44 Ceremony (2/2)

”I know most of you were unaware and there was good reason for that. His mission was to pretend to be a commoner and infiltrate Black Lion Village looking for weaknesses and corruption in my mercenary group.”

This time many faces appeared shocked. I was even able to take note of two who looked slightly nervous. I made a mental note of their appearance since I would want to check into them later.

Morrow took a moment then continued, ”Imagine my surprise when my brother revealed to me an organized attempt to start a coup and take over Black Lion Village. Luckily, my brother was able to find this out without tipping off the man behind it..... That man was Captain Sauer.”

This time there were audible sounds of shock coming from the mercenaries, almost everyone was stunned in disbelief. However, the two who were nervous before had relieved looks instead of shock.

”I know, I was even more shocked than you. I had placed a lot of trust in Sauer, but the evidence was irrefutable.”

He paused, letting the silence linger as if he the betrayal was truly hurt him.

”I wanted to eliminate this threat without upsetting the peace of Black Lion Village. However, to do that I needed your help and with Sauer being both culprit and Captain I couldn't do that easily. So I came up with a plan. I wanted Sauer to be the finalist for the Arena the next day so he could be killed without raising suspicion from his co-conspirators. The only problem was Sauer was our best fighter, no one would be able to beat him.”

Many nods of understanding and agreement could be seen in the crowd of mercenaries.

After a short pause Morrow continued, ”Except for one man, and even though I wanted him to stay in the shadows protecting the village he was willing to reveal himself to resolve this danger. My brother stepped out from the darkness and in front of everyone he killed Sauer in the Arena. Many of you have already heard his arena name, young lion.”

The looks of surprise and shock of Sauer being the man behind the coup paled in comparison to their faces now. Even the two men hiding something were shocked this time. I couldn't help but again take note of how skillful Morrow was in leading his audience to feel the way he wanted them to. A lesser man could not have evoked this much of a reaction. Especially while weaving a convincing lie at almost every step of the story.

After giving the crowd a chance to process, he began again, ”Of course, after he killed Sauer we had to keep up pretenses so we could dismantle the organization he built to cause chaos in our wonderful village. We knew the names of every member of the coup, and with Sauer gone could round them up last night. Also, my brother young lion, was not punished for disobeying my order to not kill Sauer, since we planned to kill him all along.”

The mercenaries began to nod as they realized why young lion was spared by Morrow the day before. More than a few people had been discussing why young lion was spared on the streets yesterday. With that statement Morrow would erase any talk of him being weak.

”Due to his appearance being known by many in the arena my brother cannot continue his work of protecting us from the shadows. I will need all of you to be more vigilant against nefarious plots and corruption in the future.”

Morrow took a deep breath, ”Now, with Sauer dead I need a new captain. Who better to serve as Captain than the man who just saved the entire village, my brother, Troy.”

In a sweeping motion Morrow gestured towards me and waved me toward his side. I came up and stood next to Morrow.

Morrow placed his hand on my shoulder and faced the crowd, ”Mercenaries, from today forward the new Captain of this mercenary group will be my brother, Troy Hargrave.”

He placed a large token with the word Captain on it in my hand and then raised my arm in the air. A cacophony of cheers and applause erupted from the crowd of mercenaries. An obvious effect of Morrow's speech.

It was no wonder he rose in power in my last life. His ability to take advantage of circumstances was at a ridiculously high level. He managed to solidify his power, explain why he didn't kill me in the arena, convince the mercenaries I deserved to be Captain, raise the mercenaries defense against future plots, and portray everything in a way that painted him as a benevolent caring leader. He managed to do all of that with one convincing and elaborate lie.