'The victory was given to us… But I feel so undeserving! We must pursue the enemy as swiftly as possible and make them pay dearly for stepping on our soil and trying to humiliate us!' was the loudest thought Gresch had the next day.
It was shared by many soldiers in the Naregan army. Meanwhile, my daughters were just burning with the desire to kill even more humans and conquer them properly!
After the first victory over the Vardish, the bees and the humans spent a full day over the battlefield, looting and cleaning up. Although the biggest stores of gunpowder had exploded during the battle, there was still enough of it and bullets that Gresch could equip a thousand soldiers with these barrel-loading muskets.
They still had to train how to shoot. A few Agents could explain to the soldiers the process—they saw Vardish soldiers do it plenty of times—but nobody except the soldiers could learn how to actually hit their targets.
For now, the muskets stayed relatively useless. As for the cannons, most of them were too damaged for use, and the rest were too few to bother taking with us.
Most of the dead Vardish people were thrown into burial pits, but the bees gathered plenty of meat from them before that, cooking them into field provisions. Since I didn't want to explain this custom to my human allies, bees did this out of their sight.
A dozen remote bodies stripped to their bones could feed the entire crusading army for a week, and humans blamed the scavenging beasts.
On the next day, another group of reinforcements—200 thousand Warrior Bees from nearby garrisons—joined us.
These bees, who only heard about the glorious carnage, were twice as eager as the rest to take part in the next fight and have some of that glory.
They wanted to chase after the Vardish army immediately and catch it in the back! And even Bloodimina shared this desire.
"Father," she greeted me that day with a paper map in her hands. "I have studied the maps of the area again, and I have a proposal. Look—the road that Vardish humans have taken to retreat is circling around hills and forests. If the Bee Empire's army just flies in a straight line after them, we can catch them before they reach their own border and strike them in the back! The Naregan humans might catch up with us later—we won't even need them if we take our supplies from the Vardish people."
I looked at the map and counted speeds and distances. Bloodimina's plan would probably work, and I was tempted to do just that. However…
"Hm… Those pillar mountain forests we will need to cross aren't in range of any garrisons, are they? I bet they crawl with beasts that will try to attack us on sight."
"Our army is large enough that a small part can stay behind and fight them off while the main part advances without slowing down," Bloodimina countered immediately. At least she thought about this.
"This is still a risk. I don't want to take it without an army of humans to hide behind if things turn sour. There will be more risks later, when an army tired after a long march will have to fight humans who had time to think about what threat they've just faced. Remember how adaptable humans are, Bloodimina."
My daughter looked like she ate something sour, but tried not to show it.
"I know, Father. The more time passes, and the more attacks they suffer from us, the more prepared they will be. Which is another reason we must kill as many of them as possible before they have time to adapt their tactics!"
I thought about it some more and had an idea.
"Don't send the army, Bloodimina. Send assassins—we have enough Beemarines here. At this moment, when they are afraid and confused, they are more vulnerable to losing their leadership than ever. Kill or cripple their leaders."
Bloodimina's expressions brightened immediately. I chuckled to myself at this eager reaction.
'Although there won't be any large-scale carnage immediately, killing is killing, eh?'
"Yes, Father! Beemarines will catch up with the retreating army in hours and be faster than most predators. I will arrange teams immediately," she said with a salute.
These teams flew out on their task just an hour later. Soon after, the rest of the army marched on, too.
Our goal wasn't the retreating Vardish army, though. After I and Gresch studied the map for a while, I decided we must march directly to the next strategic target—Castle Soneraht that stood on the edge of Vardish territory.
It was a fortification, the garrison of which controlled a massive area of Eastern Expanse Reach, and the Vardish army was definitely going to retreat toward it down the river. We had no chance of getting there faster than them without our own boats (which we didn't have), but if we attacked fast, we could storm Castle Soneraht before any more soldiers could come from EER to reinforce it.
'If Your Majesty and your army weren't with us, I'd say for sure that our forces are not enough to take a fortress like that at once, at least without trebuchets or siege towers,' general Gresch commented on my chosen target. 'But with you, gods are on our side, so I have absolute faith in our victory! Besides, the divine guardians can fly—no walls can stop you. I fear only that my blade will not taste blood for yet another fight.'
I hoped things would go as smoothly as Gresch believed, and asked the Oracles in the military camp if they saw anything clear in the future—but it was too far ahead.
The Beemarine assassins soon reported success—the enemy commander and five of his most high-ranked officers were dead or blind, and the retreat of the army became even more disorganized than before. But they still got to their boats.
Three days later, our army reached the border fortress it all began with—but instead of any enemies, saw only a gruesome "message" for us…