Alexander The Great Mage

Chapter 58 - Aleyria VS... Dubaza??

"Report!" The courier fell on one knee and declared that he had urgent news to report.

Alexander frowned but waved his hand in assent.

"A massive Orc and Undead army sighted outside of the City of Rin! Initial estimates number them at five hundred thousand!" The courier shouted with a trembling voice.

The ministers who were previously gasping in surprise over the news Alexander had broken to them now jumped up almost at the same time.

"What?!" Belroy shouted in shock.

"Silence." Alexander's voice cut through the panic like a hot knife through butter. "Get back to your seats. That army is destroyed."

Like a trained squad, everyone snapped their necks around to look at Alexander. He pointed coldly to their seats, and everyone sat back down obediently.

"Dismissed." Alexander waved the courier away.The courier saluted smartly and left the Royal Court.

"As I was saying, our enemy is strong, and he commands millions of soldiers. The army I just destroyed is but a small part of their forces." Alexander glanced at the round eyes of his ministers and finally gave a chuckle.

He released his power and allowed his robe to react naturally to it. Immediately, it turned white.

The eyes of his ministers bulged out even more. White Robe?! King Aloxandros is… is a White Archmage?! Being Red Robes, their perceptions were sharp, and they knew that King Aloxanders had merely released his power and allowed it to flow into his Robes. There was no trickery involved.

"I destroyed that army. And make no mistake, that was an army that could have easily destroyed all of Rin-Turah within a day. I cannot be everywhere at the same time, we need to get stronger as a nation.

The current Rin-Turah has no way to fight against such an enemy. If we do so, we would simply be crushed the way an elephant crushes an ant.

There is no easy and quick way to win this war. We have to take a long term view, take countless delaying actions to buy ourselves time to prepare ourselves to fight a decisive battle 10 years from now.

And so, to survive and even win the coming war, I will be streamlining our command and make the following changes.

Minister of Education Belroy. You will be promoted to be Chief Interior Minister. You will handle Education, Commerce, Agriculture and Personnel. I will meet with you privately to discuss this in greater detail. You will report directly to Chief Minister Aleyria and me.

Chief Minister Aleyria will handle our Military, Foreign Relations, Mining and Production. She will report to me, and to me alone.

I will decide on the personnel for the vacant ministerial positions another day." Alexander announced.

A stunned silence greeted him after he had finished speaking. In particular, Belroy was half gaping in disbelief, half smiling widely with great joy. He had just effectively become the number 3 person in the entire country.

True, number 3 in the country meant that he still had to suffer the moods of the two people above him, and it was actually one person more compared to before, when as Minister of Education, he only had to answer to the King. But unlike before, he had almost half the country under his direct control, and that was actually much, much more than he could have hoped for even in the best case scenario where King Aloxandros agreed to half his recommendations for the appointments in the Ministerial Vacancies.

To say that he was ecstatic at that would be a serious understatement. But he was a seasoned politician, and almost immediately, he smoothly brought his emotions under control and bowed deeply to Alexander.

"Belroy humbly accepts the responsibility of being Chief Interior Minister, and thanks King Aloxandros for your trust in me."

Alexander nodded in acknowledgement.

"Next, I would like to hear the proposals of the various ministries regarding operating with only 50% of your budget. Belroy, why don't you start with the Ministry of Education."

"As you command, Your Majesty. The Ministry of Education will evolve to fully support the nation's war efforts. And to that end, I am proposing…"

*-*-*-*-*

"What do you think?" Alexander asked Aleyria. They had just finished a very long day. After the ministers had reported their working plans to operate with only 50% budget, they had continued on to brief Belroy and strategize for the future. A full day had passed since then and it was dusk.

Alexander and Aleyria were walking in the courtyard behind the Royal Throne and enjoying a brief respite from being indoors. The Testing Pillar stood proudly in the middle of the courtyard.

