The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 93

#93 The New Project
After Kairen’s departure, Cassandra was a bit sad for a couple of days. However, she knew she couldn’t stay like that forever. Once she was done crying, she tried to spend time with Kareen, Missandra, and Dahlia, and keep herself busy. Somehow, they all cooperated to keep her occupied.
Lady Kareen was used to her children being gone and having to find hobbies for herself. As it turned out, she was rather busy as the City’s owner and mayor already, but she still found time to have other hobbies. She liked painting and tried to talk Cassandra into it. Though the young concubine wasn’t fond of it, the young Missandra was interested, and even proved herself to be a good student. Eventually, Cassandra was used as a model a couple of times, as it allowed her to rest yet spend time chatting with them.
There was something else Lady Kareen did for her, however. Somehow, the Imperial Concubine was well aware of Kairen’s present for Cassandra in the Imperial Palace, and decided to gift her a little garden in the Diamond Palace, too. This was probably the most successful attempt at cheering Cassandra up.
Once she started taking care of her plants, studying the books she was given about them or writing herself, Cassandra didn’t see the hours pass. Missandra would join her often, too, and study from her as well as exchange her knowledge on the matter. Somehow, the two sisters started working on new hybrid species, trying to grow sprouts that would survive in the Shadelands. This little project was keeping Cassandra busy, and also helping her remember that, sometime soon, she would be able to go back there with Kairen. Anything was good to keep herself busy. She’d write, chat with Kareen and Missandra, work on her plants, write about new medicines, go to the local markets, study more books, and find more to keep herself busy with.
That workaholic behavior of hers started worrying Kareen and Missandra a bit, as it never seemed like the young concubine took a break, despite her belly growing quickly. Cassandra was busy, too busy. She’d spend all day working on one thing then another, only stopping to eat. The Imperial Concubine was starting to dislike this workaholic behavior and insisted on Missandra and Dahlia watching her from even closer.
However, one day, Kareen found her unexpectedly napping in the garden, in the dragon egg’s garden. Cassandra was wrapped up in a warm blanket and had fallen asleep with some of her notes, right next to the egg. The discreet Dahlia was watching her from afar, making sure she wouldn’t get sick, and silently smiled to Lady Kareen when their eyes met, meaning she already knew about Cassandra’s little naps. After that, the Imperial Concubine Kareen decided to not be so much on Cassandra’s back. When she wasn’t constantly watched, Cassandra would eventually take breaks by herself, always agreeing to Dahlia’s suggestion for some tea or a stroll to the gardens.
Unknown to Kareen, however, the hardest times for Cassandra were at night. The young concubine hadn’t imagined she would have so much trouble falling asleep by herself. The perspective of going back to an empty bed haunted her every day after dusk. She would drag on the time to go back to her bedroom, find excuses to stay up late with Lady Kareen or her notes, and when she had no choice but to go, she’d turn sad and silent. Dahlia had set up a little routine for her, where the young concubine would take a long hot bath in her bedroom, and chat with her about her day. Helping Cassandra bathe, wash her hair, and brush it before bed, somehow helped her get sleepy and fall asleep more easily. The weather was getting a bit colder, too, so Dahlia brought in little scented candles, finding the ones that supposedly helped with insomnia. (2)
Her pregnancy was also a big help in keeping Cassandra from tiring herself out. Somehow, reaching the seventh month got her more tired than ever before, and she started taking naps by herself. Moreover, her big belly was incapacitating her in several ways, giving Dahlia and Missandra more excuses to stay around and help her.
Eventually, Cassandra’s sadness passed. She wasn’t over Kairen’s absence, but at least, she reverted to her old self and didn’t look as sad or on the verge of crying anymore. Truth was, Cassandra had spent many nights crying silently, but she couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t stand being a shadow of herself. She was even more worried it would impact her baby negatively. From then on, she started every day with a big breath, something to
look forward too, and did her best to live her days eating well and resting well, as she had promised her prince. When she missed him, she’d caress the little bracelet of hair around her wrist, or go to see the dragon’s egg. Somehow, Cassandra got a bit better by herself, and life went on for everyone at the Diamond Castle.
After a few more weeks, however, Cassandra could tell something was wrong. There was no way Kareen hadn’t gotten any news about the eastern war yet. It had been more than two months already. When she mentioned it to her, the Imperial Concubine always pretended like she was going to ask about it soon, or was waiting to hear from some of her spies. Cassandra couldn’t take it anymore. After a while, she had even received the answers from the people at the Onyx Castle and the North Army camp by a normal message-carrier service. There was no way Kareen had absolutely no news from the war against the Eastern Republic!
That morning, she insisted once again, and this time would persist until she got the truth, with Missandra’s support. After half an hour of arguing, Kareen was exasperated.
“You’re so stubborn!”
“I need to know the truth! I know my Prince is out there fighting! I can wait but I can’t stand not having any news, and I know you must have some information! That is all I ask, Lady Kareen!”
The Imperial Concubine looked about to throw her cup of tea across the room. Instead, she slammed it on the table, and rolled her eyes.
“Gosh, I didn’t think you could be as stubborn as my children! Fine, I will tell you!”
“Really? So you know something?”
“Of course I do! Who do you think I am? There isn’t a city in this Empire I don’t have a spy in! Anyway, I did get some news half a month ago. While Shareen is perfectly fine in the north, on Kairen’s side, the Eastern Army somehow got further into our territory than we thought. The Capital was actually notified of the attack very late, someone there didn’t do their job correctly or couldn’t. By the time Kairen got there, the situation was very messy, and you can’t have a Dragon simply burn everything down when your enemies are spread in your own city, among our people.”
