Rosie's Games

Chapter 340: Bag of Bones

"News! There is news about the Duke!"

The other members of the seven families who had been fighting since the other day, had various expressions on their faces when they heard about the news. They looked at the Knight who announced the Duke's arrival.

"Where is he?" Emperor Goosebourne got up. He has not had any rest since the war started and now, he looked nothing like the Majestic Emperor that he was a couple of days ago.

He was so thin, he looked like a bag of bones wearing a knight's armor. There were large dark bags under his eyes too.

Just like him, Martin lost some weight as he had been helping a lot with the wounded soldiers.

"He— He sent a letter—" the Knight handed a letter to the Emperor.

"How dare you say that he is here? Clearly— Clearly—" the Emperor started reading the letter.

"He will be here in a few hours."

It was already daytime, all of the people in the room spent the whole day yesterday and the whole night fighting against the demonic beasts, who seemed to have lost their minds as they marched towards Aster without fear.

As a result, both Ena and Lachlan Blaize, along with the Gliss Family, the Quarris Family, and the Hydran Family fought with all their might. They wanted to give hope to the soldiers and mercenaries who were fighting with them. Unfortunately for them, the beasts did not stop or showed any signs of stopping.

They marched and attacked all night, leaving everyone exhausted.

"Are we certain that this is not the Duke's doing?" Ena looked at Federico who looked equally as exhausted as everyone. The two were also up all night, helping out. Everyone had been very busy, and they were not in the mood to even talk about what happened.

"If this goes on…" Jean Hydran did not continue her words. She looked out of the window from where she was sitting. From there, she could see people running, bringing the wounded into the infirmary. With the number of wounded people, they could not actually afford to have this short meeting, but they have no choice.

Everyone else was exhausted and—

"Why would you insinuate that this was the Duke's fault? Are you saying that this happened because he did not arrive on time?" Lachlan Blaize immediately argued with Ena. Despite the exhaustion in his eyes, Lachlan still seemed to still have the spirit to argue with other people. He glared at Ena and Federico. "You two are really something, aren't you?"

"This has nothing to do with us," Ena responded.

"Did I say that it was your fault? Unlike you, I do not blame people without rhyme or reason."

"The tide started to turn crazy a day before his arrival. If you think that is still nothing but a coincidence then you are mistaken! I do not believe in coincidences, Blaize! This must have something to do with him!"

"Ha! You are only blaming him because you are incapable of killing the beasts!"

"You—"

"We should not fight," Jean Hydran said. "This is going to further divide us. The only way that we could beat this tide is by working together."

"We cannot beat this tide," Lachlan said. "Without his help, at least."

"You coward!"

"How dare you call me a coward?" Lachlan would never accept that he was weaker than someone, except when it was actually true. While he was not certain if the Duke was stronger than him in a one-on-one fight, he was sure that the Duke was stronger than him on the battlefield! He could kill beasts as if he was swatting flies! The man was just as frightening as those monsters!

"We need to approach this using our mind," Douglas Quarris finally joined the conversation. "I believe the Emperor should tell his people to leave Aster."

"Are you out of your mind"?" Federico asked. "There are millions of people in Aster! They would not have the time to leave."

"A thousand survivors is better than nothing," Douglas continued. "The tide is— I have never seen something like that in the past. I have heard about the tide in history, but none of them mentioned anything about this… the beasts are attacking during the day. We are slowly getting weaker and weaker. Isn't it right to be honest and accept the fact that this…this is a war that we might not have a chance to win."

"Madness!" Federico hissed. "That will never happen!"

"Go ahead and say that to the beasts outside!"

"You—"

"Calm down," Ena said. "We are here to plan and not to argue. For now, each of us should take at least a few hours of sleep. We will not all fight at the same time. Two should be enough. Blaize and Douglas could fight together while Jean and myself will fight after. Myra and Brinley Fleur will be fighting together too. Federico will rest first while Martin takes care of the wounded. We need our strength to fight. If we want to survive then we need to rest and avoid arguing like children!"

Since this was the first time that any of them had faced a tragedy like this, it was very hard for them to come up with a good plan. Everything had been going so fast, Ena could not seem to understand what just transpired.

She met Federico's eyes.

"Blaize and Douglas should fight first while the others rest. They will fight for six hours at a time and the next two people will fight for the next six hours. This is the only way," Ena added.

Not long after, the others expressed their opinions then they left to follow their current plan.

"You must fix this!" Federico said. It was only him and Ena inside the room.

"Fix what?" josei

"This! You— You created those relics! You must find a way to get them out of my Empire!"

Ena narrowed her eyes at him. "I did not create those relics."

"Both of us know that you did! Admit it, you underestimated the effects of the relics! You let the Duke steal them without knowing the potential of those things!"

....