CEO in a Fantasy World 3

by Tristan H Brown

  Caesar scrutinized each and every one of them until he reached the final two. They were hugging their bodies like the rest; however, even in this cold weather, a few beads of sweat streamed down their faces.

  "Put your arms out," Caesar ordered with squinted eyes.

  "S-Strategist, what do you mean? I-it's very cold out, you see?" one of them answered with a fear-stricken tone.

  Caesar didn't bother playing games with the two and grabbed their arms himself, he tugged with his abnormal strength, and soon, everyone present could see nearly indiscernible scratch marks on their forearms.

  "It's not what you think!!! I swear, p-please believe me, I-I have an itching problem," one of them cried out in horror.

  Caesar didn't spare the two another glance and looked at Musashi, "please order Faust, Leo, Khan, and Renee to the meeting room. And if you wouldn't mind, order Falthor and Soka to go there as well.

  Musashi was brought back to reality with Caesar's words, he looked at the two shaking guards with disgust before nodding his head, "as you wish…" he paused for a second.

  "What are you going to do with these two?" he asked after a few moments of hesitation.

  "Being a spy, no, even being a traitor requires a strong mental fortitude; however, without appropriate repercussions, they will start becoming comfortable… thus, you need to strike fear in their hearts, and even without doing anything, they will make mistakes on their own," Caesar explained with a chilling smile.

  "Though, I am in no rush, in the next weekly training session, or even at the tournament, is probably when I will give the lesson, until then… I'll be asking Rakan and Charlie to keep watch on them," Caesar's words continued after a short pause.

  Musashi just nodded his head in agreement, although he was the clan leader, at this time, it felt as if the roles were reversed.

  Seeing Musashi quickly agree to the matters he suggested, Caesar walked past him and headed towards the meeting room, but before leaving, he glanced at the guards surrounding the tent one last time.

  "These are surely not the only two that committed this atrocity, if that were the case, Ronny would have told me that only two took the lass. The least you could do is immediately report any suspicious behavior amongst your colleagues. Also, give the girl inside a proper burial," Caesar said as he walked away without awaiting their reaction nor reply.

  'not only are there spies but also some sort of spying devices or magic within this stronghold. Going off what the letter stated, it's clear he was watching and listening in, as he was capable of handing them a letter within a few hours, or perhaps, he instructed them to write the letter. However, there were no writing utensils within the tent' Caesar was in deep contemplation as he walked toward the meeting room.

  'The part about Renee's body was most likely just a ploy to enrage me, if whoever wrote the letter truly saw her body, they would mention the aspects one would only know if you saw her naked, such as the birth spot under her left breast. Yet, he only mentioned a few simple features.'

  Caesar swiftly brainstormed a few feasible ideas as he walked, if the person who wrote the letter knew that Caesar could learn so many things from a simple letter, he would most certainly not have written it!

  'I captured the assassin about 24 hours ago, meaning the person who wrote the letter is either in the stronghold, or it further solidifies my theory that there is some sort of talking device or magic they use… if we can rummage through those twos belongings, we could perhaps figure out what the device is, then we can search through everyone's' belongings, quickly pinpointing the spies within.'

  Caesar soon constructed a plan within a mere few minutes of brainstorming. This was only possible due to the amount of information gained from the foolish letter he obtained. While thinking, he reached the meeting room and walked inside.

  He grabbed the folded map resting next to Musashi's chair and spread it out on the long table. He examined the smaller clans located next to the fox-kin while also constantly releasing his mana inside the room, trying to sense if something was spying on him. Although unlikely, since Musashi would have probably already detected it, it's better being safe than sorry.

  About 25 minutes later, the meeting room door open and a few familiar faces showed themselves, these were naturally, Musashi, Faust, Leo, Soka, Falthor, Khan, and Renee, the only few he could trust within this damned clan.

