Black Beetle (6)
"Ah."
When Lark, the subject whose compatibility had finally climbed past sixty percent after an absurdly long time, took an arrow meant for someone else and lost consciousness, I let out an involuntary sigh.
"It seems there’s no problem with the direction Karin and Robinson went. All the knights appear to have rushed toward the side Lena took."
"..."
Agares’ voice barely registered. I was too stunned for anything else. I hadn’t expected to lose a precious asset like this, not in such a stupid way.
"Don’t worry. It isn’t impossible to save the boy."
"You can save him?"
"Ascalas’ recovery is incomparable to a human’s. So take him to the Great Lord first."
[1. Take Lark to the Great Lord]
[2. Abandon Lark and attack the enemy knights]
The choice appeared as naturally as breathing.
I could feel Lena’s fury through the screen, but now was the time for cold judgment. I immediately selected option 1.
My choice was absolute for my units. Lena, still seething, scooped the boy into her arms and shot upward into the sky.
"...What kind of story is behind him?"
Only then was I able to take a proper look at Lark.
At a glance, he was an utterly ordinary boy. I didn’t know exactly what kind of traits one had to be born with to reach the threshold for compatibility, but one thing was certain: a fierce desire that went beyond mere longing or yearning was a basic requirement.
"It’s certainly interesting, but we have far too many other things to do right now. Let’s look at your faction as it runs wild through the center of the barony, bypassing Forum."
But Agares changed the subject. As he said, I still had plenty to do.
"I’m not trying to wage a war right now."
I watched the Great Lord move under the escort of our main force and reviewed the plan in my mind. What I ultimately wanted was not to crush the entire barony in one frontal blow through sheer force.
Doing that would only turn us into an enormous power and draw even harsher vigilance and interference.
Instead, the position I intended to seize through my allies was the same sort of position held by wild beasts or savage predators.
Not an overtly hostile force, but something that seeped into the ecosystem and quietly, continuously built strength. It was an expanded version of the barbarian position I’d first envisioned.
And fortunately for us, we had the ability to devour living things and replace the role they had played in the world.
"If that is your intention, then they’re wasting their efforts. They’re like wild animals locked inside a castle, starving themselves to death because they think the beast is outside."
Agares snorted. In truth, the people of the barony still saw us not as predators, not as hunters, but as invaders, enemies.
"For that part, we’ll need to do a bit of acting on our side too."
I smiled bitterly and nudged a few more choices in line with that intent. After all, the Brant Barony, where we’d first put down roots, was a frontier region. Population density was low, and there was plenty of abandoned land.
That meant there was no harm in nesting first and settling in slowly.
Though things felt unfamiliar and awkward right now, provoking an overreaction because this was still the early stage, the locals would adapt if we met them halfway.
To that end, I positioned the Great Lord in a large forest in the central part of the barony and established a nest there.
The most important thing was the Great Lord’s location. After all, if our avatar died, everything would be over. That must never happen, not for my life and not for the growing number of “my people.”
[2. Spread out and hunt]
For the next choice as well, rather than gathering the troops in one place and attacking a specific position, I ordered them to spread out in small groups and keep hunting.
The fighting never ends. It simply continues, because we are a race that can survive only by fighting. The only difference is that our struggle isn’t a grand war, but a survival contest played out in every direction.
"At your command, the soldiers are grouping into small units and fanning out more widely. Since the enemy’s resistance is practically nonexistent, hunting efficiency is rising, and their ability to respond to hostile forces is dropping."
Agares summarized the movement of our forces across the territory. Everything was proceeding exactly as I intended.
The minions and warriors, now clustering into small groups, combed the surrounding area with obsessive thoroughness and spread outward in every direction.
Refugees, mountain villagers, passersby—whoever they found in the process became prey for our side without exception.
"Now I just have to watch and decide how the other side will respond."
I watched a group of people being brought down by our attack on the screen. Were they a family? The lineup varied from elderly to children.
But that no longer mattered. They were nothing more than nourishment, or soldiers. By our nature, we could never be allies with anyone, but in exchange, we could devour everything and multiply. That was our strength.
So we had to grow stronger as much as possible. Until we could stand against the world on our own.
***
"Is it true that those things aren’t touching the castles?"
"That’s correct, but they’re not avoiding attacks altogether either. The city of Ers, which opened its gates too hastily and tried to counterattack, reportedly suffered damage even inside the castle from their assault."
"Damn those disgusting bugs..."
Baron Brant, having received the reports, did not know whether he should be relieved that the feared full-scale war had not broken out, or enraged that he had been forced into a new kind of struggle against monsters that ate people alive.
No way. On purpose?
The thought flashed through his mind. It was strange that the enemies, who didn’t seem entirely mindless, were not attacking the castles. If even the castles began falling one by one, the situation would surely grow far worse than this, and the neighboring territories that had declared they would stand by and watch would not have been able to remain idle forever.
But the Black Beetles still never attacked the castles.
That didn’t mean they were leaving people alone.
They split into small groups, using the forests and mountains as their starting points, and expanded their sphere of influence even further. Already, more than half of this modest frontier territory had fallen within their reach, many people were dead, and the fighting would only continue.
For Lord Brant, it was truly the worst possible case.
"W-What do we do now, my lord?"
"We have no choice. We keep fighting, just as we are now. If we don’t take back our land, it’s no different from dying."
Baron Brant was not an idiot. He understood what the enemy wanted, and he understood that there was nothing he could do right this second to reverse the situation.
"Raise a punitive force centered on the men we’ve recruited from the other provinces. If the bastards keep avoiding any real concentration of power to the end, that only makes things easier. We’ll take them down one by one."
He no longer had the luxury of worrying about instability in other regions or the chaos of the age. He had to pour everything he had into resisting the foreign species that had invaded his territory.
"The Brant Barony in the northern frontier... Black Beetles."
And at the very moment Baron Brant gritted his teeth and vowed a fight to the death, the same name was being spoken in a completely different place.
"Can they really be added to the list of candidates as well? Could it not simply be that an ancient beast sleeping in the Demon Realm appeared in this land through a corruption source?"
"Any existence that suddenly manifests in this world and grows rapidly can be a candidate, Your Majesty."
"But they called it the seventy-two lords, and if this keeps up, that makes one hundred and fifteen already, excluding you."
He laughed bitterly as the papers fluttered in his hand. They contained basic information on countless factions, including the newly added name.
"There are that many evil invaders aiming for this land?"
He ended with a long, weary sigh and closed the document. As a young emperor who had only just come of age and was now ruling a vast empire, the burden on his shoulders was heavy. All the more so because this empire itself was on the verge of splitting apart.
In truth, he didn’t have the luxury to worry about anywhere else. Right now, he had to secure his grip on the imperial palace and the empire first.
"You don’t need to think about it so hard. In the end, everyone is a competitor. You only win that competition and seize what you truly want if you devour, trample, and despise the others."
Standing before him and smiling faintly, the young woman’s beautiful blond hair swayed. She wasn’t of this world. He had thought so from the very moment he first laid eyes on her.
And seeing her like that, he found himself unable to speak. In the end, this young emperor had managed to survive and even win a precarious victory in the political struggle through cooperation with her.
"No choice, then. If that’s the way the world flows."
"Exactly. You need the resolve to do anything at all before you can create even a sliver of possibility. Even if it means selling your soul to the devil’s game."
Apparently pleased with his answer, she nodded—and for an instant, her eyes flashed.