“Phew. Now we won’t have to worry about your wardrobes.”
Once we’d finished shopping, we walked down the streets with bags full of clothes in our hands and satisfied smiles on our lips.
“Yeah, that’s true. But should we really be wasting our time shopping here?” Lysa asked with a hint of concern.
“Well, I kind of feel bad for Roland since he can’t be here, but things seem to have stabilized over on the Schtraut front. Nyrnal hasn’t been able to break through the mountain road there, so our defenses are solid.”
Roland was busy commanding the Swarms on the Schtraut front. Nyrnal’s army seemed to have given up on breaking through the mountain road and was instead trying to climb the cliffs. That way of invasion was obviously reckless, and Roland was quashing their efforts.
The mountain road in Schtraut was littered with the corpses of Nyrnal soldiers. The Ripper Swarms drove away the crows, hounds, and other scavengers trying to pick at the bodies. Once they were all rounded up, the Worker Swarms could turn them into meatballs. The situation was still challenging overall, but our future prospects weren’t too bad.
Lysa gave a nod. “Roland’s really trying, huh?”
“Well, Schtraut is his homeland,” I said, placing a hand on my chin in thought. “It makes sense he’d be dead set on defending it. What I’m worried about is that it’s possible the Nyrnal army will try to invade Schtraut via the elven forest.”
The elven forest was set right between the borders between the Kingdom of Maluk, the Dukedom of Schtraut, and the Nyrnal Empire. Now that Nyrnal had invaded Maluk, they had the elven forest surrounded on two fronts. We had no way of knowing when Nyrnal might try to use the forest as an alternate route into Schtraut.
“So there’s a chance my homeland’s going to become a battlefield?” Lysa asked, sounding anxious.
“We don’t know that for sure,” I replied. “That’s why I’m producing lots of Genocide Swarms and sending them there. I promised I’d protect Baumfetter, and I intend to keep that promise.”
I couldn’t let a peaceful place like Baumfetter turn into a battlefield. The elves there wanted nothing more than to live peacefully. Letting that place get mixed up in the war because of a large country’s ambitions would be unforgivable. I’d sworn to keep them safe no matter what.
“Still, it might be for the best if the citizens are prepared to evacuate just in case,” I went on. “I keep getting these really bad vibes from the Empire.”
I hadn’t seen the full extent of what Nyrnal was capable of. They knew how to get involved in wars at just the right time, and they had the strength to take over the former Maluk territories in the blink of an eye. They had powerful field fortifications and wyverns at their beck and call. I had to be wary of all those factors, but at the same time, I couldn’t assume they were showing all their cards.
“For now, we have to keep their attention fixed on the Schtraut front. I’ll order Roland to allow the enemy to break in a little. We can’t let the deadlock in Schtraut seem too firm; we don’t know how Nyrnal might react to that.”
If our defensive lines proved to be unyielding, their generals might try to come up with different ideas—storming through the elven forest, for one, or sending reinforcements to the Frantz front.
“For now, everything’s stable there. Nyrnal’s not making any suspicious movements. The fact we don’t know what they’re planning is unnerving, though. We need to send in some Masquerade Swarms or infest people with Parasite Swarms to gather intel.”
Nyrnal wasn’t accepting refugees, so getting Masquerade Swarms to infiltrate was proving difficult. Things would be different if we got people under the thrall of Parasite Swarms to open the gates for us from the inside, but pulling that off would be a trek and a half too.
“If only we could’ve kept the Nyrnal Empire’s invasion stalled inside the old Maluk territories, we’d have been able to complete the Aerial Flesh Nest to make some Flap Swarms and gain air superiority.”
The Aerial Flesh Nest was the structure that produced the Arachnea’s airborne units. Honestly, the Arachnea was pretty weak when it came to aerial combat. The Flap Swarms would likely be no match for the wyverns. Nevertheless, having eyes in the sky would be a major advantage.
“I hope we can win this war,” Lysa said.
I nodded firmly. “Agreed. We need to end this.”
Yes. We need to end this war.
If I could make an alliance with the Eastern Trade Union and destroy the Nyrnal Empire, it would end the war on this continent. We could live in peace and do whatever we pleased.
Suddenly, Lysa shouted “Your Majesty!” and shoved me away.
I pitched forward and fell to the ground, where I felt warm fluid splash across my cheek.
Blood. Red, crimson blood. But whose blood is this?
Sérignan raised her voice in a battle cry. “Haaah!”
Then, I could hear the sound of a sword being drawn and a man screaming in pain. More screams echoed all around us. The entire commercial area had devolved into a state of chaos.
What’s going on here? I got to my feet, looking around.
The first thing I could see was Sérignan, holding up her blood-stained longsword. She was scanning the area, looking sharp and cautious. At her feet was the dead body of a man. He was lying face down, having been slashed across the shoulder. And...
“Lysa?” I uttered. “Lysa!”
Lysa had been stabbed. There was blood gushing from her stomach, forming a large puddle on the floor. She was still alive, but she was breathing heavily, her shoulders heaving.
“Lysa! Hang on, Lysa! Sérignan, what do I do?!”
I asked the question in a frenzy. I was panicking.
“You must keep her wound closed! Hold it down, hard!”
Right. That’s what they always do in action movies. When someone gets shot, they hold the wound down as hard as they can.
Mimicking what I remembered to the best of my ability, I applied pressure to Lysa’s stab wound.
A few moments later, a Khalkha guard hurried over to us. “What happened here?!”
“This man stabbed my friend!” I said. “Please, get us a doctor!”
“Understood!” The guard hurried off.
Meanwhile, I held down Lysa’s wound as hard as I could.
It’s too soon for her to follow in Linnet’s footsteps. I still have so many things I want to do with you, so don’t die on me!
Soon, the guard returned with a stretcher. “The doctor’s over there! Put her on the stretcher!”
I placed Lysa on it, still keeping her wound closed, and we ran in the direction he’d told us to go. Sérignan followed us, keeping a watchful eye on our surroundings.
Lysa, please... Don’t die...