Billy frowned when he heard that… since he didn't hear anything from the merchants, then something was just starting, or he couldn't trust them. Considering that Edward didn't inform her of the contents of the letter, he either assumed that it was of their business, or he decided that he didn't want to tell and involve her. Nevertheless, it was something worth checking.
"He received it today?" Billy asked.
"Yes," Kate nodded. "The messenger came in a hurry, so I assume it is something important."
It was ten in the morning, so only a couple of hours had passed since. Billy wondered if he should investigate, but that would involve him in the matter. Still, avoiding it when Alexander was in Hiloh state didn't seem like something he should do. He owed him a debt in the incident of the Count, after all. Not to mention, he had other reasons not to avoid that issue, leaving anything troublesome in the hands of others might escalate and cause him problems later.
"I am going to check things for a bit," Billy said after thinking for a while.
After Billy left, Kate stared at the door for a while. She was a bit surprised, and her face got a bit red when her friends noticed why she was doing that.
"Don't look at me like that… I just got surprised that Billy looked so mainly right now," Kate said.
"He just acted like usual, but I guess I felt the same way, it has been a while since we saw him, and he grew quite a bit," Natalie said.
"You guys are so weird… why would you feel so… surprised," Lily said, and then something clicked in her head.
Lily compared the face that Kate just showed with the one Alexander showed her when they were talking. She finally realized that he acted differently when she was close or talking with him…
"Oh… Alexander likes me?" Lily asked while frowning.
"It was about damn time to realize that…" Kate said and then sighed.
While the girls were talking about that, Billy knocked on Edward's door. After a long sigh, he told him to enter. As expected, he wasn't in the usual mood.
"You finally decided to show yourself… I can't say that you appeared in a good moment, though," Edward said.
"Is that so… then, can I hear about the contents of the letter?" Billy asked.
"You can, but it doesn't mean that you should," Edward said. "I was thinking about whether I should ignore this letter or not…"
"Being ambiguous about it won't make me forget. It will only make me eager to know it," Billy said. "It is a war… isn't it? Alexander is there, and we should make him come back. If that is the best option, but since you are thinking about this quite a lot, maybe it isn't."
"You are right…" Edward said and then sighed. "It is war… Toles state is back. Jean said that it would take them a few years to try again, but he didn't consider that they would obtain the backing of another state to attack Hiloh state."
"So, Jean knows about the odds, and he doesn't want to risk us, or he thinks it is useless to ask for help," Billy said. "Either way, staying still won't make things easier for us since we caused problems to them."
"He wrote exactly that… in the last war, he already lost too many soldiers and adventurers, and now with two armies against one, the odds are against them," Edward said. "Alexander showed some results, but only two hundred studied under him. They show promise since they improved a lot, but not enough to change the fate of this battle. We were even talking about letting him be hired again in the near future…"
"What do we know about the other enemy?" Billy asked. "What does Alexander think about this situation? I suppose he made some friends there and doesn't want to return home without giving them a hand."
"Jean talked with him, and he said that… you know him well," Edward said after a long sigh.
It wouldn't be weird for the meek Alexander to grow up while he is away from home. Nevertheless, the situation was pretty dire. Peace finally arrived in their town, and now that their horizons expanded, they had to consider things like wars waged against their allies.
"The opponents this time will be cautious about surprise attacks, so using a small team like last time won't work," Edward said and then let himself fall on his chair while not mustering any strength. "We can't send many of us to help, so I doubt that they will be able to make much difference."
"I suppose the enemies have some guild masters that are incredibly powerful on their side as well…" Billy said, imagining a reason as to why Marie and Gerald couldn't solve the war by themselves. "How many do you think you can send?"
"A few dozen at best, I can force two or three hundred, but soldiers not prepared or even willing to fight in a war that they have no relation to won't be very useful," Edward replied. "These last four years had been very peaceful, so many warriors began to adapt and leave their weapons behind."
It was no surprise. There was no need for warriors if there were no clear enemies nearby. It would be too costly… Billy considered his options. Since Jean had written that much, then the war couldn't be stopped. Decimating the entire armies by himself was out of the question, but Billy could try to prevent their advance with cheap tricks. Still, after thinking for a while, Billy realized that things would be much bloodier than before. Killing monsters was something… killing dozens of humans, or even hundreds would be something that he had never experienced before and not in a good way.
"I don't want you to go since my daughter will follow you," Edward said.. "However, I cannot stop you."
