39. War (1)
39. War (1)
Lea's mornings usually start late. But today, she had no choice but to wake up early.
It was because of the incident that happened early this morning.
It was the incident where Niv was eroded by a monster, killed and ate a child from the orphanage, and was then caught and killed by Gwen.
Because it was such a sudden incident, and because it happened at the orphanage, which should be safer than anywhere else, the Knights Order and adventurers had gathered at the orphanage.
"Aren't they overreacting a bit too much..."
Lea let out a deep sigh as she looked at the knights and adventurers gathered outside the orphanage.
Lea, who couldn't understand why so many humans had gathered just because two humans died—it wasn't like dozens had died—found herself worrying about how to manage her corpse supply rather than feeling the thrill of having deceived Gwen.
First of all, not showing her face in a situation like this would be enough to invite suspicion, so Lea put on a plain nun's habit and stepped out of her room.
As Lea came out of her room and went down to the first floor, Amber, who had been attending to the people, approached her.
"Lea-nim. Are you feeling alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine. What is the situation like right now?"
"The Knights Order plans to stay here for the time being."
Lea nodded and looked around.
The atmosphere was quite heavy.
The children, who had always spent their time in the orphanage playing and smiling brightly, were plunged into sorrow over the death of Niv, who had cherished them, and the death of a friend they had been playing happily with just yesterday.
The knights and adventurers were furious at the horrific incident that had taken place at the orphanage.
'Sigh... should I have killed a different kid instead of Niv?'
Lea regretted that the atmosphere in the orphanage had turned dark in an instant.
She wasn't regretting it because of the children looking so gloomy and sad, contrary to her expectations.
'That has a negative effect on their brain development.'
She was regretting it because she was worried the children's brains wouldn't grow healthily.
'If something like this happens next time, I should choose kids who aren't very close to the others. Of course, it would be best if something like this didn't happen at all.'
Lea talked with the people about the incident, blaming herself for the event that had occurred due to her lack of knowledge about Mana.
==
After finishing all the conversations with the knights, including Gwen, and the adventurers, I didn't go to my room in the orphanage but instead went down to the basement and returned to the Colony, where I flopped onto my bed.
I had returned to the Colony because I wanted to be at ease, as I had to act like a nun at the orphanage.
I discarded the appearance of the Queen I had been acting as, ignored it, and opened my mouth, speaking in the tone I used when I was a man.
"Ugh... annoying. Troublesome. Exhausting."
I had always disliked places with many humans.
The feeling of the surroundings being cluttered and countless sounds intertwining and tangling, making my head spin and causing headaches—I hated that feeling so much.
That was why, back when I was a man, I never went outside at all unless it was for work.
"What should I do about this?"
If things go on like this, my orphanage is going to become too famous. If that happens, the possibility of the true purpose of this orphanage being discovered increases.
"Is there a way to reduce the attention on the orphanage while making it grow even bigger?"
Actually, this is nonsense. More orphans arriving while attention decreases?
That absurd phrase, "I want to be rich and famous, but I don't want anyone to know who I am, and I want to have lots of money without anyone paying attention to me," is...
Wait a minute.
Isn't it possible?
This isn't just about becoming rich without being famous.
It's not that there's no way to get less attention while having more children.
There is one very simple method.
An incident so big that no one can pay attention to the orphanage, and a situation where many adults die, leading to an increase in orphans who have no choice but to come to the orphanage.
It is war.
No matter how important the orphanage is, it is not more important than a war. Naturally, the attention will be focused on the war.
And if countless adult humans die due to the war, naturally, there will be many children who have lost their families.
Then where would they come?
To the orphanage.
What a beautiful thought.
Let's execute it right now.
I just need to attack just enough so that Medherun City doesn't collapse.
I'll just scare them appropriately, eat a moderate amount of humans to fill my children's bellies, and increase the number of children, who are my future special meals.
Even without that, the creatures are currently starving for combat and humans to the point where I can feel the fatigue of catching children through the Hive Mind.
"Am I a genius?"
Having thought of an innovative method, I immediately gathered all the children in the Colony through the Hive Mind.
==
The creatures, which I have become so accustomed to that they feel lovely, are swarming in the largest space of the Colony.
Just the number of them here is nearly 30,000.
