With that settled, the conversation now shifted to other things like the assignment of roles and allocation of other resources during the siege.

In the middle of this I had a question and raised my hand. It was how the others had been asking questions up till now, though this was a first from me.

"Yes, Master Stefan?"

"I wanted to ask about how well we are stocked, if this siege is prolonged and the dryads decided to simply starve us out, how will we fare?" I asked. "Can the sea's haul potentially last… I don't know, forever?" Some branches of the Arconia flowed through the city itself, so fresh water shouldn't have been an issue, though food might be.

"Hmm," Lance said. "I doubt the siege would last longer than two months, up till which we have enough food even if we don't add to our supplies - but on the topic of fishing, Gorvis? Do you have any input?"

A lizardman answered. "We can fish for quite a while, yes, but that might be difficult with our new fortifications on that side. Not to mention, while we can catch fish, if we try to catch enough to feed the city for a long time, we will indeed end up exhausting the sea's bounty by over fishing. There is a limit to how far we can go from shore, after all, without encountering something like a sea dragon or giant squid."

Lance nodded. "It should not have to come to that. The dryads need fresh blood, and if they do not get it for a month they become noticeably weaker as per our intelligence. I do not know how long it would take for them to die without fresh blood, but by a month I would imagine most of them would wander off elsewhere or they would be weakened so that we could sally forth and finish them off. Supplies should last around three months even with the new wave of refugees."

Many of the others agreed with his figures, so it was likely correct.

I still had the spell [Fish Haul] in case things got bad, but the issue was that it required mana, which I would need for other purposes- namely actually fighting.

I was not too worried about myself - I was a Rank Three Liberomancer and if they started rationing food, I would likely be first in line simply because of how useful I was. If a Liberomancer got too hungry, their rate of mana recovery would be affected, and eventually, they would not be able to recover mana at all. This was documented to start to occur only after about one week of starvation, though this could vary depending on how well-nourished that person was. Other physical stresses like lack of sleep or illness were also known to affect mana recovery. But because of this, I knew that they would continue to at the very least feed us.

I was concerned about Granny Qi though. She was old enough to be exempt from the fighting, despite being a Rank Two Liberomancer. But that also meant that her food supply might be cut off if she was deemed 'less necessary.'

She had sold off all the rice and other produce she had brought from her village during the Spirit Festival. I really wished she had kept some of it though. She was not a big lady so she should've potentially been fine, but who knew how bad things would get as the siege dragged on?

The worst off though would be the new refugees from the surrounding villages. Laws were passed against price gouging, and a rationing system had finally been started by the city. However, I had seen how much food most of them got - it was a fish and some rice, barely enough for a single meal for someone my size. Many of them had therefore signed up to be spearmen simply so that they and their families could be somewhat fed better. Even with the laws against price gouging (which were largely ineffectual as far as I could tell, though they seemed to lower the ceiling of how high prices could go at least), most of the villagers' wealth was entirely in the form of their farmlands which they had abandoned in order to come to the city.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

My heart went out to them. When I had first come to Arconia, I had spent more nights than not with an empty stomach. And things would not be easy for them after this was all over either, as it could take up to a decade for them to fully rebuild their farms.

The topic then shifted as to how to provide blankets and firewood to everyone - it was getting warmer but was still pretty chilly, especially for the lizardmen.

With this the discussion went to topics on other logistics and the like, before it finally ended. Many matters hadn't been decided as of yet, but the groundwork was laid down for further discussions.

Everyone was getting ready to leave, but there was one person I knew that I needed to introduce myself to now that I was here.

That was the other person who also was wearing a purple sash. I could not remember his name for the life of me, but I walked up to him nonetheless. "Good evening!" I introduced myself.

We exchanged pleasantries, though before our conversation could go any further, someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"I apologize for interrupting," Zeke said. "However, this is something I needed to discuss with Master Stefan right now."

"Ah, no worries - understandable that we are all busy. Perhaps we can meet once all of this has settled down?" he offered.

"Certainly," I said.

Zeke and I walked off in another direction. "So, what came up?"

"I found out where and when the humans are having their own meeting," Zeke said.

"And you want me to go over there and discuss things with them, right?" I asked.

"Yes."

"When and where is it?"

Zeke sighed. "It's happening soon, but you'll have to head out right now via carriage if you wish to make it." He described a place which was deep in the human section of the city.

I sighed. This was bothersome, but also what I had signed up for. Unknowingly mind you, but signed up for it I did all the same.

"Alright, this carriage should take you there," Zeke said as he led me out to the front gates of the palace and called for a cab. He spoke to the driver. "He'll also take you home. Let me know if any issues should arrive."

"Wait - you're not coming with me?" I asked, a bit alarmed.

Zeke shook his head. "They will look at you with even more distrust if I'm with you. I'm sorry, but it's better you go alone. Do you remember the overall details of our plan?"

I repeated what I had heard and summarized it for Zeke, who corrected me in some spots, and then deemed that it was sufficient. He handed me a letter of introduction written in both the language of the humans and lizardmen of Arconia with his official seal on it as well as his father's, describing my position. Hopefully it would help in some way. "Good luck!" he said as I rode out.

It was close to evening now, and as I was alone in the carriage, I nearly dozed off and only came to when the driver tapped on the door after I hadn't disembarked for over five minutes despite him stopping.

"Ah, sorry," I said groggily, getting off. The carriage was far more comfortable than what I was used to.

I hadn't been to this part of town before, though it was clear it was quite a classy part of it as even now, I couldn't see any beggars or the like on the streets.

The building I had been dropped off in front of was one of the bookstores that belonged to the Zie family. There were three families who controlled the human side of Liberomancy within Arconia - the Zie, the Pei, and the Liu. Other families of course worked as Liberomancers, but only as adjuncts or under these three.

If I had not managed to make a Rank Three grimoire myself, I might've ended up on their doorsteps asking for a job eventually.

There were guards near the entrance.

"Halt!" they said. "What is your business here?"

"There is a meeting of Rank Three Liberomancers, isn't there?" I asked. "I am a Rank Three Liberomancer." It was not clearly visible in the low light, so I brought up my sash so that the distinctive purple color would be apparent.

"You… aren't on the guest list," one of them weakly protested. However, I could tell that they were definitely in a dilemma regarding whether to turn me away or not.

"One of you should run in and ask Master Jiah Pei, he'll be asking for me," I said.

It was a bluff - I didn't even know if Jiah Pei was in the building or if he would want me there or not, but it seemed to work as they did not even take me up on my offer to verify things first and instead just decided to let me in.

This was why I had wanted Zeke to tag along - it would've give me some authenticity and they wouldn't have turned away the governor's son even if he was a lizardmen - right? At least, I would assume that would be the case.

It was likely Zeke didn't see this as an issue and thought it would be easy enough for me to get in. He was right after a fashion, but it still annoyed me somewhat that I had to somewhat bluster my way through.

"Ah, forgive us, Master Liberomancer," the other guard said as he opened the gate.

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