There's way too much things to do for Caster.
He has to announce the change of the bright lord, get people of outer settlements to settle into the Castle, set the entire order up again from scratch, and so much more.
But the first thing he needed to do was hide Gunlaug's body. And he couldn't meet up with the lieutenants until he did.
Main reason being Seishan. Her aspect is related to blood so she might sense something.
So he ran out of the castle secretly, and after he was out of it he even used his aspect to rush things. Soon he bound Gunlaug's body to a boulder and threw it off the cliff.
It instantly crushed most of his body and the parts that weren't completely crushed spread far apart.
It looked disgusting.
Afterwards, he used his aspect to run back to Gunlaug's room in the Castle, secretly.
He had used a decent bit of the hourglass charm's time stored in it. But he had to do it. He couldn't risk getting caught so soon.
And while he didn't think being caught would be the end of it, he didn't want to complicate things at all.
Luckily he wasn't caught. At least he didn't notice someone spying on him.
And now came the part of true clean up.
He, together with Kai, entered the room where the lieutenants waited in.
"Gunlaug is hidden for now. I'll move him to somewhere else if the time asks for it."
Seishan spoke up for the first time since the start of the discussions.
"Did you kill Gunlaug?"
That caught Caster off guard slightly, but he didn't change his expression even slightly at that accusation.
Which ended up being more suspicious than if he did have a change in expression, however slight it would have been.
"I have no need to. I've hid him well. Kai will provide food to him regularly. You'll meet him again when the battle against the fallen terror, the battle of the spire starts."
Kai simply nodded.
They didn't have any choice but to believe in them. They'll find out the truth eventually anyways.
Afterwards, Caster simply continued.
"But is that how you talk to your lord?"
The tone was bright, but the meaning behind it wasn't.
'Stay in line, or you'll be in trouble.'
"Now, let's start the first meeting. We'll have a lot of changes done, now that I'm the bright lord."
He motioned for Kai and the rest to sit down.
"First, I want to ask this. Why were you all so scared and cautious of me at the start?"
Kai took the innitiative to answer.
"It's because someone spied on you while you were hunting... and he saw you kill dozens of awakened creatures with one attack."
'Oh, so that's how it is. It seems they saw my that attack.'
"I see. Alright. Well, moving forward, we'll bring in everyone from the outer settlements to the castle. There's more than enough space for it, the entire wing that faces the crimson spire is empty."
Seishan spoke up again.
"There will be food problems."
Then Kido spoke up.
"For free? If so, the workers won't be satisfied. They'll probably stop working. Nobody would wish to work if you can live in the place for free."
"I understand your concerns. But just convice your people to continue working for another 2 weeks somehow. Say that a massive change will happen soon and that you're all working on them."
"What about the food issues?"
"There's a ton of food at the outer settlements. Should last us about two weeks, even if we don't procure any food."
Caster looked over at the lieutenants and Kai again.
"After that... I'll make it work out somehow."
Tessai spoke up in anger.
"Listen up kid, this isn't a matter of ideals. This is about practicality. We'll stop functioning properly if you don't make good decisions. It's best to not bring the people from outer settlements."
Caster smiled at him calmly.
"No, we need to bring all of them in right this instant. You think we'll succeed in the battle of crimson spire without enough people?"
"Ten ametures are much worse than having two veterans."
"I'm planning to nurture all ten of those ametures into veterans. Don't worry, I have a plan. And watch your tone, unless you want to be struck by lightning."
Tessai didn't back down. He seemed to have a misunderstanding about me needing him for the battle.
'I don't need you Tessai. You need me if you want to survive.'
"Thirdly, all of us will need to personally manage every part of the Castle until all of the people from the outer settlements are done settled in. So it will be a tough week or two. So let's go over all of the things to manage quickly. As I barely know about the castle manage, I'll need some filling in."
The first one to speak up was Seishan.
She talked about all the work the hand maidens did and, despite so many people who were going to come to the castle, their work wouldn't increase an unthomable amount. She said it should be doable.
Apart from preparing the food, the hand maidens other work would remain about the same. She suggested to overlook some of the work they did and shift the focus to food.