  "Welcome, I have a few things I need you to do for me" Caesar spoke straightforwardly right as they entered the room.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Faust was the first person to react; he immediately took a step forward and bowed deeply.

  "Because of our weak security and traitorous scum, you've had to suffer greatly. I am ashamed of my clan. Please, let me do you a favor in repayment so I can sleep at night," he said while gnashing his teeth and tightening his grip until his knuckles became white.

  Caesar sat down at the end of the table and folded his fingers, "it is not only I who had to suffer, but your entire clan also suffered… with the information gained, we could have stricken back, alas, instead, she was brutally murdered in front of our own doorsteps," Caesar replied to which Faust's face became even more embarrassed.

  Caesar suddenly stood up and walked toward the map laid out on the table, "though, I did not call all of you here for us just to wallow in the past, it is a shame the girl did not live long. However, we have more pressing matters to attend to…" he stated with a calm voice and beckoned for the others to sit down.

  Soka, Falthor, Musashi, Renee, Faust, and Khan all nodded their heads and sat around the map, awaiting his next orders, none of them wanted to talk more than they had too. Although Caesar was putting on a calm facade, they could tell he was in a bad mood.

  Caesar first turned to Khan, "the two that we arrested today, I don't know their names. However, I want you to investigate them while also searching through their belongings, look for anything out of place or seemingly hidden," Caesar ordered and then turned toward Faust, Falthor, and Soka.

  "As for the three of you, we need more troops, with Musashi's body constantly deteriorating and the tournament coming up soon, I doubt the trolls will wait much longer… it's already miraculous that they haven't been pressuring us more than they currently are," Caesar said.

  "Okay, what do you want us to do, boss" Soka said while licking his supple lips.

  "The enemy of our enemy is our friend. The trolls surely pressure these three clans… I want the three of you to lead some elites towards each of the specified areas and recruit them into our ranks, granted if they decline, either move on or if they are weak, take their food by force" Caesar ordered and circled three locations on the map with his slender finger.

  "What if we get ambushed by the trolls?" Faust suddenly asked.

  Caesar rolled his eyes, "as long as you don't tell anyone where you're going, there should be no problems, however, if there does happen to be an ambush, that would mean you leaked the information somewhere. Please do me a favor and keep this to yourself besides your few trusted elites, don't tell anyone, even your son and wife" Caesar emphasized the words 'son' and 'wife.'

  "You suspect my son and wife?" Faust asked with a low tone.

  "Don't take it too personally. I currently don't trust anyone besides the few in this room. Of course, Joe is an exception." Caesar said leisurely. In fact, he already knew that Charlie was once a spy. Still, the information he possessed was pitiful, to say the least.

  Faust nodded his head with a grave expression and sat back down, at his side, Soka and Falthor were already contemplating about more troublesome matters.

  "I have confidence that I can complete the task you ask of me, the only problem being that I have no soldiers to command, I am no clan head after all," Falthor said while holding his chin.

  Caesar glanced at Musashi, "I assume that problem can be solved with a few simple orders from Musashi, worst-case scenario, me, you, and a few other strong allies can go together," Caesar said a
fter a moment of thought.

  "Don't worry about the soldiers. I can supply them, although I won't take from the clan heads personal forces, there are still quite a few strong soldiers that don't align themselves with any faction" Musashi spoke up from his throne at the end of the room.

  Falthor and Soka breathed out a sigh of relief before leaning back in their chairs. It was clear that they weren't anxious about the upcoming mission in the least.

  "What do you want me to do?" Renee abruptly asked from the corner of the room, garnering everyone's attention.

  Seeing her expression that screamed, 'I want to help too,' Caesar couldn't help but tap the desk with a troubled face… The order he wanted to give was necessary as a leader; however, he himself, didn't want to order it.

  After a few seconds, Renee grew impatient, "well, what is it?" she asked in an irritated tone.

