190 121. Grandma is behaving suspiciously these days.

****

After the Operation, Marsh and others were left at the borders, Marsh thought as John and others left, "Commander Anak is quite good as a tactician however he is quite ruthless. Well, I still won't pity those guys of Goldrush mercenaries after that taste. However, he is bad for my taste."

Jeb the subordinate laughed as he nodded and spoke, "Well, Anyone can understand after what happened to Greenwoods Village, I think he doesn't want a repeat of Greenwoods village and hence his actions. And part of the reason for him being a good tactician is that his subordinates are quite good at tracking mercenaries while they also have the benefit of using those telescopes. However, I think that Captain Arlen too was a capable enough commander with his skills, judgment and combat abilities."

Amber was in a good mood as heard their gossip and butted in, "I think commander Anak is cool enough, In my first duel with Commander, I got an important lesson which was quite useful against enemy commanders today. Captain Arlen, I feel he and his subordinates too are very strong from the aura they possess, I think I can only beat 6-7 of them but they were completely subservient to General Anak, I think we don't even know the real abilities of General Anak, he was basically playing at the battlefield. As for those Mercenaries, I don't think you should pity those criminals. They are just a sore tumor to the people leading normal lives. I hope Commander Anak leads us frequently, there are fewer restrictions under him compared to you, Captain or Minister Jay."

Amber laughed as he left for his quarters.

Marsh and Jeb sighed as they too left for preparations for the next day.

****

Diana, Eva and others were looking for John in his palace previously and now at the Administrative Headquarters,

They currently wanted John's consultations regarding their new cloth line which was previously designed by John, Diana asked Taylor as they headed into his office, "Hey Taylor, where is John today? I can't see him around in his office, has he gone somewhere else?"

Taylor was in a dilemma as he waited a bit, smiled and made up a lie, "I think Lord may be training with Lord Vlad or Melanie. or he might be with the Rose Medical department."

Eva had sharp eyes and asked in a sharp tone after hearing some hesitance in Taylor's tone, "How come you aren't sure about his schedule today? Normally he would always plan ahead and make his schedule and now what you are saying is unlike John's normal behavior."

After getting caught, Taylor tried to make up an excuse, "You see, even Lord is sometimes carefree. So I don't know his actual location today. Anyways I need to receive an important guest, right now. I will leave for now." He left without giving an explanation as he knew that he would get caught if he spoke more.

****

After some time,

John arrived with his small entourage inside the city as he left the remaining forces at Border. Mayor Sam was the one who greeted him first. John didn't wait as he immediately headed for his office in the Administrative headquarters after giving some information to Mayor Sam.

John nodded and gave his orders before he left, "I hope you had a good day, Mayor. Let me know if you face any problems. You can announce the results of this operation to the people."

One of the commoners asked, "Who is this man that is getting such treatment from Mayor Sam? Mayor Sam isn't even offended with how that guy immediately headed off. Who is he? It seems like he is in a hurry."

Another Old man spoke, "Looking at the entourage I am guessing he is our new General, Anak Everburning from the ghosts division. I heard the officers speaking about the appointment of a new General. Looking at the other guy with big ears I think he is the elf, Arlen from the same division. Today, I heard at the Administrative HQ's that they have immediately started operations against the Mercenaries. I think we might get our answer soon. As for why he left immediately, I think he doesn't like fanfare as he is from the Ghost's division and another reason might be that he would want to report to Count John about the recent operation."

Mayor Sam announced to everyone about Anak, "There is good news for everyone over here today, Meet our new General, The Everburning Anak who has joined the army just the Ghost Division. Today the Army started their operations against Mercenaries on the orders of our Lord looking at the grave situation which affected Greenwood Village. Lord Anak and his men obliterated 16 companies of Goldrush mercenaries who were responsible for the massacre at Greenwood village. In this assault, we didn't lose any men which itself shows the prowess of our army and General. From now, there will be fewer problems of bandits at our borders with the Presence of General Anak as they will be actively cleaning them up. As for why he is wearing a mask, it's his usual habit from his days at Ghosts. As for the announcement from the Imperial Capital, Common men don't need to worry as we already have made our provisions for such a situation."

One of the merchants rejoiced as he heard, "Really? 16 companies of Goldrush mercenaries were taken care of? Now, this is good. They are ones who looted and killed men from my caravan previously. I hope they are taken care of as fast as possible."

****

Taylor immediately headed out of his office and greeted John after John entered Administrative Headquarters, "I hope the operation went well, Milord." Both of them headed into John's office and immediately got to important talks.

John nodded and immediately got to the point, "Yes, it was good, there were no casualties. From the rumors, I believe, 3 rats were able to escape our first assault. Was there any problem when I left? Is there any news from the capital?"

