The sound of the moving Unbreakable marked the passing hours. Inside her room, Lia found herself lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. Chelsea and Franz had told her many times that tormenting herself over things in the past or outside her power was not good for her, but she could not help it. First of all, the fact that something important was out of her power was the start of the problem. During her youth inside of the Golden Cage, she read many books on warfare against the Infected. The results of any battle against the Infected were almost always very lopsided affairs for either side. They were a very vicious enemy that would exploit every small mistake, ravenous and powerful enough that once the number of human casualties climbed to a certain point where formations couldn’t be maintained, it would be a complete loss. That’s why those two deaths were such a burden to her. Could she have prevented them? What if next time the number of casualties was higher? What if next time she can’t prevent a complete collapse?

For a long time, even a single regular Infected was stronger than a regular human. This changed once human enhancement, one of humanity great sacrifices, became widespread to such a point that some people give up things such as their reproductive functions in order to be a better soldier. However, even if a human has strength comparable to an Infected, the Infected sometimes show an amount of coordination that feels almost unnatural.

That young girl’s face flashed once again in Lia’s mind. She was so strong. That heavy thought made her feel worse. She was definitely stronger than Chelsea. That was a scary thought. Chelsea was Lia’s friend, but more than that, just like how Lia was a princess, Chelsea was her Shadow. Taken from the streets of the capital during one of the few times Lia was allowed outside the Golden Cage when she was younger, Chelsea was trained from a young age to be the ultimate bodyguard. She had never lost a single serious duel. She was an embodiment of excellence. And yet… That girl was pushing her back so easily. In a way, that girl was the complete opposite of the other Infected. Usually, Infected had this weird thing about them where it seemed like even though they were many, it was actually a single mind controlling them. That girl, on the other hand, felt like she was the product of many different minds working in harmony, making sure she would succeed. That creepy smile, what was she smiling about?

Now that Lia thought about it. She had never seen an infected smile before. No, before that, she was sure that Infected in general didn’t have faces intact enough to show any expression, let alone a smile. In fact, even if she didn’t have a chance to closely examine her, Lia didn’t see a single blemish anywhere. Was she even one of the Infected? What else could she be? A Mutant perhaps? There was no way, all Mutants tended to have even more deformations than the Infected, besides, she was in an area heavily populated with Infected. Frustration welled up. She just couldn’t understand it. What the hell was wrong with that girl? What exactly was she? Are there others like her? Would she ruin everything? If she acted alongside a swarm of Infected, she could probably easily create a hole in Lia’s army big enough that everyone would be killed. She would rather not think too much about it. Before she realized it she was letting out an irritated moan.

“Is everything okay Lia?”

She froze. Chelsea. She nervously looked around. It was just the communicator, good. She pulled herself together, stood up and walked to the door. After touching her hand on a panel, a beep sounded and the door slid laterally open.

“Just thinking about things.”

She didn’t want to show her frustration in front of her friend.

“We are halfway to Destroia. Since we are supposed to have a meeting about it, the colonel asked me to come get you.”

Lia remembered. Embarrassment took over her once again. She was always an hour early to anything, not this time. She wondered if the others might think she was overly affected. Even more things to worry about.

“I see.”

She tried putting on a reassuring smile.

“You know…”

“Yes?”

“You don’t have to worry so much about things. I did get surprised, sort of. But next time, I am sure I can deal with that bridesmaid bastard.”

One of these words seemed to remind Lia of something, but what was it again?

“Bridesmaid? That girl?”

That could be the only one.

“Yea, at first I thought what she wore looked like one of the wedding dresses you showed me of the first Empress. But then I realized that it was actually the same style of her bridesmaids.”

That was it. A flash of enlightenment struck her.

“Chelsea.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you know? The first Empress’ younger sister apparently lost her life in an Infected attack on her trip back to her country of origin after the wedding ceremony was over.”

“So she became an Infected as well?”

“Exactly, that it would explain the dress if somehow that knowledge was preserved, but…”

That could mean only one thing. That terrifying thought came back.

“That can’t be.”

Lia hoped she was wrong.

“It only makes sense if the Infected have some sort of intellect, collective or otherwise.”

A statement which opened a whole other can of worms.

“I… refuse to believe it.”

“Doing that won’t change things. Come, you did come to get me for the meeting, right?”