“Oh God, no…” whispered Cassandra, shocked.
She hadn’t imagined the situation was that bad! All this time, Shareen and Kairen had made it sound like this would be an easy task, that would be solved easily. Cassandra had no idea the frontline was in such a bad situation even before Kairen had gotten there…
“That’s why things are complicated. He has to wipe out the enemy and push them back to the frontier, but those imbecile republicans have understood that Krai won’t attack, or at least fire, while they are still inside the Dragon Empire, and all of their strategies seems to focus on staying in…”
“Since when does the Eastern Republic knows so much about Dragons?” Asked Missandra. “Even those tactics don’t look like theirs at all.”
“I know,” sighed Kareen. “That is what worries me. I wouldn’t be surprised if a little rat had gone ahead to give them those bad ideas…”
“Lady Kareen, do you think… The second Prince could have…”
However, the Imperial Concubine raised her hand to stop Cassandra.
“Let’s be careful and keep what we think to ourselves for now. I already wrote to the Imperial Palace, but that snake Vrehan hasn’t left his apartments there since we left, apparently on the pretense of looking after his sister.”
“He definitely has people to do it for him!” Said Missandra. “Everyone knows the Imp… I mean, people like me never dirty their hands themselves.”
Kareen smiled, but this was more of a scary smile than a heartfelt smile and nodded.
“That’s right, dear. Just like me, he probably has people working for him. Vrehan is much smarter than Phetra. She’s the type who will dirty her own hands if she’s pushed over the limit. However, Vrehan learned a lot from his snake mother. He loves to scheme and get rid of people who annoy him without leaving traces. You can never, ever
be alone with him or his people. I don’t believe he’d stay locked up under the Emperor’s nose only for his sister’s sake, either. This sounds too much like some play he’d be pulling off.”
“Can’t we do anything?” Asked Cassandra.
“I have sent people to watch him, but he probably knows that too. In any case, Vrehan won’t move until he’s sure he can win, and I don’t see how he could do that. No matter what, my son is the War God. He won’t lose a war just because it started late.”
Cassandra slowly nodded, but she didn’t feel reassured. Kairen wasn’t like Vrehan, someone who’d plot in people’s back and use underhanded methods. She tried to think of several scenarios. Somehow, she felt it was unlikely her prince would die in this war. What could Vrehan do? Send an assassin, or worse, find some way to poison him? Cassandra knew the Dragon tamers like Kairen were more resistant to poison, but no matter how strong his body was, there was only so much a man could do… Moreover, Cassandra hated not doing anything for him.
She suddenly stood up, surprising both women in the room. Kareen sighed.
“We are not done with the brunch, dear.”
“I’ve had enough, Lady Kareen, thank you. Do you think you could have something delivered to the front if I was to give it to you?”
“Of course, dear. What are you thinking about now?”
Cassandra took a deep breath. The idea had just popped up in her head.
“I’ll prepare so first aid kits for the military.”
“First aid kits? For the front? Those men in the imperial army aren’t trained to do any medical procedures, dear…”
“It’s fine, they won’t need training, just common sense. If I taught the men in the North Army camp, I can have those men in the Eastern front learn too, even without being there at all.”
Missandra, smiling wide, got up too, excited.
“I love that idea, Hinue! I’ll help you!”
“Oh, you young ones are so full of energy,” sighed Kareen. “Anyway, Cassandra, I gave you young ones to work for you before, didn’t I? They have learned how to write and calculate already. Just have those girls come over and help you.”
“Thank you, Lady Kareen. Can I entrust you with the transportation part?”
“Of course, dear. As if that old lady would sit on her arse while my children fight here and there!”
Cassandra smiled. Only at times like this, Kareen would be even nicer than usual and hinting at treating her and Missandra as her own daughters. The two sisters then left the garden they were eating in, though Dahlia packed up some more food for Cassandra to snack on later, and went to the little room next to Cassandra’s garden, which had pretty much become her office. Behind her, Missandra was excited. (2)
“Do you already know what we will do?”
“We need to list all kinds of injuries, diseases, and other health issues the soldiers in the front could have to face, how often, and find a way to answer to any of them in a short amount of time.”
“Alright,” said Missandra, grabbing what she needed to write down. “We can start by listing all of the most common diseases in that part of the Empire, common infection, and also some basic injury treatment they should use. Should we make some sort of notice to put in those kits?”
“It’s a battlefield, Missandra, they don’t have time to read, and it may even be possible that some of the soldiers don’t even know how to read. So we need to make it as simple as possible…”
“We can make drawings or use colors. When I worked in brothels, some of the girls weren’t literate, but they knew which medicine to take based on their stamping or colors.”
“Right, we can use that. Do you still remember them? We need to think about how we can pack them in light, easily transportable ways…”
Just like that, both women started working together. Once they were done planning and compiling information, they brought their project to Kareen, who gave her own opinion on it, and called in some of her personal soldiers, military as well, for them to give their input. Within a week, Cassandra, Missandra, and several more people started working hard on this. Kareen had more than enough money to support their project and ship it to the front in record time. Not only the young concubine got her hands and money full with this project, but the whole Diamond City became aware of the efforts made at the Diamond Palace, and offered to contribute to show support to the soldiers in their own ways, an unprecedented event in the Dragon Empire.