These humans were people who survived all the cataclysms of the last decade: the terrible plagues, the attacks of wild and dosticated beasts, and their crops turning poisonous without warning.
They were tough creatures and taught by harsh experiences. When they saw an unfamiliar plant growing rapidly in their fields, they attacked it without hesitation.
Unlike humans in the Bee Empire, who mostly cut plants with axes and sickles, farrs of Ferwall and its surroundings preferred to use scythes that had long handles. Against sprouts of usnea trees these were very effective thanks to their long handles.
The humans were also very vigilant. They always checked their crop fields daily, making sure they were free of parasitic insects and new weeds. They noticed the usnea trees rapidly and didn’t give them a chance to grow too large to cut.
And if any of them found an usnea fruit and dared to eat it—which happened, since there weren’t enough harvests to go around and many people here were hungry all the ti—they usually chewed it properly.
Behind the ugly-looking mandibles of humans were teeth that could chew even tough leaves, and they crushed a lot of seeds in usnea fruits. Not all of them, but it reduced the effectiveness of spreading through excrent.
Unlike wild beasts, humans also didn’t defecate anywhere they felt like...
As a result of all that, the spread of usnea trees slowed almost to a halt near Ferwall. Although so usnea fruits and seeds travelled downriver regardless, the bend of the river washed many of them near humans’ fields, where the sprouts were destroyed.
"This is unacceptable and goes against our plans of conquering these people," Malevolence comnted on that during the next war council. "But thanks to the Oracles, we were ready for this."
This was an event guaranteed enough that even the few Oracles in Malevolence’s army could predict it as well as they could predict the weather—a heavy rain one day, hot sunny weather in all the next ones.
"The hottest days of sumr, like we are in right now, are the best for usnea trees’ growth," Malevolence continued. "And... Humans usually check their fields only once a day, am I right?"
Both Chief Agent and Chief Commando nodded at once.
"They have a lot of other bothers during the day, Grand Commander," Chief Agent Eloquence said. "Crafting, foraging, hunting... They can’t get most of their food by farming alone anymore."
Malevolence nodded.
"So this is it. During the rainy day, the bees will extract seeds from usnea trees and prepare them for future planting. On sunny days, the teams of dragons will spread them over the fields from the sky, after the humans stopped checking. By the ti they look at their fields closely again, it will be too late to try to get rid of usnea trees."
Eloquence’s eyes sparked with excitent.
"It’s not harvest ti yet, but it is going to be soon. When the humans see that all their crops and even their fields are destroyed by usnea trees, they will fall into panic, rage and despair. They will bla everybody they can for this failure, even if this person could have done nothing to fix it. Planting the right idea in their minds will let them carry our chosen people to the very top of their social pyramid!"
Malevolence tilted her head. Eloquence was speaking almost like a Researcher at the mont... Half of what she was saying was going over Malevolence’s head.
She got the gist, though, and it was the sa thing that Malevolence had thought up herself earlier.
"Yes. Sow fear, reap obedience. But before we execute this plan, we must pick a human who will be the next leader of this city and country. Do you have any good candidates by now?"
In the past days, whenever Malevolence asked Eloquence this question, the Agent spoke about not being sure or these humans being too stubborn. She wasn’t insincere, but Malevolence felt that Eloquence was not entirely forthcoming...
Sneakiness fit for an Agent, but annoying nonetheless! It made Malevolence scowl even now.
"Yes, I have, Grand Commander," Eloquence said to Malevolence’s relief. "Ramwill is the best candidate we have available!"
"What? Him?" Malevolence’s face scrunched as if she bit a spoiled fruit. "He’s a disloyal wasp who only thinks about his own well-being and spends his entire ti in Ferwall indulging in entertainnt as much as he has money for! Although he was spreading his faith, he wasn’t doing it out of loyalty; he just likes attention. Even I can see that. If he didn’t have this marginal use, I’d prefer to kill him to spare us a betrayal."
Eloquence giggled in her fist.
"This is all true, Grand Commander, but you scare him, and Agents already use it to make him do things we want. More importantly, a promise of being a ruler is sothing Ramwill would fight for fiercely. Loyalty will appear later. It’s a flower that blooms slowly and with a lot of sweet nectar poured into people’s minds."
Malevolence stared at Eloquence for a long while. Eloquence stared back, neither blinking nor turning away.
This was proof of her conviction... Which had even more weight because Eloquence surely knew all of Malevolence’s thoughts and doubts.
"Very well. Ramwill can be the king, emperor—whoever. As long as he stays obedient with only so scares."
Eloquence smiled and turned away toward the map of the region. It was recently drawn by the scouts and now lay on the central table of the war council room.
"If we don’t have enough dragons to sow usnea trees on every human field, I suggest starting from here," she said, pointing her hands to the west. "Every crop on the field is different and seasonal, so they don’t all grow at the sa ti. These are scheduled for harvest the soonest, and losing them will be the heaviest blow to humans that depend on them."
"Good idea."
"And to make Ramwill more popular we can..."
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