course not, but at least they had stopped stealing. Not long after, they had also started to return from where they came from, though they still didn’t want to communicate with Petrió as for the reasons of their erratic behavior.

Still, some battalions stayed behind, but their quantity made them bearable and controlling their behavior wasn’t out of the realm of possibility anymore. He didn’t want to be rash and make more armies come at him, but at the same time now was the time to take action, when they’d have an effect.

So, he enforced patrols near them, slowly but surely getting closer and preparing a raid on the camp of his enemies. Before he could go and conquer, he had to clean his backyard and get rid of these annoying pests which only hindered his progress. But it had to be done in a single fell swoop.

His army alone wouldn’t be enough, but he also couldn’t ask for some of the allied soldiers to support him because they wouldn’t even look at his letters. Therefore, he had to find another way. Soldiers couldn’t be created out of nowhere and forcing the population to work as one wouldn’t be well accepted.

He could use some of his technology to decrease the chances of someone escaping, but if they did it’d be much worse. Spies inserted within his own army could also find out about his new weapons and he’d quickly lose his advantage. But if he didn’t do anything about these soldiers the population would get mad. Anything he did made something already bad even worse.

But if nothing was going to improve the situation, he would rather be proactive and have an effect on the outcome of the situation than stay there and let opportunities pass by. So, he mobilized his army and in a night that his enemies were festive due to a religious event, he decided to attack.

With his army full of new “toys” the first hundred enemies fell down without a hitch. Then they started to realize that they were receiving an attack, but the alcohol running through their veins made fighting harder than usual. Having started with a disadvantage and having no way of getting back at the attackers, they were forced to flee, probably out of personal interest to survive, but some had the honorable ideal to search for help, but no one escaped.

One of the new weapons they were allowed to carry one of them excelled at killing escapees. It was a relatively automated weapon that hunted for the thing that was moving away from it the fastest, within a certain area, of course.

Because the attackers knew when they’d activate it and were wearing clothes with a protective spell on them, they could safely activate it and the thing would act on its own. It’s method of killing was quite simple; it just poked a large rod through the escapees’ head and once it was dead it searched for others nearby.

If there were none, it’d return to where it was activated to be checked by the specialists and if everything was OK, they could fire it up again. But while it was returning it could be caught, so they installed a failsafe as well.

If it didn’t return to his original area or relatively close to it, at least, within a certain amount of time, it’d explode, hopefully killing the trappers or at least hurting them. Petrió and his scientists really didn’t want anyone to find out about their technologies, after all.

With every enemy defeated and absolutely no casualties from their side and six hours of arduous “fighting” the soldiers went back home as the sun started to peer on the horizon, the morning was coming, and they had been completely victorious. As a prize for such an amazing victory and as a thanks for freeing the city’s surroundings Petrió gave each of them a sum of cash that they could spend or save if they so wished. It was good to show that the soldiers got paid so more would come in the future, but it was also important not to let these same soldiers get any ideas against the government they were hired from.