Enlightened Empire

Chapter 466: Springing the Trap

After a night of violence in Challwala, King Amautu reacted quickly to the shifting situation. After all, he had been ready for a failure of the operation well in advance. While the outcome had been even worse than what he had expected, their defeat hadn't been catastrophic. Not to mention, even a defeat could be leveraged into an advantage with enough finesse.

Sure, the southern ghost warriors had saved all the northern lords and managed to stage their little meeting. However, in order to achieve their goals, their own losses had also been considerable. Not only had many valuable ghost warriors died last night, the lords had also lost most of the warrior guards they had brought into the city. By now, they would be almost without protection, and terrified of the strength of his new secret department.

If Amautu played his cards right, this was certainly something he could work with. For now however, he had to play upset.

Thus, he looked up from the scroll he had pretended to read and looked around this room at the bottom of the Sky Ziggurat. The large stone room had been lit up brightly, though the atmosphere was solemn. Lines of chairs had been erected in the square room, each of which seated one of Master Ichtaka's students, all equal in their position in accordance with their status.

By now, all of them should know about the failed operation which took place the previous night. Although Amautu was unhappy that he, a king, would be put on equal status with these ordinary disciples, he had no room to complain, for Master Ichtaka personally sat elevated and to the side, half-hidden in the shadows, to observe the proceedings.

From here, they would plan how to handle the upcoming negotiations with the lords and southerners, now that their circumstances had changed so dramatically. Even the arrogant scholars had realized that their methods weren't working. Finally, they had begun to take medalan politics seriously. Thus, the king could only play by the rules of the scholars once more. Luckily, his main opponent had made too many mistakes recently, and was too easy to attack.

After Amautu had tucked the scroll into his sleeve, he turned to his senior brother Ohtli, and nodded towards him. In response, the senior brother — who had been made to wait for some time by Amautu's leisurely reading — scoffed and stood up. As the senior disciple, it was his prerogative to open up the meeting, another privilege Amautu was eager to get back.

Sure, you be unhappy, senior brother, he thought as he watched the face soured by his little stalling tactic. The more upset you are now, the more mistakes will you make later.

"Last night, the local barbarians have once more shown their determination to retain their ill-gotten power and prevent progress," the senior brother began. "Even so, the brave Cuauhuehuetque of the Way would not bow to the stubborn barbarians, and enacted the will of the Way upon them. As planned, the two most egregious offenders among the barbarian Chatra were sacrificed to the great Way. The rest were driven from the city, not to return to the embrace of the Way until their lesson is learned."

After Ohtli's bluster, a few disciples nodded in approval. Most however had enough sense to remain quiet in the face of these brazen lies. Meanwhile, Amautu himself wouldn't just let his senior brother's words stand. He couldn't allow him to deny reality, lest their master ended up making decisions based on false knowledge.

"Senior brother," Amautu began his counterattack. "This king has heard all about last night's events, as have all other disciples in the room. There is no need to recount past matters once more, less so if such a recount does not reflect the truth."

In the Way of the scholars, truth was considered a great pursuit, and lying was considered a great unrighteousness. Suddenly, all eyes in the room were on Amautu, who had just indirectly accused his senior brother. In response, said senior brother narrowed his eyes and stared Amautu down, but the king would not back down today. No, in fact, he could not, not if he didn't want to lose control over his kingdom forever.

"Junior, dare you claim this senior has spoken untruth?" Ohtli finally asked when he saw that Amautu wouldn't buckle under silent pressure. As the eyes of the disciples focused on him, the king could feel the tension in the room rise. However, this pressure was just a misguided attempt to prevent him from thinking. After all, the king had long prepared his arguments for today and didn't have to think at all anymore.

"Senior brother, if last night's operation had been a success, there would be no need for all fellows to meet today. Our fellow brothers have come here to decide how to handle the upcoming negotiations. Had all the lords truly fled the city in fear, there would be no reason for us to assemble. After all, who would we negotiate with had we managed to intimidate those lords into an escape?"

Although Master Ichtaka sat in the corner of the room, overlooking the crowd, Amautu wasn't afraid to start a fight this time. After all, his elder brother had been the one to make the mistake, and not for the first time. By now, his failures had become so severe that they threatened to destabilize the kingdom itself.

Even worse for Master Ichtaka, they threatened the very status of the scholars in Medala, a status they had only achieved through Amautu's support. Yet Ohtli seemed remarkably unaware of the damage his greed and arrogance had caused to their master's plans. When confronted with his own failures, the head disciple said no word.Trace the roots of this material to n0v★lbin

"Hmph." he simply snorted, sneered, and crossed his arms as he sat back down in his chair. Maybe he wouldn't admit his mistakes, but he certainly couldn't defend his actions either, so he had apparently chosen to remain silent.

A child's response. Who would respect you like this?

Of course, Amautu wouldn't just let him off like this. This was too rare a chance to harm his senior's reputation further.

"Crazy! How dare a barbarian look down upon his senior brother! Master was nice enough to take you in when you had nothing, when you were only an ignorant child, no more! Master gave you wisdom! Will you now spit upon the gifts received, to ingratiate yourself with these barbarians! once more?" he shouted in a single breath, spittle flying from his lips.