Rommel wanted to let out a sigh. Whether out of relief or exasperation, not even he was completely sure. He did expect to see and hear surprising things after pledging allegiance to Princess Lia, but not something like this. He looked around at the other people in the room. The Shadow, Chelsea, explaining the conclusion the Princess had come to, the Princess herself, sitting somewhat relaxed in a comfortable chair. There was also the Captain of the knights, Richard Lewis, along with his two best subordinates, one of whom was the Princess’ Sword. The communications controllers.

“Let me see if I understand this, Shadow. That ridiculously powerful little girl is now to be referred as a kind of Infected, a Bridesmaid.”

Chelsea nodded.

“Correct.”

Rommel took a deep breath before going on.

“Moreover, its clothes have a high probability of having been influenced by the sister of an Empress that has been dead for hundreds of years now. This sister was attacked by Infected and disappeared hundreds of years ago, likely became one of them herself. I still have everything correct, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Considering all of these things as true. A few other things could be true as well: The Infected are effectively immortal, having life spans of hundreds of years, or they can pass knowledge among each other, although these aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. The most important conclusion, however, is that they do possess some kind of intelligence.”

“Certainly.”

Rommel opened his mouth, closed it. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped some sweat from his brow. He took another deep breath.

“Excuse me.”

He then let out an almost maniacal laughter. He couldn’t remember the last time he laughed so much, but then again, it now all made sense to him. Almost everything that he had learned in the military was actually useless. It now completely made sense for his plans to have failed so completely at that time.

“Ah, I’m sorry, please, you can have me executed for disrespect towards the Princess later, Lieutenant Mann, but I do have to get this out of my chest right now. As some of you might know, everything known and taught in the military about how to fight the Infected considers one crucial fact as absolutely true: The Infected are mindless beasts. Most tactics usually employed against them considers a general inability for them to adapt or even understand what we are doing, leading to very little change or flexibility in, well, everything we do against them. However, if they actually were intelligent while merely faking mindlessness, then that would explain a lot, including perhaps, my own failure. Not that I excuse myself for my failure.”

It was something of a known story. Rommel used to be a promising prospect in the military, gaining the jurisdiction of one of the capital’s outpost towns. However, at the first attack, he failed miserably, being the only survivor by what others considered a miracle, but he considered a curse. The Emperor was so angry that he even refused to execute him for his failure, as was customary. Instead he was sent to the isolated town of Nessa.

A gesture from Lia made Franz lower his sword. Chelsea talked again.

“We wouldn’t have such a great asset executed for a petty reason such as this. You are not the only one baffled by this. Just remember that we don’t have any concrete proof, but Lia still would like for you to keep it in mind. Now, on to talking about Destroia.”

Destroia, door to the Wildlands, where Mutants come from, is the only town in the Empire where Mutants are authorized to live in and trade with humans. The Wildlands cover the greater part of the continent and if there was any sort of unified government among Mutants, they would likely be the greater threat to the Empire, even when compared to the Infected. Luckily, their strong predilection for freedom lead them to a very fractured political state.

Destroia, alongside the great fort of Apostle Joshua located right beside it serve a few important functions for the Empire: They somewhat sate the curiosity of Mutants while hopefully awing them; this is to diminish the amount of Mutants war bands trying to wander into Empire territory. They stop any war bands that actually do end up trying to raid the Empire. They serve as a minimum amount of diplomatic ties with the different warlords of the Wildlands. They are also useful for obtaining the sometimes absolutely amazing products that can be produced in the Wildlands. Due to that, it is a fairly rich city, although its fortunes fluctuate with general interest for the Wildlands inside the Empire. It does have quite a unique architecture for the Empire, eschewing grand and practical buildings for varied sizes and kinds, more akin to the kind of city one would see in the Wildlands. Due to the desert climate, which marks the start of the Wildlands, its walls aren’t even very high as the presence of Infected is very rare and easily spotted.

“Officially, in order to pass through a city. You have to ask for safe passage from the city’s governor. In Destroia, however, such a thing would be meaningless. According to what all intelligence reports say, the one we should be asking for safe passage from is Daedalus Prelestia, a self-styled Duke from the Wildlands.”

Franz couldn’t hold himself back.

“You’re not thinking of having Lia negotiate with a Mutant?”

Colonel Rommel coughed before Chelsea responded.

“Lieutenant Mann, I believe that what anyone here wants is highly irrelevant. I have read most of the reports, this so-called Duke Prelestia is quite dangerous and not someone to be ignored, Shadow, if you could continue?”

