It was frustrating to not be able to use the opportunity to seize all the land from where Vestargo's forces retreated. But the grim arithmetic of war was inexorable. You can't conquer what you can't control. It was the ancient truth, old as Humanity itself. A hard lesson repeated by any arrogant ruler or commander who believed they were above it. The vast territories were tempting to be taken but I understood all too well how deadly that trap was. My military was spread dangerously thin and I needed reinforcements to continue the campaign. Unfortunately, I had nowhere to take them from, so I had to do the second-best thing available. Namely, fortify my positions before I could move forward. Once I managed to build a series of fortifications, I would free up enough forces to push forward a bit more. And so on, and so forth... But it looked like that was it. Four hundred kilometres.

My army had taken five hundred kilometres of the Ancient Forest across the entirety of the front that spread from the inland flatlands to the beach of the northern ocean. The nearly three thousand kilometre long line was marred with scars of war. Mostly burned to the ground by my initial missile attack. Under normal circumstances, it would be a mind-boggling swathe of land. But, compared to the vastness of the Ancient Forest, it was just a drop... If not for the fact that we captured his scion and killed one of his bug Titans, I wouldn't be sure that Vestargo even noticed. But he certainly did. We hit him hard and repeatedly. The wounds we dealt weren't lethal but, for sure, they were painful. Vestargo's losses, even if we were conservative and not optimistic, have already reached a million dead. It was hard to imagine he could have that many denizens but, without any hard proof, I couldn't discard that notion easily. It was sometimes overwhelming to think that he had so many soldiers...

Fortunately, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The freed slaves brought up a very interesting topic that could shed some light on the Vespids' society and the entirety of Vestargo's Empire's inner workings. As it turned out, Vespids weren't a monolithic species but were divided between many tribes and clans. Surprisingly enough, they openly rivaled with each other in a hostile and brutal manner. I was baffled by the discovery until I learnt more about the battles themselves. All fights between the Vespid tribes took place only on the Dungeon's grounds. Of course... Vespids were an aggressive species so they were almost constantly fighting among their tribes and even between themselves. I couldn't care less if it was a result of Vestargo's machinations, or if they were like that from the beginning, but their current behaviour fuelled my enemy. They had a lot of reasons to fight each other as well: territory, resources, food, slaves, and pecking order... At some point, I simply acknowledged they were fighting because they could.

"Disgusting creatures..." Lavender grimaced as she threw the report on the table and grabbed a cup of cold orange juice. "If not for the people who need to be rescued, I would have already unleashed some weather disaster spell upon that cursed forest."

"If not for the same reason, I would have simply burned that forest down a long time ago." I shrugged off her remark. "But..."

I hung my voice and leaned back my head as I looked at the ceiling. The soft cushion was cool and offered a moderate relief to my tense neck.

"I know..." Lavender sighed and picked up the report again. After a few additional minutes, she sighed, but this time in disappointment. "Hope?"

"Yes, Your Majesty?" The High Elf looked at my wife with reverence.

"I don't see it in the report but I'm guessing you should know. How exactly do Vespid clans or tribes, whatever, gain rights to slaves? Were slave cities parts of land they fought over, or is it some separate matter?" Lavender asked and, as I wanted to explain it to her instead, I realised I didn't know.

"I'm not entirely sure." Hope slowly nodded and tilted her head slightly as she closed her eyes for a moment. "We think the slave cities are one of the most precious resources for Vespids..."

She trembled in disgust and fear but continued.

"There are some rules about taking over the slave cities we are actually aware of. To take control of a slave city, the Vespid clan has to effectively control the surrounding area. Only then can they challenge the current owner of the city. It's a fairly complex law we don't fully understand but, from what we experienced, the battles over the ownership of the slaves and the slave cities are very intense and bloody." She swallowed and trembled at probably some particularly unpleasant memory. "Always, after such a battle, no matter the outcome, Vespids took many women. Now we know they wanted to replenish their numbers..."

"You do realise there are things we are unaware of?" I asked with a slightly distracted voice.

"I know. But knowing something is better than knowing nothing." Lavender quickly answered and, after noticing my discreet hint, she looked at the High Elf girl. "I'm sorry, Hope. I didn't want to sound heartless..."

"I'm fine, my Lady!" Hope weakly protested, not convincing anyone. "It's just... It's still unbelievable that I am free. That I'm here, in Avalon of all places..."

She shook her head and wiped her eyes as her voice trembled and faded. Lavender sighed and pointed to the nearby chair.

"You went through a lot but you are our best source of information." The Dryad said and the Slime Maid brought some herbal tea. I had no idea what it was but it smelled calming and delicious. She looked at the still-standing girl. "Please, take a seat."

"I... I shouldn't..." Hope hesitated.