  "I need you to figure out which clan heads are loyal and those who aren't, naturally, as a beautiful woman, you have an advantage with charming. No physical contact is needed. Those that are abnormally resistant are probably the traitors. At the same time, those who are okay with it are more probable in being loyal," Caesar ordered with a strange voice to which Renee tilted her head while Musashi frowned deeply.

  "Why would the traitors be resistant, wouldn't it be the other way around?" Renee asked, not bothered by Caesar's order in the slightest. She was very faithful and had no qualms about faking a few seductive glances at some men as long as it helped Caesar in the long run. However, if she were required to touch them in any way, she wouldn't hesitate to decline.

  "From my understanding, the spies and traitors have some sort of device that lets the mastermind look, hear, and talk into. If you were a traitor, and you knew the thing your faction wanted most was right in front of you, but you were being watched, would you still take it?" Caesar asked a question instead of answering.

  Renee nodded her head in understanding, "I see, I'll just get them drunk on flame nectar and grant them a few frivolous glances… that should be enough," Renee said after a few moments of thought. She was very aware of the power a woman held when it came to seduction. It was possible for a beautiful woman to make even the strongest men wag their tails in front of them.

  "Oi, oi, oi, what are you ordering my precious granddaughter to do? What if those scummy clan heads overpower her?" Musashi suddenly butted in the conversation with a loud voice.

  "I assure you that Renee is stronger than those measly clan heads. However, I have already taken precautions, I figured you would wait in a room nearby to barge in if anything were to go awry," Caesar said in a soothing tone, he didn't want Renee to do this either, alas, he had to put aside his personal feelings if he wanted to win the war.

  Musashi huffed and begrudgingly sat back down in his chair with crossed arms. Because of this, the atmosphere in the room lightened up a bit, and everyone became more comfortable.

  Once everyone clearly understood their roles, Caesar nodded in satisfaction and sat at the table while stroking his chin.

  "If the three of you are capable, I want you to go out every night from now and recruit weaker clans, don't worry about food, most of the small clans, from my understanding, prioritized farming instead of hunting, unlike the fox-kin, they should have their own large stock of food."

  The three nodded their heads with solemn expressions, "what if they don't have any coordination with us in battle? Won't they do more harm than good," Soka asked with a sly smile.

  Caesar smiled in response, "you're correct on the presumption they aren't coordinated, alas, I plan to have a clan-wide training session every day for the next two weeks… naturally, our allies will be invited," Caesar replied.

  Soka giggled strangely and went back to fiddling with his wooden daggers. He was a strange fellow.

  Caesar suddenly clapped his hands, "that's it for today's meeting, I expect great results from you…" he signaled the end of the meeting, and everyone stood up from their chairs and walked out besides Renee and Musashi.

  Once the three of them were alone, Caesar put his feet on the desk and looked at the ceiling, "Musashi, I want you to obtain some information detailing the approximate headcount of all the fox-kin men capable of fighting, while also finding information on how much enemy trolls there really are. Knowledge is power; after all," he added.

  "Very well, that can be arranged," Musashi responded.

  After he replied, Musashi stood up from his chair and headed toward the door with Renee in tow. Before leaving, he glanced at Caesar was still sitting alone in the room, "look, I'm sorry about the girl's fate. I wish I could've saved her sooner," he said with an apologetic tone.

  "Don't be sorry. It was more of a wake-up call than anything… does Joe know of the lass's demise?" Caesar abruptly asked.

  "I don't believe so," Musashi answered back with an unsure voice.

  "Good, keep it that way," Caesar replied to which both Musashi and Renee nodded their heads and left the room, leaving Caesar alone.

  Caesar, who was now alone in the room, leaned back in his chair and peered down at the elegant nails on his slender fingers while whispering in a quiet voice, "I didn't even get to know the girl's name," he said gently.

  Once again, Caesar realized that he was not a superhero by any means. No matter what, even those under his supposed protection had been killed. A flame was rekindled within his heart — one that would burn until he destroyed his enemies.