Chapter 123: Chapter 119: Lia’s Frustration

Rose stood over a map of the Aura-Sapphire Empire border, looking over it thoughtfully. “Given the engagements that have taken place, and assuming there are no teleportation experts capable of teleporting fifty people in a day…I think we can assume that there are enemy forces here, here, and…here. Give or take a few dozen miles, of course.” Rose said, placing three small figurines on the map. She liked figurines for the ease with which she could move them around without destroying the map, so she had been rather happy when she found out there was a somewhat large stockpile of them in storage, presumably from the college’s art department.

Nailah looked at the map, frowning. “A couple of those locations are old fortifications that have fallen into disrepair.” She said. “They seem like odd choices when there are perfectly good alternatives.”

“I don’t think these are permanent bases.” Rose said. “In my estimation, they’re simply temporary stops while they probe our defenses, and once they’ve decided on a course of action, they’re going to go on an all-out offensive.”

“Isn’t that a little reckless?” Lia asked. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to wait for us to come, so they could have the benefit of their defenses?”

Rose shook her head. “Normally, you would be right.” She said. “But I’m operating under the assumption that the best minds of this generation are working together against us. And I believe that those minds would naturally come to the same conclusion as me; this is a war that needs to end soon if they have any hope of victory. The swarm will always win a war of attrition, as our strength will increase over the course of a war, while their strength will decrease.

“So, it follows that there are two keys to their victory. First, they need to disable our Heroes; even if it costs them thousands, the influence a single Hero can have is tremendous, and unlike regular soldiers, we can’t replace Heroes. Second, they need to reduce our numbers as swiftly is possible, and that means they need to strike quickly with as much force as possible.”

Rose tapped one of the figurines. “There could well be one or two other forces here, but I don’t think so.” She said. “It’s in their best interest to keep their numbers as large as possible, so we don’t overwhelm a smaller force and gain that as our own. But, at the same time, one camp is simply not an option for them; if both Amelia and myself show up, they’ll be thrust into a battle with both of us at the same time, and while you might overwhelm one Hero with sheer numbers, two is significantly harder.

“To that end, I would split my forces into two or three camps, but this comes with its own risk. The idea for splitting your forces is that, should the Heroes come and siege one of your camps, that would give the others time to move in and make an attack without fear of us showing up. While Amelia’s teleportation throws a wrinkle in that, they’re probably banking on her being too exhausted from her first confrontation to handle the army in the day or so it would take them to reach their target.

“And, given the way strikes have been conducted, and what those we’ve converted tell us, I’m inclined to think they’ve split into three main groups.” Rose grabbed a few smaller figurines and spread them out behind enemy lines. “These are other potential locations of enemy forces.” She said. “Every unit we’ve converted hasn’t come from a force large enough to be considered the main army, so I can only assume that scouts are only sent out when each group hasn’t yet reached their final destination.”

“I’m not so sure.” Ophelia said. “What if…what if they are at their final destination? It could be that they’re just keeping the other parts of the army just out of visual distance, close enough to make it in case a fight breaks out, but far enough to not reveal their location when scouting parties fail?”

“But what happens if we just do hit and run tactics? If we pick off a cohort at a time?” Amelia asked. “That seems a rather poor strategy.”

“Amelia, I believe your understanding of time is somewhat distorted.” Rose said. “You were strong enough that all of your fights ended instantly, and I imagine most duels you watched ended in a matter of minutes. An army’s battle is not the same; they can take hours or even days if the armies are closely matched, so there is plenty of time for reinforcements to arrive, especially if they have enough mages dedicated to stalling our attack.

“Though, it is worth noting that an imbalance in the number of high-leveled people between two armies will shorten that time, and that really is our biggest problem at the moment; we have access to fewer high-leveled people than they do, so we need to work to catch up in other ways, like importing high-leveled monsters from the Spine for use in conversion.”

Rose paused, looking over at Nailah and Alisha. “How fast are people able to travel nowadays? I feel it would be prudent to strike before we have more than one country’s worth of high leveled people to contend with.”