Most of them are Nerses under Dagos.
Maybe it's because they're spiders, but their reproduction rate is no joke. The problem is that I can't handle that rate of reproduction.
Right now, not all the hatchlings survive.
If 100 are born, only about 10 survive. Of course, not all of those 10 reach adulthood either.
About 8 of them fail to grow because they are pushed out by strength and cannot eat humans or animals, and only about 2 grow into adults.
The scary thing about the Nerses is that even the small Nerses that haven't grown up have very terrifying combat power.
Nerses, whose blood is entirely acidic, possess great strength even for assassination.
They are capable of neutralizing an entire unit of the Padix Kingdom's Knights Order.
[ Queen-nim. Everyone has gathered. ]
Dagos approached me, bowed his head, and said.
"Good job."
Dagos, having received my praise, seemed to be in a good mood as he trembled for a moment, then came to my side and opened his mouth.
[ All loyalty to the Queen-nim. ]
All the creatures bowed their heads in unison.
Because all their minds were bound by the Hive Mind, tens of thousands of creatures bowed their heads to me with perfect timing and perfect movement.
I felt an exaltation completely different from when I first opened my eyes as the Queen.
"The time has come."
I opened my mouth naturally.
"Thank you all for listening to my requests so well until now."
I don't even feel like I'm acting as the Queen.
I don't even feel any hesitation in making the decision.
The story that will unfold after my decision is not important.
I don't feel even 1% of such anxiety.
The only anxiety I feel right now is one thing.
The anxiety about whether the orphanage I built myself, run myself, and created for my children will be ruined.
And I am only looking forward to how many more children will increase in my orphanage while causing a war.
Of course, that doesn't mean my human mind has been completely devoured by the Queen.
I am not thinking of slaughtering all humans.
The Queen wants the extermination of all humans. She has thoughts like death, slaughter, chaos, and destruction, just like a Demon King.
But I don't want that.
I, who was a human, am thinking of preventing the extermination of humans and living with them for mutual benefit to some extent.
And I'm not starting a war without any thought, either.
I wasn't just lazing around in the orphanage because I was truly lazy.
I was observing the situation in Medherun City while filling my own pockets with the orphanage's sponsorship.
Of course, finding good restaurants was important too, but I was grasping the military power of Medherun City.
Although I don't know much about Mana and Holy Power yet, I am capable of grasping the opponent's Mana.
I haven't been able to see everything because Medherun City is so large, but I have visited the most important Knights Order and Adventurer Guild many times.
Since I helped the knights and adventurers with Heal several times, they allowed me entry when I visited occasionally.
Every time I did, I observed the humans' military power and came to a conclusion.
That there would be no problem if I just ate this city if I set my mind to it.
And I have set my mind to it now.
[ Dagos, advance to Medherun City. ]
[ Understood. ]
==
Inside the eastern outer wall of Medherun City, there is a large vacant lot. That place is the Public Cemetery of Medherun City.
Why is there a public cemetery inside the city?
It is because of the existence called Undead.
In this world where monsters exist, Undead naturally exist as well.
There are many reasons why Undead occur, but the most common method is that when negative energy accumulates in a corpse, the corpse rises as an Undead.
Therefore, they gather corpses in one place to manage them—that is, to purify and mourn them—thereby suppressing the occurrence of Undead.
Furthermore, there is one major problem here.
Undead call to Undead, and although it is unclear why it happens, monsters that like corpses also originate here.
Because various problems could arise if left alone, the Knights Order, adventurers, or the garrison guarding this place periodically exterminate the monsters here.
There is one thing that makes this public cemetery particularly different from other places in Medherun City.
It is the ground.
As corpses rot over a long period, they have various effects on the ground. To prevent negative energy from going elsewhere, there is nothing underneath the ground of the public cemetery.
If there were even a space, an Undead could occur if there were even a small carcass like a mouse in that space due to the negative energy coming from the corpses.
Of course, even if there is no space, it would be impossible to completely block the Undead of moles or mice, but it is certainly less than if there were a space, so the space under the public cemetery is just plain ground.
That space, which had nothing but ground, eventually became a passage for the Nerses without anyone noticing.
Deulseok.
The ground of the quiet public cemetery heaved once.