A Familiar Void

Chapter 37

Cromwell felt his smile drop as he read over the report that he had just received.

The new Emperor of New Albion was in the room of the once king James, the grandiose living quarters now belonged to him and had been turned into his office as well.

Strewn about his desk were the various reports from his advisors and few more reports from the spies that he had within Tristain.

Wardes, for example, had already returned to the palace and was once more working behind enemy lines.

However, those weren't the reports that he was interested in at the moment.

Instead he was looking over the full casualty report from the siege of Newcastle.

It was... more than he had expected.

Such an attack was obviously going to have sacrifices, but he was rather surprised at the full picture.

And it was all because of a single Insect that had decided to tear through the Reconquista army for a goal none of them knew about.

He lowered the report to look at the one that had handed it towards him.

It was one of the older generals, his face looked like it was carved in stone as he stood there stoic.

"Is this report accurate?" He had to ask.

The man nodded "Down the injuries, your excellency." The stoic face frowned just a bit "Most of these came from investigating the bodies that we could find, the rest were from the panicked screaming of those that we asked for."

Cromwell let out a sigh "This is rather unfortunate."

"That's not the worst part either, your excellency."

The former bishop raised an eyebrow.

The general continued "We all know that one of our early targets when we invade Tristain will be Hallownest, as such before all of this many of them were rather... excited to do so." The general paused, swallowing a wad spit in his mouth "But due to this singular Insect seemingly tearing through a good portion of our army at New Castle, morale has dropped in regards to the attack. From both our soldier and their mounts."

Oh that was right. Cromwell looked over the reports and found that a good number of horses and drakes that were also part of the siege had apparently turned on their owners. Some of them had just opted to drop whoever was riding them, while some had eaten their riders alive.

"Some of our soldiers are rather worried that if one Insect caused all of this, what would happen if we face a whole army of them" the general stated.

Cromwell could feel a headache was approaching, he set down the paper and massaged his temples "I can see that this is going to be difficult," he huffed out "I will try to handle this soon, to see if I can boost their moral a bit." As he said that he was aware of the ring on his finger.

"I understand your excellency" the general nodded again "I will do my part as well to try and rally the ones that weren't a direct victim of the Insect."

"Thank you."

There was a pause as the conversation ended, and just as the general was about to leave he looked around the room and raised an eyebrow "If I may ask your excellency, where is... 'Prince' Wales?"