Nailah frowned. “Not much faster than in your day.” She said. “But…we need to consider the possibility that they send the high-leveled people out separately, they could teleport them to the front, or use the meeting place’s permanent circles as a sort of shortcut if they don’t have enough Mana, though that last one is riskier, as we’ve demonstrated that Amelia can get in there any time she wants.”

“I can set up some rudimentary alarm wards on the place if you want.” Amelia volunteered. “Or I can destroy it altogether if you feel it’d make things safer.”

“Best not destroy it.” Nailah replied. “It’s viewed as the world’s dedicated neutral meeting spot, and we risk drawing further ire from the gods by destroying it. I don’t think we’d have any issues if we set up alarms, though; people using it to smuggle troops is against the spirit of the place, and as long as we don’t attack people who aren’t using it for something it’s not supposed to be used for, we’ll be fine.”

“Back on the topic of the enemy armies, I think you’re of the opinion that we should attack preemptively, right, Rose?” Ophelia asked.

“Yes, but not in straight-up confrontation.” Rose said. “Even as much as they need time to gather their strength, we do too. The sad reality is that even just the army of the Sapphire Empire seems to be larger than our combined army. So, our primary aim is going to have to be to close that gap as much as possible before the rest of the world can bring their might to bear. So, I think we need to approach this in a way that highlights our strengths; guerrilla warfare.

“When it comes to raw military might, our greatest assets are, unfortunately, Amelia and myself. This is unfortunate because the enemy knows this, and have no doubt taken steps to prepare, and because we are not omnipresent. That being said, the fact remains that Amelia and myself are leagues stronger than the majority of assets they have available to them, and if we’re careful with how we choose to engage the enemy, I don’t see the two of us losing.”

Rose gave the assembled people a glance. “My proposal is for the two of us to do quick strikes at enemy territory. We use Amelia to scry their locations, teleport in, deal with fifty or one hundred soldiers, teleport back out with the cocoons, rinse and repeat. Once we’re sure we’ve mopped up most of the higher-leveled opponents, we’ll start sending in proper raiding parties. Thoughts?”

“What about me?” Lia asked immediately. “I don’t want to be left at home again. I hate sitting here, having to watch while you two go do all the dangerous stuff.”

Rose bit her lip, sighing internally. She knew Lia would have this objection, but she wasn’t going to budge on it. “Lia, I appreciate the sentiment, really, I do, but to be blunt, you’re just not on the level needed to do something like this yet. The only reason I’m proposing this in the first place is because Amelia and I are Heroes; we are, by definition, significantly stronger than the opponents. And, even if we somehow find ourselves matched with opponents equal to our power, I have a wealth of combat experience, and Amelia’s knowledge of magic is on par with the gods themselves.

“You’re making a lot of progress, and you are getting stronger, but you’re simply not at those heights yet, and you’re the biggest target out of all of us; I’m sure our enemies would like nothing more than to kill you and throw the swarm into chaos. And it’s not just you; I’d tell anyone else, even Connie, the same thing. Amelia and I are the only ones who can do this. We can take you out with us once it’s safe enough to start sending normal raiding parties out.”

“But…but…” Lia sputtered. She floundered for a while, then a sense of determination filled her eyes. “Do as you will.” She said stiffly, standing up. “I have some business to take care of.”

“Lia, I–”

“I’m not angry.” Lia replied. “Disappointed, yes, but I can see your logic. If I can’t participate now…I’ll just have to get to the point where I can. Keep having your meeting, I’ll see you at home.”

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She left the room, and Rose felt like part of her own heart was leaving with her. She…she hadn’t really seen Lia like that before, and it pained her. She felt awful, but…it was for the best. She wasn’t going to risk Lia’s life, not when there was no reason to.

“You made the right call.” Amelia said softly, placing a hand on Rose’s shoulder. “We can’t risk her like this. The two of us can stay safe, but I’m not sure we can do our job and protect her at the same time.”

Rose sighed deeply. “I know…it just hurts, hurts a lot more than I thought it would. I don’t like seeing her like this.”