"If you feel better about it, treat it as an order." Lavender shrugged. "Now... You seem intrigued by something, my Dear."

"Indeed." I nodded and showed them the recordings of the previous battles against not-monster Vespids.

The ladies observed them but it seemed they had no idea what they were looking at.

"As you probably know, my Flower, the Dungeon monsters can't be compared with People. I know that everything I do is in opposition to that statement. But... Without the proper guidance of a sufficiently high-level boss-class monster, basic denizens will go berserk when they leave their Dungeon borders. That's why my Legions are organised with a proper command structure. Look at these records again."

They watched them with curiosity, but only Lavender realised something.

"They are fighting among each other..." She pointed at the Vespid who slashed the wings off his compatriot. She then looked at the title labels on the memory crystals. "But... If I'm not wrong, those were reclassified as battles against free-will Vespids. I will never call them People, Theon..."

"Fine." I waved my hand dismissively. It didn't matter to me what she wanted to call them. They were flying goblins for all that I cared. "What does it mean, then?"

"Maybe it was an accident?" She asked with a sceptical voice.

"There is too much evidence of these accidents." I allowed my smile to show a bit of optimism. "They can't cooperate."

My wife looked as if she wanted to oppose, but her slightly parted lips closed. She looked at a few more recordings before she slowly nodded as if she was still unconvinced.

"Interesting theory, but they were attacking our forces together."

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"No, my Lady." Hope shook her hand and pointed at very minor details on the Vespid's bodies. She swallowed hard. "They are different clans attacking the same enemy at the same time..."

"Precisely. They weren't even trying to synchronise their attack or even cooperate on the most basic level. No. They used every opportunity to kill one another. Oh, certainly not directly, but most of the wounds they inflicted on their own kin would kill them indirectly." I smiled viciously. "We can safely assume that they simply can't work together even when facing a common enemy. Most probably, they hate each other so much because of hundreds, if not thousands, of years of constant rivalry between clans. That situation was indirectly encouraged by Vestargo who was farming mana like crazy."

"As we already know, Vestargo was attacked in the past by Dungeons and Mortals alike. Somehow, Vespids managed to defend their master." Lavender said in a neutral tone and looked at me expectantly.

"I managed to cross-question Roan Min Aston, O'llina, and Simon about that." I smiled even wider. "The longest campaign against Vestargo lasted twelve years and the Dungeon coalition managed to capture less than forty-one thousand square kilometres. It's three times less than what we conquered after just a few months. Vestargo must have started sweating already."

"Okay..." She slowly nodded. "Your reasoning is sound. How do you plan to use that against them?"

"In normal circumstances, you would start playing enemy factions against each other by allying yourself with carefully selected factions. But, as you can guess, we won't be doing that. Instead, I plan to stir their animosity even further. We will try to slip them false information saying some of them are working with us, but I won't wait to see if that works. Fortunately, there is a much better way to use their aggression against them." I started to explain and saw a huge relief on their faces when I confirmed we wouldn't even pretend to work with Vespids. "I see that you are unaware of the full extent of this particular situation, but it's not new to me."

I smiled grimly as I looked out of the window at the clouded sky. The colder winds and shorter days were heralds of the incoming winter.

"What do you mean by that?" Lavender asked with a concerned voice lined with suspicion.

"Back in my old world, it was the subject of long debates among historians. In a sense, we shouldn't consider Vespids as clans or tribes, which frankly clouds our judgement, but as separate nations ruled by a capricious ruler- Vestargo. He created an Empire ruled by constant strife between the member nations. It's their default to fight among themselves. Now..." I looked at them. "The situation we are in is vaguely similar to what happened during the First and Second World Wars in my old world."

Upon hearing that we had not only global conflicts but two of them, they stared at me in disbelief. Except, after a moment, Lavender started looking as if she had finally pieced puzzles together and looked at me in horror.

"You said that you were fighting in a Resources War which was, basically, World War Three?... I thought you were grimly joking!"

"Well, I was not..." I smiled flatly as she shook her head in continued disbelief. "Anyway. The situation of our enemy is similar to the countries fighting on both sides during the earlier wars. Simply put, their organisation is loosely based on a network of unreliable alliances, constant conflict of interest between neighbors, and a complete lack of trust."

"How can they even work together?" Lavender asked with frustration in her voice.

"They can't..." Hope said more from their own experience than my judgment. "They are, most probably, only defending their own territory..."

"Precisely! We are going to exploit that weakness. " I smiled. "They won't help their nominal allies if we attack until Vestargo gives them a direct order. But what will happen if we attack the borders between two Vespid nations and fall back after weakening one or both sides?"