There were nearly 100 hand maidens, and preparing food for 1000 people, while hard, wasn't too tall of a task.
After Seishan finished speaking, Kai, Kido and Caster all agreed with her reasoning and Caster told her to hold on for a moment.
Afterwards Kido spoke up.
The artisans didn't especially have a major job to do, apart from the plants that Kido grew. All they did was provide necessary equipment to people. So while it would suck for the people to not be able to get those equipments on timely manner, Kido suggested to let some of the artisans to take over work from other departments if necessary.
Then Tessai and Gemma both spoke up, talking over each other constantly, but the message they sent was clear enough for Caster.
Basically, all Castle Guards did was patroll around the Castle and almost never fought. If they noticed something, the Hunter's would get notified and they'd take care of it.
In short, the castle guards basically did nothing except patroll around all day and hunters just hunted stuff occasionally. But not to be mistaken for unimportant, they were very much needed at the castle.
After that Caster spoke up.
"Don't think of the people from outer settlements to be useless. They were just unfortunate and ended up in the outer settlements. Many of them are useful. Not to mention they listen to me. I'll slowly bring batches of them to the castle over the next week or so. And they'll bring the food along with them."
Caster was speaking with true confidence and truly acted like a leader.
His first priority was to bring stability to the place, and the benefit of the collective good. Not just his benefit.
"The work should be distributed to them as well. It will lessen the load on your subordinates a lot."
The lieutenants nodded without saying anything back.
"After all the people from the outer settlements are settled... or well, at least in the castle, we'll formally announce that Gunlaug has stepped down from his position of the bright lort and that I'm the new leader."
Hearing that, Kai was uncertain about something Caster said, so he spoke up.
"Formally?"
"Yes, I'll tell the people from the outer settlements before bringing them to the castle, that I've overtaken Gunlaug."
Harus, with hostility, asked: "Why?"
"Because it will be easier to convince them."
Tessai interjected in.
"What's there to convice? They should be happy that they are getting a chance like this!"
"Trust. This situation is so ideal for them that it would be hard to believe that it's actually happening. I'll need to share details to bring everyone."
Gemma spoke up this time: "Rumours will spread."
Calmly, Caster replied to his concern.
"So what? We're going to announce in just a short while anyways."
Kai changed the topic to something more important.
"How about we give the people from outer settlements the work of the hand maidens? They have the most load at the moment."
Seishan seemed to agree, as she nodded along with it.
"Yes, we'll need a lot of the work. I didn't expect the other groups to be this free through this."
Caster considered it for a few seconds and positively replied.
"Sure, you all will get the highest priority in getting work force from the outer settlements."
Gemma spoke up again.
"Indeed, we have enough castle guards anyways. Hopefully some of the people from the outer settlements are good enough to be hunters."
Caster interjected in.
"Hunters won't get any work power from them, Gemma."
Tessai let out a laugh, seeing Gemma trying to make it harder for him but failing tremendously.
"And neither will the Castle Guards."
Gemma sneered at Tessai.
But after a bit, the both of them asked in unison: "Why?"
"Your work will only increase after I formally announce my succession."
Chuckling to himself, Caster continued: "Don't worry, I'll give you enough work force when that happens."
Afterwards Harus spoke up.
"What must I do?"
Caster thought over for a bit. The longest he thought over for something since the start of the talks. Eventually he spoke up and saying a simple: "Nothing."
"Why?"
"Just rest. Take a break until things settle down. I'll give you work after that. Something very important."
"Okay..."
Harus seemed slightly disappointed, but he couldn't think of much to do either.
"If you can't seem to stay still, just join the hunters on their hunts, if they go to any, to procure food."
Gemma seemed to be pleased with that, but simultaneously looked to get his guard up instantly.
And just like that, the discussion continued for another few hours. They managed to formulate how the work would be distributed. And now, it was finally time to start putting in the work.
However, it had already gotten pretty late, it was about to get dark, so it would start from tomorrow, the seventieth day since winter solstice.
'This is going to be so tiring.'