Chapter 539: On their way
Initially, the expedition advanced quickly and followed the timeline estimated by Malevolence. Her forces took carts from the saved human village, then cobbled together some extras to fit all the supplies.
There were no horses or other animals to carry these carts—they either fell sick or were eaten long ago—so humans had to do it themselves. They didn’t like it, the lazy creatures they were, but Agent Eloquence did her work well and kept the morale of human forces high regardless. It helped that they had some fresh assurance and food from Malevolence’s stores.
This took four days, after which the army marched down the road for a week straight without complications, planting thousands of usnea trees in their wake.
Of course, there were attacks. As usual, insects tried to sneak, crawl and fly into every open hole and reach the food supplies, but Malevolence’s Warrior Bees killed every one of them.
These attackers were of different species and kinds from those that they were used to fighting in the Bee Empire, but they shared a lot of common strengths and weaknesses. Malevolence’s soldiers knew how to fight them.
Despite Agent Eloquence’s warnings, human bandits didn’t try to attack Malevolence’s army. However, they were near—Beehound scouts spotted several groups of them while they travelled. None of these groups, the largest of which had forty people in it, dared to approach the army.
“They know that they can’t win against our numbers even if they try to ambush us,” Agent Eloquence commented on this. “But if you split your forces and send out smaller groups of humans, they will likely get attacked, Grand Commander.”
“Then it’s a good thing we don’t need to send out small forces of humans. At least for now.”
Another thing that went according to plan was visiting villagers on the way and gathering supplies. There were only a few villages with an average of a hundred or two humans each, and none of them had a lot of food.
The sight of Malevolence’s force—four hundred humans, all of whom had crossbows and large knives (even if they were here to do labour, not to fight)—made these villages cower in fear.
When Malevolence’s human spokesperson demanded supplies, most locals agreed to give them. Some protested, sure—but just beating them up was usually enough to break the resistance of everybody else. Then, Malevolence’s soldiers could clear a village’s storehouse.
Of course, this only went so well—without having to fight entire villages—because Malevolence sent Agents to these places ahead of the main army!
These Agents told the locals well-practiced “words of gods” about the blessed crusade that was going on a divine mission, and how helping this crusade in everything would not starve the village of food, but the opposite—it would ensure that the locals would never go hungry!
And these Agents weren’t lying. Because in each village, Malevolence led a squad of bees with usnea tree seeds, whose job was to teach the locals how to plant usnea trees for food!
Although usnea trees froze to death anything that spent more than a minute near them, humans were large enough that, with the help of tools on long handles, they could not only plant these trees, but also gather fruits from them.
The trees weren’t going to spread without control if handled properly, either. This genetic version of usnea trees grew seeds in fruits instead of “umbrellas”. Only if the fruit wasn’t eaten, it would fall off, become dry and light, and get easily carried by the wind.
None of these villages had a lot of food in storage, and to ensure that her army wouldn’t starve in the future, Malevolence had to take almost all they had, leaving barely enough for a week of living. If she didn’t leave them usnea trees as a new source of food, these villages would definitely starve.
Which was against Father’s wishes.
***
Several hours before the army was about to enter the next village on their way, Agent Eloquence approached Malevolence in her office with an urgent report.
“Grand Commander, my people who are working in the village say that it’s about to be attacked! One of the local hunters spotted a group of bandits that was about to approach it. My Agents investigated it, of course—there are fifty bandits, and they are decently armed for their kind. You might have to prepare for battle to protect the village’s supplies, or they will be taken before we can do it!”
Malevolence frowned.
“This is the largest band we’ve met so far. There are only one hundred able-bodied people in the village, right?”
“Yes. And another fifty people who are too old or frail for work. Grand Commander, they surely can’t defend themselves against bandits who have experience in fighting and robbing people. If we protect them, it will make convincing them to give us their food much easier.” Eloquence grinned. “Of course, we won’t get any food if bandits take it.”
“The humans carry us toward our destination even as we speak, so you don’t have to tell me to hurry,” Malevolence said. “Even farmers should be able to hide behind the walls of their village for a few hours.”
Eloquence nodded rapidly.
“Oh, one more thing, Grand Commander. These bandits are not an ordinary band—they belong to a local cult, apparently. A cult that worships nature… It looks like they hope that by prayers and sacrifices, they can convince the evolving species to be merciful to them.”
“Does that work?”
“I… Don’t think it should… But this certainly needs to be studied by a certified Researcher of humans!”
“Then how is it relevant?”
“I just think you can use it, Grand Commander. For humans, bees like us are a part of nature. Perhaps if you show them the glory of our kind and our Father in practice…” Eloquence smirked. “You can just kill them all or chase them away, of course. But you wanted more humans for work, so… Please, think about this.”
“I will,” Malevolence promised. “If these bandits are really as tough as you say…”