Franz still didn’t look like he was happy with the situation, but stayed quiet.

“Thank you Colonel. So, Duke Prelestia is something of a crime-lord, apparently. Despite prohibition by the Emperor, he sells a considerable amount of drugs made in the Wildlands in Destroia. He also effectively taxes the city through various “protection” schemes. Despite many complaints, the military stationed in Apostle Joshua Fort refuse to do anything, claiming that they are not the police, and that the city proper only falls under their jurisdiction in case of attack by an army.”

Captain Lewis raised his hand.

“What is the real reason? Bribes? Corruption?”

Chelsea shook her head.

“So far as the intelligence we had gathered before the race says, there is nothing of the sort. It seems there is a sort of unofficial treaty. In the ten years since Prelestia held considerable sway over the city, there wasn’t a single war band attack from the Wildlands.”

Many in the room nodded in understanding.

“I see. That does make sense.”

Chelsea continued.

“We aren’t sure of what could be a good bargaining chip, but this Prelestia seems to be obsessed with the “human spirit” and is an avid collector of any kind of art. Now, for our probable opponent: Charles. He is quite proud, Lia believes he won’t try to seek proper safe passage from Prelestia, which could work in our favor. The odds having to fight with him is low, after all, fighting in a city is unthinkable and he shouldn't want to be too aggressive outside, where the troops stationed in the fort might not be too happy about it. Lia believes we should just take the chance to have a look at his Mobile-Fortress and his army’s equipment. We should also consider the possibility that the rumors surrounding him are true and his Mobile-Fortress is considerably faster than the Unbreakable, which would cut down our overlapping stay in the city, further reducing chance of conflict. In closing, if we just win over Prelestia, everything should go smoothly.”

Once the meeting was over, Franz made his way to his room. Despite his protests, Chelsea followed him.

“Oh, come on, are you angry with me?”

The door to his room slid open and Franz wished he could just close it on Chelsea’s face.

“Why wouldn’t I be? You ridiculed me before when I floated the idea that the Infected might be intelligent, now you’re going around all but officially recognizing that very thing as a matter of fact.”

At that, Chelsea herself looked irritated.

“You know very well that was Lia’s position. I can’t very well show any doubts in front of everyone else regardless of how much I don’t want it to be true in my own heart. I am her Shadow, you know what that entails, being her Sword.”

A bitter expression took over Franz’s face.

“Ah, yes, Shadow and Sword, you make those who go after her disappear, while I will be eventually asked to cut down even those who are merely standing near her path. Sometimes I am not sure if am happy with this situation or not.”

Chelsea approached her face to Franz’s.

“Why are you always so foolish? Nothing truly conspires to keep us apart in anyway except for your fears.”

She tried lightly kissing his lips, but he averted his face.

“You know that neither Shadow nor Sword of a candidate to the Throne are supposed to have a romantic relationship, not until a new Empress sits on the throne. Even those who eventually had a family only married after the Great Race was over.”

She put her hands in his head and made him face her again.

“You know very well that this is for the sake of appearances more than anything else, many Shadows and Swords of previous Emperors had husbands or wives, even if they only officially married after.”

He shook his head.

“Yeah, Lia said as much, more than once. It’s not with formalities that I am worried about, you know that.”

She was starting to lose her patience.

“Then what? Everyone has much bigger things to worry about, and even if the others gossip, what does it change? Nothing!”

He turned away once again. He felt that this was going too much in her favor.

“You know what I am worried about! You’re too important to me already… If we spend too much time alone, you might become too important. We both owe so much to the princess… We need to make sure she wins the Great Race. We owe her that.”

She hugged him from behind.

“You worry so much. We will make her empress, together, then we will be together, you and me, forever.”

He tried walking away, but she held him tightly.

“Can’t you wait a little for this precious forever? If we fail, it might never come true.”

She still wouldn’t let him go.

“No, I’m greedy. I wanted it before, I want it now, and will keep on wanting it in the future.”

He let out a sigh of resignation.

“Fine, do as you will, I can't resist you.”

She flashed a naughty smile at him.

“Oh! As if you don’t like it. Just make sure to not disappoint me when it’s your turn, or else you might lose some of your vetoes on what’s too kinky.”

He smiled back.

“Just wait, you’ll see, one day.”