Chapter 538: Diplomacy is just another way to say ‘force’
The target was drawn on maps created by astral projections of scouts that explored the geography of the Ashida continent.
It had plenty of plains, hills, valleys, rivers and mountains. And it was huge. Conquering it kilometre by kilometre was going to take ages.
That ineffective approach would take so much time that Father will be able to send another army, much larger than Malevolence’s force, and she still won’t conquer enough to say that she did a good job preparing for this army’s arrival.
But she had a lot of experience and knew that it’s best to start conquering places from their key points.
The key point of this part of the Ashida continent was a large mountain on the foot of which stood a large human city, the new capital of the Vardish Empire (the last one succumbed to a plague). More notably for Malevolence, this mountain fed a large river that went through a third of the continent.
This river could spread usnea tree seeds over massive distances without Malevolence’s people needing to lift a hand! And the humans living near the mountain could become another resource in Malevolence’s hands.
Or a problem. At first, they were definitely going to be a problem.
But a problem for later. For now, the main concern was just reaching this place. To deal with it and make a plan, Malevolence gathered a war council in the command room of her mobile fortress.
“There are some human-made roads that we can use, Grand Commander,” Agent Eloquence said, pointing at the lines drawn on the map. “Some trees grew through them, and the stones they are made from are too large and uneven for bee-sized carts, but human carts could still move over them.”
Malevolence nodded.
“Yes, we will need carts to move our forts. It’s a good thing that humans from your village had some, but my Craftsmen and Builders will have to direct them to build extras. The humans who came with me will help, too, of course.”
“It won’t be easy for your humans and ‘mine’ to work together,” Eloquence said. “Yours are Naregan, and mine are Vardish. They despise each other by nature. If you force them to work close to each other, they will sabotage each other and maybe even fight.”
Malevolence scowled.
“What kind of human nonsense is this? You said they were loyal, Agent.”
“They are! It’s not my fault that they have the same flaws all humans do. When they see humans of another chitin colour, they treat them almost like another species.” Eloquence sighed. “I will do what I can to reduce tensions, Grand Commander. Human minds are soft like clay when you know how to treat them, and believe me, I know.”
Malevolence gave Eloquence a long stare, but then nodded.
“You wouldn’t be a Chief Agent otherwise, sister. But I can’t separate the forces of our humans, so it’s your job to prevent them from sabotaging my work. Next…”
She turned to her other officers, especially the Chief Commando.
“What do you know about the dangers that might await us on the route?”
The leader of Malevolence’s scouts pointed at the map where the line of a road was crossed by a line of a river.
“Broken bridge here.” Her finger travelled along the river, where it was crossed by another road. “Whole bridge here.”
Malevolence looked at the map.
“But the road we will take isn’t connected to the other bridge. So it’s either a long roundabout way through wilderness, or crossing the river without a bridge… Could our ships just travel over it?”
The Chief Command shook her head.
“The river is too shallow.”
Malevolence let out a breath.
“Grand Commander, humans have ways of crossing rivers on carts—if the carts are sturdy enough, at least,” Eloquence said. “But there are other dangers. If we travel with cards, they will likely be attacked by human bandits on the road.”
“Do these bandits have any anti-bee weapons?”
“Uh… No, I don’t think so. Most of them are just desperate and hungry farmers without even proper anti-human weapons.”
“Then we will kill them when we meet them. Just like we will kill any creatures that attack our army while we travel. And we will plant usnea trees along our path—this will help them spread faster and will protect us from attacks from behind.”
“What about the supplies? If we take extra humans with us, they won’t last us an entire month, Grand Commander.”
“Bees could eat usnea trees’ fruit and nectar. Humans…”
Malevolence thought for a moment. They could eat usnea trees’ fruits too, but it took a lot of trees to feed a single human, while bees could sustain themselves just on the corpses of all the beasts they would inevitably kill on the way.
Usnea trees grew extremely fast, but without pouring fire over them, it would take them a few days to produce ripe fruits. If the army stopped in one place for long enough to plant usnea trees and gather their fruit… They will never reach their destination.
“There are some settlements near the road. If we take slight detours, we should be able to take extra food from there,” Eloquence said. “By force, most likely. And there are some beasts even humans could hunt. Surely this will be enough; the journey isn’t a month-long.”
“Hm. Two weeks,” Chief Commando said.
This all sounded like a good plan to Malevolence. Even a possible roundabout on the river didn’t scare her—if the journey went well, this delay wouldn’t be a problem. And if the humans really began to lack food, it was never too late to stop and start planting usnea trees. They were really useful.
She smiled.
“Then it’s decided. And after everything, we will stop and have time to plant as many usnea trees as we need, not to mention take food from the Vardish capital city. By diplomacy or by force, whichever works. And afterwards, we will spread the usnea trees over the continent!”
Diplomacy was just another way to say ‘force’, anyway.