"What if you took out James alone?" Qrow suggested after hearing this.
"Well the way I see it one of three outcomes. The first is that because he's consolidated so much of Atlas's control on him it leaves the kingdom paralyzed until they replace him. This has up and downsides. The upside is that Ironwood is gone and it buys the other kingdoms a little time. The downside is that whoever takes over for him will be an unknown and potentially FAR worse person. Ironwood is ambitious but overall a man of principle. Whoever replaces him might not value Faunus lives or the lives of soldiers and turn the war into an absolute meat grinder without care for the cost in lives." I said seriously making them grimace.
"The second?" Taiyang asked.
"He becomes a martyr and Atlas now has an even more zealous army and citizenship that will get absolutely ruthless to see his vision reached. There is no upside here really beyond the momentary pause as the hierarchy is reshuffled. The final option is that it accomplishes basically nothing. He dies and his second in command takes over without a fuss and the campaign moves forward same speed." I say calmly.
"There's just no winning is there?" Qrow groaned.
"My advice? Let the war play out naturally. As much as it is unpleasant humanity here needs this. One great war to bring lasting peace. One way or another." I said honestly.
"A lot of people will die before it's over if we do that." Qrow said gravely.
"True. But humanity is by it's nature an ambitious species. Now or later the fact remains that this war or another like it would always arrive. With that in mind is it not perhaps best to get it out of the way?" I asked calmly.
"Maybe. Is there any way to make it a little less bloody at least?" Taiyang asked with a sigh.
"Mercenaries. Not from here but from the the Bazaar. I suggest the people from Whitebeards world specifically but those from David's world would also work. Perhaps even better since they are just cybernetically enhanced rather than simply ridiculously strong." I said with a shrug.
"Why would that help?" Qrow asked confused.
"The ones from David's world tend to be a bunch of glory hounds and war is a glory machine. Always has been. As for Whitebeard's people? They are freedom seekers mostly so after knowing why you are hiring them they would likely jump at the chance to cut loose against a tyrannical government since they can't really in their world since their government is backed by power just like theirs if not greater. Depending on who comes the war might go a lot faster than you'd think. Those people can reach levels of power not dissimilar to weapons of mass destruction. Make it clear that they are only attacking the military stuff though or they might cause problems for civilians as well." I explained seriously.
"How would we pay them?" Qrow asked with a frown.
I shrugged "No idea. You can figure it out yourself. Now then I best be off. Don't want to make people panic back in my world." I say calmly before walking into the doorway and back to the bazaar.
From there I returned to my world and continued making my way back to the dorm room. No one thought my short absence unusual since I was gone for at most the amount of time it would take to use the bathroom.-
I found a spot and got to work on the assigned homework quietly while a few people sat nearby discussing it. I chimed in helpfully every now and then if they got something wrong but otherwise everything moved on smoothly. I finished first but thanks to my help the others weren't far behind which really seemed to earn me a good amount of favor. With my spare time until dinner I socialized. Perhaps not the most efficient use of my time but I considered the students of Beauxbatons different than those at Hogwarts. At my home school most of the students were muggleborn and not likely to be worth much later in life.-
I'm not saying they were worthless but with the way things in the wizarding community of the isles are there was nothing worth trying to get to know them all that much. Here was different. Beauxbatons had students from various ministries. Spain, Portugal, France, and more. Even if none of these people made anything of their lives after school the sheer breadth of places they'd be situated made knowing them worth it. As I had learned a wide web of contacts made this whole merchant things VATLY easier.-
"Do you fly well?" a darker skinned boy with black hair asked curiously.
"Not with a broom." I replied casually.
"How else is there?" he asked with a confused tilt of his head.
"A few ways actually but I use lightning or clouds." I said with a chuckle at the funny look I got.
"Must be old magic. Never heard of anything like that." he said a little jealously.
"Can you show us?" Felicia asked with an interested look.
I casually elementalized and shot through the air in short spurts since we were indoors and destroying the ceiling was not something I wanted to do.
"See?" I said with a smile as I landed.