Taylor was surprised as he heard that John killed all of his enemies, He regained his calm and answered, "No Sir, there were no problems. As for news from capital Yes, there is a response as we expected, The Imperial court is openly targeting us now that they achieved full production of Ballistas. They have targeted our food imports for the reason that we are raising inflation because of our buying spree. They said we need to handover Blake, Eric and Jake. While at the same time they wanted you to publically apologize to the Royal family for offending them and sullying their name. They have basically already judged us as the culprits behind the Greenwood village incident without even investigating a little bit for namesake, I guess they are in a hurry. Currently, they also sent General Irwin the Desert Fox from the Western front with 20,000 soldiers in the northern barracks. Partly the reason they are confident now is because of the results gained at the Western front against Beastmen with the use of our ballistas."

John laughed as he mocked them, "Hahaha, Do they really expect me to follow all of this and ditch my men? now the real show will begin. Start transporting the Cannons on to our castles and all the other army units. Tomorrow we will openly target the base of Goldrush mercenaries with our best runic Ballistas. The army has lifted the ban on using rifles. Immediately start arming every single one of our soldiers. As for that Commander, we don't need to worry about them. He is anyway sent here to make problems. Since they want more problems. I might as well provoke him tomorrow. Any other news?"

Taylor nodded and gave a report about the movements of the Royal family, "Well, there are some suspicious movements from the Royal family as we couldn't locate 1/4th of their craftsmen and forgers. And the point is, they are the best forgers, craftsmen and runesmiths."

John nodded and immediately came to the conclusion, "Hmm... It looks like they may have made some improvement on the ballistas and hence the secrecy. Very well, increase the surveillance on them. Report to me if you find their best craftsman. Good job on reporting this to me. The canons will anyway force them to reveal their trump cards. No, we will first reveal our best version of Ballistas, the ones with 2-3 times power and the range since it seems they are hiding something. Surprising them with canons would be too early. We will surprise them after they reveal their cards. It would be better this way."

Taylor nodded and immediately followed the orders.

****

Josephine spotted Anak and Taylor as she asked others as she looked suspiciously at Anak, "Who is that guy who entered with Taylor in John's office?"

Diana looked at the direction and recalled a sketch, "I think he is the new general of John, His name is Anak. That was the only information Vlad gave me. That guy is full of mysteries apart from the fact that he was previously working in Ghosts."

Sally looked suspiciously at Anak and laid out her thoughts, "Really? At First Look I thought it was John, I think he looked a lot like John from the way he walked or looking at the body language of Taylor. Taylor isn't submissive to others apart from John. Well, I am not sure about this."

Eva furrowed her brows as she was thinking about her conversation with her grandma previously, 'What is that old hag planning again? Why does she want me to invite John again? And where has John gone? I better be cautious this time around and bring others.'

Diana nodded as she thought of Sally's conclusions, 'I too feel that something is fishy, maybe I should catch Dearil and make him open his mouth. He is deliberately avoiding me for the last 2 days. I am sure he knows something.'

Meanwhile, John shivered as he was in a meeting with Taylor.

John thought, 'Why do I get this feeling of danger these days. I hope it isn't some Blackmagic of my enemies.'

Taylor asked John after watching the weird behavior, "What happened Lord, is there some matter?"

John shook his head and spoke, "Nothing, you can continue with other reports."

Taylor nodded and handed in Tornwall's current progress report, "Tornwall is near completion to make his prototype of Steam Engine and he is quite confident in the success this time as well."

John nodded as he too was confident, "Hmm... Ok, tell him to proceed with the mass production of Steam engines as soon as possible, we will be using them in Ships to power them as well. Tell him, he can experiment with other materials as well to make new products and see the differences. Meanwhile, we will start clearing the northern forest with Cannons from tomorrow onwards. Make sure none of the commoners come in the areas. Let Jay handle that Operation, Arlen and Marsh will be at borders."

"Okay, Milord."

****

Melanie gave a letter to her subordinate which she got from her Institute, "Make sure this letter is addressed to Duke Friedreich. It should reach within a day. Use the Magic Telegram, here are 20 gold coins."

Melanie thought, 'Hmph that guy dares eye my Grandson in law. He can't do anything after my plan succeeds. I will love to see his face after the success of my plan.'

Dwight meanwhile sincerely tried his best to convince Melanie, "Grandma, can I read your books. Please? I will deliver this letter without fail."Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please clickfor visiting.

Melanie smiled and thought, 'Hmph, this brat thinks that I don't know why he came. Very well let him continue his futile efforts.'

Melanie laughed as she answered, "Ok, Make sure to deliver this letter. I will let you have access to my books."

Dwight smiled as he took the letter and headed to deliver it via the spies, 'Now this is good news. I am sure Minister Plato will be pleased. Well, Grandma Melanie is behaving quite suspiciously these days even after such a big achievement. Anyway, who cares.'