Ch.1213What should I do now?

Three ministerial meetings and ten hours of paperwork.

After somehow completing her daily duties, Eleonora returned to her office, collapsed into her chair with an exhausted face, and let out a deep sigh.

“Haah… If only our de-pen-dable ‘Queen’ were here, I wouldn’t have to suffer like this.”

A complaint that this was all because Haschal had left her country empty during such critical times to embark on an unexpected underground expedition.

Though she understood the unavoidable circumstances having heard the general situation… now that things had turned out this way, she couldn’t hold back her irritated lament.

If Haschal were here right now, the lower Valkyries and Baltyr’s legion that attacked the capital would have been annihilated in a single day, leaving only piles of corpses.

That would have reduced Eleonora’s workload by at least half.

“Is there still no news from her side?”

But reality is cruel. Regrettably, Haschal showed no signs of returning to her homeland, let alone sending any communication.

“No. According to the original plan, she should have sent a messenger long ago… It seems they too are facing unexpected circumstances.”

As a result, the initial plan they had discussed and decided upon before she descended underground had literally become worthless.

“Unexpected circumstances… Haah, how frustrating that we have no way of knowing whether things are going smoothly or if they’re struggling.”

“Well… at this point, we couldn’t proceed according to the original plan anyway.”

Before going underground, Haschal’s initial plan was never about conquering the underground world with just five people.

Logically, that would be impossible. Even Haschal wasn’t that unrealistically optimistic.

Even if she had made such an optimistic judgment, her colleagues or administrative staff would certainly have objected, saying it was too dangerous.

Indeed.

The original role of Haschal and her four companions wasn’t active conquest, but to investigate and scout the largely unknown underground world to determine the scale of the main force to be deployed later.

In other words, they were deployed for reconnaissance in force.

Depending on how the situation unfolded, they would either abandon exploration and retreat, or establish a foothold underground by deploying additional forces according to the homeland’s circumstances.

If they followed that plan, they wouldn’t face unnecessary danger, so her close associates agreed that five people would be sufficient.

But what happened?

Once Haschal’s group descended underground, all communication suddenly ceased, and despite the scheduled date having long passed, no messenger was sent to the surface.

So Eleonora and Langber couldn’t help but feel anxious and frustrated, wondering what could have happened to her down there to cause such silence.

Of course, it wasn’t due to Haschal’s negligence.

How could those on the surface know? The truth that Haschal’s underground reconnaissance mission had transformed into a subjugation campaign after encountering the dragon subjugation, the Naga group, and the rock monkeys’ proposal.

Though considered minor powers within Naraka, the military scale of the Naga and rock monkeys easily surpassed the maximum Hestella could dispatch underground.

With decent quality high-tier forces like Hjalbaer and Turangkai, and a solid base like Nastaria, there was simply no need to draw troops from the homeland.

That’s why Haschal completely abandoned the original plan of calling for additional forces from Hestella.

With things moving so quickly and urgently, she couldn’t even spare one of her four companions to return to the surface to inform them of their situation.

‘Did something really happen? Then what happens to this country—no, to me?’

Of course, Eleonora on the surface couldn’t even guess such circumstances.

‘Or maybe, just maybe… did she simply forget to send a messenger? Surely she couldn’t be that foolish… could she?’

Therefore, Eleonora could only anxiously and irritably criticize the silent Haschal.

Even if a messenger came now requesting troops, it would be extremely difficult for her, so perhaps no news was actually good news.

======[ Haschal ]======

“Ugh, my ears are itchy. Is someone talking about me?”

“My goodness, even if you were sick, you should have at least bathed, miss.”

“Do you want to die?”

Several more days passed, and my strength recovered to about 80% of what it used to be.

Considering that my capacity had grown larger than before, I was still more than halfway from full recovery, but I was strong enough to fight demigod-level opponents.

In other words, it was time to start preparing to move again after a long rest.

Of course, that doesn’t mean immediately advancing to the central region again. Even if we were to march, we needed to discuss what to do next first.

So, as soon as I regained an “almost” normal condition, I put on my repaired armor and called together the core members of the allied forces for a military council.

Though the leadership was limited—Turangkai hadn’t returned, so it was just the Naga warrior chief and his aides, and the priestess attending as the Naga Raja’s representative.

Shouldn’t the other rock monkeys be included in the council even if Turangkai is absent?

