What are his plans?
It is nothing more than the change of allegiance.
Most warriors would look down on such a behaviour. Most warriors would rather die than betray their master and chief.
But Zarkha is not a warrior.
And he is not the people of the Southern Great Steppe.
Of course, for the Steppe people, whether you are from the Western Great Steppe, or any other parts of the Steppe, once you are in soplace else then that is your ho.
Ho is sothing abstract and it is not sothing physical for the Steppe people.
Their longing for ho is not the sa as the longing for ho for the settled communities.
A tribe is a ho.
A clan is a ho.
Beside your loved ones is ho.
Not tents, not places not houses or palaces
People
Where there is the people, you want to see, where there is people, you know and love, when thee is soplace where you wanted to belong, and you belong there, that is ho
And to Zarkha, there is no ho.
Wherever he stays is his ho. He is like a lone wanderer. He has freedom, true, but he also has no friends, no aningful connection, no love and no affection
And unlike other warriors, his concept of loyalty differs from them. He does not even have any codes about his job as an assassin.
Then what does he know?
He knows how to survive. Oh, by the gods, do he know how to survive
That is how he navigated life. All for survival.
And he is a good judge of people. That is how he survives so many things without dying. Strength alone would not have served him well all of those years
Strength is the biggest lie. He had seen so many people has been deceived by strength and relied on it blidnly and walk thesmlesv to runin. He had seen peoples tronger than him die ahead of him
Trusting strength alone is the behaviour of a reckless man
Hence, what he had summarized after seeing all of those people die, was this. Strength is important but not having brains is waste of strength
So, Zarkha learns from the failures of others and strengthen himself in body and mind. He did not know how to morize the words of sages, he did not know how to create invention that benefit mankind and he did not know how to govern a nation, but he does learn how to judge people
Those who wanted to learn all of those great skills like governing nations, subduing people, conquering nations all have to spend their ti to learn it
Zarkha is also a common person. And he has limited ti.
Not only he has to hone his killing thod, he also must learn other things and the thod he chose to learn is none other than the thod of judging people.
Zarkha is a complicated man.
He is the kind of man that have no loyalty and could easily change his allegiance. But he does have great talents in killing so people could not help but still uses his service
And he has great ability to sniff danger and jump into opportunity
He chooses Cha Ner Ul because it seems to have potential.
But eting the Kahn and seeing his army, he is more optimistic for this young Khan.
Since that is the case, he wanted to see if the Khan could tolerate him
The question still echoes in his ears. And then he answer the Khan question
"I wanted to kill you" he paused for a mont and then added
"Then I changed my mind"
Aeryon listening to this narrows his eyes. For a mont there is silence between them
"I want to be one of the generals" Aeryon listening to this was shock.
"That is a bold proposition"
Aeryon did not lower down his guard.
With this person, Aeryon could not guess whether he is telling the truth or not. It is truly hard to discern.
And since it is hard to discern, Aeryon did not want to take any chance.
Maybe if he lowers down his guard for even a mont, this person would take his head. That would not be a joke
If he dies, all of his grand plan is nothing but dust. And him coming here changes nothing
In this mont, he suddenly thinks it is better if he invests a bit in his personal strength. It is important to save so for rainy days, but if he is dead, he could not even experience rainy days.
"I could make it worth your while. I just need your promise"
Aeryon look at Zarkha.
This man is really hard to figure out. At one mont, he wanted to kill him. And now he is negotiating terms to join him
A fickle man.
But also, a terrifying man. Aeryon could feel that this person really has abilities.
But judging from what he knows and what he has displayed in front of Aeryon, this person is also fickle
In a good way, it is flexible. In a bad way, he harbours disloyalty the mont you show weakness.
This is a person who truly follows the way of the jungle, follow the strong and bullied the weak
Aeryon had a feeling if Aeryon forces is weak, today, the fight would truly devolve into a death battle and Zarkha would be more forceful and stealthier.
"The kind of person who makes plans on the fly. This kind of person is what I hated the most"
Aeryon hated this kind of people. Because this kind of people is the hardest to read. So plans and plots did not work on such person because they could always change their plans at the last minute.
They have the best thod of doing unexpected things.
They follow their hearts, but their hearts themselves is a puzzle to themselves. It is like doing a rational business with a madman.
How could one feel at ease with such a crazy person?
One mont, he is smiling at you and you give him all the benefits that would make any other man crying with gratitude, and then suddenly that sa person who was truly grateful to you suddenly stab you in your chest
The gratefulness is not fake; the killing intent is also not fake.
Both are their true feelings.
It is just their hearts is as fickle as the reed that is blown by the wind, no rhy or reason.
Only a feeling.
At a mont, he was grateful to you for giving him a gift, at another mont, he has a feeling that he would be betrayed and so he stabs you.
This is the kind of person Zarkha is.
His intuition is never wrong.
Because he never made anyone have any ti to make a wrong decision.
So, whether he was wrong or not, no one really knows.
The people he believes is a threat die before they could prove or disprove Zarkha feelings.
But it is better for such a person on his side than on the enemies. Aeryon eyes narrow
But there is also a prerequisite for making a deal with such a madman.
This madman must have value.
If not, then he would simply make a loss.
Aeryon did not mind making a loss.
But there must be so profit in the end
Or he must cut the losses early.
Zarkha need to prove that there is more benefit accepting him than losing him.
After all, no matter how dangerous Zarkha is, he is only one man.
One man with an infamous reputation.
This is a man that could not shake the world.
He did not have reputation to move the world.
One man could change a lot in the world. But that kind of man would not be a person like Zarkha, a person that no people would follow.
A madman has an advantage that only a madman would have. But they also have disadvantage.
Aeryon calms down a bit and then asks
"How do you plan to make it worth your position that you requested?" there is silence between them. The atmosphere might have changed but there is still that tension
At any mont, that glaive could swing again and that spear could thrust out again
Smiling, Zarkha chuckles and then said a shocking word
"I will take a head for you and tonight you would be able to advance to the west." smiling he asked
"Would that be worth for a general status?"
Aeryon listening to this look at Zarkha for a mont like he could not believe what he had just heard and then almost a second later...he laugh
"Hahaha!"
And then he nodded and look back at Zarkha
"If you could do it, then I would give a thousand n for you to lead"
Zarkha nodded and then he jumps back on his horse.
Then without saying anything else, Zarkha, who had just co here to kill the Khan, went out of the camp area and disappears in just a matter of monts, while all of the guards and soldiers of the Khan could only look on.
It is truly an absurd chains of event
Aeryon whistle and his horse trotted toward him. He too returned back to his tent. But for the guards and the soldiers, none of them could understand this.
Kashoger who was looking at this from the hill also frowned
"I need to et the Khan" he mutters to himself. And he rides down the hills to the camp of the Khan
...
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