"This region is yours to have," Aldred said. "However, I will need you to pay taxes to me. I am sure you understand that to maintain an army I need a lot of resources and manpower."
"I disagree!"
Suddenly, Vortimer entered the room and expressed his disagreement. "I don't think Zarael is worthy enough for you to give him this region that easily."
Zarael frowned.
"Why do you think so?" Aldred asked.
Vortimer pointed at her. "During this operation, her contributions are barely noticeable. It is my army that did most of the work coordinating the mercenaries, gathering intelligence, and intercepting the enemies before they could disrupt our plan. Zarael only managed to kill the lord because I found him first and because I let her kill him."
Aldred put his hand on his chin, pondering the arguments deeply. "I would say you make some fair points, Vortimer. So what do you suggest?"
"I suggest you give me 90% of the Xantis Expanse, the rest will be given to Zarael."
"That's too much!" Zarael glared.
"So what? I do 90% of the work. Without me, you won't be able to defeat the Tribe of Ghost this fast."
The both of them argued back and forth. The situation seemed tense, however, Aldred was calm. He knew Vortimer would complain about this matter sooner or later.
"Enough!" Aldred said. "Since we are talking about contribution, then I will have to put my own into calculation. The ones who put billions of mercenaries in the Xantis Expanse was me. So naturally, I contributed a lot to this operation. The billions of mercenaries entering the Xantis Expanse are the key of this successful operation. It's like putting all of our armies right in the enemy's heart. With this vital point, I want 90% of the territory. The 10% will be split in half among the two of you."
"Unacceptable!" Vortimer complained.
"So are you saying that the billions of mercenaries I put in here are worthless?"
"No. I did not say that. But I don't think it's fair for me to get 10%."
Zarael's face turned red now. At first she was worried if she could get more than half, now she wondered if she could get anything at all.
After all, Aldred's strategy with the mercenaries were really the vital point of this operation. So his contribution was the biggest among the three of them.
"I will make a proposal. This is my best offer, so listen carefully. I will get 60% Vortimer will get 30% and Zarael will get 10%."
The two of them was about to speak until Aldred continued.
"But! This will not be permanent. If you offered something of value to me, I can give you the territory I have. And by the way, this won't be the only region we will conquer so don't think too much about it. I have said this before and I will say this again. I will give all of you what you want. Zarael, if you continue to aid me I will give you this region as the reward. So how does that sound?"
"I agree," Vortimer said. "For now."
Aldred nodded and glanced at Zarael.
"I agree as well."
"Great. Now let's get back to work. Give me the reports of our casualties."
The holographic projection shimmered to life, displaying the grim reality of the casualties across various planets. The hologram showed scenes of battles, explosions, and the faces of fallen mercenaries, their sacrifice evident in the haunting images.
Aldred's expression remained stoic as he observed the holographic scenes. The room fell silent, the weight of the loss palpable. The grand total of casualties climbed steadily on the holographic display, reaching the staggering number of 12 billion mercenaries.
Everyone was shocked to see that number of casualties.
Shinari was even trembling when she saw that number.
"Twelve billion… I can't believe that many died," Shinari said.
Zarael sighed. "Although I expect the casualties to be large, I did not expect it to be this much."
"This much casualties is normal in a massive operation. We are taking over a region of the galaxy after all."
Aldred also expected this many people to die. It was logical. There were thousands if not tens of thousands of planet and star systems in this region. Each planet could hold a couple of billions of people, and now imagine the entire region was at war. It was to be expected that billions would die.
In fact, it was part of Aldred's grand plan to remove the weakling mercenaries and keep the more stronger and experienced ones.
And now that they experienced a grand cosmic scale battle, they would certainly become smarter than before.
"Zarael," Aldred called. "Give our soldiers a feast. I want their tables to be filled with all kinds of food and the best kind of drinks they ever had."
"There are still billions of mercenaries left. If we give them all a feast… the cost will be very high."
Aldred laughed. "What are you talking about? The mercenaries are spread among the tens of thousands of planet, I am sure each planet have enough resources to give them some good food and drinks. Just tell the locals to donate and promise them protection of their assets and dignity."
Zarael nodded. "I will do that." She left the command chamber and get to work immediately.
"Why do all this?" Vortimer asked. "They are your soldiers. It is expected for them to do your biddings."
"They are humans," Aldred said. "I need to give them reward from time to time."
"This is why robots are far more superior. They don't have your weakness."
Aldred chuckled. "Perhaps."
Shinari looked at Aldred. Now that she knew about Aldred's past, she already knew why he did this.
But still, it pain her heart to know that billions of people died in this operation.
"War is such a cruel thing. Billions died only for a territory to change hands."
"Wrong," Aldred said. "It's not just a matter of changing hands. It's changing the entire systems that affecting billions of lives. With me ruling this region, there will be no pirates or thieves. This region won't be so closed off and I will open the gate and will flood this region with investors and opportunities. This region full of darkness will be bristling with economic activities, turning this gloomy cosmic region into a beautiful part of human society."
Shinari's eyes widened. She did not doubt Aldred's words at all. That was because she had seen what Aldred did in the past. Whenever he conquered a region, he would always turn it into something much better. Economy, culture, political system, laws, health care, education, technology, industries, and many more.
Aldred thought about everything and anything to improve the land and made the region prosperous.
Within Aldred's memories there were millions of people praising and praying for his name. Some even worshipped him, creating a cult and religion with him as the figure of their prayer.
He was that influential and simply that powerful. Wait a minute… Didn't the Emperor of mankind felt similar to Aldred?
Could he possibly match the Emperor in the future? No. That was impossible. The Emperor was pictured as the most powerful godly entity in the history of humankind, leading humanity to conquer the most territory compared to other races.
"Aldred, what is your plan for this galaxy?" Shinari asked.
"Unity," Aldred honestly said. "I promised Vortimer that I will help him unite this galaxy. What about your wives? Uniting the galaxy is a massive goal. I don't think you can get it done so quickly."
"I discussed that with Vortimer as well. I told him that I will do left him a little something to help his goal. Also, I will return to this place when I can to help."
"Right, what about your plan in fighting Lord Malgorth? When are we going to do that?"
"We are going to do that soon enough. However, we first need to use the resources we have to train our recruits and also we need to manufacture more battleships."
"What about asking for the Imperium's help?"
"They won't help me with mere words alone. Besides, I don't really want to deal with them. The Imperium will demand a lot of stuff from me. For now, this organization will be treated as a mercenary group. So we will divide a part of our members to do mercenary task such as protection jobs, rescue missions, information gathering, etc."
"We won't fight Lord Malgorth right away?"
Aldred laughed. "War is a game of patience. Lord Malgorth is not the ordinary demons we used to fight. We should create a strategy that increase our chance of victory as much as possible and reduce the risk of failure and most importantly, create an infrastructure and system that allow us to get up whenever we fail our attack."
"I see…" Shinari looked down. "I didn't think about it that far. I guess that's the different between you and I."
"It's normal. You are a soldier. Your mind focused on one mission at a time. I am a general that overlook an entire army. I have to think far beyond the current time."
Shinari smiled. "You are so amazing, Aldred."
