Gacha Kingdom Building

---This chapter was written in Ellie's POV---

To define the day following Hamperlon's surprise attack was easy.

It was grey.

Right after the attack, we spent the night burying and burning the corpses of the fallen.

That alone dampened the mood, especially since the soldiers were starting to doubt our progress and our rate of advance was way below their expectations, especially with news of the North Army having already taken one fortress.

We also had to repair and replace the destroyed barracks and build new, more robust preparations in case of another attack.

While another attack didn't come that night, the damage had already been done.

Everyone was even more tired now, and the tiredness created this feeling of anger that filled the camp. It felt like anything could cause them to explode at one another.

Because of this, and using the pouring heavy rain as an excuse, Miwen and the other commanders decided to stop all attacks for the day, giving everyone a day off from the frontlines.

He remained inside his tent with Anna as they received treatment for their injuries from Angelica and Raella.

Surprisingly, considering the amount of time and opponents they faced, their wounds were fairly light.

Not that this prevented Angelica and Raella from being super worried about them...

Bea: "Surely you are not talking to us... I can only imagine what our master, the Umbral Queen's favored lapdog would do..."

We were spending the morning and afternoon together inside the room she created for her research, but we needed a few supplies, and on our way back from getting them, we ran into a few... overconfident soldiers.

Honestly, they weren't so bad. Their words and attitude were quite friendly... It's just that their ulterior motives were quite obvious.

I also felt like Bea went a little too far.

She's been quite annoyed for a while now, so she didn't really reciprocate their friendliness.

Isabella has become an almost myth-like existence.

A very infamous one.

Using Isabella's name, a very infamous, almost myth-like existence, and saying Miwen has her favor... I'm sure it frightened the poor men.

The idea of standing against Isabella, or someone she considers an equal or likes... It was bound to spell bad news for them.

Or at least, that's what they seemed to believe.

Of course, the truth is pretty far from this, and the Isabella we have now is way nicer than she could've been... I think most of her wickedness is probably thanks to Miwen's influence instead of the other way around too...

But still, I think Beatrice just wanted to call Miwen someone's lapdog to vent a little since they are competing to see if she can make the barrier go down before he wins this battle.

Ellie: "We're back..."

Miwen: "Good job out there..."

Aside from this one incident, nothing much happened that day.

We still had to keep watch, obviously, but there were no deaths within our camp that night.

Unfortunately... This aligned well with my theory and made me believe in it slightly more.

When I talked to Miwen about it, he seemed surprised, but both he and Angelica supported the idea, saying it wasn't outlandish.

And so, the next day, Bea was asked to look at what we discussed.

During our attack against Hamperlon, she investigated what buffs the soldiers had received.

Of course, there were too many groups for her to watch, and she had to be both discreet and precise, which made her unable to find anything of value in the first three days.

Bea: "Oh... That's odd, isn't it?"

Seemingly, this changed on the fourth day.

Bea: "It is as you said... Or at least, I believe so... However..."

...?

I was a little confused.

By all means, if I was right, this was very troublesome, but her reaction...

It was the opposite of what I would've expected. She had a devilish smile, almost as if she had just been handed out revenge on a plate...

Bea: "Miwen is not going to like this~"

Of course, that's why...

I should've known it would be like this.

However, I had to admit, while I don't think she's evil, her mind's ability to craft the most shrewd of plans in just a few seconds was impressive.

Miwen: "Pfft. No way."

Although Miwen didn't seem too impressed...

Beatrice: "What's the problem, dear? Darling? Don't you trust me ?~"

Miwen: "...Really? You are asking me that, miss evil witch?"

Beatrice: "Don't worry. I'm very confident in my power~"

Miwen: "That's not really the problem, but... Fine. You can go ahead."

Beatrice: "Yay."

Miwen definitely wasn't having it, but Bea didn't even try to ease him into it...

I think that was her plan though...

I'm sure there were many other ways, but she was insistent on this one above any other, probably because it was bound to annoy Miwen the most.

Still, the chances of this working were fairly high considering... Her.

She changed into a pretty dress that emphasized her chest with a low-cut neckline and showed off her legs through a side slit before leaving the tent...

Even for a girl, it was hard not to stare at her, and for the soldiers... Well...

I was a little curious about this, so I followed her to see what would happen.

Anna: "Did you see that? The moment she passed him, he turned his head to look at her behind!"

Angelica: "...Yes, I saw it."

Turns out I wasn't the only one.

And the results were as predicted.

