Chapter 268: A Landslide Victory
What just happened was nothing less than a miracle, of course. Ruela and Garou were speechless the whole time as they had just witnessed something bizarre.
However, Garou recovered first and asked Sisi, "Mistress, how about this statue? Should I destroy it instead?"
"No, put it as an attraction in the middle of the capital square. So everyone can see," Sisi smiled. "Make sure they all know that it was a real beastman who has been turned into solid gold. In the future, the Beast Kingdom will get bigger and more advanced, and we’re bound to get beastman tourists from other forests."
Sisi turned around, looking at some of the casualties of war in this courtyard, and said, "Bury them all properly, and compensate their families or clans. All who died today will be recorded as heroes in the Beast Kingdom."
"Understood, Mistress!"
Sisi looked over her shoulder, staring at Ruela who was still shocked by the situation, and said, "Worry not, Ruela. Jojo likes you, so he won’t do anything to harm you."
"After all, you’ve made the right decision to protect us instead of siding with Leah."
"T-thank you, Mistress! I-I will serve the kingdom well! I will be a great spokesperson for the Crown Prince!"
Sisi finally walked back to the main building, and it didn’t take long for Diane to come to her side. "Mistress, you must be tired. Do you want something to eat?"
"I don’t need it, but Jojo surely will. So, prepare some sweets for the Crown Prince. He’ll eat them after taking a nap," Sisi said. "And don’t forget some big meals for the king. He should return soon."
"Understood, Mistress."
Now that Sisi finally had a chance to rest, she sat on a wicker chair, straddling the boy who was sleeping peacefully in her embrace while patting Jojo’s back.
"Kael should be able to finish the war soon. I hope there won’t be too many casualties..." Sisi murmured.
Kael wouldn’t die, of course, but losing too many soldiers would demoralize the army and the people despite their victory.
**
Meanwhile, Kael snapped the neck of the last general from the enemy side. He looked at his surroundings, and at the sea of human corpses in front of the Beast Kingdom.
He sighed, knowing that cleaning them up would be exhausting, especially because they had to do it fast since corpses decayed very quickly in a humid temperature.
"My King, we’ve cleaned up the remaining soldiers. There are about one hundred medics remaining as hostages. Should we kill them as well?" Old Pell asked.
The elephant was covered in blood from head to toe, and his giant mace was dripping in fresh blood after crushing so many human soldiers.
"Let them leave. They are non-combatants anyway," Kael replied. "Besides, they will serve as a warning if any human kingdoms dare to attack us again. Though, I doubt that they will ever think about it, since they lost all of their soldiers in this war while we only lost about fifty soldiers."
"My King, Jeanne has located the whereabouts of the runaway Crown Prince from Barion Kingdom! He’s still in Roc Forest. Should we capture him now?" Grishaw came with the news.
"I don’t need him alive. Kill him, and send his chopped head to the Barion Kingdom. We already have too many bodies needing to be cleaned up anyway; we don’t need more hassle here," Kael said before turning towards the Beast Kingdom. His eyes were glued to the palace which was barely visible from this hill.
He didn’t know if Sisi and the soldiers that he dispatched would be enough to protect her in case of an intruder, but if there was any emergency, he was assured that Sisi wouldn’t get hurt.
Why?
Because Jojo had awakened his Dawn Star power, and since he had imprinted on Sisi as his mother, he would do everything to protect her.
Kael had the memory of their past lives and knew the extent of Jojo’s absurd power. All he wished was just for them to not get even a scratch.
Before he left, he stood at the top of the hill, and all the remaining beastmen soldiers gathered in front of him.
"My kin, we have overpowered the humans! We won against fifteen thousand human soldiers despite our small numbers! They will tremble in fear knowing our reputation now, and peace shall be restored in the Beast Kingdom once more!"
"OHHHH!!!!"
The cry of victory echoed in the sea of corpses. They knew that they were strong, and their king was unkillable.
But they also knew that Mistress Sisi—their Queen—was the biggest aid they could get.
Because the giant rafflesia flower that had wilted just now was able to distract the soldiers, making them unable to focus on the war, so there were only a handful of casualties on the Beast Kingdom’s side.
"I shall return to the palace to check on the Crown Prince and the Queen. All of you shall return to your families once you’ve finished cleaning up these corpses!"
"UNDERSTOOD, MY KING!"
Kael wore the cloak that Grishaw had been keeping safe all this time, and then dashed quickly to leave the battlefield.
He was exhausted, and all he could have asked for right now was to hug his son and his mate.
**
Crown Prince Ludwig looked behind him many times, trying to see if the enemy had caught up to him.
However, he hadn’t seen any beastmen yet. So he guessed that the beastmen had lost track of him during the war.
’Damn it. Father will be angry!’ Crown Prince Ludwig cursed. ’How am I going to explain this to him?’
’Maybe I should blame it all on the generals who are incompetent. Everyone must be dead by now, which is perfect because nobody has witnessed me running away from battle.’
Ludwig knew that as long as he left Roc Forest and reached the territory of Barion Kingdom, he should be safe.
He had already seen the silhouette of the village bordering Roc Forest, and hastened his horse.
However, just right when he was about to exit Roc Forest, he felt something hit him from the side very hard until he fell to the ground while his horse had scurried out of the forest.
"W-WAIT!!"