Lavender, who wasn't especially interested in warfare, visibly struggled with that idea. For her, working together with the rest of the Dryads and Kirin was the only reason why her race survived. The idea of being so divided inside one race was incomprehensible to her. However, Hope looked at me with mixed awe and a deep, vengeance-driven satisfaction.

"They are going to attack each other..." She said as her eyes shone brightly with glee.

"Indeed..." I hummed with a vicious smile. "I have already notified Galahad and Janet about it and sent my suggestions on how to modify our tactics for the near future. Unfortunately, we can't use those tactics often because the enemy will catch wind of what we are doing and, in the worst-case scenario, we might help them unite or, at least, push them to work closer together. But it's certainly something we can work with if we do it carefully."

"I trust you..." Lavender sighed deeply and I knew it was because she hated war and killing. A deep frown twisted her beautiful face. "As much as I hate and fear war, I know that we won't have peace until you... Until we deal with the Vespids and Vestargo. I also hate the very idea of Vespids being even more horrible than goblins. It scares me, Theon. I know the horrible fate of entire villages being overrun by goblins. I know there is very little I can do to help you, but I have to do something. Even if I can only be here for you, allowing my sisters to focus on their responsibilities."

"What about your responsibilities?" I smiled playfully and saw her cheer up with a smirk.

"We are slowing down for the winter so I will have more time to watch what you are doing. Most, if not all, of the ongoing projects in my Department don't need my personal attention." She explained. It looked like my blatant attempt at switching the subject worked flawlessly. "We are engaged in the theoretical studies of irrigation and greenhouse farming for the use of the Royal University. You know, for the courses open to our allies as well. But I have already given my input and, now, it's time for my Dryads to shine. Regardless, I'm going to check on what they created before we give the results to anyone."

I chuckled. The Department of Agriculture was indeed dominated by the Dryads with very few notable exceptions. However, it was hard to deny their competencies and very extensive knowledge. They instinctively and quickly learnt any new farming techniques and even showed unexpected abilities in understanding the mechanics and operation of very complex agricultural machines. Hope looked at us, clearly without an idea of what she should be doing now. A polite knock on the door interrupted us.

"Excuse me, Your Majesties." Captain Xavier entered my office and saluted us stiffly. "Empress Irene asked me to bring Miss Hope to her office."

"At ease, Captain." I saluted him back and nodded at the visibly relieved High Elf girl. "Thank you for your previous input, Miss Hope. You are free to go."

"Thank you, my Lord!" She smiled brightly and stood up, bowing to us. "My Lady!"

She left the room with the Wolfkin Captain.

"He is still mourning over Lilly..." Lavender lowered her head.

"They were coming together and breaking up like teens... Well, she was a teen in my opinion, no matter what you all say to me." I felt the familiar emptiness and sadness as I tried to force a smile on my face, no matter how dishonest it was. "But everything started coming together for them back then..."

"He should take a break," Lavender said, still watching the doors.

"It wouldn't help him much and we would lose him. In his state of mind back then... Hell, he still probably is; he would have gone to fight Vespids on his own and gotten himself killed." I shook my head in disagreement.

"That's why you made him babysit Hope? I admit that the girl is very attractive but I don't believe he has even noticed her as a woman." Lavender sighed and grimaced slightly.

"First of all, that was Irene's idea. She believes that he shouldn't blame himself for Lilly's death and she is right." I protested. "Besides, all High Elves are more or less discreetly protected. We don't want them to be captured by Ibrevell Kingdom's agents. Hope is now Irene's personal assistant so she needs a bodyguard anyway. Xavier... Well... If he is fit for any duty, it would be protecting someone. But please, my Flower, I won't be playing any matching game at their expense."

"Hmmm... Maybe she was right and certainly you are. I just hope he can move on."

"Of course, she is right." I shrugged. "I have no idea how long he will mourn. We can't just leave him alone though because he would certainly waste his life away. Either he might drown his sorrows in alcohol or, simply, end his life. I owe some care to him and more for Lilly's sake."

Lavender simply nodded and sighed. The first droplets of the cold autumn rain drummed on the window. From the height of my office in Triskelion, we could watch the crowds in the streets of Avalon thinning and disappearing into the nearby stores, restaurants, or simply under the colourful umbrellas. The people went on with their lives. Just a few of them were anchored to the past by the traumas and regrets they carried. I didn't notice when Lavender approached me from behind and closed me in her warm embrace. She lay her head on my shoulder and gently leaned on me.

"You shouldn't blame yourself for their death as well, my Darling." She whispered sadly.

"I... I know you are right but I'm not ready to accept it. There will always be things I could have done better." I slowly shook my head, feeling her soft cheek pressed to my ear. Her warmth was soothing and comforting. "But we must move further down the flimsy line of life not knowing what waits behind the corner..."

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