There wasn't a single person in the camp who wouldn't steal a glimpse or check her body.

That day, there were a surprising number of incidents and delays. All because Bea walked around, looking for a certain man.

When she found him, she had the most friendly expression I had ever seen on her face.

She approached him with a captivating smile while he was drinking.

It didn't take long for him to be completely awestruck by her...

They were sitting together, drinking. She touched his shoulders first, his arms, and eventually his hands.

Anna: "Woah... He's done for."

Angelica: "..."

Their flirting was obvious, but... The poor guy never stood a chance.

The moment she approached him, it was already over.

After chatting for a few minutes, she left the table, and the man kept looking at where she was sitting, his eyes unfocused, staring blankly almost as if he had woken up from a dream-

Bea: "And you are doing what exactly?"

Angelica: "Spying... I mean..."

Angelica and Anna were at a loss for words at what they had seen...

But so was I...

It wasn't me who did all of that, but I felt so embarrassed, I wanted to dig a hole and bury myself in it.

I had no idea how Bea managed to do this and keep a straight face...

Bea: "So he's that jealous, huh? Maybe now's a good time to-"

Elllie: "A-ah... No... We came on our own. Miwen didn't ask us to..."

I was a bit sad to rain on her parade like this, but... I was sure she would prefer this to embarrassing herself in front of him...

After this, Bea returned to her tent, provoking Miwen about what she had done, as much as she wanted.

Even going as far as to invent things that didn't happen...

However, we still had to perform the night watch, so Angelica and I headed out before the two of them could start... Doing their thing...

Ellie: "...Do you think it will work?"

Angelica: "No doubt... Oh, but if you're asking whether or not this is the correct lead... I think so."

I was glad she supported my theory...

But the hours passed, and it didn't look like anything was going to happen, until...

Suddenly, the man with whom Bea had been flirting earlier jumped out of his tent.

He had a fighting stance, his arms raised...

And then... Their tentmate came out with a sword in hand.

Ellie: "You need to restrain them!"

Angelica: "Yes!"

Before they could fight, Angelica knocked the sword out of the man's hands, and Beatrice, who was also watching from nearby, used her magic to lock the man she had talked with at the make-shift bar in place.

Soldier: "Wha-"

I stabbed him with an arrowhead and used my Gift to put him to sleep.

Beatrice: "[Sleepwalking]... Technically, a buff. It's normally used to fight monsters who can inflict [Sleep] in their attacks. [Nightmare Protection], on the other hand, is a little more interesting. It doesn't see much use in combat, especially since [Sleepwalking] exists to prevent a situation where you are put to sleep to begin with, but... It gives the caster the ability to change the dreams of their target. If the caster is good enough, they might even be able to control them..."

In other words... If someone wanted to cause incidents in our camp, instead of risking themselves, they could simply cast these two buffs into one of our soldiers, wait until they went to sleep, and control them.

Normally, you'd be aware of having received these two buffs but... If you are receiving a list of buffs all at once from our mages, the chances of noticing these two are quite low.

Suspecting them would be even less likely since, as Bea said, they are treated as buffs instead of debuffs.

Another thing is that the buffs should have disappeared after a few minutes... But for some reason, these two did not.

The answer to that was quite simple. The person casting them was themselves being buffed... By the enemy generals' Gift.

I'm sure they have a large mana reserve, but using his Gift, they can maintain these two buffs the entire day.

All they need is a steady flux of mana.

Miwen: "...Can you track it?"

Bea: "Already done... It's a shame, but I think I'll miss my date tonight~"

...The plan was quite simple.

As long as the person inside the tent didn't go to sleep, they should be able to fight back.

And Bea... She made a promise with the soldier of this tent that... Gave him quite a good reason not to sleep tonight...

Still, this was a little strange...

We followed Bea's directions, and we ended up finding a small cave where a man resided.

Clearly, he had been hiding here and joining our army when we marched out of the forest every day, blending in with us and then leaving...

The problem was that... He was planted here.

Which meant that our enemy read our movements...

Miwen: "Yo! Wake up, sleepy head. We have a lot to talk about."

...He tried to attack us, but with all of us together, it was to no avail.

???????: "Kill me. I won't tell you-"

Miwen: "No... I have a feeling you will. Anna, take him to the camp."

I'm not sure what happened next...

Miwen asked for a healer from our camp, and the only ones he allowed by his side when interrogating the man were Bea and Cassandra...

I never saw his face again either, but...

Bea said his answers helped her progress a lot.