That damn finger of his was also pointing at the king of the north in accusation again. Maybe his extreme reaction was due to his poor self-control, or maybe in his arrogance, he really hadn't expected that Amautu's goal had been to remove him from government affairs.

However, there was also a distinct possibility that he was trying to enrage Amautu with his disrespectful actions. If a junior brother started to openly insult his senior, he would be in the wrong, no matter how good his arguments were. Thus, in the face of yet another improper provocation, Amautu took a deep breath before he replied as calmly as he could.

"Of course not, senior brother. This junior is eternally grateful for master's gift of wisdom, though he is unworthy. Only, doing all this dirty work is truly beneath senior brother. Why bother with all these barbarians and their dirty ways? Would it not be wiser to have senior brother read the classics, or stay with master, in charge of teaching the younger generation, rather than waste senior brother's time on the trivial matters between the unwashed masses?"

This time, Amautu chose flattery rather than provocation, since it seemed like Ohtli was about to explode anyways. Apparently, he had chosen wisely, since at least that damn finger finally went down again.

"Whatever the matters between barbarians, whatever is important, this senior shall decide for himself," he huffed and crossed his arms inside his sleeves. "Should junior negotiate with the barbarians by himself, he would surely go easy on his fellow countrymen, despite all the scholarly servants they have killed last night. After all, junior's blood is irredeemably tainted with the barbarity and ignorance of this land. This senior is simply concerned that the crimes of these fake Chatra would be forgiven. Thus, senior brother would aim to join the talks, to give his advice and guarantee an appropriate punishment for their insolence."

It had only been one night and one morning since the failure of Ohtli's plan, and yet he had already prepped up again. Even now, he still insisted on his faulty opinion. Maybe he would to his last breath. After all, not even a public condemnation of his failure could shame him into admitting his mistakes. While Amautu had hoped for some support from the other disciples to give the senior a final push, they had clearly decided to stand aside and watch. They probably knew that Amautu was right, but didn't want to openly oppose the head disciple either.

Clearly, this was leading nowhere. Thus, Amautu turned towards his master, begging for some understanding from the wise Ichtaka, his last remaining hope for a peaceful resolution of this mess.

"Master, senior brother has sufficiently proven that his violent suppression is not a promising method to promote the light of the Way within these lands. If senior brother insists on defeating the local lords through force alone, they will rise in revolt. Worse yet, they have received help from an enemy kingdom. As they have become more hostile towards the Scholarly Court, that kingdom has begun to arm and organize them. If the central kingdom joins their growing alliance as well, there is a very real chance that the scholars will be driven out of these lands for good. Rather than more conflict, we need to come to an arrangement with them. After all, the teachings say that harmony shall be striven for above all else."

As Amautu's speech went on, he carefully observed his master's reaction in the shadow, as did all the other disciples in the room. When he saw his master slowly nod, he realized that he was on the right path. It had been wise to argue based entirely on the teachings of the Way, rather than relying on logic like his brother Corco would have. After all, the wisdom of the ancients was far beyond whatever any modern person could know. However, such knowledge could be used by anyone, and misused by those with bad intentions.

"Master, this is nonsense!" Ohtli fired back with a broken voice, panic written in his face as he saw his ambitions crumble before his eyes. "The junior shall adhere to the senior, always! Junior Amautu has violated one of the basic precepts of the Way. Such blatant disregard of the laws of the world cannot be rewarded. No, they must be punished in turn!"

Of course, Amautu couldn't just let his senior use sophistry to fool their master again, like he had done so many times before.

"Teacher, this-" he tried to argue, when at last, Master Ichtaka raised his hand, and his voice with it.

"Enough," the old man said sternly, almost in a whisper. Even so, all other sounds in the room stopped immediately, as if his master commanded the air itself.

"As the water follows the path of the river, so shall the scholar follow the path of the Way. A path of resistance is no path at all," Ichtaka explained the Way as he looked at Ohtli. As usual, a few words of wisdom enlightened the whole room.

Upon his master's words, Amautu finally relaxed. With this, his master had sided with him and against his senior brother, for the first time he could remember. Clearly, even master's endless patience had grown weary in the face of his head disciple's endless failure.

"Master-" Ohtli tried to argue again, but this time, it was his turn to be interrupted by Ichtaka.

"Head disciple Ohtli shall go spread the teachings of the Way among the young ones, as he is most familiar with such duties. Second disciple Amautu shall talk to the unlearned, so they shall see the light and cease their barbaric acts."

With his orders given so clearly, there was nothing left to argue. Anything more would be considered rude towards their master. Thus, the unwilling Ohtli had to lower his head and accept his orders, as did all the other disciples in the room.

With his face towards the ground, Amautu could hardly suppress his smile. After today's failure, his senior's reputation among the disciples had fallen to the floor. Now, he would have no more ability to fight the king for power in his own kingdom, at least for a while. Even better, now that this stumbling block had finally been removed from the path, Amautu could face the upcoming negotiations calmly. Finally, he could pave the way for peace, and for the eventual enlightenment of Medala.