That’s not wrong, but… it can’t be helped. First of all, we need to be able to communicate to invite them to meetings.

Turangkai was exceptionally—no, abnormally intelligent, but the average intelligence of rock monkeys falls somewhere between humans and monkeys.

What would be the point of inviting rock monkeys to the council? Rational exchange of opinions would be impossible; it would be fortunate if chaos didn’t ensue.

Therefore, despite understanding that this was discriminatory behavior, I had no choice but to exclude them from the military council entirely.

“Is everyone here? Good, then let’s have an open discussion about what we should do next.”

And so the council began. The first agenda item was naturally whether to advance to the central region again or not.

“Considering our losses, we should abandon the central region advance—”

“Even if we don’t abandon it, we should return to Nastaria first and focus on recovery—”

“Isn’t that too passive? We’ll eventually be discovered if we go back, and fighting here is much better than making Nastaria a battlefield—”

Unsurprisingly, the discussion didn’t flow smoothly.

Everyone emphasized their own arguments chaotically. With different circumstances and ideologies, it was difficult to find even a compromise, let alone consensus.

Not only were there differences between us and the Naga, but even among the Naga themselves, the priestesses and warriors had different opinions, and even the warriors disagreed with each other.

The priestesses, who had been reluctant about advancing to the central region from the beginning, generally wanted to return to their homeland and live in seclusion as before, while the warrior chief insisted on advancing to the central region again.

In the past, even the warrior chief couldn’t have openly opposed the priestesses’ decisions like this, but after the formation of the allied forces, the warrior chief’s position had risen to just below the Naga Raja.

While priestesses normally led Naga society, this special situation of total war at the racial level had elevated his importance and position to the limit.

The influence of military personnel increasing during wartime was the same in this world too, it seems.

Perhaps for this reason, Hjalbaer made no attempt to hide his desire for this war to continue.

If they abandoned the war and returned to their previous role of guarding Nastaria’s walls, his position and influence would revert to what it was before.

“The warrior chief is right. Didn’t part of Nastaria’s walls collapse in an instant last time? Rather than let that happen again…”

“But if we continue fighting in this state, eventually we’ll reach our limit…”

Most warriors agreed with the warrior chief, but some cautiously expressed opposition, citing practical limitations.

The way they looked to the warrior chief rather than the priestesses first showed that the disruption of the existing social structure, which the priestesses had worried about when forming the alliance, was already beginning to surface.

“…Hey, it’s not just about you returning, right? Turangkai may be gone, but I don’t think the rock monkeys will just sit quietly and watch.”

One of our participants, Ophelia, who had been quietly listening to the Naga debate, pointed out something they had overlooked in a blunt tone.

We were originally a three-race alliance. Even if the Naga insisted on retreating, if the rock monkeys strongly opposed it, retreat would be impossible.

“Hmm… Actually, that was going to be our second agenda item, but it seems detailed information hasn’t reached you yet.”

Second agenda item?

The rock monkey issue was going to be the second agenda? I hadn’t heard about this. Apparently, neither had Ophelia.

“Detailed information…? Did something happen to the stone—no, I mean, the ‘rock monkeys’?”

“Well…”

In response to my question, Hjalbaer, who had been slightly curling the tip of his tail as if troubled, let out a sound like a sigh before answering.

“The rock monkeys are currently rebelling against the alliance itself and trying to leave. Communication is nearly impossible, so we couldn’t determine the exact reason… but we suspect they blame us for Turangkai not returning.”

Why would that be our fault… Well, I might be about 30% responsible, but it’s not entirely our fault.

How were we supposed to know that someone whose body was half-sliced, who fell and had their head cracked open, was actually still alive?

That was because Caljarat’s vitality was insane, not because I was careless or misjudged. Right?

“…Are they saying my misjudgment led their leader to his death? So they can’t trust us anymore?”

“They didn’t go that far… but I don’t know the details. Since proper communication is impossible, I can’t accurately understand their psychology…”

…This is giving me a headache.

When Turangkai was here, they were definitely a reliable force, but with Turangkai gone, having no interpreter and no control over them was a major headache.

“…We’ll have to try to appease them somehow. Or perhaps guide their psychology toward avenging Turangkai.”

Even though they were troublesome, if they disappeared, our future war efforts would become impossible, so we needed to hold onto them somehow—that was our current situation.