Chapter 183: Political Front

Once all the councilmen had taken to their seats, which took some time as each of them seemed to be adamant about making themselves seen, Lucius stood up to begin his report.

"First, I'd like to report on what Avankor and I have discovered while we w-"

"Why is our guest the first to speak in the war room? And firstly is this even the place for our guest to be reporting?" one of the council members interrupted, looking to several others for some sort of support.

"What?" Lucius couldn't help but blurt out. There was no way in hell that these creatures were going to pull stunts like these when their entire populace could be wiped out at any moment.

"I understand that you are unaware of our ways, but as a guest, you should have to decency to wait and observe," the councilman continued with a sort of obviously-fake politeness.

"Or are we expecting too much from a third tier creature," he whispered to himself, earning a few nods from the councilmen seated closest to him.

"I see," Lucius whispered to himself, looking up at Shavak, who was currently covering his eyes in exhaustion.

"Then you may proceed," Lucius said, before sitting down.

"May the over-ruling councilor Shatrul please bring today's discussion to commencement," one of the councilmen announced, before the eldest councilman stood up, and began blabbering on about how grateful he was that everyone could make it here today.

"What's going on here? Why hasn't Shavak said a word since this started?" Lucius whispered to Avankor, as one of the other council members stood up and began summarizing what they had discussed the previous day.

"Kings are members of the council only as a matter of ceremony. The councils are a place for pundits, those who excel at thinking. A king's qualifications are only at fighting, their word has little value here," Avankor explained, feigning interest in what the current councilman was saying.

"Havon, will you refrain from speaking while a councilman is talking?" one of the councilmen at the other side of the table announced.

"Shavril, are you so stuck in your ways that you will not allow member pundits a discussion in the opening ceremony? Or are you claiming that the word of Havon holds so little value that it need not be discussed before his presentation?" Shaviki shouted in response.

"I-I only ask that he keep his discussion to a minimum. We have little time on our hands, and his interruptions may delay us," Shavril replied.

"If time is what we need, then why not throw out ceremony completely?" Shaviki pressed on, earning him dagger stares from many of his colleagues.

"Shaviki, hold your tongue! To throw out ceremony is to reduce ourselves to first tier creatures," one of the other council members jumped in.

"Then do not complain about time when we seem to have so much of it," Shaviki replied before sitting down. Though most of the councilmen present were angry, there were a few who were nodding their heads in agreement with him.

As the councilman who had been talking before the interruptions continued his speech, Shaviki gave a nod toward Lucius.

It was obvious who was on Lucius's side and who wasn't.

~It's everyone else against me,~ he thought to himself. It was clear that Shaviki and his backers were trying to gain something out of Lucius. But that wasn't completely a bad thing.

After nearly an hour of each councilman bringing up their own presentations -most of them talking about the issue of food, some about small scales issues like scuffles between different tribes within the den- it was now Lucius's turn to present.

"I thank you all for coming here today," Lucius started, mimicking exactly what the other councilmen had said before presenting. A few councilmen seemed bothered by this, perhaps they had been hoping to waste even more time.

"Earlier today, Avankor and I traveled to the surface, our findings are as follows; The necromancer has completely covered the surface in a substance that causes a chilling burn effect. The necromancer's army now has massive creatures that are currently in the process of constructing a city just several kilcks from here," Lucius began.

"From what I can tell, fighting those creatures is out of the question. I am unsure how far they can see, but they did not seem to be sentries and functioned only towards construction," he continued.

"We have found a way to clear the land of --" he was about to carry on before one of the councilmen raised an objection.

"There are terms there that we are not familiar with in your presentation. Please explain what construction, Klig... Kli...Klick? And senfies are? Or are these just made-up words," the councilman asked out loud.

"Piss dumb animals," Lucius shouted in English, leaving all the creatures confused. It felt odd enough having a conversation with talking animals, but their arrogance was what really pushed him.

"Construction is to build," Lucius began explaining.

"Then why not just use that?" Another council member interrupted.

"Klicks are a measure of distance, much like how trees are used as a measure. I apologize for using that term," Lucius continued, ignoring the first remark.

"And sentries are specialized units trained to watch over territory," Lucius explained.

As he said this all the creatures nodded their heads in understanding, some of them in satisfaction even.

It seemed that they were academics at heart, even if they were unbearable pricks, they still admired learning about new concepts.

"I suggest that we form a team to head out towards the clan lands to gather resources and properly survey the area," Lucius said once he was done with his presentation.

"How many teams have we sent out already? Should we not wait for them to return first?" one of the councilmen asked in an attempt to dismiss Lucius's notion.

"Did you not listen to anything Havon said? The necromancer has made it impossible to traverse the surface, even if those men were to try and come back it would not be possible for them," one of Shaviki's backers rebutted.

"Havon, you were mentioning that you found a way to clear the land. What exactly is it?" Shaviki asked.

The whole council room was now turned toward Lucius.

"This," Lucius said, before pulling out his crux.