Alexander looked at it with mild amusement. Just a few short days ago, he had discovered that he had the Power of Perses here. More than that, he had also discovered that he had an unnaturally long lifespan and had extreme affinity with all sorts of elements.

He was ecstatic. He felt that with sufficient training and rapid growth, he could definitely become one of the strongest in the continent, maybe even the world.

Never could he have imagined that within a few days, he would gain power that defied his already wild imaginations.

With the Power of Magius coursing through his veins, he had leapt directly into the top of the food chain in Planet Arcanus. Training? Growth? Those two words held no meaning for him.

"Belroy is extremely competent. He manages his Ministry with an iron fist, and I believe he would perform very admirably as Chief Interior Minister. Plus, he had fully grasped not only your explicit instructions and ideas, but also the underlying urgency and the various implications that would entail. Overall, it was a good move." Aleyria smiled at Alexander. "Well done."

Alexander smiled back at her. "I think so too. Do not forget to check on him regularly. A short daily meeting each dawn to discuss the day's to-do list and a longer weekly meeting to discuss the technicalities would be good enough I think."

"I agree. We need to do this fast and do it right." Aleyria nodded.

"Okay. So I guess this is it then." Alexander said.

"What? This is what?" Aleyria said sharply as she narrowed her eyes at Alexander.

Alexander laughed. "You have a lot of work to do. You have thousands of soldiers to train, countless buildings to build and countless trainers to recruit. Not to say you'll also need to supervise the mining, production AND the procurement of the demon horses from Belirio. You'll need to start tomorrow."

"I know that. You don't have to remind me." Aleyria grumbled slightly.

"I have to free Flamewing and her mother, as well as check on the progress with the taming of the Wyverns. We'll have to go on our separate ways for a little bit from now on." Alexander said with a rueful smile.

At those words, Aleyria felt a sharp pang of sadness. She had grown very used to being with Alexander these past few days and had enjoyed his company tremendously. The mention of separation, even temporarily, caused her to be slightly sad. But of course she did not let such feelings show.

"That's right." She agreed readily. "Well, all the best with your quest then, I hope you can rescue Flamewing's body and her mom successfully."

"Yes, thank you." Alexander said awkwardly. He glanced at Fluff-fluff who was still curled up on Aleyria's head. He dreaded the thought of having a cat curl up on his head and remain that way for the rest of his quest. But he also knew that he needed the cat in order to ensure his success. Powerful or not, it never hurt to have a ton of luck by his side.

Aleyria gently took Fluff-fluff down from her head and passed her to Alexander. Instead of telling Alexander to take good care of Fluff-fluff, however, she said," Take good care of Alexander, Fluff-fluff, make sure he stays out of trouble."

Aleyria patted Fluff-fluff's head fondly as the fat furball stretched and purred happily. She blinked her eyes a few times and meowed at Aleyria, as if telling her "Thanks for letting me sleep on your head these past few days!"

Aleyria chuckled and said, "You're welcome. Come back anytime!"

Fluff-fluff leapt and landed very accurately on Alexander's head. And to his great dismay, she immediately curled up and went to sleep. But he merely sighed and shook his head slightly, feeling the additional weight.

Aleyria laughed at Alexander as she looked him up and down.

"King Alexander, the most powerful Archmage in all of Arcanus, Scion of Perses AND of Magius… and proud cat owner?"

Flamewing giggled in his mind. "Cat owner." She giggled again. But before she could tease Alexander more, she suddenly said very solemnly. "Incoming air units."

Alexander frowned as he turned his gaze upwards and released his senses. But very soon his frown turned into a smile. A wide smile.

"Dubaza is back!" Alexander tol Aleyria very happily.

"O..okay…" Aleyria said with an amused voice. "I didn't know you two were that close for you to be so happy to know that he's back."

She then frowned as she thought to herself. "Would he be this happy when he finally sees me again after our separation?"

She turned her gaze to where Alexander was looking at, frowning slightly.

Is Dubaza more important than me???