Alisha gave a small cough. “Mistresses, though I would love to stay, I don’t think I would have much input here, and…I can help her. I’m going to go devote myself to stretching my limits, please assume that I agree with whatever plans you put forth.”

“Alisha, you’re the one who knows the border situation the best.” Rose said. “I would really rather you stay.”

Alisha winced. “I – I…as much as it pains me, I must go.” She said, sounding strained, almost as if she was in physical pain. “I have been shirking my duties as her equipment, and I need to make up for that.”

“You could at least leave a sub-body here.” Rose said weakly.

Alisha shook her head. “Every single one I am capable of creating will be training.” She said. “This is more important than everything else.”

“You won’t convince her.” Amelia said quietly. “I made sure Lia was her number one priority, and she seems stubborn by nature. We’ll have to catch her later.”

“I…yeah, you’re right.” Rose said. “Um…where were we?”

They talked for a little while longer, but it became increasingly clear that Rose’s mind was elsewhere, something that frustrated her to no end; as much as the Urge was terrible, at the very least she had always been able to focus on important tasks, but her mind kept turning back to Lia, and the growing sense of guilt she had about the situation.

It really, truly, was what was best for Lia, but…Rose could have handled it better. She could have sat down with Lia beforehand, or given more concrete times or…anything, really. Anything other than how she had gone about it, really.

“Rose, I think we should call it here and come back tomorrow.” Titania said gently. “Go meet back up with Lia, okay? Good plans aren’t going to be made when we’re so distracted.”

“When I’m so distracted.” Rose corrected guiltily. “Sorry, I’m normally more disciplined than this.”

“No one can be perfect all the time, Rose.” Titania replied. “Go settle things with Lia and I’m sure we’ll be more productive tomorrow.”

“Right. Um…thanks.” Rose said lamely. “I’m…going to get going.” She hurriedly left the room, and Amelia followed behind her.

“So…what are we gonna do?” Amelia asked. “I doubt Lia is going to be happy unless we flat out allow her to come with us.”

“Not an option.” Rose said. “As much as I hate to make her feel bad, seeing her die would be far, far worse. I won’t risk her, not for anything.”

“Good.” Amelia said, nodding approvingly. “I wholeheartedly agree. But…surely there’s something we can do to help her feel better, right?”

“I was thinking of asking Connie for ideas.” Rose said. “Lia said she went to train, so she’s probably not at home right now, and Connie would probably have a better idea than us; all I can think of right now is to make a training regimen to help her get up to par with us, but…I don’t think I can exactly take back what I said about Heroes, and no amount of training will make her one. It’s…well, it’s the truth, and we all know it; Lia hasn’t been Bound yet, and that in and of itself is a good indicator to where not just us, but the gods consider her power.”

“To be fair, I don’t think Lia can be Bound.” Amelia said. “She’s kind of the measure through which the rest of the swarm is judged, so unless she somehow gets a big, unfair, power boost out of nowhere, like if I had transferred Izumi’s Hero status to her instead of you, then I don’t think it makes any sense for her to be Bound. Still…you’re right, it probably doesn’t feel good to be the weakest of your lovers. Maybe some people would like being protected, but…not Lia.”

Rose sighed again. “I hate this.” She said. “I hate having to choose between what makes her safe and what makes her happy. I really wish I could think of a better way to approach this conflict, but…I can’t. We need to get rid of those high leveled people, and they’re too strong for her. She’s growing fast, but these people have head starts of centuries, and even her current breakneck pace isn’t going to catch up to that in just a few months.”

“We’ll figure something out.” Amelia said, slipping her hand into Rose’s and giving it a gentle squeeze. “Lia’s not the type to stay upset for long. I’m sure we can work something out.”

“There’s no way we can make her like Ophelia or Nailah, right?” Rose asked. “If she had multiple bodies, we wouldn’t have to worry about bringing one with us.”

Amelia shook her head. “She’d have to work towards that herself with evolution.” She replied. “And her current race is going to take a while to get out of.”

“I thought so.” Rose said disappointedly. “Well…let’s talk more after we talk with Connie. Hopefully she’ll have an answer.”